Archive for June, 2012
Western Banks Reaping Billions from Colombian Cocaine Trade
June 6th, 2012Via: Guardian: The vast profits made from drug production and trafficking are overwhelmingly reaped in rich “consuming” countries – principally across Europe and in the US – rather than war-torn “producing” nations such as Colombia and Mexico, new research has revealed. And its authors claim that financial regulators in the west are reluctant to go […]
Meet The Oil Shale Eighty Times Bigger Than The Bakken
June 6th, 2012Via: Forbes: But as great as the Bakken is, I learned last week about another oil shale play that dwarfs it. It’s called The Bazhenov. It’s in Western Siberia, in Russia. And while the Bakken is big, the Bazhenov — according to a report last week by Sanford Bernstein’s lead international oil analyst Oswald Clint […]
Fear and Loathing and Windows 8
June 6th, 2012This piece is long, but it’s quite a knee-slapper. I’d love to hear recordings of Microsoft tech support calls when Windows 8 starts showing up in front of “normal” users. My guess is that millions of clueless people are going to buy computers with Windows 8 installed and think that something broke when they see […]
Chinese Developer Clones Austrian Village
June 6th, 2012I beg you to listen to, Joe Frank’s, An Enterprising Man, before reading this. Via: Stuff: A US$940 million (NZ$1.2 billion) Chinese clone of one of Austria’s most picturesque villages, the UNESCO World Heritage-listed Hallstatt, recently opened its doors to visitors in the southern Chinese province of Guangdong amidst some controversy. In a nation known […]
Moody’s Downgrades Credit Ratings of Six German Banks
June 6th, 2012Via: BBC: Ratings agency Moody’s has cut the credit ratings of six German banks and three in Austria. The biggest bank affected was Commerzbank, Germany’s second-biggest lender, which was cut to A3 from A2. Moody’s delayed a decision on the rating of Germany’s biggest bank, Deutsche Bank. “Today’s rating actions are driven by the increased […]
U.S. Army Increases Lithium Battery Power Density by 30%
June 6th, 2012“The primacy of new killing technologies and technologies of political control go hand in hand with the clean energy systems.” —Forget the Green Technology – The Hot Money Is in Guns Via: U.S. Army: Army scientists are squeezing more power from batteries by developing new methods and materials with incredible results. “Our battery group has […]
SpaceX Flight Opens Door for U.S. Military Payloads
June 6th, 2012Via: Reuters: Space Exploration Technologies’ unmanned Dragon capsule arrived in Los Angeles on Tuesday following a test flight for NASA that could open the door to a long-desired and more elusive customer – the U.S. military. The cargo capsule blasted off May on 22 from Cape Canaveral Air Force Base in Florida and three days […]
And Now… Unsourcing
June 6th, 201275.2 million people are on Facebook, pretending to grow vegetables and raise animals in their browser windows? … Has it really come to this? Getting ribbons for bragging rights in Facebook games? —The Future Where Soda Cans Have Screens Via: The Economist: Some of the biggest brands in software, consumer electronics and telecoms have now […]
Open Job At Boston Law Firm Pays Just $10,000 Per Year (Less Than Minimum Wage on Per Hour Basis), Gets 32 Applicants
June 6th, 2012Via: CBS News: The BBJ received an emailed tip this week from someone who says they’re an employed, Boston College Law School (BC Law) graduate. The tipster sent screen grabs of a job listing on BC Law’s career site. The post advertises a full-time associate position at a small Boston law firm, Gilbert & O’Bryan […]
Japan: Millions of Tons of Radioactive Rubble
June 5th, 2012Via: The Atlantic: Disposing the more than 20 million tons of rubble caused by the March 11 earthquake and tsunami is proving to be a difficult problem for Japan, not least because much of the rubble has been irradiated by the Fukushima nuclear disaster. The government’s plan — to destroy 4 million tons of potentially […]
