January, 2019

Cities may be a long way from hovercrafts and Hyperloops, but they're slowly catching up to the visions of science fiction. Technologies that once seemed impossible, like driverless cars and drone taxis, are now popping up mega-developments around the world. By designing cities from scratch, nations like India, Saudi Arabia, and the US can accommodate new innovations in infrastructure and deliver services more efficiently to residents.

Take a look at the development projects that are blurring the lines between reality and science fiction...

A project that began in 2002, the area prioritizes mass transit, like buses, subways, and bikes, instead of road traffic, according to Stan Gale, chairman of Gale International, the developer behind the IBD.

When completed by 2020, the district will span 100 million square feet. It's located on the northwest side of South Korea.

Doomed to fail? Some anons are actually arguing online that Cars are by no means part of human nature and that "well designed public transport" is far more efficient and often faster than traveling by car. Yet, they fail to see that many people would rather spend more time in traffic than less time jammed with hundreds of other people. Cars might not be a part of human nature, but know what is? Making individual choices.

"Clinton is telling people that she's not closing the doors to the idea of running in 2020," Zeleny said. "I'm told by three people that as recently as this week, she was telling people that look, given all this news from the indictments, particularly the Roger Stone indictment, she talked to several people, saying 'look, I'm not closing the doors to this.'"

Thousands of protesters marched through Paris on Sunday to condemn the violence of the Yellow Vest movement, which has rocked France for weeks with angry protests over President Emmanuel Macron’s government.

Some 10,000 people turned out for the counter-demonstration, a day after an 11th consecutive Saturday of Yellow Vest demonstrations across France was marked by sporadic clashes with police.

• Jerome Rodrigues hit in the right eye with either a police flash ball or grenade
• Yellow Vest leader has been placed in an artificial coma, his lawyer confirmed
• He is likely to be handicapped for life after incident in Place de la Bastille, Paris

A Texas man captured in Syria -- where he said he joined the Islamic State -- has been brought back to the U.S. on a terrorism-related charge.

Warren Christopher Clark, 34, appeared before a judge Friday in Houston Federal Court on an indictment accusing him of attempting to provide material support to the terrorist group. The judge ordered Clark held without bail pending a detention hearing Wednesday, according to reports.

U.S.-backed Syrian Democratic Forces gave Clark to the FBI after announcing his capture earlier this month.

"It's not happening on 1/29," said Drew Hammill, a spokesman for House Speaker Nancy Pelosi.
[...]
After Trump's announcement of the government reopening, Pelosi told reporters a date would be worked out for the president's address but for the time being, "the state of the union is not planned now."

"What I said to the president is when the government is opened we will discuss a mutually agreeable date," Pelosi said, adding "I'll look forward to doing that" and welcoming Trump in the House chambers when that is done.

El Centro Border Patrol Agents agents at the Highway 86 checkpoint arrested a female suspected of smuggling over $1,000,000 worth of methamphetamine concealed inside a vehicle Wednesday afternoon.

The arrest happened at 3:00 P.M. when Border Patrol agents say a 45-year-old Mexican national female approached the checkpoint in a 2005 Jeep Grand Cherokee. Agents say as the vehicle approached the inspection booth, a Border Patrol K9 team became alerted to the vehicle and it was referred for a secondary inspection.ndary inspection.

State Agriculture Secretary Russell Redding said Tuesday that Pennsylvania submitted a plan to the U.S. Department of Agriculture that allows for the full commercial production of industrial hemp.

The move follows the December passage of the federal farm bill, which removed industrial hemp — cannabis plants with little of the chemical that gets you high — from regulation under the federal Controlled Substances Act.

Howard Schultz, the former Starbucks CEO, says in a 60 Minutes interview already recorded but airing on Sunday night that he is thinking very seriously about a third-party presidential run. Schultz says both parties are not doing what's necessary on behalf of the American people. Hear more from Schultz, Sunday at 7 p.m. ET/PT on CBS.

The Most Rev. Roger Foys initially condemned the students for the supposed actions towards Native American elder Nathan Phillips and said their “behavior is opposed to the Church’s teachings on the dignity and respect of the human person.”
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“We apologize to anyone who has been offended in any way by either of our statements which were made with good will based on the information we had,” wrote Foys, the Cincinnati Enquirer reported. “We should not have allowed ourselves to be bullied and pressured into making a statement prematurely, and we take full responsibility for it.

Venezuela has backed down from their demand that US diplomats leave the country, saying they’re open to talks — as the Trump administration warned of a “significant response” if American personnel are threatened or intimidated.

The country’s foreign ministry issued a statement saying that far-left President Nicolas Maduro was suspending the expulsion of US diplomats, to allow for a 30-day window to negotiate with American officials.

An international team of researchers has reported a breakthrough in fabricating atom-thin processors – a discovery that could have far-reaching impacts on nanoscale chip production and in labs across the globe where scientists are exploring 2D materials for ever-smaller and faster semiconductors.

Let's hope this is true. The advancements in electronics with such thin processors would be huge.

Scientists in Sweden have developed a specialised fluid, called a solar thermal fuel, that can store energy from the sun for well over a decade.

"A solar thermal fuel is like a rechargeable battery, but instead of electricity, you put sunlight in and get heat out, triggered on demand," Jeffrey Grossman, an engineer works with these materials at MIT explained to NBC News.
[...]
This molecule is composed of carbon, hydrogen and nitrogen, and when it is hit by sunlight, it does something unusual: the bonds between its atoms are rearranged and it turns into an energised new version of itself, called an isomer.
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When the energy is needed - say at nighttime, or during winter - the fluid is simply drawn through a catalyst that returns the molecule to its original form, releasing energy in the form of heat.

Ashkin's new invention uses geometry to capture and funnel light. Essentially, it relies on reflective concentrator tubes that intensify solar reflections, which could make existing solar panels more efficient or perhaps even replace them altogether with something cheaper and simpler. The tubes are "dirt cheap," Ashkin says — they cost just pennies to create — which is why he thinks they "will save the world."
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Ashkin's lifelong fascination with light has already saved countless lives. He shared the 2018 Nobel Prize in physics for his role in inventing a tiny object-levitating technology called optical tweezers, which is essentially a powerful laser beam that can "catch very small things," as Ashkin describes it.

France’s finance minister said on Sunday a severance package for former Renault chief Carlos Ghosn, forced to resign in a financial scandal, should not be “exorbitant” and that the French state would follow the matter closely.

Renault, which this week appointed a chairman and chief executive tandem to replace Ghosn, has yet to finalize its former boss’ severance package, a potentially explosive issue in France where the government is facing protests over low pay and inequality.

North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg, speaking on "Fox News Sunday," said President Trump's tough talk has ultimately strengthened the 70-year-old alliance by leading member nations to contribute tens of billions of additional dollars to ensure their own security.

Jens Stoltenberg, NATO Secretary General, just stated that because of me NATO has been able to raise far more money than ever before from its members after many years of decline. It’s called burden sharing. Also, more united. Dems & Fake News like to portray the opposite!

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) January 27, 2019

Both sides in the US-Taliban peace talks have made concessions to move closer to a draft agreement to end the 17-year Afghan war, Reuters says, reporting on the meeting in Qatar citing sources. According to the draft, foreign forces are expected to leave the country 18 months from the future signing of the deal. The Taliban offered assurances that Afghanistan would not be used by Al-Qaeda and Islamic State to attack the US and its allies. The group would also engage in talks with the Afghan government when the ceasefire is announced. There has been no official comment from the US. The fate of the current Afghan government, which the Taliban doesn’t recognize, is unclear if the US withdraws, a former Pentagon official told RT.

Video network YouTube responded to critics who have long called on the Google company to clean up its recommendation engine, and not offer conspiracy videos in suggested plays.

In a blog post posted Friday, YouTube said it will begin to reduce recommending "borderline content and content that could misinform users in harmful ways — such as videos promoting a phony miracle cure for a serious illness, claiming the earth is flat, or making blatantly false claims about historic events like 9/11."