Archive for June, 2014
Argentina at Brink of Default Again
June 30th, 2014Via: Bloomberg: Argentina is poised to miss a bond payment today, putting the country on the brink of its second default in 13 years, after a U.S. court blocked the cash from being distributed until the government settles with creditors from the previous debt debacle. The nation has a 30-day grace period after missing the […]
McDonald’s Testing Order-Ahead and Payments App
June 30th, 2014See: Seattle Hikes Minimum Wage to $15 Per Hour: Cashiers and food service workers: You’re pretty much screwed. … Notice how companies in Seattle have between three and seven years to start paying the $15/hour rate? *wink* Will this be a ready-the-robots phase? I don’t know, but it wouldn’t surprise me if that’s what happens, […]
Fastest-Growing Metro Area in U.S. Has No Crime or Kids
June 30th, 2014Via: Bloomberg: For Jerry Conkle, life in America’s fastest-growing metropolitan area moves as slowly as the golf carts that meander through his palm-lined neighborhood at dusk. Most days, he wakes early, reads the newspaper, and then hops into his four-wheeled buggy for a 20-mile-per-hour ride to one of the 42 golf courses that surround his […]
Google: Better Than 50% Chance That Loon Becomes a Reality
June 30th, 2014They also have drones: Google Buys Drone Maker Titan Aerospace. Via: Wired: Cassidy has always contended that by providing the Internet to unserved areas, his project could help make those dreams achievable. A year after the project’s public launch, he’s confident that Internet service enabled by high-altitude balloons is more than a possibility. “We’ve definitely […]
Facebook’s Secret Mood Manipulation Experiment
June 28th, 2014Via: The Atlantic: Facebook’s News Feed—the main list of status updates, messages, and photos you see when you open Facebook on your computer or phone—is not a perfect mirror of the world. But few users expect that Facebook would change their News Feed in order to manipulate their emotional state. We now know that’s exactly […]
Armed U.S. Drones Over Baghdad
June 28th, 2014Via: CNN: Seven Iraqi soldiers were killed and 29 others were wounded on Saturday in clashes between Iraqi security forces and the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria (ISIS), Iraqi security officials said. ISIS fighters attacked a military base in the town of Jurf al-Sakhar, about 85 kilometers (53 miles) south of Baghdad on Saturday […]
Google Pulls Robot from Military Competition to Focus on Commercial Product
June 27th, 2014Via: The Verge: The $2 million Robotics Challenge, run by the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA), is a competition for the most advanced robots in the world. The three-year competition is less than halfway over, but there was already a clear frontrunner: the Japanese team Schaft, which posted videos on YouTube of their incredible […]
Billionaire: When The Pitchforks Come Out, There Won’t Be Time to Board Our Gulfstream Jets for New Zealand
June 27th, 2014There’s another take on this over at Daily Ticker. In short: Wealthy People Should “Chill Out” Because Docile, Bewildered Americans Will Just Keep Watching TV: The rich ought to chill out. While the masses may envy their wealth, there’s no evidence of a revolution brewing, or even a well-behaved civil disturbance. Americans are clearly dismayed […]
Obama Asks Congress for $500 Million for Rebels
June 26th, 2014The ink is hardly dry on this one: Militants in Iraq Take Over Four Cities, Make Off with Arms Cache and Nearly Half a Billion Dollars. So they are backing the good terrorists and the bad terrorists. The amount needed for the good terrorists is interesting, wouldn’t you say? The bad terrorists make off with […]
Massachusetts SWAT Teams Claim They’re Private Corporations, Immune from Open Records Laws
June 26th, 2014Via: Washington Post: As part of the American Civil Liberties Union’s recent report on police militarization, the Massachusetts chapter of the organization sent open records requests to SWAT teams across that state. It received an interesting response. As it turns out, a number of SWAT teams in the Bay State are operated by what are […]
