Delivery Drones?

Amazon Founder revealing a nascent plan for an Amazon Prime Air fleet of unmanned “octocopters” to drop packages gently on the doorsteps of customers. The idea may or may not come to fruition, and if it ever does it won’t be for years and many FAA studies and logistical work-arounds. Amazon is known for being aggressive and forward thinking in their business model but the reveal of this bold new plan brought a large buzz in social media. If they ever do work out I would definitely buy more stuff from amazon.

Life expectancy

Earlier this month, the Organizations for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) released a report highlighting the latest life expectancy figures for its 34 member nations as well as several other developed nations. Switzerland had the highest life expectancy of any country measured, with residents born in the country in 2011 likely to live 82.8 years. Rounding out the top ten is Italy, Japan, Iceland, Spain, France, Australia, Sweden, Israel, and Norway. While medical spending does not have a clear relationship with health or life expectancy, the availability of medical professionals does. In all but one of the 10 nations where residents live the longest, the number of doctors per 1,000 residents exceeded the average of 3.16. Italy, which had the second-highest life expectancy, had 4.1 doctors per 1,000 residents, and all but one of the 10 nations with the highest life expectancy at birth had a GDP per capita of at least $30,000 in 2011. None of the 10 with the lowest life expectancy had a GDP per capita higher than $25,000.

information rights in the "cloud"

Cloud file saving is at an all time high. It provides simple and easy access to stored information from all your devices but there are lingering problems with the cloud. More and more people are becoming concerned with their privacy and right to information stored on the cloud. Even Apple co-founder Steve Wozniak “I think it’s going to be horrendous. I think there are going to be horrible problems in the next five years,” he opined on a trip to Washington. “With the cloud, you don’t own anything. You already signed it away… the more we transfer everything onto the web, onto the cloud, the less we’re going to have control over it.”  Critcism of the cloud isn't new Back in 2008, the founder of the Free Software Foundation, Richard Stallman, called the adoption of cloud-based systems “worse than stupidity… a marketing hype campaign.” By uploading information to cloud servers you essentially give up all right to the information In the words of Douglas Heaven, writing in New Scientist, “a digital file exists as a state of matter… rather than matter itself.” Your information is not a piece of property in any legal sense. There are some ways to avoid the cloud while still having a backup to your files. The service SocialSafe currently offers is the automatic copying of all your cloud content to your own computer – to be held by you no matter what happens online, and browsed or analysed at your own convenience. The service covers the gamut of social media, from Twitter to Facebook via Instagram and LinkedIn. But by the end of next year, it plans to cover categories of data ranging from purchase histories and utility bills to financial and health data 

Senate votes to end some filibusters on presidential nominees

This thursday the senate voted to weaken filibusters and make it harder for Republicans to block confirmation of the president's nominees for judges and other top posts. The vote ended up 52-48 and took a shot at the system of checks and balances that enables the minority party to hold nominations made by the president they don't see as qualified. Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid was quoted saying that Republican gridlock has prevented the chamber from functioning. Which is quite humorous coming from the leader of the senate who has yet to pass a budget in 6 years. Blaming a minority party for the lack of anything productive being done just to enable a consolidation of power is not what America was founded for. 

scientist kill oldest known animal.

Ming, an ocean quahog from the species Arctica islandica, was initially thought to be a record-setting 402 years old. But scientist who found it on a seabed by Iceland say after further analysis it was actually an astounding 507 years old. The researchers, who didn't realize how old Ming was when they first found it, opened the ancient clam up to judge its age by counting growth rings inside its hinge ligaments. scientist Paul Butler attempted to justify this by saying the rings on the inside should were better "protected" as it turned out the on the inside were so close together they had to count the ones on the outside to be accurate anyways so they killed the oldest known animal for no reason. 

I thought I was having a bad week until I read about Toronto's Mayor

Rob Ford the mayor of Toronto has recently admitted to cocaine and marijuana use and drunk driving while mayor. As well as an obscene outburst in an interview about the drug use and an alleged sexual harassment issue. Toronto city council voted to take his control of the Toronto budget process and requested him to step down but have no power to remove him. Ford says he is now getting help form medical professionals and has maintained he will not resign and will run for re-election in October 2014. This is a story you couldn't even make up its so ridiculous. There is absolutely no reason he should be able to hold office.

6 tons of ivory crushed as Government outsmarts itself

On thursday U.S. officials crushed 6 tons of ivory tusk, jewelry and carvings seized at ports and border crossings over the past 25 years. These stockpiles of ivory fuel the demand. We need to crush the stores of ivory worldwide," said agency director Dan Ashe. One thing i would ask Mr.Ashe is how does ivory held by the The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service in any way fuel demand for more poached ivory? Also what exactly does crushing the ivory do to stop poaching compared to selling the already poached ivory for 50 cents on the dollar to under cut demand and pricing for the new ivory being poached every day? Then using that money to start a reserve in Asia or Africa to protect more elephants. Seems like a lot of back patting by The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service for them not actually doing any thing constructive to protect the living elephants and walrus being poached.