Arguing that bold, broad actions are needed to pull the economy back onto its tracks, President-elect Joe Biden unveiled his $1.9-trillion “American Rescue Plan” on 14 January. Key measures include: $20 billion for a national vaccination program, $50 billion for COVID testing, and hiring 100,000 new public health workers; adding $1,400 to the $600 payments...
Tag: jan 19 2021
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HIRING DOWN, LAYOFFS UP ACROSS INDUSTRIES IN NOVEMBER
At November’s end, 1.6 percent fewer jobs were advertised than a year previous, the first slip since August, the U.S. Labor Department reported. At the same time, layoffs jumped 17.6 percent to 1.9 million, as layoffs in the lodging and hospitality industries more than doubled due to new restrictions on social mobility. Layoffs have largely...
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JOBLESS CLAIMS SURGE
During the week of 9 January, the number of first-time claims for unemployment payments surged to 965,000 from 784,000 the week before, the U.S. Labor Department reported. The number was the highest since the week of 22 August. Analysts had expected 800,000 new claims. The unemployment rate held firm at 6.7 percent. Workers filing late...
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WORLD WIDE WEB INVENTOR WANTS DO-OVER
In 1980, during his off-hours as a consultant software engineer at CERN, the Swiss Particle Physics Laboratory, Sir Berners-Lee wrote a private program for storing information. He said the motivation was to mimic the way the human brain stores and accesses information. The engineer’s work evolved to become utilized as a decentralized data retrieval system...
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“UNCONTROLLABLE” AI CLOSE TO REALITY
The tech website “Interesting Engineering” referenced an alarming new report by the prestigious Max Planck Society that assessed human’s capability for controlling killer Artificial Intelligence technologies. According to the report, science is rapidly approaching the point where AI will effectively break out of human control, something previously only presaged by doomsday blockbuster sci-fi movie franchises...
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GOOGLE FLEXES WITH FITBIT ACQUISITION
Google data and tracking just got bigger. On 15 January, Fitbit, a leader in wearable health and fitness analytics tracking technology, announced it was being bought out by Google, the world’s largest tech and human data-mining company. The move will expand Google’s already huge capacity to track and mine human data. Founded in 2009, Fitbit...
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ALL THE PRESIDENT’S APPS: TECH COUP 2021
In a whirlwind week of unprecedented tech censorship, the world witnessed President Donald J. Trump silenced in the waning days of his presidency. The pretext for the digital coup was a chaotic breach of the Capitol building during a massive MAGA protest in Washington, DC, on 6 January. The President had called for the protest...
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TOILET PAPER OF RECORD: FULL OF CRAP
It was a two-color story that gobbled up nearly two-thirds of a page in The New York Times last Thursday with the headline: 10% of Congress Has Been Infected at Some Time The paper had outlines of Congress broken up in red and blue with the seats darkened of those who got the virus. Below...
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TREND TRACKING LESSON: NYT PROMOTES AGENDA
Oklahoma, which does not have a statewide mask mandate, is experiencing its highest coronavirus infection rate since the beginning of the outbreak, The New York Times reported last Thursday. Their headline read: “Oklahoma, With No Mask Mandate, Faces Surge in Cases” The Times wrote, “Oklahoma is in the grip of a frightening surge of the...