Coronavirus: World Health Organization Declares Global Emergency
January 30th, 2020Via: Reuters:
Health authorities in Hubei, the Chinese province at the centre of the coronavirus epidemic, said on Friday that deaths from the disease had risen to 204, a sharp increase that underscores concerns about the virus from global health officials.
The World Health Organization (WHO) said late Thursday that it was declaring the outbreak a global emergency, as cases spread to at least 18 countries.
New York Requires People to Purchase Stargazing Permits to View Night Sky in State Parks
January 30th, 2020Via: Free Thought Project:
In their efforts to squeeze every dime they can from the tax farm, bureaucrats in New York have devised a scheme to extort citizens who wish to use public parks to gaze upon the night sky. This extortion comes in the form of a $35.00 “Stargazing Permit.” If you are from out of state and wish to gaze upon the night sky from one of these locations that fee jumps to $60.
If you think that you will do anything else besides look at the night sky with this permit, think again. Within the regulations, bureaucrats explicitly point out that the “Permit allows after sunset parking for stargazing only, valid January 1 – December 31.”
Some Americans Flee Collapsing Cities for Rural Areas
January 30th, 2020Via: Reuters:
Cheap housing, deep unease and intense resilience – all forces that are driving a clutch of Americans to swap city life for a fresh start off grid and far from civilisation.
Some are survivalists, among them high fliers who fear a looming, urban catastrophe and the mayhem that might follow.
Others want a greener, gentler life untainted by the malign forces of capitalism and uncertainty of mainstream politics.
Whichever camp, realtors say the new dropouts are not “crackpots” and often include affluent professionals whose run for the hills has boosted rural land values and started to change their property market.
“I’ve had hedge-fund managers and billionaires that have made purchases, and they all have concerns about the direction of the economy and social stability,” said John E. Haynes, president of Retreat Realty in North Carolina.
“We’re on that upward trend,” he said. “Inventory of that land on the market is tighter.”
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Idaho in particular recorded a big influx.
The state had one of the top U.S. growth rates in 2015-16, driven in part by escapees from California and neighbouring Washington state, according to Boise State assistant professor Jeffrey Lyons.
Disaffected Californians make up a substantial number of clients for Black Rifle Real Estate, which says online that it helps people “Flee the City to the freedom and safety of Rural America and the famed American Redoubt.”
Broker Todd Savage said his business is at an all-time high, driven by frustration with how many U.S. cities are governed.
“Most of our clients are now looking to sell their postage-stamp size properties … and make what we call a ‘Strategic Relocation’ to a free state,” Savage said in an email.
Permanent Trillion Dollar Deficits
January 30th, 2020Via: Wall Street Journal:
The national debt and sustained federal budget deficits will hit the highest levels since World War II over the next decade, the Congressional Budget Office projected on Tuesday, following multiple rounds of tax cuts and continued increases in federal spending.
The government will spend $1 trillion more than it collects in 2020 and deficits will reach or exceed that threshold every year for the foreseeable future. As a share of gross domestic product, the deficit will be at least 4.3% every year through 2030. That would be the longest stretch of budget deficits exceeding 4% of GDP over the past century, according to the CBO, an nonpartisan arm of Congress.
Journey Across Chernobyl Exclusion Zone
January 30th, 2020This is a fascinating look inside some of the abandoned areas of Chernobyl. However, don’t drink the water.
Via: shiey – Illegal Freedom:
Santa Cruz Decriminalizes Psychedelic Mushrooms
January 30th, 2020Via: ABC:
A new resolution has been passed in Central California to decriminalize the use of psychedelic mushrooms.
The City Council of Santa Cruz voted unanimously on Tuesday to approve a measure that will make investigation and arrest for “the adult possession, use or cultivation of psychoactive plants and fungi” a low-priority infraction by law enforcement.
“This Council initiative is part of a diversity of strategies taking care of mental health in our community,” Councilmember Chris Krohn told ABC News in a statement. “This resolution ensures that only people 21 and over have access to these plants and the Council has given direction to our Police Department to make it a low priority infraction.”
University of Missouri Tracking Students with Phone App
January 29th, 2020Get them ready for life in those lovely “smart” cities!
Via: Kansas City Star:
Officials say it’s for the students’ own good.
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The phone app is called Spotter, developed by a former Mizzou basketball coach. It works using short-range phone sensors and campus-wide WiFi networks. The university can tell when a student crosses a classroom threshold to enter or leave as the cellphone pings off of a beacon stashed in the room. The app notifies students that they are not in class, in case they are there and forgot to turn on their Bluetooth setting.
GM Now Claims To Be Serious About Electric Vehicles
January 28th, 2020Via: Electrek:
After GM’s official dedication yesterday of its Detroit-Hamtramck plant strictly for electric cars, Electrek spoke with Mark Reuss, the company’s president. We wanted to hear directly from GM leadership about its level of commitment to quickly deliver on multi-billion-dollar, global EV plans. Here is an edited version of Reuss’s discussion with us and a small group of reporters.
Acclaimed Harvard Scientist Is Arrested, Accused Of Lying About Ties To China
January 28th, 2020Via: NPR:
Charles Lieber, the chair of Harvard University’s Department of Chemistry and Chemical Biology, has been arrested and criminally charged with making “false, fictitious and fraudulent statements” to the U.S. Defense Department about his ties to a Chinese government program to recruit foreign scientists and researchers.
The Justice Department says Lieber, 60, lied about his contact with the Chinese program known as the Thousand Talents Plan, which the U.S. has previously flagged as a serious intelligence concern. He also is accused of lying about about a lucrative contract he signed with China’s Wuhan University of Technology.
In an affidavit unsealed Tuesday, FBI Special Agent Robert Plumb said Lieber, who led a Harvard research group focusing on nanoscience, had established a research lab at the Wuhan university — apparently unbeknownst to Harvard.
In response to the charges against Lieber, Harvard said in a statement to NPR: “The charges brought by the U.S. government against Professor Lieber are extremely serious. Harvard is cooperating with federal authorities, including the National Institutes of Health, and is initiating its own review of the alleged misconduct. Professor Lieber has been placed on indefinite administrative leave.”
The arrangement between Lieber and the Chinese institution spanned “significant” periods of time between at least 2012 and 2017, according to the affidavit. It says the deal called for Lieber to be paid up to $50,000 a month, in addition to $150,000 per year “for living and personal expenses.”
“Lieber was also awarded more than $1.5 million by WUT and the Chinese government to establish a research lab and conduct research at WUT,” the document states.
For a large part of the time frame in question, Lieber was also the principal investigator on at least six U.S. Defense Department research grants, with a cumulative value of more than $8 million, according to the affidavit. It also says he was the principal investigator on more than $10 million in grants funded by the National Institutes of Health.
“These grants require the disclosure of significant foreign financial conflicts of interest, including financial support from foreign governments or foreign entities,” the U.S. Attorney’s Office in Massachusetts said in a statement announcing the charges against Lieber.
In interviews with Defense Department investigators in 2018 and 2019, Lieber said that while he had heard of the Thousand Talents Plan, he had never been asked to be part of it, according to the affidavit. Lieber’s email correspondence suggests he signed a three-year agreement and employment contract with WUT in 2012.
How Sanitation Conquered Disease Long Before Vaccines or Antibiotics
January 28th, 2020Via: Roots of Progress:
The bottom line is that sanitation—pest control, water filtration and chlorination, safe sewage disposal, milk pasteurization and other food safety, and public education about general hygiene—probably did more than anything else to reduce mortality rates, if only because these techniques were available decades, and in some cases centuries, before anything else.
