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Cable companies are so scared of Netflix they've actually started showing fewer ads

Ursula Coyote for Netflix Major TV networks are so scared of Netflix they are actually starting to show fewer ads. Companies like Time Warner, Fox, and Viacom have begun to reverse the trend of trying to shove as many ads in your face as possible. The reason? They want to lure back younger viewers,…

Nov 12, 2015

Why the Cure for a Sluggish Economy is Actually Longer Vacations

cepr.net

View Comments Dean Baker PBS Newshour, November 9, 2015 View article at original source. What if we could boost the economy with longer vacations? Or with paid family leave? With shorter workweeks? It may sound too good to be true, but hear me out. Economists have long dismissed the idea that an…

Nov 12, 2015

On The Dark Matter Of The Publishing Industry

social.techcrunch.com

Len Epp Contributor More posts by this contributor A Vision Of A Driverless Future Recently there were a pair of revealing eruptions in the world of ebooks and the volatile book publishing industry more generally. The first was the announced demise of Oyster , an ebook subscription startup based in…

Nov 12, 2015

Death by a thousand likes: How Facebook and Twitter are killing the open web

qz.com

Here’s one way to understand the symbiotic relationship between publications and platforms in the digital age. Publications depend on advertising dollars to keep producing content, so they need to hold readers’ attention. Big platforms like Facebook and Twitter already have plenty of attention, but…

Nov 12, 2015

How the Western Diet Has Derailed Our Evolution - Issue 30: Identity - Nautilus

nautil.us

F or the microbiologist Justin Sonnenburg, that career-defining moment—the discovery that changed the trajectory of his research, inspiring him to study how diet and native microbes shape our risk for disease—came from a village in the African hinterlands. A group of Italian microbiologists had…

Nov 12, 2015

FBI Left Out Top Muslim-American Groups When Vetting Anti-Extremist Game

theintercept.com

An October “community focus group” was billed by the FBI as an opportunity for Muslim and Arab leaders to “review” and provide “constructive feedback” on the bureau’s new web-based “game” designed to help ordinary young people identify extremists. But many of the largest and most influential…

Nov 12, 2015

The Fox Business GOP Debate Was Boring — and Rigged

nymag.com

Nothing doing. Most weeks, New York Magazine writer-at-large Frank Rich speaks with contributor Alex Carp about the biggest stories in politics and culture. This week: the fourth GOP debate. After the last GOP debate, when Marco Rubio outshone his former mentor in a key exchange, Jeb Bush and his…

Nov 12, 2015

23 WTF Moments From the Fox Business GOP Debate

rollingstone.com

GOP Debate IV, which took place Tuesday night at the Milwaukee Theater in Wisconsin, was dripping with gravitas. From its misty-lensed opening montage (featuring mandatory Ronald Reagan b-roll), to moderator Neil Cavuto’s closing remarks, “It’s not about us, it’s about them [the candidates],” the…

Nov 12, 2015

Interview with Charlie Savage on Obama’s War on Terror Legacy

theintercept.com

IN FEBRUARY 2009 — just one month after Obama’s inauguration — a series of policy announcements from the new administration startled and angered civil liberties activists because they amounted to a continuation of some of the most controversial Bush/Cheney war on terror programs. That led New York…

Nov 12, 2015

The TPP Won’t Just Cost Workers Jobs—It Could Cost Them Their Lives, Too - Working In These Times

inthesetimes.com

Tuesday, Nov 10, 2015, 12:52 pm BY Share Reddit 0 Email Print The job-killing nature of free trade agreements like NAFTA have driven millions of middle-class workers to self-inflicted deaths. (Scandiacus / Flickr) This post first appeared on USW.org. Americans who once earned family-supporting wages…

Nov 12, 2015

Climate Change Poised to Push 100 Million Into 'Extreme Poverty' by 2030

ecowatch.com

Guest Contributor Nov. 10, 2015 10:39AM EST Adding urgency to the call for bold emissions cuts and a radical rethinking of the global economy, a new report from the World Bank warns that human-caused climate change could push more than 100 million people into extreme poverty within just 15 years.…

Nov 12, 2015

Here Are 3 Important Issues That Were Missing From The Last 3 Republican Debates

thinkprogress.org

Tuesday night marks the fourth Republican presidential debate, and for some, things are starting to feel a little repetitive. For two hours, it seems safe to say that the conservative contenders will argue for limited government, lower taxes, and free trade. They will likely spout verbal attacks at…

Nov 12, 2015

5 Questions the Center for American Progress Should Ask Israeli PM Benjamin Netanyahu Today

inthesetimes.com

How can you tolerate the extrajudicial executions of Palestinians, only some of whom are even terror suspects? This afternoon, Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu will speak at the Center for American Progress (CAP). CAP, a think tank which has close ties to the Obama administration and…

Nov 12, 2015

New report: In tough times, police start seizing a lot more stuff from people

washingtonpost.com

Scott Davidson/Flickr Recent years have brought public scrutiny on a controversial law enforcement practice known as civil asset forfeiture, which lets police seize and keep cash and property from people who are never convicted — and in many cases, even charged — with wrongdoing. But despite a…

Nov 12, 2015

Monsanto Handed 'Double Whammy' by Mexican Courts Over Planting GMOs

ecowatch.com

Opponents of genetically modified organisms (GMOs) have claimed victory after Mexico's Supreme Court blocked last week a move that would allow the cultivation of GMO soy in the Mexican states of Campeche and Yucatan. In a separate appeals court decision, a federal judge upheld a 2013 ruling that…

Nov 12, 2015

Federal Government Rejects ‘Do Not Track’ Petition

thinkprogress.org

The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) tossed out a consumer-led petition Friday that would have prevented websites and companies such as Google and Facebook from tracking users on request. The advocacy group Consumer Watchdog submitted a “Do Not Track” petition to the FCC in June, requesting…

Nov 12, 2015

From The Mag: You won't believe how strong this 14-year-old climber is

espn.go.com

Look for this story in ESPN The Magazine's Dec. 7 issue. Subscribe today! O ne afternoon this past spring, Ashima Shiraishi waits on the crash pads of a climbing gym in Long Island City, New York, while a sinewy guy with a power drill and paint bucket full of plastic holds finishes setting routes.…

Nov 12, 2015

These Animals Use Personal Names, But Never Gossip - Facts So Romantic - Nautilus

nautil.us

F our-year old Simon is lost. His mother was in front of him just a moment ago, standing right there next to the grocery-store pyramid of apples, but now she’s gone. He looks past the lemons, the pears, the bananas, but still can’t see her. “Mom?” he cries, hoping she’ll come to his rescue. “Mom?…

Nov 10, 2015

The Strange, True Story of How a Chairman at McKinsey Made Millions of Dollars off His Maid

thenation.com

Manju Das. Nilita Vachani EDITOR’S NOTE: The article you are reading is an updated and clarified version of an article first published on The Nation ’s website on November 9, 2015. It has been changed to reflect information from documents provided by a representative for Anil Kumar, who did not…

Nov 10, 2015

Disney’s smartwatch prototype can identify and track everything you touch

arstechnica.com

DisneyResearchHub Disney Research and Carnegie Mellon University have hacked together a proof-of-concept smartwatch that uses electromagnetic noise profiles to detect, in real-time, when the wearer is touching an item. The group calls the idea "EM-Sense." Many everyday objects give off some amount…

Nov 10, 2015

It was once socially acceptable and surprisingly affordable to send children by parcel post

boingboing.net

Between 1913 and 1920, many Americans sent their children around the country by mail. Provided your child weighed less than 50 lbs, you could simply affix stamps to their clothing and send them off with the postmaster. They'd be whisked across the country in the railway system's mail compartments…

Nov 10, 2015

An arms race among venomous animals?

sciencedaily.com

In a new study published in the journal PLOS Genetics , scientists at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem have revealed new discoveries about how animal venom evolves. The research points to a 'two-speed' evolution of animal venom, showing for the first time the significant roles played by different…

Nov 10, 2015

Google’s robot group struggles to fill leadership vacuum as it shoots for ambitious launch before 2020

uk.businessinsider.com

Alphabet CEO Larry Page. Justin Sullivan/Getty Nearly two years ago, Google announced a new robotics division that had secretly snapped up almost ten companies. The state of those efforts is now in flux, and the group is in a difficult position as it tries to meet a goal of creating consumer robot…

Nov 10, 2015

NSA phone records collection 'likely violates constitution', US judge rules

theguardian.com

The bulk metadata collection program, first made public by NSA whistleblower Edward Snowden, is due to end on 29 November.Photograph: Patrick Semansky/AP An appeals court granted the US government’s emergency request to allow the National Security Agency to keep collecting telephone metadata on…

Nov 10, 2015

It’s No Secret That the Government Uses Zero Days for “Offense”

eff.org

Little by little, the government is opening up about its use of computer security vulnerabilities. Last month, the NSA disclosed that it has historically “released more than 91% of vulnerabilities discovered in products that have gone through our internal review process and that are made and used in…

Nov 10, 2015

Judge Deals a Blow to N.S.A. Data Collection Program

nytimes.com

Judge Richard J. Leon of the District Court for the District of Columbia ordered the N.S.A. to stop collecting phone records on one Verizon customer. Credit United States District Court WASHINGTON — A federal judge on Monday partly blocked the National Security Agency ’s program that systematically…

Nov 10, 2015

UK law will allow secret backdoor orders for software, imprison you for disclosing them

boingboing.net

Under the UK's new Snoopers Charter (AKA the Investigatory Powers Bill), the Secretary of State will be able to order companies to introduce security vulnerabilities into their software ("backdoors") and then bind those companies over to perpetual secrecy on the matter, with punishments of up to a…

Nov 10, 2015

Is Dublin Airport tracking passenger phones without their permission?

medium.com

Rory Byrne Nov 9, 2015 This morning I noticed a piece in the Irish Independent which highlighted that Dublin Airport is automatically scanning and tracking passenger WIFI and bluetooth signals to measure the length of time taken to go through security queues. Investigation launched after man carries…

Nov 10, 2015

Telecoms, Manufacturers Delaying Critical Patches for Classified Military Smartphones

propublica.org

You would think the nation’s military would move with lightning speed to patch cell phones vulnerable to hackers, particularly after recent disclosures that Chinese hackers harvested the personal information of 21.5 million U.S. government employees and Iran’s Revolutionary Guard broke into the…

Nov 10, 2015

Facebook's traffic to top publishers fell 32 percent since January - Digiday

digiday.com

While Facebook makes headlines for cooking up new initiatives with publishers, the actual traffic it’s sending those publishers has fallen sharply. Referral traffic (desktop + mobile) to the top 30 Facebook publishers (as defined by their reliance on Facebook) plunged 32 percent from January to…

Nov 10, 2015

This Surveillance Drone Never Needs to Land

technologyreview.com

Drones could become useful for surveillance and remote monitoring in many industries, and perhaps one day will even ferry the latest Amazon order to your front door. But there’s one big limiting factor: drones can stay in the air for only so long on a charge. The Parc drone developed by CyPhy Works.…

Nov 10, 2015

The 'world's first personal jetpack' went on a mesmerising flight around the Statue of Liberty

independent.co.uk

Jetpack aviation has been in development for nearly one-hundred years ever since Russian inventor Aleksandr Fyodorovich Andreyev patented his version in 1919; but there has rarely been a convincing example that the technology could fly – until now. Last week, Australian entrepreneur David Mayman…

Nov 10, 2015

The Disturbing Truth About How Airplanes Are Maintained Today

vanityfair.com

WELCOME ABOARD Thanks to offshoring, the number of maintenance jobs at U.S. carriers has plummeted. By Trey Ratcliff/StuckinCustoms.com. Not long ago I was waiting for a domestic flight in a departure lounge at one of the crumbling midcentury sheds that pass for an American airport these days. There…

Nov 10, 2015