July, 2018

• DARPA is building teams to develop a neural interface for new program
• Non-invasive or 'minimally invasive' device would let them send info with brain
• Means troops could one day control drones and other systems with their minds

"In its most recent study, Ghost Data estimates 9.5% of Instagram users are bots. In 2015, using the same methodology, the firm found about 7.9% of Instagram users were bots. That analysis came after Instagram announced it had conducted a purge of millions of the fake accounts. At the time, Instagram had 300 million users." -The Information

"An app meant to keep readers informed about the Qanon conspiracy theory has been removed from the App Store. As first reported by NBC News, the “QDrops” application would send users alerts for new developments in the theory, but was pulled by Apple on grounds of violations of its App Store Guidelines…"

"Omega 3 supplements have little or no effect on the risk of heart disease, stroke or death -- according to new research. Increased consumption of omega 3 fats is widely promoted globally because of a common belief that that it will protect against heart disease. But a new Cochrane review finds that omega 3 supplements offer little, if any, benefit."

"Multiple credible scientific studies going back more than a decade, as well as internal documents from certain pharmaceutical companies that suppressed the information, show that SSRI drugs ( Selective Serotonin Re-Uptake Inhibitors ) have well known, but unreported side effects, including but not limited to suicide and other violent behavior."

"2018 will forever be remembered as the year that hating plastic straws went mainstream. Once the lonely cause of environmental cranks, now everyone wants to eliminate these suckers from daily life."

A fiscal 2019 spending measure was introduced in the House on Wednesday that provides $5 billion for a southern border wall and additional funding for border security that aims to achieve “100 percent scanning” of the border within five years.

• A Honduran national confirmed Mara Salvatrucha (MS-13) gang member.
• A Guatemalan national member of the 18th Street gang.
• A El Salvadoran Mara Salvatrucha (MS-13) gang member.
• A Mexican national previously arrested for First Degree Sex Offense – Child.

"Russia's ambassador to the U.S. on Wednesday said the Trump administration needs to provide proof that Russian officials meddled in the 2016 election, or stop talking about it."

Illegal aliens included one Mexican national and eleven Guatemalan nationals.

Three juvenile drug smugglers have been arrested in Brownsville, Texas illegally entering the United States from Mexico with bundles of narcotics on their backs.

On Thursday, CBP arrested a 25 year-old man and a 15 year-old juvenile, remaining subjects fled to Mexico. They the discovered 3 bundles of marijuana weighing over 64 pounds with an estimated street value of over $51K.

Yesterday, agents responded to a report of four subjects illegally entering the United States. They located and arrested two 17 year-old juveniles carrying bundles of marijuana and observed the other two subjects jump back into the Rio Grande, returning to Mexico. The marijuana weighed more than 68 pounds and had an estimated street value of over $55K.

"The campaign manager of a Democrat seeking a U.S. House seat in upstate New York quit the campaign Tuesday, after a video showed the candidate saying she wouldn't publicly endorse a ban on certain firearms -- for fear that she’d lose the election."

ENGADGET SAYS: "That was not at all a terrible idea."