Democratic megadonor Ed Buck now facing allegations of human trafficking, revenge porn…
July 9, 2019
The recent developments concern an on-going case filed against Buck by LaTisha Nixon, the mother of Gemmel Moore, a 26-year-old black man who died in Buck’s West Hollywood apartment on July 27, 2017. Moore, who lived in Harris County, Texas with his mother and siblings, had taken a flight from Houston earlier that day, and traveled straight to Buck’s apartment. He died hours later. Moore’s body was found beside “multiple syringes with brown residue, a scale, several lighters and torches, a straw with white residue and burn marks, plastic bags with whiter powdery residue and a clear plastic bag containing a crystal-like substance,” according to the complaint and an autopsy report...
The latest amendment added two charges to the 12-count civil complaint: human trafficking and distribution of private sexually explicit materials. The added causes of action claim Buck “knowingly utilized interstate commerce for the purpose of recruiting, enticing and transporting” Moore from Texas to Los Angeles, for the purposes of “commercial sex acts.” They claim Buck paid for Moore’s transportation and promised to pay Moore for his time. The complaint also alleges Buck violated Moore’s right to privacy by distributing a sexually explicit video recording of him to one of several unnamed defendants in April of 2019.
NASA’s Voyager twins refuse to die…
July 9, 2019
With careful planning and dashes of creativity, engineers have been able to keep NASA's Voyager 1 and 2 spacecraft flying for nearly 42 years — longer than any other spacecraft in history. To ensure that these vintage robots continue to return the best science data possible from the frontiers of space, mission engineers are implementing a new plan to manage them. And that involves making difficult choices, particularly about instruments and thrusters...
Mission team members can now preliminarily confirm that Voyager 2's cosmic ray instrument is still returning data, despite dropping to a chilly minus 74 degrees Fahrenheit (minus 59 degrees Celsius). This is lower than the temperatures at which CRS was tested more than 42 years ago (down to minus 49 degrees Fahrenheit, or minus 45 degrees Celsius). Another Voyager instrument also continued to function for years after it dropped below temperatures at which it was tested...
Voyager 2 continues to return data from five instruments as it travels through interstellar space. In addition to the cosmic ray instrument, which detects fast-moving particles that can originate from the Sun or from sources outside our solar system, the spacecraft is operating two instruments dedicated to studying plasma (a gas in which atoms have been ionized and electrons float freely) and a magnetometer (which measures magnetic fields) for understanding the sparse clouds of material in interstellar space.
A woman delivered the first baby in the US born from the transplanted uterus of a dead donor…
July 9, 2019
The mother, who is in her mid-30s, is one of three women who successfully received the transplant and the first to give birth, the clinic announced on Tuesday. The trial involves 10 women with uterine factor infertility (UFI). According to the Cleveland Clinic, "Women who have UFI don’t have a uterus, or had their uterus removed, so they aren’t able to get pregnant."...
“The transplantation of a uterus into a woman is a complex procedure that requires suppression of her immune system response,” said transplant surgeon Dr. Andreas Tzakis in the same statement.
This is the second time worldwide a woman has been able to give birth following the transplant of a deceased person's uterus. The first case was reported in Brazil in December of 2017....
GOP-Led Virginia Legislature Abruptly Adjourns Gun Session…
July 9, 2019
Virginia’s governor led gun-control supporters in chants of “Enough is Enough!” outside the Capitol Tuesday after summoning legislators to debate and vote on new gun laws. Gov. Ralph Northam ordered lawmakers back for a special session to consider a wide range of gun-control measures, said people need “votes and laws, not thoughts and prayers” after a Virginia Beach employee shot and killed a dozen people in a city building on May 31. GOP lawmakers criticized Northam as trying to exploit the tragedy for political gain in the lead up to Tuesday’s session. Republican leaders who control both houses of the legislature signaled they wouldn’t pass gun controls, focusing instead on increasing criminal penalties after gun crimes.
It turns out that Juggalo makeup blocks facial recognition technology…
July 9, 2019
Most common programs identify areas of contrast — like those around the eyes, nose, and chin — and then compare those points to images within a database. The black bands frequently used in Juggalo makeup obscure the mouth and cover the chin, totally redefining a person’s key features...
A Billionaire’s Fall Spotlights Child Sexual Abuse in China…
July 9, 2019
The detention of a billionaire Shanghai real estate developer in a case linked by Communist Party officials to the alleged sexual molestation of a 9-year-old girl has triggered a national bout of soul searching in China, where such crimes are rapidly moving toward the top of law enforcement priorities.
Wang Zhenhua, a prominent businessman and philanthropist in China, was detained by the police on July 1 for “personal reasons,” according to his company, Seazen Holdings. The company’s announcement followed articles in Shanghai media last week alleging that Mr. Wang had assaulted a 9-year-old girl.
U.S. Seizes MSC Container Ship owned by J.P. Morgan Asset Management After Record Drug Bust…
July 9, 2019
U.S. authorities have seized a large container ship operated by Switzerland-based Mediterranean Shipping Co., three weeks after customs authorities found 20 tons of cocaine on the vessel. The MSC Gayane, which is owned by J.P. Morgan Asset Management and chartered to MSC, the world’s second-biggest container ship operator by capacity, is “subject to possible forfeiture,” U.S. Attorney William McSwain said in a statement...
The Gayane was raided on June 17 by U.S. Customs and Border Protection agents who found about 20 tons of cocaine with a street value of $1.3 billion stashed in several containers. The ship had sailed from Freeport in the Bahamas and before that it called in Panama and Peru after starting its voyage in Chile. It was due to sail on to Europe after the U.S. stop.
NY MAG: So Was QAnon … Right?
July 9, 2019
...If anything, QAnon was a more palatable version of this story — a rendition in which elites spent decades secretly working toward justice, in which the forces arrayed against them were supernaturally malevolent rather than simply rich and networked, and in which the president of the United States is a covert agent for good, rather than a former Epstein acquaintance and enabler. Or rather than, for that matter, a multiply accused sex abuser himself.
In that light, QAnon sounds less like a paranoid conspiracy than a kind of optimistic fantasy. The world of QAnon isn’t a happy one, but as the Epstein case demonstrates, neither is the world the rest of us live in. At least QAnon promises justice, victory, a resurrected JFK Jr., and a nice bit of drama over a holiday weekend.
In US 1st, baby is born from dead donor’s transplanted womb…
July 9, 2019
The Cleveland hospital said Tuesday that the girl was born in June. The clinic has done five uterus transplants so far and three have been successful, with two women waiting to attempt pregnancy with new wombs. In all, the clinic aims to enroll 10 women in its study.
US puts Hezbollah lawmakers on sanctions blacklist for first time…
July 9, 2019
The US Treasury placed two Hezbollah members of Lebanon’s parliament on its sanctions blacklist on Tuesday — the first time Washington has taken aim at the Iran-allied group’s elected politicians. The Treasury named MPs Amin Sherri and Muhammad Hasan Ra’d to a terror-related blacklist, saying that Hezbollah uses its parliamentary power to advance its alleged violent activities. Also placed on the blacklist was Wafiq Safa, a top Hezbollah security official.
A device that can produce electricity from sunlight while simultaneously purifying water has been produced by researchers…
Read full scientific report on Nature.com...
July 9, 2019
The researchers say the device is not only a source of green energy but also offers an alternative to current technologies for purifying water. These, they add, often consume large amounts of electricity and require infrastructure beyond the reach of many communities that lack basic access to safe drinking water – a situation thought to affect more than 780 million people worldwide...
The team found the device can be used to purify saltwater as well as seawater contaminated with heavy metals, with the water collected containing levels of lead, copper, sodium, calcium and magnesium all below the levels deemed safe for drinking water by the World Health Organization...
Astronomy breakthrough: Researchers developed Light-sensing system that is at least 10 times better than current technologies. It will enable astronomers to view galaxies, stars and planetary systems in superb detail…
July 9, 2019
The system works at room temperature — an improvement over similar technology that only works in temperatures nearing 270 degrees below zero Celsius, or minus 454 degrees Fahrenheit. A paper detailing the advance is published today in Nature Astronomy.
The system produces images in ultra-high clarity, and it can detect terahertz waves across a broad spectral range — an improvement of at least 10 times more than current technologies that only detect such waves in a narrow spectral range. Its broad range capabilities could allow it to do observations that currently require several different instruments. It identifies what elements and molecules — for example, water, oxygen, carbon monoxide and other organic molecules, are present in those regions of space by seeing if their individual telltale spectral signatures are present...
Report: Russian intel started the Seth Rich rumor to cover for DNC hack? Yahoo News’ Michael Isikoff claims SVR was the source of story in “ConspiracyLand” podcast…
July 9, 2019
Russia's Foreign Intelligence Service (SVR, or Sluzhba Vneshney Razvedki Rossiyskoy Federatsii), the successor to the Soviet KGB's First Chief Directorate, is the keeper of the KGB's legacy of "active measures." The group engages in political warfare using subversive operations to weaken the United States and links between NATO allies. And according to a new report from Yahoo News' Michael Isikoff, the SVR played a particularly underhanded role in activities leading up to the 2016 US presidential election in order to create a counter-narrative to the exposure of other Russian intelligence agencies' hacking operations at the Democratic National Committee (DNC) and Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee (DCCC). The SVR wanted to spin a conspiracy theory about the death of DNC staffer Seth Rich—a conspiracy theory that promoted Rich as the source of DNC and Clinton campaign emails published by Guccifer 2.0 and WikiLeaks...
Absolutely no evidence provided here, just Heresay.
AI Trained on Old Scientific Papers Makes Discoveries Humans Missed…
July 9, 2019
Using just the language in millions of old scientific papers, a machine learning algorithm was able to make completely new scientific discoveries.
In a study published in Nature on July 3, researchers from the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory used an algorithm called Word2Vec sift through scientific papers for connections humans had missed. Their algorithm then spit out predictions for possible thermoelectric materials, which convert heat to energy and are used in many heating and cooling applications.
The algorithm didn’t know the definition of thermoelectric, though. It received no training in materials science. Using only word associations, the algorithm was able to provide candidates for future thermoelectric materials, some of which may be better than those we currently use...
Jeffrey Epstein Shipped Himself a 53-Pound Shredder and a Carpet and Tile Extractor, Maritime Records Show…
July 9, 2019
JEFFREY EPSTEIN SHIPPED a shredder from the U.S. Virgin Islands to his Palm Beach home in July 2008, shortly after reaching a non-prosecution agreement with then-U.S. Attorney Alex Acosta, maritime records show. Then, in March of this year, shortly after a Florida federal judge invalidated that agreement, Epstein shipped a tile and carpet extractor from the Virgin Islands to his Manhattan townhouse, the records show.
House Intel Committee Witness Accuses Fusion GPS Founder Of Perjury…
July 9, 2019
Felix Sater, a real estate developer with past ties to the Trump Organization, alleged Tuesday that Fusion GPS founder Glenn Simpson committed perjury during Senate testimony. Sater made the allegation following testimony before the House Intelligence Committee. Sater pointed out that Simpson, who commissioned the anti-Trump dossier, also worked with Natalia Veselnitskaya, the Russian lawyer who attended the June 2016 Trump Tower meeting.
WATCH: Felix Sater speaks to reporters after testimony. pic.twitter.com/f9apembzgf
— The Hill (@thehill) July 9, 2019
UPDATE: Barr Won’t recuse himself…
July 9, 2019
The attorney general consulted with career ethics officials at the Justice Department before deciding not to recuse himself. However, because of his prior association with the firm Kirkland and Ellis, the attorney general will continue to be recused from any review of the previous federal case against Epstein in Florida. He said in South Carolina Monday, "I am recused from that matter because one of the law firms that represented Epstein long ago was a firm I subsequently joined for a period of time."
As DoD Seeks Smallsats, FCC Eases Licensing…
July 9, 2019
WASHINGTON: As the Pentagon scrambles to figure out how to harvest the benefits of the boom in small commercial satellites, the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) is moving to streamline regulations for small communications satellites.
“I see no reason why a satellite the size of a shoebox, with the life expectancy of a guinea pig, should be regulated the same way as a spacecraft the size of a school bus that will stay in orbit for centuries,” FCC Chairman Ajit Pai told the US Chamber of Commerce today. He said that the draft rules will be available publicly for comment on July 11,
AOC to face lawsuit over blocking Twitter users, following appeals court ruling on Trump…
July 9, 2019
Former Democratic New York Assemblyman Dov Hikind told Fox News on Tuesday he's preparing to sue Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, D-N.Y., for blocking users on Twitter based on their personal viewpoints, following a federal appeals court ruling barring President Trump from doing the same. Asked where his lawsuit would be filed and whether other plaintiffs would be involved, Hikind told Fox News in an email, "All that’s being determined at the moment."
"Most likely we will be [the] only plaintiff, but [we will be] citing other examples," Hikind continued. "The claim is [the] same as [the] one against Trump. She uses that account for political/policy commentary, so to shut a citizen off from her statements is a problem -- as well as blocking me from petitioning her or seeking redress."
Biden reported $11 million in income for 2017 and $4.6 million in 2018, Making him the Richest among chief Democrat 2020 Hopefuls…
July 9, 2019
The vast majority of Joe Biden’s income came from book payments and speaking fees. The tax returns and financial disclosure forms released by Biden provide the first picture of the wealth he has accumulated since leaving a 44-year career in government, showing that he had an explosion in income in the two years after leaving office.