FCC Approves SpaceX’s Plans to Fly Internet-Beaming Satellites in Lower Orbit

April 30th, 2019

In case you’re not being hit with enough EM smog already…

Via: The Verge:

The Federal Communications Commission has approved SpaceX’s request to fly a large swath of its future internet-beaming satellites at a lower orbit than originally planned. The approval was a major regulatory hurdle the company needed to clear in order to start launching its first operational satellites from Florida next month.

In November, SpaceX sent a request to the FCC to partially revise plans for the company’s satellite internet constellation, known as Starlink. Under SpaceX’s original agreement with the commission, the company had permission to launch 4,425 Starlink satellites into orbits that ranged between 1,110 to 1,325 kilometers up. But then SpaceX decided it wanted to fly 1,584 of those satellites in different orbits, thanks to what it had learned from its first two test satellites, TinTin A and B. Instead of flying them at 1,150 kilometers, the company now wants to fly them much lower at 550 kilometers.

And now the FCC is on board. “This approval underscores the FCC’s confidence in SpaceX’s plans to deploy its next-generation satellite constellation and connect people around the world with reliable and affordable broadband service,” SpaceX president Gwynne Shotwell said in a statement.

SpaceX argues that by operating satellites at this orbit, the Starlink constellation will have much lower latency in signal, cutting down transmission time to just 15 milliseconds.


Norway: Whale Possibly Trained by Russian Military

April 30th, 2019

The U.S. has been doing this sort of thing for many decades: United States Navy Marine Mammal Program.

Via: Guardian:

Marine experts in Norway believe they have stumbled upon a white whale that was trained by the Russian navy as part of a programme to use underwater mammals as a special ops force.

Fishermen in waters near the small Norwegian fishing village of Inga reported last week that a white beluga whale wearing a strange harness had begun to harass their fishing boats.

“We were going to put out nets when we saw a whale swimming between the boats,” fisherman Joar Hesten told Norwegian broadcaster NRK. “It came over to us, and as it approached, we saw that it had some sort of harness on it.”

The strange behaviour of the whale, which was actively seeking out the vessels and trying to pull straps and ropes from the sides of the boats, as well as the fact it was wearing a tight harness which seemed to be for a camera or weapon, raised suspicions among marine experts that the animal had been given military-grade training by neighbouring Russia. Inside the harness, which has now been removed from the whale, were the words “Equipment of St. Petersburg”.

The fisherman said the whale was very tame and seemed used to human beings.


SpaceX’s Unnerving Silence on an Explosive Incident

April 30th, 2019

Via: The Atlantic:

The smoke was visible for miles.

The day, April 20, was sunny on the Florida coast, with few clouds. The plumes, thick and glowing orange, rose over the horizon and crawled across the sky. Beachgoers stopped to stare. A photographer for Florida Today, on assignment to cover a surf festival, turned the lens away from the waves and snapped some pictures.

The ashy clouds were coming from Cape Canaveral. The only time you want to see smoke wafting from that vicinity, the site of historic space launches, is after a successful liftoff—and there were no rockets in the sky that day.

The smoke turned out to be from a failed test of a SpaceX spacecraft designed to carry humans to orbit. Strapped to a test stand so it couldn’t fly away, the capsule had ignited its engines. “The initial tests completed successfully, but the final test resulted in an anomaly on the test stand,” SpaceX said in a statement at the time.

The smoke suggested an outcome more serious than an “anomaly”—like a full-blown explosion. But SpaceX wouldn’t say anything else.

A day later, a grainy video, which looked like a recording of a screen, appeared on Twitter. The footage showed what appeared to be the SpaceX capsule, known as Dragon, on the test stand.

For about 10 seconds, everything is still. And then, suddenly, there’s an explosion, and the whole thing is engulfed in flames. Off camera, people exclaim in shock and swear. (No one was near the capsule, so there were no injuries.)

SpaceX declined to verify the authenticity of the video. But this week, NASA sent an internal email warning launch-support employees that they can be fired if they share the video. The message, reported by The Orlando Sentinel, confirmed the footage was real.


Film on Catholic Priests Using Nuns as ‘Sex Slaves’ Pulled

April 30th, 2019

Via: AFP:

A hit documentary about how some Catholic priests allegedly abused nuns in different parts of the world has been pulled from the Franco-German television channel Arte after a priest complained to a German court.

The big-budget media investigation, “Sex Slaves in the Catholic Church”, was broadcast in March and has been sold widely internationally since.

Its broadcast came weeks after Pope Francis admitted that some rogue priests had used nuns as “sexual slaves” and that the Vatican had to dissolve a French order because its founder was preying on its sisters.

The Vatican’s women’s magazine, Women Church World, also reported that some nuns had been forced into having abortions.


Venezuela: U.S. Backed Coup Attempt Underway

April 30th, 2019

Via: Daily Mail:

Heavy gunfire crackled through the Venezuelan capital of Caracas on Tuesday after opposition leader Juan Guaido called for a military uprising to oust President Nicolas Maduro.

Guaido urged protesters and members of the military to join what he called the ‘final phase of Operation Liberty’ in a video taken at La Carlota airbase in the capital Caracas while surrounded by heavily-armed soldiers.

The troops then set up defensive positions around the base before Maduro’s forces arrived and opened fire with teargas followed by live rounds, according to witnesses.

Guaido claimed that Maduro had lost the support of the military, by the President said he had spoken with his officers who had assured him of their ‘total loyalty’.

More: Venezuela’s Guaido Urges Troops to Rise, Mass Protests Planned


Joe Biden Slurs His Way Through First Speech of 2020 Presidential Run

April 29th, 2019

I wonder if they have the van team ready…

Via: Grabien:


U.S. Responsible for 36 Percent of Total Global Military Expenditure

April 29th, 2019

Via: Reuters:

Global military expenditure reached its highest level last year since the end of the Cold War, fueled by increased spending in the United States and China, the world’s two biggest economies, a leading defence think-tank said on Monday.

In its annual report, the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (SIPRI) said overall global military spending in 2018 hit $1.82 trillion, up 2.6 percent on the previous year.

That is the highest figure since 1988, when such data first became available as the Cold War began winding down.

U.S. military spending rose 4.6 percent last year to reach $649 billion, leaving it still by far the world’s biggest spender. It accounted for 36 percent of total global military expenditure, nearly equal to the following eight biggest-spending countries combined, SIPRI said.

China, the second biggest spender, saw military expenditure rise 5.0 percent to $250 billion last year, the 24th consecutive annual increase.


Censorship – The First Action of a Criminal Government

April 29th, 2019

Via: The Crow House:

Research Credit: LoneWolf


The Secret Tactics Monsanto Used to Protect Roundup, Its Star Product

April 29th, 2019

Via: ABC:


Tulsi Gabbard on Being Attacked by the Democratic Party, the Mainstream Media, the Foreign Policy Establishment and “People Who Represent the Interests of the Military Industrial Complex”

April 28th, 2019

Via: Tulsi Gabbard:


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