Enforce our Bill of Rights
Boston Dynamics released a video Thursday of its humanoid robot tackling a stack of progressively higher boxes in a series of fluid jumps.
Atlas, the two-legged robot, has moved on from more traditional athletics like cross-country and gymnastics to doing parkour. (And, let’s face it, he does much better than Michael Scott.) Continue reading “New video from Boston Dynamics shows robot doing ‘parkour’”
Riverfront Times – by Sarah Fenske
In July, 25-year-old Vanity Allen checked in to SSM Health DePaul Hospital in Bridgeton for stomach pain — only to be left bloodied by one of the hospital’s security guards. Now surveillance footage obtained by her lawyer shows the guard grappling with Allen, then tackling her.
You can see a video of the incident below. While the initial interaction takes place just outside the camera’s field of vision, Allen has said the guard struck her over her left eye with his fist, sending her falling into the sidewalk. Continue reading “Video Shows SSM Hospital Security Guard Taking Down Patient”
For several years now cable and broadband providers have been using hidden fees to covertly jack up their advertised rates. These fees, which utilize a rotating crop of bullshit names, help these companies falsely advertise one rate, then sock the consumer with a significantly higher-rate post sale (often when locked into a long-term contract). The practice also allows the company to falsely claim they’re not raising rates on consumers. They omit that they’re talking about the above the line rate being charged, implying that anything below the line (where real fees like taxes are levied) is outside of their control. Continue reading “Comcast Under Fire For Using Bullshit Fees To Covertly Raise Rates”
A new Stephen Hawking book is out Tuesday, and the late physicist issues a warning in it that sounds straight out of a dystopian sci-fi movie. Hawking worries that genetic editing will allow the rich to turn themselves into “superhumans” who will eventually dominate the world and perhaps the universe, reports the Guardian. “Once such superhumans appear, there will be significant political problems with unimproved humans, who won’t be able to compete,” warns Hawking in Brief Answers to the Big Questions, as excerpted in London’s Sunday Times. Continue reading “Stephen Hawking’s Last Warning for Humans Is Dire”
With marijuana legalization just days away, Ottawa police have not only stepped up training efforts for officers to detect drugged driving but are also warning that if you’ve consumed weed, do not drive.
No police force in the country has conducted any “green” workshops because they’ve been preparing for a new reality that just isn’t legalized yet. Continue reading “Here’s how Ottawa police will test drugged drivers”
A woman who claims to be the oldest person in the world has told of the brutality of her deportation into Soviet internal exile by tyrant Stalin during World War Two.
Koku Istambulova is 129 according to her Russian passport and pension papers which show her date of birth as 1 June 1889. Continue reading “World’s oldest woman, 129, remembers time her people were deported by Stalin in World War Two”
Ecuador has partially restored Julian Assange’s communications in their London Embassy after UN officials met with Ecuador’s president, Lenin Moreno on Friday, reports the Belfast Telegraph.
Assange, who has lived in the embassy for over six years, had his phone and internet access taken away in March over political statements he made in violation of “a written commitment made to the government at the end of 2017 not to issue messages that might interfere with other states.” His visitor access was also limited to members of his legal team. Continue reading “Ecuador Restores Julian Assange’s Internet, Phone And Visitation Privileges”
Last week, Mark Zuckerberg made the media rounds to give a rather shady explanation of why Facebook suddenly closed hundreds of incredibly popular pages in what’s being called The Alternative Media Purge. Zuckerberg accused the closed pages, many of which had millions of fans, of spreading “political spam.”
Ironically, many of the pages that were shut down had absolutely nothing to do with politics or elections, unless you include the fact that they recommended skipping the entire circus. None of these pages were accused of being “the Russians,” who were the scapegoat of the last surprise presidential election results. A couple of the things that many of the pages did have in common, incidentally, were an anti-war outlook and a police watchdog mentality. Continue reading “The People “Stopping Election Interference” Are the Ones Who Are Actually Rigging the Election”
HAIFA, Israel (Reuters) – A 93-year-old great-grandmother was crowned “Miss Holocaust Survivor” on Sunday in an annual Israeli beauty pageant designed to put a smile on women who endured the horrors of the Nazi genocide.
A dozen contestants cautiously trod the catwalk – at times assisted – in the city of Haifa, with hair coiffed, make-up applied and sashes adorning their dresses. Continue reading “Israel crowns 93-year-old as ‘Miss Holocaust Survivor’”
Free Thought Project – by Matt Agorist
Galveston, TX — Isaac Walton, father of three, is fighting for his life in a battle against leukemia. Now, however, he is also fighting police after he says he was attacked by multiple officers, beaten, tasered, and then dumped at a hospital for no reason.
“They abused their authority, pretty much. Thinking they can do what they want with people,” said Walton, who says cops had no reason to even approach him that day. Continue reading “Cops Attack Cancer Patient, Beat Him to a Pulp, Dump Him at the Hospital”
The Trump administration is considering using West Coast military bases or other federal properties as transit points for shipments of U.S. coal and natural gas to Asia as officials seek to bolster the domestic energy industry and circumvent environmental opposition to fossil fuel exports, according to Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke and two Republican lawmakers.
The proposal would advance the administration’s agenda of establishing American “energy dominance” on the world stage and underscores a willingness to intervene in markets to make that happen. It’s tantamount to an end-run around West Coast officials who have rejected private-sector efforts to build new coal ports in their states. Continue reading “US eyes West Coast military bases for coal, gas exports to Asia”
Tenth Amendment Center – by Mike Maharrey
LANSING, Mich. (Oct. 12, 2018) – A bill introduced in the Michigan Senate would allow customers to opt out of installing “smart meter” technology on their homes and businesses without penalty. Passage of this bill would enable Michigan residents to protect their own privacy, and it would take a step toward blocking a federal program in effect.
Sen. Patrick Colbeck (R) introduced Senate Bill 1128 (SB1128) on Sept. 26. Under the proposed law, Michigan utility customers would have the option to refuse an “advanced meter,” commonly known as a smart meter. Continue reading “Michigan Bill Would Allow Customers to Opt Out of Smart Meters, Undermine Federal Program”
Anyone pumped for this week’s launch of Google’s Home Hub might want to temper their excitement. A smart home is a surveilled home. That’s been the concern of privacy activists since citizens started lighting up their abodes with so-called “smart” tech in recent years.
Take Google’s current smart home division, Nest Labs. It’s been told to hand over data on 300 separate occasions since 2015. That’s according to a little-documented transparency report from Nest, launched a year after the $3.2 billion Google acquisition. The report shows around 60 requests for data were received by Google’s unit in the first half of this year alone. In all those cases recorded from 2015 onward, governments have sought data on as many as 525 Nest account holders. Continue reading “Smart Home Surveillance: Governments Tell Google’s Nest To Hand Over Data 300 Times”
Breitbart – by Ildefonso Ortiz and Brandon Darby
More than 1300 Honduran men, women, and children began a trek that is expected to take them through Central America and Mexico. Some of the migrants plan to seek asylum in Mexico while others plan to head to the U.S. border. The march appears to be organized through social media.
The march, dubbed “March of the Migrants,” began this weekend in San Pedro Sula, Honduras, where more than 1300 men, women, and children began a trek that will take them from Honduras to Guatemala and into Mexico where some will seek refugee status. Others are expected to continue north to the U.S border, Reuters reported. Continue reading “1300+ Hondurans Begin Organized Trek to U.S. Border”
An almost unbelievable accident occurred at a Belgian military air base days ago which involved one F-16 jet destroying two others — all while stationary on the ground.
Stunning photos of the aftermath show a completely destroyed Belgian Air Force F-16 fighter and another severely damaged one after a third fired its M61A1 Vulcan 20mm cannon across the flight line while parked. “You can’t help thinking of what a disaster this could have been,” base commander Col. Didier Polome told a Belgian television news station in the aftermath. Continue reading “F-16 Jets Explode After Mechanic Fires Cannon From Another Parked Jet In Bizarre Accident”
(Reuters) – Sears Holdings Corp filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy on Monday with a plan to close 142 more stores, throwing into doubt the future of the century-old retailer that once dominated U.S. malls but has withered in the age of internet shopping.
The Chapter 11 filing to reorganize debts of the parent of Sears, Roebuck and Co and Kmart Corp follows a decade of revenue declines, hundreds of store closures, and years of deals by billionaire Chief Executive Officer Eddie Lampert in an attempt to turn around the company he bought in 2004. Continue reading “Sears, once a retail titan, files for Chapter 11 bankruptcy”
U.S. Customs and Border Protection arrested three illegal immigrant child predators within the past two days in Texas. (The Dallas Morning News)
All three men have been previously convicted of offenses involving a minor, according to officials with U.S. Customs and Border Patrol. Their names were not released. Continue reading “Illegal Child Molesters Caught Crossing Border”