Prince Andrew Secretly Met Ghislaine Maxwell Inside Buckingham Palace
November 25th, 2019Via: Daily Mail:
Prince Andrew secretly met his friend Ghislaine Maxwell at Buckingham Palace in early June – just a fortnight after US prosecutors announced they were reopening their inquiry into the activities of convicted paedophile Jeffrey Epstein, their mutual friend.
Ms Maxwell, the daughter of disgraced newspaper tycoon Robert Maxwell, has been accused of procuring underage girls for Epstein. She denies the claims.
Andrew, 59, met Maxwell on June 6 inside the Prince’s private Palace quarters, and she is said to have brought four other people along with her.
‘They were all smartly dressed and looked very official… They stayed for about two hours.
‘It seems very likely they would have been discussing the fallout from Epstein’s misdemeanours and what they planned to do about it,’ a source told The Sun.
Thieves Steal Treasures Worth ‘Around’ 1 Billion Euros In German Museum Heist
November 25th, 2019Via: Forbes:
About 100 pieces of royal jewelry thought to be worth at least €1,000,000,000 ($1,101,365,000) are missing from one of Europe’s oldest museums after thieves stole them in a Monday morning heist, which one German newspaper billed as “the biggest art theft since World War II.”
Doctors Say WikiLeaks Founder Julian Assange ‘Could Die’ in British Jail
November 25th, 2019Via: DW:
More than 60 doctors have written an open letter saying that Julian Assange’s health has deteriorated so much that the WikiLeaks founder’s life is in danger inside a British jail.
The 48-year-old Australian citizen is currently serving a 50-week sentence in a top-security prison outside London for jumping bail. He is to fight extradition to the US, where he is wanted for violating the Espionage Act in connection with WikiLeaks’ publishing of classified documents, after having served this sentence. If found guilty, he could end up receiving a 175-year sentence in a US prison.
Physical, psychological issues
The medical experts wrote to British Home Secretary Priti Patel saying they had “concerns about Mr. Assange’s fitness” to go through the hearing, which is set for February next year.
“Mr. Assange requires urgent expert medical assessment of both his physical and psychological state of health,” the doctors agreed in the letter, released on Monday.
“Were such urgent assessment and treatment not to take place, we have real concerns, on the evidence currently available, that Mr. Assange could die in prison. The medical situation is thereby urgent. There is no time to lose.”
California Raises Pot Taxes
November 25th, 2019Via: AP:
California is increasing business tax rates on legal marijuana, a move that stunned struggling companies that have been pleading with the state to do just the opposite.
Hefty marijuana taxes that can approach 50 percent in some communities have been blamed for pushing shoppers into California’s tax-free illegal market, which is thriving. Industry analysts estimate that $3 are spent in the illegal market for every $1 in the legal one.
The California Cannabis Industry Association said in a statement that its members are “stunned and outraged.”
The group said the higher taxes that will take effect Jan. 1 will make it even worse for a legal industry struggling under the weight of heavy regulation and fees, local bans on pot sales and growing and a booming underground marketplace.
Australia Probes ‘Deeply Disturbing’ Allegations of Chinese Political Interference
November 24th, 2019*pfft* In other (long forgotten) news: New Zealand: National MP Trained by Chinese Spies
Via: Reuters:
Australia’s domestic spy agency is investigating whether China tried to install an agent in federal parliament in what Prime Minister Scott Morrison on Monday called “deeply disturbing” allegations.
The Australian Security Intelligence Organisation (ASIO) said it had launched an investigation before the alleged plot was reported by Australia’s “60 Minutes” program and affiliated newspapers on Sunday.
The reports said a suspected Chinese espionage ring had offered “a seven figure sum” to pay for a Melbourne luxury car dealer, Bo “Nick” Zhao, to run for a seat in Australia’s federal parliament.
Hong Kong Elections: Pro-Democracy Camp Has Won 17 Out of 18 District Councils
November 24th, 2019Via: South China Morning Post:
The anti-establishment reverberations from almost six months of street protests swept through polling stations across Hong Kong on Sunday, as voters in record numbers roundly rejected pro-Beijing candidates in favour of pan-democrats.
The tsunami of disaffection among voters was clear across the board, as pan-democrats rode the wave to win big in poor and rich neighbourhoods, in both protest-prone and non protest-afflicted districts and, in downtown areas as well as the suburbs.
Less immediately obvious was whether there was a generational divide in the way the people voted, but ousted pro-establishment district councillors suggested that young, first-time voters had been instrumental in dislodging them from their perch.
By 9am on Monday, the pro-democracy camp has won 17 out of 18 district councils, taking more than 278 seats.
All councils were previously under pro-establishment control from the 2015 elections.
Navy Secretary Fired Over SEAL Controversy
November 24th, 2019Via: ZeroHedge:
Secretary of Defense Mark Esper asked Navy Secretary Richard Spencer to resign on Sunday after the Pentagon chief lost confidence in how Spencer handled the case of a Navy SEAL accused of war crimes in Iraq, according to the Pentagon.
Was Cringe Inducing Cybertruck Window Demo Failure a Marketing Stunt?
November 23rd, 2019Update: Now 200,000 Reservations
200k
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) November 25, 2019
—
I watched it live and it was definitely cringe inducing. I physically winced and mumbled, “Ouch, that’s not a good look, Elon.”
Knowing that most mainstream media coverage of Tesla is negative, my thoughts turned to how these outlets are going to have a field day with the incident. Endlessly playing it. Looping it.
And the memes…
The next day, my son asked my mother in law if she had heard about the new Tesla truck and she said, “Yes, the one where they threw a rock through the window!”
It was a large ball bearing, not a rock. And it didn’t go through the windows, plural (two windows were damaged after two different throws). But, close enough.
Hmm…
My mother in law knew about the Tesla truck, at some level, which seemed astonishing to me. My mother in law has no interest in electric vehicles, technology, Tesla, anything like that at all, but she knew about that cracked Tesla truck windows incident…
My eyes narrowed and I started scratching my chin…
Was the whole mess some sort of information operation?
No way. It couldn’t be. A marketing stunt?
No.
Maybe?
Well, I just saw this while looking through Reddit: Elon Musks had the armored windows fail on purpose to trick the internet into making memes and therefore creating free advertising for the cyber truck.
Is this a crazy theory?
Look at the reservations after less than two days:
“With no advertising & no paid endorsement”
But virtually all media running headlines about the failed demo.
One example, Reuters: Shattered Glass: Futuristic Design Questioned After Tesla Cybertruck Launch.
Did this lead more people to look at the truck who would have otherwise not looked at it? Despite the window demo mess, did some of those people pull out their wallets?
Sure, it’s only $100 to get in the queue, but what I’m trying to understand is, if the demo was so disastrous, why did 146,000 people pay $100 to express interest in purchasing roughly $8 billion worth of those trucks?
In less than two days.
For the lulz?
Or, did the Cybertruck’s shit-your-pants specs trump the deluge negative press everywhere?
Amazon Is Planning to Open Cashierless Supermarkets Next Year
November 23rd, 2019Via: Bloomberg:
Amazon.com Inc. is preparing to open Amazon Go supermarkets and pop-up stores, an expansion of the company’s cashierless ambitions that includes the possibility of licensing the technology to other retailers.
The new store formats and licensing initiative could launch as soon as the first quarter of 2020, according to a person familiar with the project. Amazon is testing a supermarket equipped with Go technology in a 10,400-square-foot retail space in Seattle’s Capitol Hill neighborhood.
The Encyclosphere Is Coming
November 22nd, 2019Via: Larry Sanger:
We are fed up.
After ten years of domination by big social media—which might finally be in decline—we are tired of giant Silicon Valley corporations using us contemptuously. We still remember an Internet in which we charted our own destiny and owned our own data.
It’s not just social media. It’s Wikipedia, too. If you want to participate in the world’s largest encyclopedia, you must collaborate with a shadowy group of anonymous amateurs and paid shills on exactly one article per topic. If you’re new, you won’t be treated very nicely. If you don’t play their strange game, you’ll be summarily dismissed. Like the social media giants, Wikipedia has become an arrogant and controlling oligarchy.
Like Facebook, Wikipedia is also controlling its readers. It feeds them biased articles, exactly one per topic, does not let users give effective, independent feedback on articles (you’re forced to become a participant if you just want to give feedback) or to rate articles. They have, in a very real way, centralized epistemic authority in the hands of an anonymous mob. This is worse than Facebook. At least with Facebook, Congress can call Mark Zuckerberg to testify. There isn’t anyone who is responsible for Wikipedia’s content—certainly not Jimmy Wales. The situation is, in some ways, more dire than with Facebook, because you can’t effectively talk back to Wikipedia.
The old proverb tells us that knowledge is powerful. More specifically, authoritative statements of what is known on various subjects are powerful. How? Such statements can be used to influence elections, justify policies, and articulate controversial points of view—in effect to gain, wield, and build and consolidate power. The power to declare what is known is nearly the power to rule the world. No small group—no person, corporation, oligarchy, or cadre of insiders—should wield such power.
