March 28, 2024

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Knowledge is Power

Today's News: October 08, 2018

World News
 
Canadian province demands faith-based schools purge religious content from policies
LifeSiteNews – Alberta’s deputy education minister Curtis Clark is threatening the funding and accreditation of independent schools in the province if they don’t scrub a broad range of religious content from their policies, according to a correspondence obtained by the Justice Centre for Constitutional Freedoms (JCCF).
The correspondences identify examples of language from several schools’ “Safe and Caring” policies, which allegedly conflict with various provisions of the School Act, as well as “disrespect” diversity by “suggest[ing] alternative viewpoints are not equally legitimate,” and contain “provisions which we consider unwelcoming, uncaring, and/or disrespectful to certain segments of the student body.”
Examples of objectionable language include:

  • the declaration that “men and women were created in the image of God, after His likeness, and therefore have transcendent, intrinsic worth”;
  • the stated goal of “develop[ing] godly attitudes toward marriage and the family”;
  • reference to “the unchangeable and infallible truth of the Word of God”;
  • affirmation that men and women are “equal in dignity and worth” but have “distinct and complementary roles”;
  • statements that student clubs must align with “the values, principles, mission and vision of the school”:
  • the declaration that “Obedience to God’s law supersedes subjection to human authority”; and more.

Any offending schools that fail to remove the cited language from their policies may face investigation, “funding implications,” or the suspension or cancellation of accreditation,” Clark wrote in an August 27 email.
 
‘We’re independent’: India defies US sanctions over billion-worth S-400 deal with Russia
RT – India’s not cowed by US threats of sanctions for buying Russia’s S-400 missile systems, as it follows an “independent policy,” an army chief said, adding that his country had to think of what is “strategically important.”
 
Russia is going to apply a total no fly zone in Syria
by Valentin Vasilescu
While the international press is asking questions on the number and version of the S-300 missiles that will be delivered in two weeks to Syria, Valentin Vasilescu is more interested in the Russian anti-air set up. This is involves applying a total no-fly zone to the Westerners (Israeli included). Nothing more, nothing less.
 
Pope blames devil for Church divisions, scandals, seeks angel’s help
Reuters – The devil is alive and well and working overtime to undermine the Roman Catholic Church, Pope Francis says.
In fact, the pope is so convinced that Satan is to blame for the sexual abuse crisis and deep divisions racking the Church that he has asked Catholics around the world to recite a special prayer every day in October to try to beat him back.
“(The Church must be) saved from the attacks of the malign one, the great accuser and at the same time be made ever more aware of its guilt, its mistakes, and abuses committed in the present and the past,” Francis said in a message on Sept. 29.
Since he was elected in 2013, Francis has made clear that he believes the devil to be real. In a document in April on holiness in the modern world, Francis mentioned the devil more than a dozen times.
“We should not think of the devil as a myth, a representation, a symbol, a figure of speech or an idea. This mistake would lead us to let down our guard, to grow careless and end up more vulnerable,” he wrote in the document.
 
U.S. News, Politics & Government
 
Kavanaugh hires Supreme Court’s first all-women law clerk team
The Week – The newly confirmed Supreme Court Justice Brett Kavanaugh has already fulfilled one of his promises.
After weeks of contentious hearings, the Senate voted to confirm the polarizing nominee Saturday evening. And Kavanaugh was already on the job Sunday morning with the court’s first-ever all-women team of law clerks by his side, The New York Times reports.
Those four women — Kim Jackson, Shannon Grammel, Megan Lacy, and Sara Nommensen — were at the Supreme Court on Sunday, aiding Kavanaugh ahead of his first case hearings this week, the Times details. Jackson will become one of three black law clerks working at the Supreme Court this term. She has previously worked for Kavanaugh, along with one of the other black clerks, per The Washington Post.
Kavanaugh will kick off his Supreme Court career Tuesday with a case about crimes involving firearms.
 
Bar tries to ban Republicans celebrating Kavanaugh
WND – The managers of a Seattle bar who sought to ban a GOP organization from celebrating the confirmation of Supreme Court Justice Brett Kavanaugh – at one point telling members to go away – have backed down quickly after they were told their discrimination was illegal.
 
Wireless voting machines vulnerable? States say safe enough
Miami Herald – Barely a month before midterm elections, voting integrity advocates and electronic voting experts want the federal government to issue an official warning to states that use voting machines with integrated cellular modems that the machines are vulnerable to hacks, potentially interfering with the ballot counting.
Once seen as a useful tool to provide quick election results, voting machines with cellular modems are now subject to fierce debate over how easy it would be to break into them and change the results.
Such machines are certified for use in Florida, Illinois, Michigan and Wisconsin.
A spokeswoman for the Florida Department of State, Sarah Revell, defended the certification of such machines.
“Voting machines are not connected to the internet,” Revell said in an email to McClatchy, adding that “it is important to note that when transmitting election data everything is encrypted and authenticated.”
 
California governor candidates face off tonight
AP – The two men hoping to be California’s next governor said during a Monday debate that the cost of living is the top issue facing the state.
Republican John Cox and Democrat Gavin Newsom squared off at San Francisco public radio station KQED — their only face-off ahead of the November election.
Newsom, the state’s lieutenant governor, said closing the gap between rich and poor Californians is paramount and pledged to tackle what he called the “vexing issues” of housing affordability and homelessness.
“The California dream is predicated on social mobility,” he said.
Cox, meanwhile, laid blame for Californians’ problems on Newsom.
“Gavin’s been part of the political class that has led this state downward,” Cox said.
The two also sparred on criminal justice reform, gun control and the environment while Newsom repeatedly tried to tie Cox to Republican President Donald Trump.
 
Trump: No plans to fire Rod Rosenstein
Al Jazeera – US President Donald Trump said on Monday that he has no plans to fire Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein, the Department of Justice official in charge of the federal investigation into Russian meddling in the 2016 presidential election.
There has been widespread speculation that Trump might fire Rosenstein, a frequent target of Trump’s tweeted criticism, after a New York Times report claimed that he had made remarks about Trump’s fitness for office and offered to tape record conversations with him.
Asked by a reporter if he had any plans to fire him, Trump said: “No I don’t, no.”
 
NETLFIX ‘addict’ checks into treatment
USA Today – Netflix knows it has a grip on viewers: The average subscriber streamed 50 minutes of Netflix a day last year, according to a CNBC report, and CEO Reed Hastings admits he wants to keep you watching.
“You know, think about it, when you watch a show from Netflix and you get addicted to it, you stay up late at night,” Hastings said in an earnings call last year, per Recode. “You really – we’re competing with sleep, on the margin.”
Now, a Netflix superuser in India who watched more than seven hours a day has admitted he needs help, the Hindu reported. The unidentified 26-year-old checked into the National Institute of Mental Health and Neurosciences in Bangalore last week after using Netflix to escape the reality of his unemployment for six months, according to the newspaper.
Manoj Kumar Sharma, a clinical psychologist at the institute’s Service for Healthy Use of Technology (SHUT) told the Hindu that the man turned to Netflix to escape pressures from family to find a job, forgetting his problems and deriving “immense pleasure from it.”
 
Boston breathing easier after major raid on MS-13
AP – The streets are quieter these days in East Boston, but the marchers still gather in front of the police precinct house, as they have nearly every Thursday evening for the past four summers, after a rash of brutal killings and attempted murders by the violent street gang MS-13 struck fear into residents of this majority Latin American neighborhood.
A dozen or so residents, police officers and church pastors set out across the neighborhood, handing out purple wristbands calling for peace and holding handwritten signs bearing messages in Spanish like “Los Jovenes Son El Futuro” (Youth are the Future) and “Juntos Por La Paz” (Together for Peace).
Some 60 members of MS-13 were rounded up by the FBI and state and local police in January 2016 in what authorities have touted as nation’s largest single takedown of the notorious Salvadoran gang. Most of those still awaiting sentencing are scheduled to have their day in court this month.
At the time of the raid, officials said they took down about a third of the MS-13 presence in Massachusetts, as well as leaders of the gang’s East Coast Program, which also oversaw factions in Houston; Columbus, Ohio; New Jersey; Virginia; Maryland; and North Carolina.
Attorney General Jeff Sessions, on recent visits to New England, lauded the raid, which happened under former President Barack Obama, as an example of why stepped-up enforcement of illegal immigration is necessary. All but three of the defendants convicted face deportation after their sentences, according to prosecutors.
 
Adelsons ‘biggest spenders’ in US politics with $55 million for Republicans
NYT: Casino mogul’s relationship with Trump is not about personal affinity but based on a ‘mutual appreciation for something both men have built their careers on: the transaction’
Casino mogul and Jewish megadonor Sheldon Adelson and his wife, Miriam, have given $55 million in the last few months to groups working to ensure Republican control of the House and Senate after the midterm elections.
The donations make them the “biggest spenders on federal elections in all of American politics,” the New York Time reported Saturday, citing publicly available campaign finance data.
The article noted more than a dozen people who know the Adelsons who were interviewed for the article say that Sheldon Adelson’s relationship with President Donald Trump is not about personal affinity but based on a “mutual appreciation for something both men have built their careers on: the transaction.”
 
Economy & Business
 
Chick-fil-A partnership with Pittsburgh Marathon causes ire among LGBT activists
Fox – The Pittsburgh Marathon ran into some problems earlier this month when it announced Chick-fil-A as the official title partner for its children’s race.
Pittsburgh Three Rivers Marathon, Inc. (P3R) announced its partnership with Chick-fil-A Pittsburgh late last month and celebrated with a family-oriented event on Oct. 2. Children posed for photos with the iconic cow mascot dressed in running gear and took home prizes and coupons.
Chick-fil-A Pittsburgh serves as the title partner of the kids’ marathon and a presenting partner for Kids of STEEL, a nutrition and activity program for children in southwestern Pennsylvania.
 
Suggests $240 Per Gallon Gas Tax
The Daily Caller – A United Nations special climate report suggests a tax on carbon dioxide emissions would need to be as high as $27,000 per ton at the end of the century to effectively limit global warming.
For Americans, that’s the same as a $240 per gallon tax on gasoline in the year 2100, should such a recommendation be adopted. In 2030, the report says a carbon tax would need to be as high as $5,500 — that’s equivalent to a $49 per gallon gas tax.
If you think that’s an unlikely scenario, you’re probably not wrong. However, it’s what the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change’s report, released Sunday night, sees as a policy option for reducing emissions enough to keep projected warming below 1.5 degrees Celsius.
The IPCC’s report is meant to galvanize political support for doubling down on the Paris climate accord ahead of a U.N. climate summit scheduled for December. The report calls for societal changes that are “unprecedented in terms of scale” in order to limit future global warming to below 1.5 degrees Celsius, the stretch goal of the Paris accord.
 
China demands US stop ‘misguided actions’ amid frosty ties
Al Jazeera  – Chinese foreign minister appeals to Pompeo to repair relations damaged by US tariff hikes and support for Taiwan.
China has ramped up its rhetoric against the United States, demanding Washington stop its “misguided actions” as tensions over trade prevail between the two nations.
US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo faced a testy exchange with Chinese officials in Beijing on Monday, on the final leg of an East Asian trip focused on the North Korean nuclear issue.
Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi appealed to Pompeo to cease actions that Beijing sees as threatening its core interests, in order to avoid disrupting cooperation over North Korea and other issues
 
Energy & Environment
 
UN report on ‘global warming’ carries life-or-death warning
Yahoo – The Nobel Prize-winning Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change issued its gloomy report at a meeting in Incheon, South Korea.
In the 728-page document, the U.N. organization detailed how Earth’s weather, health and ecosystems would be in better shape if the world’s leaders could somehow limit future human-caused warming to just 0.9 degrees Fahrenheit (a half degree Celsius) from now, instead of the globally agreed-upon goal of 1.8 degrees F (1 degree C). Among other things:
— Half as many people would suffer from lack of water.
— There would be fewer deaths and illnesses from heat, smog and infectious diseases.
— Seas would rise nearly 4 inches (0.1 meters) less.
— Half as many animals with back bones and plants would lose the majority of their habitats.
— There would be substantially fewer heat waves, downpours and droughts.
— The West Antarctic ice sheet might not kick into irreversible melting.
— And it just may be enough to save most of the world’s coral reefs from dying.
“For some people this is a life-or-death situation without a doubt,” said Cornell University climate scientist Natalie Mahowald, a lead author on the report.
 
OCTOBER HURRICANE HEADS FOR FLORIDA PANHANDLE… DEVELOPING
Wunderground – Hurricane watches were flying for the Florida Panhandle as rapidly intensifying Hurricane Michael headed northward over the warm waters of the Western Caribbean. Michael is expected to make landfall in the Florida Panhandle on Wednesday as a Category 3 hurricane.
 
Gulf of Mexico offshore platforms evacuated ahead of hurricane
Reuters – nergy companies on Monday halted nearly a fifth of Gulf of Mexico oil production and evacuated staff from 10 platforms as Hurricane Michael intensified and headed for a path up the eastern U.S. part of the Gulf.
BHP Billiton , BP , Equinor and Exxon Mobil Corp were evacuating personnel from oil and gas platforms in the Gulf as forecasters predicted the storm would become a Category 3 hurricane.
Companies turned off the daily production flow of 324,190 barrels of oil and nearly 284 million cubic feet of natural gas at midday, according to a survey of producers. Five drilling rigs also were moved out of the storm’s path, the Bureau of Safety and Environmental Enforcement said.
 
Science & Technology
 
5G rolls out, but not without controversy
Courier Tribune – Lampposts around downtown Los Angeles are being wired with fiber optic cable and shoebox-sized gadgets to beam the fifth and fastest generation of cellular data, known as 5G, into homes and mobile devices.
This high-tech infrastructure build-out is the result of a deal between the city and Verizon — Los Angeles gave the wireless carrier a break on the fees for taking up space on streetlights in exchange for a package of amenities and services.
Such arrangements are common nationwide, where local governments have long leveraged access to public property and rights of way as a bargaining chip to accomplish policy goals.
But late last month, the Federal Communications Commission took the unusual step of nationalizing public infrastructure for 5G installation, throwing L.A.’s deal with Verizon and agreements between other cities and carriers into question in the process.
The FCC established a maximum price that local governments can charge telecom companies for small cell installations on public poles and in city streets: $270. The agency also established what it called a “shot clock” mandating that permits for small cell infrastructure be processed within 60 to 90 days, depending on the type of installation. If the permits take longer, the telecom companies can take cities to court.
Cities charging more than the maximum rate of $270 are open to litigation, and according to the ruling will have to prove that the higher fee is a reasonable approximation of costs.
“There has never been a federal decision to price-regulate the way local governments provide access to their own property,” said Blair Levin, a fellow at the Brookings Institution who served as chief of staff to the Clinton-era chairman of the FCC. “That’s an extreme step.”
FCC Chairman Ajit Pai said the ruling will hasten the rollout of the new technology, which debuted in the homes of some Verizon customers in Los Angeles this week. “Big-city taxes on 5G slow down deployment there and also jeopardize the construction of 5G networks in suburbs and rural America,” he wrote in a statement accompanying the ruling.
Local governments across the country, however, say the rules are too friendly to the telecom industry.
 
GOOGLE hid data breach from public
Wall Street Journal – Google opted not to disclose to users its discovery of a bug that gave outside developers access to private data. It found no evidence of misuse.
Google exposed the private data of hundreds of thousands of users of the Google+ social network and then opted not to disclose the issue this past spring, in part because of fears that doing so would draw regulatory scrutiny and cause reputational damage, according to people briefed on the incident and documents reviewed by The Wall Street Journal.
 
FACEBOOK CAMERA FOLLOWS YOU AROUND ROOM
Infowars – Facebook has announced the rollout of its new ‘Portal’ smart speakers, which it brags have a camera that can automatically follow users around the room.
Becoming the latest company to enter the smart-speaker market after Amazon Alexa and Google Home, Facebook rolled out a pair of voice-controlled devices that are optimized for video calling.
“Portal’s smart camera follows the action, keeping you in frame and everyone in view,” states the promo for the product.
The technology led some people to draw comparisons to George Orwell’s 1984, and a quote from the book illustrates creepy similarities.
“The telescreen recieved and transmitted simultaneously. Any sound Winston made, above the level of a very low whisper, would be picked up by it; moreover, so long as he remained within the field of vision which the metal plaque commanded, he could be seen as well as heard.”
Undoubtedly wary about fears the technology could be exploited to spy on its users following the company’s data abuse scandals, Facebook has even included a camera cover that can be slipped over the lens.
Power Mall Related Interview of Interest – Wednesday, October 10, 2018:
Joining to discuss a new documentary on the stunning degree to which society is manipulated by Google and Facebook is director M.A. Taylor .  “The Creepy Line” is a title taken from the words of former Google CEO Eric Schmidt, when during a 2010 interview he explained Google’s code of conduct: “The Google policy on a lot of things is to get right up to the creepy line and not cross it.” However, as Dr. Robert Epstein explains in the film, “Google crosses the creepy line every day.” Containing interviews with Jordan B. Peterson, Peter Schweizer, and others, The Creepy Line offers an explosive look at the meddling and intervening done by Google and Facebook on their supposedly “neutral platforms.” The Creepy Line takes the conversation about data privacy and control further than ever before by examining what Google and Facebook do once they control a user’s data. Offering first-hand accounts, scientific experiments and detailed analysis, The Creepy Line examines what is at risk when these two tech titans have free reign to utilize the public’s most private and personal data.
>> Watch the trailer here
 
Health
 
Thyroid Nodules + 7 Natural Ways to Manage Symptoms of Thyroid Disease
Dr. Axe – Thyroid nodules are the most common disorder involving the endocrine system, but when you feel a lump in your throat or it’s detected during a routine physical exam, it’s normal to feel worried.
So how do you know when to worry about thyroid nodules? And if it’s not thyroid cancer, what’s causing this lump in your throat? Read on to get some answers about thyroid nodules causes and even natural remedies for thyroid health.
7 Natural Remedies for Symptoms of Thyroid Disease

  1. Avoid Iodine Deficiency
  2. Eat Foods High in Selenium, Zinc and B Vitamins
  3. Avoid Inflammatory Foods
  4. Reduce Stress Levels
  5. Try Ashwagandha
  6. Take Probiotics
  7. Reduce Toxic Exposures

>> Power Mall Products of Interest:

 
Makers of LaCroix hit with lawsuit alleging their sparkling water contains ‘synthetic’ ingredients, including a ‘cockroach insecticide’
Makers of LaCroix hit with lawsuit alleging their sparkling water contains ‘synthetic’ ingredients, including a ‘cockroach insecticide’ originally appeared on goodmorningamerica.com
The makers of the wildly popular sparkling water LaCroix, which has become a phenomenon over the past year, were hit with a lawsuit alleging the beverage contains “non-natural flavorings,” including an ingredient said to be used as a “cockroach insecticide.”
The lawsuit, which is seeking class action status, was filed in Cook County, Illinois, against the drink’s parent company, National Beverage Corporation, and slammed what it said was the “practice of mislabeling their signature product, LaCroix Water, as ‘all-natural,'” according to court documents obtained by ABC News.
The beverage makers “mislead consumers into believing that their product is natural when it is not,” the complaint added. Moreover, the suit alleged the bubbly water contains the ingredient “linalool” which it says “is used as a cockroach insecticide.”
 
STUDY: Daily Glass Of Wine Can Lead To Early Death
Study Finds – We often see studies that tell us not only is light or moderate drinking not harmful to our health, in some cases, it’s actually good for us. But new research out of Washington University’s School of Medicine suggests that daily glass of wine may not be such a good idea after all. Instead, it actually raises your risk of dying sooner.
According to the study of more than 400,000 American adults, light drinkers — regardless of age — are 20 percent more likely to suffer a premature death.
“It used to seem like having one or two drinks per day was no big deal, and there even have been some studies suggesting it can improve health,” notes first author Dr. Sarah M. Hartz, an assistant professor of psychiatry at the university, in a release. “But now we know that even the lightest daily drinkers have an increased mortality risk.”
 
CDC raises alarm on polio-like illness hitting kids
USA Today – The Centers for Disease and Control says a rare but potentially severe condition that causes weakness or even paralysis in the arms and legs is on the rise, mainly affecting children.
Between August 2014 and August 2018, the CDC received 362 cases of acute flaccid myelitis (AFM).
The Minnesota Department of Health recently announced six AFM cases have been classified in its state and were reported in children under 10 years old, living in the Twin Cities, central Minnesota and northeastern Minnesota.
 

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