Canadians are already spending almost as much on marijuana as wine

Canadians consumed as much as $6.2 billion of marijuana in 2015, almost as much as they spent on wine, the federal statistics agency said Monday as it gears up to officially track weed when it becomes legal next year. The agency calculated the value by estimating 4.9 million people consumed 698 metric tons of cannabis that year, at an assumed price range of $7.14 to $8.84 a gram. It used government health and social surveys and outside research to create its model.
Read more: http://business.financialpost.com/commodities/agriculture/marijuana-use-may-have-hit-c6-2-bln-before-canada-legalization?source=Snapzu

Net neutrality repeal will be gradual on ISPs' part

The repeal of the Title II utility designation for internet service by the FCC last week means that providers can provide fast lanes for certain traffic at a cost to users, slow or even ban access to what they consider to be objectionable or competing content. While many companies already pay traditional ISPs as well as web services companies for regional servers to feed content to customers, the rates they pay may not be subject to drastic or even much movement at all.
Read more: http://pocketnow.com/2017/12/17/net-neutrality-isp-content-analysis?source=Snapzu

Uber driver confesses to killing British diplomat in Beirut, says source

A Lebanese Uber driver has confessed to killing a British diplomat in Beirut, a judicial source has told the Guardian. The body of Rebecca Dykes was found on the side of a motorway in the early hours of Saturday morning. Local police suggested she had been strangled. Her body was found without any identity papers on the Metn highway, which leads out of the Lebanese capital to the north-eastern suburbs. A postmortem suggested she had died at about 4am on Saturday.
Read more: https://www.theguardian.com/world/2017/dec/18/suspect-arrested-over-death-of-british-diplomat-rebecca-dykes-in-beirut?source=Snapzu

After Netflix pays Comcast, speeds improve 65%

Netflix's decision to pay Comcast for a direct connection to the Comcast network has resulted in significantly better video streaming performance for customers of the nation's largest broadband provider. Netflix has bemoaned the payment, asking the government to prevent Comcast from demanding such interconnection "tolls."
Read more: https://arstechnica.com/information-technology/2014/04/after-netflix-pays-comcast-speeds-improve-65/?source=Snapzu

Why Aren’t Any Bankers in Prison for Causing the Financial Crisis?

If hotheaded online commenters ran the Justice Department, would America's prisons be full of traders responsible for the financial crisis? It is tempting to think so—that the lack of corporate prosecutions is due to a lack of will rather than a lack of way. But convicting bankers—or any other white-collar workers whose decisions at work have ostensibly damaged the economy—is difficult because while it is easy to identify systematic wrongdoing, it's much harder to pin blame, at least in the way a court might approve of, on an individual within that system.
Read more: https://www.theatlantic.com/business/archive/2016/08/why-arent-any-bankers-in-prison-for-causing-the-financial-crisis/496232/?single_page=true?source=Snapzu

Exodus of Foreign Workers Leaves British Employers in the Lurch

Britain’s plan to leave the European Union has prompted thousands of Europeans to return to the Continent, forcing British employers to compete for a diminishing pool of workers.
Read more: https://www.nytimes.com/2017/12/16/world/europe/britain-european-union-farming-immigration-labor-shortage.html?source=Snapzu

Piketty and 100 researchers: inequality is getting worse, and will continue to worsen

Piketty and 100 researchers: inequality is getting worse, and will continue to worsen
Read more: https://boingboing.net/2017/12/14/oligarchy-on-ice.html?source=Snapzu