From the Trenches World Report

Business Insider – by Bob Price

For many people, online reviews are the first port of call when looking for a restaurant and hotel.

As such, they’ve become the lifeblood for many businesses — a permanent record of the quality of their services and products. And these businesses are constantly on the watch for unfair or fake reviews, planted by disgruntled rivals or angry customers.

But there will soon be a major new threat to the world of online reviews: Fake reviews written automatically by artificial intelligence (AI).   Continue reading “Researchers taught AI to write totally believable fake reviews, and the implications are terrifying”

Chron

Arkema, the company that owns the chemical plant in Crosby on the verge of more explosions, is refusing to provide a chemical inventory and facility map to the public, one day after promising to provide the information.

Speaking to reporters this morning, Arkema CEO Richard Rowe said the company was balancing “the public’s right to know and the public’s right to be secure.”

Late Thursday night, the company provided a list, detailing the names of the chemicals on the site. It did not provide the amounts of the chemicals, where those chemicals were located or in what types of containers the chemicals were stored in.  Continue reading “Arkema backtracks, refuses to provide chemical inventory to the public”

Breitbart – by Neil Munro

President Barack Obama’s deputies opened a little-known immigration backdoor to put 45,000 DACA illegals on a multistep path to citizenship, according to the Senate Judiciary Committee.

According to the committee, the “advanced parole” loophole has ensured:

As of August 21, 2017, 45,447 DACA recipients have been approved for advance parole through an I-131 Application for travel documents. This approval allows a DACA recipient to travel out of the country and legally return, making them eligible to adjust their immigration status and receive a green card.

Continue reading “45,000 Illegals Using DACA Backdoor to Get Green Cards”

Sputnik

TOKYO (Sputnik) — In a message carried by the KCNA news agency, the Foreign Ministry hit back at the United Nations for saying Tuesday’s launch of a ballistic missile over northern Japan undermined regional security.

Pyongyang said it rejected UN criticism as a violation of its right as a sovereign nation to defend itself against the United States and South Korea and promised to launch more projectiles into the Pacific.   Continue reading “North Korea Declares Start of Pacific Offensive Amid Missile Standoff”

The Hill – by Joe Concha

The Blaze will be conducting mass layoffs in an effort to “become more nimble” and “keep pace with the massive changes” in the media business, Glenn Beck, the company’s founder, said Thursday.

“Today, we said goodbye to just over 20 percent of the combined workforce of Mercury Radio Arts and TheBlaze,” Beck, a one-time Fox News and HLN host, said in a statement.

Beck, 53, said that while he was awarded the Tribeca Disruptive Innovation Award in 2013, he doesn’t believe he’d “finish in the top 100″ today.   Continue reading “Glenn Beck announces mass layoffs at The Blaze”

Phys.org – by Charlotte Hsu

In a new study, researchers detected high concentrations of these drugs and their metabolized remnants in the brain tissue of 10 fish species found in the Niagara River.

This vital conduit connects two of the Great Lakes, Lake Erie and Lake Ontario, via Niagara Falls. The discovery of antidepressants in aquatic life in the river raises serious environmental concerns, says lead scientist Diana Aga, PhD, the Henry M. Woodburn Professor of Chemistry in the University at Buffalo College of Arts and Sciences.  Continue reading “Antidepressants found in fish brains in Great Lakes region”

Weather Channel

Houston Mayor Sylvester Turner is strongly encouraging anyone living east side of Houston’s flood control reservoirs with water still inside their home to evacuate.

“Second story housing and above will not be safe,” the mayor said in a series of tweets. “Apartments, therefore, are covered by evacuation request. But only residences with water on [the] first floor. Water may stay there for two weeks.”

Turner said the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers will be releasing reservoir water into Buffalo Bayou for 15 days, and the Corps has said the releases are necessary to avoid larger catastrophe if the city should receive another heavy rainfall event. The mayor said 15,000 to 20,000 homes could be impacted by flooding due to water releases from the reservoir.  Continue reading “Houston Mayor Strongly Encouraging Evacuations Near Reservoirs”

YNet News – by Andrew Friedman

A US court has thrown out a billion-dollar lawsuit aimed at slashing funding to Israeli charities and institutions in the West Bank, ruling these organizations comply with Treasury Department regulations for non-profit status and noting the attempt to block funding was a political question that is outside the jurisdiction of the courts.

The suit, Al-Tamimi v. Adelson, charged 49 defendants—including philanthropist Sheldon Adelson, Texas Pastor John Hagee, media mogul Haim Saban, non-profits such as the Hebron Fund and corporate entities such as Bank Leumi, Motorola and other companies that provide services to the IDF—with violating both international law and US policy by supporting Israeli ventures in the West Bank.   Continue reading “US court throws out Palestinian suit against businessmen supporting IDF, settlements”

Jerusalem Post

Pepe the Frog hopped out from the virtual world into a real-life legal dispute.

Matt Furie, the cartoonist who created Pepe the Frog, took legal action against Eric Hauser, the author of an “alt-right” children’s book that uses the Pepe character.

Pepe the Frog first appeared in the early 2000s and had no political or ideological connotations. Beginning in late 2015, however, people and groups associated with the alt-right adopted the cartoon amphibian as their own and used his image to espouse racist, Islamophobic and antisemitic ideas.   Continue reading “‘Alt-Right’ Children’s Book Profits To Go To Muslim Advocacy Group”

Jerusalem Post

A movie about Megan Phelps-Roper, who left the viciously anti-gay Westboro Baptist Church after a Twitter correspondence with a prominent Jewish blogger, is in the works.

The screenplay for the film, with the working title “This Above All,” will be written by Nick Hornby. Reese Witherspoon, Bruna Papandrea and Bill Pohlad reportedly have been tapped to produce the film, according to the Hollywood Reporter.  Continue reading “Turning Away From Hate Thanks To A Jewish Tweeter”

Jerusalem Post

The Civil Administration registered to the Jewish National Fund 87.6 hectares (216 acres) in the Kfar Etzion area, thereby ending a 70-year acquisition process.

The land had previously been considered survey property whose land ownership status was unknown. It is located both within and immediately outside the lines of the Kfar Etzion settlement in the Gush Etzion region of the West Bank.   Continue reading “IDF Registers 216 Acres Of Jewish Land In The West Bank”