FORBES: China’s central bank to issue own cryptocurrency as soon as November…
August 28, 2019
Some analysts say China appears to have accelerated the push to digital money after U.S. social media giant Facebook announced plans in June to launch digital coin Libra... The PBOC plans to distribute its cryptocurrency through at least seven institutions in the initial stage, including Chinese tech giants Alibaba and Tencent, China's largest payments card issuer China UnionPay, and four Chinese state-owned banks, the report said...
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The report added that the PBOC hopes its cryptocurrency will eventually be made available to spenders in the United States and elsewhere through relationships with correspondent banks in the West.World-first trial investigating psilocybin psychotherapy for anorexia commencing in US…
August 28, 2019
The new trial adds to a growing body of evidence finding psychedelic psychotherapy effective for depression, addiction and obsessive-compulsive disorder.
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The team at the Johns Hopkins Psychedelic Research Unit has been at the forefront of the modern psychedelic science renaissance, exploring the effects, and potential medical uses, of a number of psychoactive compounds including LSD, DMT and MDMA.
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“This open-label study will test the effects of two moderate to high doses of psilocybin given in combination with motivational interviewing-based psychotherapy,” says Gukasyan. “Our goal is to determine whether psilocybin can be safely administered in a supportive setting to people with anorexia nervosa (AN), and whether this intervention can produce improvements in mood, quality of life, and cognitive and behavioral symptoms of the disorder.”...Queen of England approves Boris Johnson’s request to suspend Parliament…
August 28, 2019
Queen of England Elizabeth II has formally approved Boris Johnson's request to temporarily suspend Parliament, a move that will largely prevent lawmakers from pushing through new legislation and ultimately sabotaging the prospect of a no-deal Brexit. Johnson said he "spoke to Her Majesty The Queen to request an end to the current parliamentary session."...
And people always thought the "Queen" had no power, meanwhile...
Mississippi officials confirm multiple cases of voting machines changing votes in GOP governor runoff…
August 28, 2019
Former state Supreme Court Chief Justice Bill Waller and Lt. Gov. Tate Reeves are currently in a runoff for the Republican nomination in the governor’s race to see who will take on Democratic Attorney General Jim Hood in the November general election. Reeves led Waller in the Aug. 6 balloting by a 49-33 margin, though the race went to a runoff after no candidate hit 50 percent.
Trump administration puts Vermont hospital on notice for forcing Catholic nurse to help in abortion
August 28, 2019
The hospital has 30 days to show it won't force healthcare workers to violate their beliefs. If it does not, the complaint will go to another agency, the Health Resources and Services Administration, which will kick off a review process. The Burlington, Vermont-based hospital may lose government funding if it fails to make changes.
Mysterious Air Force space plane still orbiting 719 days later. – The X-37B just broke its own space flight record, and we still don’t know what the hell it’s doing up there…
August 28, 2019
Scientists just gene-edited albino lizards for the first time using CRISPR…
August 28, 2019
In their study, publishing August 27 in the journal Cell Reports, the researchers also show that the lizards can successfully pass gene-edited alleles for albinism to their offspring...
Photos show North Korea may be building submarine capable of launching nuclear missile…
August 28, 2019
The photos show vessels and cranes that could be used to haul a missile out to sea for launch, according to experts at a Washington-based think tank, NBC News reported. The satellite photos seem to confirm North Korean state media reports from July about a newly built submarine. There is no conclusive evidence at the moment that this is a near-term certainty,” an expert said of a possible missile test. Once a submarine is built, it would take at least a year before it’s ready, according to an expert.
‘Suspicious’ deaths at West Virginia VA hospital under investigation…
August 27, 2019
A government watchdog group is investigating a "person of interest" in the cases of at least 10 patients -- all of whom died suddenly and in similar fashion -- at a Veterans Affairs hospital in West Virginia. As of now, at least one of those deaths has been dubbed a homicide... The deaths under investigation all appear linked by lethal doses of insulin, given to patients not being treated for diabetes or high blood sugar... “I was also assured by both Secretary Wilkie and Dr. Snider that the person of interest is no longer in any contact with veterans at the VA facility"...
College Board abandoning SAT ‘adversity score’ after criticism…
August 27, 2019
The company that administers the SAT college admissions test is replacing the so-called adversity score with a tool that will no longer reduce an applicant’s background to a single number, an idea that the College Board’s chief executive now says was a mistake. Amid growing scrutiny of the role wealth plays in college admissions, the College Board introduced its Environmental Context Dashboard about two years ago to provide context for a student’s performance on the test and help schools identify those who have done more with less. The version used by about 50 institutions in a pilot program involved a formula that combined school and neighborhood factors like advanced course offerings and the crime rate to produce a single number. But critics called it an overreach for the College Board to score adversity the way it does academics.
Google to move the production of most of its American-bound hardware out of China…
August 28, 2019
Google is moving aggressively to shift production of its Pixel smartphone from China to Vietnam... The push to develop a Vietnamese production base reflects the twin pressures of higher Chinese labor costs and the spiraling tariffs resulting from the trade war between Washington and Beijing. The U.S. internet giant intends to eventually move production of most of its American-bound hardware outside of China, including Pixel phones and its popular smart speaker, Google Home, according to the sources...
Bangladeshi Man Pleads Guilty to Smuggling Countrymen into U.S…
August 28, 2019
Moktar Hossain, a 31, pleaded guilty before U.S. District Court Judge Diana Saldana in the Southern District of Texas. Hossain, who resided in Monterrey, Mexico, admitted to housing Bangladeshi migrants before moving them on to Nuevo Laredo, Tamaulipas, and then Laredo, Texas. The Department of Justice called the smuggling of illegal immigrants a “national security threat”... The smuggling activity occurred between March 2017 and August 2018, ICE officials stated. During Fiscal Year 2018, human smugglers moved nearly 700 Bangladeshi nationals into the Laredo Border Patrol Sector, Breitbart Texas reported.
Nearly one of every three dollars spent on Ilhan Omar’s campaign has gone to her alleged lover’s firm…
August 28, 2019
Omar hasn't commented on the accusations, but there's a possible second scandal involving the more than $200,000 that her campaign has spent with Mynett's firm. Of the $145,406 reported earnings by the E Street Group during the 2018 campaign cycle, $62,674 came from Omar's campaign. Not counting payroll taxes and transfers to Minnesota's Democratic Party, E Street Group was Omar's second-largest vendor, according to FEC data...Here's the odd thing: The overwhelming majority of Omar's funds spent on the E Street Group were paid after she won the contested primary and during the totally noncompetitive general election race in her D+26 district. Contrary to FEC rules, Omar's filings did not designate whether her E Street Group disbursements (or any of her disbursements) were for the primary election or the general election.
Students React To Conservatives Threatened With Doxxing / Instructor Calling Trump Supporters Nazis…
August 28, 2019
Mattis warns of ‘storm clouds gathering’ without commitment to allies…
August 28, 2019
In an essay published Wednesday in The Wall Street Journal adapted from his forthcoming book “Call Sign Chaos: Learning to Lead,” Mattis lamented divisive leaders who fail to recognize the importance of allies.
“Nations with allies thrive, and those without them wither,” Mattis wrote. “Alone, America cannot protect our people and our economy. At this time, we can see storm clouds gathering. A polemicist’s role is not sufficient for a leader. A leader must display strategic acumen that incorporates respect for those nations that have stood with us when trouble loomed.”
Mattis did not mention President Trump by name in those sections of the essay. But when Mattis resigned as Defense secretary in December, his resignation letter to Trump stressed his differences with the president on the importance of allies.
FORBES: ‘Extraordinary’ Breakthroughs In Anti-Aging Research ‘Will Happen Faster Than People Think’…
August 28, 2019
“In 1903, two brothers flew a glorified kite for 14 seconds, the Kitty Hawk. Fifteen years later they were flying planes in WWI, and 35 years later, the Germans had invented the jet. Sixty-five years later we landed a man on the moon. For robotics and for aging, divide that number by 10. That's how fast this is going to happen.”...
Watch StarHopper successfully tested by SpaceX with 150 meter hop…
August 28, 2019
How China Uses LinkedIn to Recruit Spies Abroad…
August 27, 2019
Foreign agents are exploiting social media to try to recruit assets, with LinkedIn as a prime hunting ground, Western counterintelligence officials say. Intelligence agencies in the United States, Britain, Germany and France have issued warnings about foreign agents approaching thousands of users on the site. Chinese spies are the most active, officials say.
“We’ve seen China’s intelligence services doing this on a mass scale,” said William R. Evanina, the director of the National Counterintelligence and Security Center, a government agency that tracks foreign spying and alerts companies to possible infiltration. “Instead of dispatching spies to the U.S. to recruit a single target, it’s more efficient to sit behind a computer in China and send out friend requests to thousands of targets using fake profiles.”
Pentagon chief approves 20 more miles of border wall…
August 27, 2019
Esper approved the Department of Homeland Security request Monday for the additional construction after contracts for the previously approved barriers cost less than expected, according to the documents... After awarding contracts for seven projects, the Army Corps of Engineers determined that lower-than-expected contract costs could allow for another 20 miles of barrier, Kenneth Rapuano, assistant secretary of Defense for homeland defense and global security, wrote in a declaration to the court.
OxyContin maker, government attorneys in settlement talks
August 27, 2019
State attorneys general and lawyers representing local governments said Tuesday they are in active settlement talks with Purdue Pharma, the maker of the prescription painkiller OxyContin that is facing billions of dollars in potential liability for its role in the nation's opioid crisis. Purdue has been cast by attorneys and addiction experts as a main villain in the crisis for producing a blockbuster drug while understating its addiction risk. A report by NBC News said the privately held company has offered to settle for $10 billion to $12 billion.