Ford Reveals All Electric F-150 Lightning
May 19th, 2021Via: The Verge:
The most popular vehicle in the United States is going electric. Ford has revealed the F-150 Lightning, an all-electric version of its popular pickup truck due out in 2022, and it’s aggressively priced for an EV. The base model with 230 miles of range starts at $39,974, while the extended range version starts in the mid-$50,000s and can go about 300 miles.
That puts it right on par, price-wise, with Tesla’s Cybertruck and far below more luxury-minded options like Rivian’s R1T or General Motors’ exorbitant GMC Hummer pickup. And since Ford’s vehicles are still eligible for the full $7,500 federal tax credit, that price tag can essentially come down even more for early buyers. It’s especially stunning, though, because all variants of the F-150 Lightning are built with Ford’s four-door “SuperCrew” cab, the gas version of which starts at $36,650. The base model Lightning is even slightly cheaper than its comparable hybrid F-150 counterpart. Most electric vehicles to date have cost more than their gas counterparts, but Ford is the closest to bucking that trend. Ford has already started taking reservations for $100.
Study: Any Amount of Alcohol Harms Brain
May 19th, 2021Via: Guardian:
There is no safe amount of alcohol consumption for the brain, with even “moderate” drinking adversely affecting nearly every part of it, a study of more than 25,000 people in the UK has found.
The study, which is still to be peer-reviewed, suggests that the more alcohol consumed, the lower the brain volume. In effect, the more you drink, the worse off your brain.
“There’s no threshold drinking for harm – any alcohol is worse. Pretty much the whole brain seems to be affected – not just specific areas, as previously thought,” said the lead author, Anya Topiwala, a senior clinical lecturer at the University of Oxford.
Using the UK Biobank, a substantial database designed to help researchers decode the genetic and environmental factors that lead some people to develop diseases while others do not, researchers in this study analysed data from 25,378 participants such as age, sex, education, self-reported alcohol consumption, brain size and health from MRI scans, information about hospital and outpatient visits, and memory tests.
Higher volume of alcohol consumption per week was associated with lower grey matter density – the researchers found, with alcohol explaining up to a 0.8% change in grey matter volume, even after accounting for individual biological and behavioural characteristics.
This might seem like a small figure, but it is a larger contribution than any other modifiable risk factors. For example, it is four times the contribution of smoking or BMI, said Topiwala.
Widespread negative associations were also seen between alcohol consumption and integrity of white matter, the brain fibres that scaffold the billions of neurons that make up grey matter. In addition, an individual’s underlying conditions such as high blood pressure and high BMI made the negative association between alcohol and brain health stronger, the researchers found.
Contrary to previous research that suggested there is a benefit to drinking wine in moderation compared with beer or spirits, the study found no evidence to suggest alcoholic beverage type conferred differences in risks to the brain.
Why Does the FDA Get Nearly Half Its Funding From the Companies It Regulates?
May 18th, 2021Via: The Defender:
The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has moved from an entirely taxpayer-funded entity to one increasingly funded by user fees paid by manufacturers that are being regulated. Today, close to 45% of its budget comes from these user fees that companies pay when they apply for approval of a medical device or drug.
“Signature Reduction”: Inside the Military’s Secret Undercover Army
May 17th, 2021Via: Newsweek:
The largest undercover force the world has ever known is the one created by the Pentagon over the past decade. Some 60,000 people now belong to this secret army, many working under masked identities and in low profile, all part of a broad program called “signature reduction.” The force, more than ten times the size of the clandestine elements of the CIA, carries out domestic and foreign assignments, both in military uniforms and under civilian cover, in real life and online, sometimes hiding in private businesses and consultancies, some of them household name companies.
The unprecedented shift has placed an ever greater number of soldiers, civilians, and contractors working under false identities, partly as a natural result in the growth of secret special forces but also as an intentional response to the challenges of traveling and operating in an increasingly transparent world. The explosion of Pentagon cyber warfare, moreover, has led to thousands of spies who carry out their day-to-day work in various made-up personas, the very type of nefarious operations the United States decries when Russian and Chinese spies do the same.
Newsweek’s exclusive report on this secret world is the result of a two-year investigation involving the examination of over 600 resumes and 1,000 job postings, dozens of Freedom of Information Act requests, and scores of interviews with participants and defense decision-makers. What emerges is a window into not just a little-known sector of the American military, but also a completely unregulated practice. No one knows the program’s total size, and the explosion of signature reduction has never been examined for its impact on military policies and culture. Congress has never held a hearing on the subject. And yet the military developing this gigantic clandestine force challenges U.S. laws, the Geneva Conventions, the code of military conduct and basic accountability.
AI Mid 2021. Self Driving Car Meets Reality
May 17th, 2021Via: Piekniewski’s blog:
Since it is 2021 after all, the most immediate AI flop is related to Tesla robotaxis or rather lack thereof. Elon Musk promised that Tesla would achieve L5 autonomy by the end of 2020 back in April 2019 when he needed to raise money [and reiterated in April 2020].
…
It should be clear to everybody that this is not even close to being close to being ready for autonomy. Unfortunately an increasing number of people had to pay the ultimate price for believing in this FSD delusion.
Related: Automakers Are Rethinking the Timetable for Fully Autonomous Cars
How did Bill Gates End Up Owning $13 Billion Worth of Canada’s Biggest Railway?
May 16th, 2021Via: The Star:
Cascade Investment LLC, the holding company that controls the majority of Bill Gates’s wealth, transferred more than 14 million shares of Canadian National Railway Co. to his soon-to-be-ex. The CN stock was worth almost $1.9 billion (Canadian) and represented about two per cent of total shares in the company, Canada’s biggest railroad.
Even after that transfer, Gates remains CN’s largest shareholder: Cascade alone owns 87 million shares and the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation Trust owns almost 14 million shares. Combined, Gates has direct or indirect control over 14.2 per cent of the stock, worth $13.6 billion as of the date of the divorce announcement. That one investment would make him the second- or third-richest person in Canada.
Gates has also amassed power in the CN boardroom. Cascade senior investment manager Justin Howell took a seat on the company’s board last month.
60 Minutes to Push UAP Threat Agenda
May 16th, 2021Update: Dark Journalist: The CIA False Alien UFO Invasion Op!
Via: Dark Journalist:
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How about this footage? When can see what Gordon Cooper’s camera crew filmed?
The answer is: We will never get to see that.
Instead, we get Mr. Blurrycam and threat, threat, threat.
There are, at a minimum, seven decades of U.S. military encounters with UFOs. The CIA PSYOP narrative, which is the mainstream narrative, ignores this history, shows us relatively recent imagery of blurry dog vomit and always refers to “it” as a threat.
Maybe it is a threat, maybe it isn’t, but the fact that they are lying, by omitting decades of history related to the phenomenon, leads me to conclude that this is a setup for the next great fleecing. In the video above, Gordon Cooper tells us that once they started lying about it, they couldn’t stop. And they haven’t stopped.
The COVID scam is just about tapped out. Millions of lives destroyed by government policies. Inflation skyrocketing…
And now…
Via: CBS:
Former Navy Lieutenant Ryan Graves says he and other members of his F/A-18 fighter squadron detected strange, maneuverable and unidentified objects flying in the restricted airspace southeast of Virginia Beach nearly every day for two years beginning in 2015. The sightings were so common, he says, pilots and their crews began to take them for granted. Graves is calling those objects a threat to security in a 60 Minutes interview.
Graves is one of several current and former military members who have spoken publicly about what the Pentagon now calls unidentified aerial phenomena or UAP. These documented sightings of UAP, recorded on gun camera video and photos taken by U.S. service members, have been analyzed by the Defense Department for years. But the government only grudgingly acknowledged the internal efforts after unclassified videos of UAP were leaked to the New York Times in 2017. Now, the Senate Intelligence Committee has ordered the Director of National Intelligence and the Secretary of Defense to compile a report on unidentified aerial phenomena to be delivered next month.
“I am worried, frankly. You know, if these were tactical jets from another country that were hanging out up there, it would be a massive issue,” Graves tells Bill Whitaker in an interview airing Sunday on 60 Minutes. “But because it looks slightly different, we’re not willing to actually look at the problem in the face. We’re happy to just ignore the fact that these are out there, watching us every day.”
Toxic PFAS Chemicals Found in 100% of Breast Milk Samples
May 15th, 2021Via: The Defender:
Public health advocates on Thursday demanded federal action to ban the use of toxic “forever chemicals” found in many household products after 100% of breast milk samples were found in a study to be contaminated with the substances.
Researchers at Toxic-Free Future, Indiana University, the University of Washington and Seattle Children’s Research Institute studied 50 samples of breast milk from American women from all over the country, representing a range of socioeconomic backgrounds. All 50 samples contained per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS) at levels nearly 2,000 times the amount considered safe for drinking water.
Ohio Offers $1 Million Lottery, 4-Year College Scholarships to Entice More People to Get Vaccinated
May 15th, 2021Via: The Defender:
As demand for COVID vaccines among adults falls short of public health officials’ goals, more and more states and businesses are rolling out incentives to counter “vaccine hesitancy.”
This week, Ohio Gov. Mike DeWine raised the stakes to a whole new level when he announced Ohio will give five people $1 million each, plus another five people four-year college scholarships in a lottery scheme designed to persuade young Ohioans to get the COVID vaccine.
China Lands Spacecraft on Mars
May 14th, 2021Via: Reuters:
An uncrewed Chinese spacecraft successfully landed on the surface of Mars on Saturday, state news agency Xinhua reported, making China the second space-faring nation after the United States to land on the Red Planet.
The Tianwen-1 spacecraft landed on a site on a vast plain known as Utopia Planitia, “leaving a Chinese footprint on Mars for the first time,” Xinhua said.
