Archive for January, 2017
Macy’s Closing 68 Stores; Job Cuts Total 10,100
January 5th, 2017Via: USA Today: After seeing sales drop during the holidays, Macy’s said Wednesday it has either closed or will shutter 68 stores and cut an additional 6,200 positions at a time when shoppers are going online to buy everything from scarves to lipstick. Of the 68 stores out of 730 in total, nine closings had […]
Monsanto GM Corn MON810 Damaged the Intestines of Rats
January 4th, 2017Via: GM Watch: Rats fed GM Bt corn MON810 for only 90 days suffered serious damage to the surface mucous membranes of the jejunum (part of the small intestine), according to a new study.[1] The type of corn fed to the rats was MON810: Ajeeb YG, a GM version of Ajeeb, a locally adapted variety […]
Mining 24 Hours a Day with Robots
January 4th, 2017Via: MIT Technology Review: Mining companies are rolling out autonomous trucks, drills, and trains, which will boost efficiency but also reduce the need for human employees. Each of these trucks is the size of a small two-story house. None has a driver or anyone else on board. Mining company Rio Tinto has 73 of these […]
Rethinking The Cost of War
January 4th, 2017Via: ProPublica: There are many ways to measure the cost of U.S. involvement in the Vietnam War: In bombs (7 million tons), in dollars ($760 billion in today’s dollars) and in bodies (58,220). Then there’s the price of caring for those who survived: Each year, the Department of Veterans Affairs spends more than $23 billion […]
IBM Watson Replaces Insurance Claim Workers at Japanese Insurance Company
January 4th, 2017Via: Quartz: Most of the attention around automation focuses on how factory robots and self-driving cars may fundamentally change our workforce, potentially eliminating millions of jobs. But AI that can handle knowledge-based, white-collar work are also becoming increasingly competent. One Japanese insurance company, Fukoku Mutual Life Insurance, is reportedly replacing 34 human insurance claim workers […]
Ford Announces $4.5 Billion Investment in Electric Vehicles
January 4th, 2017Via: Ars Technica: Today at the Flat Rock Assembly Plant, Ford Motor Company CEO Mark Fields unveiled a large-scale electric vehicle initiative that will run through the company’s next five years. Ford plans to invest $4.5 billion in electric vehicle production by 2020, and the company said it will produce 13 new electric vehicles, including […]
Nestlé Admits Slavery in Its Supply Chains
January 4th, 2017This is from nearly a year ago… For your already hemorrhaging Nestlé file folder. Via: Guardian: It’s hard to think of an issue that you would less like your company to be associated with than modern slavery. Yet last November Nestlé, the world’s largest foodmaker and one of the most recognisable household brands, went public […]
Engineering Efforts Increasing with Quantum Computers
January 4th, 2017Via: Nature: “People are really building things,” says Christopher Monroe, a physicist at the University of Maryland in College Park who co-founded the start-up IonQ in 2015. “I’ve never seen anything like that. It’s no longer just research.” Google started working on a form of quantum computing that harnesses superconductivity in 2014. It hopes this […]
Which Bitcoin Wallet?
January 4th, 2017Update: Going with Electrum To the people who support Cryptogon with Bitcoin: Please see the Support page for the current Bitcoin address. Thank you. — I hadn’t looked at my Bitcoin wallet in a while and I just noticed that a couple of anonymous someones sent me some coin. The blockchain has grown far beyond […]
Catholic Priest Accused of Organising Orgies in Rectory and Pimping Out 15 Women
January 3rd, 2017Just another day at the office. Via: Independent: An Italian priest is being investigated for allegedly organising orgies in his rectory and pimping out up to 15 lovers. Catholic Father Andrea Contin, a parish priest in the northern city of Padua in Veneto, is under police investigation on suspicion of living off immoral earnings and […]
