Tag Archives: Silver Lining

Detroit makes millions from parking meters, can’t afford to power them

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“Detroit is missing out on potentially millions in revenue because just about half of its 3,404 parking meters are out of service, according to city officials. It’s estimated that the city could get an extra $6 million in revenue just by getting the rest of the meters in working condition.  As part of efforts to reduce city spending, the Duracell batteries that power the meters were swapped out with off-brand units. The cheaper batteries apparently can’t hold a charge as long as the Duracells.  To make matters worse, the old locks used to secure the batteries easily seize up from water or grime, leaving even more meters out of service.”

http://www.theverge.com/2014/8/10/5988135/detroit-makes-millions-from-parking-meters-but-cant-afford-batteries

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WhatsApp’s Founder Goes From Food Stamps to Billionaire

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“For Jan Koum, 38, the windfall would stand in stark contrast to his years as a teenager, when his family relied on food stamps after emigrating from Ukraine. The experience of living in a country where phone lines were often tapped, instilled the importance of privacy in him, said Jim Goetz, a partner with Sequoia Capital Ltd., WhatsApp’s lone venture capital investor.  WhatsApp doesn’t collect information like name, gender, address or age. Instead, users are approved after their phone numbers are authenticated.  ‘It’s a decidedly contrarian approach shaped by Jan’s experience growing up in a communist country with a secret police,’ said Goetz in a blog post yesterday on Sequoia’s website.”

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2014-02-20/whatsapp-s-founder-goes-from-food-stamps-to-billionaire.html

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Air Force Spends $1 Billion On Software Now Declared Utter Failure

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“The Expeditionary Combat Support System was heralded as a ‘revolutionary’ supply-chain management system that was sold to the people over at the Pentagon who did what they often do.  In the end, the Pentagon contractors and officials informed Congress that it would require $1.1 billion and eight years beyond the planned rollout date to fix the system. So we scrapped it. Another one billion evaporates and Pentagon officials just move on to the next program. No one is fired. No one is prosecuted. By the way, this is just one of nine massive software systems ordered by the Pentagon, and six are running as late as 12 years beyond their planned rollout date. Twelve years.”

http://jonathanturley.org/2014/01/21/united-states-air-force-spends-1-billion-on-software-system-now-declared-utter-failure/

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Budget Cuts Could Pull Navy Out of The War on Drugs

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“Currently the Oliver Hazard Perry-class frigates USS Gary (FFG-51) and Thach (FFG-43) patrol the Caribbean and the eastern Pacific looking for drug runners  using either high-speed ‘go-fast,’ boats or slow-moving, hard-to-detect drug submarine-like craft to smuggle hundreds of tons of cocaine and other drugs from South America into the United States.  With the frigates out of the picture, the amount of drugs entering the country will increase, U.S. Coast Guard Commandant Adm. Robert Papp told USNI News following Tuesday’s State of the Coast Guard address.”

http://news.usni.org/2013/03/04/budget-cuts-could-pull-navy-out-of-the-war-on-drugs

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