“Doctor Who Opposed Vaccines Found Dead in Apparent Suicide”
June 28th, 2015Via: AP:
Dr. Jeff Bradstreet, an anti-vaccine physician, has been found dead in what police believe is a suicide.
Bradstreet died of what authorities say appears to be a self-inflicted gun shot to the chest, the Associated Press reports. His body was found by a fisherman on June 19 in Rocky Broad River in Chimney Rock, N.C. Authorities also found a handgun in the water.
Bradstreet, who is from Georgia, published controversial research suggesting a link between vaccines and autism. The claim has been widely disproved in the medical community. His family is raising money to investigate his death.
Officials are still investigating as well.
GREEK BANKS AND STOCK EXCHANGE SHUTDOWN FOR WEEK
June 28th, 2015Via: Sky:
Banks in Greece and the country’s stock exchange will be shut all week in a sign of the deepening financial crisis.
The drastic move comes after people rushed to withdraw their cash amid panic ahead of the referendum on bailout terms.
Under the controls, there will be a daily €60 limit on withdrawals from cash machines, which will reopen on Tuesday.
The euro fell sharply against the dollar amid investor jitters of a Greek debt default and exit from the eurozone.
Speaking in a televised address, Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras urged calm and insisted bank deposits were safe.
Greece: Bank Holliday
June 28th, 2015Via: Washington Post:
Greek leaders planned to shutter their banks on Monday amid last-ditch discussions about their nation’s economic future, as panicked citizens tried to pull their money from their accounts while they still were able.
Sunday’s decision to declare a bank holiday was a signal that Greece’s five-year battle to stay in the shared euro currency may swiftly be coming to an end. ATMs in Athens were running out of money, and tensions were running high as Greeks stood in line for hours to scrape together petty cash for basic supplies. Lines mounted at gas stations as worried residents topped off their tanks for what could be a period of time in a cashless nation.
DARPA: Engineering Organisms That Will Terraform Mars [???]
June 28th, 2015Via: Vice:
The goal of terraforming Mars would be to warm up and potentially thicken its atmosphere by growing green, photosynthesizing plants, bacteria, and algae on the barren Martian surface. It’s a goal that even perpetual techno-optimists like Elon Musk think isn’t going to happen anytime soon, but it’s a goal that DARPA apparently already has its eyes on.
“For the first time, we have the technological toolkit to transform not just hostile places here on Earth, but to go into space not just to visit, but to stay,” Alicia Jackson, deputy director of DARPA’s new Biological Technologies Office said Monday at a DARPA-hosted biotech conference. As she said this, Jackson was pointing at an artist’s rendering of a terraformed Mars.
This Robotic Bricklayer Can Build a House in Two Days
June 26th, 2015Via: Engadget:
For all the modern tools and heavy machinery found on construction sites these days, one aspect has remained a decidedly manual labor: bricklaying. Just as they did 6000 years ago when masonry was first developed, today’s bricklayers still perform their backbreaking work almost exclusively by hand. But thanks to Australian engineer, Mark Pivac, that could soon change. Pivac has developed what he claims is the world’s first fully automated bricklaying robot, dubbed Hadrian (yes, like the wall).
“We’re at a technological nexus where a few different technologies have got to the level where it’s now possible to do it,” Pivac told PerthNow. “And that’s what we’ve done.” The system will first determine the location of every brick to be laid based on a 3D CAD design, then individually cuts and lays the bricks in sequence. Hadrian doesn’t even need to move during the laying process as its 28-foot long boom manipulator is dextrous enough to both set the brick and slather on mortar as well. It even leaves space for pipes and wiring.
Mountain View Man Renting Out Small Tent Near Google For $965 Per Month
June 26th, 2015Via: CBS:
The housing crisis in the South Bay has a new form of short-term rental popping up.
A man in the Monta Loma neighborhood of Mountain View is renting out a Coleman tent in a “beautiful garden” outside his home for visitors or slightly more permanent residences for the high price of $46 per night; an amount that adds up to roughly $965 per month.
“I had been joking recently with someone about people would probably take a tent in a backyard and pay for it, so I decided to try it, and people actually were quite responsive,” said tent landlord John Potter.
Deadly Attack on Hotel in Tunisia
June 26th, 2015Via: Guardian:
At least 27 people have been killed in a gun attack on a beach in front of hotels in the Tunisian resort of Sousse.
Witnesses reported that gunmen opened fire on the beach between the Soviva and Imperial Marhaba hotels. Tunisia’s interior ministry spokesman Mohammed Ali Aroui told the state news agency the victims were mostly tourists but did not give any nationalities.
A security source at the scene said the body of one attacker, armed with a Kalashnikov assault rifle, lay where police had shot him dead. There were reports that one other assailant was on the run.
The attack in Tunisia came on the same day that a man was decapitated and several others injured in an attack with apparent Islamist connections at a factory in France.
Man Decapitated in France by Attacker Who Tried to Blow Up Factory
June 26th, 2015Via: Independent:
A man has reportedly been decapitated by suspected Isis supporters at a factory in France.
The murdered man’s head was found attached to a wire mesh fence surrounded by two black flags linked to the terrorist group near the entrance to the Air Products factory in Saint-Quentin-Fallavier, police said.
According to Le Parisien newspaper, the man’s face was covered in Arabic writing and there was speculation that he may have been murdered elsewhere and the body then taken to Air Products for the gruesome display.
California Lawmakers Approve Strict Vaccination Requirement
June 25th, 2015Via: Los Angeles Times:
California lawmakers on Thursday approved one of the toughest mandatory vaccination requirements in the nation, moving to end exemptions from state immunization laws based on religious or other personal beliefs.
The measure, among the most controversial taken up by the Legislature this year, would require more children who enter day care and school to be vaccinated against diseases including measles and whooping cough.
Those with medical conditions such as allergies and immune-system deficiencies, confirmed by a physician, would be excused from immunization. And parents could still decline to vaccinate children who attend private home-based schools or public independent studies off campus.
U.S. Senate Approves Fast-Track TPP Trade Bill
June 25th, 2015So it goes…
Via: Stuff:
US lawmakers approved legislation key to securing a hallmark Pacific trade deal by a comfortable margin on Wednesday, advancing President Barack Obama’s efforts to strengthen US economic ties with Asia.
Senators voted 60 to 38 to approve legislation to streamline Congress’s consideration of trade deals, including Obama’s 12-nation Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) of which New Zealand is part.
Final passage could push the 12-nation TPP, a central part of Obama’s foreign policy pivot to Asia, over the finish line and also boost hopes that an ambitious trade deal with the European Union could soon be completed.
The bill now goes to Obama to be signed into law.
More: Here’s How Much Corporations Paid U.S. Senators to Fast-Track the TPP Bill
