Musk Demands Pentagon Pay for Starlink Usage in Ukraine
October 14th, 2022Update: Made You Look, Musk Will Keep Starlink Active in Ukraine
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Via: PC Magazine:
SpaceX may have to stop providing Starlink terminals in Ukraine unless the US government steps in to cover the costs, the company writes in a letter to the Pentagon.
According to CNN(Opens in a new window), SpaceX wrote to the US Defense Department on Sept. 8 requesting that the US government start paying for Starlink access in Ukraine, which has become crucial to helping the country’s military fight Russian forces.
“We are not in a position to further donate terminals to Ukraine, or fund the existing terminals for an indefinite period of time,” SpaceX reportedly told the Pentagon.
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However, the CNN report claims US and foreign governments already fund a large portion of the Starlink access in Ukraine—contrary to Musk’s past statements. SpaceX’s own letter to the Pentagon last month reportedly notes around 85% of the 20,000 Starlink dishes in Ukraine were paid, or partially paid, for by countries like the US, Poland, UK, or other groups, such as NGOs and charity organizations. These same governments and groups subsidized 30% of the internet access for Starlink in Ukraine.
Most Paycheck Protection Program Loans Forgiven Despite Massive Fraud
October 13th, 2022Via: NPR:
As COVID-19 shutdowns threatened businesses back in 2020, the U.S. government began issuing nearly $800 billion in potentially forgivable Paycheck Protection Program loans. The program was designed to help small businesses keep workers employed during the uncertain early days of the pandemic.
More than two years later, the overwhelming majority of these loans have transformed into government grants, as 91% have been either fully or partially forgiven, according to an NPR analysis of data released by the Small Business Administration on Oct. 2.
The SBA expects that figure to grow to nearly 100% as more forgiveness requests are processed this fall.
That’s despite claims from University of Texas researchers that about 1.4 million PPP loans show signs of possible fraud, like suspiciously high payrolls and multiple businesses listed at the same residential address. The SBA disputes these findings, but its own inspector general has estimated that at least 70,000 loans were potentially fraudulent.
Core U.S. Inflation Rises to 40-Year High, Securing Big Fed Hike
October 13th, 2022Via: Bloomberg:
A closely watched measure of US consumer prices rose by more than forecast to a 40-year high in September, pressuring the Federal Reserve to raise interest rates even more aggressively to stamp out persistent inflation.
The core consumer price index, which excludes food and energy, increased 6.6% from a year ago, the highest level since 1982, Labor Department data showed Thursday. From a month earlier, the core CPI climbed 0.6% for a second month.
The overall CPI increased 0.4% last month, and was up 8.2% from a year earlier.
Free Speech, Jacinda Ardern and the Tyranny of ‘Kindness’
October 13th, 2022Via: Off-Guardian:
Ardern belongs to a set of global leaders who were groomed for their positions through the World Economic Forum (WEF) Young Global Leaders programme. Yes, that WEF – the elitist organisation where hard-nose billionaires and their handmaidens gather to set out policies aligned with powerful business interests.
The charm offensive that Ardern’s promoters undertook was an investment. She delivered on COVID and is now expected to sell more questionable policies to the public.
Students Break Acceleration World Record
October 13th, 2022Via: University of Stuttgart:
In 1.461 seconds from 0 to 100[km/h]: This is the new best time for the fastest accelerating electric vehicle and a new world record. On Friday September 23, 2022, the record was broken by 20 students from the University of Stuttgart with their self-built electric racing car, on a racetrack at the Bosch site in Renningen in the district of Böblingen in Baden-Württemberg.
Microsoft’s Army Goggles Left US Soldiers With Nausea, Headaches in Test
October 13th, 2022Via: Bloomberg:
US soldiers using Microsoft Corp.’s new goggles in their latest field test suffered “mission-affecting physical impairments” including headaches, eyestrain and nausea, according to a summary of the exercise compiled by the Pentagon’s testing office.
More than 80% of those who experienced discomfort had symptoms after less than three hours using the customized version of Microsoft’s HoloLens goggles, Nickolas Guertin, director of Operation Test and Evaluation, said in a summary for Army and Defense Department officials. He said the system also is still experiencing too many failures of essential functions.
Scientists Grow Human Brain Cells in Rats to Study Diseases
October 13th, 2022Via: AP:
Scientists have transplanted human brain cells into the brains of baby rats, where the cells grew and formed connections.
It’s part of an effort to better study human brain development and diseases affecting this most complex of organs, which makes us who we are but has long been shrouded in mystery.
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To make the brain organoids, Stanford University scientists transformed human skin cells into stem cells and then coaxed them to become several types of brain cells. Those cells then multiplied to form organoids resembling the cerebral cortex, the human brain’s outermost layer, which plays a key role in things like memory, thinking, learning, reasoning and emotions.
Scientists transplanted those organoids into rat pups 2 to 3 days old, a stage when brain connections are still forming. The organoids grew so that they eventually occupied a third of the hemisphere of the rat’s brain where they were implanted. Neurons from the organoids formed working connections with circuits in the brain.
Human neurons have been transplanted in rodents before, but generally in adult animals, usually mice. Pasca, a psychiatry professor at the Stanford School of Medicine, said this is the first time these organoids have been placed into early rat brains, creating “the most advanced human brain circuitry ever built from human skin cells and a demonstration that implanted human neurons can influence an animal’s behavior.”
PayPal Decides Fining People $2,500 for ‘Misinformation’ Wasn’t a Great Idea
October 13th, 2022Via: The Register:
PayPal has backed away from fining its own customers up to $2,500 for promoting whatever it determines is “misinformation.”
The punishment showed up in its updated acceptable use policy, captured by the Internet Archive’s Wayback Machine on September 27, which was due to take effect on November 3. But the revision was deleted by the online payments giant around 2100 GMT on October 8. The biz’s current AUP was drafted September 20 last year and remains in effect.
PayPal has reportedly repudiated its planned AUP revision and characterized the snafu as an error.
“The Biggest Purveyor of Online Mal-, Mis- and Dis-Information Is the U.S. Government”
October 12th, 2022Via: Corbett Report:
By their actions, governments and intelligence agencies the world over have revealed that they are truly afraid of the free flow of information online.
Sweden Refuses to Share Results of Nord Stream Pipeline Explosion Investigation With Russia
October 12th, 2022haha Shocker.
Via: Summit News:
Sweden is refusing to share the preliminary results of its official investigation into the Nord Stream pipeline explosions with Russia, asserting that the information is “confidential.”
Prime Minister Magdalena Andersson said that the outcome of the inquiry into what severely damaged the Nord Stream 1 and 2 gas pipelines in late September would not be revealed to Moscow.
“In Sweden, our preliminary investigations are confidential, and that, of course, also applies in this case,” Andersson told reporters.
The investigation found that the blasts were an act of sabotage, although the culprit has not been named.
