We're computerizing and connecting everything to the Internet, and there's very little incentive for companies to take threats nearly as seriously as they should. Society and law have a lot of catching up to do.
The U.N. Security Council's Resolution on the Iran Deal →
Earlier today, the United Nations Security Council unanimously approved a resolution supporting the recently concluded nuclear deal with Iran. The resolution creates the mechanism though which Iran will ultimately receive international sanctions relief once the IAEA verifies Iranian compliance with the agreement.
This $153,000 rattlesnake bite is everything wrong with American health care →
Maybe not everything, but a few big problems.
BTG has fought aggressively to keep competitors off the market. A competing product, Anavip, just received FDA approval this year and likely won't be on the market until late 2018. This lack of competition is one reason that snakebite treatments rack up such huge hospital bills -- $55,000. $89,000. $143,000. In May of this year, a snakebit Missouri man died after refusing to seek medical care, saying he couldn't afford the bill.
But the other reason hospitals charge so much is the byzantine negotiating process that happens between hospitals and insurance companies to determine the final payout amount...
In many cases, a hospital bill isn't actually a bill, but essentially an instrument in a complex negotiation between insurers and caregivers, with bewildered patients stuck in the middle. It's difficult to know which charges are real and which ones aren't, and which bills to pay and which ones to ignore. It's one reason medical debt is a huge factor in so many bankruptcies.
Hospital bills that amount to legal fictions certainly don't help consumers keep themselves out of debt trouble. Todd Fassler's bill is a perfect example -- he left the hospital on July 9, 2015. His bill said his $153,000 payment was due by July 27.
Drones forced firefighters to ground aircraft while fighting California wildfire →
Small, remotely-piloted flying machines are making a lot of neat things possible (low-budget movie effects, soon-to-be delivery services), but we have a lot of work to do to figure out how they fit in to society:
Drones can wreak havoc since firefighting aircraft fly so low when they perform water drops. As a US Forest Service spokesperson tells ABC, "As soon as we see drones, we shut down all of our aircraft for the safety reasons ... If a drone got sucked into a wing or a propeller, that could have some serious impacts."
Officials say that ground crews had to find the drone operators and tell them to stop flying around the fire before aircraft were able to continue attempts to control the blaze. In all, the incident delayed efforts by roughly 26 minutes — valuable time as wildfires can quickly grow out of control.
Canadian teenager sentenced to 16 months in jail for online harassment, bomb threats →
A Canadian teenager who pleaded guilty to 23 charges related to online harassment and "swatting" earlier this year has been sentenced to 16 months in a juvenile detention center by a provincial court. Following those 16 months, he'll spend eight months under community supervision, The Vancouver Sun reports.
The 17-year-old, whose name will not be released, harassed mostly young, female gamers and their families across the US and Canada in 2013 and 2014. Over the course of roughly one year, he hacked into several victims' social media accounts and shared their personal information online. He also called police stations claiming to have bombs at the homes of his victims — a process known as "swatting," because it often results in the unnecessary deployment of SWAT teams.
The historic nuclear deal with Iran: How it works →
The deal's proponents argue that the talks have yielded the best guarantee possible that Iran won't be able to move toward nuclear weapons, while also, for the time being, reducing the risk of yet another military escalation in the Middle East.
"This deal offers an opportunity to move in a new direction. We should seize it," President Obama said Tuesday.
Here's a guide to how it works.
John Oliver explains how billions of taxpayer dollars are wasted on professional sports stadiums →
Owners of football teams currently in St. Louis, San Diego, and Oakland are angling to make a move to Los Angeles, and they're leveraging the potential departure locally for taxpayer support of new or improved stadiums in their current municipalities. As Oliver makes clear, this strategy often leads to the comically vile scenario in which billionaires demand that cities provide hundreds of millions of dollars to appease privately owned teams that charge many of those same taxpayers hundreds of dollars for tickets.
Senate bill would make social media report 'terrorist activity' →
Social media operators such as Twitter, Facebook and YouTube would have to notify federal authorities of online "terrorist activity," according to the text of a bill approved by the Senate Intelligence Committee and seen by Reuters on Wednesday.
The types of communication include postings related to "explosives, destructive devices, and weapons of mass destruction," according to the text. An official familiar with the bill said it was sent to the Senate floor for a vote.
The official said its main purpose was to give social media companies additional legal protection if they reported to the authorities on traffic circulated by their users, rather than coerce them to spy on users.