News broke this morning that Google and Tesla reached an acquisition agreement in 2013. Larry Page and Elon Musk reportedly had a handshake deal that would have seen Musk head the electric car maker for […]
Americans
Swiss Postal Service Testing Drone Delivery
Swiss Post, Switzerland’s equivalent to the United States Postal Service, has confirmed it is testing a delivery service that uses drones. A spokesman for the national mail carrier confirmed a report in local media to […]
Hacker Group Anonymous Fights For 4th Amendment Rights
Activist hacker collective Anonymous has launched an online campaign to raise awareness about two controversial US information-sharing bills Americans.org has learned. The first bill, CISA (Cybersecurity Information Sharing Act) is widely regarded to sacrifice privacy […]
Latest Bank Earnings Show Nothing Has Changed
Once bailed out Wall Street investment bank Morgan Stanley reported a much stronger than anticipated rise in quarterly profit, boosted by higher revenue from trading bonds and equities. “This was our strongest quarter in many […]
Shocking Street Violence Rocks South Africa
South Africa was shocked this weekend by a stunning series of photos showing helpless Mozambican migrant Emmanuel Sithole pleading for his life as a gang of men brutally murder him in a Johannesburg street. A […]
Target Still Has The Magic
Target showed this weekend that it still knows how to get the merchandise people want at prices people love. On Sunday Target’s collaboration with Lilly Pulitzer, the queen of American resortwear known for her bright, […]
Why Google’s open source strategy works
This morning Matt Rosoff wrote an interesting piece, arguing that Google should stop offering an open source version of Android. This is an interesting argument and Matt is one of the more knowledgeable writers on […]
Why China’s new silk road plan is a pipe dream
China Xi Jinping has grand dreams of new Asian trade routes but his ideas stand in stark contrast to his country’s political and military stance in the region and around the world. Xi first proposed […]
Isolated Amazonian tribe found to have resistance to antibiotics
Despite having never been exposed to antibiotics, the common cause of resistance development, an isolated Amazonian tribe has been found to have the condition according to a paper from the New York University School of […]
FBI caught lying about forensic matches for years
Thousands of court cases could be up for review as the Department of Justice and the FBI made the shocking acknowledgement on Friday that virtually every case in which an FBI forensic expert testified on […]
Army needs civilians to fight escalating cyberwar
The U.S. Army, in a move designed to attract talent cyber security professionals, will create a special civilian division according to a report released this week. To better fill their ranks, “the Army created the […]
Beautiful New Species Of Tree Frog Discovered in Costa Rican Mountains
Brian Kubicki made the discovery of a lifetime this past February when he discovered the first new native frog species since 1973. Kubicki travelled deep into the Talamanca mountains where he found the tiny, semi-translucent […]
After 100 Years Bald Eagles Return To New York!
A young pair of Bald Eagles has been spotted in New York City! Despite the high rents, lack of green space and bad stroller traffic on the narrow sidewalks the enterprising couple have taken up […]
Affleck’s Family Owned Slaves and 6 Other Embarrassing Things We Learned From The Sony Leaks
The hacking of Sony this year by supposed North Korean sympathizers has been well documented – or so we thought. Earlier this week Wikileaks published over 20,000 pages of previously unseen documents stolen in the […]
Major Concessions Needed In Comcast, Time Warner Cable Merger
The Wall St Journal reports that representatives of Comcast Corp and Time Warner Cable Inc are preparing to meet U.S. Department of Justice officials to ‘discuss’ competition concerns the agency has regarding their planned $45 […]
America Now Leads World In Medical Marijuana Reform
What a difference a decade makes. In 2005 only California had well defined medical cannabis reforms on the books, thanks to the impact of the Gonzales v. Raich ruling which seemed to separate state and […]
The Biggest Band You’ve Never Heard Of: Kidz Bop
Bloomberg has a fascinating piece on Kidz Bop, the preteen kids band that has more top 10 Billboard singles than all but 8 mega artists. Carefully selected by industry veterans, the band is in its […]
Greece To Receive $5 Billion Bailout From Russia
Der Spiegel is reporting that Greece is poised to sign a gas deal with Russia as early as Tuesday that could put up to €5 billion into the depleted Greek coffers, according to a senior […]
Experimental Drone Does Everything Human Pilots Can Do
America’s drone programs took a major step forward on Friday after the US Navy announced the experimental X-47B unmanned aircraft demonstrator successfully carried out air-to-air refuelling from a tanker, the last of the milestone the […]
See Every Tree In New York City Mapped By Species
Brooklyn-based designer Jill Hubley just made your weekend 1000x cooler. Despite New York City being about as urban as urban gets, Jill’s latest project shows that even concrete jungles harbor leafy life. The talented designer […]
Twitter Claims To Move User Accounts For Privacy But Is It Being Honest?
Twitter claims to have taken drastic steps this week to shield it’s users from NSA spying, Americans.org has learned. In an update to its privacy policy on Friday Twitter created a two-lane service that treats […]
Hollywood Rejoices As The Pirate Bay Reopens For ‘Business’
For the first time since it was raided late last year, Hollywood’s favorite website, The Pirate Bay, is allowing users to open new accounts again. Registrations had been closed for months due to security issues […]
Wayback Playback: Vinyl Set To Outsell CDs On Record Store Day 2015
Shoppers will be hitting their local indie music shops today for Record Store Day 2015 yet they won’t be buying CDs or mp3s. Instead they’ll be buying vinyl and even cassette tapes according to recent […]
Oklahoma To Execute With… Nitrogen?
Oklahoma Gov. Mary Fallin signed a bill into law Friday that allows the state to perform executions using nitrogen gas should lethal injection be ruled unconstitutional or become unavailable. According to Fallin’s office, nitrogen causes […]
America: Home Of The Truly Innovative
Today the British government announced that Mole Solutions would be awarded funding for an underground transport system. The idea is to deliver goods on rails, buried below the ground, housed in a tunnel between 3 […]
While America Struggles NFL Gets Full Patient Health Records
We have every piece of technology we need to share patient health records, reports NFL Chief Information Officer Michelle McKenna-Doyle. Instead, the issue is bickering amongst the network of hospitals, doctors, HMOs, insurance companies and […]
Radioactive WWII Aircraft Carrier Found Off California
NOAA, working with private industry partners and the U.S. Navy, has confirmed the location and condition of the USS Independence, the lead ship of its class of light aircraft carriers that were critical during the […]
Why (Verizon) Cable Is A Dead Duck
News broke today that Verizon is launching FiOS Custom TV, a package of basic cable channels plus two ‘addon packs’ that will retail for $55. The news was heralded as Verizon heading off cord cutters. […]
Former Goldman Banker To Be Clinton’s Treasury Secretary
Fresh on the heels of former Fed Chairman Ben Bernanke landing at Citadel, the world’s most leveraged hedge fund, the revolving door continues as rumours were confirmed last night by Bloomberg that Hillary Clinton will […]
Hair Regrowth Study Suggests Skin Cells Communicate
Bacteria communicate among themselves. A chemical system called ‘quorum sensing’ allows those single-celled bugs to tell when their numbers have multiplied enough to mount an effective attack or emit glowing light. The team of scientists […]