Consumers Increasingly Using Buy-Now-Pay-Later Services for Shoes, Sweaters, Makeup
September 30th, 2019Via: Wall Street Journal:
Gone are the days when special financing plans were mostly reserved for big-ticket purchases like TVs and refrigerators. Now, sweaters, makeup or other everyday items can be paid for in installments with loans or other payment plans offered at checkout with thousands of merchants in the U.S., including Walmart Inc., Urban Outfitters Inc. and, soon, H&M . Some Amazon.com Inc. credit-card users can also sign up for these plans.
Merchants and lenders are tapping into the financial challenges many U.S. families are facing. Despite signs of a strong economy, like low unemployment, consumers are increasingly relying on borrowing to fund their daily lives. U.S. consumer debt is higher than ever, as cars, college, housing and medical care grow more expensive but incomes stay largely stagnant.
Pod People
September 30th, 2019Via: Paul Watson:
Related: L.A. Coliving: PodShare
Whistle-Blower: Prince Andrew Was Regular Visitor to Jeffrey Epstein’s £7 Million Paris Apartment
September 30th, 2019Via: Daily Mail:
A whistle-blower has told police in France that Prince Andrew had been a regular visitor to billionaire paedophile Jeffrey Epstein’s £7million apartment in Paris.
Detectives in the French city are now probing reports that the Queen’s son was often at the property.
It comes as the apartment was raided last week, with officers having discovered a custom-made massage parlour where Epstein and his friends are alleged to have raped their victims.
Now a key witness has claimed that he spotted Prince Andrew at the building on more than one occasion.
Trump Tweets Civil War Warning Over Impeachment
September 29th, 2019Via: Donald Trump – Twitter:
….If the Democrats are successful in removing the President from office (which they will never be), it will cause a Civil War like fracture in this Nation from which our Country will never heal.” Pastor Robert Jeffress, @FoxNews
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) September 30, 2019
GE, NASA Partner to Advance the Future of Electric Flight
September 29th, 2019Via: ZDnet:
Electric flight is becoming a tantalizingly close reality for shorter-range service. But increasing passenger carrying capacity and flight times to economically accommodate longer routes will require a major rethink of crucial components.
One of these is the inverter, which changes the direct current of batteries into alternating current used by the airplane’s propulsion system. The problem is there aren’t many inverters rated for aviation. Those that exist are big and heavy, two characteristics that don’t mix well with electric flight.
Now, GE is partnering with the NASA Advanced Air Vehicles Program (AAVP) on a new generation of inverter using GE’s silicon Carbide (SiC) technology. The project aims to deliver a next gen inverter that provides significantly increased power density over existing technology but is small enough to support electric flight.
“We’re essentially packing 1 MW of power into the size of a compact suitcase that will convert enough electric power to enable hybrid-electric propulsion architectures for commercial airplanes,”says Konrad Weeber, Chief Engineer of Electric Power at GE Research. “We have successfully built and demonstrated inverters at ground level that meet the power, size and efficiency requirements of electric flight. The next step is to build and demonstrate one that is altitude ready.”
Auto Workers Fear for Jobs with Rise of Electric Vehicles
September 28th, 2019Via: Bloomberg:
The milkman went missing thanks to the rise of refrigerators. Switchboard operators were done in by the dawn of direct dialing. And in the car industry, auto workers are deathly afraid the engine assembler will give way to battery builders.
Dread over the prospect that plug-in cars — which have fewer parts and require less labor to build — will doom auto jobs helped spark the first United Auto Workers strike against General Motors Co. in over a decade. Ford Motor Co. and Fiat Chrysler Automobiles NV, which are rolling their own battery-powered models to market in the coming years, could face a similar fate if they’re unable to quell the UAW’s concerns that widespread adoption of EVs endangers the employment of 35,000 union members.
McCharge: McDonalds is Now Charging EVs in Sweden and Netherlands
September 28th, 2019Via: The Next Avenue:
Related: First Gas Station in America to Ditch Oil for 100% Electric Vehicle Charging Opens in Maryland
“The Anti-MacBook” – Panasonic TOUGHBOOK 55 Review
September 26th, 2019Here’s one for you 3.5mm Ports on Your Mobile Phone Luddites. This will definitely call to you.
I love it!
While one can dream, I still think old/used Dell Latitudes are the best laptop values to be had anywhere.
Via: Mr. Mobile:
Former Florida Police Officer Claims to Have Extensive Data on Epstein and Prince Andrew Rigged to Dead Man’s Switch
September 26th, 2019Here is a background piece on John Dougan, if you are not familiar with him:
Below is his response to various stories claiming that MI6 is worried that he has turned over information related to Epstein and Prince Andrew to the Russian government.
Dougan claims to have encrypted and geographically distributed mirrors of a very large amount of Epstein related data that was given to him by Palm Beach Police Department Detective Joe Recarey.
Recarey, who died in 2018, happened to be the lead detective on the solicitation-of-minors case against billionaire Jeffrey Epstein.
Dougan, not wanting to end up like Recarey, is letting all parties know that he won’t release the Epstein data as long as no harm comes to him or his family.
Via: John Dougan:
Statement by John Mark Dougan, an American Citizen, Granted Political Asylum by the Russian Government
September 21, 2019 London Times story under the headline, “MI6 fears Russia can link Prince Andrew to Jeffrey Epstein abuse,” carries this statement:
MI6 is understood to be concerned about the activities of a former Florida police officer who had access to the investigation into the billionaire pedophile and then moved to Russia.
My name is John Dougan, and I am a former U.S. Marine and Palm Beach County Florida Deputy Sheriff, now living in Moscow. I was granted political asylum here in 2016. I fled to Russia after American intelligence agencies raided my home because I had exposed the rampant corruption and racism within the Palm Beach County Sheriff’s Office. Part of my story was broadcast in a 2018 special Russian TV documentary, “Breaking Bad Wolf: One Crazy Journey from Palm Beach Cop to Russian Exile,” broadcast worldwide in several languages.
Because of the intense media interest and oftentimes inaccurate Internet speculation, I am giving further information to help put some of what I know in perspective.
Although we worked in different law enforcement agencies, former Town of Palm Beach Police Department Detective Joe Recarey, who was the lead detective on the solicitation-of-minors case against billionaire Jeffrey Epstein, was a friend. I was shocked, as were family and friends, to learn of his unexpected death at age 50 just over a year ago.
Joe Recarey was very aware of my efforts to uncover the breaches of public trust by the Palm Beach County Sheriff’s office via my award-winning investigative website. In late 2009 or early 2010, Joe asked me to scan all the documents as well as copy hundreds of DVD disks he had on the Jeffrey Epstein case to keep them safe. He had lost faith in Barry Krischer, the Palm Beach County state’s attorney at the time of the investigation. I would meet with him occasionally to get more documents to store, the last time being in 2015.
I have never looked at what was given to me by Joe Recarey, other than the file names, types, and sizes. The FBI seized my computers in 2016 which had everything Recarey gave me. The FBI and other intelligence agencies may be surprised to have discovered that I kept an off-site backup that was sent to me in 2017, after I was safely established in Russia.
According to news reports, U.S. intelligence agencies apparently analyzed the files and communicated with British authorities. If Britain’s Secret Intelligence Service, commonly known as MI6, has concerns about any ties between Prince Andrew and Jeffrey Epstein, they got it from their Washington counterparts, not me.
Of course, this means the FBI has seen everything and has more knowledge of the contents than I do because it was not my business to look deep into the files: I was simply acting as Joe Recarey’s computer “safety deposit box.” It also means that the FBI has the same exact data that I possess and are in a position to know everyone who is implicated in the videos, recordings, and documents. If media reports are accurate, it seems the FBI has knowledge that Epstein files involve Prince Andrew in some manner, since they made it a point to contact MI6 and warn them.
The Epstein data is encrypted in a TrueCrypt/VeraCrypt container and has been given to a few people. They cannot look at the contents because they do not have the decryption keys. Others have the decryption keys, but they do not have access to the encrypted containers. My contacts are on five continents and do not know each other. The Epstein files stay secure and unreadable to everyone. I do not have a physical copy in my immediate possession, because of security reasons. This is to make sure my family and friends remain safe. I have made arrangements that it can only be decrypted in the event of my arrest, if I go missing for an extended time, or in case of my unusual or untimely demise. I have a system in place to connect people with the encrypted containers to those who have the decryption keys.
I have made elaborate security precautions because of ongoing legal issues, threats, and harassment. The FBI has tried to arrest me twice since I’ve been in Moscow by pushing Interpol via a sealed indictment. Both times they failed. Last year, the FBI sent 10 agents and Federal Marshals to a U.S. company that I do contract work for, unsuccessfully trying to intimidate them.
I will not be divulging any of the information I may know of or possess, because the secrecy of the data I have access ensures the safety of me and my loved ones. I hope the growing concerns and reports about Jeffrey Epstein’s international sex-trafficking empire, and his relationship with the rich and powerful people like the Duke of York, will generate official and news media investigations which will uncover all the facts. I am committed to following this story closely.
China: New ‘Super Camera’ Can Instantly Pinpoint Specific Targets Among Tens of Thousands of People
September 26th, 2019Would you like an anti-surveillance face mask or T-shirt to go with that?
Via: ABC:
Scientists have unveiled a 500 megapixel cloud camera system in China that they say is capable of capturing the facial details of each individual in a crowd of tens of thousands of people, raising fears facial recognition monitoring could soon reach a new level.
…
With 500 megapixels, or 500 million pixels, each face is easily identifiable, and the AI technology can scan and identify a target within seconds.
Ms Hoffman said data generated from surveillance video can be “fed into a pool of data that, combined with AI processing, can generate tools for social control, including tools linked to the Social Credit System”.
