Red-light cameras are used in about 555 communities around the country.
At the heart of the debate about red-light cameras is this question: Do they save lives by reducing accidents or are they primarily a way for cities to raise money in an era of lagging tax revenue?
Continue reading… “Red-light camera debate continues while their legal status grows murkier”
The upcoming Summit of the Americas in Cartagena, which will be attended by many latinamerican heads of state as well as Barack Obama, is set to be an historic debate over the legalization of drugs and the end of the war on drugs. Jamie Doward writes in the Guardian…
Continue reading… “Latin American leaders, Obama to discuss ending the war on drugs”
Will all coins go away now?
Finally, after years of talking, the Canadian government killed the penny in its recent budget. Finance Minister Flaherty was clearly thinking of decluttering and interior design, noting “Pennies take up too much space on our dressers at home.”
There is also a real green side to this; the weight of all those pennies adds up, as does the cost and footprint of shipping them.
Continue reading… “Canada kills the Penny”
What if oil company executives were only allowed to drink fracked water?
Toxic fracking chemicals that leached into the ground making you sick? Why that’s bad press for the oil industry!
That’s why they came up with this ingenious (in an evil way) to deal with the problem: “gag” doctors from telling their patients what is making them sick. See, problem solved!
The nation’s population of those 65 and older will double between 2000 and 2030.
As aging Baby Boomers move out of the workforce and into retirement, few communities have started to think long term about how to plan and redesign services for them.
Continue reading… “Many U.S. cities are not prepared for aging Baby Boomer population”
88 percent of law enforcement agencies use social media to investigate crimes.
Cincinnati police investigators stumbled upon an online video last year showing an act of armed robbery, helpfully taped by the perpetrators themselves. The city’s Real Time Crime Center analysts found the footage on a Facebook page while using the popular social-media site to investigate another crime. The suspects were eventually arrested.
Continue reading… “Social media role in police investigations growing”
The Genetic Information Nondiscrimination Act bars insurers from denying coverage or raising premiums on individuals who show a genetic predisposition toward particular diseases.
The cost of sequencing an individual genome will soon be less than $1,000, reports the New York Times. That’s not nothing, but given what most health care costs, it’s not much. And it means that an individual mandate — or something much like it — is inevitable.
Continue reading… “The health insurance industry could be destroyed by a $1000 test”
The Chinese government is not shy about its Internet censorship, even launching an official campaign known as the Golden Shield Project, or “Great Firewall.”
Most people in the world who get into trouble on Twitter, Facebook and other social media sites fail to exercise a bit of healthy self-censorship. A new Carnegie Mellon University study has identified the 295 words and phrases the Chinese government looks for when it steps in and forcibly blocks communication between its own citizens.
Continue reading… “295 words and phrases blocked by Chinese internet censors”
The U.S. government says it must govern Internet technology more closely to protect against cyberattacks.
The research that led to the internet may have been funded by the U.S. Department of Defense, but freewheeling innovation created the patchwork of privately owned technology that makes up the Internet today. Now the U.S. government is trying to wrest back some control, as it adjusts to an era when cyberattacks on U.S. corporations and government agencies are common.
Continue reading… “U.S. Department of Defense wants more control over the internet”
Sending e-waste to better destination.
Mobile telephones and personal computing devices have taken a lot of business out of the post office. Personal letters and corporate mailings now largely have been replaced by digital-age communications.
But the post office may get the last laugh. In Germany, the post office plans to make a good business by collecting old mobile phones, household electronic devices, used printer cartridges, and any other e-waste that is small enough to fit in an A4-size envelop (the size of a flat sheet of standard paper)…
Continue reading… “German post offices to cash in on e-waste”
Currently cable companies must deliver broadcast channels in a way that enables tuners to display those channels without any extra hardware.
Cable companies are suffering from flat and declining cable TV subscription numbers. So now cable companies are lobbying the FCC to force every cable subscriber to rent cable boxes or cable cards even if they don’t want or need them now.
Continue reading… “Cable companies lobby FCC to increase your bill and limit competition”
Stricter security measures n U.S. airports is making air travel less safe.
Ever stricter security measures in place in U.S. airports is making air travel less safe and airports more vulnerable, according to University of Illinois mathematics professor Sheldon H. Jacobson. The reason is too many resources are spent screening passengers who pose little risk, which steals time and money away from identifying real threats.
Continue reading… “Too much passenger screening is making airports less secure”
By delving into the futuring techniques of Futurist Thomas Frey, you’ll embark on an enlightening journey.
Learn More about this exciting program.