Prepare for Change

http://www.theguardian.com/technology/2015/dec/23/the-problem-with-self-driving-cars-who-controls-the-code "A car is a high-speed, heavy object with the power to kill its users and the people around it. A compromise in the software that allowed an attacker to take over the brakes, accelerator and steering (such as last summer’s exploit against Chrysler’s Jeeps , which triggered a 1.4m vehicle recall) is a nightmare scenario. The only thing worse would be such an exploit against a car designed to have no user-override – designed, in fact, to treat any attempt from the vehicle’s user to redirect its programming as a selfish attempt to avoid the Trolley Problem’s cold equations. Whatever problems we will have with self-driving cars, they will be worsened by designing them to treat their passengers as adversaries. That has profound implications beyond the hypothetical silliness of the Trolley Problem. The world of networked equipment is already governed by a patchwork...

http://gizmodo.com/can-these-micro-units-fix-new-york-citys-housing-proble-1749125795 "Now wait another second, you’re saying, $2500 to $3000 for a studio in Kips Bay is not affordable! That’s only the market rate (which is actually about the median Manhattan rent for a studio). The rents for the 22 affordable housing units are set at different rates based on income and need. Prospective tenants apply through a lottery and might pay anywhere from $1000 to $1500. 60,000 people applied. So yeah, no one can deny that the demand isn’t there for these types of units. But the bigger question is if these units are actually the right kind of new housing for cities to be building . If we’re talking big picture here, the building as a whole is far more responsible than tacking yet another megadevelopment on the edge of sprawl, forcing all its residents to drive. But the worry is that these tiny spaces will become the new slums of the city, mostly occupied by lower-inc...

http://www.usatoday.com/pages/interactives/groundwater/ "Groundwater is disappearing beneath cornfields in Kansas, rice paddies in India, asparagus farms in Peru and orange groves in Morocco. As these critical water reserves are pumped beyond their limits, the threats are mounting for people who depend on aquifers to supply agriculture, sustain economies and provide drinking water. In some areas, fields have already turned to dust and farmers are struggling. Climate change is projected to increase the stresses on water supplies, and heated disputes are erupting in places where those with deep wells can keep pumping and leave others with dry wells. Even as satellite measurements have revealed the problem’s severity on a global scale, many regions have failed to adequately address the problem. Aquifers largely remain unmanaged and unregulated, and water that seeped underground over tens of thousands of years is being gradually used up. In this project, USA TODAY ...

http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/europe/finland-plans-to-give-every-citizen-800-euros-a-month-and-scrap-benefits-a6762226.html "Finland's government is drawing up plans to give every one of its citizens a basic income of 800 euros (£576) a month and scrap benefits altogether. A poll commissioned by the agency planning the proposal, the Finnish Social Insurance Institute, showed 69% supported the basic income plan. Prime Minister Juha Sipila was quote by  QZ   as backing the idea. 'For me, a basic income means simplifying the social security system,' he said. The proposal would entitle each Finn to 800 euros tax free each month, which according to Bloomberg , would cost the government 52.2 billion euros a year." Finally we'll get to see how this actually works!  I look forward to this idea expanding around the world.

This is a useful film to engage thinking about what needs changing and how to start changing it.  I don't like some of the speakers, and don't think the gold standard is any solution, but the movie is still worth watching and pondering over.

http://infinitefreetime.com/2015/11/18/in-which-i-tell-you-how-your-religion-works/ "There are reasons to oppose bringing Syrian refugees to America.  None of them are good reasons.  Most of them are sickeningly racist.  And  all of them are deeply, obviously, blatantly and clearly unChristian.  You  cannot object to helping these people and call yourself a Christian.  Jesus  himself would rebuke you.  He already  has , in fact.  Reread verses 41-46 if you need to.   If you refuse to help the sick and the destitute and the needy, you are going to Hell . There is literally no way to make that any clearer.  Christians are  commanded to help those who are in need.  Not requested.  Not asked.  Not begged.   Commanded .  In plain and clear language.  By Jesus.  There’s no way to wriggle out of this, folks.  You either help these people– or, to do the  absolute minimu...

http://www.vox.com/policy-and-politics/2015/11/20/9764324/welfare-cash-transfer-work "To some degree, this actually undersells cash programs. Two recent RCTs have suggested that giving cash to poor people in the developing world could actually, in some cases, encourage work. One paper by Christopher Blattman, Nathan Fiala, and Sebastian Martinez evaluated a program that gave cash grants ($382 per person, on average) to groups of young, unemployed Ugandans to help them learn skilled trades, and found that hours of work rose by 17 percent, and earnings by 38 percent. Another paper , by Blattman, Eric Green, Julian Jamison, and Jeannie Annan, looked at a program in Nigeria that gave about $150 and some basic business skills training to women in northern Uganda. Work hours increased by 61 percent ." There is no evidence that shows people on welfare don't want to work. Reagan's welfare queens were and are phoney.

http://www.truth-out.org/news/item/33721-another-money-is-possible-holland-leads-experiment-in-basic-income "Because the term 'basic income' is viewed controversially, many of the trials aren't using those words even as they push basic income features. In practice, those currently receiving social security benefits will instead be paid a non-means tested sum, without further obligations. Single-person households will receive around €950 ($967), with more going to families with children. Recipients will have enough to live on - but unlike basic income, not everyone will receive all of the money in the initial stages. The basic income concept has received consistent support across the political spectrum in Holland, said Hoeijmakers, which is why it is now being packaged in different ways to see what works best. Most of the major Dutch political parties, with the exception of the conservative-liberal People's Party for Freedom and Democracy, in some wa...

"The water that supplies aquifers and wells that billions of people rely on around the world is mostly a non-renewable resource that could run out, a new Canadian-led study has found. While many people may think groundwater is replenished by rain and melting snow the way lakes and rivers are, underground water is actually renewed much more slowly. In fact, just six per cent of the groundwater around the world is replenished within a "human lifetime" of 50 years, reports University of Victoria hydrogeologist Tom Gleeson and his collaborators in a new study published in the journal Nature Geoscience today." Well crap. That's news to me. And it is very, very bad for the future. Lots of countries rely on groundwater to grow crops. 

http://www.dailykos.com/stories/2015/11/11/1448606/-Living-with-Denmark-s-Democratic-Socialism?detail=facebook "What concerns me is why so many Americans want to  - choose to - find evil in Denmark’s form of democratic socialism.  I’ve been participating in the roller coaster commentary threads following Ana Swanson’s interview with Michael Booth in the Washington Post   and I’m sad to see that so many of the comments are harsh and vitriolic in nature. No amount of evidence or clarification is enough to mollify some of these commentators. They just get angrier and more irritated because positive comments are assumed to be lies or to have negative ulterior motives. You would think that Americans would be curious about Denmark after both Bernie and Hillary mentioned it in the Democratic debate. Why so much anger? Here’s my best educated guess: Most Americans have been brought up to believe that the USA is the best country in the world and that most peopl...

http://continuations.com/post/91111911845/more-on-basic-income-and-robots " First, it sets human creativity free to work on whatever comes to mind. For many people that could be making music or learning something new or doing research. Second, it does not suppress the market mechanism. Innovative new products and services can continue to emerge. Much of that can be artisanal products or high touch services (not just new technology). Third, it will allow crowdfunding to expand massively in scale and simultaneously permit much smaller federal, state and local government (they still have a role – I am not a libertarian and believe that market failures are real and some regulation and enforcement are needed, eg sewage, police). Fourth, it will force us to more rapidly automate dangerous and unpleasant jobs. Many of these are currently held by people who would much rather engage in one of the activities from above. Fifth, in a world of technological deflation, a bas...

http://inhabitat.com/finland-prepares-universal-basic-income-experiment/ "When fully implemented, the universal basic income would provide every Finnish citizen with a monthly taxfree payment of 800 euros, equivalent to about USD 881. This would replace currently existing social benefits received through the Finnish welfare system. Any income earned beyond the basic income will be taxable. Kela’s basic income proposal includes a trial period in which the payment delivered to citizens is only 550 euros, while existing benefits such as housing and income support would not be affected." This isn't so crazy as you might think. Consider how many people in the US get government help right now. This is just a sort of consolidation and equalizing of what is already being done now to a large extent.  Simpler, easier, more equitable.

http://www.dutchnews.nl/news/archives/2015/08/more-dutch-cities-may-join-in-basic-income-experiment/ More Dutch cities will join Utrecht in trying out a basic minimum income for its people, replacing all other forms of support from the government.  Some will stay with the current system as a base. Other Dutch cities may join Utrecht in experimenting with a ‘basic income’ to replace the current complicated system of taxes, social security benefits and top-up benefits, the Financieele Dagblad says on Wednesday. In June, Utrecht city council announced plans to launch trials of the new system after the summer holidays together with researchers from Utrecht University. Now Tilburg has similar plans and aims to run a four-year trial, the FD says. Read more at DutchNews.nl: More Dutch cities may join in ‘basic income’ experiment http://www.dutchnews.nl/news/archives/2015/08/more-dutch-cities-may-join-in-basic-income-experiment/ Other Dutch cities may join Utrecht in experim...

http://economictimes.indiatimes.com/news/international/business/china-sets-up-first-unmanned-factory-all-processes-are-operated-by-robots/articleshow/48238331.cms So this factory will go from 650 workers down to 20. What happens as this rolls across China to all those workers? When I was growing up, the promise of automation was that it would give workers more leisure time. Fewer hours of work for the same pay, was the promise.  What has happened instead is just more people out of work.  Companies pocket the money in savings rather than the employees.  I guess we should have seen this coming. And we'd better figure out what to do with those unemployed.  Data at the Dongguan factory show that since the robots came to the plant the defect rate of products has dropped from over 25 per cent to less than 5 per cent and the production capacity from more than 8,000 pieces per person per month increased to 21,000 pieces. The company is only a microcosm of Dongg...

h ttp://qz.com/437088/utrecht-will-give-money-for-free-to-its-citizens-will-it-make-them-lazier/ "A group of people already receiving welfare will get monthly checks ranging from around €900 ($1,000) for an adult to €1,300 ($ 1,450) for a couple or family per month. Out of the estimated 300 people participating, a group of at least 50 people will receive the unconditional basic income and won’t be subject to any regulation, so even if they get a job or find another source of income, they will still get their disbursement, explained Nienke Horst, a project manager for the Utrecht city government. There will be three other groups with different levels of rules, and a control group that will follow the current welfare law, with its requirements around job-seeking and qualifying income. The experiment seeks to challenge the notion that people who receive public money need to be patrolled and punished, said Horst. The traditional criticism of basic income is that it does...

http://blogs.reuters.com/great-debate/2015/06/17/new-data-reveals-which-approach-to-helping-the-poor-actually-works/ "In education, we’ve learned that while some organizations in poor countries give out free uniforms and others scholarships, in Kenya a simple anti-parasite pill that kept children healthy enough to learn was 20 times as cost-effective as the uniforms, and 51 times as cost-effective as scholarships. Our local teams tracked the children into adulthood, and found that the children who received the anti-parasite pills went on to earn over 20 percent higher wages as adults than their peers who didn’t. In India and sub-Saharan Africa, where governments are implementing these programs, over 95 million children have now received the pills. Yet poverty, and especially extreme poverty, is difficult to eliminate. The poorest of the poor have more problems than just lacking a regular income. Because they usually experience multiple challenges at the same time, ...

http://www.theguardian.com/business/2015/jun/15/focus-on-low-income-families-to-boost-economic-growth-says-imf-study "The idea that increased income inequality makes economies more dynamic has been rejected by an International Monetary Fund study, which shows the widening income gap between rich and poor is bad for growth. A report by five IMF economists dismissed “trickle-down” economics, and said that if governments wanted to increase the pace of growth they should concentrate on helping the poorest 20% of citizens. The study – covering advanced, emerging and developing countries – said technological progress, weaker trade unions, globalisation and tax policies that favoured the wealthy had all played their part in making widening inequality 'the defining challenge of our time'." Strangely, that's what a lot of religious leaders have taught.  it makes sense.  If the rich get all the money, you have a huge castle with all the wealth inside, and eve...

https://news.vice.com/video/selfie-soldiers-russia-checks-in-to-ukraine Russia's Putin insists that there are no Russian troops fighting in Ukraine.  But he hasn't been able to keep his own soldiers from disproving this lie. When so much information from so many sources is available at everyone's fingertips, all it takes is for somebody to put the pieces together. "As the conflict in Ukraine continues, so too does Russian President Vladimir Putin's denial of any Russian involvement. But a recent report from think tank the Atlantic Council used open source information and social media to find evidence of Russian troops across the border. Using the Atlantic Council's methodology, VICE News correspondent Simon Ostrovsky follows the digital and literal footprints of one Russian soldier, tracking him from eastern Ukraine to Siberia, to prove that Russian soldiers are fighting in Ukraine."

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/enrique-penalosa/cities-future_b_7216732.html "We have had cities for more than 6,000 years. Until very recently, a child could walk without fear anywhere in them. In 1900, nobody was killed by a car in the United States. . .because there were no cars. Just 20 years later, as Peter Norton, a professor at the University of Virginia, found in his book " Fighting Traffic ," more than 200,000 people were killed by cars. In 1925 alone, cars killed about 6,000 children. Cities and life in cities had changed. We should have started to make cities different to accommodate cars, where every other street would be for pedestrians only, for example. But instead we just made the streets bigger and bigger. It is a truism to say that cities are for people. The urban challenge for the next few decades is to truly make them so, by doing things like turning half of every road into pedestrian-and-bicyclists-only space, or making every other str...

http://america.aljazeera.com/opinions/2015/5/countries-across-world-are-revoking-freedom-of-assembly.html "Spain is only the latest 'democracy' to consign freedom of assembly to the dustbin. While earlier eras of protest and riot sometimes wrested concessions from the state, today the government’s default response is to implement increasingly draconian laws against the public exercise of democracy. It raises the question: How many rights must be abrogated before a liberal democracy becomes a police state? In Quebec, where student strikes against austerity once again disrupt civil society, marches are being declared illegal before they’ve even begun . At the height of the last wave of student strikes in 2012, the Quebec legislature passed Bill 78 , which made pickets and unauthorized gatherings of over 50 people illegal, and punished violations with fines of up to $5,000 for individuals and $125,000 for organizations.  Similar fines are once again imposed on pro...

http://www.washingtonpost.com/local/free-range-kids-and-our-parenting-police-state/2015/04/13/42c30336-e1df-11e4-905f-cc896d379a32_story.html "The Silver Spring siblings were about 2  1 / 2 blocks from their home Sunday when Montgomery County police got a call reporting them — gasp — playing alone. 'The police coerced our children into the back of a patrol car and kept them trapped there for three hours, without notifying us, before bringing them to the Crisis Center, and holding them there without dinner for another two and a half hours,' their mom, Danielle Meitiv, said to her Facebook friends. 'We finally got home at 11 pm and the kids slept in our room because we were all exhausted and terrified'.” Could the police be sued for kidnapping?  As I recall my childhood, the main rule was to be home at a certain time.  We ranged far and wide, but kept to that one rule.

http://www.bbc.com/news/business-32246655 "Mr Lewis says the major question is how to structure markets for stocks and shares as well as bonds and currencies as computers slowly and inexorably take over from human traders. Martin Wheatley, the head of the markets watchdog the Financial Conduct Authority, has said that high-frequency trading now accounts for 30% of business on the UK equity market. In America it is higher. Mr Lewis says that it is unclear - certainly in the US at least - whether the regulators are going to do anything about what he says is such a major problem. One reason, he argues, is the "revolving door" between the Wall Street banks and firms engaged in high-frequency trading and the regulators themselves. A 'cosy club' has grown up, he says. But, although that may be the case, Mr Lewis actually argues that the story of Flash Boys is one of hope. And that's because the main witness in his book, Brad Katsuyama, a trader a...

http://www.reuters.com/article/2015/03/27/us-usa-budget-idUSKBN0MN0LR20150327 "(Reuters) - The Senate passed a Republican-authored budget plan early on Friday that seeks $5.1 trillion in domestic spending cuts over 10 years while boosting military funding. The 52-46 vote on the non-binding budget resolution put Congress on a path to complete its first full budget in six years. It came at the end of a marathon 18-hour session that saw approval of dozens of amendments ranging from Iran sanctions to carbon emissions and immigration policies. Two Republican senators who are running or considering running for president, Ted Cruz and Rand Paul, voted against their party's budget plan, which is similar to one passed by House Republicans on Wednesday. In addition to aiming to eliminate deficits within 10 years, both documents seek to ease the path for a repeal or replacement of President Barack Obama's signature health care reform law." Who are we so...

http://motherboard.vice.com/read/the-mincome-experiment-dauphin "Critics of basic income guarantees have insisted that giving the poor money would disincentivize them to work, and point to studies that show  ​a drop in peoples' willingness to work under pilot programs . But in Dauphin—thought to be the largest such experiment conducted in North America—the experimenters found that the primary breadwinner in the families who received stipends were in fact not less motivated to work than before. Though there was some reduction in work effort from mothers of young children and teenagers still in high school—mothers wanted to stay at home longer with their newborns and teenagers weren’t under as much pressure to support their families—the reduction was not anywhere close to disastrous, as skeptics had predicted. " Well there you go. Now we need to try this in the United States.  How about Rapid City, SD?

So it IS possible!

http://www.straight.com/news/817631/tiny-homes-are-merely-trendy-fantasy-not-affordable-housing-solution "I don't want to be defeatist here, because I do admire people who refuse to accept that the world is given to us as is—and instead choose to live as if the maxim of their actions should become a universal truth. It's what remains so attractive about Thoreau's Walden experiment. But we can't laud tiny houses for their innovation without beginning by saying that the economic realities that necessitate it are a  huge fucking problem  that won't go away with vintage marine lightbulb cages or marble countertops. And we can't treat tiny houses squatting on hobby farms as the latest trend for the well-heeled lumbersexual set. Stories like these spread the falsehood that consumers have a say in how their neighbourhoods, communities and cities are planned—while the evidence repeatedly shows that our urban agendas are set by developers. Laneway hou...

http://rt.com/business/228311-croatia-erases-debt-poorest/ "Croatian government have gotten creditors on board a plan to erase the debts of some 60,000 poorest citizens. The “fresh start” scheme targets less than 1 percent of the entire debt, but is hoped to boost the economy in the long-term. The unorthodox measure was voted for by the government on January 15 and comes into force on Monday. To be eligible to participate debtors must have no savings or property, have a debt no greater than about $5,100 and live on welfare or an income of no higher than $138 per month. 'We assess that this measure will be applicable to some 60,000 citizens,' Deputy Prime Minister Milanka Opacic said as he was introducing the bailout. 'Thus they will be given a chance for a new start without a burden of debt.'" I look forward to seeing how this helps or hurts the economy overall. 

http://nypost.com/2015/01/30/nypd-to-launch-a-beefed-up-counterterrorism-squad/ "The NYPD will launch a unit of 350 cops to handle both counterterrorism and protests — riding vehicles equipped with machine guns and riot gear — under a re-engineering plan to be rolled out over the coming months." Oh dear god, people. Protesting is a Constitutionally protected act. Terrorism is violence designed to terrorize a community.  Get these people a dictionary!

http://www.nytimes.com/2015/01/26/world/asia/widespread-blackout-in-pakistan-deals-another-blow-to-government.html?_r=0 "ISLAMABAD, Pakistan — Towns and cities across Pakistan plunged into darkness early Sunday when what officials said was an attack by militants on a transmission line short-circuited the national electricity grid, presenting a new indictment of the government’s faltering efforts to solve the country’s chronic power crisis. Emergency efforts to end the blackout, widely described as Pakistan ’s worst ever, resulted in a partial restoration of power in the capital, Islamabad, and the most populous city, Karachi, by Sunday evening. Even so, 80 percent of the country remained without power, including the provincial capitals of Lahore, Peshawar and Quetta, an official said." So how safe is our electricity grid? "The specter of a large-scale, destructive attack on the U.S. power grid is at the center of much strategic thinking about cyber...

http://www.buzzfeed.com/timmurphywriter/tiny-homes#.juXea5Qqx4 "Heben, the young urban planner and tiny-home evangelist who lives nearby, showed me around, explaining that Opportunity — which grew out of an Occupy camp, with the support of Eugene’s mayor — was built with $100,000 in donated funds plus roughly another $100,000 worth of donated material. Cottages cost a max of $2,000 apiece to build. Residents chip in $30 a month for the shared utilities. Life at Opportunity does not feel as tidy as at Quixote. With no proper indoor kitchen, residents cook on grills or with a variety of toaster ovens in an outdoor area. The cottages are not heated, and on really cold nights, everyone sleeps in the yurt. 'There’s lots of sickness and colds,' said Tom, who looked a bit like an older Matthew McConaughey with his blue eyes and long blond hair under a Hard Rock Cafe cap. A former Ohio trucker who lost work during the recession, he now collects cans around town so...

http://billingsgazette.com/news/local/pipeline-breach-spills-oil-into-yellowstone-river/article_61ec2266-612a-5780-a0ed-dfcb8d0f9b9a.html http://america.aljazeera.com/articles/2015/1/19/montana-oil-spill.html https://www.northernplains.org/press-release-glendive-oil-spill-sparks-concern-keystone-xl-pipeline-safety-jan-19-2015/ "A Bridger Pipeline spokesman said the break happened Saturday morning about 9 miles upstream from Glendive. The company, which transports Bakken crude, is confident that no more than 1,200 barrels — or 50,000 gallons — of oil spilled during the hour-long breach. This spill is similar in size to another pipeline in the Yellowstone River that gained national attention. ExxonMobil’s Silvertip pipeline burst on July 1, 2011, below the Yellowstone riverbed near Laurel, Montana, during a flood. More than 1,500 barrels of oil, or 63,000 gallons, quickly spread downstream, affecting wildlife, parks, landowners, ag producers, and others. Hun...

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2015/01/19/world-wealth-oxfam_n_6499798.html "If trends continue, Oxfam predicts that the most-affluent will possess more wealth than the remaining 99 percent by 2016, The New York Times reported. Drill down the numbers even more and you'll learn that the 80 wealthiest people in the world possess $1.9 trillion , which is almost the same amount shared by some 3.5 billion people at the bottom half of the world's income scale. Thirty-five of the lucky 80 were Americans with a combined wealth of $941 billion. Germany and Russia shared second place, with seven uber-rich individuals apiece. Not surprisingly, the richest were titans in the finance, health care, insurance, retail, tech and extractives (oil, gas) industries, and they paid fortunes to lobbyists to maintain or increase their riches. Seventy of the world's wealthiest were men. And 11 members of the elite 80 simply inherited their wealth." This is going back to the ...

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2015/01/16/southern-education-foundation-children-poverty_n_6489970.html "For the first time, more than half of U.S. public school students live in low-income households, according to a new analysis from the Southern Education Foundation . Overall, 51 percent of U.S. schoolchildren came from low-income households in 2013, according to the foundation, which analyzed data from National Center for Education Statistics on students eligible for free or reduced-price lunches. Eligibility for free or subsidized lunch for students from low-income households serves as a proxy for gauging poverty, says the foundation, which advocates education equity for students in the South. The report shows the percentage of schoolchildren from poor households has grown steadily for nearly a quarter-century, from 32 percent in 1989. "By 2006, the national rate was 42 percent and, after the Great Recession, the rate climbed in 2011 to 48 percent," say...

http://weburbanist.com/2015/01/11/worlds-largest-indoor-farm-is-100-times-more-productive/ "The statistics for this incredibly successful indoor farming endeavor in Japan are staggering: 25,000 square feet producing 10,000 heads of lettuce per day (100 times more per square foot than traditional methods) with 40% less power, 80% less food waste and 99% less water usage than outdoor fields. But the freshest news from the farm: a new facility using the same technologies has been announced and is now under construction in Hong Kong, with Mongolia, Russia and mainland China on the agenda for subsequent near-future builds." This is quite amazing and should work for many crops. Of course, things like corn, which grows up to 8 feet tall, would be a bit prohibitive.  But still this is great.