World News
Researchers discover hidden continent Greater Adria in the Mediterranean
CBS – The seven wonders of the world may be getting a new addition. Researchers have uncovered a continent the size of Greenland mostly hiding underwater in the Mediterranean.
Dubbed “Greater Adria” by its founders at Utrecht University in the Netherlands, the missing piece of continental crust seemingly separated from North Africa and lodged itself under Southern Europe. While most of the continent is underwater, much of the land mass’s sedimentary pieces were scraped off during its great migration. Those scrapings now make up European mountain belts, including parts of the Alps, Greece and Turkey.
“It is quite simply a geological mess. Everything is curved, broken and stacked,” said Utrecht professor Douwe van Hinsbergen, who was a principal researcher. “Compared to this, the Himalayas, for example, represent a rather simple system.”
The Mediterranean region is “geologically among the most complex” on Earth, according to researchers. Van Hinsbergen said the continent’s large area contributed to its past due discovery.
“… it also hosts more than 30 countries. Each of these has its own geological survey, own maps and own ideas about the evolutionary history,” he said. “Research often stops at the national borders.”
Van Hinsbergen believes that Greater Adria shifted from Africa more than 200 million years ago. The only part of Greater Adria still around its original location is a strip stretching through the Adriatic Sea. The spot, known as Adria, connects Turin in Northern Italy to the heel of Italy’s boot-shaped southern land.
Scientists reconstructed the continent’s size and shape with advanced plate tectonic reconstruction software. They used “thousands of pieces of information” about fault lines, stored magnetism in rocks and other Earth movements to create the final image.
The research was published in the scientific journal “Gondwana Research” earlier this month.
Supreme Court: Suspending Parliament was unlawful, judges rule
BBC – Boris Johnson’s decision to suspend Parliament was unlawful, the Supreme Court has ruled.
Mr Johnson suspended – or prorogued – Parliament for five weeks earlier this month, but judges said it was wrong to stop MPs carrying out duties in the run-up to Brexit on 31 October.
Supreme Court president Lady Hale said “the effect on the fundamentals of democracy was extreme.”
The PM says he “strongly disagrees” with the ruling but will “respect” it.
A raft of MPs have now called for the prime minister to resign and some have said they would attempt to force him out if he did not go of his accord.
‘Beyond parody’: Call for UK to ban pointed kitchen knives ridiculed online
RT – Church of England bishops are leading a call for the government to take a serious stance on knife crime by banning pointed kitchen knives. The suggestion has been met with some confusion, and a lot of jokes.
Church leaders, with support from police, victims, and psychiatrists, penned an open letter to the government, arguing that domestic knives should be redesigned with rounded tips to reduce the number of life-threatening stabbing injuries. They reportedly argue that pointed blades aren’t even needed in this day and age, given that we have forks to eat with.
The absurdity of banning a common kitchen implement was pointed out by bemused netizens, particularly as the proposal comes after police recently announced that they will no longer post images of seized knives “to help reduce the fear of knives,” and as the Home Office uses takeaway packaging to basically tell people that stabbing is bad.
Despite such ingenious crime-fighting tactics, the government seems to be having little actual effect on violent knife crime rates, and appears to be failing to assure the public that the problem is being dealt with comprehensively.
Many Twitter users were baffled by the suggestion of a pointed kitchen knife ban, wondering if it’s some sort of joke, while others highlighted the fundamental futility of the idea by noting how easy it is to find an alternative sharply-pointed weapon, or to make one.
Penn State Prof: Social Credit Will Shift Law In The West “From Constitution… To Analytics And Algorithm”
ZeroHedge – Professor Larry Backer of Penn State University writes in a 2018 paper that resistance to social credit systems in the west could be dissolved when the masses are “socialized… as a collective” and “…the great culture management machinery of Western society develop a narrative in which such activity is naturalized within Western culture”
A 2018 paper written by prominent law professor Larry Backer of Penn State discussed the ways in which a social credit system could be implemented in the west. Backer writes that the shift in law with this system will “…change the focus of public law from constitution and rule of law to analytics and algorithm…”
In the paper, titled “Next Generation Law: Data Driven Governance and Accountability Based Regulatory Systems in the West, and Social Credit Regimes in China“, Backer describes moves to social credit in the west as “fractured”, but gives guidance on how societal norms could be steadily pushed to accept this system.
Backer proposes that the “great culture management machinery” of the west normalize the idea of social credit and sharing private data. Backer writes:
“But is it possible to socialize the masses, or even mass democracy as a collective, to embrace this pattern of data disclosure beyond these immediately self-serving closed loop systems? Would it be possible for the state to develop systems for the enforcement of laws (criminal and regulatory) that depends on intelligence by inducing the masses to serve as positive contributors of data necessary for enforcement or regulation? The answer, in Western liberal democracies, may depend on the ability of the great culture management machinery of Western society – its television, movies and other related media – to develop a narrative in which such activity is naturalized within Western culture“.
As Big Tech and artificial intelligence creep further into our lives, a grid of high tech surveillance has entangled us. As if to pacify resistance, these systems (Google home, Apple watches, Amazon Alexa) offer “convenience” in the form of targeted ads, personalized content and other features.
In reality, this system is meant to determine whether or not you will be allowed to function in modern society.
The Trump admin is reportedly considering using this surveillance grid to monitor the population for signs of mental illness, triggering authorities to confiscate firearms from “dangerous individuals”.
In 2013, Old-Thinker News asked the question “Will Insurance Companies Use Smart Appliances to Monitor “Unhealthy” Habits?“
As this 2013 Wall Street Journal article stated, your insurance company:
“…already knows whether you’ve been taking your meds, getting your teeth cleaned and going for regular medical checkups. Now some employers or their insurance companies are tracking what staffers eat, where they shop and how much weight they’re putting on — and taking action to keep them in line.”
Artificial Intelligence, programmed by power hungry individuals, is steadily taking over our society. It is already censoring political opinions. It will be making medical, education, and financial decisions. Humans are to be sidelined. The social credit system will be watching you closely for any deviant behavior. If you arent careful, you will become an outcast. Access to food, transportation and medical care will be denied.
China’s social credit system is coming for businesses too
The personal social credit system in China has already stopped the sale of roughly 26 million train and plane tickets. Soon, businesses will have to follow a stringent list of 300 requirements or also risk being blacklisted
Wired – Corporate social credit “could mean life or death” for foreign companies in China, says Jörg Wuttke, president of the European Union Chamber of Commerce in China in a report released in August. The report, compiled on behalf of the Chamber of Commerce by Sinolytics, a China focused European consultancy firm, makes for sombre reading.
Companies will have to deal with about 30 different ratings categorised according to their performance in sectors like environmental protection, tax and quality controls, which in total will be drawn from compliance records based on roughly 300 requirements. These ratings will cover areas such as tax, customs authentication, environmental protection, product quality, work safety, e-commerce and cybersecurity.
While the report states that “the requirements and rating mechanisms are, in large part, clearly defined and can be assessed through detailed analysis”, the bad news for companies is that the standard of what constitutes ‘detailed analysis’ is pretty high. The Sinolytics database of official documents, we learn in the report, “comprises several hundred documents published at the national level alone, and nearly 1,500 when including all relevant documents at provincial and local levels.”
But if companies want to do business in China – and keep access to its huge domestic market of over 1.4 billion consumers – it’s clear they are going to have a lot of work on their hands. As Jeffrey Towson, professor of investment at Beijing University, cautions “both foreign and domestic companies absolutely need to be in compliance with reporting and other regulations in China, especially in terms of taxes and employment. Don’t mess around in this. Dot your Is and cross your Ts.”
Sweden Sees Rise in Chain Migration from Iraq and Syria
Breitbart – Sweden is currently experiencing a surge in labour migration from outside the European Union but in the cases of Iraqis and Syrians, family reunification migration is rising even higher.
In 2018, Sweden saw 15,400 individuals receive residency as part of family reunification, a number up from just 3,600 in 2009. As the number of family reunification migrants has risen, so too has its proportion compared to overall labour migration, newspaper Norrländska Socialdemokraten reports.
A doctor performed an abortion on the wrong woman
CNN – Police have launched an investigation in South Korea after a doctor performed an abortion by mistake.
On August 7, a pregnant patient with a 6-week-old fetus had gone to a clinic in district of Gangseo, in the country’s capital Seoul, according to the Gangseo police. At the clinic, a mix-up in medical charts and failure to check her identity led to the mistaken abortion.
The doctor and nurse in charge are under investigation, and the case will soon be sent to the prosecutor’s office, police told CNN.
“The doctor and nurse have acknowledged their fault,” a police official said. They are now being accused of negligence resulting in bodily harm.
According to South Korean news agency Yonhap, the patient was supposed to receive a nutritional shot at the clinic. The nurse had allegedly injected her with anesthesia without confirming her identity, and the doctor had performed the abortion without checking her identity either, Yonhap reported. The patient had been unaware of the procedure.
The police announced the investigation on Monday, Yonhap said.
U.S. News, Politics & Government
Trump hammers home ‘America First’ ideology at UN gathering
Politico – President Donald Trump’s “America First” fixation was on stark display on Tuesday in his speech to the United Nations General Assembly, where he boasted of his accomplishments while in office while emphasizing overall his nationalist ideology.
“Like my beloved country, each nation represented in this hall, has a cherished history, culture and heritage, that is worth defending and celebrating, and which gives us our singular potential and strength. The free world must embrace its national foundations. It must not attempt to erase them or replace them,” Trump told a silent crowd of world leaders and aides. “The future doesn’t belong to globalists. The future belongs to patriots.”
Foreign leaders listened closely to Trump’s speech, his third to the multilateral body.
Trump says he spoke about Biden to Ukraine president
Christian Science Monitor- resident Donald Trump suggested that he raised former Vice President Joe Biden and Biden’s son in a summer phone call with Ukraine’s new leader, as Democrats pressed for investigations into whether Trump improperly used his office to try to dig up damaging information about a political rival.
Trump told reporters that the July 25 call with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy was “congratulatory” and focused on corruption in the East European nation. In his remarks to reporters, he then raised Biden as an example, although there is no evidence of wrongdoing by Biden or his son Hunter, who was on the board of a Ukrainian gas company.
“It was largely the fact that we don’t want our people, like Vice President Biden and his son, creating to the corruption already in the Ukraine,” Trump said as he left the White House for a trip to Texas.
Trump denies pressuring Ukraine, will not commit to transcript release
Reuters – U.S. President Donald Trump on Monday denied trying to coerce Ukraine into investigating his Democratic rival Joe Biden, but wavered about whether he would release a transcript of a phone call that some Democrats say is grounds for his impeachment.
Trump told reporters in New York that he did not pressure Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy in a July phone call to launch a corruption investigation into Biden and his son in return for U.S. military aid.
“No I didn’t,” Trump said.
A U.S. whistleblower lodged a complaint about the contents of Trump’s conversation with Zelenskiy, leading to calls from some Democrats that Trump be impeached for trying to enlist a foreign power to smear a domestic opponent.
Orlando reserve officer fired after arrests of two 6-year-old children
WTSP – An Orlando police officer has been fired after he reportedly arrested two 6-year-old children.
Reserve Officer Dennis Turner was terminated Monday morning, Orlando Police Chief Orlando Rolón confirmed during a news conference.
“It was clear today when I came in to work that basically there was no other remedy but to terminate this officer,” Rolón explained.
WKMG-TV last week reported 6-year-old Kaia Rolle was handcuffed and arrested for throwing a tantrum at Lucious and Emma Nixon Academy. Her grandmother, Meralyn Kirkland, claimed the girl had acted out due to a side effect of a lack of sleep from a medical condition.
The TV station reported another student was arrested by Officer Turner. While police initially suggested that student was 8, Rolón later clarified that child was also only 6 years old.
Neither child will be prosecuted. And, their records will be cleared.
Disney’s U.S. theme parks are going vegan
CNN – Disney is the latest to take advantage of the plant-based food craze.
Its U.S. theme parks are going vegan.
Every menu, including those at Disney branded hotel restaurants, will feature meatless options.
More than 400 vegan dishes will be added at Disney World in Florida by early October, followed by California’s Disneyland in Spring 2020.
To help people spot the new additions, Disney says it’ll be adding a new green leaf logo to the menus.
Paris and Hong Kong Disney Parks have plant-based options, too, but only the U.S. locations, for now, will have a vegan option for every menu.
Economy & Business
JPMorgan metals traders accused of manipulating prices
NY Post – Three JPMorgan Chase traders were accused by the Justice Department on Monday of masterminding a “massive,” eight-year scheme to manipulate international markets for precious metals like gold and silver.
From 2008 to 2016, Michael Nowak, Gregg Smith, and Christopher Jordan were involved in placing thousands of scam orders into the precious metals markets in order to “trick” rival traders into buying or selling with them, according to the criminal indictment from the DOJ.
The traders used an illegal tactic called “spoofing,” where they flooded markets with a mix of real and false orders to buy and sell futures contracts on the metals in order to give a false impression about the true supply and demand, according to the indictment.
Former Overstock CEO Byrne Dumps $90 Million Stock Gains Into Gold, Crypto “Out Of Reach Of Deep State”
Coinivore – After falling out of favor with shareholders over his company’s poor stock performance, comments about the “deep state” and his alleged relationship with Russian honeypot Marina Butina, Overstock CEO Patrick Byrne announced his resignation weeks ago.
And now, it looks like Byrne has finally checked out completely: on Wednesday after hours, he filed a Form 4 showing that he had sold his entire ~$90 million stake in the company into the stock’s recent squeeze as lending desks struggled to figure out how to handle the company’s recently proposed “digital dividend”.
His Form 4 showed that he sold about 4.8 million shares over the course of the past three trading sessions. His remaining 87,000 shares were given as a gift to an undisclosed recipient.
Then, in a blog post on his site Deep Capture, Byrne blamed the SEC, who he called “the Deep State’s pets”, according to MarketWatch.
The “digital dividend” that Byrne left in his wake to his shareholders could only be accessed through Overstock’s blockchain-based exchange and required the holder to retain the asset for 6 months. Many thought it was an attempt to squeeze shorts and, if it was, it worked. Overstock stock shot from about $15 on September 4 to a high of almost $30 on September 13 as shorts covered in an attempt to avoid having to deal with the dividend.
But on Wednesday, Overstock had to walk back some of their plans, announcing that the dividend would be freely tradable upon its issue. The company suggested that the change was a reaction to “feedback we received from industry participants, investors and regulators.” The company also moved back the date of the distribution and promised to announce a new record date in 3 to 6 weeks.
On his blog, Byrne said that the pressure to change the digital dividend came from the “Deep State’s pets”:
We heard over the weekend that starting last Friday, the Deep State’s pets at the SEC began leaking something to their clients JPMorgan, Morgan Stanley, and Goldman (and here as citizens I bet you thought we were their clients, right? lol). They leaked that they were going to Bazoomba our digital dividend. Once that started getting back to me, I realized this: Whenever I have had any question about whether the SEC would or would not do something totally outrageous in order to hurt our company to benefit their clients on Wall Street, they never let me down: they always did the evil thing.
Byrne said the assertion that he sold his shares due to lack of confidence in the company was “wrong” and said he would be using his newfound riches to invest in gold, silver and two unnamed cryptocurrencies as a “hedge” against the economy failing. He also promised that if Overstock failed due to the broader economy failing, that he would use his gains from his hedges to recapitalize the company.
Energy & Environment
Left-wing climate lunatics now adopting tactics of Antifa: Disruption, chaos and hatred toward America
NaturalNews – If you’re trying to convince someone that your point of view is the right one and that your take on things is correct, what are you going to do first?
Probably engage that person in a meaningful dialogue, then rationally make your points and back them up with facts — right?
Or would you, say, choose to upset them, inconvenience them, and cost them money or a job?
If you chose the former strategy, that puts you in a majority. But if you chose the latter strategy, it puts you on the fringe — a place few Americans, Left or Right, inhabit.
On Monday, activists who have swallowed the “human-caused climate change” lie shut down more than 20 intersections in Washington, D.C., as their “climate strike and global week of action” launched.
Reports noted that the activists sought to “block key infrastructure” and bring D.C. morning traffic, which is congested and hectic as is, to a “standstill,” The Gateway Pundit reported.
Judging by what some people wrote on Twitter, they managed to accomplish their objective.
“695 is a parking lot. Protestors have blocked NY Ave just after the 395 exit. 395 north appears to be shut down so I’m guessing all the exits are blocked. Good f**king luck getting around DC this morning!” one user wrote.
Among their ‘list of demands’ — passage of the economically and technologically impossible “Green New Deal,” ‘respect for indigenous land,’ “environmental justice” (whatever that is), biodiversity protection (ditto) and ‘sustainable’ agriculture — as though farmers being able to plant crops on the same rotation of land year after year doesn’t already demonstrate sustainability.
Meanwhile, some effeminate ‘gentlemen’ were twerking in traffic as others poured confetti on them…for someone else to clean up, of course. So much for that ‘taking care of the environment’ objective. Nothing says, ‘Hey, I really care about the planet’ like dumping paper all over the place.
Pakistan earthquake: Houses collapse in 5.8 tremor
BBC – A 5.8 magnitude earthquake has struck eastern Pakistan, killing at least 19 people and injuring more than 300, local officials say.
The quake’s epicentre was close to the city of Mirpur, in Pakistan-administered Kashmir.
Photos circulating on social media show a huge crack on a main road in the area, and partially destroyed houses.
Science & Technology
You have the right to be forgotten by Google – but only in Europe
Reuters – If you want your past to be forgotten on the internet, it might be best to move to Europe.
Google (GOOGL.O) will not have to apply Europe’s “right to be forgotten” law globally, the continent’s top court ruled on Tuesday in a landmark case that has pitted personal privacy rights against freedom of speech.
The victory for the U.S. tech titan means that, while it must remove links to sensitive personal data from its internet search results in Europe when required, it does not have to scrap them from searches elsewhere in the world.
The case has been viewed as a landmark test, in an age of an internet that knows no borders, of whether people can demand a blanket removal of information about themselves from searches without stifling free speech and legitimate public interest.
NYPD Launches ‘Sentiment Meter’ On Socials To Gauge Public’s Trust Level
CBS – The NYPD has a new tool for making sure city residents feel safe.
Your latest crime-fighting weapon is none other than your cellphone. The Police Department is now operating something called a “sentiment meter,” asking New Yorkers if they trust cops and whether they feel safe in their neighborhood.
“This is a huge issue here,” O’Neill told Kramer exclusively. “We can lay out all the crime numbers that we want, but unless people feel safe, we’re not doing our job entirely.”
Using social media — Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and Google search — a company hired by the department gets up to 7,500 New Yorkers a month, from every borough, every precinct, every sector, to answer several questions.
Such as:
How safe do you feel in your neighborhood?
Do the cops in my neighborhood treat local residents with respect?
Do the police in my neighborhood listen, take into account the concerns of local residents?
“If you don’t feel safe in your neighborhood let’s figure out why. Maybe it is a quality-of-life condition that isn’t being addressed. Maybe it’s abandoned vehicles. Maybe there are other issues going on. Maybe there’s a robbery pattern,” O’Neill said.
CBS2 obtained sentiment meter findings, which show that in September 2016 6.1 of every 10 New Yorkers said they trust the cops. It went up to 6.5 in January 2018, but fell to 6.0 in May 2018 after the police-involved shooting of Sahid Vassel. That’s the case in which cops mistook a metal pipe for a gun.
Trust is currently at 6.6.
The number of New Yorkers who feel safe has often reached 6.8 since September 2016, but it has been down the last three months, including 6.3 in August.
Commissioner O’Neill told Kramer that decrease could be related to the increase in innocent bystanders shot.
When asked to rank trust of the police on a scale of 1 to 10, Upper West Side resident Edwin Jorge said, “Man, oh, 2% maybe.” When asked how come, Jorge replied, “It’s New York City.”
Added Kevin McDonough, “I trust them. I guess it’s somewhere between an 8 and a 10.”
“Six,” said Nazivyah Hargrove of Spring Creek, Brooklyn. “With people of color there’s a little, you know, there’s something going on. They don’t trust us as much. They don’t give us as much credit that we’re doing the right thing.”
O’Neill told Kramer the information will prove invaluable to precinct commanders who can tailor outreach and manpower to each individual sector.
Health
Eating More Nuts Linked to Less Weight Gain and Lower Obesity Risk
Natural Blaze – Substituting half a daily serving of unhealthy foods with nuts may help stave off gradual weight gain, say researchers
Increasing nut consumption by just half a serving (14 g or ½ oz) a day is linked to less weight gain and a lower risk of obesity, suggests a large, long term observational study, published in the online journal BMJ Nutrition, Prevention & Health.
Substituting unhealthy foods, such as processed meats, French fries, and crisps (potato chips) with a half a serving of nuts may be a simple strategy to ward off the gradual weight gain that often accompanies the aging process, suggest the researchers.
On average, US adults pile on 1lb or nearly half a kilo every year. Gaining 2.5-10 kilos in weight is linked to a significantly greater risk of heart disease/stroke and diabetes.
Nuts are rich in healthy unsaturated fats, vitamins, minerals and fibre, but they are calorie dense, so often not thought of as good for weight control. But emerging evidence suggests that the quality of what’s eaten may be as important as the quantity.
FDA expands blood pressure drug recall, again
NBC – The Food and Drug Administration is again expanding its recall of widely prescribed blood pressure drugs due to contamination with a cancer-linked chemical.
Monday’s announcement targets an additional five lots of the generic drug losartan made by Torrent Pharmaceuticals Limited. The lots include losartan potassium tablets and losartan potassium/hydrochlorothiazide tablets.
Green Tea Could Hold Key to Reducing Antibiotic Resistance
NaturalBlaze – Scientists at the University of Surrey have discovered that a natural antioxidant commonly found in green tea can help eliminate antibiotic resistant bacteria.
The study, published in the Journal of Medical Microbiology, found that epigallocatechin (EGCG) can restore the activity of aztreonam, an antibiotic commonly used to treat infections caused by the bacterial pathogen Pseudomonas aeruginosa.
- aeruginosa is associated with serious respiratory tract and bloodstream infections and in recent years has become resistant to many major classes of antibiotics. Currently a combination of antibiotics is used to fight P. aeruginosa.
However, these infections are becoming increasingly difficult to treat, as resistance to last line antibiotics is being observed.
“Antimicrobial resistance (AMR) is a serious threat to global public health. Without effective antibiotics, the success of medical treatments will be compromised. We urgently need to develop novel antibiotics in the fight against AMR. Natural products such as EGCG, used in combination with currently licenced antibiotics, may be a way of improving their effectiveness and clinically useful lifespan.”
Professor Roberto La Ragione, Head of the Department of Pathology and Infectious Diseases in the School of Veterinary Medicine at the University of Surrey, said:
“The World Health Organisation has listed antibiotic resistant Pseudomonas aeruginosa as a critical threat to human health. We have shown that we can successfully eliminate such threats with the use of natural products, in combination with antibiotics already in use. Further development of these alternatives to antibiotics may allow them to be used in clinical settings in the future.”
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