Russia Launches First Airstrike in Syria
September 30th, 2015Via: USA Today:
Russia launched its first airstrike in Syria on Wednesday, a U.S official confirmed to USA TODAY.
The news of the strike, around the city of Homs, came after Russia’s parliament granted President Vladimir Putin permission to launch airstrikes against the Islamic State in Syria, where a civil war has been raging since 2011.
Health Benefits of Coffee a Recurring Theme in Harvard Research
September 30th, 2015haha I’m in my usual middle-of-the-night slog through the doom and just reading about coffee made me feel high and happy. Who knows or cares if the fancy Harvard people are right about coffee being some sort of health elixir.
Mmmm coffee.
Via: Harvard:
Coffee is everywhere, through history and across the world. And increasingly, science is demonstrating that its popularity is a good thing.
Harvard scientists have for years put coffee under the microscope. Last year, researchers announced they had discovered six new human genes related to coffee and reconfirmed the existence of two others. The long-running Nurses’ Health Study has found that coffee protects against type 2 diabetes and cardiovascular disease. Researchers are continuing to follow up on 2001 findings that it protects against Parkinson’s disease.
The work at Harvard is just part of an emerging picture of coffee as a potentially powerful elixir against a range of ailments, from cancer to cavities.
Apple Suddenly Banned an App That Maps U.S. Drone Strikes
September 29th, 2015Via: tech.mic:
Freelance journalist and data artist Josh Begley has been methodically recording U.S. military drone activity for years. Every week or so — whenever the strikes occur — Begley will post a news story from the @dronestream Twitter account, identifying when and where drone strikes have occurred before feeding the results into an app called Metadata+.
Sep 1, 2015: Two missiles struck a house, killing 6 people. Four others were wounded (Pakistan) http://www.reuters.com/article/2015/09/01/us-pakistan-drone-idUSKCN0R14RV20150901 …
But on Sunday, Dronestream tweeted that Metadata+, which sends out push notifications every time there is a U.S. drone strike, had been removed from the App Store after seven months of being openly available.
More Doctors Against Vaccines
September 28th, 2015Via: Organic Lifestyle Magazine:
Bad advice is everywhere, and it can stem from every profession, even the medical profession. History has taught us that there are times the experts are nearly unified in their advice and are still dead wrong. The reasoning has always been the same, that the benefits outweigh the risks. When you’re given bad medical advice, you run the risk while the benefits belong to the physician. Ultimately our health is too important to trust the experts without doing our own research.
The Average American Worker Earns Less Today Than 40 Years Ago
September 28th, 2015Via: FastCoexist:
Because most everything we buy gets more expensive over time, we have to earn more money each year just to maintain our existing standard of living. When we’re not given raises that keep up with this rate of inflation, we’re effectively suffering a pay cut.
That’s why many American workers are actually poorer today than four decades ago. They may be earning more money. But, in real terms, they’re getting less for it. Measured in 2014 dollars, the median male full-time worker made $50,383 last year against $53,294 in 1973, according to new U.S. Census Bureau figures.
NASA: Water Flows on Mars
September 28th, 2015Via: Guardian:
Liquid water runs down canyons and crater walls over the summer months on Mars, according to researchers who say the discovery raises the odds of the planet being home to some form of life.
The trickles leave long, dark stains on the Martian terrain that can reach hundreds of metres downhill in the warmer months, before they dry up in the autumn as surface temperatures drop.
Images taken from the Mars orbit show cliffs, and the steep walls of valleys and craters, streaked with summertime flows that in the most active spots combine to form intricate fan-like patterns.
Scientists are unsure where the water comes from, but it may rise up from underground ice or salty aquifers, or condense out of the thin Martian atmosphere.
“There is liquid water today on the surface of Mars,” Michael Meyer, the lead scientist on Nasa’s Mars exploration programme, told the Guardian. “Because of this, we suspect that it is at least possible to have a habitable environment today.”
Australia: Electricity Networks Propose Connection Fees for All Homes – Including Off-Gridders
September 28th, 2015The mask comes off.
Behold…
Via: SolarChoice:
Australia’s major power networks are calling for compulsory connection fees for all homes and businesses – even if they are not connected to the grid – and penalties for those who disconnect, as part of a last-ditch effort to protect their declining revenue streams.
The Energy Networks Association says the proposals are deliberately calibrated to stop people from leaving the grid, and thereby triggering what is often described as the “death spiral”, as networks seek to recover lost revenues from those consumers who remain.
The shift from centralised generation to a decentralised grid based around solar and storage is seen as inevitable, and many analysts say that networks will have to change the way they do business, or even write down the value of their assets.
But the networks are digging in, refusing to countenance write-downs, and now want consumers to pay for the networks whether they use them or not. Alternatively, they want any households that leave the grid to pay their “historic” share of grid capacity as a penalty for leaving.
Eyes Down, Minds Elsewhere, ‘Deadwalkers’ Are Among Us
September 28th, 2015Via: Washington Post:
You have seen the zombie-like creatures walking among us. In fact, you may be one of them, moseying along with your eyes fixated on that tiny screen that rests in the palm of your hand.
…
“Some data suggests that at any given moment on the streets of America, 60 percent of pedestrians are distracted while walking, meaning either on the phone or doing something on their phone,” said Alan S. Hilibrand of the American Academy of Orthopaedic Surgeons. “It’s a bit of a startling number.”
Hilibrand, vice chairman of orthopaedic surgery at Thomas Jefferson University Hospital in Philadelphia, has seen evidence of what he calls “digital deadwalkers” on center-city streets.
“We’ve had people come into the emergency room who were hit by cars,” he said. “They’re looking at their phone and not paying attention to the fact that a vehicle is making a turn.”
DARPA: Soldier Brain Implants to Improve Artificial Intelligence [???]
September 28th, 2015Via: Fusion:
For decades, DARPA, the secretive research arm of the Department of Defense, has dreamed of turning soldiers into cyborgs. And now it’s finally happening. The agency has funded projects that involve implanting chips into soldiers’ brains that they hope will enhance performance on the battlefield and repair traumatized brains once the fog of war has lifted.
…
Creating super soldiers isn’t the only thing that DARPA is trying to do. According to Jacobsen’s new book, published by Little, Brown, government scientists hope that implanting chips in soldiers will unlock the secrets of artificial intelligence, and allow us to give machines the kind of higher-level reasoning that humans can do.
“When you see all of these brain mapping programs going on, many scientists wonder whether this will [be what it takes] to break that long-sought barrier of AI,” said Jacobsen in a phone interview.
New Zealand: Fair Go for Solar Initiative
September 27th, 2015Disclosure: I sell solar power systems in New Zealand.
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For people in New Zealand: Please consider getting the word out about the Fair Go for Solar Initiative by the Greens.
