August 14th, 2019

Solar roads were promised to be one of the biggest unprecedented revolutions of our time, not just in the field of renewable energy but in the energy sector generally. Covering 2,800 square meters, Normandy's solar road was the first in the world, inaugurated in 2016, in Tourouvre-au-Perche, France... The unfortunate truth is that this road is in such a poor state, it isn't even worth repairing. Last May, a 100-meter stretch had deteriorated to such a state that it had to be demolished.

On top of the damage and poor wear of the road, the Normandy solar track also failed to fulfill its energy-production goals. The original aim was to produce 790 kWh each day, a quantity that could illuminate a population of between 3,000 and 5,000 inhabitants. But the rate produced stands at only about 50% of the original predicted estimates. In its second year, the energy production level of the road further dwindled and the same downward trend has been observed at the beginning of 2019, indicating serious issues with efficiency.

Judicial Watch today released 330 pages of Justice Department documents showing Bruce Ohr, who was demoted from his position as U.S. Associate Deputy Attorney General in December 2017, discussing information obtained through his wife Nellie Ohr. This information included anti-Trump dossier materials, including a spreadsheet that tries to link President Trump to dozens of Russians.

Two officers and three others who were trapped inside the home with the shooter were safely evacuated several hours after the standoff began. The gunman remains armed inside the house... All six officers wounded in the shooting are expected to be released from the hospital after suffering non-life-threatening injuries. Another officer was injured in a car crash on the way to the scene. Sources tell CBS3 the suspect was live-streaming some of the shootout while he barricaded himself inside a building.

Police say officers were serving a narcotics warrant on the 3700 block of North 15th Street around 4:30 p.m. on the when the suspect opened fire. As police exchanged gunfire, officers escaped through windows and doors. CBS3 reports 30 officers discharged their weapons during the shootout.

Look at the top-right of the painting's frame. It's sticking out of the door frame. Strange, isn't it? How is that possible if the art is supposed to be on the other side of the door? The painting might be authentic, but the image of it inside Epstein's house might not be. FAKE? You decide:

• The painting was snapped inside the pedophile's mansion in 2012, seven years before he was accused of running a sex trafficking ring of underage girls
• The source, who asked to remain anonymous, was visiting Epstein to present a business proposal
• She told DailyMailTV: 'It was absolutely Bill Clinton. It was shocking... it was a very provocative, sexual picture'

It's an actual painting and it's listed as "sold." I can only presume Epstein was the buyer. https://t.co/6CAaXAh6LC pic.twitter.com/NAP37vg1SK

— Ian Miles Cheong (@stillgray) August 14, 2019

I realize what I am. I’m very comfortable in my own skin. I’m not a helicopter pilot. What I’m really free to do is I feel free to follow my own personality. As we discussed yesterday, I can’t be totally wacko in what I do. It affects lots of other people who will get angry with what I do because then it affects me again. But on my own island or on my own ranch, I can think the thoughts I want to think. I can do the work I want to do and I’m free to explore as I see fit.

Making money is my priority for how I think about things. Money itself and how people make money and how money is made in different ways. So takeovers were a way to make money. Commodity trading, was a way to make money. To me the new one is currencies.

Epstein: I was always very good at mathematics.
Reporter: What made you interested in it?
Epstein: It was solving puzzles. It’s a strange feeling when you get the right answer to a puzzle. That leads to a later discussion about why people are so excited about puzzle solving and why is the brain itself both a predictor of things and an inherent puzzle solver. In fact, I hate to sort of jump again to more brain things but the idea of people receive pleasure when they get the right answer to a puzzle and the question is when you say pleasure, does that mean there’s a bit of dopamine released in the brain? What are the real mechanics? What’s going on in someone’s head when they have what Duchamp referred to as the Aha! moment.

Abundant levels of microplastic pollution have been found in snow from the Arctic to the Alps, according to a study that has prompted scientists to warn of significant contamination of the atmosphere and demand urgent research into the potential health impacts on people.
[...]
Bergmann had previously found 12,000 microplastic particles per litre in samples of Arctic sea ice: “So we asked where does it all come from?” Some is carried from populated regions by ocean currents, but analysis of snow samples shows much is blown by the wind.

“Microplastic concentrations in snow were very high, indicating significant contamination of the atmosphere,” concluded the study published in the journal Science Advances...

Federal judge Royce Lamberth issued the sentence after a succession of friends and relatives requested leniency for Nicholas Slatten, who was found guilty of first-degree murder by a jury in December.

Prosecutors charged that Slatten, of Sparta, Tennessee, was the first to fire shots in the September 2007 massacre of Iraqi civilians at a crowded traffic circle in Baghdad. In all, 10 men, two women and two boys, ages 9 and 11, were killed...

What happens when two former spies meet the startup world? We’re about to find out. The former U.S. intelligence head oversaw the shadowy agency during one of its most tumultuous times in its history... He also oversaw the Pentagon’s cyberwar-fighting division, U.S. Cyber Command, amid Russian interference during the 2016 presidential election. Since leaving the world of intelligence, Rogers became a senior advisor at Team8, a leading cybersecurity think tank and company creation platform.
[...]
Team8 founder Nadav Zafrir will join Rogers onstage at Disrupt, where both will discuss what they can bring to the world of security startups from their extensive intelligence and cybersecurity backgrounds. Zafrir served as the commander of the elite technology and intelligence division Unit 8200, Israel’s equivalent of the NSA...

With Russian Private Military Companies (PMCs) active in over 15 African nations and China having well over half of Africa’s nations as signatories to it’s Belt and Road infrastructure initiative, the U.S. runs the risk of losing foothold on a continent known for instability, resources and being a breeding ground for terrorism.

The U.S. has caught on, however, particularly to Russia providing military aid in exchange for natural resources. As for China, Townsend admitted the communist country wants to tamper U.S. influence, but it’s shoddy workmanship and low-quality products -no matter how enticing to poor nations across the continent- tend to speak for themselves...

Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) workers are facing a rapidly escalating series of threats, including protesters menacing their children and shots being fired at their offices, amid a rising tide of anti-ICE rhetoric from the left fueled by congressional Democrats, media voices and presidential hopefuls. Footage published Tuesday by Breitbart News shows protesters in Florida from groups such as Never Again Action and Black Lives Matter Alliance of Broward County threatening workers and former employees of the GEO Group, a private contractor used by ICE... Breitbart reports that the footage was taken a day before shots were fired early Tuesday at an ICE office and GEO Group office in San Antonio, Texas, in what the FBI has called a “targeted attack”... The incidents are the latest escalation in anti-ICE sentiment that has shifted from calls to abolish the agency and claims that it is “caging children” to threats and violence within the space of a year... In an op-ed for Fox News Wednesday, former ICE Director Thomas Homan said that he had to deal with death threats when he was in charge of the agency and had to receive round-the-clock armed protection for weeks.

New research, published today in Nature, reveals how increasing brain stiffness as we age causes brain stem cell dysfunction, and demonstrates new ways to reverse older stem cells to a younger, healthier state.

The results have far reaching implications for how we understand the ageing process, and how we might develop much-needed treatments for age-related brain diseases...

As evidence of cannabis’ many benefits mounts, so does the interest from the global pharmaceutical industry, known as Big Pharma. The entrance of such behemoths will radically transform the cannabis industry—once heavily stigmatized, it is now a potentially game-changing source of growth for countless companies.
[...]
Further legalization of cannabis will challenge Big Pharma’s bottom line, and poach more than $4 billion from pharma sales annually. In fact, medical cannabis sales are projected to reach $5.9 billion in 2019, from an estimated 24 million patients.

Seven of Canada’s top 10 cannabis patent holders are major multinational pharmaceutical companies, a trend that is not unique to Canada.

It comes as no surprise that many pharmaceutical giants have already formed strong partnerships with cannabis companies, such as Novartis and Tilray, who will develop and distribute medical cannabis together in legal jurisdictions around the world.

Huawei technicians working in Uganda's police headquarters office used Pegasus spyware made by Israei company NSO Group to crack into the encrypted messages of a rapper-turned-activist named Bobi Wine, the Journal investigation found. A cyber team based at the Ugandan police headquarters asked the Huawei technicians for help after failing to access the encrypted messages using the spyware, security officials told the Journal.

Pegasus spyware is now being sold by a number of cyper-security firms, according to the Journal...

“It’s very important to persevere, to specify, clarify and demand that measures are taken so that this is not repeated, and the first measure is to classify it for what it is, an act of terrorism that seeks to take Mexican lives,” Ebrard said.
[...]
“What he says is terrible, but it’s not that he’s mad; he is in possession of his faculties,” Ebrard added.

The Mexican government has said it may also request the suspected perpetrator be extradited to Mexico for trial...

Trudeau’s team attempted to circumvent, undermine and discredit a decision by federal prosecutors that construction giant SNC-Lavalin Group Inc should face trial on corruption charges, independent ethics commissioner Mario Dion said in a scathing report.

Trudeau’s office said the prime minister would react to the report later...

The editor, Jonathan Weisman, came under fire for tweets questioning whether Rashida Tlaib,and Ilhan Omar, actually represented the Midwest and whether Lloyd Doggett, and John Lewis, represented the Deep South, given that their districts are primarily urban and heavily minority.

Weisman said he was questioning whether the districts truly reflected the broader politics of their regions, which are predominantly white and more rural. He deleted the tweets after they were roundly criticized as racist...

McConnell already made clear universal background checks “will probably lead the discussion” when the Senate reconvenes in September, so Democrats are pressing on to their next goal–securing an “assault weapons” ban.
[...]
Almost 200 House Democrats have already signed on to “assault weapons” ban legislation that would not only prohibit millions of the most commonly-owned semiautomatic rifles in America but would also ban magazines holding 11 or more rounds of ammunition...

Gov. Greg Abbott says Texas is adding manpower to gang investigations surrounding white nationalist groups in wake of the El Paso mass shooting that left 22 people dead. Abbott said Wednesday that Texas will also create a new domestic terrorism unit to help "root out the extremist ideologies that fuel hatred and violence in our state."...