The largest strike in history is happening in India right now…
January 9, 2019
Around 150 million people began a two-day general strike in India today against Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s anti-Labour and anti-trade union policies in India.
Workers from both the public and private sectors were joined by teachers and students from across the country, forming possibly largest strike in history.
Venture capitalist: AI will displace 40 percent of world’s jobs in as soon as 15 years…
January 9, 2019
"AI will increasingly replace repetitive jobs, not just for blue-collar work, but a lot of white-collar work," says Lee. "Chauffeurs, truck drivers, anyone who does driving for a living-- their jobs will be disrupted more in the 15-25 year time frame," he tells Pelley. "Many jobs that seem a little bit complex, chef, waiter, a lot of things will become automated ... stores ... restaurants, and altogether in 15 years, that's going to displace about 40 percent of the jobs in the world." When pressed by Pelley about 40 percent of jobs being displaced, Lee says the jobs will be, "displaceable."
"I believe [AI] is going to change the world more than anything in the history of mankind. More than electricity," says Lee.
White House Issues Veto Threat On Standalone Spending Bills…
January 9, 2019
The White House on Wednesday made official its opposition to House Democrats' bills that would reopen parts of the federal government, stating that the president will not sign any legislation to end the government shutdown that do not provide for President Trump's border wall demands.
House Democrats Introduce Bill Criminalizing Private Gun Sales…
January 9, 2019
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) and Rep. Mike Thompson (D-CA) introduced legislation to criminalize private gun sales on Tuesday. As promised, gun control proponent Gabby Giffords was there to take part in the introduction of the legislation, which is titled H.R. 8. The “8” is intended to honor Giffords for surviving the attack on her life eight years ago, on January 8, 2011.
The Democrats are joined by three House Republicans: Rep. Peter King (R-NY), Rep. Brian Mast (R-FL), and Rep. Chris Smith (R-NJ).
Ironically, although the bill was ubiquitously intended to honor Giffords, the laws contained in it would not have prevented the attack on her from occurring. Her attacker passed a background check at retail to acquire the handgun he used in that heinous crime.
DARPA wants to build an AI to find the patterns hidden in global chaos…
January 9, 2019
That most famous characterization of the complexity causality, a butterfly beating its wings and causing a hurricane on the other side of the world, is thought-provoking but ultimately not helpful. What we really need is to look at a hurricane and figure out which butterfly caused it — or perhaps stop it before it takes flight in the first place. DARPA thinks AI should be able to do just that.
A new program at the research agency is aimed at creating a machine learning system that can sift through the innumerable events and pieces of media generated every day and identify any threads of connection or narrative in them. It’s called KAIROS: Knowledge-directed Artificial Intelligence Reasoning Over Schemas.
Denver could become the first US city to decriminalize psychedelic mushrooms…
January 9, 2019
Denver, Colorado could become the first US city to decriminalize psychedelic mushrooms after a campaign gathered enough signatures to put a "magic" mushrooms measure on the ballot for the municipal elections in May.
Kevin Matthews, the campaign director of Denver for Psilocybin, told local news outlet NBC 9 that more than 8,000 people signed off on advancing the measure, which needed 4,279 signatures to proceed. The city's elections office has 25 days to verify the signatures' legitimacy.
Childhood stress of mice affects their offspring behavior…
January 9, 2019
Russian neuroscientists report that the stress experienced by mice during their first weeks of life affects not only them, but also their offspring. The data will help to understand how negative experience in early life affects the mammalian brain. The results are published in Genes, Brain and Behavior.
Offspring separation from the mother is a common early stress model for experimental animals. It is known that mice and rats separated from their mothers during the first weeks of life demonstrate more disturbed behavior and have reduced learning abilities compared to their relatives. Although the behavioral consequences of such a negative experience are well studied, it is still not known what molecular and structural changes in the brain are associated with them.
Hubble Telescope camera breaks…
January 9, 2019
At 17:23 UTC on Jan. 8, the Wide Field Camera 3 on the Hubble Space Telescope suspended operations due to a hardware problem. Hubble will continue to perform science observations with its other three active instruments, while the Wide Field Camera 3 anomaly is investigated. Wide Field Camera 3, installed during Servicing Mission 4 in 2009, is equipped with redundant electronics should they be needed to recover the instrument.
Woman in vegetative state who gave birth identified as San Carlos Apache tribe member…
January 9, 2019
In a report aired by FOX 10 on January 4, a source close to the investigation says the patient became comatose following a near-drowning, and was being cared for at the facility. Now, officials with the San Carlos Apache Tribe say the woman is a 29-year-old woman who has been in a persistent vegetative state for over a decade, and is a patient at Hacienda Del Sol in Phoenix.
An investigation is underway by Phoenix Police, as controversy mounts over the incident. Hacienda Healthcare's CEO, Bill Timmons, has announced his resignation, and Phoenix Police have served DNA search warrants on male staffers at the facility.
Yellow vests in France proposing a run on the banks…
January 9, 2019
Activists from a French protest movement encouraged supporters Wednesday to set off a bank run by emptying their accounts, while the government urged citizens to express their discontent in a national debate instead of weekly demonstrations disrupting the streets of Paris.
Activists from the yellow vest movement, which started with protests over fuel tax increases, recommended the massive cash withdrawals on social media. One protester, Maxime Nicolle called it the “tax collector’s referendum.”
Microorganisms that eat seaweed can create biodegradable plastic…
January 9, 2019
Now, researchers have found a way to create a bioplastic using seaweed, a far more accessible resource — a promising new approach that could both reduce strain on the plastic-clogged oceans and reduce the Earth’s dependence on fossil fuels.
“Bye-Bye” – POTUS Walks Out of White House Meeting with Chuck and Nancy…
January 9, 2019
Just left a meeting with Chuck and Nancy, a total waste of time. I asked what is going to happen in 30 days if I quickly open things up, are you going to approve Border Security which includes a Wall or Steel Barrier? Nancy said, NO. I said bye-bye, nothing else works!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) January 9, 2019
POTUS Signs 2 Bills Into Law…
January 9, 2019
S. 1862, the “Trafficking Victims Protection Reauthorization Act,” which amends the Trafficking Victims Protection Act of 2000 by, among other things, modifying the criteria used for determining whether countries are meeting minimum standards for eliminating human trafficking; and
S. 3247, the “Women’s Entrepreneurship and Economic Empowerment Act of 2018,” which amends and updates certain programs and activities relating to women’s entrepreneurship and economic empowerment that are carried out by the United States Agency for International Development.
Mario Batali Won’T Face Nyc Sexual Assault Charges…
January 9, 2019
The New York City Police Department told CNN on Wednesday that it has “no open cases” into the former ABC co-host and chef from “The Chew,” after opening up two investigations into alleged sexual misconduct by Batali.
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According to TMZ, authorities closed both cases after investigators couldn’t find any other witnesses or evidence to back the claims made by the multiple accusers. Last March, a woman filed a police report claiming she was raped by the celebrity chef at his West Village eatery in 2004.High doses of a nutrient found in meat, eggs and fish may protect multiple generations against Alzheimer’s disease…
January 9, 2019
These foods are all rich in a brain-boosting nutrient called choline, which helps to protect the brain from neurotoxins and boosts the brain's 'self-cleaning' functions.
Scientists at Arizona State University (ASU) found that when pregnant mice bred to have an Alzheimer's-like disease at high-choline diets, their offspring were less at risk for the brain disease.
What's more, the supplementation seemed to alter the offspring mice's genes in a way that was passed down to have protective effects for future generations, showing unexpected promise for reducing the long-term burden of Alzheimer's disease.
President Bolsonaro Announces Brazil Leaving Global Migration Pact…
January 9, 2019
Less than a month after adhering to the United Nations’ Global Pact for Safe, Orderly and Regular Migration, Brazil’s new commander and chief, Jair Bolsonaro, has announced the country is leaving the agreement to ‘preserve national values’.
“Brazil is sovereign to decide whether or not to accept migrants,” said the president in his social media account. “No to the migration pact.”
Beech trees are dying, and nobody’s sure why…
January 9, 2019
A confounding new disease is killing beech trees in Ohio and elsewhere, and plant scientists are sounding an alarm while looking for an explanation.
In a study published in the journal Forest Pathology, researchers and naturalists from The Ohio State University and metroparks in northeastern Ohio report on the emerging "beech leaf disease" epidemic, calling for speedy work to find a culprit so that work can begin to stop its spread.
CBS News Deletes Viral Fact Check On Migrant Women Raped Crossing Southern Border…
January 9, 2019
CBS News deleted a "fact check" of Trump's border wall speech on Tuesday night which said the situation with migrant women being raped while illegally crossing our southern border is even worse than he described.
CBS News deleted this fact check from their own article "fact checking" Trump's speech on Tuesday night. You can see an archived copy which includes the fact check here.
American Navy vet detained in Iran suffering psychologically, ex-prisoner says…
January 9, 2019
Sources tell CBS News that Iran is holding the Americans to try to extract concessions such as those received in a deal reached with President Obama. While the Trump administration offered to discuss prisoners last year, a senior administrative official said Iran turned that offer down, leaving the fate of the Americans unclear.
According to his family, the California native had traveled to Iran three times to visit an Iranian woman believed to be his girlfriend. After White didn't board his flight back Iran last July, the 46-year-old's mother filed a missing persons report. About five months later, the State Department informed her that he's being held in an Iranian prison.
Iran’s leader admits Trump’s sanctions are working…
January 9, 2019
“The sanctions do put pressure on the country and the people,” Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei said, according to a transcript on his website of one of his speeches in Tehran.
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The same day Khamenei delivered his speech, Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said in Jordan that the United States is “redoubling not only our diplomatic but our commercial efforts to put real pressure on Iran.”“There is enormous agreement on the risk that Iran poses to Jordan and other countries in the region,” Pompeo added.