Tesla Is Looking to Test Self-Driving, Electric Trucks With No Driver On Board
August 10th, 2017Via: Reuters:
Tesla Inc is developing a long-haul, electric semi-truck that can drive itself and move in “platoons” that automatically follow a lead vehicle, and is getting closer to testing a prototype, according to an email discussion of potential road tests between the car company and the Nevada Department of Motor Vehicles (DMV), seen by Reuters.
Meanwhile, California officials are meeting with Tesla on Wednesday “to talk about Tesla’s efforts with autonomous trucks,” state DMV spokeswoman Jessica Gonzalez told Reuters.
The correspondence and meeting show that Tesla is putting self-driving technology into the electric truck it has said it plans to unveil in September, and is advancing toward real-life tests, potentially moving it forward in a highly competitive area of commercial transport also being pursued by Uber Technologies Inc [UBER.UL] and Alphabet Inc’s Waymo.
‘You Will Get Chipped – Eventually’
August 9th, 2017Mmm hmm.
Via: USA Today:
You will get chipped. It’s just a matter of time.
…
“It will happen to everybody,” says Noelle Chesley, 49, associate professor of sociology at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee. “But not this year, and not in 2018. Maybe not my generation, but certainly that of my kids.”
Related: Cyborgs at Work: Employees Getting Implanted with Microchips
Americans Are Dying Younger, Saving Corporations Billions
August 9th, 2017#missionaccomplished
Via: Bloomberg:
Steady improvements in American life expectancy have stalled, and more Americans are dying at younger ages. But for companies straining under the burden of their pension obligations, the distressing trend could have a grim upside: If people don’t end up living as long as they were projected to just a few years ago, their employers ultimately won’t have to pay them as much in pension and other lifelong retirement benefits.
Monsanto’s Weed Killer Crisis
August 9th, 2017Via: Reuters:
As the U.S. growing season entered its peak this summer, farmers began posting startling pictures on social media: fields of beans, peach orchards and vegetable gardens withering away.
The photographs served as early warnings of a crisis that has damaged millions of acres of farmland. New versions of the herbicide dicamba developed by Monsanto and BASF, according to farmers, have drifted across fields to crops unable to withstand it, a charge authorities are investigating.
As the crisis intensifies, new details provided to Reuters by independent researchers and regulators, and previously unreported testimony by a company employee, demonstrate the unusual way Monsanto introduced its product. The approach, in which Monsanto prevented key independent testing of its product, went unchallenged by the Environmental Protection Agency and nearly every state regulator.
Typically, when a company develops a new agricultural product, it commissions its own tests and shares the results and data with regulators. It also provides product samples to universities for additional scrutiny. Regulators and university researchers then work together to determine the safety of the product.
In this case, Monsanto denied requests by university researchers to study its XtendiMax with VaporGrip for volatility – a measure of its tendency to vaporize and drift across fields.
The researchers interviewed by Reuters – Jason Norsworthy at the University of Arkansas, Kevin Bradley at the University of Missouri and Aaron Hager at the University of Illinois – said Monsanto provided samples of XtendiMax before it was approved by the EPA. However, the samples came with contracts that explicitly forbade volatility testing.
“This is the first time I’m aware of any herbicide ever brought to market for which there were strict guidelines on what you could and could not do,” Norsworthy said.
Monsanto Was Its Own Ghostwriter for Some Safety Reviews
August 9th, 2017Via: Bloomberg:
Academic papers vindicating its Roundup herbicide were written with the help of its employees.
The Strange Case of Wyndham Lathem, Andrew Warren and Trenton James Cornell-Duranleau
August 8th, 2017Update: Latham Was Denied Security Clearance to Work in France
I wonder if French intelligence suspected or knew that he was contracting for U.S. DoD or intel agencies…
This article suggest that, “It may have been due to internal politics at the institution.” Although, if it was some sort of hissy fit at the institution (which is totally believable if you have had any dealings with people working in academia), that wouldn’t explain the French government’s refusal to grant the clearance.
Via: Chicago Tribune:
Six months before Wyndham Lathem became a suspect in a brutal stabbing death in his Near North Side home, French authorities denied the Northwestern University professor a security clearance to work at the prestigious Institut Pasteur, authorities said Tuesday.
A scientific committee with the Paris-based institute, which specializes in the prevention and treatment of infectious diseases, had initially approved Lathem’s application, according to institute spokeswoman Aurelie Perthuison.
Lathem, 42, began making arrangements to move his lab overseas and mentioned his affiliation with the institute during a conference in Lithuania last September.
But Lathem failed to get final approval from the government and his application was turned down early this year, the institute said.
“Wyndham Lathem did not receive security clearance from the French authorities,” Perthuison said in an emailed statement. “This clearance being essential for this type of position, the recruitment was not pursued.”
French authorities did not provide the reason for rejection, Perthuison said.
The security clearance serves as a background check on scientists who will be working with dangerous pathogens in France. “They need to make sure people who are working with the materials are professional and can be trusted,” she said.
Lathem is a well-published microbiologist known for his work on the plague of the Middle Ages known as the Black Death.
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When I initially scanned stories about the murder of Trenton James Cornell-Duranleau, I had written off the situation as some sort of crime of passion.
However, an anonymous reader sent in a link that convinced me to look more closely.
Wyndham Lathem, who is accused of the murder of Trenton James Cornell-Duranleau, happened to be an Associate Professor of Microbiology-Immunology at Northwestern and a plague expert.
Northwestern has cleansed his faculty profile already, but it remains visible on Wayback Machine. I’ll post the text from the Bio and Publications tabs below (Disclosures says that he has none for 2015):
Focus of Work
Bio
Yersinia pestis and Yersinia pseudotuberculosis are two bacterial pathogens that are very closely related, yet cause vastly different diseases in the mammalian host. Y. pestis is infamous for causing the devastating disease plague, while Y. pseudotuberculosis infection often results in a mild, self-limiting gastrointestinal illness. While genetically similar, the distinct mechanisms by which these two bacterial species interact with the host is of great interest to our group.
Shared amongst both pathogens is a protein called Hfq, which serves as a chaperone for small, non-coding regulatory RNAs (sRNAs). One set of projects in the lab centers on understanding the post-transcriptional regulatory networks controlled by Hfq and sRNAs in both Yersinia species, particularly as they relate to virulence. Our group is testing the hypothesis that the similarities and differences in sRNA gene content and expression between these species may explain how a relatively mild pathogen evolved into one of the most deadly known to mankind.
We are also interested in determining the mechanisms by which Y. pestis specifically causes primary pneumonic plague, a respiratory form of disease that Y. pseudotuberculosis does not produce. Therefore, another set of projects in the lab focuses on dissecting the mechanisms by which the Y. pestis virulence factor known as the plasminogen activator Pla, a bacterial cell surface-bound protease, controls the development of pneumonic plague. These include understanding the interaction of Y. pestis and Pla with the mammalian fibrinolytic and coagulation cascades, the identification of additional host substrates cleaved by Pla that lead to the development of a severe pneumonia, and the mechanisms by which Pla specifically induces an overwhelming inflammatory response in the lungs during infection.
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Publications
Northwestern Scholars
View the Wyndham W Lathem Northwestern Scholars profile.
Northwestern Scholars is a searchable database of research expertise across all disciplines at Northwestern University. You can view collaboration networks among researchers within Northwestern and with external scholars.
Most Recent Publications
Early emergence of Yersinia pestis as a severe respiratory pathogen
Zimbler DL, Schroeder JA, Eddy JL, Lathem WW.
Nature Communications. 2015 Jun 30;6:doi:10.1038/ncomms8487.
ISSN: 20411723
Production of outer membrane vesicles by the plague pathogen Yersinia pestis
Eddy JL, Gielda LM, Caulfield AJ, Rangel SM, Lathem WW.
PLoS ONE. 2014 Sep 8;9(9):doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0107002.
ISSN: 19326203
The Pla protease of Yersinia pestis degrades Fas ligand to manipulate host cell death and inflammation
Caulfield AJ, Walker ME, Gielda LM, Lathem WW.
Cell Host and Microbe. 2014 Apr 9;15(4):424-434.doi:10.1016/j.chom.2014.03.005.
PMID: 24721571 PMCID: 24721571 ISSN: 19313128
Posttranscriptional regulation of the Yersinia pestis Cyclic AMP receptor protein Crp and impact on virulence
Lathem WW, Schroeder JA, Bellows LE, Ritzert JT, Koo JT, Price PA, Caulfield AJ, Goldman WE.
mBio. 2014 Feb 11;5(1):doi:10.1128/mBio.01038-13.
PMID: 24520064 PMCID: 24520064 ISSN: 21612129
Other Selected Publications
Disruption of Fas-Fas ligand signaling, apoptosis, and innate immunity by bacterial pathogens
Caulfield AJ, Lathem WW
PLoS Pathogens 2014 Aug 7; 10(8):e1004252
Lathem was a co-chair of a conference in Washington DC called, “2017 ASM Biothreats: Research, Response and Policy,” which took place in February 2017. This Google cache page mentions Lathem, while the page on ASM’s server now does not.
The final program for the conference remains on ASM’s server as I write, and I’ve included a screen shot from it, just in case:
I wonder if something weird is happening here.
Wyndham Lathem was involved with gain-of-function research on a deadly pathogen. He was also a co-chair of a conference on “Biothreats” which featured speakers from DoD and many DoD affiliated companies.
Finally, Andrew Warren, a University of Oxford employee, inexplicably traveled to the U.S. (without telling friends or family) and is now accused, along with Lathem, of murdering Trenton James Cornell-Duranleau.
Imagine the coincidence…
A plague expert, with links to the DoD bioweapons milieu, is involved with a weird murder along with a foreign national, who happens to be from the same country where this happened several years ago:
Scientists Sequence Black Death Bacteria DNA
Hmm.
It would be interesting to know if Lathem had any overt DoD grants.
Here are a few other tidbits to consider:
U.S. Researchers Trying to Create Pandemic Avian Flu
Baxter International “Unintentionally” Sent Flu Samples to Companies that Contained H5N1 Avian Flu
Scientist Makes H5N1 Highly Contagious
New Bird Flu ‘Has Unique Traits’
Bird Flu Researchers to Continue Work on Engineered Virus
And Now… Plague Sweeps Through al Qaeda Terror Training Camp, Killing 40
Americans Now Have the Highest Credit-Card Debt in U.S. History
August 7th, 2017I had this open in another tab, I wonder if it’s related: In 2016, Drug Overdoses Likely Killed More Americans than Wars in Vietnam and Iraq
#greenshoots
Via: MarketWatch:
American consumers just hit a scary milestone.
They now collectively have the most outstanding revolving debt — often summarized as credit card debt — in U.S. history, according to a report Monday released by the Federal Reserve. Americans had $1.021 trillion in outstanding revolving credit in June 2017. This beats the previous record in April 2008, when consumers had a collective $1.02 trillion in outstanding credit revolving credit.
New Zealand: Solar Battery Packs May Have to Be Stored Outside in Fireproof Enclosure Under Proposed New Rules
August 7th, 2017Disclosure: I sell solar power systems in New Zealand.
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Behold, the batshit insane machinations of an out of control retail electricity cartel in its death throes.
Via: Stuff:
A new proposed battery safety standard would stop the installation of solar power systems’ battery packs, which have been described as the “future of energy”.
Consultation is open on the standard, which would ban lithium ion batteries inside a dwelling, under the eaves of a house or within a metre of it. Installed beyond that distance, the batteries would have to be in a fireproof enclosure.
…
However, there are believed to be no known house fires caused by home-installed lithium ion batteries.
Putting them outside in a purpose-built enclosure would add at least $1000 to the cost of installation, he said.
“The irony is that you can drive into the garage with your electric vehicle and most have a battery that’s three times the size of the Tesla Powerwall. And you can drive into a garage with a 60L tank of petrol.”
The standard would not apply retrospectively, so any installations before it came into force would be allowed to remain.
Solar installer Phil Rumble said the idea was “madness”. “Why don’t they move gas cookers outside?”
Blackwater Founder Wants to Provide a “Turn Key” Mercenary Air Force for Afghanistan
August 6th, 2017Via: The Drive:
Though a debate remains over the exact reasons why, it’s increasingly widely accepted that the United States and its allies are not winning the fight against insurgents in Afghanistan at the moment. One suggestion for how to turn things around – unsurprisingly proffered up by the infamous Erik Prince and Stephen A. Feinberg, the owners of private military company DynCorp – was to dramatically increase the number of contractors supporting Afghan forces. Part of that proposal now reportedly includes setting up a mercenary air wing in the war torn country.
Military Times broke the news that Erik Prince had gone straight to the government of Afghanistan to suggest he could supply a fully-staffed air arm able to provide close air support, intelligence and surveillance, and logistics support functions across the country. Lancaster6, a Dubai-based private military company, would be the actual contractor for this “turn-key composite air wing.”
The new unit would include an unspecified number of A-4 Skyhawk attack jets, LASA T-Bird armed crop dusters, Gazelle and Super Puma helicopters, An-26 light transports, and a drone called Lioneye, which is reportedly a proprietary design belonging to Lancaster6 that can fly for up to 12 hours at a time. Military Times, which did not publish a copy of the proposal itself, did not say where the aircraft would come from, how much the entire package might cost, or how many individuals it would take for the air wing to function as advertised.
This Mysterious Military Spy Plane Has Been Flying Circles Over Seattle For Days
August 5th, 2017Via: The Drive:
A very unique USAF surveillance aircraft has been flying highly defined circles over Seattle and its various suburbs for nine days now. Nobody at the DoD seems to know who the aircraft belongs to or what exactly it is doing flying so many missions over the Seattle area. But based on its visibly exotic configuration, and information collected by open source flight tracking websites, we can get a good idea of its capabilities and guess as to what it’s up to.
…
Above all else, these types of surveillance systems are especially good at capturing and monitoring so called “patterns of life” over and around a target area. This is an especially useful tool when collecting intelligence on an enemy target or group of targets over time and can open up new possibilities when it comes to the process of finding, fixing and finishing the enemy.
Simply put, instead of recording a snapshot in time such as what a satellite can furnish, persistent airborne surveillance sensors capture massive amounts of exploitable information over hours and days. So if a picture is akin to a thousand words, this persistent type of wide area aerial surveillance is equivalent to an entire novel or even a series of novels.
…
Taken together, these responses would seem to point to what many observers might have already speculated immediately, that this was a mission or training exercise in support of the secretive Joint Special Operations Command (JSOC) or a civilian agency such as the Central Intelligence Agency. This particular CN-235, with the serial 96-6042, is one of six that researchers commonly associated with the Air Force’s top secret 427th Special Operations Squadron.
