Archive for August, 2017
Won’t You Be My Neighbour?
August 31st, 2017Hello, Neighbour! Are you interested in a relatively cheap getaway shack for when the living hell of Auckland gets to be too much to handle? Maybe a bugout location… Our friends are selling their property. The entire thing can flood during winter storms, but you can park in our driveway during floods if you want. […]
MOTIVA: FLOODING SHUTS LARGEST U.S. REFINERY
August 31st, 2017Via: CNBC: The largest U.S. refinery was shutting down completely on Wednesday morning as heavy rains from Tropical Storm Harvey flooded the 603,000 barrel-per-day (bpd) Port Arthur, Texas, plant, owner Motiva Enterprises said in a statement. “At 5 a.m. (CDT (1000 GMT) on Wednesday, Motiva began a controlled shutdown of the Port Arthur refinery in […]
‘The Story of Replika, the AI App that Becomes You’
August 30th, 2017Oh sure, share your most personal information with this Magic 8 Ball. In other news: On Internet Privacy, Be Very Afraid. Via: Quartz: Research Credit: GB
Pentagon Says Up to 30,000 National Guard Troops Prepared to Assist in Response to Harvey
August 29th, 2017Via: Los Angeles Times: Pentagon officials said Tuesday that National Guard assets are at full readiness to assist in the unfolding disaster in Texas wrought by Tropical Storm Harvey. Maj. Gen. James C. Witham, director of domestic operations for the National Guard, told Pentagon reporters that up to 30,000 guardsmen as well as a U.S. […]
Afghanistan: America’s Trillion Dollar War
August 29th, 2017Via: ZeroHedge: 16 years since the Bush administration launched its military intervention in Afghanistan, President Trump has announced his intention to increase the U.S. military presence in the country. As Statista’s Niall McCarthy notes, there are approximately 8,400 U.S. troops on the ground in Afghanistan and reinforcements could start arriving within days. Trump’s new strategy […]
Trump Expected to Lift Ban on Military Gear to Local Police Forces
August 27th, 2017Via: USA Today: The Trump administration is preparing to lift a controversial ban on the transfer of some surplus military equipment to police departments whose battlefield-style response to rioting in a St. Louis suburb three years ago prompted a halt to the program. The new plan, outlined in documents obtained by USA TODAY, would roll […]
Weekend Entertainment: Video Explorations Around Area 51
August 27th, 2017Visits to the various gates of Area 51 comprise an entire genre of videos on YouTube. Click bait titles and corny theremin soundtracks are par for the course here. If you are interested in the topic at all, you have probably seen many of these. I’ve watched dozens of videos where someone drives up to […]
Energy Storage: Lithium from Supervolcanoes?
August 27th, 2017Cobalt is a much more serious blocker than lithium. Via: Smithsonian: There’s no doubt that in coming years, we’re going to need a lot of lithium. The growing market of electric automobiles, plus new household energy storage and large-scale battery farms, and the current lack of any technology better for storage than lithium ion batteries, […]
Elon Musk’s Boring Company Wins Approval to Dig a Two-Mile Test Tunnel in California
August 25th, 2017Via: The Verge: The City Council in Hawthorne, California voted four to one last night in favor of a plan from Elon Musk’s Boring Company to dig a two-mile-long underground test tunnel. The Boring Company, which operates from SpaceX’s headquarters in Hawthorne outside Los Angeles, had until now only dug into and under its own […]
Most Americans Live Paycheck to Paycheck
August 24th, 2017Via: CNBC: No matter how much you earn, getting by is still a struggle for most people these days. Seventy-eight percent of full-time workers said they live paycheck to paycheck, up from 75 percent last year, according to a recent report from CareerBuilder. Overall, 71 percent of all U.S. workers said they’re now in debt, […]
