Surveillance capitalism: Even modern cars are equipped with multiple cameras that feed Big Data
Christopher Wylie, now-former director of research at Cambridge Analytica, blew the whistle on the company’s methods of illicitly collecting clients data without their knowledge or consent. According to Wylie, they had so much data on people, they knew exactly how to trigger fear, rage and paranoia in any given individual....
Big Tech: Social media collect data and your photos, which are used to train facial recognition software
The Google Nest security system has a hidden microphone built into it that isn’t featured in any of the schematics for the device. Voice data, and all the information delivered through your daily conversations, is tremendously valuable to Big Data, and add to their ever-expanding predictive modelling capabilities. You cannot...
Christmas wine shortfall explained: Russia’s invasion of Ukraine has held up supply of wine-bottle tops
A cork shipment delay may not sound like a big deal in the wine industry, but it’s critical for smaller wineries that don’t do their own bottling. They must hire a mobile bottler who shows up with a big truck, into which they pump the wine so it can get...
How ‘a perfect storm’ triggered by climate change and Covid rocked world wine supply
A fine wine can be a lot of things: oaky, fruit-forward, maybe even chewy. But wines of recent vintage also have the bouquet of a logistical nightmare, due to a brutal convergence of natural and human-made crises: drought and extreme heat, plus lingering supply chain hang-ups that have made it...
US Congress demands unrestricted humanitarian relief to Tigray before $100m loan to Ethiopia is released
The US has been urged to withhold a loan to Ethiopian Airlines until the government in Addis Ababa meets some standards set out by the cessation of hostilities agreement reached in Pretoria, South African, in November. US Congressman Brad Sherman – in a letter to Secretary of State Antony Blinken...
Power generation using fusion reactor is now a reality as experts warn efficiency will take longer
For the first time on Earth, a controlled fusion reaction has generated more power than it requires to run, researchers have confirmed. The experiment is a major step towards commercial fusion power, but experts say there is still a vast engineering effort needed to increase efficiency and reduce cost. Rumours...
Biden assures African presidents US ‘is all in on Africa’s future’ as he pledges $55 billion funding
President Joe Biden on Wednesday announced an agreement aimed at bolstering trade ties between the United States and Africa after years in which the continent took a backseat to other US priorities as China made inroads with investments and trade. “The United States is ‘all in’ on Africa’s future,” Biden...
Missing $80 trillion reported by Switzerland-based BIS triggers fears of steep global economic meltdown
The world faces a staggering financial meltdown with potential losses exceeding the total number of US dollars in circulation. This warning does not come from some headline-grabbing doomsayer but arguably the most respectable financial body of all, the Bank of International Settlements (BIS). This is a body of central bankers...
Holacracy: Reaping reward of devolved company hierarchy that is executed minus nit-picking boss
The March 2015 announcement by Zappos that they were fully embracing holacracy, an organisational structure that they’ve been experimenting with since 2013, has renewed my interest in hierarchy-induced dysfunctionality. In case you’re not familiar with this approach for structuring teams, you should know that holacracy doesn’t mean chaos. There is...
Cryptocurrency firm FTX on verge of losing billions of investor dollars as FBI zero in on insider fiddling
Collapsed cryptocurrency trading firm FTX confirmed there was “unauthorised access” to its accounts, hours after the company filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection on Friday. The embattled company’s new CEO John Ray III said on Saturday that FTX is switching off the ability to trade or withdraw funds and taking...
