Beijing Stops Publishing “Hundreds Of Statistics” To Cover Up Economic Collapse
May 6th, 2025Via: ZeroHedge:
Regular China-watchers know very well that when it comes to local “data” reporting, China’s fabrication and goalseeking skills are second to none, and even the US Bureau of Labor Statistics is a rank amateur compared to Beijing’s National Bureau of Statistics, which tramples over actual econometric reporting with the glee of a bull in a, well, China shop. It’s why nobody actually believes any of the propaganda released by Beijing, and instead independent, private (and very expensive) third-party services for data collection and analysis are used to measure accurately the current state of China’s economy.
So imagine how bad it must be when instead of simply making stuff up, China decides that the easier approach is simply to no longer report the fake data. The best example is surely the data on Chinese youth unemployment which hit a record 22% in the summer of 2023… at which China decided to simply stop reporting it altogether.
Israel Readies Plan to Seize All of Gaza
May 5th, 2025Donald’s coming to set you free
Bringing the light for all to see
No more tunnels, no more fear
Trump Gaza is finally here
Trump Gaza shining bright
Golden future, a brand new light
Feast and dance, the deal is done
Trump Gaza, number one
Trump Gaza shining bright
Golden future, a brand new light
Feast and dance, the deal is done
Trump Gaza, number one
Via: USA Today:
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said an expanded offensive against Palestinian militant group Hamas would be “intensive” after his security cabinet approved plans that may include seizing the Gaza Strip and controlling aid.
However an Israeli defence official said the operation would not be launched before U.S. President Donald Trump concludes a visit next week to the Middle East.
…
Netanyahu said in a video message on May 5 the operation would be “intensive” and would see more Palestinians in Gaza moved “for their own safety.”
Brief Glimpse at Amazon’s Kuiper Broadband Satellites
May 5th, 2025Perplexity thinks Amazon’s launch cost is something like 3X higher than Starlink’s.
It’s going to be interesting to see how Bezos will try to compete with Starlink, which is already fully operational with millions of customers.
Via: Ars Technica:
Amazon requested ULA end the official live broadcast of the launch around five minutes into the flight, barely a quarter of the way through the Atlas V’s 18-minute climb into orbit. After reaching orbit, the Centaur upper stage released the Kuiper satellites three at a time from a cylindrical carrier module fastened to the forward end of the rocket.
All of these milestones occurred out of public view, a policy of secrecy similar to the launch of a clandestine military spy satellite. Of course, commercial companies like ULA have no obligation to broadcast their launches at all, and there’s no requirement for Amazon to show pictures of its satellites.
The video Amazon released Friday of the Kuiper deployments is fuzzy, and the finer details of the satellites are unseen. However, it’s clear enough to make out their basic design.
The Kuiper satellites are trapezoidal in shape. With their solar arrays folded up for launch, they look much like OneWeb’s satellites, and a lot different from Starlinks, which have a flatter design to stack one on top of another inside SpaceX’s Falcon 9 rocket.
“Hijacked Cicadas Play Music Like a Cyborg Loudspeaker”
May 5th, 2025Via: New Scientist:
Cicadas make noise with organs called timbals that have thick ribs joined by thin membranes that, when flexed, create a click. Doing this hundreds of times a second creates a continuous noise, with the pitch determined by the frequency of the flexes.
To take control of the timbals, the researchers implanted electrodes into seven large brown cicadas (Graptopsaltria nigrofuscata) and used signals from a computer passed through an amplifier to induce noises at precisely controlled pitches.
The team was eventually able to induce the cicadas to accurately play music, with the insects capable of reproducing tones over more than three octaves, from a musical note A at 27.5 hertz to a C at 261.6 hertz.
China Hit By Worker Protests Over Unpaid Wages, Factory Shutdowns Amid Trump Tariffs
May 5th, 2025Via: ZeroHedge:
President Donald Trump’s hard-hitting tariffs on China appear to be taking a toll, disrupting Chinese factories and sparking worker protests over unpaid wages.
As we noted late last month based on reporting by the Financial Times, factories across all of China have begun shutting down and furloughing workers “as the trade war unleashed by US President Donald Trump dries up orders for products ranging from jeans to home appliances.”
With most Chinese goods now facing US duties of at least 145%, or simply lacking the raw materials needed to process goods and sent them onward to the US, Chinese factory owners told the FT that American customers have cancelled or suspended orders, forcing them to cut production.
White House Eyes Deep Cuts In Non-Defense Spending, Boosts Military Budget
May 5th, 2025Mmm hmm. Why don’t they do the Pentagon?
Via: ZeroHedge:
The Trump administration has unveiled an early discretionary spending request ahead of its formal FY2026 budget submission. The proposal aims to cut discretionary funding by $140 billion – roughly 0.5% of GDP, and significantly shift the balance between defense and non-defense spending.
Ukraine War: Attack Drones with Unjammable Fiber Optic Links
May 5th, 2025Via: Daily Mail:
The U.S. Has Approved CRISPR Pigs for Food
May 3rd, 2025pHo0d.
Via: MIT Technology Review:
Most pigs in the US are confined to factory farms where they can be afflicted by a nasty respiratory virus that kills piglets. The illness is called porcine reproductive and respiratory syndrome, or PRRS.
A few years ago, a British company called Genus set out to design pigs immune to this germ using CRISPR gene editing. Not only did they succeed, but its pigs are now poised to enter the food chain following approval of the animals this week by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration.
The pigs will join a very short list of gene-modified animals that you can eat.
Aurora Begins Commercial Self-Driving Truck Service in Texas (Without Safety Drivers)
May 2nd, 2025Via: TechCrunch:
Autonomous vehicle technology startup Aurora Innovation says it has successfully launched a self-driving truck service in Texas, making it the first company to deploy driverless, heavy-duty trucks for commercial use on public roads in the U.S.
The launch comes just as Aurora hits its deadline; in October, the company delayed its planned 2024 debut to April 2025. The debut also comes five months after rival Kodiak Robotics delivered its first autonomous trucks to a commercial customer for driverless operations in off-road environments.
Aurora says it began running freight this week between Dallas and Houston with its launch customers Hirschbach Motor Lines and Uber Freight, and that it has completed 1,200 miles in a single self-driving truck without a driver so far. The company plans to build up to “tens of self-driving trucks” and expand to El Paso and Phoenix by the end of 2025.
Aurora will also continue to haul “more than 100 loads of commercial freight” for customers every week with a fleet of more than 30 supervised autonomous trucks, according to a company spokesperson.
Trump Posts AI Generated Picture of Himself as Pope on Truth Social
May 2nd, 2025Where does one even start???
Trump Posts AI Generated Picture of Himself as Pope on Truth Social
Screenshot and source: https://t.co/EfRKgkfxCz pic.twitter.com/oXYfDgloxV
— cryptogon (@cryptogon) May 3, 2025
Related [???]: Trump Gaza
