Archive for April, 2018
Chinese Firms Use ‘Mind-Reading’ Devices to Monitor Workers’ Emotions
April 30th, 2018As I’ve always said (recent example) re: EEG data and these sorts of claims: I doubt it works at all, but the fact that they’re trying is disturbing enough. Via: Sydney Morning Herald: Workers in China are being hooked up with brain-reading devices that feed information about their moods to their employers, raising fears about […]
Drug Users Take Over Corridors of San Francisco Civic Center BART Station
April 30th, 2018#zombieapocalypse Via: CBS: Shocking video is calling attention to what’s going on in one of the busiest BART stations in the Bay Area: drug users blatantly shooting up out in the open as commuters walk by, others slumped along filthy corridors. It’s a gauntlet commuters walk through every morning at the Civic Center BART and […]
Radio Frequency Vehicle Stopper
April 29th, 2018Via: Defense One: The Defense Department’s Joint Non-Lethal Weapons Program, or JNLWD, is pushing ahead with a new direct energy weapon that uses high-powered microwaves to stop cars in their tracks without damaging the vehicle, its driver, or anyone else. The jammer works by targeting the car’s engine control unit causing it to reboot over […]
Britain: Students Can’t Read Analog Clocks, Traditional Clocks, “Could Be a Cause of Unnecessary Stress”
April 29th, 2018Prediction: Students won’t be able to write, so they will need screens to take the exams. Via: Telegraph: Schools are removing analogue clocks from examination halls because teenagers are unable to tell the time, a head teachers’ union has said. Teachers are now installing digital devices after pupils sitting their GCSE and A-level exams complained […]
Dark Journalist X-Series: Pine Gap
April 28th, 2018Dark Journalist is slowly and carefully weaving many strange threads together with his outstanding X-Series. I usually post this sort of material on the Cryptogon Backchannel, but I’m posting this to the main page because Pine Gap is a standard Cryptogon topic, in terms of the surveillance and communications aspects of the facility that we’re […]
Two Koreas Agree to End War This Year, Pursue Denuclearization
April 27th, 2018Via: Bloomberg: North Korean leader Kim Jong Un and South Korean President Moon Jae-in agreed Friday to finally end a seven-decade war this year, and pursue the “complete denuclearization” of the Korean Peninsula. … Kim and Moon embraced after signing the deal during a historic meeting on their militarized border, the first time a North […]
High-Paying Trade Jobs Sit Empty, While High School Grads Line Up For University
April 27th, 2018Via: NPR: Like most other American high school students, Garret Morgan had it drummed into him constantly: Go to college. Get a bachelor’s degree. “All through my life it was, ‘if you don’t go to college you’re going to end up on the streets,’ ” Morgan said. “Everybody’s so gung-ho about going to college.” So […]
Latin America: ‘Breathtaking Homicidal Violence’
April 26th, 2018Via: Guardian: Latin America has suffered more than 2.5m murders since the start of this century and is facing an acute public security crisis that demands urgent and innovative solutions, a new report warns. “The sheer dimensions of homicidal violence are breathtaking,” says the report by the Igarapé Institute, a Brazil-based thinktank focused on security […]
Pig Brains Kept Alive After Decapitation
April 26th, 2018Via: MIT Technology Review: In a step that could change the definition of death, researchers have restored circulation to the brains of decapitated pigs and kept the reanimated organs alive for as long as 36 hours. The feat offers scientists a new way to study intact brains in the lab in stunning detail. But it […]
Electric Buses Are Hurting the Oil Industry
April 24th, 2018Disclosure: I sell solar power systems in New Zealand. — Where’s the electricity coming from to charge up those buses? A lot of it is still coming from coal, but China’s coal use has peaked: The real game changer is clean energy. The price of solar photovoltaic is at an all-time low, enough to compete […]
