EPA Head Admits Kids Should Be Nowhere Near East Palestine Water
March 4th, 2023Via: ZeroHedge:
The aftermath of the freight train derailment in East Palestine, Ohio, persists, with residents and rail workers reporting illnesses and the Biden administration facing criticism regarding an inadequate federal response. The 38-car derailment occurred one month ago and resulted in the release of vinyl chloride into the air via a controlled burn, and questions swirl about why testing for dioxins wasn’t conducted immediately after the derailment.
Earlier this week, EPA Administrator Michael Regan visited East Palestine. He addressed reporters about the ongoing situation. Journalist Nick Sorter asked the commissioner:
“Mr. Commissioner, let me ask you really quick, would you allow your children to touch the water? We’ve seen the rainbow sheen, we’ve seen all of these chemicals popping up from the bottom of the streams that these kids used to play in. Would you allow your kids anywhere close to these streams right now?”
Regan’s response:
“I would not. I’m a father of a 9-year-old. I think we have to all agree we wish this accident didn’t occur, but the accident occurred and as a result some of our creeks and streams have pollution in them.”
Iran Discovers World’s Second Largest Lithium Reserve
March 3rd, 2023Via: The Cradle:
The Islamic Republic of Iran discovered one of the world’s largest lithium reserves, according to a report published by Press TV on 27 February.
According to a senior official of the Iranian Ministry of Industry, Mine, and Trade (MIMT), the lithium deposits could contain some 8.5 million metric tons (MT) ready for extraction, which would make it one of the largest global discoveries.
Currently, Chile is the second biggest producer of lithium in 2022, with around 39,000 MT. The country’s reserves are the largest in the world, with 9.3 million MT. Until now, the second largest reserves were said to be in Australia, with 3.8 MT.
Tesla Going Back To EV Motors With No Rare Earth Elements
March 3rd, 2023Via: Electrek:
Tesla stated today that, between 2017 and 2022, it managed to reduce rare earth usage in these new Model 3 drive units by 25% as it increased the efficiency of the drivetrain.
But now it looks like Tesla is trying to get the best of both worlds: a permanent magnet motor, but without rare earth elements.
Related:
No Rare Earths: BMW’s Fifth-Generation Electric Motor
Redwood Materials Recovers 95% of Battery Metals During Pilot Recycling Run
NATO Says Ukraine Will Become A Member In The “Long Term”
March 3rd, 2023Via: The Warzone:
As the war in Ukraine grinds on, it looks like Ukraine’s chances of joining NATO are also growing, a prospect that has long angered Russia.
Speaking today at a press conference in Finland, NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg said that Ukraine will become a member of the military alliance in the “long term.”
“NATO allies have agreed that Ukraine will become a member of our alliance, but at the same time that is a long-term perspective,” Stoltenberg said.
Forestry Workers Find Animals Dying at Alarming Rates in Ohio Parks Following East Palestine Train Derailment
March 1st, 2023Update: Workers Cleaning Up Toxic Ohio Train Derailment Are Getting Sick, Rail Union Leader Warns
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While the source is, “A source,” I’m posting this for people in the area who might need to take action to save themselves. The government is clearly lying about everything, as usual.
Via: Ohio Star:
Although Ohio Governor Mike DeWine, the Environmental Protection Agency, and local officials continue to assure Ohioans that recent air monitoring and water sample tests have shown no concerns with air quality or water quality in East Palestine’s municipal water supply, following the catastrophic train derailment on February 3rd, forestry workers have found that animals are dying at alarming rates.
A source told The Ohio Star that her husband, a wildlife biologist and consultant for the federal forestry, received hundreds of calls on both Sunday and Monday from colleagues who say forestry workers have found hundreds of dead animals in Ohio’s parks.
Several labs across the country have received specimens of whole minks, deer, elk, worms and livers of such animals and they are finding toxicities that are off the charts, she said.
“These highly toxic levels are the exact chemicals that were released from East Palestine. Wayne National Forest and Shawnee State Forest in Ohio, are downriver from East Palestine and are two parks where samples are from,” she told The Star.
U.S. Seeks Allies’ Backing for Possible China Sanctions Over Ukraine War
March 1st, 2023If this really kicks off, you should be ready for extremely serious problems.
Outsourcing so much of the supply chain to China was a strategic mistake. Countless people have warned about this over decades, to no avail. The collective-West put itself in a Chinese joint lock.
It’s not publicly known what the proposed sanctions are, but China’s responses could range from causing inconveniences for companies and people in targeted countries to disasters.
Via: Reuters:
The United States is sounding out close allies about the possibility of imposing new sanctions on China if Beijing provides military support to Russia for its war in Ukraine, according to four U.S. officials and other sources.
The consultations, which are still at a preliminary stage, are intended to drum up support from a range of countries, especially those in the wealthy Group of 7 (G7), to coordinate support for any possible restrictions.
It was not clear what specific sanctions Washington will propose. The conversations have not been previously disclosed.
Future Ford Vehicles Could Repossess Themselves
March 1st, 2023How about disabling vehicles owned by people who don’t have all of their vaccine boosters, or for any other reason?
Anyway, the basic capability to remotely disable vehicles has been around for a long time. From 2014: Why the repo man can remotely shut off your car engine:
In an effort to protect their assets and minimize delinquencies, dealers and lenders are increasingly outfitting cars with starter interrupt devices and GPS trackers. Given the euphemistic name of “payment assurance devices,” the technology allows the repo man to shut down a car if a subprime borrower is even one day late in making a payment.
Many starter interrupt devices require a borrower to enter a code provided by the dealer each month, after they’ve made an on-time payment. If the payments are missed, the lender can remotely shut off the car’s starter, and then use the device’s GPS to track down the vehicle and repossess.
While the technology was once used on high credit risk customers, it’s now standard on all electric vehicles that receive updates over the air (OTA), which is pretty much all of them. The same systems that provide OTA updates make it possible for the manufacturer to shut off the vehicle.
Via: ZeroHedge:
Ford Motor Company filed a US patent application that shows autonomous or semi-autonomous vehicles could potentially repossess themselves if their owners miss lease or loan payments.
The idea of self-driving cars repossessing themselves might sound dystopian, but it is not surprising that automakers are considering this technology to ensure payment.
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While this patent application was first filed in Aug. 2021 and formally published on Feb. 23, it could be years before Ford implements such a technology.
The patent, titled “Systems and Methods to Repossess a Vehicle,” explains how a future lineup of Ford vehicles would be capable of “[disabling] a functionality of one or more components of the vehicle.”
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If the owner misses more payments, the repossession cycle will worsen. The car would emit an “incessant and unpleasant sound.” Worse, the vehicle might lock out the driver on certain days until payments are made.
And still, if the lockout doesn’t work and payments are missed, the vehicle could drive to a safe, nearby location for a repo team to seize it and avoid confrontation with the owner.
TV In Australia
March 1st, 2023This clip didn’t seem real at first. But the laughter, combined with a profoundly disturbing scene… It reminded me of something.
It’s been a while, but Oliver Stone’s gruesome satire of TV in Natural Born Killers might as well be running in prime time.
Via: Australians vs. The Agenda:
Elon Musk Allegedly Forming New Company to Compete with ‘Woke’ ChatGPT
February 28th, 2023ChatGPT is so absurd that there will be no shortage of competition. Musk won’t be the only one doing this.
Via: New York Post:
Elon Musk is seeking to enlist the help of artificial intelligence experts in order to create a rival to OpenAI’s ChatGPT bot which the tech mogul believes has gone “woke,” according to a report.
Musk has approached several AI researchers, including Igor Babuschkin, who recently departed Alphabet’s DeepMind AI unit, according to the news site The Information.
A new, AI-center project that would feature a chatbot with fewer speech restrictions could be integrated into Twitter, the social media company that Musk recently bought.
The move comes as Musk has been critical of OpenAI, the research lab which created ChatGPT and which counts Musk as one of its founders. Musk cut ties with OpenAI in 2015 due to disagreements with leadership over the entity’s nonprofit status.
Organoid Intelligence (OI): The New Frontier in Biocomputing and Intelligence-in-a-Dish
February 28th, 2023But first, let’s take a walk down memory lane, from nearly two decades ago: “Brain” In A Dish Acts As Autopilot Living Computer:
A University of Florida scientist has grown a living “brain” that can fly a simulated plane, giving scientists a novel way to observe how brain cells function as a network.
The “brain” — a collection of 25,000 living neurons, or nerve cells, taken from a rat’s brain and cultured inside a glass dish — gives scientists a unique real-time window into the brain at the cellular level. By watching the brain cells interact, scientists hope to understand what causes neural disorders such as epilepsy and to determine noninvasive ways to intervene.
As living computers, they may someday be used to fly small unmanned airplanes or handle tasks that are dangerous for humans, such as search-and-rescue missions or bomb damage assessments.
And now…
Via: Frontiers in Science:
Recent advances in human stem cell-derived brain organoids promise to replicate critical molecular and cellular aspects of learning and memory and possibly aspects of cognition in vitro. Coining the term “organoid intelligence” (OI) to encompass these developments, we present a collaborative program to implement the vision of a multidisciplinary field of OI. This aims to establish OI as a form of genuine biological computing that harnesses brain organoids using scientific and bioengineering advances in an ethically responsible manner.
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We envisage complex, networked interfaces whereby brain organoids are connected with real-world sensors and output devices, and ultimately with each other and with sensory organ organoids (e.g. retinal organoids), and are trained using biofeedback, big-data warehousing, and machine learning methods.
