Millions Risk Losing Power Over Unpaid Utility Bills
October 6th, 2020Via: ZeroHedge:
Millions of Americans are facing a dire situation of being without power or water as their utility bills pile up, and as state and local protections which allowed for deferred payments amid the pandemic come to an end.
The Post-Pandemic ‘New Normal’ Looks Awfully Authoritarian
October 6th, 2020Via: Reason:
We’re told that life is never getting back to normal, so we need to suck it up and accept a world of mask-wearing, economic disruption, and social distancing. It’s a denatured echo of the warnings we’ve heard before that government responses to COVID-19 are pushing the world toward authoritarianism—but dressed up as if that’s a good thing.
That’s unfortunate, given that less-intrusive responses to the pandemic are proving at least as effective as heavy-handed ones. And that’s before we even discuss the inherent value of the freedom that looks destined to be pushed aside by public health concerns and by disingenuous government officials.
Trump Returns White House
October 5th, 2020Via: Reuters:
President Donald Trump returned to the White House on Monday after a three-night hospital stay for treatment for COVID-19, facing a staff hit by a wave of infections and a campaign further shadowed by the pandemic four weeks before Election Day.
…
Wearing a white surgical mask, Trump gave a thumbs-up and waved at reporters as he walked to the executive mansion from the helicopter that flew him back from the Walter Reed Medical Center outside Washington.
White House Acknowledges Trump’s Condition Had Been Worse Than Revealed
October 4th, 2020Via: Reuters:
White House Chief of Staff Mark Meadows revealed that President Donald Trump’s condition on Friday was far worse than officials had made public, saying doctors recommended the president go to the hospital after seeing he had a fever and his blood oxygen level dropped rapidly.
How the Police Use AI to Track and Identify You
October 3rd, 2020Via: The Gradient:
Surveillance is becoming an increasingly controversial application given the rapid pace at which AI systems are being developed and deployed worldwide.
While protestors marched through the city demanding justice for George Floyd and an end to police brutality, Minneapolis police trained surveillance tools to identify them. With just hours to sift through thousands of CCTV camera feeds and other dragnet data streams, the police turned to a range of automated systems for help, reaching for information collected by automated license plate readers, CCTV-video analysis software, open-source geolocation tools, and Clearview AI’s controversial facial recognition system. High above the city, an unarmed Predator drone flew in circles, outfitted with a specialized camera first pioneered by the police in Baltimore that is capable of identifying individuals from 10,000 feet in the air, providing real-time surveillance of protestors across the city. But Minneapolis is not an isolated case of excessive policing and technology run amok. Instead, it is part of a larger strategy by the state, local, and federal government to build surveillance dragnets that pull in people’s emails, texts, bank records, and smartphone location as well as their faces, movements, and physical whereabouts to equip law enforcement with unprecedented tools to search for and identify Americans without a warrant.
The federal government has worked hand in glove with state and local police to create the kind of pervasive and precise surveillance systems that the Founder Fathers explicitly sought to reject with the Fourth Amendment. Explicitly written to tie the police powers of the state, the Fourth Amendment grew out of the colonists’ experience with agents of the British Crown who, in an effort to stamp out rampant smuggling in the colonies, used “writs of assistance” to search any American and confiscate his or her important documents and possessions without a warrant or even an arrest. The Fourth Amendment forces the government to produce evidence that a suspect committed a crime (called probable cause) and a warrant signed by a judge stating what documents or information they believe they’ll find when they search him or her. However, those protections have eroded in the digital age. Technology and lax data and privacy laws have enabled the rise of dragnet surveillance systems that regularly search and seize critical data and devices from Americans without a warrant or a crime committed, relying on automated systems to carry out modern-day, digital writs of assistance on Americans.
For Years, Intel Sat On Its CPU Monopoly And Now The Tide Turns Against Them
October 3rd, 2020AMD’s Zen 3 chips (reveal 8 October) are going to be very ugly for Intel.
Via: Seeking Alpha:
Intel is scared.
Vitamin D Deficiency Possibly Associated with Glaucoma
October 3rd, 2020Via: Science Direct:
This meta-analysis suggests that patients with glaucoma may have vitamin D deficiency. In addition, the vitamin D signalling cascade may be a contributing factor in developing glaucoma, which is supported by the evidence that b allele carriers of VDR BsmI exhibited an increase in the risk of glaucoma. Thus, dietary supplementation of vitamin D may become an important approach as an additional treatment for glaucoma.
Dark Journalist – Catherine Austin Fitts: The Deep State Chaos Op
October 3rd, 2020Packed with very interesting information. This is the best summary of recent events that I’ve come across.
Via: Dark Journalist:
Related: Solari
Actively Speaking Two Languages Protects Against Cognitive Impairment
October 3rd, 2020Via: Universitat Oberta de Catalunya:
In a paper published in Neuropsychologia, the researchers conclude that speaking two languages on a regular basis – and having done so all one’s life – enhances cognitive reserve and delays the appearance of symptoms associated with cognitive decline and dementia.
“The prevalence of dementia in countries where more than one language is spoken is 50% lower than in those regions where the population uses only one language to communicate,” said researcher Marco Calabria, professor at the UOC Faculty of Health Sciences and member of the University’s Cognitive NeuroLab research group and the Speech Production and Bilingualism research group, at the UPF.
Previous work had already found that the lifelong use of two or more languages could be a key factor in increasing cognitive reserve and delaying the onset of dementia, as well as offering advantages for memory and executive functions.
Is the UK Heading Toward Medical Martial Law?
October 3rd, 2020Via: Off-Guardian:
