Legendary blues musician B.B. Kingdied on Thursday in Las Vegas, his attorney told The Associated Press. Cause of death was not released. He was 89.
Born Riley B. King in Berclair, Mississippi, and raised by his grandmother, the future “King of the Blues” purchased his first guitar for $15 when he was just 12 years old. He dropped out of school in the 10th grade, and spent much of his early years picking cotton and working as a tractor driver.
We have seen technology do some amazing things. Advances have allowed us opportunities that were only figments of our imaginations ten short years ago, but when technology is married to Big Brother we have potential for big problems.
Carmakers are getting ready to introduce new vehicles that will automatically notify the authorities when you surpass speed limits. Talk about an auto-ticket! The technology is called, called “V2X” and according to a report over at The Motley Fool [who are shareholders], discussing the possible revenue boon this would be for cities and towns across the country and how it could be taken advantage of for county coffers, . . . Read Complete Report
Apache land could be given away to a foreign mining company after the House approved a bill that would allow Resolution Copper to acquire land in the Tonto National Forest in Arizona in exchange for parcels scattered around the state. Resolution Copper plans a massive deep underground copper mine using a technique called block caving and the leader of the San Carlos Apache Tribe is asking the Senate not to vote on the annual National Defense Authorization Act until a provision that would allow the massive copper mining project on sacred land to be removed. We look at the land swap legislation, in this Lip News clip with Mark Sovel and Elliot Hill.
Peru is to press charges against Greenpeace activists after damage caused to a UN World Heritage site – the Nazca lines – during mass action to raise the profile of the group. READ MORE:http://on.rt.com/b6mk0p
Police are charging a 90-year-old Florida man with the crime of feeding the homeless. Fort Lauderdale is one of multiple cities across the US to have recently passed strict regulations on helping those in need, with jail time being a possibility for offenders. RT’s Ben Swann spoke to Arnold Abbott to find out why he is now facing potential prison time.
At LEGO World 2014 in Copenhagen, the third edition of the CubeStormer robot was unveiled, solving the Rubik’s Cube at a lightning pace.
The LEGO Mindstormes kit bricks are intelligent and programmable, powered by AA batteries. It runs a Linux operating system on an ARM-centered processor. The screen on the blocks is a monochrome LCD. There is an added SD card slot on all Mindstormes to expand the memory capacity and a USB port to add Wi-Fi connectivity.
Editor’s Note: What is basically a child’s toy manipulating a another child’s toy and solving a puzzle that most humans (adults) can’t solve at all. I had a really tough time deciding which category describes this story, Robotics, Distractions, or Sorry to Hear that, the latter category usually being reserved for stories of situations detrimental to society or the loss of a notable person. In this case, all apply, the notable person being the American worker.
As things tend to happen around here, my other half was editing pictures of a grandchild’s birthday party earlier today to post to Facebook. One of the children at the party, a particularly photogenic girl of almost 3, happens to have her own Facebook account and Brenda “tagged her” for the photos of her. Well, in the same photo album on Facebook is another photo that was taken in the early twenties and showing a women and three girls aged about 2, 4, and 6. It was posted by Brenda (my other half) to try to identify some of people in it, possibly relatives since the print was in her mothers photos. Facebook picked up on the youngest child in this nearly century old photo and wanted to tag the account of the current almost 3 year old. And, by golly, there is a bit of a resemblance, at least enough to make the Facebot image system notice it. Then, we realized there is at least an even chance the birthday party girl is related the “old” girl. All of which adds both a haunting feeling for how strong genetics can be and a haunted feeling that Facebook can make that kind of a connection. They aren’t perfect at recognizing faces, though, it also wanted to tag one of the teenagers as the fuel oil tank. So another category is being added, Serendipistickity, where somebody drew a good conclusion based on really bad science..
At the same time, a PBS documentary was running in the background about the The New York shirtwaist strike of 1909 also known as “The Uprising of the 20,000”. Workers, mostly Jewish women, led by Clara Lemlich and supported by the National Women’s Trade Union League of America (NWTUL), the strike began in November 1909. In February 1910, the NWTUL settled with the factory owners, gaining improved wages, working conditions, and hours. The end of the strike was followed only a year later by the Triangle Shirtwaist Factory Fire, which exposed the plight of immigrant women working in dangerous and difficult conditions. Hence, now that ecen toy robots can solve complex movement tasks at lightning speed, garment workers can begin their traing as robot maintenance personnel, and a few will even still work. Watch the video and tell me this thing can’t be taught to make shirts 24/7.
A new report called, “The Dating Game: How Confusing Food Date Labels Lead to Food Waste in America,” describes our expiration-date labeling system here in the US as convoluted, confusing, inconsistent, ineffective, disorienting, ambiguous, and dizzying. It doesn’t think much of the system, in other words.The Resident (aka Lori Harfenist) discusses.
The Dating Game: How Confusing Food Date Labels Lead to Food Waste in America
Image: Shelf life. This pack of diced pork says ‘display until’ 7 May and ‘use by’ 8 May. CREDIT: Edward Betts. SOURCE: Wikipedia Commons (This work has been released into the public domain by its author, Edward. This applies worldwide.)
EXCERPT
Executive Summary
The waste of edible food by consumers, retailers, and manufacturers poses a
significant burden to the American food system. Wasted food costs consumers
and industry money; squanders important natural resources that are used to
grow, process, distribute, and store America’s food supply; and represents a missed opportunity to feed the millions of food insecure households in the United States that are struggling to access healthy, affordable food. Misinterpretation of the date labels on foods is a key factor leading to this waste. . . . Read Complete Report
