France and Germany agree to block Facebook’s Libra – “no private entity can claim monetary power, which is inherent to the sovereignty of nations”…
September 14, 2019
Snowden Spills: Infamous Whistleblower Opines On Spycraft, AI, And Being Suicided…
September 14, 2019
Edward Snowden has finally laid it all out - documenting his memoires in a new 432-page book, Permanent Record, which will be published worldwide on Tuesday, September 17. Meeting with both The Guardian and Spiegel Online in Moscow as part of its promotion, the infamous whistleblower spent nearly five hours with the two media outlets - offering a taste of what's in the book, details on his background, and his thoughts on artificial intelligence, facial recognition, and other intelligence gathering tools coming to a dystopia near you.
[...]From The Guardian:
Snowden also said: “The greatest danger still lies ahead, with the refinement of artificial intelligence capabilities, such as facial and pattern recognition. “An AI-equipped surveillance camera would be not a mere recording device, but could be made into something closer to an automated police officer.”
The Der Spiegel interview, meanwhile, is way more interesting... For example:
"If I Happen to Fall out of a Window, You Can Be Sure I Was Pushed."
DER SPIEGEL: Was that your motivation when you entered the world of espionage?
Snowden: Entering the world of espionage sounds so grand. I just saw an enormous landscape of opportunities because the government in its post-9/11 spending blitz was desperate to hire anybody who had high-level technical skills and a clearance. And I happened to have both. It was weird to be just a kid and be brought into CIA headquarters, put in charge of the entire Washington metropolitan area's network.Tesla misses insurance firm’s ‘Safest Cars’ list because its EVs don’t crash often enough…
September 14, 2019
“We saw seven accidents with Tesla in this year’s material and that is far too little. They have very many safety systems and high security, which means that they may never be included in our lists if the cars’ (number of accidents) is too small,” he said (translated from Swedish to English using Google Translate)...
Saudi Arabia Shuts Down About Half Its Oil Output After Drone Strikes…
September 14, 2019
Coordinated drone strikes on the heart of the Saudi oil industry forced the kingdom to shut down half its crude production on Saturday, people familiar with the matter said, potentially roiling petroleum prices and demonstrating the power of Iran’s proxies.
Yemen’s Iranian-aligned Houthi rebels claimed credit for the attack, saying they sent 10 drones to strike at important facilities in Saudi Arabia’s oil-rich Eastern Province. The production shutdown amounts to a loss of about five million barrels a day, the people said, roughly 5% of the world’s daily production of crude oil.
Drug companies facing more than 2,000 lawsuits over their alleged roles in the opioid epidemic demanded Saturday that the federal judge overseeing the case step aside…
September 14, 2019
The request comes after a series of rulings against the companies by U.S. District Judge Dan Aaron Polster in the landmark trial slated to begin Oct. 21... The defense lawyers contended that Polster has overstepped his authority and created the appearance of bias. They cited his statements since the beginning of the case that he wants the sides to settle so that money for badly-needed drug treatment, overdose prevention and other services could go quickly to communities hard hit by the opioid epidemic.
With just two counties “seeking $8 billion in cash for so-called ‘abatement,’ the Court has determined that it, not a jury, has the discretion to decide how much money defendants may pay to government agencies for medical treatment and other addiction-related services and initiatives,” the drug companies wrote.
FDA finds Heartburn medication Zantac and related generic drugs contains cancer-causing chemical…
September 14, 2019
The Food and Drug Administration said in a public statement it has detected a "probable" cancer-causing chemical in ranitidine, the generic term for the medication sold as both prescription and over-the-counter treatments to treat stomach acid and ulcers. The federal agency said the carcinogenic ingredient is a type of nitrosamine called N-nitrosodimethylamine, or NDMA. The agency said patients can continue taking Zantac and similar heartburn medications for now, but patients using prescription versions who want to stop using them can consult their doctors to discuss other treatments.
Canada’s top police organisation – RCMP – has charged one of its senior officials with violating national security laws…
He was charged with leaking secret information...
September 14, 2019
Cameron Ortis, a civilian member of the RCMP, is accused of breaching the Security of Information Act and the Criminal Code. The RCMP would only say that the offences occurred "during his tenure as an RCMP employee".
Charges filed against Mr Ortis include the "unauthorised communication of special operational information", possessing a device or software "useful for concealing the content of information or for surreptitiously communicating, obtaining or retaining information", and breach of trust by a public officer. Global News Canada reports that Mr Ortis is a director general of an intelligence unit within the RCMP. According to CBC News, he has expertise in East Asian affairs....
Ex-New Mexico Priest Gets 30 Years for Child Sexual Abuse…
September 14, 2019
Although he was convicted of abusing one victim, prosecutors alleged in court filings that Perrault was a serial child molester who abused numerous young people in more than 30 years as a priest in New Mexico and Rhode Island.
At his trial, seven other alleged victims testified that Perrault, ordained in 1964, abused them during the 1960s, 1970s and 1980s.
The Roman Catholic Church has been roiled by allegations of sexual abuse since 1992...
Tiny bubbles could deliver cancer-killing drugs…
September 14, 2019
The new study, which focuses on breast cancer cells in mice, is published in Molecular Cancer Therapeutics. These drugs, or prodrugs, start out as inactive compounds. But once they metabolize in the body, they’re immediately activated and can get to work on fighting everything from cancer to headaches. Aspirin is an example of a common prodrug.
In this case, researchers used extracellular vesicles, or EVs, to deliver the enzyme-producing genes that could activate a prodrug combination therapy of ganciclovir and CB1954 in breast cancer cells. Researchers loaded minicircle DNA and regular plasmid—two different gene vectors that act as additional delivery mechanisms for DNA—into the vesicles to see which was better at helping transport treatment. This is known as a gene-directed enzyme, prodrug therapy. They found that the minicircle DNA was 14 times more effective at delivery and even more successful at killing cancerous tumors...
Mysterious waves have been pulsing across Oklahoma…
September 14, 2019
It all started when a wave swept across Oklahoma on June 24, just before 11:11 a.m. local time. It buzzed one seismometer after another, seeming to ping-pong hundreds of miles across the state. This wave didn’t just breeze by—it pulsed like a geologic heartbeat for about 10 minutes... At first he thought it might be a glitch in the monitoring devices, but when that happens, the signal is usually limited to a single instrument. That morning’s buzz, as he later found out, rattled 52 stations across the state. Andrew Thiel, an OGS analyst tasked with investigating the event, traced similar signals back to at least March. Through the summer, the waves swept across the state with increasing frequency, intensity, and spread, sometimes sticking around for more than 20 minutes. But they always happened in the morning, and never on a Sunday. After a labyrinthine chase, the team has now discovered at least part of the answer: The strange signals originate from the McAlester Army Ammunition Plant. But even with a source in hand, the case is far from closed. Scientists are still digging for clues to how the waves traveled so far, and why they changed over time.
House committee asks Facebook, Amazon, Apple and Alphabet to turn over documents in antitrust probe…
September 14, 2019
The committee requested executives' emails related to competition matters, among other documents.
Windows 10 Upgrade Warning: Broken Audio, Broken Search, Broken USB and more issues…
September 14, 2019
For its part, Microsoft has now warned users about both issues, but this is just the start...
Abortion pills will be available on California college campuses if Gavin Newsom signs bill…
September 14, 2019
The bill, which would use money raised from private donors to equip and train campus health centers, grew out of a student-led movement at the University of California, Berkeley, and it has sparked the introduction of a similar bill in Massachusetts. Anti-abortion groups say they are likely to challenge the legislation if Gov. Gavin Newsom signs it into law. He has a month to decide. A spokesman declined to say what he will do, but last year during his campaign for governor, Mr. Newsom said he supported a similar effort.
Bin Laden’s son Hamza was killed in counterterrorism operation, President Trump confirms…
September 14, 2019
In a statement released by the White House on Saturday morning, three days after the 18th anniversary of the September 11 terror attacks, President Trump said Hamza, a high-ranking Al Qaeda member, "was killed in a United States counterterrorism operation in the Afghanistan/Pakistan region."
“The loss of Hamza bin Laden not only deprives Al Qaeda of important leadership skills and the symbolic connection to his father but undermines important operational activities of the group,” the statement continued. “Hamza bin Laden was responsible for planning and dealing with various terrorist groups.”
US busts drug ring importing opioids from India with 8 arrests…
September 14, 2019
The opioids were mislabelled in India to hide their illegal nature and sent over to the US. The arrested, all of Indian origin and living in New York City, were arrested on Thursday. It was not clear from whom they received the drugs from India. "They participated in a black market for prescription medications by distributing millions of opioid pills in tens of thousands of transactions in one year alone," federal prosecutor Richard Donoghue said...
Massive Underground Cavern Discovered In Antarctica – ROBERT SEPEHR…
September 14, 2019