Archive for November, 2015
Own a Vizio Smart TV? It’s Watching You
November 12th, 2015Via: ProPublica: TV makers are constantly crowing about the tricks their smart TVs can do. But one of the most popular brands has a feature that it’s not advertising: Vizio’s Smart TVs track your viewing habits and share it with advertisers, who can then find you on your phone and other devices. The tracking — […]
Tor Says Feds Paid Carnegie Mellon $1 Million to Help Unmask Users
November 12th, 2015Via: Wired: Ever since a Carnegie Mellon talk on cracking the anonymity software Tor was abruptly pulled from the schedule of the Black Hat hacker conference last year, the security community has been left to wonder whether the research was silently handed over to law enforcement agencies seeking to uncloak the internet’s anonymous users. Now […]
Apple Boss: Next Generation of Children ‘Will Not Know What Money Is’
November 11th, 2015Well, most adults don’t know what money is, so… I’ve maintained for years that the whole thing isn’t cashless already because of the drug trade being run by intelligence agencies. I don’t know how officially sanctioned “illegal” drug trafficking will work in a cashless system. Maybe they will implement some sort of blockchain thing that […]
Constant Lockdowns Lead Schools to Buy Portable Toilets
November 11th, 2015Via: San Diego Union Tribune: Shortly after San Diego schools kicked off the new year in September, 21,000 students at 11 campuses were locked in classrooms for up to three hours following a rash of violent — and ultimately false — threats. Not surprisingly, some students had to use a bathroom. Patrick Henry High School […]
TV Audiences “Numb” from Ads
November 11th, 2015Via: Bloomberg: Media companies, including Time Warner Inc., 21st Century Fox Inc. and Viacom Inc., have started cutting back on commercials after years of squeezing in as many ads as possible. The new strategy is an attempt to appeal to younger viewers, who are more accustomed to watching shows ad-free on online streaming services like […]
U.S. Navy Launches Second Missile Off Southern California Coast
November 10th, 2015Via: ABC News: The Navy has confirmed a second missile launch that was like the one that caused so much alarm over the weekend. Just before noon on Monday, the Navy conducted a Trident missile test off the Southern California coast. When the first test was done on Saturday night, thousands of people saw a […]
Maintenance of U.S. Passenger Planes Outsourced to El Salvador, Mexico and China
November 10th, 2015Via: The Atlantic: Over the past decade, nearly all large U.S. airlines have shifted heavy maintenance work on their airplanes to repair shops thousands of miles away, in developing countries, where the mechanics who take the planes apart (completely) and put them back together (or almost) may not even be able to read or speak […]
Belgium Tells Facebook to Stop Storing Personal Data From Non-Users
November 9th, 2015Via: Bloomberg: Facebook Inc. lost a fight with Belgium’s privacy watchdog after a court ordered it to stop storing personal data from people who don’t have an account with the social network. Facebook faces a fine of 250,000 euros ($269,000) a day if it doesn’t comply with the ruling, the court said in an e-mailed […]
Dentists Reveal New Tooth Decay Treatment
November 9th, 2015Via: Guardian: Scientists have developed a new pain-free filling that allows cavities to be repaired without drilling or injections. The tooth-rebuilding technique developed at King’s College London does away with fillings and instead encourages teeth to repair themselves. Tooth decay is normally removed by drilling, after which the cavity is filled with a material such […]
Former U.S. Comptroller General: Real U.S. Debt Is About $65 Trillion
November 9th, 2015Via: The Hill: The former U.S. comptroller general says the real U.S. debt is closer to about $65 trillion than the oft-cited figure of $18 trillion. Dave Walker, who headed the Government Accountability Office (GAO) under Presidents Bill Clinton and George W. Bush, said when you add up all of the nation’s unfunded liabilities, the […]
