Assange and the Unforgivable Sin of Disemboweling Official Narratives
April 12th, 2019Via: Of Two Minds:
There is really only one unforgivable sin in the political realm, and that’s destroying the official narrative by revealing the facts of the matter. This is why whistleblowers who make public the secret machinery of the elaborately artful lies underpinning all official narratives are hounded to the ends of the Earth.
A Researcher Needed Three Hours to Identify Me From My DNA
April 12th, 2019
Via: Bloomberg:
Using just my DNA, a genealogist was able to identify me in three and a half hours.
It wasn’t hard. I’d previously sent a DNA sample to the genetic testing company 23andMe Inc. and then uploaded my data anonymously to a genealogy website. Researcher Michelle Trostler was able to access my data from that site and spent an afternoon looking for connections that would help her put a name to my data. The task was so easy that in the meantime she rewatched a season of Game of Thrones.
Trump Considering Putting Migrants in Sanctuary Cities
April 12th, 2019And the border remains open.
Via: The Hill:
President Trump said Friday his administration is “giving strong considerations” to a controversial plan that would release migrants into so-called sanctuary cities, even though officials said the idea was never seriously considered.
In a pair of tweets, Trump accused Democrats of being “unwilling to change our very dangerous immigration laws” and suggested they should feel the consequences of what he has called the crisis at the U.S.-Mexico border.
Millions of Chinese Youth ‘Volunteers’ to be Sent to Villages in Echo of Maoist Policy
April 12th, 2019“Persuaded to volunteer…”
Good one.
Perhaps one could have demerits removed from one’s social credit score for ‘volunteering’ to do this.
Via: Guardian:
China is planning to send millions of youth “volunteers” back to villages, raising fears of a return to the methods of Chairman Mao’s brutal Cultural Revolution of 50 years ago.
The Communist Youth League (CYL) has promised to despatch more than 10 million students to “rural zones” by 2022 in order to “increase their skills, spread civilisation and promote science and technology”, according to a Communist party document.
The aim is to bring to the rural areas the talents of those who would otherwise be attracted to life in the big cities, according to a CYL document quoted in the state-run Global Times daily on Thursday.
“We need young people to use science and technology to help the countryside innovate its traditional development models,” Zhang Linbin, deputy head of a township in central Hunan Province, told the Global Times.
Students will be called upon to live in the countryside during their summer holidays, although the CYL did not say how young people would be persuaded to volunteer.
Reaction Engines Testing Successfully Proves Precooler Capability at Supersonic Heat Conditions
April 11th, 2019Via: Reaction Engines:
A key element of the revolutionary SABRE™ air-breathing rocket engine successfully passes the first phase of high-temperature testing. Precooler technology will enable a wide variety of high-speed flight and advanced propulsion systems.
Reaction Engines’ precooler heat exchanger successfully achieved all test objectives in the first phase of high-temperature testing designed to directly replicate supersonic flight conditions and future tests are planned at even higher temperatures. The precooler is a key element of Reaction Engines’ revolutionary SABRE engine and is a potential enabling technology for advanced propulsion systems and other commercial applications.
Toxic Air Kills 100,000 Americans Per Year, Costs Economy Billions
April 11th, 2019Via: ZeroHedge:
Air pollution is poisoning Americans: A new study links air pollution spewed from industrial factories, motor vehicles, and farmlands to approximately 107,000 premature deaths each year.
The report, published Monday in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, said the economic toll of air pollution costs taxpayers $866 billion per year.
Austria Considering Requiring User Identities for Online Platforms
April 11th, 2019Via: The Local:
Austria said Wednesday it was considering a law to make it mandatory for big internet platforms to register their users and deprive those behind hate posts of anonymity.
“Unfortunately there have been an increasing number of clear violations, denigrations and humiliations online in the past under the cover of anonymity.
That’s why we need a framework for more responsibility online,” Chancellor Sebastian Kurz wrote on Twitter.
The new law would take effect in 2020 and would make it mandatory for platforms such as Facebook, Twitter and Instagram to register their users, said Gernot Bluemel, minister in charge of EU affairs, art, culture and media.
U.S. Prisoners Have Lost a Combined 20,000 Years of Life to False Convictions
April 11th, 2019Via: Reason:
In 2018 alone, wrongly convicted prisoners lost more than 1,600 years of life behind bars.
That’s a new record, according to the annual report from The National Registry of Exonerations, which tracks all exonerations from 1989 onward. In 2018, 151 people were freed from serving sentences for crimes they did not commit. They had served 1,639 years altogether, an average of about 11 years per person.
Another record set last year is also worth our attention: More of these exonerations are happening in cases where misconduct by officials played a role. The report documents official misconduct in at least 107 exonerations last year. Official misconduct played a role in 80 percent of the 54 homicide cases in 2018 in which the person convicted was subsequently exonerated.
China: Gene-Editing Techniques Make Monkey Brains More Humanlike
April 11th, 2019You’ll love this one.
Via: Futurism:
For the first time, scientists have used gene-editing techniques to make monkey brains more humanlike.
The monkeys, rhesus macaques, got smarter — they had superior memories to unaltered monkeys, according to recently-published research that’s kicked off a fiery debate among ethicists about how far scientists should be able to take genetic experimentation.
Cognitive Gap
The team of Chinese scientists edited the human version of a gene called MCPH1 into the macaques. The new gene made the monkeys’ brains develop along a more human-like timeline. The gene-hacked monkeys had better reaction times and enhanced short-term memories compared to their unaltered peers, according to China Daily.
Tesla and Panasonic Freeze Spending on $4.5 Billion Gigafactory
April 11th, 2019Via: Nikkei:
Tesla and Panasonic are freezing plans to expand the capacity of their Gigafactory 1, the world’s largest EV battery plant, as concerns mount on Wall Street about weakening demand at Elon Musk’s car company.
The partners had planned to raise capacity by 50% by next year, but financial problems have forced a rethink, Nikkei has learned.
Tesla is a top maker of electric vehicles, and Panasonic one of the biggest producers of the batteries that power them. These companies are shifting their strategy reflects the EV industry’s thin profits.
