Plastic Fibres Found in Tap Water Around the World
September 6th, 2017The ground up plastic is turning up in sea salt that people are eating now.
Via: Guardian:
Microplastic contamination has been found in tap water in countries around the world, leading to calls from scientists for urgent research on the implications for health.
Scores of tap water samples from more than a dozen nations were analysed by scientists for an investigation by Orb Media, who shared the findings with the Guardian. Overall, 83% of the samples were contaminated with plastic fibres.
The US had the highest contamination rate, at 94%, with plastic fibres found in tap water sampled at sites including Congress buildings, the US Environmental Protection Agency’s headquarters, and Trump Tower in New York. Lebanon and India had the next highest rates.
European nations including the UK, Germany and France had the lowest contamination rate, but this was still 72%. The average number of fibres found in each 500ml sample ranged from 4.8 in the US to 1.9 in Europe.
The new analyses indicate the ubiquitous extent of microplastic contamination in the global environment. Previous work has been largely focused on plastic pollution in the oceans, which suggests people are eating microplastics via contaminated seafood.
“We have enough data from looking at wildlife, and the impacts that it’s having on wildlife, to be concerned,” said Dr Sherri Mason, a microplastic expert at the State University of New York in Fredonia, who supervised the analyses for Orb. “If it’s impacting [wildlife], then how do we think that it’s not going to somehow impact us?”
Research Credit: tochigi
Feds Give Top-Secret Clearances to Murderers, Rapists
September 6th, 2017Via: McClatchy:
Under a crushing backlog in the issuing or renewing of security clearances, federal authorities have given interim clearances to people they later discovered were murderers and pedophiles, a senior government official said Wednesday.
“This is very, very dangerous,” said Daniel E. Payne, head of the Defense Security Service, a federal office that oversees the granting of temporary clearances.
Payne said roughly 100,000 people hold interim clearances while working for companies with Defense Department contracts or at 13,000 cleared facilities and plants around the country and as they await a full comprehensive background investigation.
“I’ve got murderers who have access to classified information. I have rapists. I have pedophiles. I have people involved in child porn,” Payne said. “This is the risk we are taking.”
German ‘Flying Taxi’ Firm Lilium Raises $90 Million
September 5th, 2017Via: Reuters:
Lilium, a German start-up with Silicon Valley-scale ambitions to develop a 5-passenger “flying taxi”, has raised a second, $90 million round of financing from top tech investors, making it one of the best-funded electric aircraft projects to date. The company, which took in $11.4 million only last year, has emerged as one of Europe’s hottest start-ups for attempting to solve hard physics problems for a new category of aircraft capable of vertical take-off and electric powered jet flight.
Lilium said on Tuesday the new funding round, led by Chinese internet giant Tencent, is joined by LGT, the largest family-owned investment firm in Europe, based in Liechtenstein; Atomico, a top European venture firm; and Obvious Ventures, whose co-founder, Evan Williams, is a co-founder of Twitter.
In April, Lilium said it was developing a five-seat “flying taxi” after mounting successful test flights of a two-seat jet capable of a mid-air transition from hover mode, like drones, to wing-borne flight, like conventional aircraft.
Wing-borne, electric-powered flight allows commuter aircraft to travel five or six times the distance of drones, a Lilium executive said. A 20-km (12-mile) trip from Manhattan to JFK Airport could take as little as five minutes, he estimated.
Japan Preparing for Evacuation of Tens of Thousands in South Korea
September 4th, 2017Via: Japan Times:
As tensions on the Korean Peninsula reach new heights with Pyongyang’s latest nuclear test, Japan is planning for a possible mass evacuation of the nearly 60,000 Japanese citizens currently living in or visiting South Korea.
“There is a possibility of further provocations,” Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe said at a Monday meeting with ruling coalition lawmakers. “We need to remain extremely vigilant and do everything we can to ensure the safety of our people.”
In response to North Korea’s sixth nuclear test, Japan and the U.S. seek to ratchet up economic pressure on the rogue state through an oil embargo and other measures. But U.S. Defense Secretary James Mattis on Sunday also said any threat to the U.S. or its allies “will be met with a massive military response — a response both effective and overwhelming.”
Toxic Waste Sites Flooded in Houston Area
September 3rd, 2017Via: physorg:
Long a center of the nation’s petrochemical industry, the Houston metro area has more than a dozen Superfund sites, designated by the Environmental Protection Agency as being among America’s most intensely contaminated places. Many are now flooded, with the risk that waters were stirring dangerous sediment.
NORTH KOREA TESTS NUCLEAR WEAPON
September 3rd, 2017Via: Reuters:
North Korea conducted its sixth and most powerful nuclear test on Sunday, which it said was a successful detonation of an advanced hydrogen bomb, in a dramatic escalation of the isolated state’s stand-off with the United States and its allies.
The announcement from Pyongyang came a few hours after international seismic agencies detected a manmade earthquake near the North’s test site, which Japanese and South Korean officials said was around 10 times more powerful than the tremor picked up after its last test a year ago.
There was no independent confirmation that the detonation was a hydrogen bomb rather than an atomic device.
Utah: Nurse Arrested for Refusing to Take Blood from Unconscious Patient for Police
September 2nd, 2017Via: BBC:
A US police officer who forcibly arrested a nurse for refusing to take a blood sample from an unconscious patient has been placed on administrative leave.
An investigation is under way after footage of the incident at a hospital in Salt Lake City, Utah, emerged.
It shows nurse Alex Wubbels screaming for help as she is manhandled outside and handcuffed.
The hospital said she had correctly followed its policy.
Blood can only be handed over without a patient’s consent if they are under arrest or the police have a warrant – neither of which was the case in this incident, the University of Utah Hospital said.
Salt Lake City Police Department said both the officer involved and another police department employee had been placed on administrative leave pending the investigation.
Won’t You Be My Neighbour?
August 31st, 2017Hello, Neighbour!
Are you interested in a relatively cheap getaway shack for when the living hell of Auckland gets to be too much to handle? Maybe a bugout location… Our friends are selling their property. The entire thing can flood during winter storms, but you can park in our driveway during floods if you want. Check it out. Spread the word.
MOTIVA: FLOODING SHUTS LARGEST U.S. REFINERY
August 31st, 2017Via: CNBC:
The largest U.S. refinery was shutting down completely on Wednesday morning as heavy rains from Tropical Storm Harvey flooded the 603,000 barrel-per-day (bpd) Port Arthur, Texas, plant, owner Motiva Enterprises said in a statement.
“At 5 a.m. (CDT (1000 GMT) on Wednesday, Motiva began a controlled shutdown of the Port Arthur refinery in response to increasing local flood conditions,” the company said.
‘The Story of Replika, the AI App that Becomes You’
August 30th, 2017Oh sure, share your most personal information with this Magic 8 Ball.
In other news: On Internet Privacy, Be Very Afraid.
Via: Quartz:
Research Credit: GB
