January, 2019

Thursday at the Pentagon, President Trump released his administration’s long-awaited Missile Defense Review (MDR). In his announcement, Trump promised “nothing less for our nation than the most effective, cutting-edge missile defense systems.” Indeed, the steps called for in this review will go a long way to toward employing new technologies to address next-generation threats and strengthening U.S. and allied security.
[...]
New technologies such as lasers promise to drastically reduce the cost per shot of future defenses. Finally, the greatest threat to international security is not U.S. defenses, but Russian and Chinese efforts to tear down the U.S.-led international order. Putting Moscow and Beijing on notice will bolster, not undermine, global stability.
[...]
A new missile defense site on the East Coast and interceptors in space could have further bolstered U.S. defenses. Still, there is no doubt that with these enhancements, Trump is correct when he says, “We have the best [missile defenses] anywhere in the world. It is not even close.”

Microsoft says anyone who uses Windows 10 Mobile should switch to Android or iPhone. The company will kill off support for Windows 10 Mobile in December of this year.

BlackRock Inc., the world’s largest asset manager, inadvertently posted confidential information about thousands of financial adviser clients on its website.

The data appeared in three spreadsheets, linked on one of the New York-based company’s web pages dedicated to its iShares exchange-traded funds. The documents included names and email addresses of financial advisers who buy BlackRock’s ETFs on behalf of customers. They also appeared to show the assets under management each adviser had in the firm’s iShares ETFs.

Mexico’s president vowed on Saturday to redouble his fight against an epidemic of fuel theft after thieves punctured a pipeline north of Mexico City, causing an explosion that killed at least 66 people and injured 76 others.

The blast underscored the deadly perils of the fuel-theft racket, which has cost the government billions of dollars a year and has been the target of a weekslong crackdown by the administration of Mexico’s new president, Andrés Manuel López Obrador.

Sen. Mitt Romney, R-Utah, on Friday backed President Trump’s stance on the partial government shutdown, backing his call for a wall on the southern border and saying he doesn’t understand Democrats’ positioning on the issue.

"You (Pelosi) and your fellow Democrats have voted for over 600 miles of border fence in the past, why won't you vote for another few miles now?" said Romney, speaking in Ogden, Utah after visiting with officials about the shutdown's impact on the community. "I don't understand their position, I really don't."

A new study offers some of the strongest evidence yet of the connection between the marketing of opioids to doctors and the nation’s addiction epidemic.

It found that counties where opioid manufacturers offered a large number of gifts and payments to doctors had more overdose deaths involving the drugs than counties where direct-to-physician marketing was less aggressive.

The study, published Friday in JAMA Network Open, said the industry spent about $40 million promoting opioid medications to nearly 68,000 doctors from 2013 through 2015, including by paying for meals, trips and consulting fees. And it found that for every three additional payments that companies made to doctors per 100,000 people in a county, overdose deaths involving prescription opioids there a year later were 18 percent higher.

A U.S. Bitcoin ATM company has teamed up with international coin counter Coinstar to offer Bitcoin purchasing facilities in “thousands” of new locations.

The exact extent of the rollout remains undisclosed, but executives referenced “thousands” of U.S. locations currently served by Coinstar, which allows consumers to count loose change. Coinstar itself lists 20,000 ‘kiosks.’

And, after finding that the rings have a fairly low mass, they came to the conclusion that the planet’s rings are only 10 to 100 million years old. This is much younger than the planet itself, which is estimated to be 4.5 billion years old.

Alphabet’s health division, Verily, has received FDA 510(k) clearance for its Study smart watch for an “on-demand ECG feature.” The Study Watch, announced in April 2017, is not a consumer smartwatch, but instead meant as a test platform for the Google-adjacent company to research how to best gather health data on a wearable.
[...]

Unlike the Apple Watch, the Study Watch is “a prescription-only device,” though it does use the same “single-lead” method to measure EKGs. Single leads are less accurate than the full test you can get in a medical office, but it potentially has use as a screening tool. Even in those limited use cases, though, false-positives are still a concern to some doctors. Verily says that the EKG feature on the Study Watch is “intended to record, store, transfer, and display single-channel ECG rhythms, and is indicated for use by healthcare professionals, adult patients with known or suspected heart conditions, and health conscious individuals.”

A Belarusian model who claimed to have proof of President Trump’s campaign colluding with the Kremlin during the 2016 presidential election has been arrested in Moscow following her deportation from Thailand.

Anastasia Vashukevich was detained at Moscow’s Sheremetyevo airport on Thursday on charges of inducement to prostitution. Three other people deported along with her were also charged with the same crime.

House Democrats will offer $1 billion in funding for border security measures in a bill to reopen the government next week, a Democratic source told CNN on Saturday.

CNN reports that none of the money will be eligible for use in construction of President Trump's signature border wall as Democrats view other border security measures as more effective.

I will be making a major announcement concerning the Humanitarian Crisis on our Southern Border, and the Shutdown, tomorrow afternoon at 3 P.M., live from the @WhiteHouse.

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) January 18, 2019

Exactly one year ago (Think Mirror), Q posted the following:

Q !UW.yye1fxo No.24
Jan 18 2018 21:09:31 (EST)
Are you following the news today?
WHAT A BIG NEWS DAY.
These people are REALLY stupid.
This will be the END of the D party.
This will be the path forward (w/ public outrage) to JAIL many so-called 'untouchables'.
You, THE PEOPLE, have the POWER.
DOWN SHE GOES.
Q

Q !UW.yye1fxo No.39
Jan 19 2018 00:45:08 (EST)
Timing is everything.
STATE_OF_THE_UNION.
Q

Q !UW.yye1fxo No.43
Jan 19 2018 16:02:49 (EST)
Remember THIS DAY.
Q

Enjoy!

IN A FEW nights, sky-watchers across the Americas will have a front-row seat to a rare cosmic event, as three lunar phenomena converge to give rise to what some people are calling a super blood wolf moon.

While that may sound like a song straight out of a 1970s rock opera, it’s actually a term for a type of total lunar eclipse.
[...]
Sky-watchers across the entire Western Hemisphere will be able to see all or part of the eclipse. North America, Central America, and South America will get to see all the phases of this special sky show, as the moon rides high in the eastern sky.
[...]
Unlike solar eclipses, lunar ones are safe to watch with the naked eye.

@LauraWBush and I are grateful to our Secret Service personnel and the thousands of Federal employees who are working hard for our country without a paycheck. And we thank our fellow citizens who are supporting them,” Bush said. “It’s time for leaders on both sides to put politics aside, come together, and end this shutdown.”