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Heading for the twilight: When oil is no longer in demand | The Economist

STEWART SPENCE WAS a young hotelier in Aberdeen in 1971 when he first realised what an oil rush meant. His hotel, the Commodore, was the only one in the Scottish city with en-suite bathrooms. One day an American oil executive strode in, wearing denims, cowboy boots and a stetson. Once assured that…

Dec 1, 2016

Sweden proposes ban on ride-sharing services that make profits

reuters.com

STOCKHOLM (Reuters) - Sweden proposed rule changes for its taxis on Wednesday that may help ride-hailing services like Uber Technologies in the long term, but also recommended that profit-making ride-sharing should be illegal. A government-appointed commission said that Sweden should allow taxis to…

Dec 1, 2016

The mighty dollar: Why a strengthening dollar is bad for the world economy | The Economist

economist.com

THE world’s most important currency is flexing its muscles. In the three weeks following Donald Trump’s victory in America’s presidential elections, the dollar had one of its sharpest rises ever against a basket of rich-country peers. It is now 40% above its lows in 2011. It has strengthened…

Dec 1, 2016

A Look Inside Russia’s Creepy, Innovative Internet (Hello World: Episode 9)

youtube.com

For the past five years, Russia’s been building walls around its web and packing it with tech oligarchs, startup cities, face-finding algorithms, hacker hunters, and, of course, a few bears. In this episode of Bloomberg's Hello World, Ashlee Vance travels to Mother Russia to see how they do tech.…

Dec 1, 2016

AWS now offering trucks to move your data to its cloud

venturebeat.com

Above: AWS Snowmobile. Image Credit: Screenshot At its re:Invent user conference in Las Vegas today, public cloud market leader Amazon Web Services (AWS) unveiled the next generation of its Snowball boxes that customers can use to move lots of data to AWS. The first version was announced at last…

Dec 1, 2016

What Would An American Renaissance Look Like? – Humble Americans for Math and Reason Party – Medium

medium.com

image credit Coach Tony Nov 30, 2016 Imagine two worlds. In one world, the smart and industrious companies who are already working on automation and robotics succeed. All transportation becomes autonomous. Workflow companies automate most of basic business and government administration. Even…

Dec 1, 2016

Giant arch slides over Chernobyl site to block radiation for a century

reuters.com

CHERNOBYL, Ukraine (Reuters) - In the middle of a vast exclusion zone in northern Ukraine, the world’s largest land-based moving structure has been slid over the Chernobyl nuclear disaster site to prevent deadly radiation spewing from the stricken reactor for the next 100 years. On April 26, 1986, a…

Dec 1, 2016

What You Need to Know First to Understand the Russian Revolution

smithsonianmag.com

“Now that the lush and prosperous years had come to Russia, the last thing she needed was war; they should have just said a Requiem Mass for that Archduke Franz Ferdinand, after which the three Emperors of Germany, Austria and Russia should have drunk a glass of vodka at the wake and forgotten the…

Nov 30, 2016

How Google Is Challenging AWS

stratechery.com

Big companies are often criticized for having “missed” the future — from the comfortable perch of a present where said future has come to pass, of course — but while the future is still the future incumbents are first more often than not. Probably the best example is Microsoft : the company didn’t…

Nov 30, 2016

More Than 1 Million Google Accounts Breached by Gooligan | Check Point Blog

blog.checkpoint.com

As a result of a lot of hard work done by our security research teams, we revealed today a new and alarming malware campaign. The attack campaign, named Gooligan, breached the security of over one million Google accounts. The number continues to rise at an additional 13,000 breached devices each…

Nov 30, 2016

Facebook has cut off Prisma’s Live Video access

social.techcrunch.com

Style transfer startup Prisma added support to its iOS app for livestreaming its art filter effects in real-time via Facebook Live earlier this month — but almost immediately the startup’s access to the Live API was cut off by the social media platform giant. It’s a David vs Goliath tale that’s oh –…

Nov 30, 2016

The Case Against Dark Matter | Quanta Magazine

quantamagazine.org

gravity The Case Against Dark Matter By Natalie Wolchover November 29, 2016 A proposed theory of gravity does away with dark matter, even as new astrophysical findings challenge the need for galaxies full of the invisible mystery particles. The Dutch theoretical physicist Erik Verlinde argues that…

Nov 30, 2016

Our closest worm kin regrow body parts, raising hopes of regeneration in humans | UW Today

washington.edu

November 28, 2016 UW News What if humans could regrow an amputated arm or leg, or completely restore nervous system function after a spinal cord injury? An intact, live acorn worm. The head is on the far left, and the worm will be cut in the middle. Shawn Luttrell/University of Washington A new…

Nov 30, 2016

F.D.A. Agrees to New Trials for Ecstasy as Relief for PTSD Patients

nytimes.com

C.J. Hardin, a veteran who served three tours in Iraq and Afghanistan, at a memorial in North Charleston, S.C. He is a patient in the study of MDMA, also known as Ecstasy, as a treatment for post-traumatic stress disorder. Credit Travis Dove for The New York Times CHARLESTON, S.C. — After three…

Nov 30, 2016

Trump’s First 100 Days: Climate and Energy

scientificamerican.com

Credit: Thawt Hawthje Flickr ( CC BY 2.0 ) President-elect Donald Trump has vowed to drastically alter the U.S.’s direction on climate and energy. His promises include actions like “canceling” the Paris agreement and dismantling the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) as well as repealing…

Nov 30, 2016

Barrett Brown leaves prison still chained to a crime he didn't commit

dailydot.com

Dallas-based journalist Barrett Brown walked free from prison on Tuesday morning after spending more than four years behind bars. The 35-year-old cause célèbre, convicted in January 2015 after spending more than two years in pretrial confinement, faces a laundry list of post-release restrictions and…

Nov 30, 2016

Delivering supplies to protest camp could warrant $1,000 fine

bismarcktribune.com

Anyone delivering supplies to the main protest camp in Morton County could be subject to a $1,000 fine for violating the emergency evacuation order, but a local minister said this will not deter her church from providing support. "It's cold out, really cold, and people need our help. Solidarity…

Nov 30, 2016

How Obama's climate change legacy is weakened by US investment in dirty fuel

theguardian.com

President Barack Obama has staked his legacy on the environment, positioning his administration as the most progressive on climate change in US history. However, an obscure agency within his own administration has quietly spoiled his record by helping fund a steady outpouring of new overseas fossil…

Nov 30, 2016

U.S. to Forgive at Least $108 Billion in Student Debt in Coming Years

wsj.com

WASHINGTON—The federal government is on track to forgive at least $108 billion in student debt in coming years, as more and more borrowers seek help in paying down their loans, leading to lower revenues for the nation’s program to finance higher education. The Government Accountability Office…

Nov 30, 2016

The WordPress megahack that wasn’t

nakedsecurity.sophos.com

Since 2013, WordPress has been updating itself , which is a good thing. Unless, that is, somebody hacks the update server. And that’s exactly where the WordPress security outfit WordFence found a vulnerability that could have led to the megahacking of 27% of the entire WWW. The remote code execution…

Nov 30, 2016

Check Point uncovers new method for distributing malware through images

itsecurityguru.org

Check Point announced that its security researchers have identified a new attack vector, called ImageGate, which embeds malware in image and graphic files. The researchers have discovered the hackers’ method of executing the malicious code within these images through social media applications such…

Nov 30, 2016

Beware! Malicious JPG Images on Facebook Messenger Spreading Locky Ransomware

youtube.com

Check Point® Software Technologies Ltd. (NASDAQ: CHKP) today announced its security researchers have identified a new attack vector, named ImageGate, which embeds malware in image and graphic files. Furthermore, the researchers have discovered the hackers’ method of executing the malicious code…

Nov 30, 2016

RSA Conference 2016 – A New Hardware-Based Approach to Secure the Internet of Things

prpl.works

Live Demo: A New Hardware-Based Approach to Secure the Internet of Things RSA Conference 2016 – Abu Dhabi November 16, 2016 | 11.20 – 12.10 hrs | Level 1 | Room: Etihad Ballroom 2 Quick look – This session will address four key elements that have introduced serious weaknesses into the IoT:…

Nov 30, 2016

The Darknet Is Open Source: A Conversation with Google's Nwokedi Idika - The New Stack

thenewstack.io

Dr. Nwokedi Idika would like you to know a few things about the Internet’s underbelly. For starters: actually, it’s more of an overbelly, if that can be a thing. If you happen to be attending Node Interactive in Austin next week, you’ll be able to catch his live talk, “ Shedding Light on the Darknet…

Nov 30, 2016

Cyber college for wannabe codebreakers planned at UK’s iconic Bletchley Park

arstechnica.com

Enlarge / Block G is one of the largest wartime structures at the site. Qufaro Bletchley Park—the home of codebreakers whose pioneering work helped Britain and its allies win the Second World War—could be the site for a College of National Security, with plans for it to open in 2018. The new…

Nov 30, 2016

Where is 'the most toxic place in America'?

nbcnews.com

Breaking News Emails Get breaking news alerts and special reports. The news and stories that matter, delivered weekday mornings. Nov. 29, 2016, 12:30 PM GMT / Updated Nov. 29, 2016, 12:30 PM GMT By Ronan Farrow and Rich McHugh 'America's Chernobyl': Inside the most toxic place in the nation Nov. 29,…

Nov 30, 2016

Standing Rock Demonstrators File Class-Action Lawsuit Over Police Violence

theintercept.com

Pipeline demonstrators injured by rubber bullets, tear gas canisters, and water cannons during a wintry nighttime standoff with police last week filed a class-action lawsuit Monday against the sheriff of the North Dakota county involved. The suit describes in new detail the evening of November 20,…

Nov 30, 2016

Standing Rock is the civil rights issue of our time – let's act accordingly | Bill McKibben

theguardian.com

‘We’re seeing a scene as explosive as the Freedom Rides or the bus boycotts play out in real time on the high plains of the Dakotas.’Photograph: Stephanie Keith/Reuters W hen John Doar died in 2014, Barack Obama, who’d already awarded him the Presidential Medal of Freedom, called him “one of…

Nov 30, 2016

The US surveillance state is poised to become even more powerful under Trump

businessinsider.com

An illustration picture shows the logo of the U.S. National Security Agency on the display of an iPhone in Berlin, June 7, 2013. Reuters/Pawel Kopczynski The US surveillance state is poised to grow more powerful under a Trump administration. Though President-elect Donald Trump still has nearly two…

Nov 29, 2016