Hometown Newspaper For The Free World
Judge dismisses Sarah Palin’s New York Times libel lawsuit
From www.bbc.co.uk
2022-02-14 21:25:22
Excerpt:
In an unusual move, however, Mr Rakoff said that the jury deliberations – which began Friday – would be allowed to continue. He said that with an appeal from Ms Palin’s legal team likely, an appeals court “would greatly benefit from knowing how the jury would decide it”.
A new effort using a fuel called trtium in fusion energy experiment offers hope in the development of fusion energy as a viable alternative sustaining energy source. The experiment creates opportunities for physicists to pursue further fusion energy development. Having sustained a fusion event for five seconds, physicists hope to scale up from seconds to hours, creating potential vast sources of readily-created portable energy anywhere in the world.
That’s the general idea behind technologies like fusion energy, to create ways for humans to create from indigenous resources as much as possible (though not entirely) most of their essential needs, with energy being a high priority (behind food and water, but even these can be enhanced by energy resources).
As we often point out with emerging technology, the tech itself is a neutrality, a tool that can become a tool of oppression or free associative sustainable self-reliance. Fusion energy tech could be locked behind Intellectual Property firewalls, used to create subscription services with morality code terms of service attached to them. Fusion energy tech could enable a people in the middle of a desert to create communities of green thanks to the power source provided by the fusion of molecules alone.
We may be a couple decades away from fusion energy becoming a viable energy source, but there’s no reason for free associative minded folks to try to develop open source tech alternatives that are better than the IP-controlled tech the powers that be are developing.
Nuclear Fusion Reactor Sets Landmark Energy Record Using Tritium Fuel
From www.iflscience.com
2022-02-09 12:09:00
Excerpt:
A new landmark has been passed on the quest for fusion power with a new record for energy released. However, while the announcement marks a step towards the goal of powering the world from the same energy source as the stars, it is also a reminder of how far there is to go.
Models of fusion reactors suggest the optimum fuel will be a mixture of tritium – an isotope of hydrogen, made up of one proton and two neutrons – and deuterium. Yet, paradoxically, almost all fusion research has been done on ordinary hydrogen or deuterium.
Now, however, the first fusion experiments conducted using tritium since 1997 have produced a record amount of energy for a fusion reactor over a period of five seconds – 59 megajoules. The results were described at a press conference today.
….“The record, and more importantly the things we’ve learned about fusion under these conditions and how it fully confirms our predictions, show that we are on the right path to a future world of fusion energy. If we can maintain fusion for five seconds, we can do it for five minutes and then five hours as we scale up our operations in future machines,” Professor Tony Donné of EUROfusion said in a statement seen by IFLScience.
Thanks to graphene, our ability to think and see that thought become a machine’s action is just a few short years away. Researchers out of the University of Technology Sydney have been developing a new type of EEG sensor using graphene that could break down the hurdles that have prevented engineers from fully developed thought to machine action technology up to this time.
Graphene biosensor will drive new innovations in brain-controlled robotics – Physics World
From physicsworld.com
2022-02-09 09:33:53
Excerpt:
Recently, researchers have developed EEG sensors made from graphene, which offers excellent conductivity and biocompatibility. Graphene-based biosensors, however, often have low durability, corroding upon contact with sweat, and exhibit high skin-contact impedance that hampers the detection of signals from the brain. A novel graphene-based biosensor developed at the University of Technology Sydney aims to overcome these limitations, detecting EEG signals with high sensitivity and reliability – even in highly saline environments.
The sensor, described in the Journal of Neural Engineering, is made from epitaxial graphene (EG) grown on a silicon carbide (SiC)-on-silicon substrate. This structure unites graphene’s favourable properties with the physical robustness and chemical inertness of SiC.
“We’ve been able to combine the best of graphene, which is very biocompatible, very conductive, with the best of silicon technology, which makes our biosensor very resilient and robust to use,” says senior author Francesca Iacopi in a press statement.
….“With our sensor, the contact resistance improves when the sensor sits on the skin,” Iacopi explains. “Over time, we were able to achieve a reduction of more than 75% of the initial contact resistance. This means the electric signals being sent by the brain can be reliably collected and then significantly amplified, and that the sensors can also be used reliably in harsh conditions, thereby enhancing their potential for use in brain–machine interfaces.”
It appears the leading candidate for the position of black-woman-SCOTUS, Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson, has your typical far left background, a background that includes open hostility towards the basic institutions of the American republic, like the Bill of Rights. This judge also has a bonus background nugget in the form of a former client she zealously defended that just happened to be a Gitmo Terror Suspect.
Supreme Court Frontrunner Was a Zealous Advocate for Gitmo Terror Suspects
From freebeacon.com
2022-02-07 10:00:37
Kevin Daley
Excerpt:
Supreme Court frontrunner Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson was an active and dedicated advocate for terror suspects housed at Guantanamo Bay, contrary to press accounts and her own representations.
Jackson has portrayed her work for the detainees as that of a disinterested professional fulfilling an assignment. But a Washington Free Beacon review of court filings dating back to 2005 indicates that Jackson was deeply committed to equal treatment for accused terrorists. Her advocacy was zealous and often resembled ideological cause lawyering, even in her capacity as a public defender. At times, she flirted with unsubstantiated left-wing theories that were debunked by government investigators. On other occasions, she accused Justice Department lawyers of egregious misconduct with little evidence.
As a federal public defender, Jackson represented a Guantanamo detainee accused of attacking a U.S. military base in Afghanistan. She continued to advocate on behalf of detainees and attack Bush-era detention policies in the Supreme Court after she left public service for private practice.
UN says severe drought affects 4.3 mln people in Somalia
From www.china.org.cn
2022-02-07 15:55:28
Excerpt:
MOGADISHU, Feb. 7 (Xinhua) — An estimated 4.3 million people have been affected by the severe drought which is ravaging several parts of Somalia, up from 3.2 million a month ago, the United Nations humanitarian agency said on Monday.
The UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (UNOCHA) said the escalating drought has seen some 271,000 have abandoned their homes in search of water, food and pasture. “With the next rainy season not expected until April 2022, Somalia is staring at a potential catastrophe,” UNOCHA warned in its latest drought response released in Mogadishu, the capital of Somalia.
It said the UN Central Emergency Response Fund has allocated 25 million U.S. dollars for the drought response and the Somalia Humanitarian Fund has complemented this funding with an allocation of 6 million dollars; a second allocation is underway. Additional funding for priority sectors is urgently required to save lives and livelihoods, including substantive and early funding…
From www.cnbc.com
2022-02-06 16:51:54
Excerpt:
This is big.
The two leading authoritarians of our time have declared unprecedented common cause, perhaps even a de facto security alliance, with aspirations of shaping a new world order to replace the one fashioned by the United States and its partners after World War II.
Chinese President Xi Jinping and Russian President Vladimir Putin wanted to make sure the world didn’t miss the importance of their 38th personal meeting in Beijing on Friday, just hours before the opening of the Winter Olympics and with more than 100,000 Russian troops threatening Ukrainian independence and sovereignty.
So, they publicly released the entirety of their audacious, 5,300-word joint statement in English this weekend, declaring that “a trend has emerged towards redistribution of power in the world” – namely toward them and away from the U.S. and its democratic partners and allies.
There’s a lot in the statement worth reading and digesting, but here’s my rough executive summary: Russia and China are…
African Union condemns ‘wave’ of coups, suspends debate on Israel ties
From www.france24.com
2022-02-06 16:48:43
NEWS WIRES
Excerpt:
The African Union has condemned a recent “wave” of military coups that has seen an unprecedented number of member states suspended from the bloc, a senior official said Sunday, the last day of its annual summit.
The putsches were among the main issues expected to be discussed at the summit, along with the AU’s ties to Israel and its response to a grinding war in the north of host country Ethiopia.
Less than two weeks before the summit began Saturday, Burkina Faso became the fourth country to be suspended by the AU after disgruntled soldiers toppled President Roch Marc Christian Kabore.
Guinea, Mali and Sudan are also currently suspended.
“Every African leader in the assembly has condemned unequivocally… the wave of unconstitutional changes of government,” Bankole Adeoye, head of the AU’s Peace and Security Council, told a press conference Sunday.
“Do your research: At no time in the history of the African Union have we had four countries in one calendar year, in 12 months, been suspended,” Adeoye said.
U.S. gun manufacturers sued by Mexico over allegations of arms trafficking
From www.ctvnews.ca
2022-02-06 18:31:40
Excerpt:
The attorneys general of 13 states and Washington D.C. this week expressed support for a federal lawsuit by the Mexican government that accuses a group of American gun manufacturers of facilitating the trafficking of weapons to criminals in Mexico, fueling gun violence.
In a brief filed in federal court in Massachusetts, the Democratic attorneys general — including those in California, Massachusetts, Minnesota and New York — argued against the defendants’ motion to dismiss the case, saying that a federal law providing legal protection to gun manufacturers does not apply in this case.
“While the law may grant firearms manufacturers some protection, it is not a free pass to knowingly allow their products to land in dangerous hands,” California Attorney General Rob Bonta said in a statement Tuesday.
US says ‘not sending forces to start a war’ with Russia
From www.news24.com
2022-02-06 22:24:23
Excerpt:
The United States said Sunday it was not sending troops to start a war with Russia after deploying 3 000 additional soldiers to Germany and Eastern Europe over the Ukraine standoff with Moscow.
President Joe Biden “has been clear for months now that the United States is not sending forces to start a war or fight a war with Russia in Ukraine,” national security advisor Jake Sullivan told Fox News Sunday.
“We have sent forces to Europe to defend NATO territory.”
Sullivan told Meet the Press on NBC that “a military escalation and invasion of Ukraine could happen at any time.
“We believe that the Russians have put in place the capabilities to mount a significant military operation into Ukraine, and we have been working hard to prepare a response,” he said.
