Month: April 2017

Inside Alabama’s Auto Jobs Boom: Cheap Wages, Little Training, Crushed Limbs

Posted by Editor on in Jobs 0 Comment

“Parts suppliers in the American South compete for low-margin orders against suppliers in Mexico and Asia. They promise delivery schedules they can’t possibly meet and face ruinous penalties if they fall short. Employees work ungodly hours, six or seven days a week, for months on end. Pay is low, turnover is high, training is scant, and safety is an afterthought, usually after someone is badly hurt. Many of the same woes that typify work conditions at contract manufacturers across Asia now bedevil parts plants in the South.”

Trump’s Industrial Rebirth Is a Dead End

Posted by Editor on in Executive Branch, Jobs 0 Comment

“President Donald Trump’s economic adviser, Peter Navarro, has vowed to restore U.S. manufacturing supremacy. This is no surprise — Trump’s election campaign emphasized the promise of a return to the industrial economy of the mid-20th century, before countries such as China supplanted the U.S. as the workshop of the world. But this push is unlikely to succeed. Changes in the U.S. industrial mix, and in technology itself, mean there’s no going back to the economy of yesteryear.”

Dark Web: Report from the Congressional Research Service, March 2017

Posted by Editor on in Technology 0 Comment

“The layers of the Internet go far beyond the surface content that many can easily access in their daily searches. The other content is that of the Deep Web, content that has not been indexed by traditional search engines such as Google. The furthest corners of the Deep Web, segments known as the Dark Web, contain content that has been intentionally concealed. The Dark Web may be used for legitimate purposes as well as to conceal criminal or otherwise malicious activities. It is the exploitation of the Dark Web for illegal practices that has garnered the interest of officials and policymakers.”

“They Don’t Give a Damn about Governing”: Conservative Media’s Influence on the Republican Party

Posted by Editor on in Executive Branch, Legislature 0 Comment

“Jackie Calmes traces the history of conservative media, from its founding after World War II to the present-day proliferation of talk radio and Internet personalities. She finds that beyond the big names and outlets such as Limbaugh and Fox, smaller local personalities also exert significant influence over listeners and politicians. This influence is troubling to leaders in the Republican Party, who Calmes interviewed extensively for the paper. She argues that today’s conservative media now shapes the agenda of the party, pushing it to the far right – at the expense of its ability to govern and pick presidential nominees.”

Digital Privacy at the U.S. Border: Protecting the Data On Your Devices and In the Cloud

Posted by Editor on in Privacy, Technology 0 Comment

“The Electronic Frontier Foundation has just updated its 2011 guide to Digital Privacy at the U.S. Border with an all new edition that covers the law, administrative rules, technological options and potential repercussions of crossing the US border while not undergoing the warrantless seizure and indefinite retention of all of your sensitive data — in a guide that breaks out the different risks for US citizens, US permanent residents, and visitors to the USA.”