Amazon Plans to Open Large Retail Locations Akin to Department Stores
August 19th, 2021Via: Wall Street Journal:
Amazon.com Inc. plans to open several large physical retail locations in the U.S. that will operate akin to department stores, a step to help the tech company extend its reach in sales of clothing, household items, electronics and other areas, people familiar with the matter said.
Half of Americans Think They’ll Never Have a Pain-Free Day Again
August 19th, 2021Via: Study Finds:
Nearly half of Americans worry they’ll never have another pain-free day in their lives. A new study asked 2,000 Americans about their daily experience and the impact on their life of dealing with aches and pains. Along with finding that 48 percent believe they’ll never have a pain-free day again, the average American says they only have 13 truly pain-free days every year.
Taliban Vow to Ban Heroin
August 19th, 2021I doubt it.
The Taliban’s near elimination of opium production back in 2000/2001 is probably one of the main reasons why Uncle $cam spent the next couple of decades in Afghanistan, making it the top opium producer in the world.
Is all of that hard work over now?
While I’m just guessing, the tons of weapons left behind by the U.S. remind me of the Contra drugs for guns operations from the 1980s, except on a much larger scale.
I wouldn’t be surprised if there is an Excel spreadsheet somewhere with all of the weapons left behind for the Taliban and a deliverables column with some number of tons of opium and/or heroin.
How much opium and heroin is all of that military hardware worth?
Unknown, but see, Billions in US Weaponry Seized by Taliban:
It is unclear exactly how many weapons have fallen into the hands of the Taliban, but the Biden administration has acknowledged it’s a “fair amount.”
“We don’t have a complete picture, obviously, of where every article of defense materials has gone, but certainly a fair amount of it has fallen into the hands of the Taliban,” White House national security adviser Jake Sullivan said Tuesday. “And obviously, we don’t have a sense that they are going to readily hand it over to us at the airport.”
Mmm hmm. A fair amount. Sounds about right.
Maybe the Taliban will be handing over something else at the airport, or driving “it” out over the bridge that the U.S. built for them.
Via: AFP:
Heroin production has boomed in Afghanistan in recent years, helping fund the Taliban, and experts say they will struggle to wean themselves off the profitable trade despite their promise to do so.
Speaking Tuesday at a first press conference since taking power, Taliban spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid promised that the new government would not turn the world’s leading producer of opium into a fully-fledged narco-state.
Restaurants, Businesses Sue New York Mayor de Blasio Over Vaccine Mandate
August 19th, 2021Via: New York Post:
A group of restaurants and businesses have filed suit against Mayor Bill de Blasio in opposition to a mandate requiring proof of vaccination at city eateries, gyms, movie theaters and other establishments, new court papers show.
The businesses argue that the mandate violates their constitutional rights and unfairly targets certain establishments but not others like churches, grocery stores, schools, offices and medical facilities, the lawsuit filed Tuesday in Staten Island Supreme Court alleges.
The suit says that the mandate is “arbitrary and capricious” for a slew of reasons including that the highly contagious COVID-19 Delta variant can spread among both vaccinated and unvaccinated people, the court documents claim.
America’s Secret Terrorist Watchlist Exposed on the Web Without a Password
August 19th, 2021Via: Volodymyr “Bob” Diachenko:
On July 19, 2021 I discovered a terrorist watchlist containing 1.9 million records online without a password or any other authentication required to access it.
The watchlist came from the Terrorist Screening Center, a multi-agency group administered by the FBI. The TSC maintains the country’s no-fly list, which is a subset of the larger watchlist. A typical record in the list contains a full name, citizenship, gender, date of birth, passport number, no-fly indicator, and more.
I immediately reported it to Department of Homeland Security officials, who acknowledged the incident and thanked me for my work. The DHS did not provide any further official comment, though.
…
What data was exposed?
The exposed Elasticsearch cluster contained 1.9 million records. I do not know how much of the full TSC Watchlist it stored, but it seems plausible that the entire list was exposed.
Each record in the watchlist contained some or all of the following info:
Full name
TSC watchlist ID
Citizenship
Gender
Date of birth
Passport number
Country of issuance
No-fly indicator
The data also included a couple of categorical fields that I was unable to identify, including “tag,” “nomination type,” and “selectee indicator”.
Notably, the database was found on a Bahrain IP address, not a US one.
Doctor Who Did Early Research on COVID Vaccine: This Is Not a Pandemic of the Unvaccinated
August 19th, 2021Via: Fox:
Dr. Byram Bridle tells the ‘Ingraham Angle’ that unvaccinated individuals ‘are likely acquiring’ in substantial numbers, ‘naturally acquiring immunity’
Victor Dominello’s Bell’s Palsy, “Has No Known Exact Cause”
August 18th, 2021I wonder if it was lack of affection from his family, or worries about growing up?
Via: News:
The NSW MP was bombarded with messages after appearing at the daily Covid-19 press conference on Wednesday, asking him to seek medical help.
Scientists Grew Stem Cell ‘Mini Brains’. Then, The Brains Sort-of Developed Eyes
August 18th, 2021Via: ScienceAlert:
Mini brains grown in a lab from stem cells have spontaneously developed rudimentary eye structures, scientists report in a fascinating new paper.
On tiny, human-derived brain organoids grown in dishes, two bilaterally symmetrical optic cups were seen to grow, mirroring the development of eye structures in human embryos.
…
The team hopes to develop strategies for keeping these structures viable on longer time-scales for performing more in-depth research with huge potential, the researchers said.
Our Voices Matter – Stories Of COVID-19 Vaccine Injured Australians
August 18th, 2021Via: The COVID World:
Businesses Are Refusing to Enforce France’s Vaccine Passport
August 18th, 2021Via: Summit News:
Anecdotal evidence detailed by former Google software engineer Mike Hearn strongly suggests that most restaurants, cafes and other businesses in France are not enforcing the country’s controversial vaccine passport system.
As we highlighted last week, on the first day the new program was in place, police were visibly patrolling bars and cafes demanding customers show proof they’ve had the jab.
However, this seems to have largely been a bluff as just days later, businesses and venues have become very lax at checking people’s papers despite the threat of large fines.
“I decided to do a simple experiment to find out: always present an expired test even though I had a valid negative one, and see what happens,” writes Hearn.
“Over a four day stay I was required to show a valid pass exactly zero times; that includes at the airports in both directions. Compliance is absolutely min viable and often lower.”
“At small businesses enforcement was non-existent: sometimes the pass requirement was ignored entirely, other times we were asked “do you have a pass” and our answer wasn’t checked. One restaurant had come up with a clever way to detect police stings without requiring customers to actually present a pass. As expected, enforcement was stricter by larger firms, however even there we saw the following:
– Test certificates being checked once and then swapped for a token that doesn’t expire.
– Expired tests being accepted.
– People accepting paper test certificates without scanning them.
– Scanning tests and then not looking at the screen to see the results.
– Accepting QR codes that failed to scan.”
Hearn also reveals how mask mandates in theme parks and other venues are also not being followed, despite signs everywhere ordering people to cover their faces, while social distancing is also a “forgotten memory.”
