Picture Larry Page: all nerd, all business. Not a man, one suspects, who worries too much about couture. Now take a look at Laforge Optical CEO and Founder Corey Mack in the video below. There’s a little snazz there.

So, it’s not surprising that his startup is taking on Google’s famed Glass at one of its more vulnerable pressure points: the embarrassment factor.

Although he says he doesn’t want to criticize Google Glass too much, as it isn’t a finished product, Mack told me: “Our biggest competition is Google Glass but our approach is different, because we focused on creating a device that people don’t mind being seen in.”

Translation: Laforge’s Icis is Google Glass for real human beings. You know, the ones who bathe in the power of the superficial, as well as the serious.

Still not wishing to criticize Google Glass too much, Mack told me: “Style is a subjective thing and currently the bar is set pretty low.”

So he and his team decided to create wearable eyewear that, they believe, not only looks good, but has a more friendly user interface. Instead of having to look up and to the right — as with Google Glass — Icis’s information, which comes […]

No Comments

In March 2013, the Harvard University Kennedy School of Government issued a report on the costs of America’s wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. Presently, these conflicts, which America has been fighting for over a decade, have totaled approximately $2 trillion in war debt.

This figure includes direct outlays for America’s three main military operations:

Operation Enduring Freedom (OEF) – The official name for America’s war in Afghanistan.
Operation Iraqi Freedom (OIF) – The official name for America’s war in Iraq (which some may remember by its original title: Operation Iraqi Liberation, or OIL).
Operation New Dawn (OND) – The official title for America’s war in Iraq under President Obama’s command (2010 to present).

These operations were implemented under the umbrella of America’s Global War on Terror. In 2006, President George W. Bush would tell CNBC that the war on terror was nothing less than ‘the first counter-attack to World War III.”

That counter-attack, or World War III, continues through the present day, twelve years after the first and only attack on America’s home soil since the turn of the century. In that time, America has financed its $2 trillion war […]

No Comments

On Thursday the former National Security Agency official and whistle-blower William E. Binney and I will debate Stewart A. Baker, a former general counsel for the NSA, P.J. Crowley, a former State Department spokesman, and the media pundit Jeffrey Toobin. The debate, at Oxford University, will center on whether Edward Snowden’s leaks helped or harmed the public good. The proposition asks: ‘Is Edward Snowden a Hero?” But, on a deeper level, the debate will revolve around our nation’s loss of liberty.

The government officials who, along with their courtiers in the press, castigate Snowden insist that congressional and judicial oversight, the right to privacy, the rule of law, freedom of the press and the right to express dissent remain inviolate. They use the old words and the old phrases, old laws and old constitutional guarantees to give our corporate totalitarianism a democratic veneer. They insist that the system works. They tell us we are still protected by the Fourth Amendment: ‘The right of the people to be secure in their persons, houses, papers, and effects, against unreasonable searches and seizures, shall not be violated, and no Warrants shall issue, but upon probable cause, supported by Oath or affirmation, and particularly describing […]

No Comments

A new survey of press freedom around the world finds the United States has plunged 13 spots, now ranking just 46th among 180 countries. The annual survey by Reporters Without Borders also says Syria is the most dangerous country for journalists, showing a correlation between conflict zones and a low level of press freedom. Other countries that fell lower than in the previous year’s survey include the civil-war-torn Central African Republic, down 43 spots to 109, and Guatemala, where four journalists were killed last year alone. This comes as the United Nations General Assembly recently adopted its first resolution on the safety of journalists. The group has now called on the United Nations to monitor how member states meet their obligations to protect reporters. We are joined by Delphine Halgand of Reporters Without Borders.
Transcript

This is a rush transcript. Copy may not be in its final form.

NERMEEN SHAIKH: We end today’s show with a new survey of press freedom around the world that finds the United States plunged 13 spots and now ranks just 46th among 180 countries. The annual survey by Reporters Without Borders says Syria is the most dangerous country for journalists, showing a correlation between conflict zones […]

No Comments

It’s not just the fringe anymore. Mainstream conservatives are trying to bring America’s laws into agreement with “God’s law.’

The question isn’t: Will conservatives push to enact laws based on the Bible? We are way beyond that. The real questions are: 1. How many more of these laws do they want to impose? And, 2. What will our nation look like if their crusade is successful to bring America’s laws into agreement with ‘God’s law”?

To some on the right, America is a ‘Christian nation”-like Saudi Arabia is a Muslim nation-meaning that our nation’s laws should be based on their religious text. These forces aren’t moved by Thomas Jefferson’s famous letter in which he spoke of the need to create, “a wall of separation between church and state.” Nor will they be swayed by citing Ronald Reagan’s words, “Church and state are, and must remain, separate.”

Just last week we saw another example of creeping Christian Sharia Law with a bill passed by Kansas’ House of Representatives that would allow people and businesses to deny services to same sex couples if it violated their ‘religious beliefs.” This proposed law would in essence legally sanction discrimination against gay Americans because same sex marriage […]

No Comments