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: History as Seen by Bloggers
"I would rather have questions that can't be answered than answers that can't be questioned" Richard Feynman
"The penalty good people pay for not being interested in politics is to be governed by people worse than themselves."
- Plato, Greek philosopher.
Via: Boston Globe: President Trump signed the 2018 Farm Bill, which legalizes industrial hemp after decades of the crop being caught up in broader cannabis prohibition, into law on Thursday. The signing ceremony represents the culmination of a months-long debate over various provisions of the wide-ranging agriculture legislation. But after the House and Senate Agriculture […]
A few days ago, it was: U.S. Troops to Occupy Third of Syria, “Perhaps Indefinitely.” So, is it good news that the Trump actually wants to get U.S. troops out of Syria? Yes. But it’s more complicated than that. He also has to stop the CIA from running/training/supplying ISIS. Via: Reuters: U.S. President Donald Trump […]
The French Air Force has trained eagles to attack drones: In a battle between ancient arts and modern technology, France’s army is teaching birds of prey to bring down remote-controlled drones when they enter no-go urban airspace. Four golden eagles are getting military training for combat against battery-charged drones that just about anybody can buy […]
Via: Reuters: Juice is a one-foot tall canine wonder who has starred in dozens of Chinese film and television productions. As he gets older and his illustrious career peaks, his Beijing-based master has one wish for the mutt – to live on. Maybe forever. A mongrel stray adopted off the streets, the nine year-old Juice […]
Via: FastCompany: The Indian government has authorized 10 central agencies to intercept, monitor, and decrypt data on any computer, sending a shock wave through citizens and privacy watchdogs. Narendra Modi’s government late Thursday broadened the scope of Section 69 of the nation’s IT Act, 2000 to require a subscriber, service provider, or any person in […]
Via: ABC: The Trump administration is planning to reduce the number of U.S. troops in Afghanistan, with the possibility that some troops begin withdrawing in the coming weeks, according to a U.S. official. The current force of 14,000 is expected to be cut in half, with those troops arriving home by the end of the […]
Via: Electrek: At the suggestion of Ohio Governor John Kasich, Tesla CEO Elon Musk says that he will consider buying a GM factory in Ohio as it’s shut down next year. Last month, GM announced that they are closing 3 assembly factories in North America. In an article, we suggested Tesla should buy one of […]
Via: Guardian: The purchase of Keyhole was a milestone for Google, marking the moment the company stopped being a purely consumer-facing internet company and began integrating with the US government. When Google bought Keyhole, it also acquired an In-Q-Tel executive named Rob Painter, who came with deep connections to the world of intelligence and military […]
Anyone watching it? Via: Bloomberg: Just as the euphoria surrounding Bitcoin was peaking last December, Mark Dow decided to short the leading digital currency. Almost a year to the day, and after a more than 80 percent decline from its record high price, Dow has closed out the trade. “I’m done. I don’t want to […]
Via: Bloomberg: Economic jitters and surging supplies from the U.S. to Moscow dragged oil prices to the lowest level in 15 months. Futures fell as much as 5.8 percent in New York on Tuesday. Anxieties about economic growth swirled after Chinese President Xi Jinping appeared to push back against U.S. President Donald Trump in a […]
Via: Ars Technica: Signal, one of the most secure messaging apps, essentially told Australia this week that its attempts to thwart strong crypto are rather cute. “By design, Signal does not have a record of your contacts, social graph, conversation list, location, user avatar, user profile name, group memberships, group titles, or group avatars,” Joshua […]
Via: The Intercept: A children’s speech pathologist who has worked for the last nine years with developmentally disabled, autistic, and speech-impaired elementary school students in Austin, Texas, has been told she can no longer work with the public school district after she refused to sign an oath vowing that she “does not” and “will not” […]
Via: Drs. Wolfson: They told us vaccines were safe. They lied. They told us vaccines were effective. They lied. They told us vaccines were necessary. They lied. It’s time to learn the truth and see the information they don’t want you to see. Join The Drs. Wolfson for a rare full-length cinema seminar presentation regarding […]
Via: Stars and Stripes: RAQQA, Syria — This ruined, fearful city was once the Islamic State’s capital, the showcase of its caliphate and a magnet for foreign fighters from around the globe. Now it lies at the heart of the United States’ newest commitment to a Middle East war. The commitment is small, a few […]
Via: Ross Tessien – SeekingAlpha: Legacy auto companies are planning on the EV disruption taking several decades. But disruptions never take that long once the new technology can match the old. Related: “The electrification of the truck market is the next multibillion dollar opportunity that the traditional American automakers will fumble.”
They’re going into a 1.2 GWh project in California. 1.2 GWh… Via: Electrek: Electrek has learned some exclusive information about Tesla’s Megapack, the company’s upcoming new stationary energy storage product. The big new battery system is going to debut at Tesla’s giant 1.2 GWh energy storage project with PG&E in California. As we reported earlier […]
Via: Newsweek: A peckish parrot has been caught ordering strawberries, a watermelon and even a water boiler through his foster owner’s electronic personal assistant. Rocco, an African Grey, requested the items through an Alexa device while his minder was out of the home. Luckily, due to a parental lock, none of his attempted purchases went […]
Via: Reuters: A federal judge in Texas on Friday ruled the Affordable Care Act, commonly known as Obamacare, was unconstitutional based on its mandate requiring that people buy health insurance, a decision in a case that could reach the U.S. Supreme Court. U.S. District Judge Reed O’Connor in Fort Worth agreed with a coalition of […]
Via: Reuters: A Reuters examination of many of those documents, as well as deposition and trial testimony, shows that from at least 1971 to the early 2000s, the company’s raw talc and finished powders sometimes tested positive for small amounts of asbestos, and that company executives, mine managers, scientists, doctors and lawyers fretted over the […]
You’ll love this one. Via: The Intercept: Facial recognition has quickly shifted from techno-novelty to fact of life for many, with millions around the world at least willing to put up with their faces scanned by software at the airport, their iPhones, or Facebook’s server farms. But researchers at New York University’s AI Now Institute […]
Via: ACLU: Recently, a patent application from Amazon became public that would pair face surveillance — like Rekognition, the product that the company is aggressively marketing to police and Immigration and Customs Enforcement — with Ring, a doorbell camera company that Amazon bought earlier this year. While the details are sketchy, the application describes a […]
Via: CBS: Virgin Galactic’s rocket-powered SpaceShipTwo carried two test pilots out of the discernible atmosphere Thursday, the company’s first piloted flight to the edge of space and a major milestone for Richard Branson’s plans to eventually launch tourists on brief, sub-orbital trips to space. It was the fourth non-government, purely commercial flight to carry pilots […]
Via: Fortune: Harvard University’s endowment is reportedly buying up vineyards in California’s wine country, along with the water rights belonging to those properties. Instead of making the land purchases in its own name, Harvard is using a wholly owned subsidiary—named Brodiaea after the scientific name for the cluster lily—to buy vineyards. Harvard created Brodiaea in […]
Via: Of Two Minds: The elites’ clever exploitation of politically correct cover stories has enthralled the comatose, uncritical Left, but not those who see their living standards in a free-fall.
Via: CBS: Californians may or may not type OMG at the news, but texting may soon come with an extra fee on their mobile phone bills. State regulators are weighing a tax on text messaging to help fund a program that makes phone service available to low-income residents. A texting surcharge could help sustain the […]
Via: Los Angeles Times: U.S. government debt is on track this year to rise at the fastest pace since 2012, as a stronger economy fails to keep pace with the wave of red ink that’s rising under the Trump administration. Total public debt outstanding has jumped by $1.36 trillion, or 6.6%, since the start of […]
Room temperature superconductors belong in the same basket as fusion power plants artificial general intelligence: They were only a couple of decades away when we read about them in Omni magazine in the 1980s. Via: MIT Technology Review: Chemists found a material that can display superconducting behavior at a temperature warmer than it currently is […]
Drain the swamp. Mmm hmm. Via: Independent: President Donald Trump has backtracked on his proposal to shrink military spending, instead agreeing to Defence Secretary Jim Mattis’ request for a $750 billion budget for the upcoming 2019 fiscal year. Last week, Mr Trump tweeted that a $716 billion Defence Department budget is “crazy.” The following day, […]
Via: Yahoo Finance: Walmart (WMT) is in the early stages of testing a kitchen robot assistant named “Flippy” at its Bentonville, Arkansas, headquarters to see whether or not it’s the right fit for its in-store delis. Flippy is the world’s first autonomous robotic kitchen assistant powered by artificial intelligence from Miso Robotics, a two-year-old startup. […]
Via: ZeroHedge: The White House wants to stay the course in Yemen even as the Senate is set to push back against US military support to the Saudi-led bombing campaign. But now a bombshell report reveals the Pentagon has been fueling Saudi and UAE jets free of charge due to “errors in accounting where DoD […]
bps.space bps.space YouTube Channel Via: Motherboard: Joe Barnard left his background in videography and music production to launch his life of amateur rocketry, and he shares his DIY adventures in building rockets on his YouTube channel BPS.space.
Via: Reuters: China on Saturday launched a first probe ever to explore the dark side of the Moon, marking another milestone in its ambitious space program, the official Xinhua News Agency reported. The probe, the Chang’e-4, is expected to make the first-ever soft landing on the far side of the Moon, according to Xinhua. Previous […]
Via: Reuters: Paris was in lockdown early on Saturday with thousands of French security forces braced to meet renewed rioting by “yellow vest” protesters in the capital and other cities in a fourth weekend of confrontation over living costs. The Eiffel Tower and other tourist landmarks were shut, shops were boarded up to avoid looting […]
2018 MKULTRA Document Releases on BlackVault Via: TheSun: “It shows that the entire story is not yet out – which is contrary to what the CIA wants us to believe.” … He believes the missing information may relate to top secret mind control projects which are STILL taking place.
Via: Telegraph: DeepMind’s artificial intelligence programme AlphaZero is now showing signs of human-like intuition and creativity, in what developers have hailed as ‘turning point’ in history. The computer system amazed the world last year when it mastered the game of chess from scratch within just four hours, despite not being programmed how to win. But […]
Via: Bloomberg: America turned into a net oil exporter last week, breaking 75 years of continued dependence on foreign oil and marking a pivotal — even if likely brief — moment toward what U.S. President Donald Trump has branded as “energy independence.” The shift to net exports is the dramatic result of an unprecedented boom […]
Via: AFP: Australia Thursday passed controversial laws allowing spies and police to snoop on the encrypted communications of suspected terrorists and criminals, as experts warned the “unprecedented powers” had far-reaching implications for global cybersecurity. There has been extensive debate about the laws and their reach beyond Australia’s shores in what is seen as the latest […]
Via: EE Times: SAN FRANCISCO — Qualcomm launched a $100 million venture fund at an event here where the level of enthusiasm for machine learning ran high. China’s SenseTime alone talked about taking in $3 billion for its platform, and others gave examples of AI quadrupling productivity and saving lives. The combination of 5G and […]
Via: The Epoch Times: The Clinton Foundation has raised more than $2 billion since its inception in 1997, and Bill and Hillary Clinton have been paid more than $150 million for delivering speeches. Notably, these payments increased dramatically after Hillary Clinton took office as secretary of state in 2009.
Kinder, gentler… Via: Mises Institute: It’s almost darkly comedic how easy it has been to convince the American people to go along with nearly any justification for invading a foreign country,no matter how flimsy.
Meatsack still onboard. Via: Los Angeles Times: Robot cars are now officially a real business. Waymo on Wednesday launched a commercial robot ride-hailing service in Arizona called Waymo One. Like Uber or Lyft, customers will summon a ride with a smartphone app. But in this case, the car will be driving itself. “This is a […]
Via: FastCompany: Sometimes a business inadvertently drops the pretense and just tells the world its real intentions. We saw this yesterday, when Amazon bragged about how it “allowed” an employee to lose 100 pounds by endlessly delivering boxes. Amazon saw this as a heartwarming tale about how great it is to work for the e-commerce […]
Via: BBC: Fuel tax rises which had led to weeks of violent protests in France have been suspended for six months. PM Edouard Philippe said that people’s anger must be heard, and the measures would not be applied until there had been proper debate with those affected.
Via: CBS: A SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket using a first stage making a record third flight vaulted away from the California coast Monday, boosting 64 small satellites into orbit for a wide variety of government, academic and private-sector users — including artists — in a commercial launch chartered by Seattle-based Spaceflight. The Falcon 9’s well-traveled […]
Via: MSN: Robots are coming to a Walmart Inc. near you, and not just as a gimmick. The world’s largest retailer is rolling out 360 autonomous floor-scrubbing robots in some of its stores in the U.S. by the end of the January, it said in a joint statement with Brain Corp., which makes the machines. […]
Via: Defense One: How do you detect submarines in an expanse as large as the ocean? The U.S. military hopes that common marine microorganisms might be genetically engineered into living tripwires to signal the passage of enemy subs, underwater vessels, or even divers. It’s one of many potential military applications for so-called engineered organisms, a […]
Via: BBC: Abandoned coal mines across the UK could be brought back to life as huge underground farms, according to academics. Mine shafts and tunnels are seen as “the perfect environment” for growing food such as vegetables and herbs. The initiative is seen as a way of providing large-scale crop production for a growing global […]
Via: Canadian Geographic: A massive pit that was spotted in a remote high alpine valley in British Columbia’s Wells Gray Provincial Park earlier this year is the entrance to a previously unexplored cave of “national significance,” say two members of a Canadian team that helped conduct a preliminary exploration of the site in September.
“Chinese makers produced 99% of electric buses deployed globally from 2014 to 2017.” Via: Wall Street Journal: A national project to replace millions of gasoline-fueled taxis, buses and trucks with new electric models is boosting China’s ambitions to lead the global shift to battery-powered transportation. Signs of progress can already be found on American, as […]
Via: CBS: Vice Adm. Scott Stearney, who oversaw U.S. naval forces in the Middle East, was found dead Saturday in his residence in Bahrain, officials said. Defense officials told CBS News they are calling it an “apparent suicide.” Stearney was the commander of the U.S. Navy’s Bahrain-based 5th Fleet. Rear Adm. Paul Schlise, the deputy […]
There are many images at Daily Mail. Via: Reuters: Rioters ran amok across central Paris on Saturday, torching cars and buildings, looting shops, smashing windows and clashing with police in the worst unrest in more than a decade, posing a dire challenge to Emmanuel Macron’s presidency. The authorities were caught off guard by the escalation […]
Where does one even start? I was going to write, “Christmas comes early to the world,” and leave it at that, but when I saw what the Washington Post had up on the front page, I almost couldn’t believe it. Most people have absolutely no idea what the Bush criminal dynasty has been up to […]
Via: Independent: Just before 9.30am on Sunday 11 November, a series of unusual seismic pulses rippled around the world almost undetected. The waves rang for over 20 minutes, emanating about 15 miles off the shores of Mayotte – a tiny island in the Indian Ocean between Madagascar and Africa. From here, they reverberated across Africa, […]
I’ve mostly stopped posting about future electric vehicles (you can’t even shake a stick at all the announcements), but the Rivian R1T is particularly interesting. Days before the Rivian R1T was officially announced, Elon Musk said that Tesla will be bringing their pickup to market much sooner than previously indicated. It’s easy to see why, […]
Via: East Bay Times: When Shan Junhua bought his white Tesla Model X, he knew it was a fast, beautiful car. What he didn’t know is that Tesla constantly sends information about the precise location of his car to the Chinese government. Tesla is not alone. China has called upon all electric vehicle manufacturers in […]
Via: Miami Herald: Facing a 53-page federal indictment, Epstein could have ended up in federal prison for the rest of his life. But on the morning of the breakfast meeting, a deal was struck — an extraordinary plea agreement that would conceal the full extent of Epstein’s crimes and the number of people involved. Not […]
In other news, screen addicted babies. Via: U.S. News: An estimated 1 in 40 U.S. children have been diagnosed with autism spectrum disorder and many struggle to access treatment, according to a new study led by the federal Health Resources and Services Administration. Autism diagnoses have risen slightly in the last 20 years, and the […]
“All the better to see you with, my dear.” Via: The Mercury News: In a head-spinning mega-deal, Google has paid $1 billion for a huge Mountain View business park, the Bay Area’s largest real estate purchase this year. It is also the second-largest property purchase in the United States this year, eclipsed only by another […]
Via: Reuters: General Motors Co will cut car production, stop building several low-selling car models, and slash its North American workforce, sources said on Monday, marking its biggest restructuring in North America since its bankruptcy a decade ago. GM plans to halt production at three assembly plants in Canada, in Ohio and Michigan in the […]
Via: Guardian: A scientist in China claims to have created the world’s first genetically edited babies, in a potentially ground-breaking and controversial medical first. If true, it would be a profound leap of science and ethics. This kind of gene editing is banned in most countries as the technology is still experimental and DNA changes […]
I found myself thinking of a haiku about an imaginary situation in which my father (who died a while back) would be standing in a room, arguing with one of these “smart” speakers and eventually challenging it to a fight with his weapon of choice, a yard-long section of 2×4 lumber. Old man stands bugeyed […]
Via: Reuters: The United States closed its busiest border crossing with Mexico on Sunday after Mexican police broke up a protest of Central American migrants massed in Tijuana, scattering some demonstrators toward the border where U.S. officers hurled tear gas from the American side. Traffic in both directions was suspended at the San Ysidro port […]
Via: Guardian: A decade after the Communist party took power in 1949, promising to serve the people, the greatest manmade disaster in history stalks an already impoverished land. In an unremarkable city in central Henan province, more than a million people – one in eight – are wiped out by starvation and brutality over three […]
Minnie said the book was, “Only the beginning,” and that he would reveal more. Via: NeonNettle: A former police detective-turned-investigative author has been found dead, just days after publishing a book that exposed a high-level government pedophile ring. 58-year-old Mark Minne was found with a bullet to his head on August 14, but many people […]
Via: Daily Mail: Huge plumes of smoke were seen on one of France’s most iconic streets today, as protesters burned large plywood sheets, chairs and other material in demonstrations against planned fuel hikes. A water cannon and rounds of teargas were also used by riot police against thousands of French ‘Yellow Vest’ fuel protesters in […]
Stories about exotic solar panels and energy storage systems come out all the time. As we all know, however, the gap between the laboratory and a product available to purchase is very large. In other words, don’t hold your breath—or delay a solar system purchase—waiting for this to happen. That said, it’s still fun to […]
Via: MIT Technology Review: There’s growing momentum behind the seaweed approach, thanks to almost shockingly effective results in initial scientific studies. In 2014, Australian researchers found that low doses of a red algae known as Asparagopsis taxiformis virtually eliminated methane production in lab experiments. Field trials with live sheep cut emissions as much as 80%, […]
Via: Bloomberg: The map lays out OPEC’s nightmare in graphic form. An infestation of dots, thousands of them, represent oil wells in the Permian basin of West Texas and a slice of New Mexico. In less than a decade, U.S.
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I've been 'around' for a few years now, pursuing the shifting goal of a sharable home-made surfers resource site focused on ease of use and variety of mostly adult ( whoa : I didn't say prurient ) content.
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