U.S. Military Eyes Tiny Nuclear Reactors for Deployed Troops
January 28th, 2019Via: DefenseOne:
Getting fuel to remote operating bases is a big problem for the U.S. military. In 2008, during the height of combat in Iraq, the Government Accountability Office estimated that more than 900,000 gallons of fuel went to bases for basic power needs like lighting and refrigeration (on top of the 6.7 million gallons the military burned that year in jets and ground vehicles.) The U.S. military’s Strategic Capabilities Office has put out a request for information about small nuclear reactors that could deploy to the sorts of hillside forward bases U.S. troops set up in places like Afghanistan.
According to the request for “Project Dilithium,” the reactor should fit on a truck and a C-17 aircraft and generate from one to 10 megawatts of electric power for three years without refueling. Soldiers have to be able to stand it up in 72 hours and take it down in a week. It’s got to be meltdown-proof. The office is looking to fund three different prototype designs and will then select a winner from among them.
Frozen Doom? Antibiotic-Resistant Superbug Genes Found in the Arctic
January 28th, 2019Hmm.
Bill Gates, Rockefeller and the GMO Giants Know Something We Don’t:
No project is more interesting at the moment than a curious project in one of the world’s most remote spots, Svalbard. Bill Gates is investing millions in a seed bank on the Barents Sea near the Arctic Ocean, some 1,100 kilometers from the North Pole. Svalbard is a barren piece of rock claimed by Norway and ceded in 1925 by international treaty (see map).
On this God-forsaken island Bill Gates is investing tens of his millions along with the Rockefeller Foundation, Monsanto Corporation, Syngenta Foundation and the Government of Norway, among others, in what is called the “doomsday seed bank.” Officially the project is named the Svalbard Global Seed Vault on the Norwegian island of Spitsbergen, part of the Svalbard island group.
Via: Russia Today:
In an extremely worrying development, genes relating to one of the most antibiotic resistant superbugs known to mankind have been found in the soil of the high Arctic, a remote and largely inhospitable corner of the world.
The New Delhi Metallo-beta-lactamase-1 genes (blaNDM-1) were first identified when a Swedish patient of Indian origin, who traveled to India in 2008, presented at a Delhi hospital. The genes were then detected in surface water on Delhi streets in 2010.
In a shock development, they have now been unearthed in the soil in Svalbard, Norway, high up in the Arctic Circle, 12,870km away from the Indian city, and how they got there is a profound mystery.
DNA was extracted from 40 soil samples at eight locations in Svalbard and a total of 131 antibiotic resistant genes were found. The New Delhi superbug was present in over 60 percent of the samples analyzed. The impact of antibiotic-resistant bacteria cannot be overstated, regardless of the lack of a coherent, international strategy at present.
Gene Modified Chickens ‘Lay Medicines’
January 28th, 2019Via: BBC:
Researchers at the University of Edinburgh’s Roslin Institute have genetically modified chickens to produce human proteins in their eggs.
They hope the project will one day lead to lifesaving drugs that are much cheaper to make.
The team modified the genomes of the chickens so their eggs contain large amounts of high quality proteins.
Just three eggs contain a clinically significant dose, according to the scientists.
Initially the proteins will be used in research but laboratory tests have already found they work at least as well as equivalent drugs.
Protein-based therapies such as the cancer treatments Herceptin and Avastin can be effective where traditional drugs fail but they are highly expensive.
The new research – a collaboration between the institute and the university’s spinout company Roslin Technologies – holds out the promise of a far cheaper production process.
Another EV Giant Enters The Battery Business
January 27th, 2019Via: OilPrice.com:
German auto maker giant Volkswagen has just upped its bet on electric vehicles (EVs) by announcing it will begin manufacturing batteries and charging stations for those cars, which the company plans to also start mass producing soon.
The Wolfsburg-based company said it would invest 870 million euros (about $985 million) by 2020 to develop e-vehicle components, adding that its components division, which makes engines and steering parts, will now be in charge of producing, packing and overseeing recycling of battery cells and packs.
Army’s Long-Awaited Iraq War Study Finds Iran Was the Only Winner
January 27th, 2019The arms industry and the mercs did ok, too.
Via: ArmyTimes:
A two-volume Army study of the Iraq war is a deep examination of the mistakes and success of the war effort that also takes aim at critics who would slough off the conflict as they shift to near-peer threats.
The study, commissioned by former Army Chief of Staff Gen. Ray Odierno in 2013 and continued under current chief Gen. Mark Milley, was delayed for release since 2016, when it was completed. Some said it was due to concerns over airing “dirty laundry” about decisions made by some leaders during the conflict.
The 1,300-page, two volume history, complete with more than 1,000 declassified documents, spans the 2003 invasion through the U.S. withdrawal, the rise of ISIS, and the influence of Syria and Iran.
“At the time of this project’s completion in 2018, an emboldened and expansionist Iran appears to be the only victor,” authors wrote in the concluding chapter.
Hacked Russian Documents: Dark Side of the Kremlin
January 26th, 2019Via: The Hill:
A group of transparency advocates released a massive number of hacked and leaked Russian documents on Friday in what is being viewed as retaliation against Russia’s sharing of hacked Democratic National Committee (DNC) emails to influence the 2016 presidential campaign.
The documents, totaling 175 gigabytes in data, were shared on DDoSecret website and on Internet Archive around the same time on Friday. The scope of the documents shared is far larger than the total known material Russian officials obtained from the DNC and then-Democratic candidate Hillary Clinton’s campaign.
The collection of material, called “The Dark Side of the Kremlin,” includes insider information such as “hundreds of thousands of messages and files from Russian politicians, journalists, oligarchs, religious figures, and nationalists/terrorists in Ukraine,” according to the group that posted the documents.
‘Scientists Are Working On a Pill for Loneliness’
January 26th, 2019Mmm hmm.
Via: Guardian:
Modern life has led to greater isolation, which can fuel an array of disorders. If there are medications for social pains like depression and anxiety, why not loneliness?
EU Adds Saudi Arabia to Draft Terrorism Financing List
January 25th, 2019
Via: Reuters:
The European Commission has added Saudi Arabia to an EU draft list of countries that pose a threat to the bloc because of lax controls against terrorism financing and money laundering, two sources told Reuters on Friday.
Trump Agrees to End Shutdown (for Three Weeks) Without Border Wall Money
January 25th, 2019Via: Reuters:
President Donald Trump agreed under mounting pressure on Friday to end a 35-day-old partial U.S. government shutdown without getting the $5.7 billion he had demanded from Congress for a border wall, handing a political victory to Democrats.
The three-week spending deal reached with congressional leaders, quickly passed unanimously by the Republican-led Senate and heading to the Democratic-controlled House of Representatives, paves the way for tough talks with lawmakers about how to address security along the U.S.-Mexican border.
The Republican president’s agreement to end the shuttering of about a quarter of the federal government without securing wall money – an astonishing retreat for a president who usually gives no ground – came three days after he had insisted “We will not Cave!”
But Trump vowed that the shutdown would resume on Feb. 15 if he is dissatisfied with the results of a bipartisan House-Senate conference committee’s border security negotiations, or he would declare a national emergency to get the wall money.
Democrats remained unyielding in their opposition to a wall, one of his signature campaign promises that they call ineffective, costly and immoral. Trump has said it is needed to curb illegal immigration and drug trafficking.
Chefs and Truck Drivers Beware: AI Is Coming for Your Jobs
January 24th, 2019Via: Newsweek / AP:
Robots aren’t replacing everyone, but a quarter of U.S. jobs will be severely disrupted as artificial intelligence accelerates the automation of existing work, according to a new Brookings Institution report.
The report, published Thursday, says roughly 36 million Americans hold jobs with “high exposure” to automation — meaning at least 70 percent of their tasks could soon be performed by machines using current technology. Among those most likely to be affected are cooks, waiters and others in food services; short-haul truck drivers; and clerical office workers.
“That population is going to need to upskill, reskill or change jobs fast,” said Mark Muro, a senior fellow at Brookings and lead author of the report.
