Sunday, June 04, 2017

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London Bridge Terrorist Attack
Via: Daily Mail: Three Jihadi terrorists were shot dead by armed police after killing seven people and injuring 48 others in a horrific van and knife rampage in central London last night. The men, described as being ‘of Mediterranean origin’, mowed down up to 20 revellers as they careered across London Bridge in an ‘S […]
U.S. Ranked 114th out of 163 Countries Surveyed on Global Peace Index
Via: Newsweek: The United States has plummeted on a global ranking of countries based on levels of corruption, violent crime, racism and respect for human rights. The Global Peace Index 2017, issued annually by the Institute of Economics and Peace (IEP), shows the U.S declining 11 places in the global rankings to 114th out of […]
80% of Millennials Say They Want to Buy a Home—But Most Have Less Than $1,000 Saved
Via: CNBC: Millennials aren’t buying homes in the same numbers as previous and older generations, but it’s not because they don’t want to. The vast majority of millennials do indeed aim to buy someday, or would even like to now if they could. Unfortunately, the numbers don’t look good. New data from Apartment List shows […]

Yesterday

SpaceX Successfully Launches Used Dragon Cargo Ship, Then Lands First-Stage Booster
Via: space.com: For the first time in the history of commercial spaceflight, a used spacecraft has blasted off on a mission to deliver cargo to the International Space Station (ISS). After lightning strikes delayed the launch on Thursday (June 1), lingering storm clouds parted just enough for SpaceX’s Falcon 9 rocket to safely lift off […]
Almost Half of Americans Die Nearly Broke
Via: USA Today: Americans aren’t known for being great savers. In a recent GoBankingRates study, 69% of adults admitted to having less than $1,000 in the bank, while 34% said they actually don’t have any savings at all. But apparently, this collective lack of savings doesn’t get all that much better with age. A study […]

Jun 02

Is the U.S. Education System Producing a Society of “Smart Fools”?
Via: Scientific American: Tests like the SAT, ACT, the GRE—what I call the alphabet tests—are reasonably good measures of academic kinds of knowledge, plus general intelligence and related skills. They are highly correlated with IQ tests and they predict a lot of things in life: academic performance to some extent, salary, level of job you […]
Why Jails Are Booming
Via: The Atlantic: A new report from the Prison Policy Initiative examines the reasons behind this explosive growth. Perhaps unsurprisingly, it’s not driven by crime. Crime rates nationwide have dropped over the past few decades, as have conviction rates in court. So then why do jails keep swelling? It basically comes down to two things, […]

Jun 01

‘About Half of All U.S. Retail Jobs Could Vanish Due to Computerization’
Via: Kansas City Star: Consider this before you assume you can have a long or lucrative career in the retail industry: Up to half of all current jobs in the retail sector are likely to vanish because of e-commerce, automation of jobs and the closing of brick-and-mortar stores. Millions of retail jobs — as we […]
Trump Pulls U.S. Out of Paris Climate Agreement
Petrofascism is alive and well in the U.S., but it’s too late to stop solar and wind. Via: Reuters: President Donald Trump on Thursday said he will withdraw the United States from the landmark 2015 global agreement to fight climate change, a move that fulfilled a major campaign pledge but drew condemnation from U.S. allies […]

May 31

Microsoft Co-Founder Built the World’s Largest Plane to Launch Rockets Into Space
Via: The Verge: Microsoft co-founder Paul Allen has spent the last six years working on a giant aircraft capable of launching rockets to space. Today, his company Stratolaunch Systems literally rolled that plane out of its hangar in the Mojave Desert for the first time ever. It’s called the Stratolaunch aircraft, and it’s massive. The […]
Bloomberg: Electric Vehicles Cheaper than Gas Vehicles by 2025
I agree with this assessment much more than the one that said no gas cars by 2025. Via: Bloomberg: Now research from Bloomberg New Energy Finance indicates that falling battery costs will mean electric vehicles will also be cheaper to buy in the U.S. and Europe as soon as 2025. Batteries currently account for about […]
Biggest Threat to Utilities Is Not Solar + Storage, It’s Their Own Greed
Disclosure: I sell solar power systems in New Zealand. — I had written a long, obscenity laden rant about the retail energy cartel in New Zealand as the commentary on this story. Upon reading over what I’d written, and cleaning the spit off my screen, I realized that A) I’d written it all before and […]

May 30

Billionaire Robert Bigelow ‘Absolutely Convinced’ Aliens Are Currently Living on Earth
It would be nice if he shared some details as to why he believes this. It would be nicer if he showed proof of it. Via: Independent: One of Nasa’s partners has said that he is “absolutely convinced” aliens exist – and that they are living on Earth right now. Robert Bigelow, an entrepreneur who […]

May 29

Russian Explorers Find ‘Swamp’ of Soviet Money
I’m not sure at what age I’ll begin formal Homeschooling – Cryptogon Edition with my children, but this will be a great one for when I teach them about the fiat currency scam. Via: BBC: A group of explorers in Russia have found around a billion roubles in old Soviet money at an abandoned mine, […]
Harnessing the Energy Generated When Freshwater Meets Saltwater
I’d never heard of this before. Via: Phys.org: Penn State researchers have created a new hybrid technology that produces unprecedented amounts of electrical power where seawater and freshwater combine at the coast. “The goal of this technology is to generate electricity from where the rivers meet the ocean,” said Christopher Gorski, assistant professor in environmental […]
Google Now Tracks Your Credit Card Purchases and Connects Them to Its Online Profile of You
Via: MIT Technology Review: Google’s new ability to match people’s offline credit card purchases to their online lives is a stunning display of surveillance capitalism in action. The capability, which Google unveiled this week, allows the company to connect the dots between the ads that it shows its users and what they end up actually […]

May 28

Outage
Several people alerted me to a problem on Cryptogon earlier today. Indeed, there was a database problem that resulted in no posts displaying. I’ve got it working again.

May 27

British Airways Cancels Flights as Major IT Failure Causes Worldwide Delays
Via: Guardian: British Airways has cancelled all flights from Heathrow and Gatwick before 6pm on Saturday due to a major IT failure that is causing very severe disruption to its global operations. The airline said that its terminals at Heathrow and Gatwick had become “extremely congested” due to the computer problems. It had therefore decided […]

May 26

Zbigniew Brzezinski Dies at 89
Via: Bloomberg: Zbigniew Brzezinski, who as national security adviser to President Jimmy Carter advocated a hard line toward the Soviet Union and helped develop the unsuccessful military mission to rescue American hostages in Iran, has died. He was 89.
How Facebook’s Tentacles Reach Further Than You Think
Via: BBC: Facebook’s collection of data makes it one of the most influential organisations in the world. Share Lab wanted to look “under the bonnet” at the tech giant’s algorithms and connections to better understand the social structure and power relations within the company. … “If Facebook were a country, it would be bigger than […]
Gunmen Kill 26 in Attack on Christians in Egypt
Via: Reuters: Gunmen attacked buses and a truck taking a group of Coptic Christians to a monastery in southern Egypt on Friday, killing 26 people and wounding 25 others, witnesses and the Health Ministry said. An Interior Ministry spokesman said the unidentified gunmen had arrived in three four-wheel-drive vehicles. Eyewitnesses said masked men stopped the […]
Subaru to Develop Electric Variants of Current Range
Via: The Motor Report: Subaru is set to join the ever-expanding electric vehicle field, but rather than developing a new ground-up EV platform the Japanese automaker will adapt its current range.

May 25

GM Sued Over Diesel Emissions
Via: Bloomberg: General Motors Co. was sued for allegedly putting defeat devices in trucks to beat emissions tests, making it the fifth carmaker to be accused of diesel cheating since Volkswagen AG admitted in 2015 to flouting pollution rules. Owners and lessees of more than 705,000 GM Duramax branded diesel trucks filed a class-action lawsuit […]
The Trump Organization Says It’s ‘Not Practical’ to Comply With the Emoluments Clause
Via: The Atlantic: Days before taking office, Donald Trump said his company would donate all profits from foreign governments to the U.S. Treasury, part of an effort to avoid even the appearance of a conflict with the Constitution’s emoluments clause. Now, however, the Trump Organization is telling Congress that determining exactly how much of its […]
DARPA and Boeing Team Up to Build a Hypersonic Spaceplane
Via: Popular Mechanics: DARPA announced today that it has selected Boeing to design and build a new reusable, hypersonic spaceplane called the Phantom Express that would fly into high suborbital altitudes to launch satellites into orbit before coming back down to land horizontally like an airplane. The unmanned craft, part of the Experimental Spaceplane (XS-1) […]
France’s Macron Seeks to Extend State of Emergency to November
Via: France24: President Emmanuel Macron will ask France’s parliament to extend a state of emergency, in place since the 2015 attacks by Islamic State (IS) group militants, following this Monday’s suicide bombing in Manchester. France’s new president said in a statement that he will ask lawmakers to prolong the measure from July 15, its current […]
Brazil: Army Deployed to Capital
Via: Time: Brazil’s president ordered soldiers to restore order in the country’s capital Wednesday after some government ministries were evacuated during clashes between police and protesters who are seeking the leader’s ouster. Tens of thousands of demonstrators marched to Congress to protest economic reforms that President Michel Temer is pushing through and to demand he […]
President Trump’s Budget Includes a $2 Trillion Math Mistake
It wouldn’t be the first time. Here’s another $2.3 trillion dollar mistake that’s long forgotten: On Sept. 10, Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld declared war. Not on foreign terrorists, “the adversary’s closer to home. It’s the Pentagon bureaucracy,” he said. He said money wasted by the military poses a serious threat. “In fact, it could […]
Switzerland Votes to Phase Out Nuclear Power
Via: MIT Technology Review: It’s a tough time to be in the nuclear business. In Europe, Germany banned construction of new plants following the Fukushima disaster in 2011, and Austria stopped the practice long ago. The U.S., meanwhile, has a fleet of aging and costly reactors, and recent attempts to build new ones have been […]
Microsoft Has a Plan to Add DNA Data Storage to Its Cloud
This will probably be viable when you can hook up a Mr. Fusion to your Tesla, but it’s an interesting read anyway. Via: MIT Technology Review: The plans signal how seriously some tech companies are taking the seemingly strange idea of saving videos, photos, or valuable documents in the same molecule our genes are made […]
Baking Soda Shortage?
A cartel combined with absurd government regulations can look a lot like a doomed socialist state at times. In Venezuela, for example, there are shortages of food, toilet paper, medicines etc. Pretty standard stuff, Comrade. But in the U.S., how is it possible that the there’s a shortage of solutions of sodium bicarbonate? Key words […]
Thai Company to Build a Tesla Style Lithium Ion Battery Factory
Via: Bloomberg: A little-known company from Thailand with grand ambitions in clean energy wants to take on Tesla Inc. at its own game. Energy Absolute Pcl, which has morphed in recent years from a producer of biodiesel to Thailand’s leading renewable energy company, is eyeing a major push into energy storage with plans to develop […]
Two People Had Called Government Hotline to Report Manchester Bomber
Via: BBC: It has also emerged two people who had known Abedi at college made separate calls to a hotline to warn the police about his extremist views.

May 23

UK to Deploy Troops After Attack
Via: Reuters: Britain’s armed forces will be deployed to boost security, Prime Minister Theresa May said on Tuesday, as the country raised its terror threat to the highest level of “critical” after a suicide attack in Manchester that killed 22 people, including children. May said members of the armed forces would be positioned at key […]

May 22

Daimler Begins Construction on Lithium-Ion Battery Factory in Germany
Via: Ars Technica: On Monday, German Chancellor Angela Merkel visited the site of a future lithium-ion battery factory in the eastern German town of Kamenz. The factory is being developed by Mercedes-Benz manufacturer Daimler, which will devote approximately €500 million (or $562 million) to churning out batteries for electric vehicles and stationary storage. If the […]
Manchester Arena Blast
Update: BBC: Twenty-two people have been killed and 59 injured in what Theresa May called an “appalling, sickening, terrorist attack” at Manchester Arena. A lone male suicide attacker set off a homemade bomb in the foyer at 22:33 BST on Monday at the end of a concert by US singer Ariana Grande. — Via: Guardian: […]
Kim Dotcom Claims Seth Rich Was WikiLeaks Source
Via: Kim Dotcom / Twitter: I knew Seth Rich. I know he was the @Wikileaks source. I was involved. https://t.co/MbGQteHhZM — Kim Dotcom (@KimDotcom) May 20, 2017

May 21

U.S.-Saudi Arabia Weapons Deal Worth $350 billion Over 10 Years
Update: Ivanka Trump’s Women Entrepreneurs Fund Takes $100 Million from Saudi Arabia and United Arab Emirates From BAE to Settle Bribery Cases for More Than $400 Million: This is right out of Yes, Minister – The Moral Dimension. Here’s an audio clip from that episode. Note that the name of the “fictional” company is BES, […]

May 20

CIA Malware for All Versions of Windows
Via: WikiLeaks: Today, May 19th 2017, WikiLeaks publishes documents from the “Athena” project of the CIA. “Athena” – like the related “Hera” system – provides remote beacon and loader capabilities on target computers running the Microsoft Windows operating system (from Windows XP to Windows 10). Once installed, the malware provides a beaconing capability (including configuration […]
A Quarter Of American Adults Can’t Pay All Their Monthly Bills; 44% Have Less Than $400 In Cash
Via: ZeroHedge: Nearly eight years into an economic recovery, nearly half of Americans didn’t have enough cash available to cover a $400 emergency. Specifically, the survey found that, in line with what the Fed had disclosed in previous years, 44% of respondents said they wouldn’t be able to cover an unexpected $400 expense like a […]
U.S. Special Forces Expanding Shadow War in Africa
Via: Vice: Six years ago, a deputy commanding general for U.S. Army Special Operations Command gave a conservative estimate of 116 missions being carried out at any one time by Navy SEALs, Army Green Berets, and other special operations forces across the globe. Today, according to U.S. military documents obtained by VICE News, special operators […]

May 19

Americans Are Paying $38 to Collect $1 of Student Debt
Via: Bloomberg: The federal government has, in recent years, paid debt collectors close to $1 billion annually to help distressed borrowers climb out of default and scrounge up regular monthly payments. New government figures suggest much of that money may have been wasted. Nearly half of defaulted student-loan borrowers who worked with debt collectors to […]

May 18

Stanford Professor: Fossil-Fuel Vehicles Will Vanish in 8 Years in Twin ‘Death Spiral’ for Big Oil and Big Autos
I very seriously doubt it. Via: Financial Post: No more petrol or diesel cars, buses, or trucks will be sold anywhere in the world within eight years. The entire market for land transport will switch to electrification, leading to a collapse of oil prices and the demise of the petroleum industry as we have known […]
Brazil’s Stock Market Declines 10 Percent
Via: CNN: Brazil’s stock market, Bovespa, plunged more than 10% immediately after opening Thursday, wiping out almost all of its gains for the year. Officials halted trading for 30 minutes. Brazil’s currency, the real, also tanked 7% against the dollar, its worst day since the global financial crisis in 2008. The selloff came after new […]
Household Debt Surpassed Record Level Reached During the 2008 Financial Crisis
Via: CNBC: The New York Federal Reserve reports that household debt across the nation has hit a dubious milestone in the first quarter: It surpassed the peak debt level of 2008 at $12.7 trillion. Household debt — including mortgages, auto and student loans, and credit cards — rose $149 billion compared with the last quarter […]

May 16

Firm Thinks Solar Will Attract More Investment Funds Than Coal, Gas and Nuclear Combined in 2017
Disclosure: I sell solar power systems in New Zealand. — Via: PV Magazine: A new report by analyst firm Frost & Sullivan projects that in 2017 solar PV will attract more investment than coal, gas and nuclear power combined. The report, titled the Global Power Industry Outlook 2017, examines power market trends, including investment and […]
FDA Approved Drugs Have Nearly 1 in 3 Chance of Having a “Significant Safety Issue”
Oh sure, it’s a surprise. *wink* Via: Los Angeles Times: Almost one-third of new drugs approved by U.S. regulators over a decade ended up years later with warnings about unexpected — sometimes life-threatening — side effects or complications, according to a new analysis in the Journal of the American Medical Assn. Researchers looked at potential […]
NASA: Ocean Below Ice Layer on Enceladus Could Hold Life
Via: Newsweek: Today Earthlings came one very giant step closer to finding life elsewhere in our solar system. In the final months of its 20-year mission, the spacecraft Cassini delivered its most noteworthy revelation yet: the ocean of Enceladus, a moon of Saturn, is releasing hydrogen, an energy source for some microorganisms. In other words, […]
Private Investigator Claims Seth Rich Had Contact with WikiLeaks Prior to Death
Update: Family Says Fox Promoting Conspiracy Theories Via: Independent: The family of the Democratic National Committee staffer who was murdered last year is fed up with Fox News, and says that the conservative news outlet and other like it are using their tragedy to promote conspiracy theories. A statement from family spokesman Brad Bauman went […]

May 14

Microsoft Releases WannaCry Patch for PCs Running Old Operating Systems
I’m responsible for protecting some organizations from stuff like this. Here’s what I do: #1 If Windows is used, only operating systems currently supported by Microsoft are allowed. Even though I personally don’t use Macs, I encourage companies to use them and welcome those users who do use Macs. If you don’t know anything about […]
New Zealand: High Levels of E-Coli Found in Creek that Runs Into Treasured Springs
Disclosure: I am involved with the effort to bring attention to the pollution and water take issues at Te Waikoropupu Springs Reserve. — There is video of the manure slurry feeding into the crystal clear water over SOSGoldenBay.nz. Scroll down to the 28 April entry, if you dare. Via: Stuff: High E-coli levels have been […]
Here Comes the War for Commercial Drone Dominance
Via: Bloomberg: At some point in the not-too-distant future, fleets of commercial drones are expected to swarm across American skies. Companies in a wide range of industries will employ unmanned vehicles for tactical advantage—inspecting infrastructure, surveying crops, maybe even estimating how much your new roof will cost. And when these drones fly, a torrent of […]
In Cashless Sweden, Even God Now Takes Collection Via an App
Reverend Wayne’s Pearly Gates open 24/7. Via: Bloomberg: In the most cashless society on the planet, even God now accepts digital payments. A growing number of Swedish parishes have started taking donations via mobile apps. Uppsala’s 13th-century cathedral also accepts credit cards. The churches’ drive to keep up with the times is the latest sign […]

May 12

An NSA-Derived Ransomware Worm Is Shutting Down Computers Worldwide
I don’t know what it’s going to take to convince people to stop using abandoned versions of Windows, but if this doesn’t do it, nothing will. Via: Ars Technica: A highly virulent new strain of self-replicating ransomware shut down computers all over the world, in part by appropriating a National Security Agency exploit that was […]
Ex-L.A. County Sheriff Lee Baca Sentenced to Three Years in Prison in Jail Corruption Scandal
Via: Los Angeles Times: Former Los Angeles County Sheriff Lee Baca, once a towering, respected figure in policing, was sentenced Friday to three years in federal prison for his role in a scheme to obstruct an FBI investigation of abuses in county jails, marking an end to a corruption scandal that has roiled the Sheriff’s […]
New Zealand Population Surges Most Since World Turmoil of 1974
Via: Bloomberg: The last time New Zealand’s population grew this much, the world was reeling from an oil crisis and Richard Nixon’s resignation from the White House. The small nation at the bottom of the South Pacific saw its population surge by 100,300 people in the year to March 31, the biggest nominal increase since […]
The Boring Company: Tunnel Boring Machine Assembly Underway in Los Angeles
Even now, even as the machine is being assembled, I still keep asking myself, “Is this really going to happen?” Via: Electrek: Even though Elon Musk described his new Boring Company as “a few engineers and interns”, it seems to be moving incredibly fast. They took delivery of their first boring machine last month and […]

May 11

DIY EV and Powerwall/ESS: Insane Deal on New LG Lithium Ion Packs
Heads up for people doing DIY EV and ESS projects—and no need to hear from the Nervous Nellies. Jehu Garcia grew up in Tijuana with a dirt floor in his house and a hole for a toilet. All day, the Nervous Nellies tell him that he’s going to blow himself up after poking his eye […]
Roundup in Vaccines
Via: Moms Across America: Glyphosate, a chemical ingredient found in Monsanto’s Roundup and hundreds of other herbicides, has been found in vaccines. Moms Across America received preliminary screening results from Microbe Inotech Laboratories Inc. of St. Louis, Missouri which show the DTap Adacel (Sanofi Pasteur) vaccine had 0.123 ppb, Influenza Fluvirin (Novaris) 0.331 ppb and […]
Tunnel Collapse at Hanford Nuclear Waste Site
Via: CBC: When workers at the Hanford Nuclear Reservation in southeastern Washington state suddenly found a hole in the ground on Tuesday morning, there was cause for concern. Nowhere in the United States is there more nuclear waste and radioactive contamination than at Hanford, which has been the focus of a massive, complex cleanup effort […]

May 10

Tesla Solar Roof Up for Preorder
Disclosure: I sell solar power systems in New Zealand. — Lifetime physical warranty, 30 year solar output warranty. Via: Electrek: The value of Tesla’s solar roof is closely linked to its durability and its ability to generate electricity over decades. Musk previously discussed the possibility of making the warranty last for the lifetime of the […]
Trump Meets with Kissinger [???]
I shit you not. Via: NPR: After the Lavrov session had concluded, members of the U.S. media were allowed into the Oval Office, where they found the president sitting with Henry Kissinger, who served as President Richard Nixon’s secretary of state. The meeting hadn’t been listed on the president’s official schedule. Trump said he and […]
Storm
The power isn’t out for us yet, but it will be. See you on the other side.
Mexico Was Second Deadliest Country in 2016
Via: CNN: It was the second deadliest conflict in the world last year, but it hardly registered in the international headlines. As Syria, Iraq and Afghanistan dominated the news agenda, Mexico’s drug wars claimed 23,000 lives during 2016 — second only to Syria, where 50,000 people died as a result of the civil war.

May 09

Tesla Battery Researcher Claims They Doubled Lifetime of Batteries in Tesla’s Products 4 Years Ahead of Time
Update: Professor Jeff Dahn’s Talk If you have any interest in lithium ion batteries, this is very definitely worth your time. — Woh. I wonder how long it will be before Tesla slaps a 20 year warranty on their energy storage products… Via: Electrek: “In the description of the [Tesla] project that we sent to […]
Europe: How Billions Vanish Into the Security Industry Black Hole
Via: The Correspondent: The European Union spends billions on research into advanced technologies meant to make society safer. But our investigation – with 22 journalists in 11 countries – shows that the generous subsidies are mostly good for one thing: filling the coffers of the security industry.
Trump Fires Comey
Via: Independent: FBI Director James Comey – who was leading an investigation into alleged links between Donald Trump’s team and Russia – has been fired by the US President. White House Press Secretary Sean Spicer said in a statement that Mr Comey has been “terminated and removed from office.” Mr Trump acted on “clear recommendations” […]

May 08

More Robots, Fewer Jobs
Via: Bloomberg: Are you about to be replaced by a robot? The question has broad implications for the U.S. economy, especially the manufacturing sector. Industries that robotize tend to increase output. But robots can have dire consequences for workers. Two economists recently concluded that both jobs and wages fall in parts of the U.S. where […]

May 07

Unmanned U.S. Air Force Space Plane Lands After Secret, Two-Year Mission
Via: Reuters: The U.S. military’s experimental X-37B space plane landed on Sunday at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida, completing a classified mission that lasted nearly two years, the Air Force said. The unmanned X-37B, which resembles a miniature space shuttle, touched down at 7:47 a.m. EDT (1147 GMT) on a runway formerly used for […]
Macron Elected French President
Via: AFP: Pro-European centrist Emmanuel Macron resoundingly won France’s landmark presidential election, first estimates showed Sunday, heading off a fierce challenge from the far-right in a pivotal vote for the future of the divided country and Europe. The victory caps an extraordinary rise for the 39-year-old former investment banker, who will become the country’s youngest-ever […]

May 06

The Military is Using Human Brain Waves to Teach Robots How to Shoot
Via: Government Executive: Modern sensors can see farther than humans. Electronic circuits can shoot faster than nerves and muscles can pull a trigger. Humans still outperform armed robots in knowing what to shoot at — but new research funded in part by the Army may soon narrow that gap. Researchers from DCS Corp and the […]

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