Researchers studied universal basic income - and found it could have an unexpected side effect

The potential advantages and drawbacks of universal basic income have been debated fiercely in recent months, but a new study suggests that paying everyone an unconditional salary could have a welcomed side effect. According to US think tank The Roosevelt Institute, a system of universal basic income – or UBI – in the US, under which every citizen is given a basic government salary unconditionally could actually grow the economy on a permanent basis. But there is a catch.
Read more: http://www.independent.co.uk/news/business/news/universal-basic-income-whole-economies-expand-us-think-tank-ubi-roosevelt-institute-a7921496.html?source=Snapzu

Essential is Bleeding Consumer Trust Before its Products Even Reach Customer Hands

Whenever a new device is announced, manufacturers make statements and promises — sometimes it almost feels as if the statements are meant to be forgotten, and the promises broken after everyone’s attention has withered. Blame can be put on both the manufacturer and the recipient (though only in part): the manufacturer for making a promise that they don’t intend to keep, and the recipient for mistaking a statement for an essential promise.
Read more: https://www.xda-developers.com/essential-bleeding-consumer-trust/?source=Snapzu

I criticized Google. It got me fired. That’s how corporate power works.

I study the way big businesses control our lives. What happened to me is a chilling example.
Read more: https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/posteverything/wp/2017/08/31/i-criticized-google-it-got-me-fired-thats-how-corporate-power-works/?source=Snapzu

Equal by Catastrophe – Victor Davis Hanson – Inference

Is economic equality worth the catastrophic events that produce it? Probably not. Victor Davis Hanson reviews Walter Scheidel’s The Great Leveler: Violence and the History of Inequality from the Stone Age to the Twenty-First Century.
Read more: http://inference-review.com/article/equal-by-catastrophe?source=Snapzu

Many Patents Are Being Passed to Android-Hostile Patent Trolls (by the Thousands) and Microsoft is in the Shadows

Some of the latest moves and actions (and auctions) which pose a danger to GNU/Linux in mobile devices in particular
Read more: http://techrights.org/2017/08/29/patent-actions-and-auctions/?source=Snapzu

Moscow Stock Exchange Prepares to Trade Cryptocurrency

Moscow Stock Exchange is creating an infrastructure to trade cryptocurrencies such as bitcoin. The exchange plans to trade cryptocurrencies as well as derivatives and exchange-traded funds (ETFs) based on them. This announcement closely follows the plan by Deputy Finance Minister Alexei Moiseev to regulate bitcoin as a financial asset.
Read more: https://news.bitcoin.com/moscow-stock-exchange-trade-cryptocurrency/?source=Snapzu

Two International Bank Managers Charged In Interest Rate Manipulation Scheme

Two French bank managers were indicted today for participating in a scheme to transmit false and misleading information related to the London Interbank Offered Rate (LIBOR), a global benchmark interest rate to which trillions of dollars of financial transactions are tied. Acting United States Attorney Bridget M. Rohde of the Eastern District of New York, Acting Assistant Attorney General Kenneth A. Blanco of the Justice Department’s Criminal Division, and Assistant Director-in-Charge Andrew Vale of the Federal Bureau of Investigation’s (FBI) Washington Field Office made the announcement.
Read more: https://www.justice.gov/usao-edny/pr/two-international-bank-managers-charged-interest-rate-manipulation-scheme?source=Snapzu

Euro rises to 18-month high against dollar

The euro has hit $1.20 for the first time since January 2015 as the prospect of a US interest rate rise recedes. Hurricane Harvey's impact has led analysts to assume the US central bank will not want to risk curbing economic growth and fears over North Korea's activities have unnerved investors. A rise in interest rates tends to draw investors to a currency, taking advantage of the higher returns.
Read more: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-41080896?source=Snapzu

This miracle weed killer was supposed to save farms. Instead, it’s devastating them.

The man-made disaster raises serious questions about the state of U.S. agriculture.
Read more: https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/economy/this-miracle-weed-killer-was-supposed-to-save-farms-instead-its-devastating-them/2017/08/29/33a21a56-88e3-11e7-961d-2f373b3977ee_story.html?source=Snapzu

Uber to scrap its most disturbing feature

Uber has decided to reverse its controversial move to track users even after their trips have ended. The company had claimed it would help ensure customers’ physical safety, but says the manner in which it introduced the change was wrong. Following an update last November, the app forced users to choose between letting Uber always collect their location data or never collect it.
Read more: https://www.independent.co.uk/life-style/gadgets-and-tech/news/uber-app-privacy-controversial-location-tracking-permissions-a7918031.html?source=Snapzu

The Great Pot Monopoly Mystery

Some very powerful people are trying to corner the market on legal weed. Who are they? And can they be stopped?
Read more: https://www.gq.com/story/the-great-pot-monopoly-mystery?source=Snapzu

Top Trump Organization executive asked Putin aide for help on business deal

A top executive from Donald Trump’s real estate company emailed Russian President Vladi­mir Putin’s personal spokesman during the U.S. presidential campaign last year to ask for help advancing a stalled Trump Tower development project in Moscow, according to documents submitted to Congress on Monday.
Read more: https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/top-trump-organization-executive-reached-out-to-putin-aide-for-help-on-business-deal/2017/08/28/095aebac-8c16-11e7-84c0-02cc069f2c37_story.html?source=Snapzu

Millions missing in Chinese visa fraud racket

Teddy Junus – a wealthy north shore businessman who boasted of networking with Tony Abbott, Andrew Robb and Kevin Rudd – is accused of rorting the system for subclass 457 and 163 visas, taking between $15,000 and $310,000 from dozens of hopeful migrants, most of whom were left with nothing.
Read more: http://www.smh.com.au/nsw/millions-missing-in-chinese-visa-fraud-racket-20170817-gxyk1o.html?source=Snapzu

Reddit’s new CTO was the company’s first hire

Reddit’s first employee has taken over the reigns as CTO of the popular internet company. Chris Slowe was the company’s founding engineer when he joined the team in late 2005. Slowe joined Reddit after getting to know co-founders Alexis Ohanian and current-CEO Steve Huffman in Y-Combinator’s first batch where he was serving as the founder of a different startup at the time.
Read more: https://techcrunch.com/2017/08/27/reddits-first-employee-is-the-companys-new-cto/?source=Snapzu

More seniors are taking loans against their homes — and it’s costing them

As she was getting on in years and her resources dwindled, Virginia Rayford took out a special kind of mortgage in 2008 that she hoped would help her stay in her three-bedroom Washington rowhouse for the rest of her life. Rayford, 92, took advantage of a federally insured loan called a reverse mortgage that allows cash-strapped seniors to borrow against the equity in their houses that has built up over decades.
Read more: https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/economy/more-seniors-are-taking-loans-against-their-homes--and-its-costing-them/2017/08/25/5f154072-883a-11e7-961d-2f373b3977ee_story.html?utm_term=.c623d65ed1fc?source=Snapzu

Amazon Cuts Prices at Whole Foods by Up to 43% on First Day

Amazon.com Inc. spent its first day as the owner of a brick-and-mortar grocery chain cutting prices at Whole Foods Market as much as 43 percent. At the store on East 57th Street in Manhattan, organic fuji apples were marked down to $1.99 a pound from $3.49 a pound; organic avocados went to $1.99 each from $2.79; organic rotisserie chicken fell to $9.99 each from $13.99, and the price of some bananas was slashed to 49 cents per pound from 79 cents.
Read more: https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2017-08-28/amazon-cuts-prices-at-whole-foods-as-much-as-50-on-first-day?source=Snapzu

Once the world's largest mall, now an Amazon fulfillment center

It's a sign of the times. Online retail powerhouse Amazon is constructing a shipping center on the site of an Ohio shopping complex that briefly boasted the title of "the world's largest mall." The North Randall, Ohio mayor said he expects the facility to create 2,000 jobs in the area.
Read more: https://amp.cnn.com/money/2017/08/25/news/companies/amazon-fulfillment-mall/index.html?source=Snapzu

Food delivery creates tech headache for some U.S. restaurants

Four tablets from various delivery companies crowd the front counter of Proposition Chicken in San Francisco, each calling out with its own ring when an order arrives. When there is a ping, a cashier finds the right tablet and then retypes the order into the restaurant’s own system, which tells the kitchen to start cooking.
Read more: http://www.reuters.com/article/us-restaurants-deliver-idUSKCN1B60HC?source=Snapzu

Jaw-dropping places that people can't believe are actually in Michigan

That waterfall, that overlook, that incredible freshwater sea: Yes, this is Michigan.
Read more: http://www.mlive.com/travel/index.ssf/2017/08/best_michigan_places.html#incart_m-rpt-2?source=Snapzu

Bottled water

Some of us get our water for free from the tap. The rest pay for it — at the cost of roughly $100 billion a year.
Read more: http://www.businessinsider.com/bottled-water-facts-science-healthy-2017-4?source=Snapzu

London pub defends £13.40 price of pint

A London pub has defended charging more than £13 for a pint of beer after being heavily criticised on social media.
Read more: http://www.morningadvertiser.co.uk/Drinks/Beer/London-pub-defends-13.40-price-of-pint?source=Snapzu

The Dying Art of Courtroom Illustration

Why there are no new artists in the gallery.
Read more: http://www.atlasobscura.com/articles/courtroom-artist-history-legal-illustration?source=Snapzu

Elon Musk’s Neuralink Gets $27 Million to Build Brain Computers

Neuralink Corp., the startup co-founded by billionaire Elon Musk, has taken steps to sell as much as $100 million in stock to fund the development of technology that connects human brains with computers. The San Francisco-based company has already gotten $27 million in funding, according to a filing with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission. Musk said via Twitter on Friday that Neuralink isn’t seeking outside investors. A spokesman didn’t respond to questions about the source of the funds.
Read more: https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2017-08-25/elon-musk-s-neuralink-gets-27-million-to-build-brain-computers?source=Snapzu

Millennials have a new shopping preference that should terrify Lululemon and Athleta

Athleisure could be on its way out.
Read more: http://www.businessinsider.com/athleisure-is-dying-2017-8?source=Snapzu

Amazon Takeover Of Whole Foods Gets Key Federal Approval

Amazon's purchase of Whole Foods is another step closer to reality, after the Federal Trade Commission decided the grocery deal would not hamper competition or provide an unfair advantage. The approval came on Wednesday — the same day shareholders of the Whole Foods chain approved the $13.7 billion deal that would make Amazon a bigger player in the grocery business. Whole Foods, which opened its first store in Austin, Texas, back in 1980, now has 470 stores in North America and the U.K.
Read more: http://www.wbur.org/npr/545775588/amazon-takeover-of-whole-foods-gets-key-federal-approval?source=Snapzu

China bans new business with North Korea in line with sanctions

China’s commerce ministry late on Friday banned North Korean individuals and enterprises from doing new business in China, in line with United Nations Security Council sanctions passed earlier this month. New joint venture enterprises, new wholly owned businesses and the expansion of existing entities involving North Korean individuals or companies are prohibited in China, according to a notice released on the ministry’s website.
Read more: http://www.reuters.com/article/us-northkorea-missiles-china-idUSKCN1B6033?source=Snapzu

Smartphone Maker HTC Explores Strategic Options

HTC Corp., the beleaguered manufacturer that once ranked among the world’s top smartphone makers, is exploring options that could range from separating its virtual-reality business to a full sale of the company, according to people familiar with the matter. The Taiwanese firm is working with an adviser as it considers bringing in a strategic investor, selling its Vive virtual reality headset business or spinning off the unit, the people said.
Read more: https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2017-08-24/smartphone-maker-htc-is-said-to-explore-strategic-options?source=Snapzu

Financial deregulation: will the US really go back to a pre-crisis free-for-all?

Since a revolving door was installed at the entrance to the West Wing of the White House, it has been difficult to keep track of the comings and goings in America’s corridors of power. Anything written about the Trump administration’s personnel and policies may be invalid before it is published.
Read more: https://www.theguardian.com/business/2017/aug/24/financial-deregulation-us-crisis-federal-reserve-trump?source=Snapzu

Megaupload execs’ extradition may be at risk after new spying revelations

GCSB couldn't say more without jeopardizing the national security of New Zealand.
Read more: https://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2017/08/new-zealand-illegally-spied-on-dotcom-associates-court-rules/?source=Snapzu

Loyalty of iPhone owners likely to overcome iPhone 8 price resistance – survey

A suggestion by Barclays that ‘only’ one in five iPhone owners will be willing to pay the rumored $1000+ price of the iPhone 8 has been countered by survey results showing the loyalty people feel to the Apple brand and ecosystem. While Barclays feared iPhone owners might defect to Samsung, the survey by Fluent indicates that this isn’t at all likely…
Read more: https://9to5mac.com/2017/08/24/iphone-loyalty/?source=Snapzu

Bill Gates and Richard Branson Back Startup That Grows ‘Clean Meat’

Cargill Inc., one of the largest global agricultural companies, has joined Bill Gates and other business giants to invest in a nascent technology to make meat from self-producing animal cells amid rising consumer demand for protein that’s less reliant on feed, land and water.
Read more: https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2017-08-23/cargill-bill-gates-bet-on-startup-making-meat-without-slaughter?source=Snapzu

First Tanker Crosses Northern Sea Route without Ice Breaker

Rising Arctic temperatures are boosting commercial shipping in the region, worrying environmentalists.
Read more: http://www.bbc.com/news/science-environment-41037071?source=Snapzu

Patrick McHardy and copyright profiteering

Many in the open source community have expressed concern about the activities of Patrick McHardy in enforcing the GNU General Public License (GPL) against Linux distributors. Below are answers to common questions, based on public information related to his activities, and some of the legal principles that underlie open source compliance enforcement.
Read more: https://opensource.com/article/17/8/patrick-mchardy-and-copyright-profiteering?source=Snapzu

Tucson-based Raytheon wins $900M contract to develop new nuclear cruise missile

Raytheon will compete with Lockheed Martin to produce the Long Range Standoff weapon.
Read more: http://tucson.com/business/tucson-based-raytheon-wins-m-contract-to-develop-new-nuclear/article_10a1954e-49b9-54bb-a57a-983e53c3a974.html?source=Snapzu

The Unintended Consequences of Quantitative Easing

Quantitative easing, which saw major central banks buying government bonds outright and quadrupling their balance sheets since 2008 to $15 trillion, has boosted asset prices across the board. That was the aim: to counter a severe economic downturn and to save a financial system close to the brink. Little thought, however, was put into the longer-term consequences of these actions.
Read more: http://www.bloomberg.com/view/articles/2017-08-22/the-unintended-consequences-of-quantitative-easing?source=Snapzu

Sears to shutter another 28 locations, as same-store sales tumble 11.5%

Sears reported a double-digit decline in comparable sales for the second quarter, citing a "retail environment [that] remained challenging."
Read more: https://www.cnbc.com/2017/08/24/sears-q2-earnings-2017.html?source=Snapzu

Woman: My Uber driver went wrong way, I said something, he pushed me out

A California woman has sued Uber, alleging that her driver pushed her out of the moving car following her demand to be let out when the driver refused to take the most direct route to her destination.
Read more: https://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2017/08/woman-my-uber-driver-went-wrong-way-i-said-something-he-pushed-me-out/?source=Snapzu

‘Not one drop’ of Poland Spring bottled water is from a spring, lawsuit claims

Poland Spring, the country’s best-selling bottled water, is “a colossal fraud,” according to a class-action lawsuit. The lawsuit, filed last week in Connecticut, alleges that instead of spring water, parent company Nestle Water North America has been selling billions of gallons of groundwater to its customers. “Not one drop of Poland Spring Water emanates from a water source that complies with the Food and Drug Administration definition of ‘spring water,'” the lawsuit states.
Read more: https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/business/wp/2017/08/22/not-one-drop-of-poland-spring-bottled-water-is-from-a-spring-lawsuit-claims/?source=Snapzu

Silicon Valley siphons our data like oil. But the deepest drilling has just begun

Personal data is to the tech world what oil is to the fossil fuel industry. That’s why companies like Amazon and Facebook plan to dig deeper than we ever imagined
Read more: https://www.theguardian.com/world/2017/aug/23/silicon-valley-big-data-extraction-amazon-whole-foods-facebook?source=Snapzu

Let Consumers Sue Companies

Arbitration is not enough. Class action should remain an option.
Read more: https://www.nytimes.com/2017/08/22/opinion/let-consumers-sue-companies.html?source=Snapzu

Bitcoin Price Continues to Rise in Spite of Increased Competition

During the recent Blockstack Summit 2017 event, there was a panel discussion on the usefulness of digital currencies, such as bitcoin, for payments. The panel featured 21 CEO Balaji Srinivasan, Lightning Labs co-founder Elizabeth Stark, and Yours CEO Ryan X. Charles. Additionally, Adamant Research Editor in Chief Tuur Demeester moderated the discussion.
Read more: https://coinjournal.net/bitcoin-price-continues-rise-spite-increased-competition/?source=Snapzu

Brands are now blacklisting mainstream news sites, including Fox News

Political tensions have reached a point where some brands are perceiving mainstream news outlets as too controversial, leading media buyers to pull ads from those sites. One campaign manager at a holding group media agency said a major automaker decided last month to stop serving ads in the news category in case the content didn’t align with the brand’s values. Then, after violence erupted in Charlottesville, Virginia, the agency blocked keywords including “Nazis” and “Charlottesville” in programmatic campaigns for the brand.
Read more: https://digiday.com/marketing/brands-start-pulling-ads/?source=Snapzu

Online Retailers Thrive as Brick and Mortar Retailers Struggle

In a world where many brick and mortar stores are struggling and some well-known retailers may actually shut their doors, the sales at online stores are getting stronger. As an article in Retail Dive notes, companies like Sears, Neiman Marcus and J. Crew are contending with a drop in sales, which has led to the closing of many of the retail giants' locations. In addition, stores like rue21, Payless and Gymboree have all entered bankruptcy proceedings, and Macy's recently announced that they would be shutting down over 60 stores.
Read more: http://www.nasdaq.com/press-release/online-retailers-thrive-as-brick-and-mortar-retailers-struggle-20170817-00687?source=Snapzu

Martin Shkreli Was ‘His Own Worst Enemy,’ Juror Says

Martin Shkreli, a juror at his fraud trial said on Monday, was “his own worst enemy.” On Aug. 4, after a five-week trial and five days of deliberations, the jury found Mr. Shkreli guilty on three of eight counts. He was convicted of securities fraud — for lying to hedge-fund investors — and of conspiracy to commit securities fraud, with a stock scheme surrounding Retrophin, a pharmaceutical company he founded. He faces as much as 20 years in prison; a sentencing date has not been set.
Read more: https://www.nytimes.com/2017/08/21/business/dealbook/martin-shkreli-jury.html?source=Snapzu

Breitbart has lost nearly 2,600 advertisers

Nearly 2,600 advertisers have cut ties with Breitbart News in recent months, according a Twitter account that tracks advertisers for the controversial conservative outlet. Sleeping Giants tweeted Sunday that the number of advertisers who have pulled ads from Breitbart is “climbing towards 2600." The group's Twitter description says it has been working to “stop racists and sexist media by stopping its ad dollars.”
Read more: http://thehill.com/homenews/media/347312-breitbart-lost-almost-2600-advertisers-report?source=Snapzu

Why is vegan fast food attracting some of the world's biggest investors?

You can now tuck in to a meat-free burger that looks and tastes just like a McDonald’s Quarter Pounder — even its texture is the same. The global fast food industry, worth $539.63bn in 2016, is undergoing a period of change as newcomers challenge the dominance of household names like Burger King, KFC, Wendy’s and Five Guys.
Read more: https://www.verdict.co.uk/vegan-fast-food-attracting-some-of-the-worlds-biggest-investors/?source=Snapzu

The Surprising Origins of Kotex Pads

Before the first disposable sanitary napkin hit the mass market, periods were thought of in a much different way
Read more: http://www.smithsonianmag.com/innovation/surprising-origins-kotex-pads-180964466/?source=Snapzu

Apple Patents 911 Finger, Call for Help Discretely

Apple patents way to call 911 emergency with fingerprint without assailant knowing. The patent abstract is as follows: “A device has a touch processing module that processes touch screen input to determine if the manner in which the input was entered indicates that the user intends for execution of a particular command. In one embodiment, the module may acquire fingerprint data from the user’s input and analyze the data to determine if the input was entered with a particular finger or finger sequence.
Read more: https://www.stockwinners.com/blog/2017/07/19/apple-patents-911-finger-call-for-help-discretely/?source=Snapzu

Toyota Patents a Cloaking Device

If you were to choose the perfect getaway car (and if you actually think about this, shame on you!), your choice would probably be something very fast, quiet and low to the ground, with darkened windows and night-vision lights to make it somewhat invisible at night. But what about one for those broad daylight Ocean’s 11-style heists? That list of choices probably wouldn’t include a Toyota Corolla … yet. Toyota just filed a patent on a cloaking device that may someday help a slick salesperson change your mind … for a cut of the bounty, of course.
Read more: http://mysteriousuniverse.org/2017/08/toyota-patents-a-cloaking-device/?source=Snapzu

We've Already Got Socialized Medicine

Unfortunately, the biggest recipients of government help are the pharmaceutical companies, not patients
Read more: https://blogs.scientificamerican.com/observations/weve-already-got-socialized-medicine/?source=Snapzu