Google Must Expand Privacy Delistings, Says French Watchdog | TechCrunch

June 12, 2015 ~ knjohn ~ Leave a comment

The French data protection watchdog has ordered Google to widen its implementation of the so-called European ‘right to be forgotten‘ so that links are also delisted from all Google domains, including google.com, not just (as is currently the case) from the .fr French subdomain.

Quick backgrounder here: the rtbf refers to a legal ruling by Europe’s top court last year. It identified search engines as data controllers and required they process requests from private individuals wanting outdated, inaccurate or irrelevant information delisted from a search result for their name.

Google, which is by far and away the dominant search engine in Europe, started processing these requests last summer. However the way Google implemented the court’s ruling has created a trivial workaround because it only delists links from European sub-domains (such as .fr and .co.uk), not from google.com.

Nestle faces setback in KitKat trademark battle | BBC News

June 12, 2015 ~ knjohn ~ Leave a comment

Confectionery giant Nestle’s attempt to trademark the shape of its four-finger KitKat bar in the UK does not comply with European law, a senior European Court lawyer has said.

The opinion of the advocate-general effectively ends Nestle’s attempts to trademark the snack.

It also brings to an end the latest chapter in the internecine chocolate wars between Nestle and Cadbury.

The High Court had already rejected Nestle’s trademark application in 2013.

Advocate-general opinions are usually, although not always, followed by the European Court judges.

The Americans studying medicine in Cuba | Mashable

June 11, 2015 ~ knjohn ~ Leave a comment

HAVANA, Cuba — After Hurricane Katrina devastated parts of Louisiana and Mississippi in August 2005, Cuba offered a cadre of doctors and medical supplies to help treat injured and displaced Americans. Cuba is renowned around the world for the quality of its doctors — but the United States government declined the offer.

Of course, that’s not exactly surprising given the two countries’ decades of animosity. Tension between Cuba and the U.S. is most visibly epitomized by a still-in-place trade embargo imposed by the U.S. in 1960, one year after Fidel Castro and Ernesto “Che” Guevara led a revolution to turn Cuba into a communist state.

Given the frosty relations and how the U.S. declined Cuban medical aid in 2005, one might reasonably assume the island just 90 miles south of Florida is the last place an American would go for medical school.

One would be wrong.

Lillian Burnett, who is from Oakland, is proof — and she’s not alone.

Economic Update | LAEDC

June 11, 2015 ~ knjohn ~ Leave a comment

v.19 n. 24 – Released June 10, 2015

This Week’s Headlines:

U.S. Job Growth Accelerates in May
Consumer Credit Surges by $20.6 Billion in April
U.S. Light Vehicle Sales Bounce Back in May
Events of Interest
- Stayed Tuned for Upcoming Events

Ikea Pledged $1 Billion To Fight Climate Change–And That’s Just A Small Part Of Its Green Agenda | Co.Exist

June 10, 2015 ~ knjohn ~ Leave a comment

Ikea might still be better known for cheap flat-pack bookcases than sustainability. But the world’s biggest furniture company is in the process of transforming itself to fight climate change. The latest step—a pledge of 1 billion euros (or $1.13 billion) for renewable energy and climate adaptation projects—is one piece of Ikea’s bigger vision to bring you the greenest Smörboll and Ödmjuk.

“We looked at this issue and said there hasn’t been enough positive advocacy from the business community,” says Steve Howard, Ikea’s chief sustainability officer. “It’s only now that we’re starting to see more businesses step up in this space.”

Over the next five years, the Swedish giant will spend €600 million on wind and solar installations for its stores and factories. That’s on top of another €1.5 billion spent since 2009; by 2020, the company plans to run on 100% renewable energy. To put these sums in scale, these figures are higher than what some entire European nations have pledged to the UN Green Climate Fund. Germany, one of the biggest donors, pledged €750m. It’s also a not-insignficant chunk of Ikea’s net profit in 2014: €3.33 billion ($3.79 billion).

Understand Your Entrepreneurial DNA Before You Start Up | Entrepreneur

June 10, 2015 ~ knjohn ~ Leave a comment

As an angel investor, I get requests almost every day to review a new product or website, and provide feedback on its potential success. Yet I can’t remember the last time any entrepreneur asked me to assess personal potential, despite the fact that most investors will admit they invest in the person more than the product. It is people who drive successful businesses.

So it behooves every aspiring entrepreneur to understand their own DNA before picking a project to bet their life on, and to facilitate effective communication with all constituents, including partners, investors, team members and customers. We all have strengths and special interests, and it always pays to capitalize on these, rather than assume all opportunities are the same.

Fact or Fiction? 5 Myths About EMV Clarified | Business News Daily

June 9, 2015 ~ knjohn ~ Leave a comment

If they haven’t heard already, brick-and-mortar retailers are going to be hearing the term “EMV” a lot more in the coming months. As payment card issuers continue to roll out their newer, more secure cards containing a data-encrypting chip, merchants are feeling the pressure to upgrade their point-of-sale (POS) terminals to make sure they’re up to date with EMV technology.

As with any widespread technological update, many businesses may hear confusing or conflicting information regarding how the changes will affect them. Business News Daily spoke with security and payment industry experts to get to the bottom of five common beliefs (and misbeliefs) about EMV.

Myth 1: EMV will make credit card transactions completely safe and secure.

Verdict: False.

The Future of Computers Is the Mind of a Toddler | Bloomberg Business

June 9, 2015 ~ knjohn ~ Leave a comment

Machines contain the breadth of human knowledge, yet they have the common sense of a newborn. The problem is that computers don’t act enough like toddlers. Yann LeCun, director of artificial intelligence research at Facebook, demonstrates this by standing a pen on the table and then holding his phone in front of it. He performs a sleight of hand, and when he picks the phone up—ta-da! The pen is gone. It’s a trick that’ll elicit a gasp from any one-year-old child, but today’s cutting-edge artificial intelligence software—and most months-old babies—can’t appreciate that the disappearing act isn’t normal. “Before they’re a few months old, you play this trick on them, and they don’t care,” says LeCun, a 54-year-old father of three. “After a few months, they figure out this is not normal.”

Why your rent check just keeps going up | Money.Cnn

June 8, 2015 ~ knjohn ~ Leave a comment

It’s gotten a lot harder to make the rent.

Rents have been soaring across the country, even outpacing home values, according to a recent Zillow report. Some areas are facing a particularly harsh reality: In San Francisco, renters have seen a nearly 15% yearly increase, and Denver tenants have faced an 11.6% rise.

And it’s not just a big city problem.

“Places that were more traditionally affordable are growing more quickly,” said Skylar Olsen, senior economist at Zillow.

The reason? A shortage of available rentals.

“Vacancy rates are at very low levels, which continues to push rents higher,” said Andrew Jakabovics, senior director, Policy Development & Research at Enterprise Community Partners.

United Flights Halted: The Malicious Work Of A Hacker Or An Old-Fashioned Computer Glitch? | Forbes

June 3, 2015 ~ knjohn ~ Leave a comment

Was the world’s second-largest airline grounded for nearly an hour Tuesday morning by a hacker?

Probably not. But that was the immediate suspicion after Chicago-based United Airlines began experiencing significant problems with its flight dispatch system around 8 a.m. CT.

The Federal Aviation Administration quickly issued a ground stop, effectively shutting down the airline’s more than 700 jets (except, of course, those already in the air). The ground stop order was lifted about 40 minutes later.

Wired.com and other media outlets quickly posted online news stories about the event in which they quoted Tweets and other social media postings from passengers stuck onboard grounded United planes. Though all those early reports cautiously added that the actual cause of the dispatch system disruption remained unknown, at least to the website editors – they speculated that United’s system had been hacked into by outsiders.