Iran Seizes British-Flagged Tanker in Strait of Hormuz
July 19th, 2019Via: AFP:
Iran’s Revolutionary Guards said Friday they had seized a British-flagged tanker in the Strait of Hormuz for breaking “international maritime rules” as tensions mount in the highly sensitive waterway.
Britain however said Iran had seized two ships in the Gulf, with Foreign Secretary Jeremy Hunt warning of “serious consequences” if the issue was not resolved quickly.
The British owner of one of the tankers, the Liberian-flagged Mesdar, said the ship had been temporarily boarded by armed personnel, but was now free to leave.
Will USA Ban Bitcoin?
July 18th, 2019Via: In It for the Money:
Amazon Accidentally Sold $13,000+ Camera Gear for $100 on Prime Day
July 17th, 2019A true AI success story!
Via: PetaPixel:
Amazon discounted a wide range of camera gear for Prime Day this week, but some photographers scored what may be the best deals of their lives. Thanks to a pricing error, many people were able to purchase high-end camera gear bundles, some worth over $5,000, for just around $100.
U.S. Military Ordered to Reveal if Insects Were Used as Biological Weapon
July 17th, 2019Via: Independent:
US lawmakers have voted to demand the Pentagon discloses whether it conducted experiments to “weaponise” disease-carrying ticks – and whether any such insects were let loose outside the lab.
A bill passed in the House of Representatives requires the Defence Department’s inspector general to investigate whether biological warfare tests involving the tiny arachnids took place over a 25-year period.
It follows claims that Pentagon researchers implanted diseases into inspects to study the potential of biological weapons in the decades after the Second World War.
A tick-related amendment, first reported by Roll Call, was added to the fiscal 2020 defence authorisation bill by Republican congressman Chris Smith prior to its passing in the House.
The New Jersey politician said the inspector general’s office should “conduct a review of whether the Department of Defence experimented with ticks and other insects regarding use as a biological weapon between the years of 1950 and 1975.”
Neuralink Presentation
July 16th, 2019Update: Elon Musk Says Neuralink Microchip Allowed a Monkey to ‘Control’ Computer with Brain
Via: Fox:
Elon Musk showed off some of what his neurotechnology company, Neuralink, has been developing Tuesday, and casually mentioned that the technology had been used “to control a computer with its brain.”
“Just FYI,” he added.
…
Musk and other company leaders didn’t go into much more detail about the monkey-brain-computer tidbit. Neuralink President Max Hodak expressed surprise that Musk mentioned it at all.
“I didn’t realize we were running that result today, but there it goes,” he said.
Neuralink worked with the University of California, Davis, on animal testing involving rats and monkeys, according to Musk.
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Via: Neuralink:
United Arab Emirates Oil Tanker Goes Missing Near Iran
July 16th, 2019Update: Iran says it has seized foreign oil tanker and crew in the Persian Gulf
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Via: Guardian:
Tracking data showing an oil tanker that was heading towards Iranian waters and stopped transmitting its location on Saturday night has raised concerns about the status of the vessel amid heightened tensions between Iran and the US.
The UAE-based and Panamanian-flagged oil tanker Riah typically made trips from Dubai and Sharjah on the UAE’s west coast before going through the strait of Hormuz and heading to Fujairah on the UAE’s east coast. However, something happened to the vessel after 11pm on Saturday, according to tracking data, when its last position showed it pointing towards Iran.
Capt Ranjith Raja of the data firm Refinitiv said the tanker had not switched off its tracking in three months of trips around the UAE. “That is a red flag,” Raja said.
Road-Tripping with the Amazon Nomads
July 15th, 2019Via: The Verge:
The majority of goods sold on Amazon are not sold by Amazon itself, but by more than 2 million merchants who use the company’s platform as their storefront and infrastructure. Some of these sellers make their own products, while others practice arbitrage, buying and reselling wares from other retailers. Amazon has made this easy to do, first by launching Fulfillment by Amazon, which allows sellers to send their goods to company warehouses and have Amazon handle storage and delivery, and then with an app that lets sellers scan goods to instantly check whether they’d be profitable to sell on the site. A few sellers, like Anderson, have figured out that the best way to find lucrative products is to be mobile, scouring remote stores and chasing hot-selling items from coast to coast.
This Cop Is Getting $2,500 a Month Because Killing an Unarmed Man in a Hotel Hallway Gave Him PTSD
July 15th, 2019Via: Reason:
An Arizona cop acquitted of murder in 2017 for killing a man crawling on his knees, begging for his life, in a hotel hallway, was temporarily rehired by the city he worked for so that he could claim a disability pension and file for a medical retirement that will pay him more than $2,500 a month for the rest of his life.
Florida Sheriff Deputy Arrested After Planting Drugs on Innocent People
July 15th, 2019Via: Reason:
A former Florida sheriff’s deputy was arrested Wednesday for planting drugs and falsely arresting at least 10 people, including one case where Reason obtained body camera footage showing him lying about the results of roadside field test.
The Florida Department of Law Enforcement (FDLE) announced yesterday that, following a months-long investigation, former Jackson County sheriff’s deputy Zach Wester had been arrested and charged with 52 felony crimes, including racketeering, false imprisonment, fabricating evidence, and drug possession.
In a stunning 30-page affidavit, the FDLE laid out how Wester kept unmarked bags of marijuana and methamphetamines in the trunk of his patrol car, manipulated his body cam footage, planted drugs in people’s cars, and falsified arrest reports to railroad innocent people under the color of law. His victims, many of whom had prior records or were working to stay sober, had their lives upended. One man lost custody of his daughter.
Real Hedge-Fund Managers Think Epstein’s Actual Business Was Blackmail
July 14th, 2019Via: New York Magazine:
Long before Jeffrey Epstein pleaded guilty to prostitution charges in Florida more than a decade ago, his fellow Palm Beach resident and hedge-fund manager Douglas Kass was intrigued by the local gossip about his neighbor.
“I’m hearing about the parties, hearing about a guy who’s throwing money around,” says Kass, president of Seabreeze Partners Management. While stories about young girls swarming Epstein’s waterfront mansion and the sex parties he hosted for the rich and powerful were the talk of the town, Kass was more focused on how this obscure person, rumored to be managing billions of dollars, had become so wealthy without much of a track record.
Kass was well-connected on Wall Street, where he’d worked for decades, so he began to ask around. “I went to my institutional brokers, to their trading desks and asked if they ever traded with him. I did it a few times until the date when he was arrested,” he recalls. “Not one institutional trading desk, primary or secondary, had ever traded with Epstein’s firm.”
When a reporter came to interview Kass about Bernie Madoff shortly before that firm blew up in the biggest Ponzi scheme ever, Kass told her, “There’s another guy who reminds me of Madoff that no one trades with.” That man was Jeffrey Epstein.
“How did he get the money?” Kass kept asking.
…
Given this puzzling set of data points, the hedge-fund managers we spoke to leaned toward the theory that Epstein was running a blackmail scheme under the cover of a hedge fund.
