Jamaica plans marijuana dispensers for tourists

Jamaica is planning to install marijuana-dispensing kiosks for tourists in order to regulate a growing drug market and to bring in more government revenue. The new Cannabis Licensing Authority (CLA) is drawing up plans for the kiosks just two months after small amounts of the drug were finally legalized in a country where marijuana has long been part of the culture.
Read more: http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/americas/jamaica-proposes-marijuana-dispensers-for-tourists-at-airports-following-legalisation-a7110241.html?source=Snapzu

FBI Arrests Trio for Defrauding Movie Investors of $12 Million

The Federal Bureau of Investigation has arrested three men for allegedly running an “advance fee” scheme that swindled movie investors out of more than $12 million. An indictment unsealed in Manhattan Federal Court charged James David Williams of Calabasas, Calif.; Steven Brown of Santa Monica, Calif.; and Gerald Seppala of Minnesota with wire fraud and wire fraud conspiracy. Williams and Brown are also charged with laundering the proceeds of the fraud.
Read more: http://variety.com/2016/film/news/fbi-arrests-defrauding-movie-investors-1201806236/?source=Snapzu

Puerto Rico will default on $1 billion of debt on Friday

Puerto Rico is going to default, again. The governor of the commonwealth, Alejandro García-Padilla, wrote in an article for CNBC on Wednesday that Puerto Rico would not make some $1 billion in bond payments on Friday as it struggles with the long-term implications of its massive deficits. "On July 1, 2016, Puerto Rico will default on more than $1 billion in general obligation bonds, the island's senior credits protected by a constitutional lien on revenues," he said in the article.
Read more: http://www.businessinsider.com/puerto-rico-1-billion-default-friday-2016-6?source=Snapzu

Would a Work-Free World Be So Bad?

Fears of civilization-wide idleness are based too much on the downsides of being unemployed in a society premised on the concept of employment. People have speculated for centuries about a future without work, and today is no different, with academics, writers, and activists once again warning that technology is replacing human workers. Some imagine that the coming work-free world will be defined by inequality: A few wealthy people will own all the capital, and the masses will struggle in an impoverished wasteland.
Read more: http://www.theatlantic.com/business/archive/2016/06/would-a-world-without-work-be-so-bad/488711/?source=Snapzu

An Endless Cycle of Indecisive Wars

Why is a 'mass extinction' of independent states taking place in the Middle East, North Africa, and beyond? By Patrick Cockburn.
Read more: http://www.tomdispatch.com/blog/176158/?source=Snapzu

Ford dealership steals art from indie game Firewatch

A Ford dealership in Quincy, MA spent all day being bombarded with inquiries from video game journalists after blatantly ripping off art from indie game Firewatch. The title, developed by San Francisco-based studio Campo Santo, is set in the Wyoming wilderness and uses a heavily stylized visual aesthetic courtesy of graphic designer and illustrator Olly Moss, who led art direction for the project as a member of the Campo Santo team.
Read more: http://www.theverge.com/2016/6/27/12045514/ford-firewatch-game-art-copyright-campo-santo?source=Snapzu

Saying publishers’ anti-adblock tactics are illegal, a European privacy advocate plans his attack

Privacy advocate Alexander Hanff knew he had touched a nerve when the angry tweets from publishers and ad tech execs started pouring in.
Read more: http://www.niemanlab.org/2016/06/saying-publishers-anti-adblock-tactics-are-illegal-a-european-privacy-advocate-plans-his-attack/?source=Snapzu

How to Stop Robocalls … or at Least Fight Back

As intrusive pre-recorded calls to your home phone and smartphone reach record highs, Joanna Stern looks at how you can try to fight back with services like Nomorobo and Hiya
Read more: http://www.wsj.com/articles/how-to-stop-robocalls-or-at-least-fight-back-1467138771?tesla=y?source=Snapzu

Apple granted patent for way to stop iPhones from taking photos at concerts or sensitive locations

One of the things that really spoils live concerts these days is that half the people there don’t seem to want to watch it live at all – they’d rather watch it through their phone screen, holding the device up and blocking the view of those behind them. This is a problem Apple is seeking to solve in a patent first applied for in 2011 and granted today.
Read more: http://9to5mac.com/2016/06/28/apple-patent-infra-red-block-photos/?source=Snapzu

This rainbow corn actually exists. Here's how

Glass Gem corn, a unique variety of rainbow-coloured corn, became an Internet sensation in 2012 when a photo of the sparkling cob was posted to Facebook. Shortly after, the company that sells the rare seeds, Native Seeds/SEARCH, began ramping up...
Read more: http://www.sciencealert.com/this-rainbow-corn-is-the-coolest-way-to-eat-your-veggies?source=Snapzu

Why America's Business Majors Are in Desperate Need of a Liberal-Arts Education

Their degrees may help them secure entry-level jobs, but to advance in their careers, they’ll need much more than technical skills.
Read more: http://www.theatlantic.com/business/archive/2016/06/why-americas-business-majors-are-in-desperate-need-of-a-liberal-arts-education/489209/?source=Snapzu

Who got rich off the student debt crisis

A generation ago, Congress privatized a student loan program intended to give more Americans access to higher education. In its place, lawmakers created another profit center for Wall Street and a system of college finance that has fed the nation’s cycle of inequality. Step by step, Congress has enacted one law after another to make student debt the worst kind of debt for Americans – and the best kind for banks and debt collectors. Today, just about everyone involved in the student loan industry makes money off students – the banks, private investors, even the federal government.
Read more: https://www.revealnews.org/article/who-got-rich-off-the-student-debt-crisis/?source=Snapzu

British pound could hit history-making dollar parity by end of 2016

Investors should prepare for the British pound to hit parity with the U.S. dollar by the end of the year or early in 2017, said at least one analyst — and should parity happen, it’ll be a first. After last week’s surprise U.K. vote to exit the European Union trading bloc, sterling fell more than 12% against the dollar on Friday before trimming some of its unprecedented drop late in the U.S. trading day. But bears regained the upper hand on Monday, sending the currency to a fresh 30-year low at $1.3121.
Read more: http://www.marketwatch.com/story/british-pound-could-hit-history-making-dollar-parity-by-end-of-2016-2016-06-27?source=Snapzu

Volkswagen's U.S. diesel emissions settlement to cost $15 billion

Volkswagen AG's settlement with nearly 500,000 U.S. diesel owners and government regulators over polluting vehicles is valued at more than $15 billion cash, two sources briefed on the matter said on Monday. The settlement, to be announced on Tuesday in Washington, includes $10.033 billion to offer buybacks to owners of about 475,000 polluting vehicles and nearly $5 billion in funds to offset excess diesel emissions and boost zero emission vehicles, the sources said.
Read more: http://www.reuters.com/article/us-volkswagen-emissions-settlement-idUSKCN0ZD2S5?source=Snapzu

Meet the Moringa Tree, an Overqualified, Underachieving Superfood

The plant is highly nutritious and thrives in hot, dry conditions. Could it be a solution to the food crisis brought on by climate change?
Read more: http://www.newyorker.com/tech/elements/meet-the-moringa-tree-an-overqualified-underachieving-superfood?source=Snapzu

Booze & books! Barnes & Noble to serve beer & wine

Take that, Amazon! Barnes & Noble hopes that booze will lure book lovers back to its stores. Barnes & Noble announced Thursday that it planned to open four new concept stores this fiscal year that will have an expanded food menu -- and also serve beer and wine. But no vodka. Sorry, Chelsea Handler. The first store will open in Eastchester, NY in October. Three more are set to open at the Edina Galleria in Edina, MN, the Palladio in Folsom, CA, and at One Loudon in Loudon, VA.
Read more: http://money.cnn.com/2016/06/24/investing/barnes-and-noble-beer-wine-alcohol-booze/?source=Snapzu

How Housing’s New Players Spiraled Into Banks’ Old Mistakes

Some private equity firms that came in as the cleanup crew for the housing crisis are now repeating errors that banks committed.
Read more: http://www.nytimes.com/2016/06/27/business/dealbook/private-equity-housing-missteps.html?source=Snapzu

A Panama Canal for bigger cargo ships opens after $5.25B expansion

Fireworks exploded as a huge container ship made an inaugural passage through the newly expanded Panama Canal on Sunday, formally launching the Central American nation's multibillion-dollar bet on a bright economic future despite tough times for global shipping. The Chinese-owned Cosco Shipping Panama passed through the Atlantic locks in the early morning and by afternoon had completed the 80-kilometre journey to the Pacific, stewarded by tugboats and cheered by dignitaries and exuberant crowds of thousands.
Read more: http://www.cbc.ca/beta/news/world/panama-canal-expanded-1.3653269?source=Snapzu

Texas 'Frack Master' Bilked Investors Out of Millions

Texas oilman Chris Faulkner built a high-profile public persona, raised millions for his oil and gas ventures and courted politicians. But the SEC has alleged that behind the scenes, he cheated investors out of $80 million to fund a "debauched" jet-setting lifestyle.
Read more: http://www.reuters.com/article/us-breitling-energy-fraud-idUSKCN0ZD0BL?source=Snapzu

A select group of hedge funds made some serious money on Brexit

Some hedge funds profited on Brexit, including ones run by George Soros, Stan Druckenmiller, Crispin Odey, Nancy Davis' Quadratic Capital, and Schonfeld Group.
Read more: http://www.businessinsider.com/hedge-funds-trading-on-brexit-2016-6?source=Snapzu

UK food prices set to rise after Brexit vote

Food prices are likely to go up as a short-term consequence of Britain’s voting to leave the EU, owing to the UK’s dependence on imports, according to the president of the National Farmers Union. Meurig Raymond said the EU referendum result had been a “political car crash” and that UK farmers who receive up to £3bn in subsidies from the EU each year were headed into “uncharted waters”. But he warned that one of the most immediate impacts would be from the combination of the UK’s reliance on food imports and the pound hitting a 31-year low on Friday after the leave vote.
Read more: https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2016/jun/26/uk-food-prices-set-to-rise-after-brexit-vote-farmers-union?source=Snapzu

After oil, Norway looks to startups for economic growth

With oil prices plummeting, countries blessed with natural resources are feeling the heat and Norway is no exception. Politicians responding to the oil troubles are heeding calls for a new way forward, centered around startups. And the efforts to foster a new approach are led by an ambitious ex-business exec, the Crown Prince of Norway and a handful of contrarian entrepreneurs. Norway has seen the value of its state-owned oil and gas fields fall by more than $50 billion...
Read more: https://techcrunch.com/2016/06/26/after-oil-norway-looks-to-startups-for-economic-growth?source=Snapzu

What Consumers Want In GM Food Labeling Is Simpler Than You Think

At the center of the debate lay questions of trust in science and how the ways we communicate risk serve to increase or decrease that trust.
Read more: http://www.iflscience.com/environment/what-consumers-want-in-gm-food-labeling-is-simpler-than-you-think/all/?source=Snapzu

Researchers Crack 'Social DRM' EBook Watermarks

Researchers have released a report dissecting the BooXtream 'Social DRM' eBook watermarking system. Inspired by publisher Verso who refused to remove the DRM from an Aaron Swartz book, the Institute for Biblio-Immunology responded by tearing down the privacy-busting system.
Read more: https://torrentfreak.com/researchers-crack-social-drm-ebook-watermarks-160625/?source=Snapzu

From file-sharing to prison: A Megaupload programmer tells his story

Soon after the domain was registered in Hong Kong, the now-defunct Megaupload.com grew into one of the world's most popular file-sharing sites. At its peak, the site engaged nearly 50 million users a day and took up around four percent of the world's Internet traffic. Users uploaded nearly 12 billion files overall. But the infamy of the site's rise is only matched by the infamy of its fall. In January 2012, US authorities closed down Megaupload.com and the network related to it. The feds arrested seven people and froze $50 million in assets.
Read more: http://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2016/06/from-file-sharing-to-prison-a-megaupload-programmer-tells-his-story/?source=Snapzu

Digitising public domain images creates a new copyright, rules German court [Updated]

Berlin court has ruled that digitising paintings that are in the public domain creates new copyrights, even if the intent is to create a faithful image rather than produce an artistic interpretation. The case was brought by the Reiss Engelhorn Museum (REM) in Mannheim, Germany, against the Wikimedia Foundation and Wikimedia Deutschland—the local German chapter of the global Wikimedia movement—over 17 images of the museum's public domain works of art, which have been uploaded to Wikimedia Commons.
Read more: http://arstechnica.co.uk/tech-policy/2016/06/digitising-public-domain-images-creates-a-new-copyright-germany/?source=Snapzu

Brexit shock - France 'overtakes UK as world’s fifth largest economy' after pound plunges

FRANCE has overtaken the UK as the world’s fifth largest economy after the pound plunged to a 31-year low, with the vote to leave the EU reverberating across the world's financial markets.
Read more: http://www.express.co.uk/finance/city/683003/Brexit-shock-France-overtakes-UK-worlds-fifth-largest-economy-pound-plunges?source=Snapzu

Ready or Not, Companies Will Soon Be Tracking Your Emotions

Deep in the bowels of Houston's 72,000-seat NRG Stadium, in a curtained-off makeshift room near the court where the Villanova Wildcats and the University of North Carolina Tarheels are playing for the NCAA basketball championship, a small team of engineers and data scientists from a company called Lightwave huddles over laptops watching a stream of real-time data. But the engineers aren't looking at shooting percentages.
Read more: http://www.inc.com/magazine/201607/tom-foster/lightwave-monitor-customer-emotions.html?source=Snapzu

Head of the IMF Christine Lagarde in court charged with embezzlement

The head of the International Monetary Fund arrived in the dock of a Paris courtroom today as she braced herself to be formally charged with embezzlement and fraud.
Read more: http://www.standard.co.uk/news/world/head-of-the-imf-christine-lagarde-in-court-charged-with-embezzlement-and-fraud-8628670.html?source=Snapzu

Burger King Jumps Into Snack-Brand Hybrids With Mac ’n Cheetos

Burger King, the restaurant chain backed by 3G Capital and Warren Buffett, will begin selling deep-fried sticks of macaroni and cheese encrusted in Cheetos-flavored breading, part of a trend toward blending fast food with well-known snack brands. The new product, called Mac ’n Cheetos, emerged from a partnership with PepsiCo Inc.’s Frito-Lay, the snack empire that owns Cheetos, Doritos, Ruffles and other chips. The move mimics the strategy of Yum! Brands Inc.’s Taco Bell, which introduced a taco with a Doritos shell in 2012.
Read more: http://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2016-06-22/burger-king-jumps-into-snack-brand-hybrids-with-mac-n-cheetos?source=Snapzu

Comcast Admits It Incorrectly Debited $1,775 From Account, Tells Me To Sort It Out With Bank

Nearly two years after Consumerist reader Robert shut down his business-tier service with Comcast, he’s still fighting with the nation’s largest broadband provider over a $1,775 early termination fee that should not have been assessed. Comcast even admits the money shouldn’t have been debited from Robert’s bank account, but now says it’s his responsibility to sort the mess out with his bank. Robert tells Consumerist he first signed on with Comcast for his small business in early 2011...
Read more: https://consumerist.com/2016/06/22/comcast-admits-it-incorrectly-debited-1775-from-account-tells-me-to-sort-it-out-with-bank/?source=Snapzu

The New Censorship

Google, Inc., isn't just the world's biggest purveyor of information; it is also the world's biggest censor. The company maintains at least nine different blacklists that impact our lives, generally without input or authority from any outside advisory group, industry association or government agency. Google is not the only company suppressing content on the internet. Reddit has frequently been accused of banning postings on specific topics, and a recent report suggests that Facebook has been...
Read more: http://www.usnews.com/opinion/articles/2016-06-22/google-is-the-worlds-biggest-censor-and-its-power-must-be-regulated?source=Snapzu

When Uber Leaves

How do you go back to a time without Uber and Lyft? Austin, Texas is finding out the hard way. Austin, Texas has become a ridesharing wasteland. One month ago, Uber and Lyft left the city, abandoning their 10,000 drivers—and leaving the city’s residents in a state of transportation chaos. “Nobody really thought this was actually going to happen,” said driver Sarah Cooper, who spoke to Vocativ on a stormy afternoon in Texas. “There’s too much to lose in Austin, everybody said.” Cooper had been providing about 150 rides a week between Lyft and Uber before they left.
Read more: http://www.vocativ.com/327333/a-world-without-uber-dispatches-from-austin/?source=Snapzu

The New Panama Canal: A Risky Bet - How a $3.1 Billion Expansion Collided With Reality

On July 8, 2009, the champagne finally flowed. After an intense two-year competition, a consortium led by a Spanish company in severe financial distress learned that its rock-bottom bid of $3.1 billion had won the worldwide competition to build a new set of locks for the historic Panama Canal. The unlikely victors toasted their win at La Vitrola, a sleek restaurant in an upscale neighborhood east of downtown Panama City. Within days, executives of the four-nation consortium, Grupo Unidos por el Canal, flew to Europe to begin planning the project.
Read more: http://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2016/06/22/world/americas/panama-canal.html?source=Snapzu

You Won’t Be Able to Sue The Next Gawker

Gawker is filing for bankruptcy. Peter Thiel, who is a Facebook board member and Donald Trump delegate, secretly sued Gawker in a proxy lawsuit and, even though the case is unresolved, it was enough to bleed and bankrupt the company. And so much of the Silicon Valley establishment cheered Thiel on.
Read more: https://medium.com/@CodyBrown/you-wont-be-able-to-sue-the-next-gawker-e6c8a3900969#.390t9s59m?source=Snapzu

The Delicate Art of Growing Orchids Professionally

Rosalinda Luna talks about being a woman in agriculture and the challenges of nurturing a fickle plant.
Read more: http://www.theatlantic.com/business/archive/2016/06/orchid-grower/487940/?source=Snapzu

Tesla Makes Offer to Acquire SolarCity

Tesla’s mission has always been tied to sustainability. We seek to accelerate the world’s transition to sustainable transportation by offering increasingly affordable electric vehicles. And in March 2015, we launched Tesla Energy, which through the Powerwall and Powerpack allow homeowners, business owners and utilities to benefit from renewable energy storage. It’s now time to complete the picture. Tesla customers can drive clean cars and they can use our battery packs to help consume energy more efficiently, but they still need access to the most sustainable energy source that’s available: the sun.
Read more: https://www.teslamotors.com/blog/tesla-makes-offer-to-acquire-solarcity?source=Snapzu

Is business school the new design school?

People are often surprised when they hear that I earned my master of business administration degree, or MBA, as a side-hobby while I was a tenured professor at MIT. Even MIT’s human resources department was perplexed that I’d want to apply for the employee benefit to partially support my tuition costs. My motivation to do so was simple: I’d spent most of my life in the research world interacting with corporations during my years at the Media Lab, but I often got lost when the business folks would bandy financial or other business terms around me. So I wanted to defeat my lack of knowledge, by acquiring what most of them seemed to have...
Read more: https://techcrunch.com/2016/06/21/is-business-school-the-new-design-school/?source=Snapzu

Ad Blocking to Grow 34% This Year to Nearly 70 Million U.S. Web Users

Publishers would love internet users to decide that, actually, they don't need to install an ad-blocker on their browser of choice. But a new report from research firm eMarketer suggested on Tuesday that there's no such hope on the horizon. U.S. internet users running ad blockers will grow this year to 69.8 million, or 26.3% of web users in the U.S., from 51.9 million, or 20%, last year, eMarketer said. In 2017, ad-blocking web surfers in the U.S. will total 86.6 million, or 32%.
Read more: http://adage.com/article/media/ad-blocking-growth-emarketer-forecast-70-million/304615?source=Snapzu

A World Without Barnes & Noble Would Be a Disaster for Book Lovers

Even by the standards of the ailing book publishing industry, the past year has been a bad one for Barnes & Noble. After the company spun off its profitable college textbook division, its stock plunged nearly 40 percent. Its long-term debt tripled, to $192 million, and its cash reserves dwindled. Leonard Riggio, who turned the company into a behemoth, has announced he will step down this summer after more than 40 years as chairman. At the rate it’s going, Barnes & Noble won’t be known as...
Read more: https://newrepublic.com/article/133876/pulp-friction?source=Snapzu

Six doctors indicted in $122 million Medicaid fraud scheme

Six Detroit-area doctors face federal charges of health care fraud after being linked to a massive Medicaid and Medicare scheme. "In the Detroit area, 16 individuals, including six doctors, a social worker, a pharmacist and two physical therapists were charged with a variety of health care fraud and kickback schemes totaling over $122 million," U.S. Attorney Barbara McQuade's office announced in a statement issued Thursday.
Read more: http://www.mlive.com/news/detroit/index.ssf/2016/06/six_metro_detroit_doctors_indi.html?source=Snapzu

Inside RadioShack’s Slow-Motion Collapse

Nathan Hill learned a lot about entertaining himself during his time as a RadioShack employee. For 15 months during 2013 and 2014, he worked at two locations in two separate strip malls in suburban Phoenix. It was dull, but Hill, a 19-year-old computer science student, didn’t mind getting paid to sit around and play his Nintendo 3DS or browse Reddit on the store computers. “On some nights I would go from 6 till 9, three whole hours, without seeing a single customer,” he says. For each hour of solitude, he was paid $7.80.
Read more: http://www.bloomberg.com/news/features/2015-02-02/inside-radioshack-s-slow-motion-collapse?source=Snapzu

How "Star Trek" Created, Lost, And Won Back Its Devoted Fandom

On a cool, bright afternoon in late May, Gen X’ers and twentysomethings, grandparents, teenagers, and at least one baby lined up on a narrow sidewalk outside the Paramount Pictures studio lot in Los Angeles. Some of them wore suits; others came in T-shirts and jeans. A handful sported bright red, yellow, and blue shirts with a soaring, asymmetric chevron over their hearts. A few had notably pointy ears. They were, unmistakably, Trekkers, or Trekkies, or just, you know, Star Trek fans.
Read more: https://www.buzzfeed.com/adambvary/star-trek-fandom?source=Snapzu

Michigan loses 'right to farm' this week: A farewell to backyard chickens and beekeepers

Michigan residents lost their "right to farm" this week thanks to a new ruling by the Michigan Commission of Agriculture and Rural Development.
Read more: https://www.sott.net/article/320610-Michigan-loses-right-to-farm-this-week-A-farewell-to-backyard-chickens-and-beekeepers?source=Snapzu

Smart manufacturing has brought us into a new industrial revolution

Technology is all around us, and sometimes in us.
Read more: http://www.businessinsider.com/the-fourth-industrial-revolution-is-brought-by-smart-manufacturing-2016-6?source=Snapzu

Taylor Swift and other big names join the music industry’s campaign against YouTube

The music industry is ramping up its campaign against YouTube. Musicians, including Katy Perry and Billy Joel, sent a petition earlier this year to the U.S. Copyright Office to amend the U.S. Copyright Act. Now there’s an open letter to Congress signed by stars like Paul McCartney, Taylor Swift and U2 expressing a similar sentiment. Music labels like BMI, Sony Music and Universal Music Group have also endorsed the letter, which will be featured in ads on political websites like Politico and The Hill.
Read more: https://techcrunch.com/2016/06/20/taylor-swift-dmca-letter/?source=Snapzu

Errata Security: Ethereum/TheDAO hack simplified

Advanced persistent cybersecurity
Read more: http://blog.erratasec.com/2016/06/etheriumdao-hack-similfied.html?source=Snapzu

In defense of the Uber-ization of everything

I recently posted on Facebook a short rant about digital transformation for established enterprises. The skinny is that there are endless amounts of why and barely no opining on the what or how when it comes to executing any kind of digital transformation of your business or industry. Here’s a link to the Facebook post if you want some context. Not surprisingly, Uber got caught in the...
Read more: https://techcrunch.com/2016/06/19/in-defense-of-the-uber-ization-of-everything/?source=Snapzu

Self-driving Tractors And Cloud Technology Increase Agricultural Efficiency

There has been a lot of focus on self-driving vehicles as of late. Ranging from cars to buses and even trains, there are some exciting developments ahead. But very few people are aware there are self-driving tractors as well. The agricultural industry is changing at an accelerated pace.
Read more: http://themerkle.com/self-driving-tractors-and-cloud-technology-increase-agricultural-efficiency/?source=Snapzu

Historical Photos of The World’s Most Iconic Landmarks Before They Were Finished

The world’s most iconic landmarks are a big draw for tourists from around the world. But these historical landmarks are not just tourist attractions, they often serve as a milestone in history or a remarkable event in time.
Read more: http://www.vintag.es/2016/06/19-historical-photos-of-worlds-most.html?source=Snapzu