September, 2019

The whistle-blower who revealed that President Trump sought foreign help for his re-election and that the White House sought to cover it up is a C.I.A. officer who was detailed to work at the White House at one point, according to three people familiar with his identity. The man has since returned to the C.I.A., the people said. Little else is known about him.

The CDC reported that cases have cropped up in 46 states, a majority of which — 67% — are seen in young people between 18 and 34 years old... Until the CDC, FDA, and state health officials pinpoint the chemicals responsible for the hundreds of lung injuries reported, all are recommending that people stop vaping immediately.

The lawsuit was filed yesterday against the U.S. Department of State (Judicial Watch v. U.S. Department of State (No. 1:19-cv-02893)). The suit was filed after the State Department failed to respond to a May 7, 2019, FOIA request seeking access to the following records:

James Biden, the brother of former Vice President Joe Biden, said he would have the politician's cancer initiative promote a health care business in which he was seeking to invest, a former business partner said. The former business partner, Michael Frey, CEO of Diverse Medical Management, is suing James Biden, claiming that an investment offer from Biden was part of a scheme to steal the company's business model and bankrupt it...

The Anti-Defamation League said the "OK" sign "is an obvious and ancient gesture that has arisen in many cultures over the years with different meanings" but has since fallen to a hoax made up by users from 4chan where they promoted it as a symbol of white supremacy. "In the case of the 'okay; gesture, the hoax was so successful the symbol became a popular trolling tactic on the part of right-leaning individuals, who would often post photos to social media of themselves posing while making the 'okay' gesture," the Anti-Defamation League continued. "Ironically, some white supremacists themselves soon also participated in such trolling tactics, lending an actual credence to those who labeled the trolling gesture as racist in nature"...

Wednesday’s “safe third country”-type deal is similar to agreements signed by El Salvador on Sept. 20 and Guatemala on July 26. The countries have released few details about how the agreements would be implemented. The Honduras deal “will allow migrants to seek protection as close to home as possible,” said a senior U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS) official who told reporters about the deal in a conference call on condition of anonymity.The official did not say why he did not want to be named.

In a scene witnessed by a POLITICO reporter, a process server hired by the FTC knocked on the door of the so-called Breitbart Embassy, a Capitol Hill townhouse where Bannon was due to host a $1,000-a-ticket fundraiser Wednesday for the Senate campaign of former Kansas Secretary of State Kris Kobach. But the server, who was wearing a Washington Nationals baseball cap and holding a package to make it look like an ordinary delivery, said he was turned away. “One of his minions, I believe, went back and either called him or spoke to him and said, ‘There’s nothing we can do about it, bro,‘” said the server, who would only give his name as Mike.

A man who later answered the door told a POLITICO reporter that he didn’t know anything about the subpoena or the attempted service. The townhouse was once known as the headquarters of the conservative website Breitbart News, of which Bannon served as executive chairman. “Government agencies serve thousands of subpoenas for all types of minor and often irrelevant information. This is a non event,” Alex Spiro, an attorney representing Bannon, told POLITICO via email.

THE DEMOCRATS ARE TRYING TO DESTROY THE REPUBLICAN PARTY AND ALL THAT IT STANDS FOR. STICK TOGETHER, PLAY THEIR GAME, AND FIGHT HARD REPUBLICANS. OUR COUNTRY IS AT STAKE!

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) September 26, 2019

The Echo Frames are Alexa-enabled, meaning the wearer can speak a command to Amazon's voice assistant and the glasses will hear it. In turn, the wearer will be able to hear Alexa's response thanks to directional microphones built into the frames and pointed at their ears — bystanders won't be able to eavesdrop, at least in theory.

The glasses need to be paired to a smartphone. Users will have the ability to decide which notifications Alexa announces through the glasses, versus through the phone. The Echo Frames' microphone can be turned off anytime, Amazon says.

A group of scientists from several universities has created an unobtrusive brain-computer interface strip that could revolutionize the way humans convert their thoughts into a machine-readable format. A narrow strip affixes to the upper neck, performing the data collection of a traditional EEG cap. The signals are then interpreted by software —aided by machine learning— to produce data that could be used to steer vehicles or operate other computers. The entire system is called SKINTRONICS.
[...]
“We demonstrated that this portable, flexible wearable system can control an electric wheelchair, mini-car, and a software-presentation” Woon-Hong Yeo, a researcher of the Georgia Institute of Technology, told Defense One over email. Yeo and his team designed the strip for people who have lost mobility, but its advantages over the EEG cap promise to give it much wider applicability. “Yes, obviously this system can be used for controlling other devices including military equipment,” he said.

On Monday, a DEA-led raid also including the FBI and Lake Havasu City Police Department’s Special Investigations Unit in Arizona led to the arrest of another alleged drug dealer, Ryan Reavis. According to the Blast, the bust was related to the death of the rapper (real name: Malcolm McCormick) but the exact connection has not been revealed. According to the website — as well as a report from the Arizona Republic — 36-year-old Reavis’s Lake Havasu City home was raided, and during the search, "a physician’s prescription pad, prescription-only pills, a usable amount of marijuana and drug paraphernalia were located." Additionally, the search turned up various firearms, a personally manufactured firearm suppressor and large amounts of ammunition, all of which were confiscated.

On Tuesday, they announced that they had searched Karin Models, an agency he founded in 1978. Le Parisien said that police had tracked Mr Brunel to South America although they gave no indication of which country... As part of a sex trafficking probe, police on Monday also searched Epstein’s vast Parisian apartment on Avenue Foch, one of the capital’s most expensive streets, favoured by royalty, celebrities and billionaires... The newspaper said the flat showed signs of having been cleaned out. French investigators last month launched a preliminary investigation into whether any French citizens or residents were victims or accomplices of Mr Epstein’s alleged crimes.

The reason has to do with how our bodies respond to beverages, according to Ronald Maughan, a professor at St. Andrews' School of Medicine and the study's author. One factor is the volume of a given drink: The more you drink, the faster the drink empties from your stomach and gets absorbed into the bloodstream, where it can dilute the body's fluids and hydrate you. The other factor affecting how well a beverage hydrates relates to a drink's nutrient composition. For example, milk was found to be even more hydrating than plain water because it contains the sugar lactose, some protein and some fat, all of which help to slow the emptying of fluid from the stomach and keep hydration happening over a longer period of time. Milk also has sodium, which acts like a sponge and holds onto water in the body and results in less urine produced.

If you want an extra boost of nutrients to go along with the hydration, get to know your local farmer and get some A2/A2 grass-fed raw milk.

The first day of fall may have just been on Monday, but winter is already well on its way to parts of the northern Rockies, where a potentially "historic" winter storm is setting up for this weekend. The National Weather Service's Prediction Center said an upper low-pressure system dropping into the Pacific Northwest late Friday is forecast to bring what's expected to become a "significant and possibly historic" early-season snowstorm across portions of the northern Rockies.

U.S. President Donald Trump's real estate company received approval Thursday in Scotland to build hundreds of homes on the property where it already has a golf course... The council's approval also allows the Trump Organization to build more retail and leisure facilities. A five-star 450-room hotel had been planned but was scrapped because of weakening economic conditions. The council's planning committee recommended giving the housing development a green light.

Crowdstrike relocated the DNC server to Ukraine.

Maybe that's why Slippery Jim Comey didn't bother with a search warrant or subpoena.

DIRTY AS HELL. pic.twitter.com/9nTPzdX2FZ

— Rep. Steven Smith 🇺🇸 (@RepStevenSmith) September 25, 2019

This is getting better and better...