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Welfare recipients will soon be asked to have their faces scanned before they can claim their benefits.
A trial of new biometric security measures is to begin within months. But that's raising questions about whether government departments can be trusted.
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Traveling this week for the holiday? Way to be original. According to AAA, a record 46.9 million people will be hauling 50 miles or more—up more than 5% since last year.
More numbers you need to know:
- $171: The average cost of a round-trip flight (along the top 40 domestic routes). If that sounds cheap...it is. It's the lowest July 4th-week airfare in five years.
- 2x: If you plan on hitting the road in D.C., NYC, or Los Angeles Tuesday afternoon, expect your travel time to at least double.
- 11%: The increase in mid-tier hotel prices from last year.
- 362,000: The number of stranded motorists AAA expects to help. Issues include dead batteries, flat tires, and lockouts.
- #1: The top domestic destination? Orlando, FL. And the top spot goes to Rome for international travel.
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Let's take a trip south of the border, shall we? After all, we hear there might be a big celebration in Mexico—for the first time since 2000, a left-wing candidate from a non-traditional party won the country's presidential election.Â
His name? Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador. Or as he's better known, AMLO.Â
AMLO's not your average Mexican politician. He rose to popularity through his nationalist agenda, inflammatory rhetoric, and less-than-friendly approach to trade and foreign investment.Â
And while those might not seem like popular positions...
That type of populist mentality is what most Mexicans feel the country needs right now.Â
- 44% of Mexico's population live below the poverty line.
- Corruption and greed have become all-too-common among elected officials.
- While the focus has been on free trade and investment, crime has skyrocketed: 1) Crime is at a 20-year high and 2) 120 local politicians have been killed since elections started in September. Don't mess with the cartel...
So basically, a little more attention on the people could go a long way. And that's exactly what AMLO has in mind.Â
But not everyone's saying, "Te amo AMLO."
Particularly, U.S. businesses. With an AMLO victory, he'll take a seat at the table in the NAFTA renegotiations. And if you thought President Trump takes a hard-nosed stance in trade negotiations, here's how one analyst described AMLO:
- His strategy "will be to try to use NAFTA as a way to gain credibility with his base by ‘not letting the gringos get the best of us.'"
And for businesses, stalemates lead to uncertainty over manufacturing, hiring, prices, demand, you name it.Â
Then again, we might be jumping to conclusions. One of President Trump's priorities in NAFTA is to raise wages for Mexican manufacturers. That way, the U.S. doesn't always need to outsource production.Â
That's a win for AMLO, who promised higher wages throughout the campaign. We'll have to wait and see how it all plays out.
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This video brings up SO many questions about school violence in America.
Children learning war?
A School EXAM on a MACHINE GUN?
Head spinning... need a break
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Suck it up buttercup. This is the Internet... duh.
Protect yourself by never going online... using cash ... and don't go out to public events in case other people there might have a different viewpoint than yours.
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Video by ??????? ??????????
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Leave a note if you remember dancing off like this....
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I didn't see this one coming....
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hmmmm.... I wonder what he thinks of world overpopulation crisis that is looming?
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With "Citizen's United" and "Bush v. Gore" he pretty much sealed the fate of the USA going forward.
Money = speech
Endless war on terror
Wishy washy on almost everything else.
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Popular Disney Movie Comes With Seizure Warning
by Lisa Gutierrez, The Kansas City Star/TNS | June 20, 2018
Helen, aka Elastigirl, in the animated film, "Incredibles 2." Disney has asked theaters to warn customers about a sequence of flashing lights in the film that could be problematic for some people. (Disney/Pixar)
Disney is warning moviegoers that its new blockbuster, “Incredibles 2,” contains a scene with flashing lights that could pose a health concern for some people.
According to USA Today, Walt Disney Pictures asked theaters showing the movie to post the warning late last week.
Blogger Veronica Lewis, who has vision impairment, shared a photo of those signs, which read: “‘Incredibles 2’ contains a sequence of flashing lights, which may affect customers who are susceptible to photosensitive epilepsy or other photosensitivities.”
Lewis appears to have been among the first to complain about the movie on her blog, Veroniiiica, and Twitter account, where she warned that scenes in the animated film could cause seizures in people with epilepsy, seizure conditions, migraines or autism.
She describes herself on her blog as a “four-eyed college student from Virginia who loves writing about technology, education and disability.”
The sequel had a blockbuster opening weekend earning an estimated $180 million in the United States and Canada, reported Entertainment Weekly — the biggest domestic debut ever for an animated movie and, according to Deadline, the best opening ever for a movie with a PG rating.
The Epilepsy Foundation issued a caution about the movie on Saturday and asked Disney to post warnings.
The advocacy group wrote in a statement on its website that members of its community had expressed concerns about flashing lights in the animated movie, “and, in certain instances, people having experienced a seizure during the movie.
“We stand with our epilepsy warriors and their families as they voice their concerns about the movie and appreciate the efforts some theaters have already made to post warning signs for people waiting to see the movie.”
According to USA Today, the villain Screenslaver is featured in one of the scenes with bright flashlight lights. Lewis mentioned five scenes that concerned her. She wrote how excited her family had been for months to see the movie about a family of superheroes.
“After last night, I can say that the movie is unlike anything I have ever seen before, in that the villain’s weapon of choice can hurt not only characters on-screen, but can also hurt the people in the audience as well. The weapon? Continuous sequences of rapidly flashing/strobing lights,” she wrote.
“There are at least five scenes throughout the movie, all of which feature the villain, that use bright white flashing/strobe lights for more than fifteen seconds, with at least one scene going over 90 seconds in continuous strobing lights.
“These lights stay at their rapidly flashing speed in the entirety of these scenes, which are scattered throughout the movie. My brother estimated the light flashes being as fast as 3 flashes per second.”
The Epilepsy Foundation wrote that for about three percent of people with epilepsy, “exposure to flashing lights at certain intensities, or with certain visual patterns, can trigger seizures.
“This condition is known as photosensitive epilepsy and it’s more common in children and adolescents, especially those with generalized epilepsy and a type known as juvenile myoclonic epilepsy.
“For those who have been diagnosed with photosensitive epilepsy — or are simply sensitive to flashing lights — and are planning to watch the movie, they should be advised that the flashing lights may trigger seizures in some people.”
According to Variety there have been no reported incidents of seizures among those who have seen “Incredibles 2,” noting that in 1997 nearly 700 children went to the hospital in Japan after watching the “Pokemon” movie that featured flashing red and blue lights in one scene.
The Epilepsy Foundation has never asked that a movie issue a warning like this, the group’s media relations director, Jackie Aker, told USA Today.
© 2018 The Kansas City Star
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The "e-dermis" applied to the thumb and forefinger of a prosthetic handView gallery - 2 imagesResearchers have developed an "e-dermis" or electronic skin that could be applied to a prosthetic hand to give the wearer a sense of touch. By using electronic sensors that mimic the nerve endings in the body, the skin can convey both the senses of touch and of pain.The skin is made of a combination of fabric and rubber, into which the electronic sensors are embedded. The technology isn't invasive, but relays sensation through the wearer's skin using a method known as TENS, or transcutaneous electrical nerve stimulation – a process that needs hours of mapping of the subject's nerve endings.It's thought the technology could make sense of so-called phantom limb sensations in amputees – the name given to the feeling that a missing limb remains present. The researchers used EEGs to confirm that phantom-limb sensations were felt during stimulation via the electronic skin over the course of tens of hours of testing.According to the research paper, the subject mainly felt sensations of pressure along with some "electrical tingling" feelings. The subject reported feeling nothing more severe than an uncomfortable but tolerable pain. The researchers say the subject could report which fingers of the prosthesis were being stimulated "with perfect accuracy.""For the first time, a prosthesis can provide a range of perceptions from fine touch to noxious to an amputee, making it more like a human hand," senior author of the research Nitish Thakor explains in a press release. The desire to restore pain may seem counterintuitive, but it could be used to warn the wearer of damage."This is interesting and new, because now we can have a prosthetic hand that is already on the market and fit it with an e-dermis that can tell the wearer whether he or she is picking up something that is round or whether it has sharp points," adds biomedical student Luke Osborn."After many years, I felt my hand, as if a hollow shell got filled with life again," says the researchers' principle (and anonymous) volunteer.At the moment the electronic skin is able to detect curvature and differentiate sharp objects, but in future could be adapted for temperature sensitivity. As well as helping prosthesis users, the researchers think the technology could be used to improve space suits, or to aid robots.We've reported on various touch-sensitive prostheses over the years, but this development shows just how far the technology has come, needing no invasive surgery, differentiating touch from pain, and being potentially applicable to any prosthesis.The skin is the work of a team of engineers at Johns Hopkins University and the Singapore Institute of Neurotechnology. The work has been published in the journal Science Robotics and can be read in full online.Sources: Johns Hopkins University, Science Robotics
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President Trump will unveil his administration's plan to reorganize the federal government during a Cabinet meeting this afternoon, including plans to merge the Departments of Education and Labor into a single agency and rename the Department of Health and Human Services to the Department of Health and Public Welfare.
Be smart: This massive proposed shakeup, titled “Delivering Government Solutions in the 21st Century: Reform Plan and Reorganization Recommendations,” will face significant opposition in Congress, as the reshuffling will make it easier to cut and revise several domestic agencies. Similar efforts in the past have failed due to pushback.
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AT&T is quickly taking advantage of its $85 billion Time Warner acquisition (the one that was just approved last week).
How so? With an all new low-cost streaming service ($15/month) called WatchTV. And (surprise!), about 20% of the 31 channels used to be a part of Time Warner. Those include CNN, Cartoon Network, and TNT.
Not to mention, it's got a library of over 15,000 on-demand shows and movies.
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Wondering why your local hardware store held a Project X-style rager last night? The Supreme Court handed down a major ruling that gives states the authority to require e-commerce companies to collect sales tax on online purchases (a big win for brick-and-mortar).
They weren't allowed to before?
- Nope. In 1992, this very same Supreme Court ruled that states could force retailers to collect sales tax only if they had a "physical presence" in the state.
- So while e-commerce companies sell goods all across the country, they weren't required to collect taxes unless they had a warehouse or an office in that particular state.
That is until yesterday.
The decision overturned the 1992 ruling because it was "unsound and incorrect."
- Translation: It's time we recognize online retail as a significant (and growing) sector of the marketplace. Or, as Justice Anthony Kennedy put it, "The Internet's prevalence and power have changed the dynamics of the national economy."
Let's talk winners and losers
Winners:
- States:Â They'll be able to bring in revenue they previously missed out on (government estimates peg it at between $8-13 billion).
- Brick-and-mortar stores:Â They felt like they were put at a huge disadvantage when it came to taxes. So your disgruntled local store owner will view this as a huge step towards leveling the playing field.
- Amazon: We know, we know, it sounds crazy. But Amazon already collects sales tax on goods it sells directly. And with this ruling squeezing smaller e-commerce players (see below), Amazon stands to tighten its grip on the online shopping world.
Losers:Â
- E-commerce companies: Especially the smaller ones. They'll now be required to navigate a spider web of complicated tax laws across thousands of jurisdictions. Some won't have the capacity to make it work.
- Congress: Only because they'll have more homework. They've puntedon interstate commerce issues for years, so maybe this ruling will finally drive them to action.
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Facebook (+2.28%) will let some group admins start charging monthly subscriptions of up to $29.99.
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It's a small AI startup with about 40 employees.
https://www.cnbc.com/2018/06/20/microsoft-buys-ai-start-up-bonsai.html
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Zuckerberg Is Instagram Straight Flexin’
The numbers are in...and? Instagram has officially passed 1 billion monthly active users (MAU).
So be hard on the Zuck all you want, but just remember he now owns:
- Facebook: 2.19 billion monthly active users
- WhatsApp: 1.5 billion
- Messenger: 1.3 billion
- And of course, Instagram
So it's no wonder Facebook shares jumped to a record-high $203 yesterday. As outspoken NYU professor Scott Galloway puts it: "Zuckerberg oversees the content and influence and mood of a community greater than Christianity, the southern hemisphere, plus India."
And Insta didn't stop at 1 billion. It also announced the rollout of IGTV—a YouTube competitor.
+ Is Zuckerberg bound to pass Buffett in wealth? He's getting close.
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Berkshire, Amazon, and JPMorgan Announce CEO for Healthcare Initiative
In January, the real Avengers (Warren Buffett, Jeff Bezos, and Jamie Dimon) slapped on their skin-tight spandex and promised to take down the rising cost of healthcare in America.
What's the plan? Offer a better health insurance program for their U.S. employees, built from the ground up and "free from profit-making incentives."
The details of what that'll look like are still foggy, but one thing's clear: re-imagining healthcare (with its sky-high drug prices and misaligned incentives) is a task for no ordinary CEO.
Which is why the Avengers just announced their Super CEO: Dr. Atul GawandeÂ
Dr. Gawande is everything we're not: A general and endocrine surgeon, professor at Harvard Medical School, staff writer for the New Yorker, author of four books (including the best-selling The Checklist Manifesto), and director at the World Health Organization.
Besides having little business experience, Dr. Gawande seems to fit the bill to lead this long-term initiative—he's often highlighted the unnecessary rise of healthcare costs in his work.
In one New Yorker piece, he wrote:
- "In just a single year, the researchers reported, twenty-five to forty-two per cent of Medicare patients received at least one of the twenty-six useless tests and treatments."
- A 2010 study showed "waste accounted for thirty per cent of health-care spending."
He even called out his own clinic for unnecessary spending.
Not the hero we want, the hero we need
Here's the deal with misaligned healthcare incentives:Â Now that more people have insurance under the ACA, there are more doctor visits. The docs can order more tests and treatments because they make more money and insurance will cover the costs. Insurance providers don't care, because they just raise the premium families pay.
And the cycle goes on...and on...
- The average yearly premium for a single worker in 2000: $2,500.
- The average in 2017:Â $6,700.Â
The only question that matters:Â Can Amazon, Berkshire, JPMorgan, and Dr. Gawande (a world-renowned thought leader in the healthcare space) finally break the cycle?
New Exercise Routine for Arthritis
in Topics
Posted
As you grow older, arthritis may cause your knees to stiffen up. To loosen them up, simply do this excercise every morning for about ten minutes. Give it a try ?