Mainstream News

Philadelphia Borrows $50 Million So Its Schools Can Open on Time

"Superintendent William R. Hite Jr. said the $50 million was necessary to provide the minimum staffing needed for the basic safety of the district’s 136,000 students. In June, the district closed 24 schools and laid off 3,783 employees, including 127 assistant principals, 646 teachers and more than 1,200 aides, leaving no one even to answer phones. For a number of years, Mayor Michael A. Nutter and the City Council have been working, with some success and a fair amount of taxpayer pain, to shore up the city’s finances, which have been troubled by mounting debt, a shrinking tax base and unfunded pension and health care obligations to retirees." Continue reading →

Continue ReadingPhiladelphia Borrows $50 Million So Its Schools Can Open on Time

Carl Icahn, Takeover Man: 60 Minutes

"At age 76, Carl Icahn is still shaking up corporate boards, criticizing management and demanding board seats. His hedge fund was one of the top performers in 2011 and has a long term track record of approximately 30%pa. His conglomerate Icahn Enterprises, invests in rail cars, retail, gaming, energy and automotive. He insists that most public companies around the world are very inefficient and most can be improved with the correct strategies. A Princeton drop out he is now one of the longest standing and most successful corporate take over artists in the world." Continue reading →

Continue ReadingCarl Icahn, Takeover Man: 60 Minutes

Mellow mood at first Seattle Hempfest since pot legalization

"In the mid-1990s, McPeak recalled, police at Hempfest conducted undercover buy-and-bust operations, periodically slapping handcuffs on vendors of pot brownies and removing them from the premises. But this year, instead of writing tickets for public pot smoking — which remains forbidden in the state — police were handing out about 1,000 bags of Doritos tortilla chips bearing information on the state’s pot laws. 'It feels great that instead of issuing citations for public smoking, the police are issuing Dorito bags,' McPeak said. 'That seems like a big deal.'" Continue reading →

Continue ReadingMellow mood at first Seattle Hempfest since pot legalization

Area 51 does exist and there were strange goings on admit CIA

"Its existence has been a badly kept secret for decades and it has fuelled the imaginations of conspiracy theorists and UFO hunters around the world. Now the existence of Area 51 has been officially acknowledged by the Central Intelligence Agency and its exact location revealed in Nevada. President Dwight Eisenhower approved 'this strip of wasteland, known by its map designation as Area 51, to the Atomic Energy Commissions Nevada test site and training range.' It then became central in the development of the U-2 spy plane. There are, however, some mentions of Area 51 that remain blanked out." Continue reading →

Continue ReadingArea 51 does exist and there were strange goings on admit CIA

Beam me over, Scotty? A quantum leap in quantum teleportation.

"Recently, researchers at the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology in Zurich (ETHZ) used entanglement to teleport information across a quarter inch. That sounds easy. After all, the internet sends information thousands of miles in fractions of a second. But this time, the information wasn't carried through the intervening space. Quantum computers are still only theoretical, but if engineering catches up with theory, then they could process enormously large datasets with blinding speed. This could make extraordinary things possible – even time travel, at least according to one hypothesis." Continue reading →

Continue ReadingBeam me over, Scotty? A quantum leap in quantum teleportation.

Window coating electrically regulates heat and light passing through

"Scientists have created a window coating that can be switched electrically to regulate the amount of heat and light that enters a building. A team of molecular and material scientists from the United States and Spain created a transparent film using nanocrystals — microscopic clusters of atoms that can change the wavelength of light. The window is an electrochemical cell with two glass panes separated by an electrically conductive electrolyte liquid. But several issues must be fixed before the material can be used in windows — including replacing the highly flammable lithium metal used as a counter-electrode, and finding a solid electrolyte." Continue reading →

Continue ReadingWindow coating electrically regulates heat and light passing through

Solar power to trump shale, helped by US military

"US marines go to war in Afghanistan with solar cells embedded in their rucksacks, efficient enough to recharge lithium-ion batteries for radios and greatly lighten loads. Field patrols will soon have almost weightless solar blankets as well. The US Naval Air Weapons Station already relies on a 14 megawatt array of solar panels in California's Mojave desert for a thrid of its power.The US Navy will derive half its energy supply from renewables by the end of this decade, according to a report. It may be a stretch to say that the US Naval Research Laboratory is the vanguard of the world's green revolution, but not a big stretch." Continue reading →

Continue ReadingSolar power to trump shale, helped by US military

Feds close 600 weather stations amid criticism they’re situated to report warming

"Data from hundreds of weather stations located around the U.S. appear to show the planet is getting warmer, but some critics say it's the government's books that are getting cooked -- thanks to temperature readings from sweltering parking lots, airports and other locations that distort the true state of the climate. The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration has closed some 600 out of nearly 9,000 weather stations over the past two years that it has deemed problematic or unnecessary, after a long campaign by one critic highlighting the problem of using unreliable data." Continue reading →

Continue ReadingFeds close 600 weather stations amid criticism they’re situated to report warming

Inside the Hyperloop: the pneumatic travel system faster than the speed of sound

"Mr Musk will not be patenting the design and it will be 'open source'. His motivation for the project came from disillusionment with the Golden State’s high speed rail project, which has been dubbed the 'bullet train to nowhere' after a series of setbacks. He believes the Hyperloop could be built for a tenth of the cost and deliver passengers between the two cities in just 30 minutes, compared to three hours for the bullet train. The bullet train is currently estimated to be costing $68 billion and may not be completed until 2028. It would reach top speeds of only around 130mph. In a survey seven in 10 people said they would 'never or hardly ever' use it anyway." Continue reading →

Continue ReadingInside the Hyperloop: the pneumatic travel system faster than the speed of sound

San Francisco split by Silicon Valley’s wealth

"Heated bidding wars — especially in a half-mile radius of shuttle bus stops — have broken out, causing rents to soar, even double in some cases. Along shuttle routes, trendy new restaurants that serve high-end food and spirits have taken the place of corner stores and mom-and-pop businesses. Anti-Google graffiti has turned up here, and activists recently held a small anti-gentrification rally at which they smashed a Google bus piñata. Ted Gullicksen, executive director of the San Francisco Tenants Union, said he fears that the techies are permanently inheriting the city and won't pack up and leave as they did after the 2000 dot-com crash." Continue reading →

Continue ReadingSan Francisco split by Silicon Valley’s wealth