47% Of Today’s Jobs Automated In Next Two Decades, “No Country Is Ready For It”
January 20th, 2014What’s the solution, according to the The Economist?
Online classes and video games!
Via: The Economist:
Today’s governments would do well to start making the changes needed before their people get angry.
Poll: U.S. The Biggest Threat to World Peace in 2013
January 20th, 2014Via: Gallup:
WIN/Gallup International, the leading global association in market research and polling, has today published, in collaboration with The BBC’s Today programme, the results of its annual End of Year Survey which explores the outlook, expectations, hopes and fears of people from 65 countries around the world.
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US is considered to be the greatest threat to peace in the world, followed by Pakistan and China;
More:
Gerald Celente on Dumfukistan (Gerald is more irate than usual in this one.)
Research Credit: windhorse
Nissan Has 48% of Global Pure Electric Car Market
January 20th, 2014Via: Inside EVs:
This past weekend Nissan announced that after just more than 3 years on the market, the LEAF had reached the 100,000 vehicles sold level.
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Overall, Nissan has captured 48% of pure electric sales worldwide since 2010 according to the company.
Sugar Linked To $1 Trillion In U.S. Healthcare Spending Per Year
January 20th, 2014Via: Forbes:
“So 30% – 40% of healthcare expenditures in the USA go to help address issues that are closely tied to the excess consumption of sugar.” Credit Suisse Report – Sugar: Consumption At A Crossroads (PDF here)
At this level, the math clearly lacks scientific precision, but it does emphasize the huge burden associated with a single and truly ubiquitous substance – sugar. Assuming a U.S. National Healthcare Expenditure of $3 trillion per year – and further assuming we simply take 33% (the lower end of the Credit Suisse range), the calculation is easy. Basically, the U.S. healthcare system spends about $1 trillion per year (and possibly more) fighting the effects of excess sugar consumption.
The report references a constellation of health effects around that excessive consumption – including coronary heart disease, type 2 diabetes and metabolic syndrome. Other known risks – mostly around being overweight and/or obese – include osteoarthritis, high blood pressure, high cholesterol, gout, non-alcoholic fatty liver disease and cancer.
Rich Chinese Flee China
January 19th, 2014Via: CNBC:
A new report shows that 64 percent of Chinese millionaires have either emigrated or plan to emigrate—taking their spending and fortunes with them. The United States is their favorite destination.
The report from Hurun, a wealth research firm that focuses on China, said that one-third of China’s super rich—or those worth $16 million or more—have already emigrated.
The data offer the latest snapshot of China’s worrying wealth flight, with massive numbers of rich Chinese taking their families and fortunes overseas. Previous studies show the main reasons rich Chinese are leaving is to pursue better educations for their kids, and to escape the pollution and overcrowding in urban China.
Related: China Starts Televising Sunrise On Giant TV Screens Because Smog Is So Thick
China: Industrial Scale Pig Cloning
January 18th, 2014…In an old shoe factory.
Via: BBC:
You hear the squeals of the pigs long before reaching a set of long buildings set in rolling hills in southern China.
Feeding time produces a frenzy as the animals strain against the railings around their pens. But this is no ordinary farm.
Run by a fast-growing company called BGI, this facility has become the world’s largest centre for the cloning of pigs.
The technology involved is not particularly novel – but what is new is the application of mass production.
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Some of the animals are clones of clones. Most have been genetically modified.
The point of the work is to use pigs to test out new medicines. Because they are so similar genetically to humans, pigs can serve as useful “models”. So modifying their genes to give them traits can aid that process.
One batch of particularly small pigs has had a growth gene removed – they stopped growing at the age of one. Others have had their DNA tinkered with to try to make them more susceptible to Alzheimer’s.
Back at the company headquarters, a line of technicians is hunched over microscopes. This is a BGI innovation: replacing expensive machines with people. It’s called “handmade cloning” and is designed to make everything quicker and easier.
The scientist in charge, Dr Yutao Du, explains the technique in a way that leaves me reeling.
“We can do cloning on a very large scale,” she tells me, “30-50 people together doing cloning so that we can make a cloning factory here.”
A cloning factory – an incredible notion borrowed straight from science fiction. But here in Shenzhen, in what was an old shoe factory, this rising power is creating a new industry.
Research Credit: conceptualdecay
Marines Investigate Photos from Iraq that Reportedly Show Troops Burning Bodies
January 18th, 2014I wonder how many Americans have ever heard of the Highway of Death?
Via: CNN:
The Marine Corps is working to determine the authenticity of photos published by TMZ.com that purport to show Marines burning the bodies of what appear to be Iraqi insurgents.
The celebrity and gossip website said it has 41 photographs believed shot in Falluja in 2004. It published eight on Wednesday, saying the rest of the images were too graphic.
“The actions depicted in these photos are not what we expect from our service members, nor do they represent the honorable and professional service of the more than 2.5 million Americans who have served in Iraq and Afghanistan,” the Defense Department said.
“The Marine Corps is currently investigating the veracity of these photos, circumstances involved, and if possible, the identities of the service members involved. The findings from this investigation will determine whether we are able to move forward with any investigation into possible wrongdoing.”
Among the published photographs, a person in a Marine uniform appears to be pouring gasoline or some other flammable liquid on the bodies of insurgents. The remains are shown ablaze, and then charred.
Islamic custom strictly forbids cremation.
Research Credit: emulsified
Photos: Mexican Vigilantes Disarm Police, Battle Drug Cartel for Control of Paracuaro
January 18th, 2014Via: Business Insider:
Fed up with a corrupt police force that is often in bed with the cartels and a military that has to this point been ineffective, some Mexicans have taken it upon themselves to fight the cartels and protect their families — with an incredible conflict happening this week in the city of Paracuaro.
Below are some pictures from what’s happening south of the border…
Research Credit: conceptualdecay
Microsoft Can Delete Applications on Windows Machines from Remote
January 18th, 2014Via: TheDailyDot:
In August 2013, 4 million infected computers woke up and waited instructions from their master.
The pathogen was Sefnit, a nasty bit of malware that makes infected computers mine bitcoins. Once the computers woke up, they worked under the command of Ukranian and Israeli hackers named Scorpion and Dekadent. The malware communicated with the two by downloading Tor, the powerful anonymizing software, and talking over encrypted channels. It was the first time a botnet, as a collection of slave computers is called, used Tor in such a potentially powerful way.
By using an unconventional method to exploit Windows, the hackers unwittingly forced Microsoft to show a hand few knew it had: The ability to remotely remove progams en masse from people’s computers, without them even knowing it.
All of a sudden, the anonymous network grew from about 1 million users to 5.5 million, a jump that frightened even Tor’s developers.
“If this had been a real attacker, if the botnet had been turned against the Tor network, it probably would have been fatal, I think,” developer Jacob Appelbaum said in a speech at the Chaos Communication Congress in December.
On one level, Sefnit’s use of Tor was a mistake. That surge in users brought unwanted attention to the botnet at a time of heightened interested in the Tor network. And the malware, which has existed in various versions of Tor since 2009, specifically targeted Windows users, a fact that got Microsoft’s attention quickly.
To fight back, Microsoft remotely removed the program from as many computers as it could, along with the Tor clients it used.
“That’s a lot of power that Microsoft has there,” Applebaum continued, raising his voice and laughing at the implications. “If you’re using Windows trying to be anonymous, word to the wise: Bad idea.”
China Starts Televising Sunrise On Giant TV Screens Because Smog Is So Thick
January 18th, 2014Via: Time:
Air pollution in the Chinese capital reached new, choking heights on Thursday. Those who still felt the urge to catch a glimpse of sunlight were able to gather around the city’s gigantic LED screens, where this glorious sunrise was broadcast as part of a patriotic video loop.
