The Assassination Complex
April 4th, 2018Via: The Intercept:
The Intercept has obtained a cache of secret slides that provides a window into the inner workings of the U.S. military’s kill/capture operations at a key time in the evolution of the drone wars — between 2011 and 2013. The documents, which also outline the internal views of special operations forces on the shortcomings and flaws of the drone program, were provided by a source within the intelligence community who worked on the types of operations and programs described in the slides. The Intercept granted the source’s request for anonymity because the materials are classified and because the U.S. government has engaged in aggressive prosecution of whistleblowers. The stories in this series will refer to the source as “the source.”
The source said he decided to provide these documents to The Intercept because he believes the public has a right to understand the process by which people are placed on kill lists and ultimately assassinated on orders from the highest echelons of the U.S. government. “This outrageous explosion of watchlisting — of monitoring people and racking and stacking them on lists, assigning them numbers, assigning them ‘baseball cards,’ assigning them death sentences without notice, on a worldwide battlefield — it was, from the very first instance, wrong,” the source said.
Baltimore Police Robbed Homeless People and Resold Confiscated Heroin and Ecstasy Back on the Street
April 4th, 2018Via: Daily Mail:
It was a case that would rock Baltimore to its core. An elite police squad robbing its own citizens, stealing thousands of dollars and re-selling confiscated drugs.
There were homeless men and construction workers who were robbed, prisoners who claimed they were framed, and a shed where ecstasy and heroin were stored.
What sounds like a plot out of a Hollywood film became reality in March 2017 when seven of the eight men who made up the Gun Trace Task force were arrested.
They became one of America’s most corrupt police force, and their entire world came crashing down due to one rogue GPS tracker, according to the BBC.
Why Americans Are Avoiding the Doctor
April 4th, 2018Via: MarketWatch:
Between a third and a half of people age 45 to 59 and a quarter of those 60+ went without needed health care in the past year due to its cost, according to a troubling new survey from the West Health Institute and NORC at the University of Chicago.
“We were surprised by the magnitude of the findings,” said Dr. Zia Agha, chief medical officer at the West Health Institute, a nonprofit applied medical research organization based in San Diego. “And 80% of the people we surveyed had health insurance, so just having insurance does not make you immune to health care costs.”
Southern California: Man Rents Garden Sheds in His Backyard for $750/Month
April 4th, 2018Via: Craig’s List:
I have three small PRIVATE resin cabins right behind my home for professional Adults Working males only. That work away from home and/or travels a great deal. Must be Honest, Quiet, Clean, Reliable, and must be employed with a secure Job and have no problem paying the Rent ON Time and in (CASH ONLY) NO CHECKS.
Zipline’s Bigger, Faster Drones Will Deliver Blood in the United States This Year
April 4th, 2018Via: IEEE Spectrum:
The delivery drone startup has been operating in Rwanda since October of 2016, using small autonomous fixed-wing aircraft to paradrop critical blood products to rural medical clinics. The system is able to get blood from a centralized distribution center to where it’s needed in minutes, independent of time of day, traffic, or weather. Zipline now manages 20 percent of rural Rwanda’s blood supply, and has flown more than 300,000 kilometers (km) worth of commercial deliveries, carrying some 7,000 units of blood.
Today, Zipline is announcing major upgrades to its entire delivery system, introducing a bigger drone that can deliver blood faster and more efficiently than ever. The new hardware is already flying in Rwanda, and Zipline plans to bring their drones to the U.S. to demonstrate medical product delivery in suburban and rural areas later this year.
NASA Hires Lockheed Martin to Build Quiet Supersonic X-Plane
April 3rd, 2018Via: space.com:
NASA has taken a huge leap forward in its quest to create an aircraft that can travel faster than the speed of sound without causing the ear-splitting sonic boom.
The space agency announced today (April 2) that it has awarded the aerospace company Lockheed Martin a $247.5 million contract to design and build a new X-plane, known as the Low-Boom Flight Demonstrator (LBFD), which may soar silently over the U.S. by 2022.
Today’s announcement comes less than two weeks after President Donald Trump signed a federal budget for FY2019 that fully funds the LBFD. In his budget proposal, Trump noted that the X-plane “would open a new market for U.S. companies to build faster commercial airliners, creating jobs and cutting cross-country flight times in half.”
Trump Says He Will Put U.S. Military on Southern Border
April 3rd, 2018Via: The Hill:
President Trump said Tuesday that he plans to deploy U.S. troops along the southern border to prevent illegal crossings.
“Until we have the wall, we are going to be guarding our border with our military. That’s a big step,” Trump told reporters at the White House.
Defense Secretary James Mattis was sitting next to Trump when he made his comments.
Such a move would significantly escalate the U.S. presence along the frontier with Mexico. The U.S. Border Patrol — not the military — is tasked with protecting the border.
Apple Plans to Use Its Own Chips in Macs From 2020, Replacing Intel
April 2nd, 2018I’m very worried that Apple will, essentially, give up on general purpose computing. The company is already mostly dependent on its mobile oriented iOS ecosystem and people like me have been worried that macOS would eventually be merged into iOS.
I would like to believe that Apple is going to aim to beat Intel in terms of computing power with whatever silicon it ultimately ships with their Mac computers—but I seriously doubt that will happen.
Via: Bloomberg:
Apple Inc. is planning to use its own chips in Mac computers beginning as early as 2020, replacing processors from Intel Corp., according to people familiar with the plans.
The initiative, code named Kalamata, is still in the early developmental stages, but comes as part of a larger strategy to make all of Apple’s devices — including Macs, iPhones, and iPads — work more similarly and seamlessly together, said the people, who asked not to be identified discussing private information. The project, which executives have approved, will likely result in a multi-step transition.
The shift would be a blow to Intel, whose partnership helped revive Apple’s Mac success and linked the chipmaker to one of the leading brands in electronics. Apple provides Intel with about 5 percent of its annual revenue, according to Bloomberg supply chain analysis.
Retailers Race Against Amazon to Automate Stores
April 2nd, 2018Via: New York Times:
A global race to automate stores is underway among several of the world’s top retailers and small tech start-ups, which are motivated to shave labor costs and minimize shoppers’ frustrations, like waiting for cashiers. They are also trying to prevent Amazon from dominating the physical retail world as it does online shopping.
Companies are testing robots that help keep shelves stocked, as well as apps that let shoppers ring up items with a smartphone. High-tech systems like the one used by Amazon Go completely automate the checkout process. China, which has its own ambitious e-commerce companies, is emerging as an especially fertile place for these retail experiments.
If they succeed, these new technologies could add further uncertainty to the retail work force, which is already in flux because of the growth of online shopping.
This Is Extremely Dangerous to Our Democracy
April 1st, 2018
Via: Sinclair Broadcast Group:
