Big Problems – Page 43

Analysis, Big Problems, Breakthrough Thinking, Medical Breakthrough, New Viewpoints, People Making a Difference, Science & Technology News

911 Emergency & Traffic Alerts make emergency transportation safer, more efficient

July 16, 2012

911 Emergency & Traffic Alerts the motoring public of RESPONDING emergency vehicles in their area, via GPS, SmartPhones e.g. “Warning emergency vehicle approaching from (rear, right, etc.), Amber Alerts, and emergency evacuations for wild land fires, tornadoes, floods, etc., including routes to safety. 911 Emergency & Traffic Alerts will be one of the outstanding exhibitors at the 8th annual DaVinci Inventor Showcase on October 13, 2012 at the Denver Merchandise Mart.

Company president Juan Gutierrez took a moment to answer a few quick questions about his product, his vision for safer emergency transportation and safety in general…

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Analysis, Big Problems, Crazy Stuff, Education, Globalism, government, Historical Perspectives

Hidden Government Scanners Will Instantly Know Everything About You From 50 Meters Away

July 10, 2012

YIKES!

Within the next year or two, the U.S. Department of Homeland Security will instantly know everything about your body, clothes, and luggage with a new laser-based molecular scanner fired from 50 meters away. From traces of drugs or gun powder on your clothes to what you had for breakfast to the adrenaline level in your body—agents will be able to get any information they want without even touching you.

And without you knowing it…

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Analysis, Big Problems, Internet, Science & Technology News

When big data meets broadband

July 6, 2012

Scientists want to build a telescope capable of taking roughly 1,400 photos of the night sky consisting of 6 gigabytes of information each somewhere in the mountains in Chile. The Large Synoptic Survey Telescope would result in several hundreds of petabytes of processed data each year. This month the National Science Board will decide if it should fund the next phase of LSST to build that data-generating telescope.

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Big Problems, Culture, Current Events, Education, Historical Perspectives, Hot Issues, Internet, New Viewpoints, People Making a Difference

Canada’s warrantless surveillance bill is back, and bigger than ever, with surveillance powers for US gov’t, too

June 10, 2012

Authorities are doing their best to clamp down on the internet.

Bill C30, the sweeping Canadian warrantless Internet surveillance bill, is back from the dead. Public Safety Minister Vic Toews (who declared that opposition to his bill was tantamount to support for pedophiles) has been working behind the scenes to resurrect his legislation, joining forces with the US government in the name of “perimeter security.” This proposed deal would expand the warrantless surveillance to US authorities, who could also access Canadians’ private information…

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Analysis, Big Problems, Crazy Stuff, Globalism, government, Health & Fitness, Historical Perspectives, Human Behavior, New Viewpoints

How Private Is Your DNA?

May 21, 2012

How is my DNA NOT private?

Unlike the contents of your inbox, bank statement, or Facebook timeline, your DNA quite literally defines you. It’s strange, then, that in an age where sequencing the genome is becoming trivial, we don’t give a second thought about the privacy issues surrounding the chemicals that make us who we are.

In fact, most states in the US have absolutely no laws whatsoever to govern surreptitious genetic testing. If that surprises you, it gets worse. Back in 2006, the particularly forward-thinking state of Minnesota passed a law demanding that written consent had to be obtained for collection, storage, use, and sharing of genetic information. In 2011, however, the Minnesota Supreme Court judged that the state’s own department of health was in violation of that very law.

So, quite literally millions of US citizen have their DNA records stored on databases, and there are few laws governing what’s done with the data. Something has to be done about that—but it’s not necessarily as easy as it sounds.

Clamp down on DNA privacy…

Continue reading… “How Private Is Your DNA?”

Analysis, Big Problems, Breakthrough Thinking, Business, Education, Entertainment, Globalism, Historical Perspectives, Hot Issues, New Viewpoints

The Intention Economy

May 1, 2012

Doc Searls says our current ‘attention economy’ should be switched to an ‘intention economy’.

Every day companies are spending gobs of money to earn and keep your attention. Advertisers are collecting heaps of information about you in the hopes of presenting you with more targeted advertisements: advertisements on which you’ll want to click. Yet despite all of this information, advertising still pretty much sucks. It doesn’t have to be this way…

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

Turn signal neglect causes 2 million accidents annually: Study

May 1, 2012

Forty-eight percent of the time, drivers either neglect to use their signals when changing lanes or fail to turn the signals off.

A new study finds a more serious problem than distracted driving that’s responsible for as many as 2 million accidents annually.

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Analysis, Big Problems, Birth, Health & Fitness, Latest Trend, Science & Technology News

More babies born addicted to prescription painkillers

May 1, 2012

Every hour a baby is born in the United States with symptoms of withdrawal from opiates.

During the last decade the U.S. has seen a sharp increase in the number of pregnant women addicted to opiate drugs and the number of babies born experiencing withdrawal symptoms as the fastest growing abuse of prescription drugs has hit hospital maternity wards across the country.

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

Kids age faster when exposed to violence

April 26, 2012

The study is the first to show accelerated biological aging in childhood as a result of stress.

Children age faster on a cellular level when exposed to multiple instances of violence than children without violent experiences, a new study has found.

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Analysis, Big Problems, Corporate Manipulation, Crazy Stuff, Economy, Entertainment, Globalism, government, Health & Fitness, Historical Perspectives, Hot Issues, Science & Technology News

U.S. on track to stop funding clean tech

April 25, 2012

Sucks for American clean tech. Never mind that the industry is pretty universally regarded as one of tomorrow’s most important drivers of job growth and innovation—the already too-meager, maddeningly scattershot government support for clean energy is about to dry up altogether. So, goodbye ARPA-E?

David Roberts points us to this graph from a newish report from the Breakthrough Institute, the World Resources Institute, and the Brookings Institution, and, as you can see, it’s not pretty. And that sad-looking $11 billion stump too will disappear unless there’s a shift in policy.

Here’s Roberts…

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Big Problems, Health & Fitness, Latest Trend

Teens drinking hand sanitizer is a new troubling trend

April 24, 2012

Using hand sanitizer to get drunk is similar to earlier get-wasted fads of young people downing mouthwash or cough syrup.

Teenagers are trying to get drunk by guzzling hand sanitizer in a troubling new trend. Children’s Hospital of Los Angeles reports that six area teens have landed in emergency rooms with alcohol after drinking the cheap liquid.

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Big Problems, Business, Economy, Latest Trend

The return of debtors’ prisons

April 24, 2012

More than a third of U.S. states allow the police to haul people in who don’t pay all manner of debts, from bills for health care services to credit card and auto loans.

Breast cancer survivor Lisa Lindsay end up behind bars because of a medical bill she didn’t pay– one the Herrin, Ill., teaching assistant was told she didn’t owe. “She got a $280 medical bill in error and was told she didn’t have to pay it,” The Associated Press reports. “But the bill was turned over to a collection agency, and eventually state troopers showed up at her home and took her to jail in handcuffs.”

Continue reading… “The return of debtors’ prisons”