How Does Income Inequality Affect You Personally?

 

 

This clever animated graphic from the Economic Policy Institute lets you see exactly how income inequality affects you personally. It also shows how it was created and gives suggestions on how to fix it.

I love the little animated money men. I do wish the uber rich would go back to wearing those stylish top hats and carrying their money in bags with $ signs on them.

Graphic copyright Periscopic

This is What it Looks Like When you Game the System and Get Caught

Rep. Tammy Duckworth takes apart IRS contractor for ‘gaming’ veterans benefits program.

Here’s a little tip.

If you catch a company or individual profiting from ripping off the government you can use what are called qui tam laws and get the DOJ to sue them on your behalf. And you can get up to 15% of the recovered money.

Wouldn’t that be nice? Not just to bust the people breaking the law and gaming the system, but to have your bravery (or honor) rewarded. Now what you do with that money is up to you, but it could be used for anything, including flushing more corruption out of the system that is supposed to serve the American people and veterans and not just unethical people who want to game the system.

Continuum Question: People Fighting Corporate Power In the Future Are Terrorists

The following post is about Season 2 episode 2 of the Canadian produced show Continuum that is running on the Syfy. The episode has raised a lot of issues that I want to talk about and this show allows me to do it.

I think that this show is very interesting because it is making who and what the bad guys fighting interesting. Notice the question that Travis asks in this clip.

What Libr8 is fighting

He is fighting for a version of Occupy in 2077. Income inequality. Corporate power. 1% vs. the 99%. These questions are important to ask, Just how far will you go in your fight? Libr8 isn’t fighting a nation, they are fighting and idea that has gotten out of control. An idea that has fewer and fewer check and balances to it’s power.

As much as I LOVE to talk about time travel, I’d like to focus on what Libr8 is fighting. Corporate power. It’s actually at the heart of the show.

Time Travel is just the way they talk about it like any good SF. This is about now. The show is about about Occupy and the 2008 financial crash. It’s about corporations buying . . . → Read More: Continuum Question: People Fighting Corporate Power In the Future Are Terrorists

Build Your Own armed Drones!

Yesterday Boing Boing linked to a Northeastern University engineering students’ drone that honed in on radio signals. Today we see the next step, arming those drones.

In this commercial for a cell phone screen protector product, a quadcopter flies up to some fruit, sodas and a cell phone and shoots them with a remote controlled handgun.

The company, Clearplex, has many videos of its screen protector products being shot at, so this one is a natural, although creepy, extension of that series.

The video is edited so it’s hard to know how accurate the quad-copter is, but consider how apparently easy creating this one was, what’s the next step?

Be the first on your block to make one!

Cross posted at FireDogLake

  After posting this I decided to follow up with the company and sent this email to them.

Hello:

I recently wrote about your video, Drones Vs. Phones Samsung Galaxy S IV – GunDrone for the blog FireDogLake , for my blog Spocko’s Brain after seeing it at the science fiction and science blog io9.com.

I’m curious why you chose to use an armed quadcopter to illustrate the protective properties of your screen protector. I’m . . . → Read More: Build Your Own armed Drones!

Is Jimmy Carter the Reincarnation of Eleanor Roosevelt? Exclusive Photo Proof!

(Photo Comparison Exclusive, MUST CREDIT SPOCKO’S BRAIN! Creative commons license)

I spotted this photo of Eleanor Roosevelt on her pistol permit in New York State. I noticed a similarity with Former President Jimmy Carter so I put his photo on the card next to her so you can see it too.

Her getting a pistol permit reminds me that some people hated her. Did they hate her for her ideas or just because she was a woman? My Dad’s family didn’t like her at all. I don’t know why, but ever since I found out I’ve been reading up on Eleanor and her role in helping America get through the Depression with our soul and with new social solidarity systems in place. Systems like Social Security.

On Friday The Social Security Trustee’s report came out. We found out yet again that Social Security is in good shape. So is Medicaid. Yet people like Pete Peterson still think it is a problem. For more detail on just how full of it that the Social Security attackers are, listen to this interesting segment with my friend Alex Lawson of Social Security Works while talking to Sam Seder on Monday. (Sam was . . . → Read More: Is Jimmy Carter the Reincarnation of Eleanor Roosevelt? Exclusive Photo Proof!

1969 Video Technology Shows Moon Landing Not a Hoax

What a delightful video! Smart and well paced.