Day's Headlines: Christmas Unity; Globalization Rally Cry; The Failing Justice League; EU's Grip; RT Swipe; Red Square Drill; Bomb Rain; Settling Outposts; New Order in Town; Programming Required; Alt-Right All Twittered Out; Big Gas; Animals See Again; Satellite Palooza; Smart Men Hit Asteroid; Space Engine; Faster Than Concorde; and Plant Robots Dreams

Thursday, November 17, 2016

Christmas Unity; Globalization Rally Cry; The Failing Justice League; EU's Grip; RT Swipe; Red Square Drill; Bomb Rain; Settling Outposts; New Order in Town; Programming Required; Alt-Right All Twittered Out; Big Gas; Animals See Again; Satellite Palooza; Smart Men Hit Asteroid; Space Engine; Faster Than Concorde; and Plant Robots Dreams

False Unity

Amazon Christmas advert 2016: Imam and priest push festive message of friendship independent.co.uk v

A spokesman for Amazon told The Independent: "Our casting reflects this: the gentleman playing the vicar is a practising vicar in London, the gentleman playing the imam is a devout Muslim and the principal of a Muslim school. We used an actual church and mosque for our scenes within the places of worship."

Oh, Amazon...

Global Concerns

Obama defends globalisation on Germany visit bbc

In a joint article, Mr Obama and German Chancellor Angela Merkel said that with the global economy developing faster than ever, co-operation was vital.

"There will be no return to a world before globalisation," they wrote.

[OPINION] Support crumbles for the International Criminal Court telegraph.co.uk

Moscow’s move [to withdraw support] follows recent decisions by South Africa, Gambia and Burundi to pull out accusing the court of bias against Africa. Born of a noble ideal, the ICC would appear to be in serious difficulties. But equally, with Russia cranking up for further military action in Syria, its action cannot be an excuse to carry out war crimes there.

Also see Russia withdraws from International Criminal Court treaty bbc

French Prime Minister Manuel Valls Warns Europe Could Collapse time

Valls also acknowledged that Marine Le Pen of the country’s right-wing National Front could win next year’s election, according to comments reported in AFP, connecting her with the same sentiment that led to the election of Donald Trump last week and the success of the Brexit referendum earlier this year.

Also see France, Germany must lead way to prevent the rise of far-right and collapse of the EU, French PM says abc.net.au

Russia-US

State Dept Calls Out RT Reporter for Working for Russian Govt. freebeacon v

RT is funded by the Russian government and often has a reporter present at the State Department’s daily press briefing. Some observers have called RT a propaganda tool of the Kremlin.

Russia

Russia shuts down Red Square for massive Kremlin security drills washingtonpost

...on Thursday, entire swaths of downtown Moscow, including Red Square and the Kremlin, were blocked off for a massive security drill involving police, emergency workers and the Federal guard service to practice preventing anything from getting through.

So what are they practicing for? According the state-run news agency TASS, the drills will include countermeasures against attempts at “illegal penetration” (their words), various and unspecified “extremist activities,” detection and elimination of “equipment and gear meant for acts of terrorism and sabotage,” and fire safety precautions. All reasonable. The United States has the same sort of precautions at the White House, where fence jumpers and drones have punctured security.

Syria

Syria war: Bombs fall like 'rain' on eastern Aleppo, resident says cnn

More than 40 airstrikes and barrel bombs struck rebel-held neighborhoods in the besieged east of the city Thursday, the volunteer group, also known as the White Helmets whitehelmets.org, said on Twitter. It said many victims remained trapped under the rubble.

Israel

Controversial Israeli settlement outpost bill passes preliminary Knesset vote jns.org

The bill to legalize Jewish “outposts”—or settlements that did not receive appropriate administrative authorizations and are therefore illegal, according to Israeli law—passed with a narrow majority of 57 in favor to 52 against. The Israeli opposition announced that it will spare no effort to fight the legislation. The bill will now be referred to the Knesset's Constitution, Law and Justice Committee knesset.gov.il, which will prepare it for the three Knesset readings ahead.

Philippines

Philippine leader hopeful of "new world order" under Russia, China cbsnews

Duterte also criticized the global agreement to fight climate change, saying there are no penalties for violators and it is not clear which industrialized countries will contribute money to support developing countries’ efforts against global warming. He said that was the reason why President-elect Donald Trump does not want the U.S. to spend on fighting climate change.

Society

Learning Curve: Coding classes to become mandatory in Queensland schools abc.net.au

Parents will not be able to "opt" children out of digital learning classes because they do not agree with iPad use for youngsters.

[but] "There is a growing body of research that says engaging with iPads and engaging with technology may be doing more harm than good in terms of health," he said.

Censorship

Twitter's alt-right purge could backfire usatoday

Twitter's move to ban alt-right accounts on the heels of a bitterly divisive election has drawn the company into a heated debate over who gets to speak freely on its platform.

Environment

USGS Announces Largest Oil And Gas Deposit Ever Assessed In U.S. npr.org

On Tuesday, the USGS announced that an area known as the Wolfcamp shale oilshalegas contains 20 billion barrels of oil and 16 trillion cubic feet of natural gas.

That is nearly three times more petroleum than the agency found in North Dakota's Bakken shale in 2013.

Genetics

Breakthrough as gene-editing technique restores sight to blind animals theguardian

The study is the first to demonstrate that a gene editing tool, called Crispr, can be used to replace faulty genes with working versions in the cells of adults - in this case adult rats.

Previously, the powerful procedure, in which strands of DNA are snipped out and replaced, had been used only in dividing cells - such as those in an embryo - and scientists had struggled to apply it to non-dividing cells that make up most adult tissue, including the brain, heart, kidneys and liver.

Space

Elon Musk wants to cover the world wth internet from space theguardian

SpaceX, the privateer space company led by Musk, is requesting permission from the US government to operate a massive network of 4,425 satellites - plus “in-orbit spares” - to provide high-speed, global internet coverage.

Documents filed with the US Federal Communications Commission (FCC) on Tuesday propose an initial launch of 800 satellites to create an orbiting digital communications array to cover the US, including Puerto Rico and the US Virgin Islands.

Scientists Really Want To Smash A Spacecraft Into An Asteroid kjrh v

"We are now, for the first time in our history, at a level of technological capability to maybe detect and do something about the threat from asteroids," former astronaut Chris Hadfield chrishadfield.ca said.

Space travel research begins on Isle of Lewis bbc

Dr Macleod said: "There's nothing incompatible about being in this island location and being at the absolute forefront of space research. There's nothing we're missing which you would want to have, and with modern communications and software, where you are is almost irrelevant."

Isle of Lewis isle-of-lewis

Vehicles

New supersonic jet faster than Concorde unveiled independent.co.uk v

The XB-1 has been nicknamed “Baby Boom” and is claimed to be the world’s fastest civil aircraft ever made and promises to give passengers “affordable” supersonic travel. While the first commercial flight is not expected until 2023, the price of a flight between London and New York is currently set at £2,500 [~$3,110] each way.

Robots

The EU is sponsoring a project to investigate a future 'plant-robot society' digitaltrends v

Pun partially intended, Flora Robotica’s florarobotica.eu flowery goal is: “to develop and investigate closely linked symbiotic relationships between robots and natural plants and to explore the potentials of a plant-robot society able to produce architectural artifacts and living spaces.”

Other...

Two Million Photos: Pete Souza Captures Obama's Presidency nbcnews

Regardless of what you think about Obama, these "behind the scene" photos are worth seeing...

No comments :

Post a Comment