Recall Effort Against California Gov. Newsom Passes 1M Signatures
January 9th, 2021Via: New York Post:
A grassroots recall effort against controversial California Gov. Gavin Newsom has collected more than 1 million signatures. Just nine weeks remain to get the final 500,000 signatures needed to force a Special Recall election, campaign leaders said.
Amazon Boots Parler Off AWS
January 9th, 2021Via: ZeroHedge:
And so the hammer has come down late on Saturday, when Amazon officially kicked Parler off its cloud Web hosting service, AWS according to Buzzfeed. The suspension means that once the ban takes effect on Sunday, the website – which as of this moment is still up – will be offline until it finds someone else to host it.
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Update (2100 ET): As expected, Apple removed Parler permanently from its app store on Saturday. “[T]here is no place on our platform for threats of violence and illegal activity,” the iPhone maker said, according to CNN which adds that Apple notified Parler of its decision in a message that said it had violated the company’s app store terms.
The Opening Act Of The New “War On Domestic Terror”
January 9th, 2021Via: The Last American Vagabond:
Lithium-Ion Battery Recycling Finally Takes Off in North America and Europe
January 9th, 2021Via: IEEE Spectrum:
Later this year, the Canadian firm Li-Cycle will begin constructing a US $175 million plant in Rochester, N.Y., on the grounds of what used to be the Eastman Kodak complex. When completed, it will be the largest lithium-ion battery-recycling plant in North America.
The plant will have an eventual capacity of 25 metric kilotons of input material, recovering 95 percent or more of the cobalt, nickel, lithium, and other valuable elements through the company’s zero-wastewater, zero-emissions process. “We’ll be one of the largest domestic sources of nickel and lithium, as well as the only source of cobalt in the United States,” says Ajay Kochhar, Li-Cycle’s cofounder and CEO.
Founded in late 2016, the company is part of a booming industry focused on preventing tens of thousands of tons of lithium-ion batteries from entering landfills. Of the 180,000 metric tons of Li-ion batteries available for recycling worldwide in 2019, just a little over half were recycled. As lithium-ion battery production soars, so does interest in recycling.
According to London-based Circular Energy Storage, a consultancy that tracks the lithium-ion battery-recycling market, about a hundred companies worldwide recycle lithium-ion batteries or plan to do so soon. The industry is concentrated in China and South Korea, where the vast majority of the batteries are also made, but there are several dozen recycling startups in North America and Europe. In addition to Li-Cycle, that list includes Stockholm-based Northvolt, which is jointly building an EV-battery-recycling plant with Norway’s Hydro, and Tesla alum J.B. Straubel’s Redwood Materials, which has a broader scope of recycling electronic waste.
Navy’s Priciest Carrier Ever Struggles to Get Jets On, Off Deck
January 9th, 2021Via: Bloomberg:
Aircraft takeoff and landing systems on the USS Gerald R. Ford remain unreliable and break down too often more than three years after the $13.2 billion carrier was delivered, according to the Pentagon’s top tester.
The latest assessment of the costliest warship ever built “remains consistent” with previous years, director of testing Robert Behler said in his new summary of the program obtained by Bloomberg News before its release in an annual report.
“Poor or unknown reliability of new technology systems critical for flight operations,” including its $3.5 billion electromagnetic launch system and advanced arresting gear, could “adversely affect” the carrier’s ability to generate sorties, he said.
Twitter Permanently Suspends President Trump’s Account
January 8th, 2021Update: Google Suspends Parler Social Networking App from Play Store; Apple Gives 24-Hour Warning
Via: Reuters:
Alphabet Inc’s Google on Friday suspended the Parler social networking service from its app store, citing posts inciting violence and demanding “robust” content moderation from the app favored by many supporters of U.S. President Donald Trump.
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Update: Twitter Has Now Shut Down @POTUS
Via: ZeroHedge:
At 8:29pm ET, Trump – having been suspended from his personal twitter account – decided to use the official twitter account of the US president, @POTUS, saying that “Twitter employees have coordinated with the Democrats and the Radical Left in removing my accounts from their platform to silence me – and YOU, the 75,000,000 great patriots who voted for me.” Trump then said that “Twitter may be a private company, but without the government’s gift of Section 230 they would not exist for long.”
Trump, who has yet to create his own Parler account, continued: “We have been negotiating with various other sites, and will have a big announcement soon, while we also look at the possibilities of building out our own platform in the near future.”
“We will not be SILENCED! Twitter is not about FREE SPEECH. They are all about promoting a Radical Left platform where some of the most vicious people in the world are allowed to speak freely” the president boomed.
He concluded with an all caps “STAY TUNED!”
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Update: Last Two Tweets Before Account Suspended
Via: Trump Twitter Archive:
Donald J. Trump
@realdonaldtrump
To all of those who have asked, I will not be going to the Inauguration on January 20th.
Jan 8th 2021 – 10:44:28 AM EST
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Donald J. Trump
@realdonaldtrump
The 75,000,000 great American Patriots who voted for me, AMERICA FIRST, and MAKE AMERICA GREAT AGAIN, will have a GIANT VOICE long into the future. They will not be disrespected or treated unfairly in any way, shape or form!!!
Jan 8th 2021 – 9:46:38 AM EST
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Via: Reuters:
Twitter Inc said on Friday that it has permanently suspended U.S. President Donald Trump’s account due to the risk of further incitement of violence following the storming of the U.S. Capitol on Wednesday by hundreds of his supporters.
“After close review of recent Tweets from the @realDonaldTrump account and the context around them we have permanently suspended the account due to the risk of further incitement of violence,” the company said in a tweet.
Scientists Observe Biological Magnetoreception
January 8th, 2021Via: University of Tokyo:
Researchers in Japan have made the first observations of biological magnetoreception – live, unaltered cells responding to a magnetic field in real time. This discovery is a crucial step in understanding how animals from birds to butterflies navigate using Earth’s magnetic field and addressing the question of whether weak electromagnetic fields in our environment might affect human health.
Gallup Poll: Country Living Enjoys Renewed Appeal in U.S.
January 8th, 2021Via: Gallup:
About half of Americans (48%) at the end of 2020 said that, if able to live anywhere they wished, they would choose a town (17%) or rural area (31%) rather than a city or suburb. This is a shift from 2018, when 39% thought a town or rural area would be ideal.
MacArthur Park Is a Homeless Encampment Park Now
January 8th, 2021Via: German in Venice:
Boeing to Pay $2.5 Billion to Settle U.S. Criminal Case Involving 737 Max Aircraft
January 8th, 2021Via: CBS:
Boeing will pay $2.5 billion to settle a criminal charge of defrauding safety regulators in connection with the development of the 737 Max aircraft, which suffered two deadly crashes in 2018 and 2019 that killed everyone aboard the doomed jets.
The Justice Department said Thursday that Boeing agreed to the settlement that includes money for the crash victims’ families, airlines and airline customers, as well as a fine.
Related: Indonesian Boeing 737 Crashes Into Sea Shortly After Takeoff
