Big Problems – Page 34

Big Problems, Health & Fitness, Hot Issues, Latest Trend

Flexibility is critical for young people because ‘whole careers are vanishing overnight’

December 17, 2014

Recent college grads

As the digital sector grows, jobs that rely on older technologies are rapidly becoming obsolete.

According to the census, between 2006 and 2011 there were some occupations where the number of people employed across the country dropped by up to two-thirds in just five years – corporate services managers, for example, fell from 21,804 in 2006 to 7365 in 2011.

According to the Australian Bureau of Statistics in 1966, 46% of workers in Australia were employed in production industries. 30 years later, that proportion has diminished to 28%.

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Big Problems, Business, Corporate Manipulation, Culture, Economy, Human Behavior, New Viewpoints, Report

Why Left-handed People Make Less Money

December 15, 2014

There’s a stereotype that left-handed people are clumsier, but that might have something to do with the fact that they live in a world of objects optimized for the right-handed: scissors, the computer mouse, surgical tools, and guns, to name a few. The discrimination against the 12 percent of the population who are lefties has disarming historical roots. In the Middle Ages, left-handed writers were said to be the devil’s voice boxes, and the Jewish scholar Maimonides included sinistrality in his list of 100 imperfections that should preclude someone from priesthood.

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Big Problems, Business, Internet, Latest Trend, Science & Technology News

Darkhotel tricks hotel Wi-Fi users into downloading malicious software

November 25, 2014

Business travelers beware of Darkhotel.

There are a lot of reasons not to use Wi-Fi in a hotel. It’s often expensive, sluggish, and unreliable. Sometimes it seems like nobody knows the network password, and when trouble arises it’s hard to convince the front desk that there’s a problem with their network, not one with your devices.

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Analysis, Big Problems, Entertainment, Human Behavior, Latest Trend, Science & Technology News

Video gamers speak out against sexual harassment

October 31, 2014

Adult women are playing video games in greater numbers than ever.

Heather Knight thought she had found a like-minded community when she joined her first formal gaming group. The last thing she expected was what came next: unwanted, sexually harassing messages from her fellow players.

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Analysis, Big Problems, Environment, Latest Trend, Photo Perspectives, Science & Technology News

NASA satellite images reveal extent of Aral Sea disaster

October 8, 2014

Aral Sea August 25, 2000

A massive environmental disaster dubbed “the quiet Chernobyl,” is shown in series of NASA satellite images that reveal the shocking decline of water levels in the Aral Sea. (Photos)

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Analysis, Big Problems, Health & Fitness, Science & Technology News

The most dangerous ‘date rape drug’ by far – alcohol

September 26, 2014

The substance most commonly associated with drug-facilitated sexual assault is alcohol.

Last month, the news that a nail polish was being developed to detect “date rape drugs,” created a media furor, attracting praise and skepticism in roughly equal measure. But this is not the first product that claims to detect drugs added surreptitiously to drinks. In recent years, others have included coasters, straws and glasses.

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Analysis, Big Problems, Latest Trend, Science & Technology News

The mystery surrounding the ‘interceptor’ cell towers deepens

September 8, 2014

A map of the interceptors discovered so far.

In the U.S., mysterious “interceptor” cell towers are grabbing phone calls — but they’re not part of the phone networks. And, two experts said the towers don’t appear to be projects of the National Security Agency (NSA).

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Alternative Transportation, Analysis, Big Problems, Latest Trend, Science & Technology News

Norway’s boom in electric car sales has become a big problem

September 5, 2014

Electric cars in Norway clog bus lanes.

Norway is a major and rich oil-producing country, but Norway’s ministers are under increasing public pressure to reduce perks and tax breaks for booming electric car sales.

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Alternative Transportation, Analysis, Big Problems, Business, Human Behavior, Robots, Science & Technology News

Are adjustable ethics setting for robotic cars a terrible idea?

September 2, 2014

With ethics settings in cars we create new responsibility for ourselves to get it right.

Do you remember that day when your autonomous car saved the lives of five people you aimed for with your car when you temporarily lost your mind? By the time you realized what you were doing, it was too late to brake. But thankfully your autonomous car saved their lives by grabbing the wheel from you and swerving to the right. Too bad for the one unlucky person standing on that path, struck and killed by your car, though.

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Analysis, Big Problems, Business, Latest Trend, Science & Technology News

The end of the printed newspaper

August 22, 2014

The death of newspapers is sad, but the threatened loss of journalistic talent is catastrophic.

By Clay Shirky: The Roanoke Times, the local paper in my family home, is a classic metro daily, with roots that go back to the 1880s. Like most such papers, it ran into trouble in the middle of last decade, as print advertising revenue fell, leaving a hole in the balance sheet that digital advertising couldn’t fill. When the 2008 recession accelerated those problems, the Times’ parent company, Landmark, began looking for a buyer, eventually selling it to Warren Buffett’s Berkshire Hathaway Media Group in 2013. The acquisition was greeted with relief in the newsroom, as Buffett had famously assured the employees at his earlier purchases “Your paper will operate from a position of financial strength.” Three months after acquiring the Times, BH Media fired 31 employees, a bit over a tenth of the workforce.

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Animals, Big Problems, Business, Energy, Science & Technology News, Solar Power

Design flaw turns solar plant into a death trap for birds

August 19, 2014

Super-concentrated sunbeams from BrightSource Energy Plant are deadly for birds flying overhead.

In February, the $2.2 billion BrightSource Energy Plant opened up in the Mojave Desert with good intentions: to harvest clean, sustainable solar power, by using 300 mirrors to reflect sunbeams onto a steam-producing water boiler. But a design flaw has turned the plant into a death trap for birds flying overhead.

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Alternative Transportation, Analysis, Big Problems, Business, Latest Trend

America’s massive trucker shortage and why it’s only getting worse

August 18, 2014

The biggest issue is a problem of supply and demand.

Drivers don’t like big rigs on the highways because of their intimidating size and slow speed. Semis are absolutely vital to moving goods around the country. But, the US is on the road to a major trucking crisis. A recent analysis from Business Insider finds that we aren’t producing nearly enough new drivers to fill all the needed seats. By 2022, the shortfall could reach 239,000 people.

Continue reading… “America’s massive trucker shortage and why it’s only getting worse”