Weird Structures in Antarctica [???]
November 7th, 2019What is this?
I got this from Third Phase of Moon.
Fully Charged Show Visits Rivian
November 7th, 2019Via: Fully Charged:
This Is How the U.S. Military’s Massive Facial Recognition System Works
November 7th, 2019Via: OneZero:
Over the last 15 years, the United States military has developed a new addition to its arsenal. The weapon is deployed around the world, largely invisible, and grows more powerful by the day.
That weapon is a vast database, packed with millions of images of faces, irises, fingerprints, and DNA data — a biometric dragnet of anyone who has come in contact with the U.S. military abroad. The 7.4 million identities in the database range from suspected terrorists in active military zones to allied soldiers training with U.S. forces.
Escalating Millennial Health Problems Raise Economic Concerns
November 7th, 2019Via: Newsmax:
More millennials in the U.S. are suffering from chronic health problems, potentially restraining the lifetime economic potential of a generation of young adults.
A spike in conditions like depression, hypertension and high cholesterol among younger people could increase health-care costs and lower incomes in coming years, according to a report Wednesday from the Blue Cross Blue Shield Association, a federation of 36 independent companies that together provide coverage for 1 in 3 Americans.
Between 2014 and 2017, rates of depression among millennials surged by 31%, while hyperactivity rose 29% and hypertension increased 16%, according to the report. High cholesterol and tobacco-use disorder also increased.
Tesla ‘Cybertruck’ Pickup Gets Unveil Date: Nov 21 in Los Angeles
November 6th, 2019
Via: Electrek:
Elon Musk confirmed that Tesla is going to unveil the ‘Cybertruck’ on November 21 in Los Angeles “near SpaceX’s rocket factory.”
The CEO has been teasing Tesla’s electric pickup truck concept for the last year.
It was first supposed to be unveiled this summer, but it was pushed to the fourth quarter.
Musk hinted that it would be unveiled in November in Los Angeles.
Coincidentally, or likely not, the events in the Blade Runner movie happened in November 2019 in Los Angeles.
The CEO has previously said that the Tesla pickup truck, which he now calls the ‘Cybertruck’, looks ‘Blade Runner-esque’.
U.S. Army Wants 50KW Lasers Fielded by 2022: “The Time Is Now to Get Directed Energy Weapons to the Battlefield”
November 6th, 2019Via: Stars and Stripes:
The Army is now developing 50 kilowatt lasers for its Stryker wheeled armored vehicles, with plans calling for a prototype to be fielded in 2022, the service said.
“The time is now to get directed energy weapons to the battlefield,” said Lt. Gen. L. Neil Thurgood, director of hypersonics, directed energy, space, and rapid acquisition.
“This is no longer a research effort or a demonstration effort. It is a strategic combat capability, and we are on the right path to get it in soldiers’ hands,” he said in a statement released Thursday.
Last week, the Army awarded competing contracts to Northrop Grumman and Raytheon to build the directed energy weapons. The two companies will act as subcontractors to Kord Technologies, which signed in May a $203 million contract with the service, and will each develop a prototype laser.
The program will deliver 50 kW-class lasers mounted in 2022 on four Strykers, the statement said. They would be tasked with protecting maneuvering brigades from drones, rotary-wing aircraft, rockets, artillery and mortar rounds.
Trump OKs Wider Syria Oil Mission, Raising Legal Questions
November 6th, 2019Legal questions. That’s hilarious.
I just want to remember the good old days, when they felt the need to dazzle us with yellow cake uranium fraud before they stole the oil.
Via: Military Times – AP:
President Donald Trump has approved an expanded military mission to secure an expanse of oil fields across eastern Syria, raising a number of difficult legal questions about whether U.S. troops can launch strikes against Syrian, Russian or other forces if they threaten the oil, U.S. officials said.
The decision, coming after a meeting Friday between Trump and his defense leaders, locks hundreds of U.S. troops into a more complicated presence in Syria, despite the president’s vow to get America out of the war. Under the new plan, troops would protect a large swath of land controlled by Syrian Kurdish fighters that stretches nearly 90 miles (150 kilometers) from Deir el-Zour to al-Hassakeh, but its exact size is still being determined.
A Michigan Man Underpaid His Property Taxes By $8.41, the County Seized His Property, Sold It and Kept the Profits
November 6th, 2019Via: Reason:
An 83-year-old retired engineer in Michigan underpaid his property taxes by $8.41. In response, Oakland County seized his property, auctioned it off to settle the debt, and pocketed nearly $24,500 in excess revenue from the sale.
Under Michigan law, it was all legal. And hardly uncommon.
Uri Rafaeli, who lost his property and all the equity associated with it, is just one of thousands of people to be victimized by Michigan’s uniquely aggressive property tax statute. The law, passed in 1999 in an attempt to accelerate the rehabilitation of abandoned properties, empowers county treasurers to act as debt collectors. In the process, it creates a perverse incentive by allowing treasurers’ offices to retain excess revenue raised by seizing and selling properties with delinquent taxes—even when the amount owed is miniscule, and even when the homes aren’t abandoned or blighted at all.
Organizations representing property owners like Rafaeli say the practice is unconstitutional, inequitable, and unreasonably harsh. They call it “home equity theft”—a process that’s a close relative to the civil asset forfeiture laws that have been used by police departments to similarly deprive innocent Americans of their property without due process. They are now asking the state Supreme Court to restrict the practice.
“Michigan is currently stealing from people across the state,” says Christina Martin, an attorney with the Pacific Legal Foundation, a nonprofit law firm now representing Rafaeli and other homeowners in a class-action lawsuit that will go before the Michigan Supreme Court in early November.
“Counties have been authorized to take not just what they are owed, but to take people’s life savings.”
Sweden: An Energy Breakthrough Could Store Solar Power for Decades, Works for Heating Applications
November 5th, 2019Via: Bloomberg:
For decades, scientists have sought an affordable and effective way of capturing, storing, and releasing solar energy. Researchers in Sweden say they have a solution that would allow the power of the sun’s rays to be used across a range of consumer applications—heating everything from homes to vehicles.
…
The system starts with a liquid molecule made up of carbon, hydrogen, and nitrogen. When hit by sunlight, the molecule draws in the sun’s energy and holds it until a catalyst triggers its release as heat. The researchers spent almost a decade and $2.5 million to create a specialized storage unit, which Moth-Poulsen, a 40-year-old professor in the department of chemistry and chemical engineering, says has the stability to outlast the 5-to 10-year life span of typical lithium-ion batteries on the market today.
Risky Mortgage Bonds Are Back and Delinquencies Are Piling Up
November 5th, 2019Meet the new toxic waste. Same as the old toxic waste.
Via: Bloomberg:
The subprime mortgage-backed bond may be dead in America a decade after it helped trigger the global financial crisis, but a security with some of the same high-risk characteristics is starting to take off.
It’s called the non-qualified mortgage — basically a loan granted to borrowers whose checkered financial record made them ineligible for conventional mortgages. Lenders have bundled more than $18 billion worth of these loans into bonds this year that they then sold to investors, a 44% increase from 2018 and the most for any year since the securities became common post-crisis.
