Twitter Executive for Middle East Is British Army ‘Psyops’ Soldier
September 30th, 2019Via: Middle East Eye:
The senior Twitter executive with editorial responsibility for the Middle East is also a part-time officer in the British Army’s psychological warfare unit, Middle East Eye has established.
Gordon MacMillan, who joined the social media company’s UK office six years ago, has for several years also served with the 77th Brigade, a unit formed in 2015 in order to develop “non-lethal” ways of waging war.
The 77th Brigade uses social media platforms such as Twitter, Instagram and Facebook, as well as podcasts, data analysis and audience research to wage what the head of the UK military, General Nick Carter, describes as “information warfare”.
China Grew Two Cotton Leaves on the Moon
September 30th, 2019Via: IEEE:
The team behind a pioneering biological experiment sent to the lunar far side has released an image showing two green leaves grown on the moon.
The experiment began shortly after China’s Chang’e-4 spacecraft made the first ever landing on the far side of the moon, on 3 January this year.
Cotton, arabidopsis and potato seeds, and fruit-fly eggs and yeast were all aboard the 2.6-kilogram mini biosphere, but only the cotton produced positive results.
Image processing has now shown that two cotton leaves had grown—rather than just one as initially thought—in what was the first biological growth experiment on the moon.
China Quietly Doubles Troop Levels in Hong Kong
September 30th, 2019Via: Reuters:
Three of the envoys said the contingent of Chinese military personnel in Hong Kong had more than doubled in size since the protests began. They estimated the number of military personnel is now between 10,000 and 12,000, up from 3,000 to 5,000 in the months before the reinforcement.
As a result, the envoys believe, China has now assembled its largest-ever active force of People’s Liberation Army (PLA) troops and other anti-riot personnel and equipment in Hong Kong.
China: Fugitive On Run for 17 Years Found Living in Cave by Drone
September 30th, 2019Via: BBC:
Chinese police have arrested a fugitive who’d been on the run for 17 years, after they used drones to spot his cave hideout.
The 63-year old, named Song Jiang by the police, had been jailed for trafficking women and children but escaped from a prison camp in 2002.
He had been living in a tiny cave cut off from human interaction for years.
Yongshan police received clues about Song’s whereabouts in early September, they said on their WeChat account.
Those clues led them to the mountains behind his hometown in Yunnan province in south-west China.
After regular searches failed to find anything, authorities sent additional drones to help the officers.
The drones eventually spotted a blue-coloured steel tile on a steep cliff as well as traces of household rubbish nearby.
Police then moved in on foot and found Song in a small cave where he’d been hiding for years.
Consumers Increasingly Using Buy-Now-Pay-Later Services for Shoes, Sweaters, Makeup
September 30th, 2019Via: Wall Street Journal:
Gone are the days when special financing plans were mostly reserved for big-ticket purchases like TVs and refrigerators. Now, sweaters, makeup or other everyday items can be paid for in installments with loans or other payment plans offered at checkout with thousands of merchants in the U.S., including Walmart Inc., Urban Outfitters Inc. and, soon, H&M . Some Amazon.com Inc. credit-card users can also sign up for these plans.
Merchants and lenders are tapping into the financial challenges many U.S. families are facing. Despite signs of a strong economy, like low unemployment, consumers are increasingly relying on borrowing to fund their daily lives. U.S. consumer debt is higher than ever, as cars, college, housing and medical care grow more expensive but incomes stay largely stagnant.
Pod People
September 30th, 2019Via: Paul Watson:
Related: L.A. Coliving: PodShare
Whistle-Blower: Prince Andrew Was Regular Visitor to Jeffrey Epstein’s £7 Million Paris Apartment
September 30th, 2019Via: Daily Mail:
A whistle-blower has told police in France that Prince Andrew had been a regular visitor to billionaire paedophile Jeffrey Epstein’s £7million apartment in Paris.
Detectives in the French city are now probing reports that the Queen’s son was often at the property.
It comes as the apartment was raided last week, with officers having discovered a custom-made massage parlour where Epstein and his friends are alleged to have raped their victims.
Now a key witness has claimed that he spotted Prince Andrew at the building on more than one occasion.
Trump Tweets Civil War Warning Over Impeachment
September 29th, 2019Via: Donald Trump – Twitter:
….If the Democrats are successful in removing the President from office (which they will never be), it will cause a Civil War like fracture in this Nation from which our Country will never heal.” Pastor Robert Jeffress, @FoxNews
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) September 30, 2019
GE, NASA Partner to Advance the Future of Electric Flight
September 29th, 2019Via: ZDnet:
Electric flight is becoming a tantalizingly close reality for shorter-range service. But increasing passenger carrying capacity and flight times to economically accommodate longer routes will require a major rethink of crucial components.
One of these is the inverter, which changes the direct current of batteries into alternating current used by the airplane’s propulsion system. The problem is there aren’t many inverters rated for aviation. Those that exist are big and heavy, two characteristics that don’t mix well with electric flight.
Now, GE is partnering with the NASA Advanced Air Vehicles Program (AAVP) on a new generation of inverter using GE’s silicon Carbide (SiC) technology. The project aims to deliver a next gen inverter that provides significantly increased power density over existing technology but is small enough to support electric flight.
“We’re essentially packing 1 MW of power into the size of a compact suitcase that will convert enough electric power to enable hybrid-electric propulsion architectures for commercial airplanes,”says Konrad Weeber, Chief Engineer of Electric Power at GE Research. “We have successfully built and demonstrated inverters at ground level that meet the power, size and efficiency requirements of electric flight. The next step is to build and demonstrate one that is altitude ready.”
Auto Workers Fear for Jobs with Rise of Electric Vehicles
September 28th, 2019Via: Bloomberg:
The milkman went missing thanks to the rise of refrigerators. Switchboard operators were done in by the dawn of direct dialing. And in the car industry, auto workers are deathly afraid the engine assembler will give way to battery builders.
Dread over the prospect that plug-in cars — which have fewer parts and require less labor to build — will doom auto jobs helped spark the first United Auto Workers strike against General Motors Co. in over a decade. Ford Motor Co. and Fiat Chrysler Automobiles NV, which are rolling their own battery-powered models to market in the coming years, could face a similar fate if they’re unable to quell the UAW’s concerns that widespread adoption of EVs endangers the employment of 35,000 union members.
