Archive for the 'Economy' Category
Google: Ultimately, “The Goal Is To Insert A Chip Inside Your Head”
July 20th, 2013Via: Independent: Ultimately, as Page and co-founder Sergey Brin have asserted, the goal is to insert a chip inside your head for the most effortless search engine imaginable. … In Building 43 of the Googleplex, Ben Gomes talks with barely concealed excitement about a “new epoch”. A Google fellow and the company’s Vice President of […]
Recovery: Detroit Goes Bankrupt, Largest Municipal Filing in U.S. History
July 19th, 2013Via: Washington Post: Detroit filed the largest municipal bankruptcy in the nation’s history Thursday, marking a new low in a long decline that has left the U.S. automaking capital bleeding residents and revenue while rendering city services a mess. The city, which was the nation’s fourth-largest in the 1950s, with nearly 2 million inhabitants, has […]
Shocker: The NSA Admits It Analyzes More People’s Data Than Previously Revealed
July 18th, 2013Via: The Atlantic Wire: As an aside during testimony on Capitol Hill today, a National Security Agency representative rather casually indicated that the government looks at data from a universe of far, far more people than previously indicated. Chris Inglis, the agency’s deputy director, was one of several government representatives—including from the FBI and the […]
Cancer-Free Woman Undergoes Chemotherapy After False Diagnosis
July 18th, 2013Via: KHOU: A 54-year-old Victoria woman is trying to find sense in a life-changing diagnosis that never should have happened. Herlinda Garcia said she became “a whole different person” after she was diagnosed with Stage IV terminal Breast Cancer. That diagnosis came after Garcia had a benign tumor removed from her left breast. “When you’re […]
Millions of Americans Living Abroad: Get Ready to Comply with New and Absurd U.S. Tax Rules or Give Up Citizenship
July 17th, 2013Via: Wall Street Journal: Beware the sledgehammer used to crack the nut. In this case, the nut is the U.S. government’s laudable goal of catching tax evaders. The sledgehammer is the overreaching effect of legislation that is alienating other countries and resulting in millions of U.S. citizens abroad being forced to either painfully reconsider their […]
Judge Demands Tech Companies Hand Activist Data Over to Chevron
July 17th, 2013Via: Grist: Chevron is attempting to defend itself against a pesky $18 billion-plus judgment for its dirty dealing in the Ecuador rainforest. In the company’s appeal against the landmark judgment, a federal judge in New York has upheld a subpoena from Chevron seeking IP addresses and identity records of people allegedly tied to the investigation. […]
EPA Nukes Radiation Rules
July 17th, 2013Via: EnviroReporter: The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s draft EPA “Protective Action Guide” (PAG), posted on its website April 15, allows hundreds to thousands of times more radiation in disasters than the agency had previously allowed. Americans have until Monday, July 15 to comment* even though the EPA made the new PAG effective immediately. According to […]
Microsoft Trying to Create System That Predicts Your Physical Location in the Future
July 17th, 2013Via: Fast Company: Would you like to know how crowded your drive to the beach will be in three weeks? Or where your ex will be on a Friday night next month so that you can avoid him? Adam Sadilek, formerly of Microsoft, now a researcher at Google, and John Krumm, a principal researcher at […]
Japan’s Internet Cafes: Home for the Underemployed
July 16th, 2013Via: Bloomberg: Over the past 10 years, Internet cafes in Japan have become hotels for the underemployed. Many are equipped with tiny private booths, showers, and laundry service and offer reasonably priced packages for overnight users. The monthly rate at one cafe is 1,920 yen ($19) a day. In 2007, according to Japan’s Ministry of […]
The Case for Abolishing the DHS
July 16th, 2013Via: Bloomberg: On Friday, Secretary of Homeland Security Janet Napolitano resigned to take up a post running California’s university system. With her departure, there are now 15 vacant positions at the top of the department. That suggests it would be a particularly humane moment to shut the whole thing down. The U.S. Department of Homeland […]
