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Knowledge is Power

Today's News: November 15, 2018

World News
 
Saudi prosecutor seeks death penalty in Khashoggi murder
Al Jazeera – Kingdom is seeking death penalty for five people accused of carrying out journalist’s killing, Shaalan al-Shaalan says.
 
Four UK ministers resign over Theresa May’s draft Brexit deal
Al Jazeera – Brexit minister Dominic Raab says he cannot ‘in good conscience’ support May’s proposed EU withdrawal agreement.
 
650 Central Americans Apprehended near Arizona Border in Two Days
Breitbart – Yuma Sector Border Patrol agents apprehended more than 650 mostly Guatemalan migrants this week who illegally crossed near the Lukeville Port of Entry.
Agents patrolling near the San Luis Port of Entry came upon several large groups of migrants, mostly from Guatemala, during a two-day period this week. The migrants exploited weaknesses in the older border wall infrastructure and also crossed shallow portions of the Colorado River to illegally cross the border, according to Yuma Sector Border Patrol officials.
 
Hundreds of Central American migrants arrive in Tijuana
Christian Science Monitor – In the first contingent of several different migrant caravans, hundreds of Central Americans have reached the US-Mexico border. Mexico has offered refuge, asylum, and work visas to the migrants, but some migrants remain intent on making it over the US border.
 
At Least 13 Countries Mull Buying Russia’s S-400 Despite US Sanctions – Reports
Sputnik – At least 13 countries have expressed their interest in purchasing the Russian S-400 Triumph surface-to-air missile systems instead of US equipment despite the likelihood of provoking Washington’s sanctions, media reported citing people with first-hand knowledge of a US intelligence assessment.
Algeria, Egypt, Iraq, Morocco, Qatar, Saudi Arabia and Vietnam were among the countries that had already engaged in talks on buying the Russian missile systems, the CNBC broadcaster reported on Wednesday.
 
U.S. News, Politics & Government
 
California Electric Company May Be Held Liable for Deadly Camp Wildfire
Sputnik – A new lawsuit alleges that California electric provider Pacific Gas & Electric (PG&E) neglected health and safety codes, resulting in the deadly Camp Fire that has killed at least 56 people and destroyed the city of Paradise and the surrounding area.
 
Amish Farmer Seeks Trump Pardon for Mislabeling Products
Newsmax – An Amish farmer in Kentucky is asking President Donald Trump for a pardon after he was sentenced to six years in federal prison for mislabeling homemade herbal products.
The Lexington Herald-Leader reported Wednesday that 58-year-old Samuel Girod filed his petition with the U.S. Department of Justice pardon attorney. Girod is currently serving the time at a minimum security facility in Ashland.
He’s a member of the Old Order Amish faith and manufactured salves and herbal products.
The petition says Girod is innocent and didn’t fully understand the consequences when he represented himself in the case.
 
Democrat Jared Golden beats GOP’s Poliquin in Maine
The Hill – Democrat Jared Golden defeated incumbent Rep. Bruce Poliquin (R-Maine) in a ranked-choice runoff Thursday morning, more than a week after the election.
State election officials declared Golden the winner in Maine’s 2nd District race shortly after noon on Thursday. It was the first use of ranked balloting in a congressional election, according to The Associated Press.
Poliquin last week sued in an attempt to stop the ranked balloting system from being used to declare a winner in the race, but a judge denied the request.
 
Judge delays ruling in CNN case against Trump
The Hill – A federal district court judge on Thursday postponed his planned ruling on whether to grant CNN’s request for an order that forces the White House to reinstates Jim Acosta’s press credentials.J
 
Pipe bomb suspect pleads not guilty in New York
The Hill – The man charged with mailing explosives to prominent Democrats and critics of President Trump across the country last month has pleaded not guilty to all charges against him in New York.
 
Florida voters have until Saturday to fix signature issue, federal judge says
Fox – A federal judge ruled early Thursday that thousands of voters who’ve had their ballots rejected due to issues with their signatures will have until Saturday to resolve the issue and possibly get a chance to have their votes counted, according to a report.
>> Related: Palm Beach likely to miss recount deadline after machines stop working, supervisor sends technical manager home
 
Economy & Business
 
Pound and UK shares hit by Brexit turmoil
BBC – RBS sinks 9% as fears over Brexit deal hit shares in banks and housebuilders, dragging FTSE 100 lower.
 
Florida’s Close Recount Numbers Are ‘Not Accidental’ And Are A Result Of Corruption, Says Mike Huckabee
The Daily Sheeple – Former Arkansas Republican Gov. Mike Huckabee said close electoral numbers in Florida are “not accidental” and accused certain counties of perpetrating voter fraud, on “Fox & Friends” Tuesday.
“This is not just mere incompetence,” Huckabee said.
“Because it continues to happen in the one county in Florida that is heavily Democratic — that has shown that it has incredible levels of corruption as we saw from even the fallout from the Parkland shooting and the sheriff’s office and the fact that elected officials in that county don’t even have the competence of some of the people who work for them,” he said.
Huckabee said it’s hard to believe anyone could be that incompetent and said the recent discovery of uncounted ballots is not a coincidence.
“This particular election official, Brenda snipes, has been under fire before. Everybody, I think, knew that the spotlight was going to be on Florida and on Broward County. And then to have this happen again. I mean, come on. This is not accidental,” Huckabee declared.
“If it is, then there is a level of incompetence that will make the history books,” he concluded, adding:
“That’s why I think you just can’t keep saying, ‘Oh, the election’s over? Not yet. Broward County just found some ballots. And maybe they are in the trunk of a car.’ Heck, I’m in Nashville today. I think it’s very possible I could look under the bed I might find some Broward County ballots there. Who knows?”
 
DoJ slaps away Dem protests over Trump’s appointment of Matthew Whitaker as acting attorney general
The Daily Sheeple – The Democrats have only one prerequisite when it comes to opposing POTUS Donald Trump and it is this: Never, ever approve of anything he does, no matter how legal and/or constitutional it may be.
That includes opposing the president’s recent appointment of Matthew Whitaker as acting Attorney General after he sought former Attorney General Jeff Sessions’ resignation following the midterm elections last week.
The Justice Department, however, has now clarified that not only are Democrats wrong to oppose POTUS Trump’s interim appointment of Whitaker, but they are also incorrect in their demand that he recuse himself from overseeing special counsel Robert Mueller’s hoax investigation of “Russian collusion,” even though Whitaker has been a vocal, public opponent of it.
In a 20-page memo, the DoJ noted that the president’s appointment is lawful under the Federal Vacancies Reform Act of 1998, Appointments Clause and is in compliance with the U.S. Constitution.
“As we have previously recognized, the President may use the Vacancies Reform Act to depart from the succession order,” the memo says.
 
Creepy Porn Lawyer Michael Avenatti Arrested For Beating His Wife
The Daily Sheeple – Oh boy, and you won’t hear a peep out of the same people who pushed Avenatti’s accusations against President Donald Trump, will you?  Nope, they will all be tight lipped about this, and if they do say something, it will be to defend him. That’s right, creepy, porn attorney Micael Avenatti was arrested in Los Angeles on Wednesday for domestic violence against his wife.
 
Science & Technology
 
Data Released from 200 Law Enforcement Agencies’ Automated License Plate Reader Programs
Activist Post – EFF and MuckRock have filed hundreds of public records requests with law enforcement agencies around the country to reveal how data collected from automated license plate readers (ALPR) is used to track the travel patterns of drivers. We focused exclusively on departments that contract with surveillance vendor Vigilant Solutions to share data between their ALPR systems.
Today we are releasing records obtained from 200 agencies, accounting for more than 2.5-billion license plate scans in 2016 and 2017. This data is collected regardless of whether the vehicle or its owner or driver are suspected of being involved in a crime. In fact, the information shows that 99.5% of the license plates scanned were not under suspicion at the time the vehicles’ plates were collected.
On average, agencies are sharing data with a minimum of 160 other agencies through Vigilant Solutions’ LEARN system, though many agencies are sharing data with over 800 separate entities.
 
Surgical robot BOTCHES surgery, kills man on operating table while doctors sipped lattes
NaturalNews – In the name of scientific “progress,” Newcastle’s Freeman Hospital in the United Kingdom recently tried to pioneer the use of a surgical robot that it tasked with repairing a patient’s damaged heart valve, only to have the machine go completely bonkers and ultimately kill the man on the operating table.
According to reports, this first-time-use robot not only physically assaulted a living medic while attempting to conduct its programmed surgery, but also implanted stitches into the patient’s heart in a manner that physicians present during the fiasco described as not being in “an organised fashion.”
A situation that can only be described as total chaos, with human surgeons, doctors, and nurses having to scream at each other in order to overcome the “tinny” sound coming from the robot as they were trying to control it, the attempted surgery ended up being nothing short of a complete failure. And in the end, retired music teacher and conductor, Stephen Pettitt, the guinea pig patient in this medical experiment, ultimately lost his life.
Lead surgeon admits that he was ill-prepared to operate the surgical robot, having skipped multiple training sessions
During a hearing that followed this catastrophe, lead surgeon Sukumaran Nair admitted that he lacked proper experience in controlling and using the surgical robot, stating that he was “running before he could walk.” In other words, it was truly a case of medical negligence and malpractice on steroids.
As later revealed by the U.K.’s Daily Mail Online, Nair not only missed a critical training session in Paris that would have taught him how to properly use the surgical robot, but he also wasn’t present for another training sessions that later took place at his own hospital, claiming that he was busy with another surgery at the time.
 
‘Smart toilets’ Will Scan Your Poop to Diagnose Your Ailments
Cnet – AI that screens out spam and recognizes your mom’s face is so 2017. Get ready for smart toilets that’ll scan your poop using artificial intelligence to save you a trip to the doctor.
That’s what Sanjay Mehrotra, chief executive of memory chipmaker Micron Technology, expects as AI spreads to yet another corner of our lives.
“Medicine is going toward precision medicine and precision health,” Mehrotra said at the Techonomy 2018 conference in Half Moon Bay on the Pacific coastline south of San Francisco. “Imagine smart toilets in the future that will be analyzing human waste in real time every day. You don’t need to be going to visit a physician every six months. If any sign of disease starts showing up, you’ll be able to catch it much faster because of urine analysis and stool analysis.”
Medicine already is being changed by AI, technology that uses human-inspired technology called neural networks to spot various types of patterns. AI systems, once trained on large quantities of carefully labeled real-world data, can do things like spot evidence of diabetes in retina imagery and process X-ray scans.
Mehrotra has a big interest in AI. It drives demand for his company’s products in everything from handheld smartphones to massive data centers.
 
SpaceX seeks to tie its record for most launches in a year on Thursday
Ars Technica – In 2017, SpaceX finally answered critics of the company who said it had not delivered on the promise of a high flight rate for its low-cost launch program.
Prior to last year, the critics were not wrong—SpaceX had never successfully launched more than eight rockets in any given year. Finally, in 2017, it attempted 18 launches, and all made it safely into space. The SpaceX steamroller had arrived.
This year the company has had a lot on its plate. It flew the large Falcon Heavy rocket for the first time in February. It introduced a brand-new, potentially highly reusable variant of the Falcon 9 rocket in May. And all throughout the year, the company’s engineers have been scrambling to finalize development of the Dragon spacecraft to meet NASA’s needs to get its astronauts to the International Space Station.
 
Health
 
Youth e-cigarette use is skyrocketing. Now the FDA is stepping in
CNN – Vaping increased nearly 80% among high schoolers and 50% among middle schoolers since last year, prompting the US Food and Drug Administration to propose new measures against flavored nicotine products that have propelled the rise, the agency announced Thursday.
 
Daily Cup of Cocoa Helps Prevent Flu
Green Med Info – When the wintry flu season strikes do you crave a comforting cup of hot cocoa? It could be your body’s innate wisdom at work.
Nature works in mysterious ways.  Just when cold, dry weather chills us to the bone and flu season is in full bloom, we crave a comforting cup of hot cocoa.  As it turns out, that chocolate craving may be our body’s innate wisdom at work.
According to a Japanese study a daily cup of hot cocoa during influenza season may be just what we need to avoid the flu and stay healthy.[i]
The Japanese researchers conducted a three-part chocolate study that included cell tests, animal experiments, and human trials.
In the cell studies they found that cocoa extract inhibited the flu from taking hold in canine kidney cells. The cells had been infected with human influenza A (H1N1, H3N2) and B viruses, as well as avian flu viruses (H5N1, H5N9).
In the animal trial, mice were given cocoa extract for four days before being infected with the flu virus.  The cocoa extract had a preventative effect and significantly improved survival times of the mice.
The daily dose of cocoa for the mice was equivalent to a human drinking two to three cups of a 10% cocoa solution.  In other words, the amounts were close to what a person might normally drink in a cup of hot chocolate.
Then, the researchers tested their findings in humans.  They divided 123 people into two groups. Both groups were vaccinated against the influenza A (H1N1) virus.
For three weeks before and after being vaccinated, one group consumed a cup of hot chocolate every morning.  The drink is commercially available in Japan (under the name Kakao 2 Bai) and contains 360 mg of cocoa polyphenols per cup.  The control group did not drink any cocoa.
After two weeks, antibodies against the A (H1N1) virus were not significantly different between the two groups.  But the cocoa drinking group had significantly more natural killer (NK) cell activity.  NK cells recognize and eliminate influenza-virus-infected cells in order to keep the virus from spreading.
In other words, NK cell activity is an indicator of the body’s natural immunity. Vaccine-induced elevations in antibodies, on the other, do not necessarily equate to bona fide immunity against infection as they are only a proxy measure of effectiveness.  The fact that cocoa consumption significantly increased compared to the control group suggests that drinking cocoa may inhibit influenza virus infection by stimulating natural immunity and therefore confer real world protection against onset of the flu.
Other studies had already found that chocolate elevates NK cell activity against cancer cells. The Japanese researchers believed their finding concerning the NK cell activity may suggest that cocoa polyphenols and especially procyanidins in chocolate might be effective in treating and preventing colorectal cancers  and hepatitis B virus infection in humans.
 

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