Archive for August, 2018
Air Pollution Causes Huge Reduction in Intelligence
August 28th, 2018Via: Guardian: Air pollution causes a “huge” reduction in intelligence, according to new research, indicating that the damage to society of toxic air is far deeper than the well-known impacts on physical health. The research was conducted in China but is relevant across the world, with 95% of the global population breathing unsafe air. It […]
Japan Wants Flying Cars Within a Decade
August 26th, 2018Via: Bloomberg: Japan is making a push to develop flying cars, enlisting companies including Uber Technologies Inc. and Boeing Co. in a government-led group to bring airborne vehicles to the country in the next decade. The group will initially comprise 21 businesses and organizations, including Airbus SE, NEC Corp., a Toyota Motor Corp.-backed startup called […]
Skim Reading Is the New Normal, the Effect on Society Is Profound
August 25th, 2018Via: Guardian: Look around on your next plane trip. The iPad is the new pacifier for babies and toddlers. Younger school-aged children read stories on smartphones; older boys don’t read at all, but hunch over video games. Parents and other passengers read on Kindles or skim a flotilla of email and news feeds. Unbeknownst to […]
Dan Rather: What Mueller Knows Will Make Cohen/Manafort “Pale By Comparison,” “Stay Tuned”
August 25th, 2018When Rather says, “We’re in a kind of political theater of the absurd now,” I think he’s right! Talk of impeaching Trump, as Bill and Hillary Clinton walk free, is pretty absurd. Via: Real Clear Politics: Dan Rather warned Wednesday night that if you think Tuesday was a shock with the Cohen guilty plea and […]
Tech Companies Are Gathering For A Secret Meeting To Prepare A 2018 Election Strategy
August 24th, 2018The article mentions a Russian, “Troll factory.” How about American troll factories? Here’s what the U.S. Air Force wanted back in 2011: Software will allow 10 personas per user, replete with background , history, supporting details, and cyber presences that are technically, culturally and geographacilly consistent. Individual applications will enable an operator to exercise a […]
Japan: Drones Helping Aging Rice Farmers
August 23rd, 2018Via: Reuters: The next generation farmhand in Japan’s aging rural heartland may be a drone. For several months, developers and farmers in northeast Japan have been testing a new drone that can hover above paddy fields and perform backbreaking tasks in a fraction of the time it takes for elderly farmers. “This is unprecedented high […]
Flint Water Crisis: Michigan Health Director Ordered to Manslaughter Trial
August 22nd, 2018Via: Ars Technica: A judge on Monday ordered Michigan’s top health official, Nick Lyon, to stand trial for involuntary manslaughter charges in two deaths linked to the Flint water crisis. Genesee District Judge David Goggins determined that there was probable cause that Lyon committed involuntary manslaughter against Robert Skidmore and John Snyder in 2015. The […]
A Milestone in Afghanistan
August 22nd, 2018Via: Ron Paul Institute: Sometime late next year, possibly as early as September, news crews will gather in Afghanistan for a unique event: To interview an American serviceman or woman who was not born when the war they are fighting began. He or she will not remember 9/11, and will have grown up with the […]
Bank of England Chief Economist Warns on AI Jobs Threat
August 22nd, 2018Via: BBC: The chief economist of the Bank of England has warned that the UK will need a skills revolution to avoid “large swathes” of people becoming “technologically unemployed” as artificial intelligence makes many jobs obsolete. Andy Haldane said the possible disruption of what is known as the Fourth Industrial Revolution could be “on a […]
Doctor’s Orders: Let Children Just Play
August 22nd, 2018Thanks, Captain! Via: AP: Imagine a drug that could enhance a child’s creativity, critical thinking and resilience. Imagine that this drug were simple to make, safe to take, and could be had for free. The nation’s leading pediatricians say this miracle compound exists. In a new clinical report, they are urging doctors to prescribe it […]
