Archive for March, 2013
Nearly 80% of New York City Public High-School Grads at CUNY Community Colleges Require Remedial English or Math Classes
March 8th, 2013Via: New York Post: Nearly 80 percent of city public high-school graduates who enrolled in a City University of New York community college last year had to relearn the basics of reading, writing or math — the highest percentage in years. A stunning 79.3 percent of city public-school grads who went to CUNY’s six two-year […]
Holder: Some Banks Too Big to Prosecute
March 7th, 2013Via: New York Magazine: GRASSLEY: OK. On the issue of bank prosecution, I’m concerned that we have a mentality of too-big-to-jail in the financial sector of spreading from fraud cases to terrorist financing and money laundering cases — and I cite HSBC. So I think we’re on a slippery slope. So then that’s background for […]
Mexico: The Country That Stopped Reading
March 7th, 2013Via: New York Times: EARLIER this week, I spotted, among the job listings in the newspaper Reforma, an ad from a restaurant in Mexico City looking to hire dishwashers. The requirement: a secondary school diploma. Years ago, school was not for everyone. Classrooms were places for discipline, study. Teachers were respected figures. Parents actually gave […]
New York: Government Emergency Alert Test Interrupts Rand Paul Filibuster
March 7th, 2013Via: YouTube / CSPAN:
Tighten It Until It Strips, Then Back It Off a Quarter Turn: Microsoft Restores Transfer Rights for Office 2013
March 7th, 2013Via: ZDnet: As part of its shift to a subscription model, Microsoft introduced a controversial “no transfer” restriction with Office 2013. Now, after an intense outcry from customers, the company has reversed course and agreed to allow users to transfer retail Office licenses between devices. Great Free Alternative: LibreOffice
Afghanistan: U.S.-NATO to Stop Reporting Number of Taliban Attacks
March 6th, 2013Via: Wired: One of the major metrics for the decade-long Afghanistan war is seriously flawed. Rather than fix the problem, the U.S.-NATO military command in Kabul has decided that you simply shouldn’t see the data. Late last month, the International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) conceded that it misreported the 2012 statistics on Taliban attacks. Its […]
Holder: Drone Strikes in U.S. Possible in Response to ‘Extraordinary Circumstance’
March 6th, 2013Via: NBC: The Obama administration has “no intention” of carrying out drone strikes against suspected terrorists in the United States, but could use them in response to “an extraordinary circumstance” such as the 9/11 terror attacks, according to a letter from Attorney General Eric Holder obtained by NBC News. Sen. Rand Paul, R-Ky., who received […]
China: Concept for Cairn-Shaped Farmscrapers
March 6th, 2013While I definitely wouldn’t hold my breath waiting for any of these to be built, my guess is that you would be hard pressed to find a better gallery of sci-fi cityscapes to look at while you waste time at work. Via: Vincent Callebaut Architectures: Related: Secret Organic Gardens for China’s Elite China Acknowledges ‘Cancer […]
Micro 3-D Printer
March 6th, 2013Via: MIT Technology Review: Nanoscribe, a spin-off from the Karlsruhe Institute of Technology in Germany, has developed a tabletop 3-D microprinter that can create complicated microstructures 100 times faster than is possible today. “If something took one hour to make, it now takes less than one minute,” says Michael Thiel, chief scientific officer at Nanoscribe. […]
Robot Warriors: Lethal Machines Coming of Age
March 6th, 2013Via: BBC: The era of drone wars is already upon us. The era of robot wars could be fast approaching. Already there are unmanned aircraft demonstrators like the arrow-head shaped X-47B that can pretty-well fly a mission by itself with no involvement of a ground-based “pilot”. There are missile systems like the Patriot that can […]
