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Starlink: Say Goodbye to the Night Sky As You Knew It

21by Kevin / 4d

My children and I like to look at the stars on most clear nights. There is no ambient light pollution where we are so the views are breathtaking. I’ll have to tell them to try to remember the sky as it is now, because it will soon be crisscrossed by thousands of satellites. Ironically, we’ve […]

Limited Hangout: ‘Wow, What Is That?’ Navy Pilots Report Unexplained Flying Objects

20by Kevin / 3d

My best guess is that this Pentagon/CIA/To the Stars operation is a limited hangout, but to what end, I have no idea. A limited hangout is: “Spy jargon for a favorite and frequently used gimmick of the clandestine professionals. When their veil of secrecy is shredded and they can no longer rely on a phony […]

‘American Soil’ Is Increasingly Foreign Owned

by Kevin / 2d

Via: NPR: American soil. Those are two words that are commonly used to stir up patriotic feelings. They are also words that can’t be be taken for granted, because today nearly 30 million acres of U.S. farmland are held by foreign investors. That number has doubled in the past two decades, which is raising alarm […]

YESTERDAY

Google to Restrict Modern Ad Blocking Chrome Extensions to Enterprise Users

by Kevin / 3h

Via: 9to5Google: Back in January, Google announced a proposed change to Chrome’s extensions system, called Manifest V3, that would stop current ad blockers from working efficiently. In a response to the overwhelming negative feedback, Google is standing firm on Chrome’s ad blocking changes, sharing that current ad blocking capabilities will be restricted to enterprise users.

California Assembly OKs Health Care for Immigrants in U.S. Illegally

by Kevin / 3h

It’s as if California fought a war with some external enemy and lost. Except, most Californians didn’t notice. And now… Via: AP: The California Assembly voted Tuesday to extend the state’s Medicaid program to eligible adults who are in the country illegally. Democratic Gov. Gavin Newsom wants to spend about $98 million a year to […]

Buckle Up: A Crash Trigger Has Hit

by Kevin / 14h

Via: ZeroHedge: The bond market is telling us, that the markets… and the economy… are both in very serious trouble. The difference between the yield on the 3-month Treasury and the 10-year Treasury (called the yield curve) is inverted. What this means is that yield on the 10-Year Treasury is LOWER than the yield on […]

China Gears Up to Weaponize Rare Earths in Trade War

by Kevin / 20h

Via: Bloomberg: Beijing is gearing up to use its dominance of rare earths to hit back in its deepening trade war with Washington. A flurry of Chinese media reports on Wednesday, including an editorial in the flagship newspaper of the Communist Party, raised the prospect of Beijing cutting exports of the commodities that are critical […]

MAY 28

High Radiation Levels Found in Giant Clams of Marshall Islands Near U.S. Nuclear Dump

by Kevin / 1d

Via: Los Angeles Times: Researchers have found high levels of radiation in giant clams near the Central Pacific site where the United States entombed waste from nuclear testing almost four decades ago, raising concerns the contamination is spreading from the dump site’s tainted groundwater into the ocean and the food chain. The findings from the […]

MAY 27

Astronomers Concerned About Starlink Light Pollution

by Kevin / 2d

Well, it’s not just me. Via: Forbes: SpaceX had kept the logistics of each satellite under wraps prior to the launch, but following the launch it was revealed that each satellite had a relatively large solar panel, perfect for not only gathering but reflecting sunlight back to Earth. This means anyone looking up at the […]

Rare Earth Metals: China’s ‘Nuclear Option’ In The Trade War

by Kevin / 2d

Via: oilprice.com: A simple visit to an obscure factory by Chinese President Xi on Monday is all it took to raise the specter that China could be contemplating cutting off supply of critical materials to the U.S. and potentially crippling large swathes of its industries. Also, fueled by political innuendo in Xi’s recent call for […]

The Books of College Libraries Are Turning Into Wallpaper

by Kevin / 2d

Via: The Atlantic: University libraries around the world are seeing precipitous declines in the use of the books on their shelves.

MAY 26

See Why Tesla Scares The Legacy Players

by Kevin / 3d

Via: CleanTechnica: EVs are the future, and Tesla is the undisputed market leader, especially in the US, but also globally. If you’re an automaker on the wrong side of this trend, it must be terrifying!

MAY 25

‘Pilots Are Losing Their Basic Flying Skills’

by Kevin / 4d

Via: USA Today: Automation has made planes safer and more efficient, but the crashes of two Boeing 737 Max jets is leading some to wonder if there is a dangerous flip side. While advanced autopilots and computers are now considered an integral part of any modern jetliner, many pilots worry that the systems are detracting […]

U.S. Military to Trawl Through 350 Billion Social Media Messages

by Kevin / 4d

“Individual users won’t be identified in the research, according to the Navy.” Via: Bloomberg: The U.S. military plans to analyze 350 billion social-media posts from around the world to help it track how popular movements evolve. A tender for the project, based at the Naval Postgraduate School in Monterey, California, calls for screening messages from […]

U.S. Army Asking “How Has Serving Impacted You?” Goes Very Wrong on Twitter

by Kevin / 4d

I only included the first two responses with this screenshot. At the link, you can keep scrolling down until your mouse wheel falls off if you want to see more. Via: @USArmy:

Borderless

by Kevin / 4d

Via: Lauren Southern:

MAY 24

Defying Congress, Trump Sets $8 Billion-Plus in Weapons Sales to Saudi Arabia, UAE and Jordan

by Kevin / 5d

Mmm hmm. Via: Reuters: U.S. President Donald Trump, declaring a national emergency because of tensions with Iran, swept aside objections from Congress on Friday to complete the sale of over $8 billion worth of weapons to Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates and Jordan. The Trump administration informed congressional committees that it will go ahead […]

3D-Printed Guns Are Unstoppable

by Kevin / 5d

Via: Wired: A new network of 3D-printed gun advocates is growing in America – and this time things are different. Unlike previous attempts to popularise 3D-printed guns, this operation is entirely decentralised. There’s no headquarters, no trademarks, and no real leader. The people behind it reckon that this means they can’t be stopped by governments. […]

Facebook Now Censoring Diet Information

by Kevin / 5d

Via: CrossFit: CrossFit is a contrarian physiological and nutrition prescription for improving fitness and health. It is contrarian because prevailing views of fitness, health, and nutrition are wrong and have unleashed a tsunami of chronic disease upon our friends, family, and communities. The voluntary CrossFit community of 15,000 affiliates and millions of individual adherents stands […]

Merck Created Hit List to “Destroy,” “Neutralize” or “Discredit” Dissenting Doctors

by Kevin / 5d

Via: CBS: Merck made a “hit list” of doctors who criticized Vioxx, according to testimony in a Vioxx class action case in Australia. The list, emailed between Merck employees, contained doctors’ names with the labels “neutralise,” “neutralised” or “discredit” next to them.

23% of Americans Are Going Into Debt Trying to Pay for Food, Rent, Utilities

by Kevin / 5d

Via: CNBC: American have an average of $6,506 in credit card debt, according to a new Experian report out this week. But which expenses are adding to that balance the most? A full 23% of Americans say that paying for basic necessities such as rent, utilities and food contributes the most to their credit card […]

SpaceX Deploys 60 Starlink Satellites

by Kevin / 5d

Via: Reuters: SpaceX, the private rocket company of high-tech entrepreneur Elon Musk, launched the first batch of 60 small satellites into low-Earth orbit on Thursday for Musk’s new Starlink internet service. A Falcon 9 rocket carrying the satellites blasted off from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station at about 10:30 p.m. local time (0230 GMT Friday), […]

MAY 23

Robots Conduct Daily Health Inspections of Schoolchildren in China

by Kevin / 6d

Wow! Via: New Scientist: Please stand in front of Walklake for your examination. This health checking robot takes just 3 seconds to diagnose a variety of ailments in children, including conjunctivitis, and hand, foot and mouth disease. Over 2000 preschools in China, with children aged between 2 and 6, are using Walklake every morning to […]

Dome Covering Nuclear Waste in Marshall Islands Is Beginning to Crack

by Kevin / 6d

Via: Independent: Beginning in 1977, 4,000 US servicemen began collecting an estimated 73,000 cubic meters of tainted surface soil across the islands, according to the Marshall Islands’ government. The material was then transported to Runit Island, where a 328-foot crater remained from a May 1958 test explosion. For three years, the American military dumped the […]

U.S. Charges WikiLeaks Founder Julian Assange with Espionage

by Kevin / 6d

Via: Reuters: The U.S. Justice Department unveiled 17 new criminal charges against WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange on Thursday, saying he unlawfully published the names of classified sources and conspired with and assisted ex-Army intelligence analyst Chelsea Manning in obtaining access to classified information. The superseding indictment comes a little more than a month after the […]

Amazon Is Working on a Device That Can Read Human Emotions

by Kevin / 6d

This strikes an interesting balance. It’s right on the line between cringe inducing and hilarious. Via: Bloomberg: Amazon.com Inc. is developing a voice-activated wearable device that can recognize human emotions. The wrist-worn gadget is described as a health and wellness product in internal documents reviewed by Bloomberg. It’s a collaboration between Lab126, the hardware development […]

Ford’s Vision for Package Delivery Is a Robot that Folds Up Into the Back a Self-Driving Car

by Kevin / 6d

Ford conveniently doesn’t show you the robot retrieving the package from the vehicle. As a former FedEx driver who worked with delivery trucks piled top to bottom with packages for years, I chortle deeply and satisfyingly at this one. Assume that the self driving issue is somehow sorted out, which isn’t going to happen anytime […]

MAY 21

Los Angeles: Rotting Trash Piles Attracting Rats and Raising Concerns of a New Epidemic

by Kevin / 8d

Must see video. Via: NBC Los Angeles: Rat-infested piles of rotting garbage left uncollected by the city of Los Angeles, even after promises to clean it up, are fueling concerns about a new epidemic after last year’s record number of flea-borne typhus cases.

U.S. Postal Service Testing Self-Driving Trucks for Hauling Mail Between Hubs

by Kevin / 8d

In yesterday’s post, I mentioned how intercity freight is the low hanging fruit of the self driving world. Here we go… Via: Reuters: The U.S. Postal Service on Tuesday started a two-week test transporting mail across three Southwestern states using self-driving trucks, a step forward in the effort to commercialize autonomous vehicle technology for hauling […]

MAY 20

Automakers Are Rethinking the Timetable for Fully Autonomous Cars

by Kevin / 9d

A friend of mine is an AI researcher. I know that “AI researcher” is a nebulous term, but let it suffice to say that he is highly qualified in this area. Back in April, I asked him what he thought about Tesla’s big self driving dog and pony show. In short, I asked him: Is […]

MAY 19

Chicago and Detroit Have Bought Real-Time Facial Recognition Systems

by Kevin / 10d

Via: Wired: Civil liberties activists trying to inspire alarm about the authoritarian potential of facial recognition technology often point to China, where some police departments use systems that can spot suspects who show their faces in public. A report from Georgetown researchers on Thursday suggests Americans should also focus their concern closer to home. The […]

MAY 17

Daily Mail Claims U.S. Has Combat Ready EMP Cruise Missiles

by Kevin / 12d

Flashback 2012: CHAMP – Lights Out Via: Daily Mail: The U.S. Air Force has deployed at least 20 missiles that could zap the military electronics of North Korea or Iran with high-power microwaves, rendering their military capabilities virtually useless without causing any fatalities, DailyMail.com has learned exclusively. Known as the Counter-Electronics High Power Microwave Advanced […]

MAY 16

Robots Take the Wheel as Autonomous Farm Machines Hit Fields

by Kevin / 13d

Via: Bloomberg: Robots are taking over farms faster than anyone saw coming. The first fully autonomous farm equipment is becoming commercially available, which means machines will be able to completely take over a multitude of tasks. Tractors will drive with no farmer in the cab, and specialized equipment will be able to spray, plant, plow […]

Half of Americans Are Just One Paycheck Away from Financial Disaster

by Kevin / 13d

Via: MarketWatch: Missing more than one paycheck is a one-way ticket to financial hardship for nearly half of the country’s workforce. A new study from NORC at the University of Chicago, an independent social research institution, found that 51% of working adults in the United States would need to access savings to cover necessities if […]

RealTalk: This Speech Synthesis Model Our Engineers Built Recreates a Human Voice Perfectly

by Kevin / 13d

Via: Medium: Today we’re excited to announce that our Machine Learning Engineers Hashiam Kadhim, Joe Palermo and Rayhane Mama have produced the most realistic AI simulation of a voice we’ve heard to date. It’s the voice of someone you’ve probably heard of before?—?Joe Rogan. (For those who haven’t: Joe Rogan is the creator and host […]

Driverless Electric Truck Starts Deliveries on Swedish Public Road

by Kevin / 13d

Via: Reuters: Resembling the helmet of a Star Wars stormtrooper, a driverless electric truck began daily freight deliveries on a public road in Sweden on Wednesday, in what developer Einride and logistics customer DB Schenker described as a world first. Robert Falck, the CEO of Swedish start-up Einride, said the company was in partnership talks […]

The Haunting Last Words of Isaac Kappy: “Now, I Am One of Them”

by Kevin / 13d

“I am not suicidal.” Via: Vigilant Citizen: Isaac Kappy – the actor who accused several Hollywood figures of child abuse – died after throwing himself off a bridge. A few days prior to this fateful day, Kappy posted a haunting video about him “crossing the line” and becoming “one of them”. What actually happened to […]

Britain: Police Fine Pedestrian £90 for Disorderly Behaviour After Hiding His Face from Facial Recognition Camera

by Kevin / 13d

Via: Daily Mail: Police fined a pedestrian £90 for disorderly behaviour after he tried to cover his face when he saw a controversial facial recognition camera on a street in London. Officers set up the camera on a van in Romford, East