Wednesday, April 21, 2021
Elon Musk needs to get his head out of the crytocurrency cloud and back down to Earth.
A car that is driverless doesn't mean the occupants can sleep in the back seat. If Musk is so interested in creating his own currency for space travel, he can probably do it himself with his logo on it rather than a dog face.
This is exactly the problem with computer technology. Computers are an adjunct to humans and not a complete replacement. Over and over again when having transactions by computer I am reminded how very fallible computers are in dealing with humans. They don't interact well and when demanded to perform in ways that are somewhat unorthodox yet not out of the ability for processors to handle, they fail.
I am a human being and I keep in mind that computers are made by humans. They are as fallible as we are. They accelerate the human thought processes, not replace them.
AI IS A PROBLEM THE USA MUST CONTAIN!
The driverless component to these vehicles, including trucks, is that they enhance safety, but, they do not replace the human brain or savvy for the culture.
By Will Daniel
Tesla stock (click here) sank as much as 6.5% on Monday after reports of a fatal driverless car crash outside of Houston, Texas stirred investors.
Two men died on Saturday night when a 2019 Tesla Model S driving at high speed failed to negotiate a curve on a windy road in Spring, Texas.
Harris County Precinct 4 Constable Mark Herman said in an interview that, based on a preliminary investigation, there was no evidence anyone was at the wheel of the vehicle at the time of the crash.
"Our preliminary investigation is determining-but it's not complete yet-that there was no one at the wheel of that vehicle. We're almost 99.9% sure," the constable said, per the Wall Street Journal.
Monday, April 19, 2021
Capital Police Officer Brian Sicknick did not die in a vacuum.
First responders were triaging the victims of the insurrection on Capitol grounds.
Other people died that night and they died due to the same stress facing Capitol Officer Brian Sicknick. He died of natural causes under duress. He was faced with circumstances none of the police was expecting. The Capitol Police were told to "Hold Back" on the response to the insurrection. The police never was prepared through the chain of command. Basically, they were on their own to maintain order.
Capitol Officer Brian Sicknick was overwhelmed by leadership that took orders from madmen. Capitol Officer Sicknick died on active duty while protecting US Senators and US Representatives. He did not fail them.
April 13, 2021By Luke Broadwater
Washington - The Capitol Police had clearer advance warnings (click here) about the Jan. 6 attack than were previously known, including the potential for violence in which “Congress itself is the target.” But officers were instructed by their leaders not to use their most aggressive tactics to hold off the mob, according to a scathing new report by the agency’s internal investigator.
In a 104-page document, the inspector general, Michael A. Bolton, criticized the way the Capitol Police prepared for and responded to the mob violence on Jan. 6. The report was reviewed by The New York Times and will be the subject of a Capitol Hill hearing on Thursday.
Mr. Bolton found that the agency’s leaders failed to adequately prepare despite explicit warnings that pro-Trump extremists posed a threat to law enforcement and civilians and that the police used defective protective equipment. He also found that the leaders ordered their Civil Disturbance Unit to refrain from using its most powerful crowd-control tools — like stun grenades — to put down the onslaught.
The report offers the most devastating account to date of the lapses and miscalculations around the most violent attack on the Capitol in two centuries....
April 19, 2021
By Adam Goldman
Capitol Police Officer Brian D. Sicknick (click here) had multiple strokes hours after sparring with a pro-Trump mob during the Jan. 6 riot and died of natural causes, Washington’s medical examiner said on Monday.
The determination likely complicates the Justice Department’s efforts to prosecute anyone in the death of Mr. Sicknick, 42; two men have been charged with assaulting him by spraying an unknown chemical on him outside the Capitol.
But the autopsy found no evidence that Officer Sicknick had an allergic reaction to chemicals nor of any internal or external injuries, the medical examiner, Dr. Francisco J. Diaz, told The Washington Post, which first reported his finding.
Still, Dr. Diaz added of the riot, “All that transpired played a role in his condition.”...
The determination likely complicates the Justice Department’s efforts to prosecute anyone in the death of Mr. Sicknick, 42; two men have been charged with assaulting him by spraying an unknown chemical on him outside the Capitol.
But the autopsy found no evidence that Officer Sicknick had an allergic reaction to chemicals nor of any internal or external injuries, the medical examiner, Dr. Francisco J. Diaz, told The Washington Post, which first reported his finding.
Still, Dr. Diaz added of the riot, “All that transpired played a role in his condition.”...
That is exactly correct.
"Good Night, Moon"
6.8 day old moon
43.4 percent lit
17 April 2021By Richard Luscombe
Nasa has chosen SpaceX (click here) to build the next-generation spacecraft that will return humans to the moon, further strengthening Elon Musk’s grip on the burgeoning public-private space industry.
The $2.9bn contract to build the lunar lander that will spearhead the Artemis program, Nasa’s ambitious project to return to the moon for the first time since the final Apollo mission in 1972, was announced on Friday.
“The Artemis lunar landing is a key piece to our moon-to-Mars strategy,” Steve Jurczyk, acting Nasa administrator, told reporters. “Today is a big step forward. This is an incredible time to be involved in human exploration for all humanity.”
Musk’s company is currently the only operation with the capability of launching astronauts from US soil. But Nasa’s decision to go with a sole contractor for its human landing system (HLS) raised eyebrows.
Traditionally, the agency has preferred to stimulate competition and protect against setbacks by keeping at least two contractors on the payroll....
Artemis, Goddess of the hunt, the wilderness, wild animals, the Moon, and chastity., known as the "Diana of Versailles", as exhibited in the Louvre Museum, Paris, France. 2nd century CE copied from a Greek original dating to 330 BCE.
Putin is a troubled man. He is instituting silence in order to maintain power and justify war.
By Anna Chernova and Ivana Kottasová
Officers stand outside Moscow's Basmanny district court during a hearing against four staff members of the DOXA magazine.
The office of a Russian magazine for students (click here) was raided and several of its editors were temporarily detained by authorities on Wednesday morning, after the publication expressed its support for jailed Kremlin critic Alexey Navalny, according to DOXA magazine.
The homes of four editors and some of their family members were searched, DOXA said in an official statement published on their website.
According to DOXA, phones and laptops were seized during the searches and journalists Armen Aramyan, Alla Gutnikova, Vladimir Metelkin and Natalia Tyshkevich were taken by the Russian Investigative Committee for questioning. All four journalists have now been charged for inciting minors to protest, said DOXA, which also rejected the allegation.
"There were no calls to illegal actions in our video -- we said that young people should not be afraid to express their opinions," DOXA's statement read. Agora, the legal organization representing the four journalists, referred CNN to DOXA's statement....
The Soviet Union is gone because of citizen oppression under communism. The many countries that broke off from the old Soviet Union are now free countries and practice democracy. It is what the Russian people long for.
Today in Russia, Vladimir Putin is attempting to hang onto power in whichever way he can including shutting down a student newspaper. Putin knows he has lost the support of the Russian people. It is a matter of time before all of Russia will be free as well. The communists will have destroyed Russia no differently than the Soviet Union.
A global pandemic and Earth is melting down and Putin goes to war. Ridiculous.
President Biden is Catholic.
By Catholic News Service
Hong Kong - Catholic media tycoon and philanthropist Jimmy Lai (click here) has been sentenced to 12 months in jail after being found guilty of unauthorised assembly.
Ucanews.com reported he was among nine activists in court on April 16 who earlier were found guilty of charges relating to pro-democracy demonstrations in the Chinese territory.
Lai, 73, has donated millions of dollars to Catholic causes and has been the biggest financial backer of Cardinal Joseph Zen Ze-kiun, retired archbishop of Hong Kong, ucanews.com reported.
He made his fortune through mid-market fashion chain Giordano before putting his wealth into NextDigital and the city’s leading anti-Beijing newspaper, Apple Daily.
Lai’s jailing comes as the Chinese Communist Party intensifies its crackdown on Hong Kong’s rights and freedoms.
In mid-April, Apple Daily published a handwritten letter by Lai, sent from prison, which read: “It is our responsibility as journalists to seek justice. As long as we are not blinded by unjust temptations, as long as we do not let evil get its way through us, we are fulfilling our responsibility.”
Speaking to the BBC before the hearing, Lai said that even if he were to be imprisoned, he would still be “living my life meaningfully”.
“I came here with one dollar. I got everything I have because of this place. If this is the payback time, this is my redemption,” he said.
Lai, who was born in mainland China but was smuggled into Hong Kong as a child, faced eight charges in court, two of which were imposed under the new national security law and can carry a maximum term of life in prison....
Twenty-five Chinese warplanes (click here) entered Taiwan's air defense identification zone on Monday, the self-ruled island's Defense Ministry said, the latest in a series of aerial incursions by China.
The Chinese activity was likely a response to closer ties being forged between the United States and Taiwan. The United States said Friday it has issued new guidelines to encourage US government engagement with Taiwan, with which it has no diplomatic ties.
The warplanes involved in the intrusion included 14 J-16 fighter jets and four H-6K bombers, according to the Taiwan ministry. China sent 15 planes into Taiwan's air defense identification zone on Wednesday and 11 on Friday....
Typhoon Surigae is now a Super Typhoon. It could boomerang back into the north Pacific.
By Taylor Ward
The first super typhoon (click here) of the season in the West Pacific made a close approach to the Eastern Philippines this weekend.
Monday morning, Surigae's maximum wind speed decreased to 140 mph (220 kph). While it is no longer a super typhoon, it is still a powerful typhoon, equivalent to a category 4 Atlantic hurricane.
Over the weekend, Surigae attained maxmium sustained winds of 190 mph (305 kph), becoming the strongest typhoon on record for the month of April, surpassing Typhoon Maysak in 2015, among several others that had maximum sustained winds of 173 mph (278 kph), according to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration historical hurricane database.
The current track has Surigae slowly weakening as it moves parallel to the central and eastern Philippines over the next 24-36 hours. Based on the closeness of Surigae to eastern sections of the Philippines, a signal 2 alert remains in effect for parts of Luzon, Visayas, Northern Samar, Eastern Samar, Samar and Mindanao, according to the Philippine Atmospheric, Geophysical and Astronomical Services Administration (PAGASA)....
Prisoner release in Myanmar.
By the Associated Press
The virus is coming to Myanmar (click here)
Yangon, Myanmar - Myanmar's junta on Saturday released more than 23,000 prisoners (click here) to mark the traditional new year holiday, including at least three political detainees, and the military leader behind the February coup confirmed he would attend a regional summit later this month.
It wasn't immediately clear if those released included pro-democracy activists who were detained for protesting the coup. State broadcaster MRTV said that junta chief Senior Gen. Min Aung Hlaing had pardoned 23,047 prisoners, including 137 foreigners who will be deported from Myanmar. He also reduced sentences for others.
As security forces continued the deadly crackdown, unconfirmed but credible accounts with photos on social media said that three people were killed Saturday in the central city of Mogok, in Myanmar's gem mining region.
According to the Assistance Association for Political Prisoners, which monitors casualties and arrests, government forces have killed at least 728 protesters and bystanders since the takeover. The group says 3,141 people, including ousted civilian leader Aung San Suu Kyi, are in detention.
Among those released Saturday from Yangon's Insein Prison were at least three political prisoners who were jailed in 2019. They are members of the Peacock Generation performing troupe who were arrested during that year's new year celebrations for skits that poked fun at military representatives in Parliament and military involvement in business....
Yangon, Myanmar - Myanmar's junta on Saturday released more than 23,000 prisoners (click here) to mark the traditional new year holiday, including at least three political detainees, and the military leader behind the February coup confirmed he would attend a regional summit later this month.
It wasn't immediately clear if those released included pro-democracy activists who were detained for protesting the coup. State broadcaster MRTV said that junta chief Senior Gen. Min Aung Hlaing had pardoned 23,047 prisoners, including 137 foreigners who will be deported from Myanmar. He also reduced sentences for others.
As security forces continued the deadly crackdown, unconfirmed but credible accounts with photos on social media said that three people were killed Saturday in the central city of Mogok, in Myanmar's gem mining region.
According to the Assistance Association for Political Prisoners, which monitors casualties and arrests, government forces have killed at least 728 protesters and bystanders since the takeover. The group says 3,141 people, including ousted civilian leader Aung San Suu Kyi, are in detention.
Among those released Saturday from Yangon's Insein Prison were at least three political prisoners who were jailed in 2019. They are members of the Peacock Generation performing troupe who were arrested during that year's new year celebrations for skits that poked fun at military representatives in Parliament and military involvement in business....
Ask Republicans if they know how to spell "Thwaites Glacier." Ask them.
April 9. 2021
By the University of Gothenburg
By the University of Gothenburg
For the first time, (click here) researchers have been able to obtain data from underneath Thwaites Glacier, also known as the “Doomsday Glacier.” They find that the supply of warm water to the glacier is larger than previously thought, triggering concerns of faster melting and accelerating ice flow.
With the help of the uncrewed submarine Ran that made its way under Thwaites glacier front, the researchers have made a number of new discoveries. Professor Karen Heywood of the University of East Anglia commented:
“This was Ran’s first venture to polar regions and her exploration of the waters under the ice shelf was much more successful than we had dared to hope. We plan to build on these exciting findings with further missions under the ice next year.”
The submersible has, among other things, measured the strength, temperature, salinity, and oxygen content of the ocean currents that go under the glacier.
Global sea level is affected by how much ice there is on land, and the biggest uncertainty in the forecasts is the future evolution of the West Antarctic Ice Sheet, says Anna Wåhlin, professor of oceanography at the University of Gothenburg and lead author of the new study now published in Science Advances....
It is inviolation of International Law to destroy a man's life for the purpose of politics.
By Gabrielle Tétrault-Farber
Moscow - The daughter of hunger-striking Kremlin critic Alexei Navalny (click here) called on Russian authorities on Sunday to allow a doctor to treat her father in prison, a day after a group of medical professionals warned he is at risk of kidney failure.
Navalny, a fierce opponent of Russian President Vladimir Putin, started refusing food on March 31 in protest at what he said was the refusal of prison authorities to provide him with proper medical care for acute back and leg pain.
Prison authorities say they have offered Navalny proper medical care but that the 44-year-old opposition politician has refused it and insisted on being treated by a doctor of his choice from outside the facility, a request they have declined.
"Allow a doctor to see my dad," Navalny's daughter Dasha, a student at Stanford University, wrote on Twitter.
A medical trade union with ties to Navalny said on Saturday he was in critical condition, citing medical tests that it said showed that Navalny's kidneys could soon fail, which could lead to cardiac arrest....
Navalny, a fierce opponent of Russian President Vladimir Putin, started refusing food on March 31 in protest at what he said was the refusal of prison authorities to provide him with proper medical care for acute back and leg pain.
Prison authorities say they have offered Navalny proper medical care but that the 44-year-old opposition politician has refused it and insisted on being treated by a doctor of his choice from outside the facility, a request they have declined.
"Allow a doctor to see my dad," Navalny's daughter Dasha, a student at Stanford University, wrote on Twitter.
A medical trade union with ties to Navalny said on Saturday he was in critical condition, citing medical tests that it said showed that Navalny's kidneys could soon fail, which could lead to cardiac arrest....
Ask Republicans if they can say, "sea-level rise" and "melting glaciers." Seriously. Ask them. They can't even say it, yet alone govern for it.
April 16, 2021
By Durham University
By Durham University
It is well known that climate-induced sea level rise is a major threat. (click here) New research has found that previous ice loss events could have caused sea-level rise at rates of around 3.6 meters per century, offering vital clues as to what lies ahead should climate change continue unabated.
A team of scientists, led by researchers from Durham University, used geological records of past sea levels to shed light on the ice sheets responsible for a rapid pulse of sea-level rise in Earth’s recent past.
Geological records tell us that, at the end of the last ice age around 14,600 years ago, sea levels rose at ten times the current rate due to Meltwater Pulse 1A (MWP-1A); a 500 year, ~18 meter sea-level rise event....
...Our study includes novel information from lakes around the coast of Scotland that were isolated from the ocean due to land uplift following the retreat of the British Ice Sheet, allowing us to confidently identify the meltwater sources.”
Co-author Dr. Pippa Whitehouse, in the Department of Geography at Durham University said “The technique we have used allows us to really dig into the error bars on the data and explore which ice-melt scenarios were most likely.
“We found that most of the rapid sea-level rise was due to ice sheet melt across North America and Scandinavia, with a surprisingly small contribution from Antarctica....
President Biden can say, "Sea-level rise is caused by the melting of ice sheets, glaciers and the ice caps." He says that well, too.
Putin knows his time is up with the unrest of the Russian people.
By Illia Ponomarenko
In spite of what the Kremlin says, (click here) Ukraine has no plans for any offensive actions in Russian-occupied Donbas, the country’s top military commander, Colonel General Ruslan Khomchak, said on April 9.
Ukraine remains committed to a diplomatic solution to the conflict, he added.
Khomchak made his statement amid the worst regional security situation in years. Russia has been spotted concentrating major military assets near the Ukrainian border since late March, putting Kyiv and the West on high alert.
Russia accused Ukraine of preparing an all-out attack against Russian-backed militants in the east. According to Kremlin officials, this would give Moscow the excuse to intervene, ostensibly to protect the civilian population....
Ukraine has instituted sanctions against individuals in addition to the USA's sanctions.
Russia is coming. It is a matter of time. Putin knows he is losing the war against the USA through his propaganda and corrupt elections. He is going to start a war with the West. NATO is in danger. Don't expect anything less and for the USA that means near border wars quite possibly with nuclear weapons. Putin is coming to end The West. There is no doubt in my mind.
April 16, 2021
By Andrew E. Kramer
Maslovka, Russia - Deep in a pine forest in southern Russia, (click here) military trucks, their silhouettes blurred by camouflage netting, appear through the trees. Soldiers in four-wheel-drive vehicles creep along rutted dirt roads. And outside a newly pitched tent camp, sentries, Kalashnikovs slung over their shoulders, pace back and forth.
Over the past month or so, Russia has deployed what analysts are calling the largest military buildup along the border with Ukraine since the outset of Kyiv’s war with Russian-backed separatists seven years ago.
It is far from a clandestine operation: During a trip to southern Russia by a New York Times journalist, evidence of the buildup was everywhere to be seen.
The mobilization is setting off alarms in the North Atlantic Treaty Organization, European capitals and Washington, and is increasingly seen as an early foreign policy test for the Biden administration, which just hit Moscow with a new round of sanctions. Russia responded almost immediately, announcing on Friday that it would expel 10 U.S. diplomats....
ANY ice melt from the Greenland Ice Sheet in excess of recharge is sea level rise.
The recharge of the Greenland Ice Sheet is grossly less and in some areas absent. So, basically, all the ice melt viewed in this video and more is directly contributing to sea-level rise. NOW. This is happening now. The content of the film is from last year. This year is happening now and directly contributing to sea-level rise as I write this.
By Bill Whitaker
Now an update on a story (click here) we first reported 15 years ago. That's when Scott Pelley went north to the Greenland Ice Shelf to witness a "Global Warning" -- the melting Arctic.
"What I'm standing on is a huge block of ice that split off from the glacier recently and dropped into the sea," Pelley reported. "It's a big iceberg at this point. This part of Greenland is melting faster than just about any other. And to get a sense of the enormity of what's happening, consider this: The ice that is melting here is the equivalent of all of the ice in the Alps."
"What I'm standing on is a huge block of ice that split off from the glacier recently and dropped into the sea," Pelley reported. "It's a big iceberg at this point. This part of Greenland is melting faster than just about any other. And to get a sense of the enormity of what's happening, consider this: The ice that is melting here is the equivalent of all of the ice in the Alps."
"And just four minutes after we cleared off this berg," Pelley said. "Our ice joined in."...
There are technology in Iceland (posted on this blog) to remove CARBON from the troposphere and create a carbon solid.
The removal of CO2 excess from the troposphere needs to be prioritized and begun immediately. The technology is available, it needs funding without question.
By Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory
Jeffrey Long, a senior scientist in Berkeley Lab’s Materials Sciences Division and also a professor in UC Berkeley’s College of Chemistry
Human activity is now leading to the equivalent of 40 billion tons of carbon dioxide emitted into the atmosphere each year, putting us on track to increase the planet’s temperature by 1.5 degrees Celsius over pre-industrial levels by 2040. According to the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), we must limit global warming to 1.5 degrees Celsius to avoid the most dangerous impacts of climate change.
Increasingly, scientists are recognizing that negative emissions technologies (NETs) to remove and sequester carbon dioxide from the atmosphere will be an essential component in the strategy to mitigate climate change. Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (Berkeley Lab), a multidisciplinary Department of Energy research lab, is pursuing a portfolio of negative emissions technologies and related research. These range from geological and terrestrial sequestration, to conversion to bioproducts, to thermal reactors for hydrogen fuels.
A promising technology under development for NETs is carbon capture using a material called a MOF, or metal-organic framework. Jeffrey Long, a senior scientist in Berkeley Lab’s Materials Sciences Division and also a professor in UC Berkeley’s College of Chemistry, has been working with this unique material for a number of years....
Here is the Republican rhetoric for the 2022 elections.
Senator Roger Marshall is promoting a banana republic for the USA. "When Republicans are back in a majority in 2022 we will reverse everything the Democrats have done in the previous two years. Is that what the USA Constitution prescribes for the country? Of course not. There is nothing from preventing the return of pain and sorrow with Republicans.
Fulsom Prison Blues by Johnny Cash (click here)
I hear the train a comin'
It's rolling round the bend
And I ain't seen the sunshine since I don't know when,
I'm stuck in Folsom prison, and time keeps draggin' on
But that train keeps a rollin' on down to San Anton
When I was just a baby my mama told me, son
Always be a good boy, don't ever play with guns.
But I shot a man in Reno just to watch him die
When I hear that whistle blowing I hang my head and cry
I hear the train a comin'
It's rolling round the bend
And I ain't seen the sunshine since I don't know when,
I'm stuck in Folsom prison, and time keeps draggin' on
But that train keeps a rollin' on down to San Anton
When I was just a baby my mama told me, son
Always be a good boy, don't ever play with guns.
But I shot a man in Reno just to watch him die
When I hear that whistle blowing I hang my head and cry
I bet there's rich folks eating in a fancy dining car
They're probably drinkin' coffee and smoking big cigars.
Well I know I had it coming, I know I can't be free
But those people keep a movin'
And that's what tortures me
They're probably drinkin' coffee and smoking big cigars.
Well I know I had it coming, I know I can't be free
But those people keep a movin'
And that's what tortures me
Well if they'd free me from this prison,
If that railroad train was mine
I bet I'd move it all a little further down the line
Far from Folsom prison, that's where I want to stay
And I'd let that lonesome whistle blow my blues away
If that railroad train was mine
I bet I'd move it all a little further down the line
Far from Folsom prison, that's where I want to stay
And I'd let that lonesome whistle blow my blues away
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