Archive for November, 2012
Supreme Court Rejects Plea to Ban Taping of Police in Illinois
November 28th, 2012Via: Chicago Tribune: The U.S. Supreme Court on Monday declined to hear an appeal of a controversial Illinois law prohibiting people from recording police officers on the job. By passing on the issue, the justices left in place a federal appeals court ruling that found that the state’s anti-eavesdropping law violates free-speech rights when used […]
Phoenix-Area Residents Squawking About Backyard Chicken Coops
November 28th, 2012I can understand not wanting roosters in packed neighborhoods. (I live in a very rural area, and I’ve had about enough of Corneleus, our Barred Rock rooster.) Hens, though, are a different matter. People with backyards should be allowed to keep a few hens for eggs and gardening purposes. Reading about the struggles that people […]
Why $16 Trillion Only Hints at the True U.S. Debt
November 27th, 2012Via: Wall Street Journal: As Washington wrestles with the roughly $600 billion “fiscal cliff” and the 2013 budget, the far greater fiscal challenge of the U.S. government’s unfunded pension and health-care liabilities remains offstage. The truly important figures would appear on the federal balance sheet—if the government prepared an accurate one. But it hasn’t. For […]
Mortgage Interest Tax Deduction Might Be Eliminated
November 27th, 2012Via: New York Times: A tax break that has long been untouchable could soon be in for some serious scrutiny. Many home buyers deduct their mortgage interest when assessing their tax bill, a perk that has helped bolster the income of millions of families — and the broader housing market. But as President Obama and […]
TrueTime API: How Google’s Servers Know What Time It Is
November 26th, 2012Via: Wired: But with Spanner, Google discarded the NTP in favor of its own timing-keeping mechanism. It’s called the TrueTime API. “We wanted something that we were confident in,” Fikes says. “It’s a time reference that’s owned by Google.” Rather than rely on outside clocks, Google equips its Spannerized data centers with its own atomic […]
China: Man Who Blew Whistle on Tainted Milk Killed
November 26th, 2012Via: Stuff: The man who blew the whistle on milk contamination in China has been killed, but the circumstances of his death are shrouded in mystery. Jiang Weisuo, 44, started to expose how milk was being contaminated in 2006, two years before the scandal that enveloped Sanlu, then a subsidiary of New Zealand dairy giant […]
Cambridge University Center Will Study Technologies that Pose ‘Extinction-Level’ Risks to Humanity
November 26th, 2012Flashback 2000: Why the Future Doesn’t Need Us Via: Cambridge University: A philosopher, a scientist and a software engineer have come together to propose a new centre at Cambridge to address developments in human technologies that might pose “extinction-level” risks to our species, from biotechnology to artificial intelligence. … While few would deny the benefits […]
Palm-Scanning Technology ‘as a Handy ID System’
November 26th, 2012Via: USA Today: At schools in Pinellas County, Fla., students aren’t paying for lunch with cash or a card, but with a wave of their hand over a palm scanner. “It’s so quick that a child could be standing in line, call mom and say, ‘I forgot my lunch money today.’ She’s by her computer, […]
A Dangerous Future of Killer Robots
November 26th, 2012Via: Washington Post: The use of drones to kill suspected terrorists is controversial, but so long as a human being decides whether to fire the missile, it is not a radical shift in how humanity wages war. Since the first archer fired the first arrow, warriors have been inventing ways to strike their enemies while […]
Company Fires 150 Employees for Not Getting Flu Shots
November 26th, 2012Via: WLWT: One of Cincinnati’s largest employers fired approximately 150 employees Wednesday for failing to get a required flu shot. TriHealth offered all of its 10,800 employees free flu shots. Employees had a month to get the flu shot. The deadline was Nov. 16. Employees who did not get the shot were terminated Wednesday, a […]
