Oregon Man Arrested For Starting 7 Fires; Police Recover Molotov Cocktail
September 15th, 2020Via: ZeroHedge:
Amid windy and worsening conditions at least 35 have died from the spate of West Coast fires which many thousands of firefighters are still busy battling. And there are still dozens of missing persons who were in the vicinity of the blazes.
Meanwhile the mainstream media is busy issuing headlines like this instead of actually trying to get to the bottom of what’s behind the seeming simultaneous explosion of fires: “Oregon Officials Warn False Antifa Rumors Waste Precious Resources For Fires,” writes NPR.
And now local Portland media is reporting that a 45-year old man has been arrested for starting at least seven brush fires near a major highway: “A man arrested Sunday afternoon for allegedly starting a small brush fire along Interstate 205 was arrested again hours after he was released from jail after he allegedly started six more small fires,” according to a Portland Police statement.
Windows Active Directory Exploit: ‘Zerologon’ Lets Anyone on Local Network Obtain Domain-Controller Password
September 15th, 2020
Via: Ars Technica:
Researchers have developed and published a proof-of-concept exploit for a recently patched Windows vulnerability that can allow access to an organization’s crown jewels—the Active Directory domain controllers that act as an all-powerful gatekeeper for all machines connected to a network.
…
“It basically allows any attacker on the local network (such as a malicious insider or someone who simply plugged in a device to an on-premise network port) to completely compromise the Windows domain. The attack is completely unauthenticated: the attacker does not need any user credentials.”
The Secura researchers who discovered the vulnerability and reported it to Microsoft said they developed an exploit that works reliably, but given the risk, they aren’t releasing it until they’re confident Microsoft’s patch has been widely installed on vulnerable servers.
Debt is the Real Pandemic
September 15th, 2020Via: Ron Paul:
According to the Congressional Budget Office’s (CBO) latest “Update on the Budget Outlook,” this year’s $3.3 trillion federal deficit is not just three times larger than last year: it is the largest federal deficit in history. The CBO update also predicts that the federal debt will equal 104 percent of the gross domestic product (GDP) next year and will reach 108 percent of GDP by 2030.
The CBO update also shows that the Social Security, Medicare, and highway trust funds will all be bankrupt by 2031. This will put pressure on Congress to bail out the trust funds thus further increasing the debt.
This year’s spike in federal spending was caused by the multi-trillion dollar coronavirus relief/economic stimulus bills passed by Congress and signed by the president. However, spending had already increased by $937 billion from the time President Trump was sworn in until the lockdown.
Federal spending is unlikely to be reduced no matter who wins the presidential election. Former Vice President Joe Biden has proposed increasing spending on everything from Obamacare to militarism to “green” cronyism. Yet some progressives are attacking Biden for being to “stingy” in his spending proposals. Even more distressing is how few progressives are critical of Biden’s support for increasing the military budget.
With some notable exceptions, such as his infrastructure plan, President Trump is not proposing any massive new spending programs. However, he Is not promising to stop increasing, much less cut, federal spending.
SpaceX Launch and Landing Sounds from Vehicle
September 14th, 2020Via: SpaceX:
Tesla Delays Release of Important Autopilot Rewrite
September 14th, 2020“As for the robotaxis zipping from one burbclave to another… Not happening anytime soon.”
—Automakers Are Rethinking the Timetable for Fully Autonomous Cars
Via: Electrek:
At this point, we need a major asterisk next to the “1 million Robotaxi vehicles” claim.
Related: Director of AI at Tesla on Self Driving Progress: We’re Hiring
Unusual Features of the SARS-CoV-2 Genome Suggesting Sophisticated Laboratory Modification Rather Than Natural Evolution and Delineation of Its Probable Synthetic Route
September 14th, 2020Via: Zenodo:
The COVID-19 pandemic caused by the novel coronavirus SARS-CoV-2 has led to over 910,000 deaths worldwide and unprecedented decimation of the global economy. Despite its tremendous impact, the origin of SARS-CoV-2 has remained mysterious and controversial. The natural origin theory, although widely accepted, lacks substantial support. The alternative theory that the virus may have come from a research laboratory is, however, strictly censored on peer-reviewed scientific journals. Nonetheless, SARS-CoV-2 shows biological characteristics that are inconsistent with a naturally occurring, zoonotic virus. In this report, we describe the genomic, structural, medical, and literature evidence, which, when considered together, strongly contradicts the natural origin theory. The evidence shows that SARS-CoV-2 should be a laboratory product created by using bat coronaviruses ZC45 and/or ZXC21 as a template and/or backbone. Building upon the evidence, we further postulate a synthetic route for SARS-CoV-2, demonstrating that the laboratory-creation of this coronavirus is convenient and can be accomplished in approximately six months. Our work emphasizes the need for an independent investigation into the relevant research laboratories. It also argues for a critical look into certain recently published data, which, albeit problematic, was used to support and claim a natural origin of SARS-CoV-2. From a public health perspective, these actions are necessary as knowledge of the origin of SARS-CoV-2 and of how the virus entered the human population are of pivotal importance in the fundamental control of the COVID-19 pandemic as well as in preventing similar, future pandemics.
More: ‘Rogue’ Chinese Virologist Joins Twitter, Publishes “Smoking Gun” Evidence COVID-19 Created In Lab
Phosphine Detected In The Atmosphere of Venus
September 14th, 2020Via: Reuters:
Scientists said on Monday they have detected in the harshly acidic clouds of Venus a gas called phosphine that indicates microbes may inhabit Earth’s inhospitable neighbor, a tantalizing sign of potential life beyond Earth.
The researchers did not discover actual life forms, but noted that on Earth phosphine is produced by bacteria thriving in oxygen-starved environments. The international scientific team first spotted the phosphine using the James Clerk Maxwell Telescope in Hawaii and confirmed it using the Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array (ALMA) radio telescope in Chile.
If You’re About to Build a PC…
September 14th, 2020I don’t do much PC hardware commentary, but if there was ever a time for it, this is it.
If you follow computer news at all, you know that we’re in for an interesting couple of months. (Never mind the upcoming U.S. Presidential election disaster. *pfft*)
Nvidia’s RTX 3000 series cards have been announced and RTX 3080 (Founders Edition) reviews come out on September 16 at 6 a.m. Pacific Time.
Many enthusiasts understood that Turing was a ripoff and stayed away.
Now that Nvidia is (apparently) back on track with Ampere, there is a lot of built up demand and interest. Crypto miners will also be buying Ampere cards.
Then, in October, AMD will launch their Zen 3 desktop CPUs and RDNA2 based graphics cards.
AMD’s domination of the enthusiast CPU market is almost certainly going to expand with Zen 3. There are also tantalizing rumors that RDNA2 could be more interesting than most are expecting.
I would definitely hold off on building anything at least until the Zen 3 announcement on October 8. If current gen Ryzen is good enough for your needs, look to pick those chips up at even deeper discounts after the Zen 3 announcement. I would also hold off on buying any of the RTX 3000 series cards in case AMD has anything truly interesting to say with regard to RDNA2/”Big Navi” on October 28.
One more thing about Nvidia and Ampere: Many rumor sites (one example) are saying that Nvidia has several more SKUs ready to launch next year. The initial RTX 3090, RTX 3080 and RTX 3070 are just the start of Ampere.
All of that said, once you do decide to build, please consider making your hardware purchases via one of my Amazon affiliate links. Thank you!
How Big Oil Misled The Public Into Believing Plastic Would Be Recycled
September 13th, 2020Via: NPR:
Laura Leebrick, a manager at Rogue Disposal & Recycling in southern Oregon, is standing on the end of its landfill watching an avalanche of plastic trash pour out of a semitrailer: containers, bags, packaging, strawberry containers, yogurt cups.
None of this plastic will be turned into new plastic things. All of it is buried.
“To me that felt like it was a betrayal of the public trust,” she said. “I had been lying to people … unwittingly.”
Rogue, like most recycling companies, had been sending plastic trash to China, but when China shut its doors two years ago, Leebrick scoured the U.S. for buyers. She could find only someone who wanted white milk jugs. She sends the soda bottles to the state.
But when Leebrick tried to tell people the truth about burying all the other plastic, she says people didn’t want to hear it.
“I remember the first meeting where I actually told a city council that it was costing more to recycle than it was to dispose of the same material as garbage,” she says, “and it was like heresy had been spoken in the room: You’re lying. This is gold. We take the time to clean it, take the labels off, separate it and put it here. It’s gold. This is valuable.”
But it’s not valuable, and it never has been. And what’s more, the makers of plastic — the nation’s largest oil and gas companies — have known this all along, even as they spent millions of dollars telling the American public the opposite.
Nvidia Nears Deal to Buy Chip Designer Arm for More Than $40 Billion
September 12th, 2020Update: Immediate Hissy Fit
Via: Reuters:
Nvidia Corp’s $40 billion agreement to acquire Arm Ltd from SoftBank Group Corp is likely to meet strong opposition from Nvidia’s chip industry rivals, analysts say, with murmurs of protest emerging in South Korea and China within hours of the deal’s announcement.
—
Massive.
Via: Reuters:
Nvidia Corp is close to a deal to buy British chip designer Arm Holdings from SoftBank Group Corp for more than $40 billion in a deal which would create a giant in the chip industry, according to two people familiar with the matter.
A cash and stock deal for Arm could be announced as early as next week, the sources said.
