Archive for March, 2016
The Absurd and Destructive Practice of Making Young Children Do Homework
March 8th, 2016Via: Salon: “There is no evidence that any amount of homework improves the academic performance of elementary students.” This statement, by homework research guru Harris Cooper, of Duke University, is startling to hear, no matter which side of the homework debate you’re on. Can it be true that the hours of lost playtime, power struggles […]
The Crime You Have Not Yet Committed
March 8th, 2016Precrime (today usually spelled “pre-crime”) is a term coined by science fiction author Philip K. Dick. It is increasingly used in academic literature to describe and criticise the tendency in criminal justice systems to focus on crimes not yet committed. Pre-crime has been defined as ‘substantive coercive state interventions targeted at non-imminent crimes’. Pre-crime intervenes […]
At Secretive Meeting, Tech CEOs and Top Republicans Plot to Stop Trump
March 8th, 2016Now you’re looking for the secret… but you won’t find it, because of course you’re not really looking. You don’t really want to know. You want to be fooled. —The Prestige I’m trying to understand this Trump situation and the hysterical freakout that’s ensuing in elite and media circles. Trump could have been vote-frauded into […]
Navy Secretly Conducting Electromagnetic Warfare Training on Washington Roads
March 8th, 2016Via: TruthOut: Without public notification of any kind, the US Navy has secretly been conducting electromagnetic warfare testing and training on public roads in western Washington State for more than five years. An email thread between the Navy and the US Forest Service between 2010 and 2012, recently obtained via a Freedom of Information Act […]
U.S. Military Spending Millions on Cyborg Implant
March 8th, 2016“A spokesman for DARPA told CNN that the program is not intended for military applications.” Oh sure. It’s to help the injured vets, save kittens and make rainbows etc. I like the comments from the cognitive scientist interviewed for the piece. “Boondoggle.” “My guess is that it’s a waste of taxpayer dollars.” And flush go […]
BMW Sees Its Future Shift to Ultimate Self-Driving Machine
March 7th, 2016Via: Bloomberg: BMW AG, which became the world’s largest maker of luxury cars by focusing on Autobahn thrills, is shifting gears to automated driving as urbanization and changing attitudes toward cars redefine transportation.
No, Turning On Your Phone Is Not Consenting to Being Tracked by Police
March 6th, 2016Via: The Intercept: The Maryland Court of Special Appeals on Wednesday upheld a historic decision by a state trial court that the warrantless use of cell-site simulators, or Stingrays, violates the Fourth Amendment. The trial court had suppressed evidence obtained by the warrantless use of a Stingray — the first time any court in the […]
MIT’s New 5-Atom Quantum Computer Could Make Today’s Encryption Obsolete
March 6th, 2016“all you have to do is go in the lab, apply more technology, and you should be able to make a bigger quantum computer” So the only thing preventing a more general purpose quantum computer is money and enough engineers… Hmm… Via: PC World: Much of the encryption world today depends on the challenge of […]
Driverless Big Rigs to be Trialed in UK
March 6th, 2016Via: BBC: Driverless lorries are to be trialled in the UK, Chancellor George Osborne is expected to confirm in his Budget speech this month. The Department for Transport said the UK would “lead the way” in testing driverless “HGV platoons”. The technology enables vehicles to move in a group, using less fuel, it said. The […]
Fukushima Disaster Nearly Destroyed Japan, Government Nuclear Safety Adviser Majored in Economics
March 5th, 2016Most nuclear power plants in Japan remain offline. Via: NZ Herald: Japan’s prime minister at the time of the 2011 earthquake and tsunami has revealed the country came within a “paper-thin margin” of a nuclear disaster requiring the evacuation of 50 million people. In an interview to mark the fifth anniversary of the disaster, Naoto […]
