More than 1,600 Arrested Amid Protests Against Putin in Russia
May 5th, 2018Via: CBS:
Russians angered by the impending inauguration of Vladimir Putin to a new term as president demonstrated throughout the country on Saturday. Police responded by reportedly arresting more than 1,600 of them, including protest organizer Alexei Navalny, the anti-corruption campaigner who is Putin’s most prominent foe. Police seized Navalny by the arms and legs and carried the thrashing activist from Moscow’s Pushkin Square, where thousands were gathered for an unauthorized protest.
Police also used batons against protesters who chanted “Putin is a thief!” and “Russia will be free!”
Demonstrations under the slogan “He is not our czar” took place throughout the country, from Yakutsk in the far northeast to St. Petersburg and Kaliningrad on the fringes of Europe.
New Zealand: Final Splice of Hawaiki Cable Complete; End-to-End Connectivity Confirmed
May 4th, 2018
Via: Hawaiki Cable Press Release:
Hawaiki Submarine Cable LP and TE SubCom, a TE Connectivity Ltd. company and an industry pioneer in undersea communications technology, today announced that the final splice of the Hawaiki Submarine Cable has been made and the system is on schedule to be in service in June 2018.
With the final splice and all cable station installations complete, the Hawaiki Cable System has end-to-end connectivity and is entering final system testing. The more than 15,000km cable connects Sydney – Australia, Mangawhai Heads – New Zealand, Tafuna – American Samoa, Kapolei – Hawaii, USA, and Pacific City – Oregon, USA, including stubbed branching units to facilitate future connections to New Caledonia, Fiji, and Tonga.
Volkswagen Doubles EV Battery Order To $48 Billion
May 4th, 2018Via: Fortune:
A few hours after Elon Musk berated analysts for what he perceived as unimaginative questions, Volkswagen AG said it was writing a check for batteries that almost match Tesla’s entire market value.
VW has awarded battery-purchasing contracts worth 40 billion euros ($48 billion), double from just a few weeks ago. The deals take the German manufacturer within striking distance of a sought-for 50 billion-euro total. By 2025, VW plans to sell as many as 3 million all-electric cars per year, Chief Executive Officer Herbert Diess told investors Thursday at the annual shareholder meeting in Berlin.
Giuliani: Trump Reimbursed Michael Cohen for Hush-Money Payment to Porn Star
May 3rd, 2018Via: NBC:
Federal investigators have wiretapped the phone lines of Michael Cohen, the longtime personal lawyer for President Donald Trump who is under investigation for a payment he made to an adult film star who alleged she had an affair with Trump, according to two people with knowledge of the legal proceedings involving Cohen.
It is not clear how long the wiretap has been authorized, but NBC News has learned it was in place in the weeks leading up to the raids on Cohen’s offices, hotel room, and home in early April, according to one person with direct knowledge.
At least one phone call between a phone line associated with Cohen and the White House was intercepted, the person said.
Previously, federal prosecutors in New York have said in court filings that they have conducted covert searches on multiple e-mail accounts maintained by Cohen.
…
Giuliani told Fox News Wednesday night that Trump repaid Cohen the $130,000 he used to keep the adult film star, Stormy Daniels, from going public with allegations about her affair with Trump.
CIA Emails to Journalists Don’t Have to be Released to Public, Judge Rules
May 3rd, 2018Via: McClatchy:
The CIA can selectively divulge classified information to selected reporters in emails yet withhold that information from other journalists or members of the public when they seek the same information under the Freedom of Information Act, a federal judge in New York has ruled.
…
Judge Colleen McMahon of the Southern District of New York ruled that the CIA does not have to release parts of five emails senior CIA officials sent to journalists from the Wall Street Journal, the New York Times and The Washington Post in 2012. At the time, the CIA was facing pressure over links it may have had to a Pakistani doctor who helped American forces hunt down Osama bin Laden.
The ruling came in a lawsuit filed by Adam Johnson, a freelance reporter, who was represented by a first amendment lawyer in New York City, Daniel Novack.
“The Director of Central Intelligence is free to disclose classified information about CIA sources and methods selectively, if he concludes that it is necessary to do so in order to protect those intelligence sources and methods, and no court can second guess his decision,” McMahon ruled.
Mercedes Gives Up on Home Energy Storage, Can’t Compete with Tesla
May 3rd, 2018Man oh man.
Nobody said it was going to be easy.
Via: GTM:
Mercedes-Benz will stop manufacturing residential batteries and dissolve its U.S. energy subsidiary, ending a short-lived challenge to Tesla’s energy storage empire.
Jeff Bezos Dreams of a World with a Trillion People Living in Space
May 2nd, 2018My guess is that he plans to ride out TEOTWAWKI in a personal submarine.
Via: CNBC:
Dreaming big isn’t something Jeff Bezos has a problem with.
And true to form, the multi-billionaire’s vision for the world that his great-grandchildren’s great-grandchildren will live in is pretty wild to imagine.
The Amazon and Blue Origin boss says a trillion people will live in space, there will be “a thousand Einsteins and a thousand Mozarts” and we’ll develop other planets, leaving Earth a beautiful place to be.
Bezos painted this future vision in an interview with Axel Springer CEO Mathias Döpfner, published by Business Insider on Saturday.
Chinese Firms Use ‘Mind-Reading’ Devices to Monitor Workers’ Emotions
April 30th, 2018As I’ve always said (recent example) re: EEG data and these sorts of claims: I doubt it works at all, but the fact that they’re trying is disturbing enough.
Via: Sydney Morning Herald:
Workers in China are being hooked up with brain-reading devices that feed information about their moods to their employers, raising fears about the privacy of people’s most basic emotions.
Electronic sensors that fit into hats and helmets are being used in China on an “unprecedented” scale to read employees’ emotions, the South China Morning Post reports, in what firms say is part of a drive to increase efficiency and productivity.
Research Credit: DF
Drug Users Take Over Corridors of San Francisco Civic Center BART Station
April 30th, 2018#zombieapocalypse
Via: CBS:
Shocking video is calling attention to what’s going on in one of the busiest BART stations in the Bay Area: drug users blatantly shooting up out in the open as commuters walk by, others slumped along filthy corridors.
It’s a gauntlet commuters walk through every morning at the Civic Center BART and Muni station.
Regular commuter Shannon Gafford knows people have to see it to believe it. “One morning I said, ‘I got to pull out the camera and show my friends this. They’re not going to believe it,’” he said.
Radio Frequency Vehicle Stopper
April 29th, 2018Via: Defense One:
The Defense Department’s Joint Non-Lethal Weapons Program, or JNLWD, is pushing ahead with a new direct energy weapon that uses high-powered microwaves to stop cars in their tracks without damaging the vehicle, its driver, or anyone else.
The jammer works by targeting the car’s engine control unit causing it to reboot over and over, stalling the engine. Like an invisible hand, the microwaves hold the car in place. “Anything that has electronics on it, these high-powered microwaves will affect,” David Law, who leads JNLWD’s technology division, said in March. “As long as the [radio] is on, it holds the vehicle stopped.”
