November 27, 2014

An Animated Reenactment Of Both Stories In The Mike Brown Shooting

November 23, 2014

Microsoft turns to robot guards to protect its Silicon Valley campus

Microsoft is turning to robots to provide security for its Silicon Valley campus, according to a new report.

The software giant as become one of the first companies to use an autonomous robot security guard — called K5 — to keep ne’er-do-wells from causing trouble on the campus, according to ExtremeTech.

K5 is about the size of a human, and weighs in at 300 pounds. It is equipped with cameras, sensors, and alarms, along with some sophisticated artificial intelligence. This allows Microsoft to replace some human security patrols.

K5 is meant to alert security to intruders or other unwanted visitors, and does not carry any weaponry of any kind.

California company Knightscope built the robot, which is described as an “autonomous data machine” that commands authority yet also provides “a friendly physical presence.”

Inside the five-foot-tall container on wheels is four high-definition cameras facing in all directions, a camera that can scan license plates, four microphones, blaring alarms, weather sensors, and even WiFi connectivity that allows robots to contact headquarters if it encounters a situation. Its artificial intelligence is meant to allow it to distinguish between a benign gathering nearby and someone attempting to enter through a window.

http://dailydigestnews.com/2014/11/microsoft-turns-to-robot-guards-to-protect-its-silicon-valley-campus/

November 23, 2014

Israeli Cabinet Backs Controversial Nationality Bill

Source: NYTimes

The Israeli cabinet on Sunday approved contentious draft legislation that emphasizes Israel’s Jewish character above its democratic nature in a move that critics said could undermine the fragile relationship with the country’s Arab minority at a time of heightened tensions.

The promotion of a so-called nationality law has long stirred fierce debate inside Israel, where opponents fear that any legislation that gives pre-eminence to Israel’s Jewishness could lead to an internal rift as well as damage Israel’s relations with Jews in other countries and with the country’s international allies.

The vote on Sunday also highlighted political fissures within the governing coalition amid increasing talk of early elections. The bill, a proposal for a basic law titled “Israel, the Nation-State of the Jewish People,” passed 14 to 6, with two centrist coalition parties opposing it. Parliament still has to approve the bill for it to become a law.

Read more: http://www.nytimes.com/2014/11/24/world/middleeast/israeli-cabinet-backs-nationality-bill-that-risks-wider-rift-with-arab-minority.html

November 18, 2014

Gravy train: Health Care Law Recasts Insurers as Obama Allies

since the Affordable Care Act was enacted in 2010, the relationship between the Obama administration and insurers has evolved into a powerful, mutually beneficial partnership that has been a boon to the nation’s largest private health plans and led to a profitable surge in their Medicaid enrollment.

snip

Now insurers say government business is growing much faster than the market for commercial employer-sponsored coverage. The Congressional Budget Office estimates that 170 million people will have coverage through Medicare, Medicaid and the insurance exchanges by 2023, an increase of about 50 percent from 2013. By contrast, the number of people with employer-based coverage is expected to rise just 2 percent, to 159 million.

In addition, the Affordable Care Act has engendered growth in the role of private insurers in Medicaid. The law expanded eligibility for Medicaid, and most of the new beneficiaries receive care from private health plans under contracts awarded by state Medicaid agencies. As a result, Medicaid enrollment is up more than eight million, or 15 percent, in the last year.

http://www.nytimes.com/2014/11/18/us/politics/health-law-turns-obama-and-insurers-into-allies.html?_r=0

November 12, 2014

Wal-Mart 'urgent' memo urges improvement at U.S. stores

Wal-Mart stores Inc issued an "urgent agenda" memo to its store managers across the United States last month, laying out guidelines to boost sales of "chilled and fresh" food, the New York Times reported.

The memo, marked "highly sensitive", asks Wal-Mart marketing managers to make sure they discount aging meat and baked goods to maximize chances of selling them before their expiration dates, according to the report. (http://nyti.ms/1v1YwHO)

Wal-Mart, which has posted six straight quarters of flat or declining same-store sales growth, has been battling a stronger dollar and a reduction in U.S. food stamp benefits, which has eaten into the budget of the retailer's core customer base.

https://ca.news.yahoo.com/wal-mart-urgent-memo-urges-improvement-u-stores-134351731--business.html

November 10, 2014

Examining a racial slur entrenched in American vernacular that is more prevalent than ever.

This season, the National Football League is attempting the impossible, a reasoned but dubious mission that has already tripped up an institution as venerable as the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People, municipalities as large as New York City and countless parents of teenagers across the land. The goal: banning the n-word within the chalk-lined borders of its purview.

As with the previous attempts, the NFL’s “zero tolerance” policy — which gives referees leeway to issue a 15-yard penalty for a first offense and ejection for a second — comes with good intentions: to establish a field of play free of the most racially charged word in American history.

ABOUT THE N-WORD PROJECT: Following several incidents involving players using the n-word, the National Football League this year instructed game officials to penalize players who used the word on the field of play. The policy, though, was widely criticized as being heavy-handed and out of touch. As the league wrestled with the issue, a team of Washington Post journalists examined the history of this singular American word, its spread through popular culture and its place in the vernacular today.

But like the others, it is almost certainly doomed to fail; to be ignored, at best — or mocked and flouted, at worst.

If there is one thing certain about the modern n-word — a shifty organism that has managed to survive on these shores for hundreds of years by lurking in dark corners, altering its form, splitting off into a second specimen and constantly seeking out new hosts, all the while retaining its basic and vile DNA — it is that it defies black-and-white interpretations and hard-and-fast rules.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/sf/national/2014/11/09/the-n-word-an-entrenched-racial-slur-now-more-prevalent-than-ever/

November 8, 2014

#pointergate may be the most racist news story of 2014

What you are about to read and watch is stranger than fiction. It's so racist and so outrageous, that people are questioning whether or not it's satire from The Onion. It's real though, and that's what is so shocking and heartbreaking about the whole ordeal.

http://m.dailykos.com/story/2014/11/07/1342840/--pointergate-may-be-the-most-racist-news-story-of-2014

Surprised this is out of Minnesota and not some backwards ass state. Crazy media hit piece.

‘Gang sign’ story backfires on KSTP

November 7, 2014

50% of occupations today will no longer exist in 2025: Report

A paradigm shift is expected to be witnessed in the way workplaces operate over the next 15 years, making nearly 50 per cent of occupations existing today redundant by 2025, a report has said.

Artificial intelligence will transform businesses and the work that people do. Process work, customer work and vast swathes of middle management will simply disappear, it said.

The report titled 'Fast Forward 2030: The Future of Work and the Workplace' has been prepared by realty consulting firm CBRE and China-based Genesis, a property developer, after interviewing 220 experts, business leaders and young people from Asia, Europe and North America.

"Nearly 50 per cent of occupations today will no longer exist in 2025. New jobs will require creative intelligence, social and emotional intelligence and ability to leverage artificial intelligence. Those jobs will be immensely more fulfilling than today's jobs," the report said.

http://www.business-standard.com/article/pti-stories/50-of-occupations-today-will-no-longer-exist-in-2025-report-114110701279_1.html

CBRE is run by Sen. Feinstien's hubby

November 4, 2014

Lena Dunham: ‘I Do Not Condone Any Kind of Abuse’

http://time.com/3556513/lena-dunham-sexual-abuse-controversy/

Interesting she uses the word "approval" and not "consent".

November 2, 2014

Jewish leader indicted for calling French comedian Dieudonne an anti-Semite

A Jewish leader in France has been indicted for referring to French comedian Dieudonne M'bala M'bala as a "professional anti-Semite."
Over the course of the last few years, Dieudonne has been convicted in his country 10 times for inciting anti-Semitism.

The comedian essentially created and glorified the "quenelle," a reverse Nazi salute which became popularized in 2013 as scores of fans mimicked the gesture, including at historical Israeli sites like Yad Vashem.

He also coined the term "shoananas," a mashup of the word Shoah (Hebrew for Holocaust) and the French word for pineapple, which many experts argue implies that the Holocaust never took place, without violating France's hate laws.

Throughout his shows, he's mocked the Holocaust, Jewish people, and most recently, Ilan Halimi, a young Parisian Jewish phone salesman who was tortured and murdered in 2006 by a group of kidnappers.

Though Dieudonne refers to himself as anti-establishment, his latest comedy show is reportedly called "The Anti-Semite."

http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-4583513,00.html