A World Without Retirement
April 2nd, 2017Via: Guardian:
We are entering the age of no retirement. The journey into that chilling reality is not a long one: the first generation who will experience it are now in their 40s and 50s. They grew up assuming they could expect the kind of retirement their parents enjoyed – stopping work in their mid-60s on a generous income, with time and good health enough to fulfil long-held dreams. For them, it may already be too late to make the changes necessary to retire at all.
In 2010, British women got their state pension at 60 and men got theirs at 65. By October 2020, both sexes will have to wait until they are 66. By 2028, the age will rise again, to 67. And the creep will continue. By the early 2060s, people will still be working in their 70s, but according to research, we will all need to keep working into our 80s if we want to enjoy the same standard of retirement as our parents.
With Trump Approval, Pentagon Expands Warfighting Authority
April 1st, 2017Via: AP:
Week by week, country by country, the Pentagon is quietly seizing more control over warfighting decisions, sending hundreds more troops to war with little public debate and seeking greater authority to battle extremists across the Middle East and Africa.
This week it was Somalia, where President Donald Trump gave the U.S. military more authority to conduct offensive airstrikes on al-Qaida-linked militants. Next week it could be Yemen, where military leaders want to provide more help for the United Arab Emirates’ battle against Iranian-backed rebels. Key decisions on Iraq, Syria and Afghanistan are looming, from ending troop number limits to loosening rules that guide commanders in the field.
The changes in President Donald Trump’s first two months in office underscore his willingness to let the Pentagon manage its own day-to-day combat. Under the Obama administration, military leaders chafed about micromanagement that included commanders needing approval for routine tactical decisions about targets and personnel moves.
But delegating more authority to the Pentagon — and combat decisions to lower level officers — carries its own military and political risks. Casualties, of civilians and American service members, may be the biggest.
Autonomous Nissan Leaf
April 1st, 2017Via: Fully Charged:
Connecticut Considering Use of Drones Outfitted with Deadly Weapons for Police
March 31st, 2017Via: AP:
Connecticut lawmakers are considering whether the state should become the first in the country to allow police to use drones outfitted with deadly weapons, a proposal immediately met with concern by civil rights and liberties advocates.
The bill would ban the use of weaponized drones, but exempt police. Details on how law enforcement could use drones with weapons would be spelled out in new rules to be developed by the state Police Officer Standards and Training Council. Officers also would have to receive training before being allowed to use drones with weapons.
“Obviously this is for very limited circumstances,” said Republican state Sen. John Kissel, of Enfield, co-chairman of the Judiciary Committee that approved the measure Wednesday and sent it to the House of Representatives. “We can certainly envision some incident on some campus or someplace where someone is a rogue shooter or someone was kidnapped and you try to blow out a tire.”
SpaceX Successfully Launches, Lands Recycled Falcon 9 Rocket
March 30th, 2017Via: NBC:
SpaceX successfully launched and landed a recycled rocket on Thursday, a first for Elon Musk’s company and a move that could help slash the cost of cargo transport into space.
It was a one-two punch that went according to plan. After lifting off from Kennedy Space Center in Florida and carrying an SES-10 communications satellite into space, the rocket booster separated and barreled toward Earth, slowing down and sticking a landing on a drone ship parked at sea.
“It’s an amazing day I think for space as a whole,” Musk said after the landing. “Something can be done that many people said was impossible.”
The launch was particularly special since achieving rocket reusability is a development that is expected to usher in a new era of launches at a reduced price.
Musk, who said this day was 15 years in the making, compared using a rocket once to throwing away an airplane after one flight.
‘Samsung’s Galaxy S8 Can Turn Into a PC with Its DeX Dock’
March 29th, 2017*sigh*
Via: The Verge:
Samsung, like Motorola and Microsoft before it, is trying to turn a phone into a PC. Samsung’s Galaxy S8 will pair with a new Samsung Desktop Experience (DeX) dock accessory to morph into a desktop PC-like environment. The specialized dock, that looks like a candle holder, supports a monitor connection via HDMI, keyboard, mouse, and two USB ports to help expand the Galaxy S8’s capabilities. Samsung’s dock even has a special embedded cooling fan to help keep the Galaxy S8 cool when you’re using it to display Android apps on a monitor, and a USB-C connection to power it.
Related: Apple Investigating Accessory that Turns iPhone, iPad Into Full-Fledged Touchscreen Laptop
Britain Begins Historic Exit of European Union
March 29th, 2017Via: CNBC:
Wednesday marked a historic day as British Prime Minister Theresa May announced that Article 50 of the Lisbon Treaty had been signed, commencing the formal process for Britain to withdraw from the European Union.
Britain is the first country in the EU in more than 60 years to seek a divorce from the union.
In her address to Parliament on Wednesday, May said, “There is no turning back.” Outside Parliament, mixed reactions marked the day as pro-EU protesters gathered and the world tries to figure out what the move will mean for the future of Britain.
The 265 Members of Congress Who Sold You Out to ISPs, and How Much It Cost to Buy Them
March 29th, 2017Hint: Not much.
Via: The Verge:
Republicans in Congress just voted to reverse a landmark FCC privacy rule that opens the door for ISPs to sell customer data. Lawmakers provided no credible reason for this being in the interest of Americans, except for vague platitudes about “consumer choice” and “free markets,” as if consumers at the mercy of their local internet monopoly are craving to have their web history quietly sold to marketers and any other third party willing to pay.
The only people who seem to want this are the people who are going to make lots of money from it. (Hint: they work for companies like Comcast, Verizon, and AT&T.) Incidentally, these people and their companies routinely give lots of money to members of Congress.
So here is a list of the lawmakers who voted to betray you, and how much money they received from the telecom industry in their most recent election cycle.
Daimler Moving Electric Car Plans Forward by Three Years
March 29th, 2017Via: Reuters:
Mercedes-Benz owner Daimler (DAIGn.DE) is accelerating its electric car program, it said on Wednesday after announcing that it had failed to cut fleet emissions in Europe for the first time since 2007.
Daimler put its emissions numbers down to customers increasing preference for sports utility vehicles (SUVs), which tend to be more polluting than sedans, making it more difficult for carmakers to hit a European target for each new car to produce no more than 95 grams of carbon dioxide per kilometer by 2020.
The company said it expects Mercedes-Benz Cars to bring more than 10 new electric cars to market by 2022 through 10 billion euros ($10.8 billion) of investment, having previously aimed to achieve the target by 2025.
Domino’s Will Begin Using Robots to Deliver Pizzas in Europe
March 29th, 2017Via: Bloomberg:
Starship Technologies, the London-based company that has created six-wheeled self-driving delivery robots, will begin taking customers Domino’s pizzas in Germany and the Netherlands.
Starship, launched in July 2014 by two former Skype co-founders, Ahti Heinla and Janus Friis, will whisk pizzas to customers’ doors if they live within a one-mile radius of certain Dominos pizza shops in “select German and Dutch cities,” the company said in a statement.
