NYC Train Derailment Airs Queries About Technology

Investigators haven’t yet determined whether the weekend wreck was the result of human error or mechanical trouble. But some safety experts said the tragedy might not have happened if Metro-North Railroad had the proper technology.

Associated Press
By Associated Press

YONKERS, N.Y. (AP) — The revelation that a New York City commuter train derailed while barreling into a sharp curve at nearly three times the speed limit is fueling questions about whether automated crash-avoidance technology could have prevented the carnage. Safety officials have championed what's known as positive train control technology for

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Employers Step In To Prevent Worker Burnout

After years in which the ease of instant communication via e-mail and smartphones allowed bosses to place greater and greater demands on white-collar workers, some companies are beginning to set limits, recognizing that successful employees must be able to escape from work.

Associated Press
By Associated Press

LONDON (AP) — Volkswagen turns off some employees' email 30 minutes after their shifts end. Goldman Sachs is urging junior staff to take weekends off. BMW is planning new rules that will keep workers from being contacted after hours. This surge in corporate beneficence isn't an indication that employers are becoming kinder and gentler: It's

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Drought Of STEM Graduates May Spell Doom For The American Economy

There are more job openings in science, technology, engineering and mathematics fields than there are U.S. college grads with those skills.

Frederick Reese
By Frederick Reese

Higher education in the United States is in a state of crisis. On the obvious end of the conundrum is the student debt bubble -- which at over $1 trillion in outstanding student loans and with a 90-day delinquency rate of over 11 percent -- is showing signs of bursting any day. As reported by Reuters, JPMorgan Chase, in a move reminiscent of the

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Letting Slip The Robots Of War

The first-ever autonomous landing of a drone on an aircraft carrier heralds in a scary new era of post-human warfare.

Jeffrey Cavanaugh
By Jeffrey Cavanaugh
A X47-B Navy Drone is launched from the deck of the nuclear aircraft carrier USS George H. W. Bush off the Coast of Virginia Wednesday, July 10, 2013. It is the first landing by a drone on a Navy carrier. (AP Photo/Steve Helber)

The scene is one of the most iconic in all of cinema history. As it opens, we are greeted with a charnel house vision of a post-apocalyptic future. What was once a city full of life and vitality has been transformed into a blasted, irradiated landscape, covered with the twisted remnants of our former civilization. On a wrecked highway, scorched

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Drone Schools Suggest Inevitability Of Drones In Everyday Life

This week, the United States Navy launched its drone prototype, the X-47B, from the deck of the U.S.S. George H.W. Bush off the coast of Maryland. The X-47B is the first drone that has proven successful in launching from and landing on an aircraft carrier, giving the military the capability of launching drone strikes without […]

Frederick Reese
By Frederick Reese

This week, the United States Navy launched its drone prototype, the X-47B, from the deck of the U.S.S. George H.W. Bush off the coast of Maryland. The X-47B is the first drone that has proven successful in launching from and landing on an aircraft carrier, giving the military the capability of launching drone strikes without first setting up a

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Caribbean Talks Conservation On Branson’s Island

To safeguard the Caribbean’s future, Branson says politics and business-as-usual will have to change.

Associated Press
By Associated Press

In a bid to safeguard biodiversity and the Caribbean's tourism-based economy, regional political leaders and corporate executives will gather Friday on billionaire Richard Branson's private island with the aim of protecting 20 percent of the region's coastal resources by 2020. Participants are expected to announce various commitments to advance

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