Category: outside

“Silicon Valley’s latest tech boom, combined with a housing shortage, has caused rents to soar over the last five years. The city’s rents, by one measure, are now the highest in the world.

The prohibitive costs have displaced teachers, city workers, firefighters and other members of the middle class, not to mention low-income residents.

Now techies, many of whom are among the highest 1% of earners, are complaining that they, too, are being priced out.”

Source: Scraping by on six figures? Tech workers feel poor in Silicon Valleys wealth bubble | The Guardian

For Archie fans, character’s death makes an impact – SFGate.

I was an Archie comics fan when I was a kid and got back into it a bit again in college.  I even stole some of it to use as content for a zine I created.  A lot has happened to Archie since those days of him being a relatively carefree teenager, though.  He’s grown up in a recent story line and is now going to be killed off.  Yikes!

Ultra-rich man’s letter: “To My Fellow Filthy Rich Americans: The Pitchforks Are Coming”.

Good read.  Here’s a quote I like… “We rich people have been falsely persuaded by our schooling and the affirmation of society, and have convinced ourselves, that we are the main job creators. It’s simply not true. There can never be enough super-rich Americans to power a great economy. I earn about 1,000 times the median American annually, but I don’t buy thousands of times more stuff. My family purchased three cars over the past few years, not 3,000. I buy a few pairs of pants and a few shirts a year, just like most American men. I bought two pairs of the fancy wool pants I am wearing as I write, what my partner Mike calls my “manager pants.” I guess I could have bought 1,000 pairs. But why would I? Instead, I sock my extra money away in savings, where it doesn’t do the country much good.”

DreamHost gets a mention in this New York Magazine article discussing new trends in company organization design:  The Bossless Office Trend — New York Magazine.

Bullseye from 1,000 yards: Shooting the $17,000 Linux-powered rifle | Ars Technica.

With this computer-aided long range rifle people who have never used a rifle before can shoot small targets 1000 yards away. Things like this are a clue about what the future will look like. Computers will be augmenting human ability in almost everything we do. Modern cars are already largely computer-assisted devices with your actions not directly controlling them, but imagine when it happens to medicine (computer-assisted surgery) and sports (think bionic basketball).

Coast-to-coast solar plane flight set for May 1 | Ars Technica.

This solar plane is capable of crossing the US nonstop going just 43 miles per hour.  It would take 3 days but they’re unable to do it due to “security reasons”.  I wonder if we’ll soon start seeing solar-powered flying unmanned vehicles that never have to land.

American teacher in Japan under fire for lessons on Japan’s history of discrimination.

This guy is trying to do something good and teach kids about important issues, and he’s being attacked for it. It’s shameful.

Download this gun: 3D-printed semi-automatic fires over 600 rounds | Ars Technica.

When I first heard about “3D Printing” I didn’t realize the impact it could potentially have. When a technology is brand new it’s often hard to overlook the limitations and see the potential, but now parts of machine guns can be created at “home”.  It still takes a pretty high end printer today but it won’t for long.  It’s hard to not consider what this might mean for people in the future.

Pope will remain in Vatican to avoid prosecution for child sex abuse – National Humanist | Examiner.com.

Certainly this should be enough to bring some sort of widespread reform to the Catholic Church and its antiquated views on sexuality.