An assistant professor of finance at Stony Brook University criticizes the argument that technology “is quickly displacing a large number of workers, and the pace will only increase as automation and other forms of artificial intelligence become more advanced,” specifically calling out Universal Basic Income proponents Elon Musk, Andrew Yang, and YCombinator Chairman Sam Altman: The problem is, there’s no indication…
Tag: Economy
America’s Air Quality Is Slipping After Years of Improvement
The Grim Reefer shared this report from the Associated Press:
Over the last two years America had more polluted air days than just a few years earlier, federal data shows. While it remains unclear whether this is the beginning of a trend, health experts say it’s troubling to see air quality progress stagnate. There were 15% more days with unhealthy air in…
Should Schools Teach Computer Science Instead of Physics?
Long-time Slashdot reader theodp writes: “Other than trying to keep my kids from falling down the stairs in the Governor’s mansion I don’t know how much I deal with physics daily,” quipped Florida governor Ron DeSantis as he explained his support for a bill pushed by Microsoft and Code.org lobbyists that will allow computer science credit to be substituted for traditional…
Iran Steps Up Cyberattacks Against America
An anonymous reader quotes MarketWatch: Iran has increased its offensive cyberattacks against the U.S. government and critical infrastructure as tensions have grown between the two nations, cybersecurity firms say. In recent weeks, hackers believed to be working for the Iranian government have targeted U.S. government agencies, as well as sectors of the economy, including oil and gas, sending waves of spear-phishing…
In Japan, It’s a Riveting TV Plot: Can a Worker Go Home On Time?
An anonymous reader quotes a report from The New York Times: Last month, as Americans tuned in to the final episode of “Game of Thrones,” Japan was indulging in its own television fantasy world. In this one, a woman dares to leave work at 6 p.m. sharp. The determination of Yui Higashiyama, a 30-something project manager who wants nothing more than…
New York State Lawmakers Agree To Pass a Sweeping Climate Plan
New York lawmakers have agreed to pass a sweeping climate plan that could help the state achieve a net-zero economy in which all energy is drawn from carbon-free sources by 2050. “The bill would require New York to get 70 percent of its electricity from renewable sources by 2030, and by 2050, the state would have to cut emissions by at…
Yahoo Japan Is Under Fire for Its China-Like Rating System
Some users of Yahoo Japan are rising up against Japan’s biggest web portal after the rollout of a new rating system that’s being compared with a social-scoring initiative in China. From a report: The 48 million people with a Yahoo! Japan ID will have to opt-out within a privacy settings webpage if they don’t want to be rated. The score is…
Are Open Source Developers Being Underfunded and Exploited?
Donation-based open source programmer Andre Staltz recently collected data from GitHub, Patreon, and OpenCollective to try to calculate how much money is being donated to popular projects. The results? Out of 58 projects checked, “there were two clearly sustainable open source projects, but the majority (more than 80%) of projects that we usually consider sustainable are actually receiving income below industry…
Privacy Policies Are Essentially Impossible To Understand, Study Finds
The data market has become the engine of the internet, and privacy policies we agree to but don’t fully understand help fuel it. From a report: To see exactly how inscrutable they have become, I analyzed the length and readability of privacy policies from nearly 150 popular websites and apps. Facebook’s privacy policy, for example, takes around 18 minutes to read…
UK commits to reduce greenhouse gas emissions to net zero by 2050
In a legally binding move, the UK government will agree this week to an ambitious target on climate change: to create a net zero UK economy by 2050 Source: https://www.newscientist.com/article/2206302-uk-commits-to-reduce-greenhouse-gas-emissions-to-net-zero-by-2050/?utm_campaign=RSS%7CNSNS&utm_source=NSNS&utm_medium=RSS&utm_content=home…