Menu

Blog

Page 7389

Apr 25, 2020

$110 Trillion Renewables Stimulus Package Could Create 50 Million Jobs

Posted by in categories: biotech/medical, economics, employment

Even giant economic powerhouses have not been spared, with California—one of the wealthiest states in the United States thanks to its booming tech sector—having obliterated all its job growth over the last decade in just two months.

But now a renewable energy think-tank says directing those stimulus dollars to renewable energy investments could not only help tackle global climate emergency but spur massive economic gains post-Covid-19 for decades to come.

The International Renewable Energy Agency (IRENA) —an organization dedicated to promoting global adoption of renewable energy and facilitating sustainable use—says that it will cost the global economy $95 trillion to help return things to normal.

Apr 25, 2020

Scientists develop first 3D mass estimate of microplastic pollution in Lake Erie

Posted by in category: materials

Rochester Institute of Technology scientists have developed the first three-dimensional mass estimate to show where microplastic pollution is collecting in Lake Erie. The study examines nine different types of polymers that are believed to account for 75 percent of the world’s plastic waste.

Plastic behaves differently in lakes than in oceans; previous studies on both have indicated the levels of pollution found on the surface are lower than expected based on how much is entering the water. While massive floating “islands” of accumulated have been found in oceans, previous studies have indicated the levels of plastic pollution found on the surface of Lake Erie are lower than expected based on how much is entering the water.

The new RIT estimate for the 3D mass—381 metric tons—is more than 50 times greater than the previous estimates at the surface. The study also generated the first estimate of how much plastic is deposited on the bottom of the . It accounts for the unique properties of different types of plastics and shows that the three polymers with the lowest density—polyethylene, polypropylene and expanded polystyrene—accumulate on the surface of the lake while the other six polymers were concentrated in the sediment.

Apr 25, 2020

Electric control of a spin current has potential for low-power computing

Posted by in category: energy

The development of low-power methods for controlling a property of electrons known as spin could help to maintain the historic rates of progress that are occurring in computational power. Just such a method has now been reported. A device that permanently switches spin-orbit coupling.

Apr 25, 2020

Forget Hovercrafts. This New One-Person Electric VTOL Will Let You Live Out Your ‘Star Wars’ Dreams

Posted by in category: futurism

WatFly’s Atlas could be the first recreational eVTOL to market.

Apr 25, 2020

Smash and Grab – The UK’s Money Laundering Machine

Posted by in categories: business, economics, government

Download the full report here.

In 2017, Bellingcat and Transparency International UK published their joint report, “Offshore in the UK”, describing the phenomenon of Scottish Limited Partnerships (“SLPs”) and their use as a mechanism in global money laundering scandals and a range of illicit activities. Since then, SLPs have continued to be implicated in further scandals, perhaps most notably the Azerbaijani Laundromat, a scheme where $2.9 billion was laundered through UK companies.

In the same year, SLPs became obliged to register their Person of Significant Control at Companies House, and the boom in registrations ended. The government subsequently ran a public consultation into limited partnerships, and published its conclusions in December 2018. Currently, SLP registrations are at their lowest level since 2010. Nevertheless, a lack of regulation allowed thousands of opaquely owned partnerships, typically with no tangible link to the Uk, to flourish over a seven year period. We do not have the details of the business activities of these SLPs, who controlled them, or who their true beneficial owners are.

Apr 25, 2020

Clarification: China has yet to Build an Underground Facility at Gonggar

Posted by in category: military

:oooo.


New infrastructure upgrades were completed at Lhasa-Gonggar earlier this year, satellite imagery from Planet Labs shows. Workers at the civil-military airfield widened a road and built an additional parking apron near the base of the mountain.

Earlier this month, India’s Hindustan Times reported that China had built an underground facility to house fighter aircraft at the airport. Quoting three unnamed officials, the report said that an underground hangar was large enough to hold up to 36 aircraft.

Continue reading “Clarification: China has yet to Build an Underground Facility at Gonggar” »

Apr 25, 2020

Syria’s Forgotten War Is a Pandemic Time Bomb

Posted by in category: biotech/medical

U.N. officials and humanitarian workers are bracing for the worst in crowded camps and conflict zones in Idlib.

Apr 25, 2020

Transnational White Terror: Exposing Atomwaffen And The Iron March Networks

Posted by in categories: internet, military, terrorism

In collaboration with the Autonomous Disinformation Research Network @DisinfoResearch

On Wednesday, November 6, 2019, leaked data from the defunct neo-Nazi forum, Iron March, emerged online, exposing the personal information of more than 1,200 members, including the locations of their IP addresses and, in some cases, their real names. Already, activists sifting through the database have uncovered several fascists around the country, including some in uniform. A thoroughly transnational network, Iron March stemmed from a site called International Third Position Forum, was launched by a Russian, produced a terror group in the U.S., and facilitated coordination among terror groupings in the U.K. and elsewhere, all through the power of the internet.

Perhaps most intriguingly, Iron March involved members whose goals of recruiting through the U.S. military underlied their fantasies of ultimately destroying liberal democracy through a fascist paramilitary insurgency. It went on to develop a small but lethal “accelerationist” terrorist group called Atomwaffen Division (Nuclear Weapons Division), responsible for murders, an assassination attempt, and failed bomb plots. It also recently became famous for adding journalists from a Quillette article to a hit-list called “Sunset the Media.” Though what they mostly seem to do is put up stickers in what they laughably call “the stickening.”

Apr 25, 2020

Neutralizing antibody responses to SARS-CoV-2 in a COVID-19 recovered patient cohort and their implications

Posted by in categories: biotech/medical, health

Background The COVID-19 pandemic caused by SARS-CoV-2 coronavirus threatens global public health. Currently, neutralizing antibodies (NAbs) versus this virus are expected to correlate with recovery and protection of this disease. However, the characteristics of these antibodies have not been well studied in association with the clinical manifestations in patients. Methods Plasma collected from 175 COVID-19 recovered patients with mild symptoms were screened using a safe and sensitive pseudotyped-lentiviral-vector-based neutralization assay. Spike-binding antibody in plasma were determined by ELISA using RBD, S1, and S2 proteins of SARS-CoV-2. The levels and the time course of SARS-CoV-2-specific NAbs and the spike-binding antibodies were monitored at the same time.

Apr 25, 2020

The first modern pandemic

Posted by in categories: biotech/medical, business, military, surveillance

During World War II, an amazing amount of innovation, including radar, reliable torpedoes, and code-breaking, helped end the war faster. This will be the same with the pandemic. I break the innovation into five categories: treatments, vaccines, testing, contact tracing, and policies for opening up. Without some advances in each of these areas, we cannot return to the business as usual or stop the virus. Below, I go through each area in some detail.


The scientific advances we need to stop COVID-19.

By Bill Gates