Peter Thiel Is Very, Very Interested in Young People’s Blood
August 2nd, 2016Via: Inc.:
More than anything, Peter Thiel, the billionaire technology investor and Donald Trump supporter, wants to find a way to escape death. He’s channeled millions of dollars into startups working on anti-aging medicine, spends considerable time and money researching therapies for his personal use, and believes society ought to open its mind to life-extension methods that sound weird or unsavory.
Speaking of weird and unsavory, if there’s one thing that really excites Thiel, it’s the prospect of having younger people’s blood transfused into his own veins.
CDC Issues Historic Travel Warning Over Miami Zika Outbreak
August 1st, 2016Zika Virus Made Available to Researchers by Rockefeller Foundation in 1953
While Brazil Was Eradicating Zika Mosquitoes, America Made Them Into Weapons
And Now: “Genetically Modified Mosquitoes Join The Fight To Stop Zika Virus”
Bonus: Florida!
Via: CNN:
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention issued an unprecedented travel warning Monday, advising pregnant women and their partners not to travel to a small community just north of downtown Miami, where Zika is actively circulating. This is the first time the CDC has warned people not to travel to an American neighborhood for fear of catching an infectious disease, according to agency spokesman Tom Skinner.
The warning came after 10 additional people in Florida were found to have been infected with Zika virus after being bitten by local mosquitoes, bringing the total to 14.
Florida Gov. Rick Scott and CDC Director Dr. Tom Frieden announced the development in separate news conferences Monday. The new cases were found by door-to-door surveys of 200 people in their homes and businesses, and they were identified by urine and blood samples that tested positive for the virus or an antibody.
Saturday Night in Kentucky: Armed Men in Body Armor at Walmart Tell Police They Were Preparing for Doomsday
August 1st, 2016This isn’t normal?
Via: Lexington Herald Leader:
A report of a car full of men in body armor with semi-automatic weapons brought Lexington police to the Walmart on Richmond Road on Saturday night. Officers found two men, one in body armor, a 20-year-old woman and a six-month old baby.
Lt. Jackie Newman said that when Lexington police officers got the three people out of the car about 11:15 p.m., they said they were preparing for doomsday and needed supplies. A 26-year-old man and a 20-year-old woman were in the car with their 6-month-old baby and a 19-year-old man, police spokeswoman Brenna Angel said Monday.
The older man had just bought a bulletproof vest, a semi-automatic AK-47 and a .357 Magnum revolver, Angel said. He was wearing the vest, and both weapons were loaded and visible in the vehicle. He told officers that they had recently received a settlement from a car crash and used the money to buy tactical gear “should the end of days occur or should there be an Armageddon-type situation,” Angel said.
…
All three voluntarily came to police headquarters for questioning that night, Lt. Richard Willoby said. The three cooperated with police, and no charges were filed.
GlaxoSmithKline and Google Team Up to Create New Bioelectronics Health Company
August 1st, 2016😯
Via: The Verge:
British pharmaceutical giant GlaxoSmithKline and Google’s parent company Alphabet have announced they’re creating a new company to develop bioelectronic medicines. The joint venture will be named Galvani Bioelectronics and will be headquartered in the UK, with 55 percent of equity interest owned by GSK and 45 percent owned by Alphabet’s Verily Life Sciences division (formerly known as Google Life Sciences). Galvani will initially be funded with £540 million over the next seven years ($712 million), and plans to have treatments ready for regulatory approval by 2023.
Tim Kaine’s Unlikely Biography
August 1st, 2016Via: Mad Cow Productions:
A 21-year old Harvard Law School student spending 1981 in Honduras as a Jesuit volunteer is as absurd as an English tutor parachuting before D-Day into Normandy to teach French children when to use “their” and when to use “they’re.”
It doesn’t pass the smell test.
Delphi to Begin Testing On-Demand Robot Taxis in Singapore
August 1st, 2016Via: Bloomberg:
Delphi Automotive Plc, the vehicle-electronics supplier that last year conducted the first coast-to-coast U.S. demonstration of a self-driving car, will begin testing autonomous autos in Singapore this year that may lead to robot taxis by the end of the decade.
The test will involve six autonomous autos, starting with the modified Audi Q5 the supplier used last year to travel from San Francisco to New York in self-driving mode. In Singapore, the cars initially will follow three predetermined routes and by 2019 will range freely based on customer requests, without a driver or a human minder, according to Glen DeVos, a Delphi senior vice president.
“We actually will have point-to-point automated mobility on demand with no driver in the car,” he said at a briefing with reporters at Delphi’s Troy, Michigan, operations base. “It’s one of the first, if not the very first, pilot programs where we’ll demonstrate mobility-on-demand systems.”
Related: Uber is planning on investing $500 million to map the world’s roads
1980s Nuclear War Nightmares
August 1st, 2016Reading the piece about the 390th Strategic Missile Wing in Tucson, Arizona reminded me about being somewhat traumatized as a child by seeing news shows on TV discussing nuclear war. Yep, even as a young kid, I used to watch a lot of news on TV and read newspapers and news magazines. I was so into it that my parents would let me stay up to watch Nightline with them, which I did most nights.
There were several Nightline episodes that discussed nuclear war back in those days and I went looking for some of them just now. I found this one from 1985, which I definitely remember watching, about a sudden nuclear attack scenario:
Then I found this one from 1983 about SDI, which I was also obsessed with:
I tried to find an episode from even further back in which Koppel discusses a map of the U.S. that showed Southern California peppered with primary and secondary targets. The place I lived had overlapping red circles. I think that was THE thing that used to give me nightmares. I couldn’t find that episode. There was also a clip from either Nightline or Frontline that showed a B-52 crew pulling their curtains that also featured heavily in my nightmares…
I’m glad I didn’t see Threads back in those days, which probably gave lots of British children nightmares and was much more intense than the polite conversation and military B-roll depictions fed to Americans.
Anyway, that was me. Apple 2e, phone modem, D&D, pellet guns and nightmares about nuclear war. Happy days!
Flashback: 390th Strategic Missile Wing in Tucson, Arizona
August 1st, 2016Via: BBC:
“Once the launch sequence is initiated, the commander follows a row of lights on their console,” explains Morris. “From launch enable, silo soft – which means the silo door is open – guidance go, fire engine, lift off.”
And that is it.
Tesla and SolarCity to Combine
August 1st, 2016Disclosure: I sell solar power systems in New Zealand.
Via: Tesla:
Just over a month ago, Tesla made a proposal to purchase SolarCity and today we are announcing that the two companies have reached an agreement to combine, creating the world’s only vertically integrated sustainable energy company.
Solar and storage are at their best when they’re combined. As one company, Tesla (storage) and SolarCity (solar) can create fully integrated residential, commercial and grid-scale products that improve the way that energy is generated, stored and consumed.
Now is the right time to bring our two companies together: Tesla is getting ready to scale our Powerwall and Powerpack stationary storage products and SolarCity is getting ready to offer next-generation differentiated solar solutions. By joining forces, we can operate more efficiently and fully integrate our products, while providing customers with an aesthetically beautiful and simple one-stop solar + storage experience: one installation, one service contract, one phone app.
The Obama Administration Has Brokered More Weapons Sales Than Any Other Administration Since World War II
July 31st, 2016Via: The Nation:
The numbers should stagger anyone. According to the latest figures available from the Congressional Research Service, the United States was credited with more than half the value of all global arms transfer agreements in 2014, the most recent year for which full statistics are available. At 14 percent, the world’s second largest supplier, Russia, lagged far behind. Washington’s “leadership” in this field has never truly been challenged. The US share has fluctuated between one-third and one-half of the global market for the past two decades, peaking at an almost monopolistic 70 percent of all weapons sold in 2011. And the gold rush continues. Vice Admiral Joe Rixey, who heads the Pentagon’s arms sales agency, euphemistically known as the Defense Security Cooperation Agency, estimates that arms deals facilitated by the Pentagon topped $46 billion in 2015, and are on track to hit $40 billion in 2016.
Research Credit: Jb
