Archive for March, 2018
Flying Taxis to be Trialled in New Zealand
March 13th, 2018They have their doomsteads here, so… Via: Radio New Zealand: A network of self-piloted, flying taxis will be trialled in New Zealand, in a partnership with the government. Airways, New Zealand’s air navigation service provider confirmed the trial and said it will develop a nationwide unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) traffic management system which will integrate […]
VW’s Spending Plan for Batteries Exceeds Tesla’s Orders by More Than 40%
March 13th, 2018Via: Bloomberg: Volkswagen AG secured 20 billion euros ($25 billion) in battery supplies to underpin an aggressive push into electric cars in the coming years, ramping up pressure on Tesla Inc. as it struggles with production issues for the mainstream Model 3. The world’s largest carmaker will equip 16 factories to produce electric vehicles by […]
Trump’s Nominee for CIA Director Ran Torture Site
March 13th, 2018Update: She Ran the Site After the Abu Zubayda Incidents — Via: Quartz: As CIA director Mike Pompeo moves to become the United States’ secretary of state, deputy director Gina Haspel has been nominated to lead the agency. If confirmed by the Senate, she will become the first woman to run the CIA. Haspel’s nomination […]
TSA Laptop and Phone Searches on Domestic Flights
March 12th, 2018Via: Guardian: There are a growing number of reports of the Transportation Security Administration (TSA) searching the electronic devices of passengers on domestic flights in the US, according to the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU), which has sued the federal agency for records. The ACLU Foundation of Northern California filed a lawsuit against the TSA […]
5 of the Most Violent Cities in the World Are in America
March 12th, 2018Via: Organic Prepper: When you think of the most dangerous, violent cities in the world, do you picture slums in Third World countries with vicious drug cartels or arrogant warlords? Maybe the kind of violence where enemies are decapitated and whole families are murdered seem like things that happen far away in some terrifying, exotic […]
China Formally Becomes Dictatorship, Again
March 11th, 2018Via: BBC: China has approved the removal of term limits for its leader, in a move that effectively allows Xi Jinping to remain as president for life. The constitutional changes were passed by China’s annual sitting of the National People’s Congress on Sunday. The vote was widely regarded as a rubber-stamping exercise. Two delegates voted […]
California Bullet Train Boondoggle
March 11th, 2018Via: Los Angeles Times: The price of the California bullet train project jumped sharply Friday when the state rail authority announced that the cost of connecting Los Angeles to San Francisco would be $77.3 billion and could rise as high as $98.1 billion — an uptick of at least $13 billion from estimates two years […]
Palantir Wins $876 Million U.S. Army Contract
March 11th, 2018Via: Bloomberg: Billionaire investor Peter Thiel got a fresh victory in Washington. His data-mining startup, Palantir Technologies Inc., won a much-contested contract to provide software to the U.S. Army. Palantir will work with Raytheon Co. to replace the troubled Distributed Common Ground System now in effect. They beat out seven other proposals for a decade-long, […]
The Massive Prize Luring Miners to the Stars
March 11th, 2018The sci-fi fan in me decided to post this one, but, no, this isn’t going to solve peak cobalt, or peak-whatever anytime soon. Via: Bloomberg: Sending a spacecraft to the far reaches of our solar system to mine asteroids might seem like an improbable ambition best left to science fiction. But it’s inching closer to […]
Self-Driving Cars Attacked by Angry Californians
March 9th, 2018Via: Guardian: Two of the six collisions involving autonomous vehicles in California so far this year involved humans colliding with self-driving cars, apparently on purpose, according to incident reports collected by the California department of motor vehicles. On 10 January, a pedestrian in San Francisco’s Mission District ran across the street to confront a GM […]
