Archive for December, 2016
The One About Amazon’s Floating Warehouses
December 29th, 2016My guess about this one is that it’s a joke—something like Elon Musk’s tunnel boring tweets. Assuming that it would be physically possible to float hundreds of tons of merchandise over a city (forget about the FAA for a moment), what would the economics of that look like? In any event, Jeff Bezos will probably […]
NATO Auditor General Found Shot Dead
December 28th, 2016The link below appears to be the only source for this story in English at this time. Via: Express: POLICE in Belgium are probing the death of a high ranking NATO official after his body was discovered in his car with a gunshot wound to the head. According to reports, Yves Chandelon, the 62-year-old auditor […]
Growing Number of Americans Are Retiring Outside the U.S.
December 28th, 2016Via: AP: Newly widowed, Kay McCowen quit her job, sold her house, applied for Social Security and retired to Mexico. It was a move she and her husband, Mel, had discussed before he passed away in 2012. “I wanted to find a place where I could afford to live off my Social Security,” she said. […]
Tesla Autopilot Predicts Accident Caught on Dashcam a Second Later
December 27th, 2016Via: Electrek: In the video embedded below, we can hear the Tesla Autopilot’s Forward Collision Warning sending out an alert for seemingly no reason, but a fraction of a second later we understand why when the vehicle in front of the Tesla crashes into an SUV that wasn’t visible from the standpoint of the Tesla […]
Obama Quietly Signs The “Countering Disinformation And Propaganda Act” Into Law
December 27th, 2016Via: ZeroHedge: Long before the “fake news” meme became a daily topic of extensive conversation on such discredited mainstream portals as CNN and WaPo, H.R. 5181 would task the Secretary of State with coordinating the Secretary of Defense, the Director of National Intelligence, and the Broadcasting Board of Governors to “establish a Center for Information […]
The Mosul Dam Is Failing
December 27th, 2016Via: The New Yorker: The problem wasn’t structural: the dam had been built to survive an aerial bombardment. (In fact, during the Gulf War, American jets bombed its generator, but the dam remained intact.) The problem, according to Azzam Alwash, an Iraqi-American civil engineer who has served as an adviser on the dam, is that […]
Virtual Reality Allows the Most Detailed, Intimate Digital Surveillance Yet
December 26th, 2016Via: The Intercept: But as the tech industry continues to build VR’s social future, the very systems that enable immersive experiences are already establishing new forms of shockingly intimate surveillance. Once they are in place, researchers warn, the psychological aspects of digital embodiment — combined with the troves of data that consumer VR products can […]
World’s Largest Hedge Fund to Replace Managers with Artificial Intelligence
December 22nd, 2016Via: Guardian: The world’s largest hedge fund is building a piece of software to automate the day-to-day management of the firm, including hiring, firing and other strategic decision-making. Bridgewater Associates has a team of software engineers working on the project at the request of billionaire founder Ray Dalio, who wants to ensure the company can […]
Home Ownership Among 25-Year-Olds in England and Wales Has Halved in 20 Years
December 22nd, 2016Via: Guardian: The proportion of 25-year-olds who own a home has more than halved over the past 20 years, according to a report that points to the generational impact of the housing crisis. Home ownership has dropped from 46% of all 25-year-olds two decades ago to 20% now, the Local Government Association said. The LGA, […]
Trump: “The United States Must Greatly Strengthen and Expand Its Nuclear Capability”
December 22nd, 2016Via: Guardian: US President-elect Donald Trump called on Thursday for a strengthening of America’s nuclear weapons programme, throwing into doubt longstanding efforts to reduce its arsenal. On Thursday, Trump tweeted: “The United States must greatly strengthen and expand its nuclear capability until such time as the world comes to its senses regarding nukes.” It was […]
