Archive for July, 2013
San Jose State Suspends Online Classes Project Udacity After As Many As 80% of Students Fail
July 21st, 2013Via: Los Angeles Times: San Jose State University is suspending a highly touted collaboration with online provider Udacity to offer low-cost, for-credit online courses after finding that more than half of the students failed to pass the classes, officials said Thursday. Preliminary results from a spring pilot project found student pass rates of 20% to […]
States Attempt to Get Israel to Admit Nuclear Arsenal
July 21st, 2013Good luck. Via: AP: After a two-year hiatus, Arab nations are relaunching efforts to single out Israel for criticism at a major international conference by preparing a resolution over the country’s alleged nuclear arsenal, suggesting that the Jewish state’s refusal to acknowledge it has such arms is threatening Middle East peace. The Arab push was […]
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 […]
The One About Jimmy Carter Supporting Edward Snowden
July 19th, 2013Well, this is interesting, since the USS Jimmy Carter is effectively a purpose built NSA submarine that taps undersea fiber optic cables all over the world. Via: Huffington Post: Former President Jimmy Carter announced support for NSA whistleblower Edward Snowden this week, saying that his uncovering of the agency’s massive surveillance programs had proven “beneficial.” […]
Pay What You Want for Eleven Jim Guthrie Albums + More
July 19th, 2013I like Jim Guthrie’s music and I like Humble Bundle, so I thought I’d mention it: The Humble Weekly Sale: Jim Guthrie and Friends
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 […]
Hungry Canadian Aboriginal Children Were Used in Government Experiments During 1940s
July 19th, 2013Via: The Star: Aboriginal children were deliberately starved in the 1940s and ’50s by government researchers in the name of science. Milk rations were halved for years at residential schools across the country. Essential vitamins were kept from people who needed them. Dental services were withheld because gum health was a measuring tool for scientists […]
And Now, ‘Smart Plates’: California May Issue Digital License Plates
July 19th, 2013Via: CBS: California may become the first state to issue digital license plates that can be registered electronically and record tolls. Privacy advocates are concerned the plates could become tracking devices for law enforcement. Instead of a metal license plate, the digital plate would be a computer screen, slightly larger than an iPad. Registering the […]
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 […]
