Free Gas Over Yemen’s Skies: Saudi Jets Refueled By American Taxpayers Due To “Accounting Errors”
December 10th, 2018Via: ZeroHedge:
The White House wants to stay the course in Yemen even as the Senate is set to push back against US military support to the Saudi-led bombing campaign. But now a bombshell report reveals the Pentagon has been fueling Saudi and UAE jets free of charge due to “errors in accounting where DoD failed to charge” according to US defense officials.
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For the entire three-and-a-half years of the program, the Pentagon never had an official servicing agreement in place with the Saudis and further never informed Congress.
The vital refueling role that the US military has played in the war goes back to March 2015 and is reported to be “enormously expensive”. The recipient country, in this case the Saudis, is required by law to pay the costs but the Pentagon now admits “they in fact had not been charged adequately” in an official DoD letter obtained by The Atlantic.
The Pentagon is now “currently calculating the correct charges” but it’s unclear if the missing funds going back years — footed by the American taxpayer — will ever be obtained especially as the DoD doesn’t even know what it’s owed.
The DIY Rocketeer Building SpaceX Replicas of Self-Landing Rockets
December 8th, 2018Via: Motherboard:
Joe Barnard left his background in videography and music production to launch his life of amateur rocketry, and he shares his DIY adventures in building rockets on his YouTube channel BPS.space.
Live: Yellow Vests Protest in Paris
December 8th, 2018Via: Russia Today:
China Launches Probe to Explore Dark Side of Moon
December 8th, 2018Via: Reuters:
China on Saturday launched a first probe ever to explore the dark side of the Moon, marking another milestone in its ambitious space program, the official Xinhua News Agency reported.
The probe, the Chang’e-4, is expected to make the first-ever soft landing on the far side of the Moon, according to Xinhua. Previous spacecraft have seen the far side of the Moon, but none has landed on it.
Paris in Lockdown as France Braces for New Anti-Macron Riots
December 7th, 2018Via: Reuters:
Paris was in lockdown early on Saturday with thousands of French security forces braced to meet renewed rioting by “yellow vest” protesters in the capital and other cities in a fourth weekend of confrontation over living costs.
The Eiffel Tower and other tourist landmarks were shut, shops were boarded up to avoid looting and street furniture removed to avoid metal bars from being used as projectiles.
About 89,000 police were deployed across the country.
Of these, about 8,000 were deployed in Paris to avoid a repeat of last Saturday’s mayhem when rioters torched cars and looted shops off the famed Champs Elysees boulevard, and defaced the Arc de Triomphe with graffiti directed at President Emmanuel Macron.
Protesters, using social media, have billed the weekend as “Act IV” in a dramatic challenge to Macron and his policies.
More MKULTRA Documents Released
December 7th, 20182018 MKULTRA Document Releases on BlackVault
Via: TheSun:
“It shows that the entire story is not yet out – which is contrary to what the CIA wants us to believe.”
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He believes the missing information may relate to top secret mind control projects which are STILL taking place.
DeepMind’s AlphaZero Obliterates Previous AI Chess Champion
December 6th, 2018Via: Telegraph:
DeepMind’s artificial intelligence programme AlphaZero is now showing signs of human-like intuition and creativity, in what developers have hailed as ‘turning point’ in history.
The computer system amazed the world last year when it mastered the game of chess from scratch within just four hours, despite not being programmed how to win.
But now, after a year of testing and analysis by chess grandmasters, the machine has developed a new style of play unlike anything ever seen before, suggesting the programme is now improvising like a human.
Unlike the world’s best chess machine – Stockfish – which calculates millions of possible outcomes as it plays, AlphaZero learns from its past successes and failures, making its moves based on, a ‘nebulous sense that it is all going to work out in the long run,’ according to experts at DeepMind.
When AlphaZero was pitted against Stockfish in 1,000 games, it lost just six, winning convincingly 155 times, and drawing the remaining bouts.
Yet it was the way that it played that has amazed developers. While chess computers predominately like to hold on to their pieces, AlphaZero readily sacrificed its soldiers for a better position in the skirmish.
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Within just a few hours the programme had independently discovered and played common human openings and strategies before moving on to develop its own ideas, such as quickly swarming around the opponent’s king and placing far less value on individual pieces.
The new style of play has been analysed Chess Grandmaster Matthew Sadler and Women’s International Master Natasha Regan, who say it unlike any traditional chess engine.
”It’s like discovering the secret notebooks of some great player from the past,” said Sadler.
The U.S. Just Became a Net Oil Exporter for the First Time in 75 Years
December 6th, 2018Via: Bloomberg:
America turned into a net oil exporter last week, breaking 75 years of continued dependence on foreign oil and marking a pivotal — even if likely brief — moment toward what U.S. President Donald Trump has branded as “energy independence.”
The shift to net exports is the dramatic result of an unprecedented boom in American oil production, with thousands of wells pumping from the Permian region of Texas and New Mexico to the Bakken in North Dakota to the Marcellus in Pennsylvania.
While the country has been heading in that direction for years, this week’s dramatic shift came as data showed a sharp drop in imports and a jump in exports to a record high. Given the volatility in weekly data, the U.S. will likely remain a small net importer most of the time.
Australia Passes Cyber Snooping Laws with Global Implications
December 6th, 2018Via: AFP:
Australia Thursday passed controversial laws allowing spies and police to snoop on the encrypted communications of suspected terrorists and criminals, as experts warned the “unprecedented powers” had far-reaching implications for global cybersecurity.
There has been extensive debate about the laws and their reach beyond Australia’s shores in what is seen as the latest salvo between global governments and tech firms over national security and privacy.
Under the legislation, Canberra can compel local and international providers — including overseas communication giants such as Facebook and WhatsApp — to remove electronic protections, conceal covert operations by government agencies, and help with access to devices or services.
Australian authorities can also require that those demands be kept secret.
5G + AI
December 6th, 2018Via: EE Times:
SAN FRANCISCO — Qualcomm launched a $100 million venture fund at an event here where the level of enthusiasm for machine learning ran high. China’s SenseTime alone talked about taking in $3 billion for its platform, and others gave examples of AI quadrupling productivity and saving lives.
The combination of 5G and AI is central to Qualcomm’s corporate strategy in the wake of its failed merger with NXP and slowing smartphone growth. The combination of the two technologies will expand the company’s addressable market to a smart internet of things, said chief executive Steve Mollenkopf.
