June, 2019

His attorneys argued that such allegations are an “improper expansion of the laws against human trafficking,” according to the filing. The sex trafficking act was is intended to criminalize slavery, involuntary servitude and human trafficking for commercial gain, they said.

“Attempting to apply the Act to this case is an utter perversion of the legislative intent behind the statute,” they wrote in the legal papers. “There are no allegations of slavery, involuntary servitude, or human trafficking in the instant case.”...

Healey said local, state and federal authorities executed warrants at 14 locations in Methuen and Lawrence on Wednesday, seizing 24 kilograms of heroin, fentanyl and cocaine.

Healey said a dozen arrests were made at several levels of the distribution chain, and that "higher-ups" in the ring were involved from as far away as New Jersey...

Re: Floating objects (two small white spheres above the anvil shield). Others farther north may have a better view. pic.twitter.com/fFTYi59vGM

— NWS Kansas City (@NWSKansasCity) June 21, 2019

Social media was ignited by this news (or lack thereof) with many speculating (and the NWS's vague tweet not helping) that an alien invasion was taking place. However, just hours later it was revealed that the mystery flying objects were a top-secret DARP (Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency) project, dubbed Adaptable Lighter Than Air (ALTA) program.

Last night, DARPA launched 3 balloons from Cumberland, Maryland, in a flight test for the Adaptable Lighter Than Air prgm. Over next few days, ALTA will demonstrate capability for wind-borne navigation of a lighter-than-air vehicle over extended ranges. https://t.co/Og8dWCvszc pic.twitter.com/NjUB6Got94

— DARPA (@DARPA) June 18, 2019

The real purpose of the mission is classified, as apparently is the reason why DARPA decided to make the balloons look like giant alien spaceships...

The news of alien-looking ballons over the Midwest comes at a time when the US government is officially starting to acknowledge reports of "unidentified aerial phenomenon" more seriously than ever before, and last week three senators received a detailed report of UFO sightings.

Prior to this, a source from the Syrian military in Damascus told Al-Masdar that Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) had placed their troops on high alert near the border city of Albukamal. The Iranian presence in the border city of Albukamal is incredibly close to the U.S. Armed Forces, who are currently deployed in eastern Deir Ezzor.

While the U.S. and Iran often avoid each other in eastern Syria, the American forces have attacked the Iranian-backed paramilitaries near the Tanf Zone in southeastern Syria...

While Iran’s downing of a U.S. drone near the Strait of Hormuz has made headlines across the world, this is not the first time that they have targeted American unmanned aerial vehicles.

In February, Iran allegedly hacked a U.S. drone in eastern Syria, reportedly forcing the American forces to destroy the UAV.

At the request of Democrats, I have delayed the Illegal Immigration Removal Process (Deportation) for two weeks to see if the Democrats and Republicans can get together and work out a solution to the Asylum and Loophole problems at the Southern Border. If not, Deportations start!

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) June 22, 2019

Back in March, a Uganda-based gold refinery was caught importing a massive 7.4 million tons of gold under questionable circumstances.

At the time, no one could prove definitively that it was Venezuelan gold from the Maduro regime, and half of it had already been lost to export.

Now, a Wall Street Journal investigation has definitively exposed the scheme,

...the $300 million in gold that landed in Uganda in March was transported to Uganda via Russian charter jets...

The El Camino Real Bell was removed from the University of California Santa Cruz after administrators had several discussions with members of the Amah Mutsun Tribal Band and other community members who felt that the bell marker glorified a period of time when Spanish missionaries dehumanized their ancestors and culture and enslaved those who converted to Christianity. Vice Chancellor of Business and Administrative Services Sarah Latham said the school moved forward with the removal "in support of efforts to be more inclusive.”

Jalal Hajizavar, who left his post in the aerospace organization nine years ago, was found guilty in the military court after Iranian investigators found incriminating documents and spying materials in his home, according to the Islamic Republic of Iran Broadcasting news agency on Saturday. The IRIB agency said Hajizavar was executed at Rajai Shahr prison in Karaj west of Tehran, the country’s capital. Further details were not immediately provided.

• Amazon was granted a patent earlier this month for surveillance drones.
• The patent describes how the drones could be primarily used for delivery, but could be asked by customers to check up on their properties.
• Amazon unveiled its new delivery drone earlier this month, and said it expects deliveries to commence "within months."
• Amazon told Business Insider that the "patent clearly states that it would be an opt-in service available to customers who authorize monitoring of their home."

Deputies then carried out a search based on an obtained warrant and found 167 grams of methamphetamine, 100.2 grams of cocaine, 691 tablets of prescription drug cyclobenzaprine, 89 tablets of prescription drug tizanidine, 60 pills of MDMA, 1,960 grams of leaf cannabis, and 30.1 pounds of processed cannabis wax...

iberty Defense is developing Hexwave, a new disruptive technology that was exclusively licensed from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) uses 3D radar imaging and artificial intelligence to detect concealed weapons in urban settings.
[...]
Hexwave's real-time active 3D radar imaging can detect metallic and non-metallic objects (guns, knives, explosives) on individuals, in clothing and bags...

Hexwave could replace X-ray machines at airports...

... found guilty of carrying out a scheme where they would trade cash for food stamp benefits handed out through the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) between April 2010 and May 2018... Federal investigators say that out of the 195,000 SNAP transactions completed at the store over eight years, two-thirds of them were fraudulent.

According to projections from Japan’s National Institute of Population and Social Security Research, the country’s population of about 127 million people could fall below 100 million by 2049 and reach 82 million by 2065. The Institute’s most optimistic projections put the country’s population at about 95 million by 2065... In 2017, it announced it would invest 2 trillion yen ($18.47 billion) into a package of subsidies for elderly care and for childcare and education. State-approved preschool is now free for children between three and five years old, and low-income households with children below that age get free childcare. And since 2013, municipalities have created more than 500,000 new public day care slots. Some Japanese towns and municipalities have gone to even greater lengths. According to The Economist, the Japanese town of Nagicho managed to increase its fertility rate from 1.4 to about 1.9 in 2017 by offering new moms a “gift” of 300,000 yen ($2,785), as well as subsidies for children’s care, housing, health and education.

My tests of Chrome vs. Firefox unearthed a personal data caper of absurd proportions. In a week of Web surfing on my desktop, I discovered 11,189 requests for tracker “cookies” that Chrome would have ushered right onto my computer, but were automatically blocked by Firefox. These little files are the hooks that data firms, including Google itself, use to follow what websites you visit so they can build profiles of your interests, income and personality. Chrome welcomed trackers even at websites you’d think would be private... And that’s not the half of it...

Uber and Lyft, who would each be impacted by the bill in a big way, sent emails to drivers over the weekend with the goal of getting them fired up about the effect the bill would have on their flexibility and ability to set their own schedules... In exchange for leaving drivers’ classification status the way it is, the ride-sharing companies vowed to set a minimum pay rate for drivers while they are picking up and dropping off passengers, create a fund for perks like paid time off, and create an association for drivers to advocate for additional improvements.

Quantum computers, which make calculations with entangled particles, or qubits, are poised to overtake their conventional counterparts very, very fast. And it's all captured by a new law of computing, known as Neven's Law...

So, what exactly is Neven's Law? Named after Hartmut Neven, the director of the Quantum Artificial Intelligence Lab at Google who first noticed the phenomenon, the law dictates how quickly quantum processors are improving, or getting faster at processing calculations, relative to regular computers.

And it turns out, they're gaining on ordinary computers at a spookily fast, "doubly exponential rate."...

343 respondents, mostly White (89%), males (78%), in the USA (60%) completed the survey... Although results cannot demonstrate causality, they suggest that naturalistic psychedelic use may lead to cessation or reduction in problematic alcohol use, supporting further investigation of psychedelic-assisted treatment for AUD...