Millions of American workers believe they are bound by contracts they are not actually bound by, according to University of Maryland Smith Business School’s Evan Starr, and this means less earnings for workers. Starr spoke at length on the subject at the recent Aspen Institute summit and to us on Twitter. While non-competes are required … Read more
Notice anything missing? This is the Volvo Vera concept truck. Volvo trucks has been making headlines for the past couple years because of their autonomous and electric vehicles. They’ve gone a bit further with this latest entry into the commercial trucking concept market. The Volvo Vera autonomous truck uses a lot of existing Volvo electric … Read more
“[A]n individual maintains a legitimate expectation of privacy in the record of his physical movements” – Chief Justice John Roberts This week, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled for a change in the law regulating the ability of police to search citizens’ phone records. Since a 1979 ruling, which decided that citizens had no expectation of … Read more
As many as 950,000 people have descended upon Barcelona Sunday, from all over Spain to protest Catalonia’s bid for Independence and to support the continued unification of the Spain with cries of “Long live Spain, long live Catalonia.” Josep Borrell a speaker in the rally, a Catalan and Ex-president of the European Parliament spoke out … Read more
A new law of science has been found to beautifully explain crowd movements for first time. The as-yet unnamed law, which is a mathematical, universal power law for human interactions, was found by U of M researchers who analyzed complex datasets that have only recently been available. The movement of crowds is fundamentally anticipatory in nature, according to the researchers, … Read more
Metal sea wreckage might be made to float The development of a new metal matrix composite foam may tip the balance back towards metal materials in the construction of marine vehicles — in addition to offering heat resistance well beyond that of the fiberglasses common in the industry today. According to NYU engineers, the first … Read more
Why in Vancouver’s wealthy neighborhoods — where houses cost over $2 million — over 30 percent of residents claim poverty Mansion owners in Vancouver are claiming poverty at the same levels as those suffered by the city’s homeless struggling in the Downtown Eastside. A recent study by University of B.C. geographer Dan Hiebert has revealed … Read more
Monopolization of community-based information networks by cartels of a few “super editors” among several risks that could lead to a diminished Wikipedia Wikipedia’s quality benefits from high levels of free participation, but volunteer information databases like Wikipedia can be negatively effected by tendencies toward information monopolization, and, according to a recent study, this negative effect is … Read more
Cross Canada charity runner Fast Eddy has made it to the East Coast — he ran from Vancouver Island to Cape Spear, Newfoundland, the most eastern point in North America, and is now on his way back to the West Coast. The ultramarathoner started out in Victoria, British Columbia last March. He calls the journey his … Read more
Alexei Navalny has organized one of the largest public demonstrations against the Russian government this week, with thousands showing up. Although Navalny was given permission to hold a demonstration, he moved the protest to another area where he did not have permission. Clashes with police followed. Navalny sent out a video message at night telling … Read more
Tennessee is the first state in the country to offer community college free for almost all adults. The state already had free community college for all graduating students, but now it has extended this to pretty much everyone. And the state lets attendees do it part time if they want, since many people work while … Read more
The drop started last Friday, and continued over the weekend and on Monday. The big tech stocks, like Google, Amazon, Facebook, Apple, and Microsoft, which have been on a long upward trend, have dropped significantly. The drop is considered possibly overdue given the high out-performance and positioning of the stocks. Read more