The August 10th, 2016 Edition of THE REVENGE HUMP DAY! Page 1 of 70
Welcome to the August 10th, 2016 Edition of THE REVENGE HUMP DAY!
Like most of you out there I have been watching the Olympics from Rio this year. I think that one of the most memorable things I have seen is poor bicyclist from Holland that wiped out coming down the hill in her sprint for the gold. The poor girl is no now in intensive care and I know that all of our prayers are with her for her speedy recovery. Then there was the Women’s Beach Volleyball heats that the US is dominating. Those two girls from the US are awesome! Next is Michael Phelps winning another gold in the 4x100 swimming event. I am definitely enjoying the Olympics this year. About the only cloud on the horizon was the first US Gold Medal was awarded to a US 18 year old Woman Athlete that Piers Morgan tried to slam because she won the gold in the 10 meter air gun event. I think it really ticked me off that someone like him would try to rain on the poor girl’s parade during her moment of victory because she was an American who could shoot excellently. Maybe Mr. Morgan should go back to his country of origin and leave us to get along without his input.
I will be leaving very soon for my summer vacation. I am joining Gary “Da Fish” Shelton and Randall Pass in Memphis and then we are heading up through the Ozarks to Branson, MO. The last time I was in Branson I was about 8 or 9 years old when my parents went up for vacation. We rented a little cottage and I’ll I did all week was swim in the lake. At least, that’s all I remember from the trip almost 60 years ago. Hopefully I will get to see a show or two there and tour the town. After that, we will be heading for Kansas City for MidAmeriCon II. I am looking forward to seeing a bunch of my old friends in KC this year and I hope that the fannish feuds will have died down by then. The whole attitude of number of fans in Spokane really threw a pale over last year’s WorldCon that I hope that will be absent from this years.
Gary has a full agenda about touring Kansas City. On the way up we are talking about stopping at the Harry S. Truman Presidential library in Independence, Missouri. I’ll looking forward to seeing that one. Then in Kansas City, there is the Steam Boat Museum and also a World War I Museum. Those I am waiting for. But Gary also has a long list of Kansas City Bar-B-Que joints that we are going to have to check out. I dread what these trips are going to do to my waistline.
Because I will be on the road for the next two weeks, this missive might be a little irregular. So don’t be surprised if your next two Revenges might be a little late getting to you.
So on that “Informational Note”, why don't y'all sit back and relax because here's the best in gossip, jokes and science for your reading pleasure!
Uncle Timmy
~~~ J.R.R. TOLKIEN POEM ABOUT THE DARK ORIGINS OF GALADRIEL TO BE REPUBLISHED AFTER 70 YEARS THIS FALL From: Stephanie Osborn BY NATHALIE TUVERA, AUG 3, 2016 The August 10th, 2016 Edition of THE REVENGE HUMP DAY! Page 2 of 70 http://www.movienewsguide.com/jrr-tolkien-dark-origins-of-galadriel-to-be-republished-after-70- years-this-fall/256709 J.R.R. Tolkien has been dead for over four decades, but his works continue to awe and stir the imagination of people. His well-known novel The Lord of the Rings is such a huge success that people followed (technically backtrack) The Hobbit series in the big screen. Tolkien’s literary works are not the easiest to read not just because of the Elvish and Orkish languages but also because of the old or high fantasy English language he used. But that is also probably the reason why people love reading them. It really takes a reader to another realm based on his own imagination. According to The Guardian, the lengthy poem about the Elf Queen Galadriel’s dark past will be republished. In the book and in the movie, people have always taken her as the smart and powerful Frodo supporter. The elves, after the great war with Sauron and before the Battle of the Five Armies, were always seen as gentle and beautiful creatures that do not bother anyone. The soon-to-be republished work will somehow change that perception because one of the most powerful elf is actually previously a bad witch with bad intentions. J.R.R. Tolkien’s The Lay of Aotrou and Itroun is about a couple who is desperate for a child and seeks the help of a witch. Aotrou was given a potion for Itroun and was eventually blessed with twins. However, Aotrou saw the witch again but in a different form. The witch turned into a Corrigan, which is a term for a person of fairy race. She told him that he must marry or he will die. Aotrou did not agree and died three days after. On top of that, Itroun eventually died of grief. The couple hoped for a new life and was given two, but at the end it was paid by both their lives. The August 10th, 2016 Edition of THE REVENGE HUMP DAY! Page 3 of 70 The poem is in the form of medieval lay and has been out of print for 70 years since it was published in 1945. According to popular publications company HarperCollins, it will be released along with other poems related to the Corrigan. It is said that these poems are from the “darker side” of Tolkien’s imagination. The release of J.R.R. Tolkien’s poems are set to be released on Nov. 3, 2016. SCIENCE FICTION BY SCIENTISTS: AN ANTHOLOGY OF SHORT STORIES (SCIENCE AND FICTION) 1ST ED. 2016 EDITION From “Tim Bolgeo” [email protected] Stephanie Osborn just let me know that she has a new story out in an anthology edited by Michael Brotherton. Here is the information on it. by Michael Brotherton (Editor) https://www.amazon.com/Science-Fiction-Scientists-Anthology-Stories/dp/3319411012 This anthology contains fourteen intriguing stories by active research scientists and other writers trained in science. Science is at the heart of real science fiction, which is more than just westerns with ray guns or fantasy with spaceships. The people who do science and love science best are scientists. Scientists like Isaac Asimov, Arthur C. Clarke, and Fred Hoyle wrote some of the legendary tales of golden age science fiction. Today there is a new generation of scientists writing science fiction informed with the expertise of their fields, from astrophysics to computer science, biochemistry to rocket science, quantum physics to genetics, speculating about what is possible in our universe. Here lies the sense of wonder only science can deliver. All the stories in this volume are supplemented by afterwords commenting on the science underlying each story. I also heard from Les Johnson and he has a story in the same anthology. Les said, “I have an original short story, “Spreading the Seed,” in the upcoming anthology from Springer Books, “Science Fiction by Scientists,” edited by Mike Brotherton. The book will be released in November.” Re: VIDEO: GIULIANI: UNIFORMED POLICE OFFICERS NOT ALLOWED ON DEMOCRATIC CONVENTION FLOOR "Adam Grim" [email protected] You left out the little detail that Giuliani was lying, the DNC not only had Uniformed Police officers on the floor, they had one speaking. Don't believe everything you hear on Fox News. http://www.snopes.com/uniformed-police-officers-banned-from-the-democratic-national-convention/ Re: The August 3rd, 2016 Edition of THE REVENGE HUMP DAY! From: "Holly Lisle" [email protected] Totally agree with you on summer vacations. Being able to control them was part of why we ended up homeschooling my two kids and our kid. Keeping them out of what used to be (and probably still is) the worst school system in the country was the biggest reason— especially after the older two got to test that system briefly. Broward County, Florida schools are every imaginable variety of awful. Just checking in to say hi, let you know I’m thinking of you, and to thank you for keeping me on the mailing list. I WAS FORTUNATE THAT MY PARENTS SENT ME TO PAROCHIAL SCHOOL FROM 1-12, BUT I DID SEND MY KIDS TO PUBLIC SCHOOLS AND GOT TO SEE THE GOOD, THE BAD AND THE UGLY OF PUBLIC SCHOOLS. I HAVE A NUMBER OF NIECES AND NEPHEWS WHO ARE TEACHERS AND I BELIEVE THAT THEY WANT THE BEST FOR THE KIDS THEY TEACH. BUT THERE ARE A NUMBER OF FACTORS THEY CAN’T CONTROL IN THEIR SCHOOLS. FOR MANY YEARS I HAVE BEEN WATCHING THE SCHOOL SYSTEM IN OUR COUNTRY AND I HAVE COME TO THE REALIZATION THAT SCHOOL CHOICE AND CHARTER SCHOOLS ARE THE WAY TO GO IN THIS NATION. THE PARENTS AND NOT THE GOVERNMENT SHOULD HAVE THE LAST SAY ON WHERE THEIR CHILDREN SHOULD ATTEND SCHOOL. AS FOR KEEPING YOU ON THE LIST, THAT’S A NO BRAINER. ;^) UT From: "Mike Waldrip" [email protected] ALMOST FOOTBALL TIME! Why do Nebraska football players like smart women? Opposites attract. Why was O.J. trying to escape to Knoxville, Tennessee? Police would never look for a Heisman Trophy winner there. The August 10th, 2016 Edition of THE REVENGE HUMP DAY! Page 5 of 70 Why was O.J. considering moving to West Virginia? Everyone’s DNA there is the same. How come Ohio State football players won’t drive a Japanese car? They don’t think they’ll understand what’s said on the radio. An Alabama fan and a Tennessee fan, fighting side-by-side were captured during World War II and sentenced to die by firing squad. The enemy commander asked the Tennessee fan if he had any last requests. The Vol said, “I want to hear Rocky Top one last time.” The Bama fan was then asked if he had any last requests. “Yes, shoot me first!” A man is sitting at a park bench when another man sits next to him and they engage in conversation. Shortly after, the second man says, “So, I bet you’re a Texas fan.” The first man says enthusiastically, “Why yes I am. How did you know? My intelligence? My wit? My good looks?” The second fellow says, “No. I saw your class ring when you were picking your nose.” A man is watching the Notre Dame-Navy game on television at a bar with his dog. Navy kicks a field goal and the dog starts barking. A bit later, the Midshipmen score a touchdown and the dog barks like crazy. Another man says to the dog’s owner, “Wow, your dog must love Navy. What does he do when Navy beats Notre Dame?” To which the dog’s owner replied, “I don’t know. I’ve only had him 11 years.” (*note...fortunately, this joke doesn't apply anymore.) A scrawny man at a bar in Columbus says to the guy sitting next to him, “Hey, you want to hear a really funny Ohio State joke?” The guy replies, “Hey buddy. See the bartender? He played at Ohio State. See those two huge guys to your left? They played at Ohio State. See that group of big guys over at that table? All Ohio State football players. Look at me. I’m 6’4, 235 and played at Ohio State. Now are you sure you want to tell me your joke?” The scrawny man says, “Nah. I don’t want to have to explain and repeat it 5 times.” How can you spot a Tennessee fan at a wedding? Just look for the guy in the orange T-shirt. How can you tell if an Auburn football player has a girlfriend? Tobacco juice on both sides of the pickup truck. How many Pitt football players does it take to change a light bulb? Five. And they each get three credits. Why is Nebraska’s football field artificial turf and not real grass? So the cheerleaders won’t graze. Alabama football coach Nick Saban asked the freshman walk-on hopeful if he could tackle. The kid said, “Yes sir coach, I can tackle.” The coach then asked, “Well, can you run?” The kid said, “Yes sir coach, I can run very fast.” Saban then said, “Can you pass a football?” The kid thought for a second and said, “Well coach, if I can swallow it I can probably pass it.” The August 10th, 2016 Edition of THE REVENGE HUMP DAY! Page 6 of 70 If you are driving and see a Miami football player riding a bicycle, why should you take great care in not hitting him? It could be your bike. You are stuck in a cave with an angry grizzly bear, a mountain lion and a Florida fan. You have a gun with two bullets. What should you do? Shoot the Florida fan….twice. A University of Texas football player walks into the Doctors office and removes his hat to reveal a frog sitting on top of his head. The doctor asks, “What can I do for you?” The frog replies, “Can you take this wart off my butt?” NEW WATCH A Navy Seal walks into a bar and takes a seat next to a very attractive woman. He gives her a quick glance then casually looks at his new Apple watch for a moment. The woman notices this and asks, "Is your date running late?" "No," he replies, "just got this state-of-the-art Apple watch, and I was just testing it." The intrigued woman says, "A state-of-the-art watch? What's so special about it?" He says, "It uses alpha waves to talk to me telepathically." The August 10th, 2016 Edition of THE REVENGE HUMP DAY! Page 7 of 70 The lady says, "What's it telling you now?" "Well, it says you're not wearing any panties." The woman giggles and replies, "Well it must be broken because I am wearing panties!" The Navy man smirks, taps his watch and says, "Darn thing's an hour fast." And that, my friends...... is Confidence! From LaDona Johnson’s Facebook Page From: "Michael Townsend" [email protected] Bikers for Hillary https://www.bing.com/videos/search?q=Diamond+and+silk+bikers+for+Hillary+youtube&view=detail &mid=FA4A9A93D1EC4EF5B3E6FA4A9A93D1EC4EF5B3E6&FORM=VIRE NAVY STUFF The August 10th, 2016 Edition of THE REVENGE HUMP DAY! Page 8 of 70 On the first day at the new seniors complex in Henderson, NV, the manager addressed all the new seniors (about 115 of them between the ages of 65 and 85) pointing out some of the rules: "The female sleeping quarters will be out-of-bounds for all males; and the male dormitory is off limits to the females.” “Anybody caught breaking this rule will be fined $20 the first time." He continued, "Anybody caught breaking this rule the second time will be fined $60.” “Being caught a third time will cost you a fine of $80.” “Are there any questions?" At this point, a retired Navy Chief stood up in the crowd and inquired: "How much for a season pass???" God bless our vets. From Wyman Cooke’s Facebook Page Finally, something we can all unite behind. The August 10th, 2016 Edition of THE REVENGE HUMP DAY! Page 9 of 70 From: “Christina Cowan” [email protected] From: "Pamela Adams" [email protected] THE ULTIMATE ETHNIC JOKE An Englishman, a Scotsman, an Irishman, a Welshman, a Latvian, a Turk, a German, an Indian, several Americans (including a Hawaiian and an Alaskan), an Argentinean, a Dane, an Australian, a Slovak, an Egyptian, a Japanese, a Moroccan, a Frenchman, a New Zealander, a Spaniard, a Russian, a Guatemalan, a Colombian, a Pakistani, a Malaysian, a Croatian, a Uzbek, a Cypriot, a Pole, a Lithuanian, a Chinese, a Sri Lankan, a Lebanese, a Cayman Islander, a Ugandan, a Vietnamese, a Korean, a Uruguayan, a Czech, an Icelander, a Mexican, a Finn, a Honduran, a Panamanian, an Andorran, an Israeli, a Venezuelan, an Iranian, a Fijian, a Peruvian, an Estonian, a Syrian, a Brazilian, a Portuguese, a Liechtensteiner, a Mongolian, a Hungarian, a Canadian, a Moldovan, a Haitian, a Norfolk Islander, a Macedonian, a Bolivian, a Cook Islander, a Tajikistani, a Samoan, an Armenian, an Aruban, an Albanian, a Greenlander, a Micronesian, a Virgin Islander, a Georgian, a Bahaman, a Belarusian, a Cuban, a Tongan, a Cambodian, a Canadian, a Qatari, an Azerbaijani, a Romanian, a Chilean, a Jamaican, a Filipino, a Ukrainian, a Dutchman, a Ecuadorian, a Costa Rican, a Swede, a Bulgarian, a Serb, a Swiss, a Greek, a Belgian, a Singaporean, an Italian, a Norwegian, and 2 South Africans ...... all walk into a fine upscale restaurant. The August 10th, 2016 Edition of THE REVENGE HUMP DAY! Page 10 of 70 "I'm sorry," says the Maître’D', after scrutinizing the group, "but you can't come in here without a Thai." BOOOOOO, THAT IS SO BAD IT’S GOOD. UT From: "RAY BELOATE" [email protected] "SIX LITTLE STORIES" (1) Once all the villagers decided to pray for rain. On the day of prayer all the people gathered, but only one boy came with an umbrella. That's FAITH. (2) When you throw babies in the air, they laugh because they know you will catch them. That's TRUST. (3) Every night we go to bed without any assurance of being alive the next morning, but still we set the alarms to wake up. That's HOPE. (4) We plan big things for tomorrow in spite of zero knowledge of the future. That's CONFIDENCE. (5) We see the world suffering, but still we get married and have children. That's LOVE. (6) On an old man's shirt was written a sentence 'I am not 80 years old; I am sweet 16 with 64 years of experience.' That's ATTITUDE. Have a happy day and live your life like the six stories. P.S. When I was a child, I thought nap time was punishment. Now it's like a mini-vacation. From: “Keith A. Glass” [email protected] TALES FROM A WASHINGTON, D.C. AIRPORT TICKET AGENT: They walk among us!!! This would be even funnier if these folks were not in charge of passing laws . . . The August 10th, 2016 Edition of THE REVENGE HUMP DAY! Page 11 of 70 1. I had a New Hampshire Congresswoman (Carol Shea-Porter) ask for an aisle seat so that her hair wouldn't get messed up by being near the window. (On an airplane!) 2. I got a call from a Kansas Congressman's (Moore) staffer (Howard Bauleke), who wanted to go to Cape Town. I started to explain the length of the flight and the passport information, and then he interrupted me with, ''I'm not trying to make you look stupid, but Cape Town is in Massachusetts.'' Without trying to make him look stupid, I calmly explained, ''Cape Cod is in Massachusetts, Cape Town is in South Africa.'' His response -- click. 3. A senior Vermont Congressman (Bernie Sanders) called, furious about a Florida package we did. I asked what was wrong with the vacation in Orlando. He said he was expecting an ocean-view room. I tried to explain that's not possible, since Orlando is in the middle of the state. (This is THE Bernie Sanders). He replied, 'Don't lie to me! I looked on the map, and Florida is a very THIN state!!'' 4. I got a call from a lawmaker's wife (Landra Reid) who asked, ''Is it possible to see England from Canada?'' I said, ''No.'' She said, ''But they look so close on the map.'' 5. An aide for a cabinet member (Janet Napolitano) once called and asked if he could rent a car in Dallas. I pulled up the reservation and noticed he had only a one-hour layover in Dallas. When I asked him why he wanted to rent a car, he said, ''I heard Dallas was a big airport, and we will need a car to drive between gates to save time.'' 6. An Illinois Congresswoman (Jan Schakowsky) called last week. She needed to know how it was possible that her flight from Detroit left at 8:30 a.m., and got to Chicago at 8:33 a.m. I explained that Michigan was an hour ahead of Illinois, but she couldn't understand the concept of time zones. Finally, I told her the plane went fast, and she bought that. 7. A New York lawmaker, (Jerrold Nadler) called and asked, ''Do airlines put your physical description on your bag so they know whose luggage belongs to whom?'' I said, 'No, why do you ask?' He replied, 'Well, when I checked in with the airline, they put a tag on my luggage that said (FAT), and I'm overweight. I think that's very rude!' After putting him on hold for a minute, while I looked into it (I was dying laughing), I came back and explained the city code for Fresno, CA is (FAT = Fresno Air Terminal), and the airline was just putting a destination tag on his luggage. 8. A Senator John Kerry aide (Lindsay Ross) called to inquire about a trip package to Hawaii. After going over all the cost info, she asked, ''Would it be cheaper to fly to California and then take the train to Hawaii?'' 9. I just got off the phone with a freshman Congressman, Bobby Bright from AL who asked, ''How do I know which plane to get on?'' I asked him what exactly he meant, to which he replied, ''I was told my flight number is 823, but none of these planes have numbers on them.' 10. Senator Dianne Feinstein called and said, ''I need to fly to Pepsi-Cola, Florida. Do I have to get on one of those little computer planes?'' I asked if she meant fly to Pensacola and fly on a commuter plane. She said, ''Yeah, whatever, smarty!'' The August 10th, 2016 Edition of THE REVENGE HUMP DAY! Page 12 of 70 11. Mary Landrieu, Los Angeles Senator, called and had a question about the documents she needed in order to fly to China. After a lengthy discussion about passports, I reminded her that she needed a visa. "Oh, no I don't. I've been to China many times and never had to have one of those.'' I double checked and sure enough, her stay required a visa. When I told her this she said, ''Look, I've been to China four times and every time they have accepted my American Express!'' 12. A New Jersey Congressman (John Adler) called to make reservations, ''I want to go from Chicago to Rhino, New York.'' I was at a loss for words. Finally, I said, ''Are you sure that's the name of the town?'' "Yes, what flights do you have?" replied the man. After some searching, I came back with, ''I'm sorry, sir, I've looked up every airport code in the country and can't find a rhino anywhere." ''The man retorted, ''Oh, don't be silly! Everyone knows where it is. Check your map!'' So I scoured a map of the state of New York and finally offered, ''You don't mean Buffalo, do you?'' The reply? ''Whatever! I knew it was a big animal.'' Now you know why the Government is in the shape it's in! Could ANYONE be this DUMB? YES, THEY WALK AMONG US, ARE IN POLITICS, AND THEY CONTINUE TO BREED. YOU JUST CAN’T MAKE THIS STUFF UP! From: “Tim Bolgeo” [email protected] USA SHOOTING JUST SHUT DOWN PIERS MORGAN Christine Rousselle, Posted: Aug 06, 2016 11:30 PM http://townhall.com/tipsheet/christinerousselle/2016/08/06/usa-shootings-response-to-piers-morgan- is-priceless-n2202572 Piers Morgan@piersmorgan LEAST SURPRISING BREAKING NEWS EVER: America's 1st Olympic Gold Medal is for Shooting. #Thrasher 2:07 PM - 6 Aug 2016 2,9262,926 Retweets To USA Shooting's credit, their reply to Morgan was far kinder than his dismissive tweet deserved. They reminded Morgan that the weapon Thrasher used in today's event was a pellet gun, she was not the favorite to win by a long shot (pun very intended), and that there are athletes competing in shooting sports from his home nation as well. USA Shooting@USAShooting The August 10th, 2016 Edition of THE REVENGE HUMP DAY! Page 13 of 70 @piersmorgan Thanks for trolling. Realize it was a pellet gun, she defeated heavily favored Chinese, & 6 proud @GBShooting reps are in Rio 2 6:54 PM - 6 Aug 2016 335335 Retweets There's nothing wrong with competing in shooting sports, and Trasher should be praised rather than mocked online for her accomplishment. While the U.S. has consistently medaled in shooting sports, the past 20 years have been dominated by the Chinese, Russian, and South Korean teams. Success in shooting sports is hardly a reflection of the crime rate of the competing nation, despite what commentators like Morgan are trying to imply. Least surprising breaking news ever: Piers Morgan is a jerk. ~ VA DROPS MILLIONS ON DELAYED SOLAR POWER PROJECTS VA has spent over $408 million on solar panels since 2010 BY: Morgan Chalfant, August 8, 2016 1:40 pm http://freebeacon.com/issues/va-drops-millions-delayed-solar-power-projects/ Workers assemble solar power units at the Salem Veterans Affairs Medical Center in Salem, Va. / AP The Department of Veterans Affairs has spent more than $408 million to install solar panels on its medical facilities in recent years, despite many of the projects experiencing significant delays and some of the systems not becoming operational at all. The VA has failed to effectively plan and manage these solar panel projects, resulting in significant delays and additional costs, according to a report released by the agency’s inspector general last week. The watchdog conducted an audit of 11 of the 15 solar projects awarded between fiscal years 2010 and 2013 that were still in progress as of May last year. The investigation, which The August 10th, 2016 Edition of THE REVENGE HUMP DAY! Page 14 of 70 was completed in March, found that only two of the 11 solar panel projects were fully completed. “This occurred because of planning errors, design changes, a lengthy interconnection process, and contractor delays,” the inspector general concluded. “As a result, VA did not increase renewable energy for those solar projects in the time frame planned and incurred additional costs through needed contract modifications.” The VA subsequently told the inspector general in July that five of the 11 projects had been fully completed and eight were generating solar power. Three of the planned systems, including one in Little Rock, Arkansas, that precipitated the investigation, still are not generating solar power at all. According to investigators, all of the projects were supposed to be finished in about seven to 12 months but instead were completed—or remain expected to be completed—on average, within 42 months. The contracts for the 11 projects reviewed by investigators totaled about $95 million, though some have become more expensive because of poor planning and delays. The VA spent more than $408 million on its “green management program” solar panel projects between fiscal years 2010 and 2015, according to annual budget records. During the same period, veterans died waiting for care at VA hospitals where employees were using dishonest record keeping practices to conceal long waits for care. The inspector general initiated the investigation at the request of Arkansas Sens. John Boozman and French Hill, both Republicans, who asked the watchdog to examine a significantly delayed $8 million solar panel project at the John L. McClellan Memorial Veterans Hospital in Little Rock last April. The project, begun in 2012, has been delayed more than four years beyond its original planned completion date and will cost taxpayers an additional $1.5 million. The VA spent millions to install the solar panels at the Little Rock facility in 2013, only to remove and reinstall them two years later to accommodate a new parking garage. To add to problems, the panels were never turned on because they were incompatible with the local electric grid. The VA has set aside nearly $1 million to disassemble and reassemble the panels and will spend roughly $350,000 on changes to the equipment, according to the audit. “The Little Rock officials did not effectively plan the installation of the system and a determination regarding whether expected solar power generation was achieved could not be made as the system has yet to be activated,” the inspector general wrote. “The project experienced significant delays and additional contract costs due to disassembly of previously installed solar panel carport structures to accommodate a parking garage. In addition, a lengthy interconnection agreement process with the local private utility and contractor performance issues added to the delays.” The VA said the watchdog was “biased” in its review because the audit only covered solar panel projects that were in progress during the scope period and not those that had been completed, according to the report. VA officials also said that the Little Rock project was The August 10th, 2016 Edition of THE REVENGE HUMP DAY! Page 15 of 70 “complex” because of the planned parking garage construction, which was approved and finalized after the solar panel contract was awarded. Both Boozman and Hill called for increased oversight of VA green management programs in the future to avoid failures. “Whether it is a project as complex as hospital construction or one as simple as the proper installation of solar panels, VA continues to waste large amounts of taxpayer funds as a result of its own ineptitude,” Hill said in a statement. The VA has been under fire for wasting federal dollars as veterans’ wait times and other failings have persisted at the agency’s network of medical facilities. A recent investigation by Open the Books and COX Media revealed that the VA spent $20 million on artwork over the last decade, outraging members of Congress. THE VA HAS MILLIONS TO SPEND ON ART. MILLIONS TO SPEND ON SOLAR PANELS. BUT IT DOESN’T HAVE THE MONEY OR THE TIME TO SPEND ON OUT VETERANS. MAYBE IT’S TIME TO CUT THE UPPER LEVEL BUREAUCRATS OF THE VA AND PUT SOME PEOPLE WHO CARE ABOUT OUR VETS. UT ~ ORLANDO TERRORIST’S FATHER CHEERS AT HILLARY CLINTON RALLY; CALLS FOR GUN CONTROL by CHARLIE SPIERING 9 Aug 2016 2,768 http://www.breitbart.com/2016-presidential-race/2016/08/09/orlando-shooters-father-attends-hillary- rally-calls-gun-control/ Seddique Mateen, the father of the Orlando nightclub shooter, attended a Hillary Clinton rally in Kissimmee, Florida, placing himself prominently behind the presidential candidate as she spoke to supporters. Mateen was visible in the backdrop of Clinton’s speech as she paid tribute to the police officers and victims of the shooting. A WPTV reporter recognized Mateen and interviewed him after the event. “It’s a Democratic party so everybody can enjoy,” he said, when asked why he decided to attend the rally. “Why should they be surprised, I love the United States.” It is unclear whether the Clinton campaign was aware of Mateen’s presence, and have yet to give a statement about the incident to WPTV. Clinton paid tribute to the victims of the shooting during her rally. The August 10th, 2016 Edition of THE REVENGE HUMP DAY! Page 16 of 70 I just have to tell you how grateful I am for the leadership and the people of Orlando and Central Florida for your love and compassion. And I know how many people, loved ones and friends, are still grieving. And I want them to know that we will be with you. We will be with you as you rebuild your lives, as you rebuild hope for the future, because we can’t ever let that kind of hatred and violence break the spirit, break the soul, of any place in America. When reporters asked Mateen why he supported Clinton, he replied, “Hillary Clinton is good for United States versus Donald Trump, who has no solutions. He showed reporters a sign he made in support of Clinton, calling for more gun control laws. The sign that the Orlando shooter’s father made for Hillary http://www.wptv.com/news/st ate/orlando-shooters-father- attends-hillary-clinton-rally-in- kissimmee … 7:42 AM - 9 Aug 2016 SNARKY COMMENT: YOU KNOW, THE LEFT MADE HAY ABOUT DAVID DUKE SUPPORTING DONALD TRUMP. WHERE WOULD YOU PUT THIS ENDORSEMENT OF HILLARY FROM THE FATHER OF THE ORLANDO SHOOTER? UT YOU JUST CAN’T MAKE THIS STUFF UP! From: “Jim Woosley” [email protected] JW: “The article suggests that this isn't a wholesale problem, but any retention of gun owner personal information is not acceptable (under the law). THE ATF IS ILLEGALLY HOARDING AMERICAN GUN OWNERS’ PERSONAL INFORMATION ERIC LIEBERMAN, The Daily Caller, August 2, 2016 http://dailycaller.com/2016/08/02/the-atf-is-illegally-hoarding-american-gun-owners-personal- information/#ixzz4GHL23OyI A government report discovered the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF) illegally stockpiles gun owners’ personal information. The August 10th, 2016 Edition of THE REVENGE HUMP DAY! Page 17 of 70 The U.S. Government Accountability Office (GAO), the go-to federal oversight agency, conducted an audit of ATF and found it does not remove certain identifiable information, despite the law explicitly mandating it do so. GAO conducted reviews for four data systems, and concluded at least two of ATF’s systems violated official protocols. One of the data-collecting systems called Multiple Sales (MS) requires that multiple firearms purchased at once must be reported to ATF by the federal firearms licensee (FFL). ATF policy requires that the bureau internally removes particular data from multiple gun sales reports after two years if the firearm has not been traced to criminal activity. GAO found that ATF does not adhere to its own policy. In fact, “until May 2016, MS contained over 10,000 names that were not consistently deleted within the required 2 years.” Another system called Access 2000, or A2K, establishes servers to be used by National Tracing Center (NTC) personnel. The NTC can electronically search FFLs’ records for certain information needed to track the history of a firearm. While GAO’s investigation revealed that A2K for currently-operating FFLs complied with formal policy, A2K for out-of-business FFLs did not comply with the restrictions “because ATF maintained these data on a single server.” They were directed to get rid of this consolidated information and did so in March 2016. Furthermore, GAO found that ATF does not, but potentially should, have an outlined policy that specifies how out-of-business FFLs should submit documentation of compliance or share pertinent information. Accumulating and centralizing such data can become harder to maintain as time goes on. GAO recommends that ATF eliminate or at minimum obfuscate the unnecessary data to comply with federal law and to ensure that unnecessary information isn’t vulnerable to breaches or internal infractions. GAO said they conducted this study not only so ATF can “better adhere to its policies” as the title of the report states, but also because the bureau has a role in “protecting the privacy rights of law-abiding gun owners.” According to the report, ATF has agreed to GAO’s recommendations. YOU JUST CAN’T MAKE THIS STUFF UP! From: "Mike Waldrip" [email protected] Mr. Allen Swift: Born - 1908 - Died 2010 This man owned and drove the same car for 82 years. Can you imagine even having the same car for 82 years? Mr. Allen Swift (Springfield, Massachusetts) received this 1928 Rolls-Royce Piccadilly-P1 Roadster from his father, brand new - as a graduation gift in 1928. He drove it up until his death... At the age of 102. He was the oldest living owner of a car that was purchased new. Just thought you'd like to see it. It was donated to a Springfield museum after his death. The August 10th, 2016 Edition of THE REVENGE HUMP DAY! Page 18 of 70 It has 1,070,000 miles on it, still runs like a Swiss watch, dead silent at any speed and is in perfect cosmetic condition. 82 years - That's approximately 13,048 miles per year (1087 per month). 1,070,000 that's miles not kilometres. That's British engineering of a bygone era. I don't think they make them like this anymore. YOU JUST CAN’T MAKE THIS STUFF UP! From: “Keith A. Glass” [email protected] REPORTER RESCUES BEWILDERED COUPLE FROM 5 YEARS OF DIGITAL HELL By DEB HIPP, Tuesday, August 09, 2016Last Update: 5:09 AM PT http://www.courthousenews.com/2016/08/09/reporter- rescues-bewildered-couple-from-5-years-of-digital- hell.htm WICHITA, Kan. (CN) — An Internet protocol company turned a Kansas family's idyllic farm life into a "digital hell," The August 10th, 2016 Edition of THE REVENGE HUMP DAY! Page 19 of 70 assigning 600 million IP addresses to their property, sending police there at all hours looking for runaway children, stolen cars and pornographers, a married couple claims in court. James and Theresa Arnold sued MaxMind on Friday in Federal Court. Maxmind, based in Waltham, Mass., provides Internet protocol intelligence and online fraud detection tools, through its GeoIP brand, the Arnolds say in the complaint. Unfortunately, they add, "for the last 14 years, every time Maxmind's database was queried about a location in the United States it could not identify, it sent the inquiry the plaintiffs' address. There are now over 600 million IP addresses associated with the plaintiffs' leasehold. Over 5,000 companies draw information from MaxMind's database." The trouble began the week the Arnolds rented their home in May 2011, and they had no idea why police and sheriff's officers showed up "countless times over the next 5 years" until a tech magazine reporter figured it out. "They loved the home as it was out in the country, and the landlord gave the Arnolds and their two boys permission to hunt and fish on the surrounding 623 acres," the family says. But the week they moved in, two Butler County sheriff's deputies came to the house looking for a stolen truck. "This scenario repeated itself countless times over the next 5 years. The plaintiffs were repeatedly awakened from their sleep or disturbed from their daily activities by local, state or federal officials looking for a runaway child or a missing person, or evidence of a computer fraud, or call of an attempted suicide. Law enforcement officials came to the residence all hours of the day or night. "Private individuals also sought out the plaintiffs' address. Angry business owners claimed that someone at the residence was sending their businesses thousands of emails and clogging their computer systems." In 2013, the Butler County Sheriff's Department ran a background check on the Arnolds "because of all the activity taking place at the residence," and told them an LDNS server (local domain name server) was on their property. There was no such thing, the Arnolds say, but that didn't stop law enforcement agencies from getting "weekly reports about fraud, scams, stolen Facebook accounts, missing person reports, suicide threats from the VA [Veterans Administration] that appeared to come from the address and stolen vehicles all related to the residence. Each incident brought law enforcement to the residence — at all hours of the night and day." "Threats began to be made against the plaintiffs by individuals who were convinced that the perpetrator of internet scamming lived at the residence. State investigators — convinced that the plaintiffs had been involved in an identity theft — came to the residence to take pictures of assets." Angry people trespassed; law enforcement showed up "at all hours of the night and day: [looking for] stolen cars, fraud related to tax returns and Bitcoin, stolen credit cards, The August 10th, 2016 Edition of THE REVENGE HUMP DAY! Page 20 of 70 suicide calls, private investigators, stolen social media accounts, fundraising events, and numerous other events." After five years of this digitally inspired hell, Fusion.net reporter Kashmir Hill figured it out, in an April 10 article, "How an Internet Mapping Glitch Turned a Random Kansas Farm into a Digital Hell." She traced the problem to MaxMind and GeoIP. Internet Protocol (IP) is a unique identifier assigned to a computer or computer network. It plays an essential role in computers communicating with each other. But IP mapping is not an exact science. At its most precise, it can be mapped to a house. Or, the Arnolds say, 600 million accounts can be dumped on an unsuspecting family. A spokesman for MaxMind said the company policy does not comment on pending litigation. Among the false reports the Arnolds say they suffered, were that they were forcing girls to make pornography at their home, "email and website hacking, stealing identities, property crimes and subjecting others to electronic or physical harassment and cyber crimes." When the Arnolds finally figured it out and informed MaxMind, the company changed its default location to "the middle of a lake somewhere," their attorney Randall Rathbun told Courthouse News. "The problem is, it's still on 600 million computers out there," Rathbun said. "Once you run an address and find all this horrible stuff, it's not like it's just going to disappear. Once you have a footprint on the Internet, you're stuck." The Arnolds seek punitive damages for reckless and grossly negligent conduct, emotional distress, fear for their safety and humiliation. Rathbun is with Depew, Gillen, Rathbun & McInteer, in Wichita. In her article in Fusion.net, Hill wrote that the occupants of the property "have been treated like criminals for a decade. And until I called them this week, they had no idea why." Related article: http://fusion.net/story/287592/internet-mapping-glitch-kansas-farm/ From: “Tim Bolgeo” [email protected] NEW SURGICAL ROBOTS MAY GET A BOOST IN OPERATING ROOMS Surgeons expect such procedures to double within five years By Susan Kelly, July 28, 2016 The August 10th, 2016 Edition of THE REVENGE HUMP DAY! Page 21 of 70 http://www.scientificamerican.com/article/new-surgical-robots-may-get-a-boost-in-operating- rooms/?WT.mc_id=SA_TECH_20160802 CHICAGO (Reuters) - Even though many doctors see need for improvement, surgical robots are poised for big gains in operating rooms around the world. Da Vinci robotic system from Intuitive Surgical Inc. at the Rikshospitalet University Hospital Oslo, Norway Credit: Keeve via Wikimedia Commons Within five years, one in three U.S. surgeries - more than double current levels - is expected to be performed with robotic systems, with surgeons sitting at computer consoles guiding mechanical arms. Companies developing new robots also plan to expand their use in India, China and other emerging markets. Robotic surgery has been long dominated by pioneer Intuitive Surgical Inc, which has more than 3,600 of its da Vinci machines in hospitals worldwide and said last week the number of procedures that used them jumped by 16 percent in the second quarter compared to a year earlier. The anticipated future growth - and perceived weaknesses of the current generation of robots - is attracting deep-pocketed rivals, including Medtronic Inc and a startup backed by Johnson & Johnson and Google. Developers of the next wave aim to make the robots less expensive, more nimble and capable of performing more types of procedures, company executives and surgeons told Reuters. The August 10th, 2016 Edition of THE REVENGE HUMP DAY! Page 22 of 70 Although surgical robots run an average of $1.5 million and entail ongoing maintenance expenses, insurers pay no more for surgeries that utilize the systems than for other types of minimally-invasive procedures, such as laparoscopy. Still, most top U.S. hospitals for cancer treatment, urology, gynecology and gastroenterology have made the investment. The robots are featured prominently in hospital marketing campaigns aimed at attracting patients, and new doctors are routinely trained in their use. Surgical robots are used in hernia repair, bariatric surgery, hysterectomies and the vast majority of prostate removals in the United States, according to Intuitive Surgical data. Doctors say they reduce fatigue and give them greater precision. But robot-assisted surgery can take more of the surgeon's time than traditional procedures, reducing the number of operations doctors can perform. That's turned off some like Dr. Helmuth Billy. Billy was an early adopter of Intuitive's da Vinci system 15 years ago. But equipping its arms with instruments slowed him down. He rarely uses it now. "I like to do five operations a day," Billy said. "If I have to constantly dock and undock da Vinci, it becomes cumbersome." SURGEONS' WISH LIST To gain an edge, new robots will need to outperform laparoscopic surgery, said Dr. Dmitry Oleynikov, who heads a robotics task force for the Society of American Gastrointestinal and Endoscopic Surgeons. Surgeons told Reuters they want robots to provide a way to feel the body's tissue remotely, called haptic sensing, and better camera image quality. New systems also will need to be priced low enough to entice hospitals and outpatient surgical centers that have not yet invested in a da Vinci, as well as convince those with established robotic programs to consider a second vendor or switching suppliers altogether. "That is where competitors can differentiate," said Vik Srinivasan of the Advisory Board Co, a research and consulting firm that advises hospitals. Developers say they are paying attention. Verb Surgical, the J&J-Google venture that is investing about $250 million in its project, said creating a faster and easier-to-use system is a priority. Verb also envisions a system that is "always there, always on," enabling the surgeon to use the robot for parts of a procedure as needed, said Chief Executive Scott Huennekens. Intuitive said it too is looking to improve technology at a reasonable cost, but newcomers will face the same challenges. The August 10th, 2016 Edition of THE REVENGE HUMP DAY! Page 23 of 70 "As competitors come in, they are going to have to work within that same framework," CEO Gary Guthart said in an interview. Device maker Medtronic has said it expects to launch its surgical robot before mid-2018 and will start in India. Others developing surgical robots include TransEnterix Inc and Canada's Titan Medical Inc. An RBC Capital Markets survey found that U.S. surgeons expect about 35 percent of operations will involve robots in five years, up from 15 percent today. J&J, which hopes to be second to market with a product from Verb, has said it sees robotics as a multibillion-dollar market opportunity. Huennekens said Verb's surgical robot will differ from another Google robotics effort, the driverless car, in one important aspect. "There will always be a surgeon there," he said. MOON EXPRESS BECOMES FIRST PRIVATE COMPANY TO GET US APPROVAL FOR LUNAR MISSION Paving the way for private missions beyond Earth orbit By Loren Grush, on August 3, 2016 07:30 am http://www.theverge.com/2016/8/3/12361256/moon-express-private-mission-spaceflight-us- government-approved (Moon Express) The August 10th, 2016 Edition of THE REVENGE HUMP DAY! Page 24 of 70 Spaceflight venture Moon Express wants to be the first private company ever to land on the Moon in 2017 — and now the company has been granted approval by the United States government to launch to the lunar surface. It's the first time the government has granted regulatory approval for a private mission beyond Earth orbit. And Moon Express came very close to being denied permission to go. No regulatory framework currently exists for a commercial space missions to another world. Lawmakers are working on a permanent solution, but it likely won't be ready in time for Moon Express' 2017 mission. So the company came up with its own temporary framework — a regulatory patch — that the US government could use to oversee the company's mission. And after a meeting between the Federal Aviation Administration, the White House, and the State Department, Moon Express has been given the approval it needs to launch to the Moon. IT'S THE FIRST TIME THE GOVERNMENT HAS GRANTED REGULATORY APPROVAL FOR A PRIVATE MISSION BEYOND EARTH ORBIT So far, commercial companies have mostly just launched satellites into space; all specialized private missions, like launching cargo to the space station, have been overseen by NASA. That means Moon Express could be the first private company to land on the Moon, as well as the company that travels the farthest away from our planet. Moon Express' regulatory patch is only a temporary fix, though. Legislators are working on a long-term framework that will help the US government oversee private, deep-space missions. And it needs to happen soon, as space companies are getting more ambitious than ever. SpaceX announced its plans to send spacecraft to Mars in 2018, and Bigelow Aerospace wants to launch space hotels by 2020. Moon Express' lander is just the first of many deep-space private missions to come. MOON EXPRESS Moon Express needs to get to the Moon by 2017. That’s the deadline for the Google Lunar X Prize — an international competition to send the first privately funded vehicle to the Moon's surface. Moon Express joined the contest in 2012, and has since pushed ahead of the other 16 contenders. It is one of just two teams to have secured a launch contract. The company has purchased a ride for its lander on the Electron rocket, a vehicle currently being built by startup Rocket Lab. Moon Express has goals beyond winning the X Prize competition: the company wants to mine the Moon for rare elements and metals. "Even though we are a proud contender [in the X Prize competition], it’s neither a cornerstone of creating the business nor do we need to win it," Bob Richards, CEO of Moon Express, told The Verge. "But we want to win it." If successful, the 2017 trip will prove that the company can get hardware to the lunar surface in one piece. Afterward, Moon Express will continue to mount more missions to the Moon, and by 2020, Richards hopes the company will be able to bring back lunar material. THE COMPANY WANTS TO MINE THE MOON FOR RARE ELEMENTS AND METALS For a while, though, it was unclear whether Moon Express would legally be able to keep any material it got from the Moon. US law didn’t guarantee the company rights to materials it The August 10th, 2016 Edition of THE REVENGE HUMP DAY! Page 25 of 70 retrieved from space. But in November, President Obama signed into law the Commercial Space Launch Competitiveness Act — a bill that restricts the FAA from issuing standards for commercial spacecraft for the next seven years. The bill also guaranteed that private companies had the rights to any resources they collected in space. That means Moon Express and asteroid mining initiatives like Planetary Resources will be able to own any materials that they take from outer space bodies. The Electron rocket that the MX-1 lander will eventually fly on. (Rocket Lab) After the government said companies could essentially mine objects in space, the FAA realized it needed a way to oversee these private mining missions, as well as other ambitious space projects. Mainly, the US has to ensure these missions comply with the Outer Space Treaty — an international agreement between 104 countries that governs how nations conduct missions in space. "If the United States wants to be perceived as being compliant with the Outer Space Treaty, somebody has to authorize and oversee those operations," said George Nield, FAA associate administrator for commercial space transportation, in a recent speech reported by Space News. The White House and lawmakers have since been working on a regulatory framework that would allow the US government to make sure non-traditional space missions adhere to the treaty. But that framework likely won't be ready for a few years. "The great news was there is a regulatory process in the works," said Moon Express' Richards. "The bad news is we had zero confidence that the regulatory framework would be ready in time for our mission in 2017. Ironically you had a great 'space resources' act that says you can own what you get, but we’re in a situation where you can’t launch to go get it." THE PATCH The August 10th, 2016 Edition of THE REVENGE HUMP DAY! Page 26 of 70 The problem for Moon Express revolved around getting approval for its payload. Whenever a private company wants to conduct a space mission, it must apply for a license to launch its spacecraft from the FAA. Part of that application process, called the payload review, involves telling the FAA what's going into space and where it's going. The FAA has no power over what companies do when they get to space; however, the FAA does consult with other agencies during the approval process. One of those agencies is the State Department, which made it clear to Moon Express that it would step in and ask the FAA to deny the request, Richards said. That’s because the department can’t reliably enforce the Outer Space Treaty when the Moon Express lander is on the lunar surface. The signing of the Outer Space Treaty. (UN) MOON EXPRESS TRIED TO ADDRESS THREE CRITICAL PROVISIONS OF THE OUTER SPACE TREATY That gave Moon Express the idea to share more information than the federal government required. The company submitted a "souped-up" payload review, in which it voluntarily declared how the 2017 lunar mission would comply with the provisions of the Outer Space Treaty. "There are no new laws, no new regulations," said Richards. "We proposed a scenario where we would build on the existing payload review process." Moon Express tried to address three critical provisions of the Outer Space Treaty. First, nations must continually supervise all of the space missions that happen within their borders. Moon Express told the FAA it would frequently update the agency with information The August 10th, 2016 Edition of THE REVENGE HUMP DAY! Page 27 of 70 on the 2017 trip, so that the government could oversee it. The second rule is not messing with other nations’ spacecraft or space operations. On the Moon, that mostly means respecting the Apollo sites, and Moon Express assured the government that it wouldn't disturb these areas. "Don't do wheelies over Neil’s footprint," joked Richards. An artistic rendering of the MX-1 lander on the surface of the Moon. (Moon Express) Finally, Moon Express had to show the State Department it would abide by the Outer SpaceTreaty’s provision that is meant to prevent people from contaminating other worlds, called planetary protection. If companies like Moon Express want to land on a body in outer space, they have to be careful not to spread too many bacteria on the surface. Fortunately the Moon doesn't host life, so Moon Express doesn't have to worry too much about contamination. In its voluntary disclosures to the federal government, Moon Express gave the FAA all its data about how it would adhere to the rules of planetary protection. After giving all of this information to the FAA, the State Department, and the White House, the various agencies met to decide whether these disclosure were good enough. And the decision went in Moon Express' favor. "The meeting was a culmination of all the work we’ve been doing for the last several months on whether or not the State Department in particular would be comfortable with this approach," said Richards. "Our proposal provided enough comfort." A FUTURE FRAMEWORK The solution that Moon Express proposed was really only meant to be a temporary fix for the company, but it's possible the company has inadvertently created ground rules for all The August 10th, 2016 Edition of THE REVENGE HUMP DAY! Page 28 of 70 future commercial missions beyond Earth orbit. Congressman Jim Bridenstine (R-OK) has proposed a bill, called the Space Renaissance Act, which incorporates Moon Express' solution. Rather than have companies voluntarily disclose how they'll adhere to the Outer Space Treaty, however, Bridenstine's solution gives the FAA authority to issue guidelines for companies to follow. "My proposal updates the current payload review process to enhance it beyond the issuing of a yes or no," said Congressman Bridenstine. "Under this proposal, the FAA will be able to place conditions on payloads." FUTURE REGULATIONS WILL BE IMPORTANT FOR COMPANIES LIKE SPACEX It'll be some time before Bridenstine's bill or any other framework solutions take effect, though. But these future regulations will be important for companies like SpaceX, which wants to send spacecraft to Mars by 2018. SpaceX will also need approval for those missions, and it's possible these new regulations will be in effect by then to help the government oversee what SpaceX plans to do. If not, the company will likely have to come up with its own temporary fix, just like Moon Express did. For now, Moon Express isn't too concerned with how its temporary solution may affect policy; the company's just happy it has approval to go to the Moon. "If our pilot program turns out to be a template or model that becomes the permanent regulatory framework for everyone else, that’s a great footstep in history," said Richards. "But that wasn’t the intention; it was very selfish and just about our little 2017 mission." SLIDESHOW: 13 THINGS 'STAR TREK' GETS RIGHT (AND WRONG) ABOUT SPACE TECH By Elizabeth Howell, Space.com Contributor | August 2, 2016 07:09am ET http://www.space.com/33600-star-trek-space-technology-countdown.html Credit: Paramount Space Tech Fact and Fiction In "Star Trek," science often drives the plot forward. Whether characters are beaming to the surface of an alien planet or using warp drive to take a shortcut across the Milky Way, technology is essential for the crewmembers of the USS Enterprise to do their jobs. "Star Trek" doesn't always get this science and technology exactly right, but viewers shouldn't harp on the franchise's missteps, said David Allen Batchelor, a member of the radiation effects and analysis group at NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland. The August 10th, 2016 Edition of THE REVENGE HUMP DAY! Page 29 of 70 "Generally, 'Star Trek' is pretty intelligently written, and more faithful to science than any other science fiction series ever shown on television," Batchelor wrote in a recent analysis of "Star Trek" tech. "'Star Trek' also attracts and excites generations of viewers about advanced science and engineering, and it's almost the only show that depicts scientists and engineers positively, as role models," Batchelor added. "So let's forgive the show for an occasional misconception in the service of an epic adventure." AT THE HEART OF THE SOLARCITY-TESLA MERGER: BATTERIES Source: Buffalo News (NY), 08.04.16 http://community.energycentral.com/news/heart-solarcity-tesla-merger- batteries?did=39199122&utm_source=2016_08_03&utm_medium=eNL&utm_content=93924&utm_ca mpaign=DAILY_NEWS For SolarCity, it's all about the batteries. Behind Tesla Motors' $2.6 billion bid to buy SolarCity is the conviction that the next big thing in solar energy will be to combine solar panels with battery systems that can store that electricity until it's needed at night or when it's cloudy. Battery storage currently is too expensive to be practical, but with Tesla building the world's biggest battery factory in Nevada, both companies are betting that prices will drop fast enough to make batteries a standard part of all rooftop solar arrays within three to five years. "That's the next phase of the company," said Lyndon Rive, SolarCity's chief executive officer. "It's going to be very clear that this combination of solar and storage will be able to provide energy at a lower cost than traditional forms of energy." But not yet. Home batteries currently cost thousands of dollars, so they don't make economic sense for most homeowners who are putting solar panels on their roofs. While some analysts are worried about the time and investment it will take to develop the technology and manufacturing efficiencies that will make battery storage more affordable, Rive and his cousin, Tesla CEO Elon Musk, believe the electric vehicle maker's battery "gigafactory" in Nevada will change all that in just a handful of years. For now, though, combining solar energy systems with battery storage only makes financial sense in a few places, such as Hawaii, where electricity prices are sky high and so many solar arrays already are in place that it is putting a strain on the state's power grid. But as more people switch to solar power and Tesla finds ways to lower the cost of its lithium-ion batteries -- partly through economies of scale and partly through closer collaboration with SolarCity on system design -- the economics of adding battery storage The August 10th, 2016 Edition of THE REVENGE HUMP DAY! Page 30 of 70 will improve, Musk said during a conference call this week to discuss Tesla's $2.6 billion bid to buy SolarCity. Rive thinks that within three to five years, all solar energy systems that are installed will have battery storage. That may be too ambitious for some analysts. One analyst asked Musk during the conference call if Tesla wouldn't be better off waiting to make its move into solar. After all, the company already is juggling two big operational challenges. The launch of Tesla's mass-market Model 3 sedan next year and the big jump in production that will come with its more than 370,000 preorders that will need to be filled would stress most companies. But Tesla also is gearing up to open its 5,000-employee battery gigafactory. Musk said Tesla can't afford to wait. If batteries are going to become an integrated part of solar, then it will take time to develop and refine those storage products so they're ready to hit the market in a few years, when costs are more affordable. "This is really long-term thinking here," Musk said. "This is an action now that is anticipating several moves ahead." Still, solar and storage has a long way to go. SolarCity, for instance, just launched a demonstration project last month with Pacific Gas & Electric in San Jose, Calif., to coordinate solar with battery storage at up to 150 homes. A June report by GTM Research predicts a rapid expansion of battery storage within the residential market, but not the all-inclusive acceptance that Rive foresees. GTM Research forecast that battery storage would rise from virtually nothing today to about 300 megawatts of capacity within three years and around 600 megawatts by 2021. That would only be about two-thirds of the 950 megawatts of solar generating capacity that SolarCity expects to install this year. But battery prices are dropping. Between 2008 and 2015, the price of Tesla's electric vehicle battery packs was cut in half, while the capacity of those batteries jumped by 60 percent. If prices keep dropping as Musk predicts, then battery storage could become a strong selling point for solar power. For now, homeowners install solar panels to tap into lucrative subsidies that can reduce their electric bill if they live in a place with high power costs. Plus, it's renewable energy that doesn't add greenhouse gasses to the atmosphere. With batteries, a solar power system also becomes protection against blackouts and power outages. "Today, the primary motivation for going solar is that it's environmentally friendly and it saves money," Rive said. "Once you add storage to the equation, you add backup." The August 10th, 2016 Edition of THE REVENGE HUMP DAY! Page 31 of 70 With Tesla's $5 billion battery factory now under construction, a SolarCity-Tesla merger will make it easier to integrate batteries into solar designs in a way that wouldn't be possible if the companies were separate, Musk said. It also would give Tesla greater control over the solar product line. Rive recalled that when SolarCity started out 10 years ago, the company relied on subcontractors to install its rooftop solar systems. But Rive quickly decided it was better if SolarCity did that work itself, allowing it to control not only costs but the entire customer experience. Adding financing options further expanded that control. Batteries are the next step to come. "What we're talking about is one brand and a complete solution," said Jason Wheeler, Tesla's chief financial officer. "You've got to vertically integrate the products, as well," Rive said. "I'm really excited about this next phase, and I think, together, we can really accelerate the adoption of solar energy." What no one can say for sure, though, is when that will happen. NORWAY IS GOING TO BUILD WORLD’S FIRST FLOATING UNDERWATER TUNNELS By: Nidhi Goyal, August 1st, 2016 http://www.industrytap.com/norway-going-build-worlds-first-floating-underwater- tunnels/37685?utm_source=Industry+Tap&utm_campaign=a3ca89b337- Industry_Tap_Volume_3358_4_2016&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_05d6224fe0-a3ca89b337- 44103165* Image courtesy The Norwegian Public Roads Administration Norway is a beautiful country with tall mountains, glaciers, and deep fjords. But getting from one place to another often requires lengthy journeys. Most people have to use ferries The August 10th, 2016 Edition of THE REVENGE HUMP DAY! Page 32 of 70 to get from one place to another. These ferries are not only slow but are also subject to weather conditions. To cope with this problem, Norway is building large concrete tunnels to help travelers easily cross the nation’s many fjords. One of the important highways that connects the city of Kristiansand in the south to Trondheim in the north cuts through a number of fjords. To complete this 680-mile journey (1100 km), one has to take seven ferry trips. However, a tunnel would help in cutting the commute time from 21 hours down to just 11 hours. Image courtesy The Norwegian Public Roads Administration Here are some of the features of these “submerged floating bridges”: * The proposed tunnel consists of two 4,000 foot-long concrete tubes. Each one will be wide enough for two lanes – one for travel and one for emergencies and repair work * These floating bridges would be suspended by pontoon-like support structures and connect with trusses to keep everything stable. The structure would also be bolted to the bedrock below to provide added stability. * Wide gaps between these pontoons allow ships to pass through. * They will hang between 65-100 feet below the water’s surface, allowing naval ships to easily pass through overhead. The August 10th, 2016 Edition of THE REVENGE HUMP DAY! Page 33 of 70 * These floating bridges are smartly designed to withstand any tidal movements and the effects of cold weather. Moreover, being at great depth, weather phenomenon like wind and waves won’t affect them. * This project is expected to be completed by 2035 and will cost a staggering $25 billion. ISRAEL PROVES THE DESALINATION ERA IS HERE One of the driest countries on Earth now makes more freshwater than it needs By Rowan Jacobsen, Ensia on July 29, 2016 http://www.scientificamerican.com/article/israel-proves-the-desalination-era-is- here/?WT.mc_id=SA_ENGYSUS_20160804 Sorek Desalination Plant. Credit: Photo courtesy of IDE Technologies. From Ensia (find the original story here); reprinted with permission. July 19, 2016 — Ten miles south of Tel Aviv, I stand on a catwalk over two concrete reservoirs the size of football fields and watch water pour into them from a massive pipe emerging from the sand. The pipe is so large I could walk through it standing upright, were it not full of Mediterranean seawater pumped from an intake a mile offshore. The August 10th, 2016 Edition of THE REVENGE HUMP DAY! Page 34 of 70 “Now, that’s a pump!” Edo Bar-Zeev shouts to me over the din of the motors, grinning with undisguised awe at the scene before us. The reservoirs beneath us contain several feet of sand through which the seawater filters before making its way to a vast metal hangar, where it is transformed into enough drinking water to supply 1.5 million people. We are standing above the new Sorek desalination plant, the largest reverse-osmosis desal facility in the world, and we are staring at Israel’s salvation. Just a few years ago, in the depths of its worst drought in at least 900 years, Israel was running out of water. Now it has a surplus. That remarkable turnaround was accomplished through national campaigns to conserve and reuse Israel’s meager water resources, but the biggest impact came from a new wave of desalination plants. Bar-Zeev, who recently joined Israel’s Zuckerberg Institute for Water Research after completing his postdoc work at Yale University, is an expert on biofouling, which has always been an Achilles’ heel of desalination and one of the reasons it has been considered a last resort. Desal works by pushing saltwater into membranes containing microscopic pores. The water gets through, while the larger salt molecules are left behind. But microorganisms in seawater quickly colonize the membranes and block the pores, and controlling them requires periodic costly and chemical-intensive cleaning. But Bar-Zeev and colleagues developed a chemical-free system using porous lava stone to capture the microorganisms before they reach the membranes. It’s just one of many breakthroughs in membrane technology that have made desalination much more efficient. Israel now gets 55 percent of its domestic water from desalination, and that has helped to turn one of the world’s driest countries into the unlikeliest of water giants. Driven by necessity, Israel is learning to squeeze more out of a drop of water than any country on Earth, and much of that learning is happening at the Zuckerberg Institute, where researchers have pioneered new techniques in drip irrigation, water treatment and desalination. They have developed resilient well systems for African villages and biological digesters than can halve the water usage of most homes. The institute’s original mission was to improve life in Israel’s bone-dry Negev Desert, but the lessons look increasingly applicable to the entire Fertile Crescent. “The Middle East is drying up,” says Osnat Gillor, a professor at the Zuckerberg Institute who studies the use of recycled wastewater on crops. “The only country that isn’t suffering acute water stress is Israel.” That water stress has been a major factor in the turmoil tearing apart the Middle East, but Bar-Zeev believes that Israel’s solutions can help its parched neighbors, too — and in the process, bring together old enemies in common cause. Bar-Zeev acknowledges that water will likely be a source of conflict in the Middle East in the future. “But I believe water can be a bridge, through joint ventures,” he says. “And one of those ventures is desalination.” DRIVEN TO DESPERATION In 2008, Israel teetered on the edge of catastrophe. A decade-long drought had scorched the Fertile Crescent, and Israel’s largest source of freshwater, the Sea of Galilee, had dropped to within inches of the “black line” at which irreversible salt infiltration would The August 10th, 2016 Edition of THE REVENGE HUMP DAY! Page 35 of 70 flood the lake and ruin it forever. Water restrictions were imposed, and many farmers lost a year’s crops. Their counterparts in Syria fared much worse. As the drought intensified and the water table plunged, Syria’s farmers chased it, drilling wells 100, 200, then 500 meters (300, 700, then 1,600 feet) down in a literal race to the bottom. Eventually, the wells ran dry and Syria’s farmland collapsed in an epic dust storm. More than a million farmers joined massive shantytowns on the outskirts of Aleppo, Homs, Damascus and other cities in a futile attempt to find work and purpose. And that, according to the authors of “Climate Change in the Fertile Crescent and Implications of the Recent Syrian Drought,” a 2015 paper in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, was the tinder that burned Syria to the ground. “The rapidly growing urban peripheries of Syria,” they wrote, “marked by illegal settlements, overcrowding, poor infrastructure, unemployment, and crime, were neglected by the Assad government and became the heart of the developing unrest.” Similar stories are playing out across the Middle East, where drought and agricultural collapse have produced a lost generation with no prospects and simmering resentments. Iran, Iraq and Jordan all face water catastrophes. Water is driving the entire region to desperate acts. MORE WATER THAN NEEDS Except Israel. Amazingly, Israel has more water than it needs. The turnaround started in 2007, when low-flow toilets and showerheads were installed nationwide and the national water authority built innovative water treatment systems that recapture 86 percent of the water that goes down the drain and use it for irrigation — vastly more than the second- most-efficient country in the world, Spain, which recycles 19 percent. But even with those measures, Israel still needed about 1.9 billion cubic meters (2.5 billion cubic yards) of freshwater per year and was getting just 1.4 billion cubic meters (1.8 billion cubic yards) from natural sources. That 500-million-cubic-meter (650-million-cubic-yard) shortfall was why the Sea of Galilee was draining like an unplugged tub and why the country was about to lose its farms. Enter desalination. The Ashkelon plant, in 2005, provided 127 million cubic meters (166 million cubic yards) of water. Hadera, in 2009, put out another 140 million cubic meters (183 million cubic yards). And now Sorek, 150 million cubic meters (196 million cubic yards). All told, desal plants can provide some 600 million cubic meters (785 million cubic yards) of water a year, and more are on the way. The Sea of Galilee is fuller. Israel’s farms are thriving. And the country faces a previously unfathomable question: What to do with its extra water? WATER DIPLOMACY Inside Sorek, 50,000 membranes enclosed in vertical white cylinders, each 4 feet high and 16 inches wide, are whirring like jet engines. The whole thing feels like a throbbing spaceship about to blast off. The cylinders contain sheets of plastic membranes wrapped around a central pipe, and the membranes are stippled with pores less than a hundredth the diameter of a human hair. Water shoots into the cylinders at a pressure of 70 The August 10th, 2016 Edition of THE REVENGE HUMP DAY! Page 36 of 70 atmospheres and is pushed through the membranes, while the remaining brine is returned to the sea. Desalination used to be an expensive energy hog, but the kind of advanced technologies being employed at Sorek have been a game changer. Water produced by desalination costs just a third of what it did in the 1990s. Sorek can produce a thousand liters of drinking water for 58 cents. Israeli households pay about US$30 a month for their water — similar to households in most U.S. cities, and far less than Las Vegas (US$47) or Los Angeles (US$58). The International Desalination Association claims that 300 million people get water from desalination, and that number is quickly rising. IDE, the Israeli company that built Ashkelon, Hadera and Sorek, recently finished the Carlsbad desalination plant in Southern California, a close cousin of its Israel plants, and it has many more in the works. Worldwide, the equivalent of six additional Sorek plants are coming online every year. The desalination era is here. What excites Bar-Zeev the most is the opportunity for water diplomacy. Israel supplies the West Bank with water, as required by the 1995 Oslo II Accords, but the Palestinians still receive far less than they need. Water has been entangled with other negotiations in the ill- fated peace process, but now that more is at hand, many observers see the opportunity to depoliticize it. Bar-Zeev has ambitious plans for a Water Knows No Boundaries conference in 2018, which will bring together water scientists from Egypt, Turkey, Jordan, Israel, the West Bank and Gaza for a meeting of the minds. Even more ambitious is the US$900 million Red Sea–Dead Sea Canal, a joint venture between Israel and Jordan to build a large desalination plant on the Red Sea, where they share a border, and divide the water among Israelis, Jordanians and the Palestinians. The brine discharge from the plant will be piped 100 miles north through Jordan to replenish the Dead Sea, which has been dropping a meter per year since the two countries began diverting the only river that feeds it in the 1960s. By 2020, these old foes will be drinking from the same tap. On the far end of the Sorek plant, Bar-Zeev and I get to share a tap as well. Branching off from the main line where the Sorek water enters the Israeli grid is a simple spigot, a paper cup dispenser beside it. I open the tap and drink cup after cup of what was the Mediterranean Sea 40 minutes ago. It tastes cold, clear and miraculous. The contrasts couldn’t be starker. A few miles from here, water disappeared and civilization crumbled. Here, a galvanized civilization created water from nothingness. As Bar-Zeev and I drink deep, and the climate sizzles, I wonder which of these stories will be the exception, and which the rule. FAST-CHARGE PLUGS DO NOT FIT ALL ELECTRIC CARS Just like desktops, laptops and smartphones, plugs to rapidly charge electric cars are not compatible across brands By Ariel Wittenberg, ClimateWire on August 1, 2016 The August 10th, 2016 Edition of THE REVENGE HUMP DAY! Page 37 of 70 http://www.scientificamerican.com/article/fast-charge-plugs-do-not-fit-all-electric- cars/?WT.mc_id=SA_ENGYSUS_20160804 A driver looking to quickly charge an electric vehicle can’t necessarily plug into the closest fast-charging station. Many won’t fit the car. Credit: felixkramer/Flickr, CC BY-SA 2.0 While automakers have agreed on uniform plug standards for slower types of charging used at home and work, they have not done so for what’s known as DC fast charging, which can fill a battery in less than 30 minutes. German and American automakers use different connection standards from Japanese and other Asian manufacturers, while Tesla Motors Inc. uses its own system entirely. Critics say the disparities hinder widespread adoption of electric vehicles, complicating plugging in. “It’s like if you could only get gas for your Subaru at Sunoco stations and nowhere else,” said clean transportation advocate Chelsea Sexton. “Who would buy that car?” The August 10th, 2016 Edition of THE REVENGE HUMP DAY! Page 38 of 70 Yet automakers say they have no interest in developing uniform charging standards and dismiss the implication that different plugs could be slowing sector growth. Instead, many are racing to build out fast-charging infrastructure that fits their cars before new models are released in 2018. THE IMPORTANCE OF BEING FAST Both advocates and manufacturers agree that the ability to rapidly charge an electric vehicle is key to persuading drivers to go green. If drivers see that charging is as easy as filling the tank, the reasoning goes, they will be more inclined to opt in. And while most car rides are shorter than the distance EVs can travel before running out of battery power, fast charging is seen as an important means of easing consumer range anxiety about losing power before reaching a destination. “This is not a chicken-or-egg proposition,” said Wayne Killen, an electric vehicle architect at Audi. “The charging network has to come first, or there has to be awareness that it is being built, for someone to buy a long-range electric vehicle.” But all electric vehicles can’t tap into all fast-chargers. The CHAdeMO network only fits Japanese and Asian-made vehicles. The SAE Combo plugs only fit German and American cars. Tesla’s Supercharger network only connects to the company’s vehicles. Of the 1,855 fast-charging stations in the United States, 1,077 have CHAdeMO connectors, 764 have SAE Combo connectors and 289 have Tesla connectors, according to the Department of Energy’s Alternative Fuels Data Center. Developed by Tokyo Electric Power Co., CHAdeMO was brought to the United States by Nissan when it began marketing its Leaf here in 2010. It named the technology after a Japanese pun that means “Let’s have tea while charging,” emphasizing how easily the technology could integrate into consumers’ lives. The car, and therefore the fast-charging standard, dominated the American market for three years, until American and German automakers began marketing their own electric cars and decided to develop their own plug through the Society of Automotive Engineers standards organization. In 2012, General Motors officials called for the boycott of CHAdeMO chargers. At the time, critics questioned whether the CHAdeMO boycott was an attempt to cut into Nissan’s market share by confusing the charging industry about whether to install existing infrastructure or wait for the new standard. When the Chevrolet Spark debuted in 2013, the nation had zero DC fast-chargers that could fit the vehicle, something critics said pointed to the company’s ulterior motives. Today, German and American automakers insist the SAE Combo fast charger was created with consumers in mind. The August 10th, 2016 Edition of THE REVENGE HUMP DAY! Page 39 of 70 CHAdeMO cars require two charging ports—one for slow and one for fast charging. The SAE Combo plug is designed so those cars can have just one port, with the fast-charging plug connecting to the same outlet as slower chargers. “It was a major consideration for automakers and designers,” said Britta Gross, director of advanced vehicle commercialization policy at GM. At 90 kilowatts, the SAE Combo also delivers a faster charge than the 70 kW CHAdeMO, though both standards organizations are working on expanding their power output to 150 kW within the next year. Tesla, too, decided to go its own way. The electric vehicle manufacturer declined to comment for this story, but news reports from the time suggest the company wanted a plug with a higher power output than CHAdeMO and was unwilling to wait for the SAE standard to become available. In 2012, it unveiled its 120 kW Supercharger network. ‘THE THING IS THE CAR’ The result is a confusing patchwork of fast-charging networks. Sexton says the problem is especially difficult for those driving something other than a Tesla. While Supercharger stations are clearly marked as being set up by Tesla for its own cars, CHAdeMO and SAE Combo chargers are generally installed and owned by infrastructure companies like NRG EVgo or ChargePoint, making it unclear which vehicles can plug into which stations. Some fast-charging stations have only one type of connector, while others have both, further complicating matters. “It is absolutely an issue,” Sexton said. “It does create confusion and inconvenience to feel like you have to scout out not just charging stations but also plug types.” The industry ideal of making charging as simple as filling a tank of gas should extend to connectors, too, says EV blogger David Herron, who notes that all gas station nozzles are the same, whether drivers are filling up with diesel, regular or super plus. “What we deserve is ubiquitous fast-charging stations with a unified fast-charging protocol,” he said. “Our gasoline-powered brethren have a unified standard for gasoline pump nozzles; we deserve the same for fast charging.” Automakers are not making any moves to unify standards. They say that when it comes to attracting consumers to EVs, there are bigger obstacles at play. Killen, at Audi, acknowledged that the different fast-charging standards are “not ideal” but said he does not believe they factor into consumers’ choices. “When you really dig into charging anxiety and what makes people cautious about going electric, it is ‘Where do I charge, and how do I charge?’” he said. “It’s not about confusion between connectors.” Gross, at GM, agreed. She said her company is more concerned with making its electric vehicles as attractive as possible, not charger confusion. “The thing is the car,” she said. The August 10th, 2016 Edition of THE REVENGE HUMP DAY! Page 40 of 70 John Gartner, director of energy at Navigant Research, said the plug issue doesn’t sway drivers because most don’t know about the differences until after they purchase a vehicle. “Most consumers have not thought very far ahead,” he said. CATCHING UP Regardless of whether the plug disparity is influencing consumers, many agree it has influenced infrastructure development, which could, in turn, influence consumers. “It did make investment in charging infrastructure more complicated,” Gartner said. “There are fewer charging sites than there would have been with one standard from the beginning.” Jim Francfort, who heads the Advanced Transportation Group at Idaho National Laboratory, agreed. “It would be a lot less expensive to put in one standard; that would make sense,” he said. “But if you have one company that has already heavily invested in one of the plugs, they have little incentive to change.” Because all fast-charging stations can’t fit all cars, automakers are now playing catch-up in preparation for 2018, when California regulations require more electric vehicle sales. Whatever bad feelings may have existed between manufacturers over disparities in standards, automakers are now working together to develop charging stations. In December, Nissan and BMW announced a partnership to install 120 fast chargers across the country. The stations will be equipped with both CHAdeMO and SAE Combo. Nissan Senior Manager of EV Infrastructure and Strategy JeSean Hopkins said that though the company was “disappointed” that other automakers would not adopt CHAdeMO, Nissan is dedicated to “giving all EV drivers added range confidence to run their daily errands.” Tesla, which in March announced a plan to double the number of Superchargers nationwide by the end of this year, has also tried downgrading the exclusivity of the Supercharger network. In June 2014, the company decided to open all its patents, allowing anyone to use the technology, though no one has done so for Superchargers. At the same time, the company developed a $450 adapter for its cars to use CHAdeMO plugs. The automaker is working on an adapter for SAE Combo chargers. At Audi, Killen has been tasked with forming a partnership of automakers to install 175 new chargers nationwide before Audi’s e-tron quattro makes its debut in 2018. Killen says he wants to emulate Tesla’s model of installing chargers “not just where electric vehicles are and drive,” but across the country. While Killen initially said he was “not inclined” to include CHAdeMO chargers in the project, he now says he is open to working with automakers that use the standard. The August 10th, 2016 Edition of THE REVENGE HUMP DAY! Page 41 of 70 “We do not pretend that we need to build a network for our cars alone,” he said. “This is something where we need to share it.” SORRY, FOLKS. THE LHC DIDN’T FIND A NEW PARTICLE AFTER ALL AUTHOR: BRENDAN COLE, CERN SCIENCE, 08.05.16.08.05.16 http://www.wired.com/2016/08/sorry-folks-lhc-didnt-find-new-particle/ THE LAST THIRTY years of particle physics have been a little disappointing. A scientist’s job is to prove themselves wrong, but despite their best efforts, despite recreating the conditions of the Big Bang, particle physicists just keep being correct. Aside from a few unexplained observations(meddling neutrinos!), the Standard Model, which describes interactions between all known particles, has exactly predicted the outcome of every experiment in the history of particle physics. Physicists try to prove it wrong, and they keep failing. Last December exposed the field’s latent craving for novelty. That’s when CERN announced a collection of unexpected observations at the Large Hadron Collider. Scientists quickly submitted over 500 papers, each inventing a new way to explain the observations, which seemed to blast holes in the hull of the unsinkable Standard Model. But in a new paper uploaded last night, CERN makes it clear that the search will have to continue: The exciting measurements were nothing more than statistical blips. Scientists will discuss these results in more detail later today. TRAVELING TO MARS WITH IMMORTAL PLASMA ROCKETS By Gary Li, University of California, Los Angeles | August 5, 2016 04:00pm ET http://bigstory.ap.org/article/2046caaeaeb545b48845a369a2b50d47/traveling-mars-immortal-plasma- rockets Mars mission with plasma rockets concept. Credit: NASA This article was originally published at The Conversation. The publication contributed the article to Space.com's Expert Voices: Op-Ed & Insights. Nearly 50 years after landing on the moon, mankind has now set its sights on sending the first humans to Mars. The moon trip took three days; a Mars trip will likely take most of a year. The difference is in more than just time. The August 10th, 2016 Edition of THE REVENGE HUMP DAY! Page 42 of 70 We'll need many more supplies for the trip itself, and when we get to the Red Planet, we're going to need to set up camp and stay for a while. Carrying all this material will require a revolutionary rocket technology. The Saturn V was the largest rocket ever built. It consumed an enormous amount of fuel in explosive chemical reactions that propelled the Apollo spacecraft into orbit. After reaching orbit, Apollo ejected the empty fuel tanks and turned on its own chemical rockets that used even more fuel to get to the moon. It took nearly a million gallons of various fuels just to send a few people on a day trip to our nearest extraterrestrial body. Saturn V rocket drawn to scale with Statue of Liberty. Apollo spacecraft and the moon are not to scale. Credit: CC BY- ND So how could we send a settlement to Mars, which is more than 100 times farther away than the moon? The Saturn-Apollo combination could deliver only the mass equivalent of one railroad boxcar to the moon; it would take dozens of those rockets just to build a small house on Mars. Sadly, there are no alternatives for the "chemical" launch rocket; only powerful chemical explosions can provide enough force to overcome Earth’s gravity. But once in space, a new fuel-efficient rocket technology can take over: plasma rockets. Gary Li's University of California Grad Slam 2016 talk about his research. THE 'ELECTRIC VEHICLES' OF SPACE 6 kW Hall Thruster. Credit: NASA JPL Plasma rockets are a modern technology that transforms fuel into a hot soup of electrically charged particles, known as plasma, and ejects it to push a spacecraft. The August 10th, 2016 Edition of THE REVENGE HUMP DAY! Page 43 of 70 Using plasma rockets instead of the traditional chemical rockets can reduce total in-space fuel usage by 90 percent. That means we could deliver 10 times the amount of cargo using the same fuel mass. NASA mission planners are already looking into using plasma rocket transport vehicles for ferrying cargo between Earth and Mars. The main downside to plasma rockets is their low thrust. Thrust is a measure of how strong a "push" the rocket can supply to the spacecraft. The most powerful plasma rocket flown in space, called a Hall thruster, would produce only enough thrust to lift a piece of paper against Earth's gravity. Believe it or not, a Hall thruster would take many years of continuous pushing to reach Mars. To do this, we need to understand how a plasma rocket works. The rocket creates a plasma by injecting electrical energy into a gaseous fuel, stripping negatively charged electrons from the positively charged ions. The ions are then shot out the back of the rocket, pushing the spacecraft forward. But don't worry, weak thrust is not a deal breaker. Thanks to its revolutionary fuel efficiency, plasma rockets have enabled NASA to perform missions that would otherwise not be possible with chemical rockets. Just recently, the Dawn missiondemonstrated the potential of plasma rockets by becoming the first spacecraft to orbit two different extraterrestrial bodies. While the future of plasma rockets is bright, the technology still has unsolved problems. For example, what's going to happen to a thruster that runs for the many years it takes to perform round-trip cargo missions to Mars? Most likely, it'll break. That's where my research comes in. I need to find out how to make plasmarockets immortal. Understanding plasma rockets Model plasma rocket diagram. Most similar to an ion thruster design. Credit: Author provided, CC BY-ND Unfortunately, all that energy in plasma does more than propel spaceships – it wants to destroy any material it comes into contact with. Electric forces from the negatively charged walls cause the ions to slam into the wall at very high speeds. These collisions break atoms off the wall, slowly weakening it over time. Eventually,enough ions hit the wall that the entire wall breaks, the thruster stops functioning and your spacecraft is now stuck in space. The August 10th, 2016 Edition of THE REVENGE HUMP DAY! Page 44 of 70 It's not enough to use tougher materials to withstand the bombardment: There will always be some amount of damage regardless of how strong the material is. We need a clever way of manipulating the plasma, and the wall material, to avoid damage. A self-healing wall Wouldn't it be great if the chamber wall could repair itself? It turns out there are two physical effects that can allow this to happen. Illustration of three possible scenarios for a wall atom that comes off: 1) it’s lost forever, 2) it intercepts a wall and deposits or 3) it becomes ionized and is accelerated by electric forces to deposit on the wall. Credit: CC BY-ND The first is known as ballistic deposition and is present in materials with microscopic surface variations, like spikes or columns. When an ion hits the wall, a piece of these microfeatures that breaks off can fly in any direction. Some of these pieces will hit nearby protruding parts of the surface and stick, leaving the wall effectively undamaged. However, there will always be atoms that fly away from the wall and are lost forever. Microstructures on a material sample viewed under a Scanning Electron Microscope. Credit: Chris Matthes (UCLA), CC BY-ND The second phenomenon is less intuitive and depends on the plasma conditions. Imagine the same scenario where the wall particle breaks off and flies into the plasma. However, instead of being lost forever, the particle suddenly turns around and goes straight back to the wall. This is similar to how a baseball tossed straight up into the air turns around and drops back to your hand. With the baseball, gravity stops the ball from going up any higher and pulls it back down to the The August 10th, 2016 Edition of THE REVENGE HUMP DAY! Page 45 of 70 ground. In a thruster, it's the electric force between the negatively charged wall and the wall particle itself. It comes off neutrally charged, but can lose its electron in the plasma, becoming positively charged. The result is that the particle is pulled back toward the wall, in a phenomenon known as plasma redeposition. This process can be controlled by changing the density and temperature of the plasma. Testing different materials Sample materials being assessed in the UCLA Plasma-interactions test facility. credit: CC BY-ND Here at UCLA, I create a plasma and smash it into microfeatured materials, to measure the effects of ballistic deposition and plasma redeposition. Remember, ballistic deposition depends on the wall’s surface structures, while plasma redeposition depends on the plasma. For my initial study, I adjusted the plasma conditions so there was no plasma redeposition, and only ballistic deposition occurred. Then I turned my attention from the plasma to the wall. The first microfeatured sample I tested had its damage reduced by 20 percent. By improving the design of the microfeatures, the damage can be reduced even further, potentially as much as 50 percent. Such a material on a thruster could make the difference between getting to Mars and getting stuck halfway. The next step is to include the effects of plasma redeposition and to determine whether a truly immortal wall can be achieved. As plasma thrusters become ever more powerful, they become more able to damage their own walls, too. That increases the importance of a self-healing wall. My ultimate goal is to design a thruster using advanced materials that can last 10 times as long as any Mars mission requirement, making it effectively immortal. An immortal wall would solve this problem of thruster failure, and allow us to ferry the cargo we need to begin building mankind's first outpost on Mars.. Gary Li, Ph.D. Candidate in Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering, University of California, Los Angeles The August 10th, 2016 Edition of THE REVENGE HUMP DAY! Page 46 of 70 STRANGE MINERALS FROM SIBERIAN MINE ARE UNLIKE ANYTHING FOUND IN NATURE Ria Misra, August 5, 2016 http://gizmodo.com/strange-minerals-from-siberian-mine-are-unlike-anything-1784843835 Sample of zhemchuzhnikovite (Image: Igor Huski?, Friš?i? Research Group, McGill University) From deep inside a Siberian mine, researchers have catalogued a series of materials unlike any others yet found in the ground. They do, however, bear a startling similarity to certain lab-grown materials that weren’t thought to exist in nature at all—until now. In the last few decades, chemists have been crafting a series of new materials in their labs called metal-organic frameworks, or MOFs. These materials are “molecular sponges,” capable of soaking up gases like hydrogen or carbon dioxide—even storing them for future use, like a cell. A new paper in Science Advances reveals that not only are these materials also found in nature, we’ve had them in our hands for over 70 years. We just didn’t know what they were. The samples of the two minerals, stepanovite and zhemchuzhnikovite, were originally catalogued by geologists starting in the 1940s after being pulled from mines in Siberia. With the technical limitations of the time, however, their unusual properties went by mostly unnoticed. Then, in 2010, chemistry professor and senior author of today’s paper, Tomislav Friš?i? of McGill University, came across an account of the samples in an old article in a mineralogy journal. He was struck by certain structural similarities between the minerals and today’s lab-generated MOFs. With the original samples in Russia unavailable, grad student and first author Igor Huskic, also of McGill, set about creating synthetic versions of the samples using the details from The August 10th, 2016 Edition of THE REVENGE HUMP DAY! Page 47 of 70 the old mineralogy journal. He was successful and the synthetic versions of the minerals did, indeed, mimic the MOF materials. But it wasn’t until their Russian co-authors tracked down actual samples from decades ago that the team could confirm that finding. Left: Zhemchuzhnikovite crystal sample (Image: Igor Huski?, Friš?i? Research Group, McGill University) Right: Chemical structure of the mineral (Image: Luzia Germann, Dinnebier Research Group, MPI Stuttgart and Igor Huski?, Friš?i? Research Group, McGill University) “It’s the opposite of how it’s usually done. Usually what happens is a type of material is discovered in nature, it’s analyzed,” Friš?i? told Gizmodo, “and then we find it has interesting properties, which we can then mimic in the lab.” The lab-grown versions of the MOFs have generated considerable excitement among researchers because of their possible applications. Among the potential uses is using them as carbon sequesters for the carbon dioxide we pump out into the atmosphere or even using them to create incredibly-efficient fuel cells. But those applications are still down the road, raising the question of what might have been had we recognized these properties earlier. “One conclusion I can make is, if it were possible in the ‘40s to perform structural analysis like this, then the whole area of MOFs would have been accelerated by 50 years,” Friš?i? said. The conditions in which these samples were found were unusual. The mine in Siberia was 250 meters deep and under a layer of thawing permafrost. So only a very small amount of the samples were collected. Still, Friš?i? is optimistic that there could be other sources out there—easier to get to and much more more abundant—with similar properties to MOFs. The next step is to figure out just where similar minerals could be found, and continue to work out just what we might be able to do with both them and their lab-grown equivalents. The August 10th, 2016 Edition of THE REVENGE HUMP DAY! Page 48 of 70 VIDEO: 4 YEARS ON MARS! NASA'S HISTORIC CURIOSITY ROVER MARKS ANNIVERSARY By Mike Wall, Space.com Senior Writer | August 5, 2016 07:00am ET http://www.space.com/33655-mars-rover-curiosity-fourth-anniversary.html Four years ago today, NASA's Mars rover Curiosity made one of the most dramatic and harrowing landings in the history of space exploration. On the night of Aug. 5, 2012, a rocket-powered "sky crane" lowered the car-size Curiosity onto Mars' red dirt using cables, then flew off and crash-landed intentionally a safe distance away. Curiosity team members had modeled this novel technique repeatedly using computers, but it had never been tested fully here on Earth, let alone employed on the surface of another world. WHAT'S IT LIKE TO WORK AT SPACEX? By Calla Cofield, Space.com Staff Writer | August 3, 2016 04:37pm ET http://www.space.com/33639-how-to-get-a-job-at-spacex.html The SpaceX Red Dragon capsule could carry humans to Mars, the company has said. It's one of many projects that SpaceX team members are working on. Credit: SpaceX The private spaceflight company SpaceX is pioneering the field of reusable rockets and pursuing dreams of sending humans to Mars. Understandably, lots of people want to work there. But how does someone get a job at SpaceX, and what's it like to work there? Brian Bjelde, vice president of human resources for the company, shed a little light on those questions yesterday (Aug. 2) during a Reddit Ask Me Anything(AMA). The questions varied, but Bjelde mostly responded to queries about how to get an interview for a job or an internship, what kind of experience the company values in its potential hires and those rumors about all SpaceX employees having superlong workdays. One (very direct) user hit Bjelde with a question about the company's reputation (true or not) for making employees work "50+ hours/week," as well as setting "aggressive" or even "unrealistic" goals. "As VP of HR, how have/are you working on fixing this reputation?" the user asked Bjelde. The August 10th, 2016 Edition of THE REVENGE HUMP DAY! Page 49 of 70 SpaceX's Dragon Version 2 spacecraft is a manned space capsule designed to fly seven astronauts to and from low-Earth orbit. See how SpaceX's Dragon V2 spacecraft works in this Space.com infographic. Credit: by Karl Tate, Infographics Artist "We recruit people who are incredibly driven by our mission, but it's a myth that most of our employees are working 100 or even 80 hour weeks on a regular basis," Bjelde responded. (So technically, that still leaves the 50- to 80-hour window unaddressed.) "Sometimes, you have incredibly tight schedules that you need to keep, and that just goes along with launching rockets," he continued. "But we want our employees to be productive over the long term, and that means working at a pace that's sustainable. We encourage employees to pace themselves, and our managers pay close attention to whether people are driving themselves too hard for long periods. This is one of the biggest myths I hear about working at SpaceX, so I always want to knock this idea down!" Another user asked specifically about rumors of SpaceX having high employee turnover rates. "Our turnover rates are below average for the industry," Bjelde wrote. "We have lots of employees, like me, who have been here more than 10 years and have made a fantastic career with SpaceX! Getting to Mars is a long term mission so we seek to attract employees, and retain them, for the long term." Bjelde got more specific about the culture at SpaceX in response to another question. "People [at SpaceX] are really mission driven. Our goal is to help humanity become a multi-planetary species," he wrote. " We take the hardest shots. It's better to pick giant, hard to achieve goals than it is to pick easy choices. We set aggressive goals and strive to reach them. That's how we'll make the fastest progress. We try to avoid analysis paralysis in all our work. We build, test, break things and iterate with a sense of urgency." That certainly seems to be the case, considering how quickly SpaceX has achieved some of its goals, including flying cargo to the International Space Station and becoming the first spaceflight company to vertically land reusable orbital rockets. The August 10th, 2016 Edition of THE REVENGE HUMP DAY! Page 50 of 70 "We try not to limit our thinking except by the limits imposed by physics," he wrote. "If someone says something can't be done, whether it's a business decision or an engineering one, they better have Einstein and Newton backing them up. Otherwise it's ripe for discussion. And we don't limit our thinking with hierarchies either. We have a pretty flat organization, and the best idea always wins – not just the idea proposed by the most senior person in the room." SpaceX employees at the company's Hawthorne, California headquarters celebrate the landing of a reusable Falcon 9 rocket. Credit: SpaceX Commenters in the AMA were also curious about the company's CEO, Elon Musk, who has made himself a public figure known for speaking grandly about his vision for future space exploration, as well as the need for innovation in order to solve the world's biggest problems. He's made appearances on sitcomsand late night shows, and got into Twitter scuffles with another spaceflight entrepreneur, Jeff Bezos, founder and CEO of Amazon.com as well as the private spaceflight company Blue Origin. "I've been working with Elon for a long time, and he's awesome to work with...always impressed with how he can dig into the smallest of details and make the tough decisions," Bjelde wrote. Multiple commenters had questions about how someone could get a job or internship with the company. "What is the one thing, above all else, that I can do to get the interview? In other words, what does SpaceX value most in an intern candidate?" one commenter wrote. "The one thing to do is keep applying with an updated resume and to not limit yourself to only one site or one term," Bjelde replied. "Last year we received over 39,000 applications for our internship positions and this number continues to exponentially grow! Keep putting yourself out there and your resume will get noticed." LOCKHEED MARTIN'S MINI MISSILE COMPLETES SECOND FLIGHT TEST by Geoff Ziezulewicz, White Sands Missile Range, N.M. (UPI) Aug 3, 2016 http://www.spacedaily.com/reports/Lockheed_Martins_mini_missile_completes_second_flight_test_ 999.html Lockheed Martin's Miniature Hit-to-Kill, or MHTK, interceptor missile was successfully launched Friday at White Sands Missile Range in New Mexico, the company announced Tuesday. The August 10th, 2016 Edition of THE REVENGE HUMP DAY! Page 51 of 70 The engineering demonstration of the MHTK's agility and aerodynamic capability was part of the U.S. Army's Aviation and Missile Research Development and Engineering Center's Extended Area Protection and Survivability program, Lockheed said in a statement. The interceptor is designed to defeat rocket, artillery and mortar targets beyond the reach of current and interim systems. While officials still need to review test data, Lockheed said the MHTK could bring miniaturized options to troops with lower costs and smaller logistical footprints. The MHTK is less than 3 feet in length and weighs about 5 pounds. It is designed to be small while retaining range and lethality. Using Hit-to-Kill technology, the missile destroys threats through kinetic energy in body-to- body contact, delivering all available energy while removing the risk of collateral damage found in traditional blast-fragmentation interceptors. The August 10th, 2016 Edition of THE REVENGE HUMP DAY! Page 52 of 70 FIREFLY TARGETS LATE FALL FOR ALPHA AEROSPIKE ROCKET TESTS Initial combustor trials pave way for start of FRE-2 aerospike development rocket tests Aug 5, 2016, Guy Norris | Aviation Week & Space Technology http://aviationweek.com/space/firefly-targets-late-fall-alpha-aerospike-rocket-tests?NL=AW- 05&Issue=AW-05_20160808_AW- 05_223&sfvc4enews=42&cl=article_2&utm_rid=CPEN1000001477803&utm_campaign=6640&utm_me dium=email&elq2=e61308526fa34d66a221a8dde71fdb3a The FRE-2 aerospike is configured with an extended, fluted spike for improved performance following extensive CFD analysis. Credit: Firefly FIRING UP FIREFLY Low-cost launcher start-up company Firefly Space Systems plans to conduct the first full-scale development test of its Alpha vehicle’s pressure-fed FRE-2 aerospike rocket engine in the fourth quarter of this year. The 125,000-lb.-thrust engine will be the first aerospike rocket to fly and is pivotal to Firefly’s goal of developing a scalable family of relatively simple, lightweight launchers for the small satellite market. The initial vehicle, called the Alpha, is designed to deliver 200-kg (440-lb.) payloads to sun-synchronous orbit and is scheduled to launch on its first operational mission for NASA in March 2018. “People have been talking about aerospike engines for a half-century,” says Firefly co- founder and CEO Tom Markusic. “Early rocket pioneers recognized some very interesting characteristics of the aerospike concept that allow you to have a variable area-ratio nozzle without any moving parts. The gas dynamics in an aerospike means it naturally evolves into an increasingly high area-ratio nozzle as it ascends in altitude,” he adds. Updating Firefly’s development progress at the American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics (AIAA) Propulsion and Energy Forum in July, Markusic said the basic simplicity of the aerospike concept suited the low-cost goals of the Alpha design. Unlike some other altitude-compensating nozzle developments, such as the wedge-shaped Rocketdyne XRS-2200 linear aerospike, which was developed for the aborted X-33, the FRE- 2 is a plug-cluster- chamber design in which the annulus is divided into a discrete number of combustors. The exhaust from each of the 12 combustors impinges directly against the sides of a centrally mounted aerospike. “We wanted to create something incredibly simple and eliminate moving parts,” says Markusic. “First we dispensed with the turbomachinery. So how do you get propellant to the engine? We use a pressure-fed system, but tanks are generally very heavy. So the design challenge is to try to minimize parasitic masses.” To get around this, the Alpha is The August 10th, 2016 Edition of THE REVENGE HUMP DAY! Page 53 of 70 configured with low-pressure, all-composite propellant tanks with a resulting low combustion-chamber pressure. However, says Markusic, “the downside is you can’t put much of a nozzle on it because you can only expand so far with a ground launch vehicle before you start to have problems. So it turns out [that] for a pressure-fed rocket, the aerospike is a very natural solution. It allows us to have additional effective nozzle area without having to put longer nozzles on or increasing chamber pressure.” Aerospike engines are also notoriously difficult to cool, acknowledges Markusic. However, once again, the Firefly design exploits a natural synergy, he says. Pressure-fed designs require “copious amounts of heat to pressurize the gases in the tank.” The liquid oxygen/RP-1-fueled rocket is pressure fed using high-pressure helium to push the propellant from composite tanks into the pintle injector. The helium is stored cryogenically at high pressure before being heated to increase its specific volume using waste heat from the combustors. “So the two problems cancel each other out. From a systems perspective, the aerospike works for Alpha,” he adds. The oxygen flow rate will be 297 lb./sec., while RP-1 will be added at 126 lb./sec. for a mixture ratio of 2.35. Pressurized to 547 psia, the regeneratively cooled thrust chamber will incorporate a milled copper liner and an electroplated nickel jacket. Markusic says close work with the Texas Advanced Computing Center at the University of Texas at Austin has led to refinement of the FRE-2 configuration and extension of the spike. “We have run some of the most advanced computational fluid dynamics [CFD] analysis that has ever been done to optimize the length. We’ve been able to eke out a few more seconds of ISP [specific impulse] in CFD by using more of a fluted geometry aerospike rather than one with a continuous smooth surface,” he says. The upper stage of the two-stage Firefly will be powered by a single FRE-1 engine. The 6,200-lb.-thrust conventional bell nozzle LOx/RP-1 rocket will be identical to each of the 12 combustors in the aerospike’s plug cluster. “One of our principles with Firefly is to make lots of the same thing. It’s easier to make lots of combustors, and we wanted to use the same basic combustor on the upper stage as [on] the lower stage. To do that and get the requisite thrust on the upper stage, you need 12 of them on the first stage,” adds Markusic. Combustors are being built and tested at Firefly’s rocket site at Briggs, Texas. A circular test rig—with positions for all the combustors that comprise the aerospike cluster—is currently fitted with a research combustor on the bottom and a flight-weight unit on top. “Eventually, we will have all 12 combustors; the first aerospike development tests [are scheduled for] later this fall,” Markusic says. COULD THIS BE THE END OF PAINFUL KIDNEY STONES? COMPOUND FOUND IN CITRUS FRUIT 'DISSOLVES CRYSTAL DEPOSITS' * Kidney stones are hard mineral deposits that build up inside the kidneys * Study found hydroxycitrate (HCA) compound can dissolve the crystals * HCA is found naturally in the Garcinia Cambogia plant grown in Asia * Discovery marks the first advance in kidney stones treatment in 30 years The August 10th, 2016 Edition of THE REVENGE HUMP DAY! Page 54 of 70 By MADLEN DAVIES FOR MAILONLINE PUBLISHED: 10:00 EST, 8 August 2016 | UPDATED: 10:17 EST, 8 August 2016 http://www.dailymail.co.uk/health/article-3729682/Could-end-painful-kidney-stones-Compound- citrus-fruit-dissolves-crystal-deposits.html#ixzz4GkyjYS4v Painful kidney stones could be dissolved by a natural citrus fruit extract, suggests new research. The study showed that the compound - hydroxycitrate (HCA) - is able to inhibit the growth of kidney stones - and even dissolve the crystals. The discovery marks the first advance in kidney stones treatment in more than three decades. Kidney stones are small, hard mineral deposits that build up inside the kidneys, affecting around 12 per cent of men and seven per cent of women. +3 Painful kidney stones could be dissolved by a natural citrus fruit extract called hydroxycitrate (HCA), a study has found. HCA is in the Garcinia Cambogia fruit (pictured), used widely in Asia They are composed predominantly of calcium oxalate crystals and are more prevalent in those with high blood-pressure, diabetes or obesity - and are on the rise. But the researchers found HCA was effective in slowing the build-up of calcium oxalate under certain conditions. The August 10th, 2016 Edition of THE REVENGE HUMP DAY! Page 55 of 70 HCA is naturally found in the Garcinia Cambogia fruit, used widely in south east Asia. The study, published online by the journal Nature, revealed 'very promising' results in a study of people who took HCA supplements over a three-day period. Preventative treatment for kidney stones has barely changed in the last 30 years. Doctors advise patients to drink plenty of water and avoid oxalate-rich food, such as rhubarb and almonds. They often prescribe the supplement potassium citrate, which can slow crystal growth - but some people cannot tolerate the side-effects. Collaborator John Asplin, a nephrologist at Litholink Corporation, a private hospital for people with kidney problems, suggested HCA as a possible treatment. +3 Kidney stones are small, hard mineral deposits that build up inside the kidneys, affecting around 12 per cent of men and seven per cent of women Citrate and HCA are chemically similar, and both are available as a supplement. Lead author Dr Jefferey Rimmer, of the University of Houston, said: 'HCA shows promise as a potential therapy to prevent kidney stones - HCA may be preferred as a therapy over potassium citrate.' The August 10th, 2016 Edition of THE REVENGE HUMP DAY! Page 56 of 70 The head-to-head studies of CA and HCA determined that while both compounds inhibit the growth of calcium oxalate crystals, HCA was more potent. Images recorded the crystal actually shrinking when exposed to specific concentrations of HCA. The researchers initially thought the finding was a one-off, as it is rare to see a crystal actually dissolve when it has been grown in a solution in the lab. The compound has the potential to reduce the number of people suffering kidney stones, researchers said (file photo) But it turned out that it was correct. Once the team confirmed that it was possible to dissolve crystals in supersaturated solutions, they then looked at reasons to explain why. They discovered that HCA formed a stronger bond with that crystal surfaces, leading to the crystals being broken down. HCA was also tested in human subjects, as seven people took the supplement for three days, allowing researchers to determine that HCA is excreted through urine, a requirement for the supplement to work as a treatment. While the researchers established the groundwork to design an effective drug, questions remain - long-term safety, dosage and additional human trials are needed. 'But our initial findings are very promising,' they said. 'If it works in vivo [in real life], similar to our trials in the laboratory, HCA has the potential to reduce the incidence rate of people with chronic kidney stone disease.' US APPROVES TRIAL OF ZIKA-FIGHTING ENGINEERED MOSQUITOES Nick Lavars August 7, 2016 http://newatlas.com/zika-fighting-mosquitoes-us-approval/44777/ With the number of Zika infections on the rise and real concerns of the virus spreading, governments are on the lookout for inventive ways to ramp up the response. These have included trials of experimental vaccines, trapping the bugs injunked tires and perhaps the most radical of all, using genetic engineering to kill off local mosquito populations. This strategy is beginning to gather some steam in the US, with federal regulators approving a field trial that would let engineered mosquitoes go to work in the state of Florida. Humans have toyed with the idea of using genetic engineering to put the brakes on mosquito populations for years. These little critters are after all the single biggest threat to human life, spreading malaria, dengue and yellow fever to cause several million deaths each year and infect many millions more. The August 10th, 2016 Edition of THE REVENGE HUMP DAY! Page 57 of 70 One of the main culprits behind this unmatched death toll is the Aedes aegypti, a mosquito found in tropical and subtropical regions that is the number one disease vector for dengue fever. Genetics researchers have targeted this innocuous killer through a number of approaches, looking to alter genes in ways that cause offspring to be born without wings, kill off their sense of smell and consign females to their birthplace for the entirety of their consequently shortened lives. Genetics researchers have targeted the Aedes aegypti mosquito in a number of ways (Credit:jentavery/Creative Commons) British company Oxitech has been a very active player in this field. In 2009 it released a bunch of its genetically modified mosquitoes on the Grand Cayman island in the Carribbean, killing off 80 percent of the local A. aegypti population. It has also conducted trials in Brazil and Panama, and has now been given the nod by the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) to let its bug killers loose in Key Haven, Monroe Country, Florida. Oxitech has engineered male mosquitoes, which don't bite humans or spread diseases, to possess a certain self-limiting gene. When these mosquitoes are released, they mate with wild female Aedes aegypti and this gene is passed along to the offspring. The gene is fatal for the babies and prevents them ever reaching adulthood. Back in March, the FDA released a draft environmental assessment pertaining to the potential consequences of trialling Oxitech's mosquitoes in Key Haven. It has since received thousands of public comments and now published a final assessment, which concludes that the proposed field trial will have no "significant impacts on the environment." The August 10th, 2016 Edition of THE REVENGE HUMP DAY! Page 58 of 70 While winning federal approval is an important step, it doesn't clear they way for Oxitech's mosquitoes to be used willy-nilly. They will still need to be approved by the Florida Keys Mosquito Control District, which is waiting on a referendum where locals will vote on whether releasing the genetically modified mosquitoes is really a good idea. This is set to take place in November, so we'll know more about a time-frame for the field trial if and when this final hurdle can be overcome. Source: Oxitech, FDA JAPAN TO USE AUTONOMOUS MACHINE SWARMS TO COLONIZE MOON, MARS By: David Russell Schilling | August 4th, 2016 http://www.industrytap.com/japan-use-autonomous-machine-swarms-colonize-moon- mars/37735?utm_source=Industry+Tap&utm_campaign=871d557d1f- Industry_Tap_Volume_3368_8_2016&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_05d6224fe0-871d557d1f- 44103165 Autonomous Machine Robot (Image Courtesy www.jaxa.jp) Autonomous Machines Key to Space Exploration For better or worse, Mars is more than 200,000 miles away from Earth. Whatever Mars teams do, they must have backup systems and redundancy galore to make sure when technical problems or accidents happen at such great distance, the right equipment is available to fix problems and avoid disaster. IndustryTap has reported on new robotic clusters under development at MIT and in public and private sectors such as “Fish Like” underwater robots that will soon be in use to The August 10th, 2016 Edition of THE REVENGE HUMP DAY! Page 59 of 70 monitor ships and cargo to improve port security and autonomous swarm boats to help the U.S. Navy on its toughest missions. Japanese Developing Autonomous Robot Clusters for Space Exploration Now Japan, the world leader behind South Korea in robot density, is gearing up for a Mars mission that will heavily rely on the use of “swarming” automated machines. The Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) recently commissioned Kajima Construction Company to design and construct autonomous machinery to prepare the ground, excavate, and build facilities for astronauts on the moon and Mars. JAXA envisions autonomous robots building housing, shopping centers and more, and Kajima has already developed an Automated Batangas Advanced Accelerated Construction System for Safety (A4CSEL), a technology originally designed and developed to help construct dams in Japan. The system features GPS data, sophisticated tablets for data input and clusters of machines that work independently and together. THE US IS PLANNING 2030 MARS MISSION Not to be outdone, NASA is planning a mission Mars in 2030. THIS VIDEO OF THE MARS MISSION IS AVAILABLE AT THE WEBSITE. LITHIUM-AIR BATTERIES ARE GETTING SAFER, CHEAPER, AND LONGER-LASTING Dario Borghino August 8, 2016 A new cell design could lead to high-performance batteries that are lightweight and cheap to manufacture (Credit: MIT) The August 10th, 2016 Edition of THE REVENGE HUMP DAY! Page 60 of 70 Packing plenty of energy in a small and light package, lithium-air batteries are a promising candidate for the battery of tomorrow: however, in their current state, these cells are still too complex, inefficient, and short-lived to be practical. Now, researchers at MIT have developed a new cell design that surmounts those obstacles and could lead to cheap high- performance batteries that power anything from personal electronics to fast-charging electric cars. Commercial batteries are usually self-contained, but this is not the case for lithium-air batteries, which adopt a so-called "open-cell" design requiring oxygen to be constantly transferred to and from the cell. In the process, the oxygen also changes states – from gaseous to solid as it binds with lithium to store charge, and then from solid back to gaseous as charge is drained. This setup, however, is inconvenient for at least three reasons. Firstly, humidity and carbon dioxide need to be filtered out of the incoming air to avoid damaging the cell. Secondly, the mismatch between the 3.7 V charging voltage and the 2.5 V discharge voltage means that 32 percent of the energy applied during charging is lost to heat (which can cause explosions if the cell is charged too quickly). Lastly, the constant switching between gaseous and solid forms of oxygen puts a great deal of mechanical stress on the cell, causing it to fail prematurely. Professor Ju Li and team have now managed to circumvent these limitations by creating a lithium-air cell cathode that works in the much more practical self-contained design. In the new cell, oxygen remains inside the cell and in a solid state at all times. The oxygen is bound to lithium to form a glass-like material. These molecules are in turn encased in a matrix of cobalt oxide, forming what the researchers call "nanolithia" – nanostructures that act as a catalyst for the chemical reactions that take place in the cell. This setup reduces the charging loss from 32 to just eight percent, making the battery not only more efficient, but also able to be safely charged quickly. The scientists also saw a stable performance, with a less than 2 percent capacity loss after 130 charge/discharge cycles. What's more, the cathode is extremely light, and the researchers believe that, with some work, these cells could soon end up storing much more energy per unit weight and volume than current commercial lithium-ion cells. "Right now, the gravimetric [per unit weight] energy capacity of our dried cathode paste is about 30 percent more than dried cathode paste of mature Li-ion cathodes," Li told us. "The volumetric energy capacity of our dried cathode paste is about the same as that of mature Li-ion cathode. But drastic improvement in both can be expected in the next 12 months." The researchers are hoping to go from proof of concept to a prototype within a year. Such a battery could find use for a wide range of applications including personal electronics, electric cars, and large-scale power grid storage – competing with lithium-ions not only in performance, but in cost as well. "Since the raw material uses much less heavy transition metal elements like cobalt or nickel than traditional Li-ion cathodes, the eventual cost per kWh could be much cheaper," Li told us. A study describing the advance appears in the journal Nature Energy . Source: MIT The August 10th, 2016 Edition of THE REVENGE HUMP DAY! Page 61 of 70 From: “Christina Cowan” [email protected] PODCAST: SILK ROAD TRANSPORTED GOODS--AND DISEASE By Cynthia Graber on July 29, 2016 A 2,000-year-old latrine in China provides the first hard evidence that people carried diseases long distances along the ancient trading route. http://www.scientificamerican.com/podcast/episode/silk-road-transported-goods-and- disease/?WT.mc_id=SA_WR_20160803 ~~~~~~ FRIENDS, ROMANS, COUNTRYMEN, LEND US YOUR TOILETS (WITHOUT PARASITES) Rae Ellen Bichell, January 7, 20167:01 PM ET http://www.cbc.ca/news/technology/romans-sanitation-parasites-1.3395778 Romans would have gathered in this heated room during a visit to the bathhouse in Herculaneum, in what is now Campania, Italy. Peter Barritt/Robert Harding/Corbis When the Romans expanded their empire across three continents, they probably seemed like the neat-freakiest people to attempt global domination. The Romans brought aqueducts, heated public baths, flushing toilets, sewers and piped water. They even had multiseat public bathrooms decked out with contour toilet seats, a sea sponge version of toilet paper and hand-washing stations. "And all these things you'd think would make the population healthier," says Piers Mitchell, a paleopathologist at the University of Cambridge. After all, he says, research in modern populations shows that if you use a toilet, wash your hands and drink clean water, you're less likely to have parasites and disease. But Mitchell writes Thursday in the journal Parasitology that the empire's hygiene focus doesn't seem to have improved its population's health. At least, not by certain measures. The August 10th, 2016 Edition of THE REVENGE HUMP DAY! Page 62 of 70 He rounded up literature from the past few decades that had analyzed remains at Roman sites for parasites and disease. The researchers had looked at samples like mummies, fossilized human poop, the contents of ancient latrines, cesspits, trash piles, combs and the soil around where skeletons' intestines would have been. Mitchell then mapped the presence of those Roman-era scourges against the geographic presence at earlier sites dating to the Bronze and Iron Ages. "I thought we'd see a drop in the intestinal parasites that are spread by feces and poor sanitation compared with the Iron Age, when there weren't any toilets. But, in fact, I didn't see a drop at all," says Mitchell. The intestinal parasite whipworm appeared at sites in eight countries, and roundworm in six. People pick those up when they eat food contaminated with human feces, which can happen when the people preparing food don't wash their hands. (Mitchell also posits that the Romans may have spread a humongous tapeworm from northern Europe as they carted their favorite condiment, fermented fish sauce, around the empire.) On the surface of their bodies, the Romans appear to have hosted fleas, bedbugs and three varieties of lice. Excavation of a site in York, England, showed that despite all the time they spent in public baths, "the Romans had just as many body lice and fleas as the Vikings, who are regarded as fairly smelly, unclean people," Mitchell says. The load of pests likely affected Roman health. Fleas and lice can spread bacterial disease like typhus, trench fever and bubonic plague. Hookworm can cause anemia. Pinworm causes an itchy bum at night. And a single-celled parasite that showed up in Roman cesspits in Belgium, France and Italy causes dysentery. With all their body oils and bath rituals, Mitchell says, "they would have smelled clean, but they would have had infectious disease nonetheless." He thinks the Romans' unexpected infestations might have been because of a major flaw in their cleanliness habits. Human waste hauled out of town was sometimes dumped onto food crops. Waste collectors called stercorarii would haul solid waste out of town and sell it to farmers as fertilizer. Without prolonged composting, Mitchell explains, parasite eggs could have gotten onto the plants and later reinfected the people who ate them, possibly canceling out the benefits of the Romans' more hygienic practices. Brandeis University archaeologist Ann Olga Koloski-Ostrow, who wasn't involved in the research, thinks the hypothesis is reasonable. She haswritten two books on Roman sanitation, and she isn't surprised by the notable parasite presence. Koloski-Ostrow says wealthy folks in Pompeii, Rome and Herculaneum opted not to connect their private toilets to the sewer system, maybe because they were afraid of what might climb out. "You'd have a cesspit in your house garden or near your kitchen where you can do your business," she says. "And then maybe every six months or every year, you'd have the slaves dig it out and dump the excrement into your garden or sell it to some guy coming around with a wagon who's going to take it out of the city and use it for agriculture." The August 10th, 2016 Edition of THE REVENGE HUMP DAY! Page 63 of 70 There was just one problem. "Of course all this transported excrement is going to increase parasites," says Koloski-Ostrow. She pegs lofty assumptions about Roman cleanliness on 19th century academics who first excavated sites like Pompeii and Herculaneum. Back then, she says, archaeologists wanted to see themselves "as the inheritors of a Roman ideal of cleanliness and high culture and sophistication, and no one really wanted to dig into the nitty-gritty of Roman daily life." It was easy to avoid evidence about how inescapable the head lice were, how common diarrhea and tuberculosis were, that togas may have been washed with urine, or the likelihood that people might have dipped into the communal bathtubs with open lesions, diarrhea and a cough. "They didn't understand germ theory," she says. "But that's not to say all of Roman life was filthy and disgusting." After all, they made clean water and public facilities available to everyone, including low-status citizens. "I don't think the last word has been said about Roman sanitary practices or how clean or not clean the Roman world was," Koloski-Ostrow says. And whether or not they had more parasites than their Iron Age counterparts, Mitchell adds, at least they probably smelled better. <~><~> ABSOLUTELY & TOTALLY POLITICALLY INCORRECT & AS FAR TO THE CENTER AS YOU CAN GO! From: “Tim Bolgeo” [email protected] NEW YORK TIMES BLAMES DONALD TRUMP FOR BIASED MEDIA COVERAGE by JOEL B. POLLAK8 Aug 201654 http://www.breitbart.com/big-journalism/2016/08/08/new-york-times-blames-trump-biased-media- coverage/ Dan Flynn The New York Times has admitted that journalists are biased against Donald Trump. However, according to Timesmedia columnist Jim Rutenberg, it’s Trump’s fault. The headline for Rutenberg’s article on the front page is: “Trump is Testing the Norms of Objectivity in Journalism.” A more accurate alternative would be: “Trump Exposes Most Journalists for the Herd-Like Partisans They Really Are.” The August 10th, 2016 Edition of THE REVENGE HUMP DAY! Page 64 of 70 Rutenberg writes: If you’re a working journalist and you believe that Donald J. Trump is a demagogue playing to the nation’s worst racist and nationalistic tendencies, that he cozies up to anti-American dictators and that he would be dangerous with control of the United States nuclear codes, how the heck are you supposed to cover him? Because if you believe all of those things, you have to throw out the textbook American journalism has been using for the better part of the past half-century, if not longer, and approach it in a way you’ve never approached anything in your career. If you view a Trump presidency as something that’s potentially dangerous, then your reporting is going to reflect that. You would move closer than you’ve ever been to being oppositional. The problem with this analysis is that while the opposition to Trump is more unified, and vociferous, than against any other Republican presidential candidate in recent memory (thanks in no small part to the ambivalence of Fox News), it is a difference in degree, not in kind. In 2008 — to pick an arbitrary starting point — journalists swooned over the prospect of Barack Obama as the first black president, and coordinated to discuss attacks on Obama’s critics. In one particularly noxious episode, a photographer working for the Atlantic photoshoppeda cover image she had shot to cast McCain as a bloodthirsty monster. In 2012, journalists plotted together to make Mitt Romney the target of Benghazi coverage, rather than Obama or Secretary of State Hillary Clinton — and CNN’s Candy Crowley infamously threw the second presidential debate to Obama. They played along with spurious attacks on Romney’s record, such as his supposed responsibility for the death of a worker’s wife and the alleged mysteries in his tax returns. (Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid later admitted his charges about Romney’s tax returns were lies.) It does not matter how moderate, politically correct, or docile the Republican candidate is. Journalists will demonize him (or, as in Sarah Palin’s case, her.) Gutenberg acknowledges that Hillary Clinton deserves more scrutiny than she has received thus far in this election, especially as she avoids press conferences. But, he says, “the candidates do not produce news at the same rate.” Is it the candidates’ role to produce the news? Who decides what is newsworthy? Are Trump’s jokes at press conferences and rallies really “news”? Rutenberg quotes Times editor Carolyn Ryan explaining that Trump expresses “warmth toward one of our most mischievous and menacing adversaries,” i.e. Russia. The August 10th, 2016 Edition of THE REVENGE HUMP DAY! Page 65 of 70 Really? And what of Hillary Clinton’s “reset” with Russia? Or her approval of a deal that delivered 20% of U.S. uranium to a company controlled by the Russian government, after a timely donation to the Clinton Foundation? And what of her support for the Iran deal, including the $400 million ransom paid for American hostages? Is that “warmth” somehow less deserving of coverage than the imaginary innuendo in Trump’s joke about Russia hacking her email server? Why is Hillary Clinton’s refusal to address press conferences not the top of the news, every day? It’s not the threat Trump supposedly poses to the world that has caused the media, in a spirit of patriotic self-sacrifice, to throw their purported standards aside. It’s the threat that Trump poses to the media establishment itself, after surviving numerous efforts to bury his candidacy. The truth is that the media own their own bias. Trump has merely drawn that bias more forcefully into the open. “It is journalism’s job to be true to the readers and viewers, and true to the facts, in a way that will stand up to history’s judgment,” Rutenberg writes. Then do that job. And — unless you’re willing to admit you’re in the advocacy journalism business — apply equal standards to both candidates. From: A Friend FORMER FACEBOOK WORKERS: WE ROUTINELY SUPPRESSED CONSERVATIVE NEWS Michael Nunez, 5/09/16 9:10am http://gizmodo.com/former-facebook-workers-we-routinely-suppressed-conser-1775461006 Facebook workers routinely suppressed news stories of interest to conservative readers from the social network’s influential “trending” news section, according to a former journalist who worked on the project. This individual says that workers prevented stories about the right-wing CPAC gathering, Mitt Romney, Rand Paul, and other conservative topics from appearing in the highly-influential section, even though they were organically trending among the site’s users. Several former Facebook “news curators,” as they were known internally, also told Gizmodo that they were instructed to artificially “inject” selected stories into the trending news module, even if they weren’t popular enough to warrant inclusion—or in some cases weren’t trending at all. The former curators, all of whom worked as contractors, also said they were directed not to include news about Facebook itself in the trending module. In other words, Facebook’s news section operates like a traditional newsroom, reflecting the biases of its workers and the institutional imperatives of the corporation. Imposing The August 10th, 2016 Edition of THE REVENGE HUMP DAY! Page 66 of 70 human editorial values onto the lists of topics an algorithm spits out is by no means a bad thing—but it is in stark contrast to thecompany’s claims that the trending module simply lists “topics that have recently become popular on Facebook.” These new allegations emerged after Gizmodo last week revealed details about the inner workings of Facebook’s trending news team—a small group of young journalists, primarily educated at Ivy League or private East Coast universities, who curate the “trending” module on the upper-right-hand corner of the site. As we reported last week, curators have access to a ranked list of trending topics surfaced by Facebook’s algorithm, which prioritizes the stories that should be shown to Facebook users in the trending section. The curators write headlines and summaries of each topic, and include links to news sites. The section, which launched in 2014, constitutes some of the most powerful real estate on the internet and helps dictate what news Facebook’s users—167 million in the US alone—are reading at any given moment. “I believe it had a chilling effect on conservative news.” “Depending on who was on shift, things would be blacklisted or trending,” said the former curator. This individual asked to remain anonymous, citing fear of retribution from the company. The former curator is politically conservative, one of a very small handful of curators with such views on the trending team. “I’d come on shift and I’d discover that CPAC or Mitt Romney or Glenn Beck or popular conservative topics wouldn’t be trending because either the curator didn’t recognize the news topic or it was like they had a bias against Ted Cruz.” The former curator was so troubled by the omissions that they kept a running log of them at the time; this individual provided the notes to Gizmodo. Among the deep-sixed or suppressed topics on the list: former IRS official Lois Lerner, who was accused by Republicans of inappropriately scrutinizing conservative groups; Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker; popular conservative news aggregator the Drudge Report; Chris Kyle, the former Navy SEAL who was murdered in 2013; and former Fox News contributor Steven Crowder. “I believe it had a chilling effect on conservative news,” the former curator said. Another former curator agreed that the operation had an aversion to right-wing news sources. “It was absolutely bias. We were doing it subjectively. It just depends on who the curator is and what time of day it is,” said the former curator. “Every once in awhile a Red State or conservative news source would have a story. But we would have to go and find the same story from a more neutral outlet that wasn’t as biased.” Stories covered by conservative outlets (like Breitbart, Washington Examiner, and Newsmax) that were trending enough to be picked up by Facebook’s algorithm were excluded unless mainstream sites like the New York Times, the BBC, and CNN covered the same stories. Other former curators interviewed by Gizmodo denied consciously suppressing conservative news, and we were unable to determine if left-wing news topics or sources were similarly suppressed. The conservative curator described the omissions as a function of his colleagues’ judgements; there is no evidence that Facebook management mandated or was even aware of any political bias at work. The August 10th, 2016 Edition of THE REVENGE HUMP DAY! Page 67 of 70 Managers on the trending news team did, however, explicitly instruct curators to artificially manipulate the trending module in a different way: When users weren’t reading stories that management viewed as important, several former workers said, curators were told to put them in the trending news feed anyway. Several former curators described using something called an “injection tool” to push topics into the trending module that weren’t organically being shared or discussed enough to warrant inclusion—putting the headlines in front of thousands of readers rather than allowing stories to surface on their own. In some cases, after a topic was injected, it actually became the number one trending news topic on Facebook. “We were told that if we saw something, a news story that was on the front page of these ten sites, like CNN, the New York Times, and BBC, then we could inject the topic,” said one former curator. “If it looked like it had enough news sites covering the story, we could inject it—even if it wasn’t naturally trending.” Sometimes, breaking news would be injected because it wasn’t attaining critical mass on Facebook quickly enough to be deemed “trending” by the algorithm. Former curators cited the disappearance of Malaysia Airlines flight MH370 and the Charlie Hebdo attacks in Paris as two instances in which non-trending stories were forced into the module. Facebook has struggled to compete with Twitter when it comes to delivering real-time news to users; the injection tool may have been designed to artificially correct for that deficiency in the network. “We would get yelled at if it was all over Twitter and not on Facebook,” one former curator said. “Facebook got a lot of pressure about not having a trending topic for Black Lives Matter.” In other instances, curators would inject a story—even if it wasn’t being widely discussed on Facebook—because it was deemed important for making the network look like a place where people talked about hard news. “People stopped caring about Syria,” one former curator said. “[And] if it wasn’t trending on Facebook, it would make Facebook look bad.” That same curator said the Black Lives Matter movement was also injected into Facebook’s trending news module. “Facebook got a lot of pressure about not having a trending topic for Black Lives Matter,” the individual said. “They realized it was a problem, and they boosted it in the ordering. They gave it preference over other topics. When we injected it, everyone started saying, ‘Yeah, now I’m seeing it as number one’.” This particular injection is especially noteworthy because the #BlackLivesMatter movement originated on Facebook, and the ensuing media coverage of the movement often noted its powerful social media presence. (In February, CEO Mark Zuckerberg expressed his support for the movementin an internal memo chastising Facebook employees for defacing Black Lives Matter slogans on the company’s internal “signature wall.”) When stories about Facebook itself would trend organically on the network, news curators used less discretion—they were told not to include these stories at all. “When it was a story about the company, we were told not to touch it,” said one former curator. “It had to be cleared through several channels, even if it was being shared quite a bit. We were told that we should not be putting it on the trending tool.” (The curators interviewed for this story worked for Facebook across a timespan ranging from mid-2014 to December 2015.) The August 10th, 2016 Edition of THE REVENGE HUMP DAY! Page 68 of 70 “We were always cautious about covering Facebook,” said another former curator. “We would always wait to get second level approval before trending something to Facebook. Usually we had the authority to trend anything on our own [but] if it was something involving Facebook, the copy editor would call their manager, and that manager might even call their manager before approving a topic involving Facebook.” Gizmodo reached out to Facebook for comment about each of these specific claims via email and phone, but did not receive a response. Several former curators said that as the trending news algorithm improved, there were fewer instances of stories being injected. They also said that the trending news process was constantly being changed, so there’s no way to know exactly how the module is run now. But the revelations undermine any presumption of Facebook as a neutral pipeline for news, or the trending news module as an algorithmically-driven list of what people are actually talking about. Rather, Facebook’s efforts to play the news game reveal the company to be much like the news outlets it is rapidly driving toward irrelevancy: a select group of professionals with vaguely center-left sensibilities. It just happens to be one that poses as a neutral reflection of the vox populi, has the power to influence what billions of users see, and openly discusses whether it should use that power to influence presidential elections. “It wasn’t trending news at all,” said the former curator who logged conservative news omissions. “It was an opinion.” [Disclosure: Facebook has launched a program that pays publishers, including theNew York Times and Buzzfeed, to produce videos for its Facebook Live tool. Gawker Media, Gizmodo’s parent company, recently joined that program.] Update: Several hours after this report was published, Gizmodo editors started seeing it as a topic in Facebook’s trending section. Gizmodo’s video was posted under the topic but the “Top Posts” were links to RedState.com and the Faith and Freedom Coalition. Update 4:10 p.m. EST: A Facebook spokesperson has issued the following statement to outlets including BuzzFeed and TechCrunch. Facebook has not responded to Gizmodo’s repeated requests for comment. “We take allegations of bias very seriously. Facebook is a platform for people and perspectives from across the political spectrum. Trending Topics shows you the popular topics and hashtags that are being talked about on Facebook. There are rigorous guidelines in place for the review team to ensure consistency and neutrality. These guidelines do not permit the suppression of political perspectives. Nor do they permit the prioritization of one viewpoint over another or one news outlet over another. These guidelines do not prohibit any news outlet from appearing in Trending Topics.” Update May 10, 8:50 a.m. EST: The following statement was posted by Vice President of Search at Facebook, Tom Stocky, late last night. It was liked by both Mark Zuckerberg and Sheryl Sandberg: My team is responsible for Trending Topics, and I want to address today’s reports alleging that Facebook contractors manipulated Trending Topics to suppress stories of interest to The August 10th, 2016 Edition of THE REVENGE HUMP DAY! Page 69 of 70 conservatives. We take these reports extremely seriously, and have found no evidence that the anonymous allegations are true. Facebook is a platform for people and perspectives from across the political spectrum. There are rigorous guidelines in place for the review team to ensure consistency and neutrality. These guidelines do not permit the suppression of political perspectives. Nor do they permit the prioritization of one viewpoint over another or one news outlet over another. These guidelines do not prohibit any news outlet from appearing in Trending Topics. Trending Topics is designed to showcase the current conversation happening on Facebook. Popular topics are first surfaced by an algorithm, then audited by review team members to confirm that the topics are in fact trending news in the real world and not, for example, similar-sounding topics or misnomers. We are proud that, in 2015, the US election was the most talked-about subject on Facebook, and we want to encourage that robust political discussion from all sides. We have in place strict guidelines for our trending topic reviewers as they audit topics surfaced algorithmically: reviewers are required to accept topics that reflect real world events, and are instructed to disregard junk or duplicate topics, hoaxes, or subjects with insufficient sources. Facebook does not allow or advise our reviewers to systematically discriminate against sources of any ideological origin and we’ve designed our tools to make that technically not feasible. At the same time, our reviewers’ actions are logged and reviewed, and violating our guidelines is a fireable offense. There have been other anonymous allegations — for instance that we artificially forced ?#?BlackLivesMatter? to trend. We looked into that charge and found that it is untrue. We do not insert stories artificially into trending topics, and do not instruct our reviewers to do so. Our guidelines do permit reviewers to take steps to make topics more coherent, such as combining related topics into a single event (such as ?#?starwars?and?#?maythefourthbewithyou?), to deliver a more integrated experience. Our review guidelines for Trending Topics are under constant review, and we will continue to look for improvements. We will also keep looking into any questions about Trending Topics to ensure that people are matched with the stories that are predicted to be the most interesting to them, and to be sure that our methods are as neutral and effective as possible. <~><~> ABSOLUTELY & TOTALLY POLITICALLY INCORRECT & AS FAR TO THE LEFT AS YOU CAN GO! From: "Martin L King Jr" WATCH: CROWD CHEERS CLINTON'S CALL TO 'RAISE TAXES ON THE MIDDLE CLASS' BY: ROBERT KRAYCHIK, AUGUST 3, 2016 http://www.dailywire.com/news/8050/watch-crowd-cheers-clintons-call-raise-taxes-robert-kraychik The August 10th, 2016 Edition of THE REVENGE HUMP DAY! Page 70 of 70 Hillary Clinton called for raising taxes on the “middle class” while campaigning on Monday in Omaha, NE. Joined by left-wing Democrat billionaire Warren Buffett, she received applause from those in attendance. “Because while Warren is standing up for a fairer tax code, Trump wants to cut taxes for the super-rich,” said Clinton. “Well, we’re not going there, my friends. I’m telling you, right now - we’re going to write fairer rules for the middle class and we are going to raise taxes on the middle class!” Presumably a slip of the tongue, Clinton’s comment came amid broader Marxist-themed demagoguery about forcing “the wealthy” to “pay their fair share” of taxes. Buffet was praised for comments he made in 2012 in which he claimed to pay a lower percentage of his income as federal tax than his secretary, feeding into the Occupy Wall Street movement’s class warfare narratives. No comments were made about the approximately 45% of Americans who do not pay federal income taxes. In 2014, between 51 and 55 percent of total federal income taxes were paid by individuals earning $250,000 or more. Clinton did not articulate any limiting principle as to what share of GDP should be composed of governmental spending. No upper limit for taxation was articulated, either. MAYBE IT WAS JUST A SLIP OF THE TONGUE ON HILLARY’S PART. BUT IT WAS AN INTERESTING SLIP OF THE TONGUE. UT ______ If you would like to unsubscribe From: THE REVENGE OF HUMP DAY, please send an email message to Tim Bolgeo [email protected] and say, "QUIT SENDING ME THIS STUPID RAG!" ______~~~~~~~~~~~ ~~~~ ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~