Technology

The cold war between America's two largest retailers just turned hot.

In a note this morning from Deutsche Bank's freight and logistics analyst Amit Mehrotra, he notes that  the "WMT vs. AMZN battle is heating up" and points to a report by DV Velocity, according to which a well respected transportation industry consultant told attendees of a logistics conference that Walmart (WMT) is telling trucking companies that it will no longer do business with them if they continue moving goods for Amazon (AMZN).

Via TheAntiMedia.org,

“Any person who operates a motor vehicle in the state shall be deemed to have given consent to field testing of his or her mobile telephone and/or personal electronic device for the purpose of determining the use thereof while operating a motor vehicle, provided that such testing is conducted by or at the direction of a police officer.”

Update: in addition to the below listed companies, all of which appear to have been targeted in the global cyberattack including Russia's Rosneft and metals giant Evraz, Danish shipper Maersk, UK ad company WPP, the Ukraine central bank and airport, more targets are emerging including Norway's national security authority which has said that a Ransomeware attack is ongoing in Norway "similar to the attack on Maersk", while Russia's Home Credit Bank said all domestic branches are closed because of the cyber attack.

Authored by John Whitehead via The Rutherford Institute,

“We are rapidly entering the age of no privacy, where everyone is open to surveillance at all times; where there are no secrets from government.” ? William O. Douglas, Supreme Court Justice (1966)

The government has become an expert in finding ways to sidestep what it considers “inconvenient laws” aimed at ensuring accountability and thereby bringing about government transparency and protecting citizen privacy.

Authored by James Holbrooks via TheAntiMedia.org,

Shattering the stereotype of the lazy pothead, new research suggests cannabis users are actually more satisfied, more successful, and even more likely to volunteer in their communities than their nonsmoking counterparts.

Last week, the Independent described to its readers how the research was carried out: