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Daily Archives: September 4, 2021
Elon Musk says Jeff Bezos’ job is ‘filing legal actions against SpaceX’ in latest spat over Starlink – CNBC
Posted: September 4, 2021 at 6:16 am
Jeff Bezos, left, and Elon Musk
Getty Images; Reuters
Elon Musk fired his latest shot across the bow at Jeff Bezos, as the billionaires' companies spar in front of federal regulators over satellite internet.
After Amazon asked the Federal Communications Commission to dismiss SpaceX's latest amendment to its Starlink satellite network, Musk emphasized his company's response that Bezos is exceptionally litigious.
"Filing legal actions against SpaceX is *actually* his full-time job," Musk tweeted Wednesday.
Amazon did not immediately respond to CNBC's request for comment.
SpaceX filed a Starlink amendment on Aug. 19 with the FCC, outlining its plan for the Gen2 version of its satellite network.
Starlink isthe company's capital-intensive projectto build an interconnected internet network with thousands of satellites,known in the space industry as a constellation,designed to deliver high-speed internet to consumers anywhere on Earth. While the Starlink service is still in beta, the company has over 100,000 users in 14 countries, with over half a million orders or refundable deposits placed by potential customers.
SpaceX has launched 1,740 Starlink satellites to date, and Gen2 is planned to have nearly 30,000 satellites in total.
Amazon has been working onits own satellite internet called Project Kuiper. It plans to launch 3,236 internet satellites into low Earth orbit a system that would compete with Starlink. While Amazon in December passed a critical early hardware milestone for the antennas it needs to connect to the network, it has yet to begin producing or launching its satellites.
Bezos' company asked the FCC to dismiss SpaceX's Gen2 amendment request, saying it violates FCC rules by proposing two different configurations in orbit.
"By leaving nearly every major detail unsettled such as altitude, inclination, and even thetotal number of satellites SpaceX's application fails every test," Amazon's Kuiper corporate counsel Mariah Dodson Shuman wrote on Aug. 25.
SpaceX director of satellite policy David Goldman on Tuesday filed a response to Amazon's request, arguing that Bezos' company is trying to slow Starlink's progress to help Project Kuiper catch up.
"The Commission should recognize this delay tactic for what it is a continuation of efforts by the Amazon family of companies to hinder competitors to compensate for Amazon's failure to make progress of its own," Goldman wrote.
Goldman also said Amazon has not updated the FCC in "nearly 400 days" on Kuiper's approach to interference and orbital debris but "took only 4 days to object to" the SpaceX Gen2 amendment.
"While Amazon has waited 15 months to explain how its system works, it has lodged objections to SpaceX on average about every 16 days this year," Goldman added.
Musk has publicly criticized Bezos' companies multiple times in the past year, previously accusing Amazon of trying to "hamstring Starlink" and saying space company Blue Origin "should consider spending some money on actual lunar lander hardware," instead of suing NASA and hiring consultants.
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Elon Musk’s ‘Full-Time Job’ Tweet Was Funny, But It Revealed a Brutal Truth Most People Don’t Admit – Inc.
Posted: at 6:16 am
This is a story about Elon Musk, SpaceX, Twitter,and adifficult truth. If you like it, I think you'll also enjoy my ebook, Elon Musk Has Very Big Plans, which you can download here for free.
Our story begins with something Musktweeted in responsetoa journalist's report on thelegal battle between SpaceX and Amazonover efforts to build and launch satellites providing broadband Internet connectivity.
All of which brings us to the threemost recent FCC filings in this ongoing battle, which in turn prompted Musk's tweet:
"Amazon's recent missive is unfortunately only the latest in its continuing efforts to slow down competition ...while neglecting to resolve the Commission's concerns about Amazon's own non-geostationary orbit ('NGSO') satellite system.
...
While Amazon has waited 15 months to explain how its system works, it has lodged objections to SpaceX on average about every 16 days this year."
With that, we reach Musk's tweet, which came in response to a reportby Michael Sheetz,who covers space forCNBC:
"Filing legal actions against SpaceX is *actually* his full-time job."
I laughed out loud for a secondwhen I read this. Even though Jeff Bezos is only referred to once in the FCC legal documents that I can find (and not even by name), we all knowwho Musk has to bereferring to here. Right? At least I think so.
And it's amusing to watch sometimes as Musk trolls Bezos on Twitter. He really seems to enjoy it. However,I think there's also abrutal, messy, ugly truth contained within thetweet.
Assuming this is a very thinly-veileddig at Bezos,weallknow that Bezos's full-time job is not really to use the legal system toadvocate for Kuiper, and often against SpaceX. (He's busy these days riding rockets, and executive-chairmaning.)
But, it issomebody's job.
Whose job? Well, within its recentfiling,SpaceX says Amazon "routinely brings as many as six lobbyists and lawyers to its many meetings with the Commission about SpaceX."
Meanwhile, SpaceX'sdirector of satellite policy, who signed the latest filing, is an accomplished lawyer who previously worked as a senior advisor to the former FCC chairman and in Congress.
And that, I venture to say --even though most people don't like to admit it -- that this is exactlyhowour system is designed to work. I'd even go so far as to say it's a good thing, all things considered.
Because,we're talking about the launching of many thousands of commercial satellites -- an unprecedented scale -- along with the groundbreaking use of frequency spectrum.It's difficult even to think through the second and third-order effects, along with the size of the opportunity.
So, even people who want less government overall mightagree that in this case, it probably makes sense to have a strong regulatory framework in place.
Granted, it can be messy, delaying, annoying, and frustrating. But what's the alternative?
At the extreme,it would bea complete free-for-all, in which any company couldinterfere with any other company, and which paradoxically might discourage the best companies from competing in the first place.
Long-time readers will know that I am eager for SpaceX, or OneWeb, or Amazon, or some other company--I'm truly agnostic as to which one--to achieve the goal of bringing high-speed broadband Internet access to the mostremote places.
I've seen first-hand how a lack of broadband access can hold rural areas back in the 21st century.So,Ithink Iunderstand the urgency.
Now,I don't necessarily think Musk was trying to make all these points about the regulatory state and the legal system and innovation. I think he'smore likely just taking the opportunity to roast Bezos again.
But he's nevertheless revealed something important.
Since the time of Shakespeare, people have complained about lawyers. Heck, I complain about them, and I'm a non-practicing lawyer myself.
Still, when it comes to complicated business endeavors, there's an advantage to having a robust, complicated legal system.To paraphrase another great and bold thinker of an earlier time,it might just be the worst possible system,except for all those others that have everbeen tried.
Regardless, it's the system we live under.And when you're caught up in it, no matter what kind of business you're running, you'll be gladthat somebody's "actual full-time job"isto be your zealous advocate.
(Don't forget the free ebook: Elon Musk Has Very Big Plans, which you can download here.)
The opinions expressed here by Inc.com columnists are their own, not those of Inc.com.
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People Are Using Neural Networks To Give Makeovers To Elon Musk Here Are The Results – Wonderful Engineering
Posted: at 6:16 am
Ma! Theyre doing weird things on the internet again!
You know when someone said that excess of everything is bad, this is specifically what they were referring to. AI has become so advanced in the past few years that its becoming increasingly difficult to differentiate photoshopped images from reality. An Israeli team of researchers has come up with a new and improved method of adding photorealistic changes to real photos using AI-based generative adversarial networks.
The working of the software is simple; the user is prompted to input a description of what they want added in the picture and the machine does the rest. The result is a weird and hilarious combination of the original picture along with the extra details you added. For example, you have a picture of a cat, you add the description which can be as small as a one-word feature such as cute. The result will be a cat with enlarged eyes which is a characteristic trait often associated with that specific word.
Up until now the cat example was a very cute one but researchers decided to add a bit of nightmare fuel into it and used a picture of Tesla and SpaceXs CEO, Elon Musk. By adding all kinds of descriptions from a Karen-bob cut to putting makeup on the poor guys face, we got a never-seen-before look of Elon Musk (and we cant stop staring simply because its just plain disturbing). Apparently, Scott Manley, a fellow space enthusiast, found the results a little too interesting.
Theres no argument that neural networks have come a long way and this face manipulation is one of the greatest examples of it. While it has a lighter side to it, this technology can be used in a lot of different applications and provide a beneficial outcome as well.
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Jordan Peterson should be the 2022 commencement speaker – Hillsdale Collegian
Posted: at 6:15 am
Jordan Peterson. Courtesy | GoogleCommons.
The senior class should invite Jordan Peterson to deliver the colleges commencement address inMay.
For a school that studies the classic tradition while fighting for freedom in modern politics, Peterson is an excellentfit.
A public intellectual and clinical psychologist, he speaks on eternal truths and classic texts, and applies their lessons to todays controversies. A New Yorker article called Peterson the most influentialand polarizingpublic intellectuals in the English-speaking world.
Peterson came to public attention in 2016 when he opposed an amendment to Canadas criminal code that added gender identity as a protected category. Peterson argued that the change would criminalize a persons refusal to use they/them pronouns and ultimately push Canada toward tyrannya concept he has studied foryears.
Ive studied authoritarianism for a very long timefor 40 yearsand theyre started by peoples attempts to control the ideological and linguistic territory, he told the BBC in2016.
He stands strongly against cultural insanity while not becoming an ordinary talking head on a nightly shout show. He has spoken out against the sexual revolution and transgender radicalism while defending family values andtradition.
Since entering the spotlight, Peterson has captivated audiences everywhere. He has written two best-selling books on life improvement and traveled across the world speaking to thousands of people on ideas like responsibility anddiscipline.
Adopt responsibility for your own well-being, Peterson said in a video. Try to put your family together, try to serve your community, try to seek for eternal truth thats the sort of thing that can ground you in your life, enough so that you can withstand the difficulty oflife.
Self-responsibility is a core theme of Petersons messagepractically identical to the principle of self-government this college holdsclosely.
Almost all the meaning that you will need to get you through the hard times of your life is going to be a consequence of adopting responsibility, he said in onelecture.
But theres another reason to invite Peterson to campus. We have the unique opportunity to teach one of the worlds leading intellectuals alesson.
Peterson has spoken out about the decline of the university countless times. The crackdowns on free speech, the decreased diversity of thought, and increased reliance on feelings and identity are among hiscomplaints.
At a 2019 Heritage Foundation event, Peterson said what universities fundamentally manage to achieve is leaving studentsdefeated.
What people are being taught, Peterson said referring to the modern university, is of no utility as a guiding light to anyone. And its a catastrophe to take young people in their formative yearsand to tear the substructure out from underneaththem.
Peterson spends hours on podcasts lamenting the failure of modern education. On his Aug. 2 podcast he talks to seven guests about their experiences on American campuses, including a North Korean defector who said her time at Columbia University made her very pessimistic about the Westernworld.
Hillsdale College should show him an example of a successful collegeone that pursues truth, encourages diversity of thought, and stands firmly against the race-obsessed and emotionally-charged curriculums ruining most institutions.
He will see, in Hillsdale, an example of education done right. He will finally have an example to point to of an intellectually serious and open-minded college.
What he says matters and when he talks, millionslisten.
In a time of disillusionment and turmoil, Peterson speaks to the sanity and truth we crave. We should invite him to send us off into theworld.
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Candace Owens debates Russell Brand – The Global Herald – The Global Herald
Posted: at 6:15 am
Russell Brand published this video item, entitled Candace Owens debates Russell Brand below is their description.
Candace Owens and I go head to head here in this excerpt from my Under the Skin Episode (Will It Go Left Or Right? Candace Owens & Russell Brand). In this Candace Owens Interview, we debate the pros & cons of The Left and The Right and an attempt to negotiate when utopia might look like.
If you want to watch the full Candace Owens podcast then click the link below I highly suggest you watch the full interview:
This is a short excerpt from my podcast Under the Skin. Click below to listen to my luminary original podcast and hear from guests including Candace Owens, Jordan Peterson, Edward Snowden, Jonathan Haidt, Naomi Klein, Kehinde Andrews, Adam Curtis and Vandana Shiva.
Subscribe to Luminary at http://apple.co/russell
Watch the #UnderTheSkin Youtube Playlist:
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Jordan Peterson and Rex Murphy on Woke Culture Wars – Todayville.com
Posted: at 6:15 am
A liberal wants happy endings. A conservative wants satisfactory endings. Liberal happiness usually involves great unhappiness. Conservative satisfaction usually means things that work.
In the Covid-19 crisis the West has sought a vaccine-powered happy ending where everyone goes to heaven but no one dies. As we see now, a more realistic end game that conceded some death and hardship was needed for a satisfactory ending. What produced the former and actively suppressed the latter was China.
As we wrote in April of 2020, only the Chinese knew what was happening on Covid-19: Repeat. No one but the Chinese knew anything till at least March (2020). (U.S. President Donald) Trump only knew what he was told by his crack science team of Dr. Anthony Fauci, Dr. Karen Birkx, Dr. Anthony Redfield and the armies of CDC and Health Department apparatchiks. Who said in March that masks were ineffective. But now science proves theyre boffo. (In D.C. opinions are like belly buttons. Everybodys got one.)
Trump is not an epidemiologist. Hes a businessman, a salesman whose focus was on preventing a total collapse of the economy. So when the initial calming sounds from his advisors proved fatally wrong, Trump played for time. He mobilized supply chains, supplied states with ventilators, PPE and beds. Even his bitter enemy Cuomo, governor of New York, was forced to concede that Orange Man Bad had done alright by the people of the Empire State. His policies did flatten the curve, preventing an early meltdown of U.S. hospitals and their health system.
Likewise, Trudeau is not an epidemiologist. The PM got his talking points, largely,from his virus expert Dr. Theresa Tam (via the WHO). Reading from the Chinese script she scorned masks and the closing of borders. While Trump closed Americas borders and sanctioned China, Trudeau, Health Minster Patty Hajdu and senior public health officials insisted that the risk of transmission was low in Canada right up until early March.
When the risk level suddenly jumped to high on March 15, the government scrambled to impose an economic lockdown to curb the spread of the virus reports CBC.ca.
Which is where we have been since the fabled 15 days in 2020 to flatten the curve the first of many Orwellian bromides to deflect from the tragedy of executive overreach.Now we have an extensive article saying just that.
In the Wests abject panic over the virus, says Tablet magazine in The Masked Ball of Cowardice, the assembled political and health elites of the West took their marching orders from Chinas carefully manicured script on how they beat a virus that most everyone now concedes they launched themselves. The script was a lie that launched an estimated 4.5 million deaths worldwide.
At the heart of the lockdown madness was the collective fantasy of controlling a common respiratory pathogena feat the epidemiology profession had agreed was impossible and self-destructive just months prior.
In The Masked Ball of Cowardice Michael P. Senger documents how the pandemic can be explained by initial gullibility on alleged Chinese treatment of the virus and the subsequent attempts by the West to cover their ass for being suckered. since 15 days to slow the spreadfrom fear propaganda to masks to school closures and vaccine passeshas been a cover-up of catastrophe that was the original lockdowns and denial of insanity of trusting scientists and billionaires who treat information from China as real.
A few samples from Sengers blistering of the Wests elites. Starting with our favourite: the blunderbuss PCR tests.Based on WHOs guidance on COVID-19 testing, again citing Chinese journal articles, labs used, and continue to use, PCR cycle thresholds from 37 to 40, and sometimes as high as 45. At these cycle threshold levels, approximately 85% to 90% of cases are false positives.
The WHOs PCR guidance was quite possibly the deadliest accounting fraud of all time. According to coding guidance, if the decedent had either tested positive or been in contact with anyone who had, within several weeks prior to death, then death should be classified as COVID-19 death.
Senger points out that in swallowing the Chinese prescription the West ignored the far-greater catastrophe of social costs. In March 2020, the Dutch commissioned a cost-benefit analysis concluding that the health damage from lockdown would be 6 times greater than the benefit. The government then ignored it, claiming society would not accept optics of an elderly person unable to get an ICU bed.
Figures from Trudeau to (now former) NY state governor Andrew Cuomo hopped on board the Zero Covid train early. As we wrote in April 2020: Justin Trudeau, has suggested that losing even one Canadian to the virus is not worth any economic benefit. In the U.S., the key health advisors to president Donald Trump talk about not being able to re-start society till the virus is stopped and no lives are in danger. This humanist position enjoys the approval of the mainstream media which has turned the Covid-19 death toll into a telethon of tragedy, bereft of context and precedent.
That implausible goal of crushing the virus at all costs has now resulted in a choked health-care system, untold millions dying or suffering from the isolation and desolation of lockdowns and, despite the buoyant stock market, the destruction of supply chains. To give just one example, August production of Toyota vehicles is to be slashed by 60,000 to 90,000 vehicles. Why? Microchips are impossible to source and petrified labour is staying home, not working.
We foresaw the supply-chain monster in March of 2020. One revelation that will not pass, however, is just how vulnerable North Americas indulged society is to events in China. The virus, which originated in Wuhan, has become the unwanted party guest who wont leave till hes soiled the carpets and broken the furniture as he plays air guitar.
But its also informed Americans and Canadians that almost all their prescription drugs and a host of other products come exclusively from China. Or near enough. So those high-blood-pressure pills we gobble especially the generic brands are 95 percent dependent on Chinese labs after successive governments in North America allowed the business to migrate eastward. And supplies are dwindling.
This dependence has been around for some time now, waiting to emerge. It just took the Covid-19 emergency to make citizens aware. You certainly didnt hear it it discussed in media circles when the new North American trade deal was being discussed We can see why now. Canadas PM Justin Trudeau is too busy currying favour with the geopolitical swells to watch out for his nations vulnerability. Like ceding our sovereignty on energy to the Saudis or Americans, it was getting in the way of him winning a seat on the UN Security Council in his priorities.
As conservative radio host Jesse Kelly writes: I dont understand. I was told repeatedly that you could just pause an economy as if it was Netflix. After all, someone got sick. Did pausing the economy and dumping trillions of unbacked currency into it cause widespread economic dislocation? Weird.
Weird indeed. And with Canadas GDP dropping, about to get weirder.
Bruce Dowbiggin @dowbboy is the editor of Not The Public Broadcaster (http://www.notthepublicbroadcaster.com). The best-selling author of Cap In Hand is also a regular contributor to Sirius XM Canada Talks Ch. 167. A two-time winner of the Gemini Award as Canadas top television sports broadcaster, his new book Personal Account with Tony Comper is now available on http://brucedowbigginbooks.ca/book-personalaccount.aspx
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Responding to DNA is a Program, and Programs Demand a Programmer – Patheos
Posted: at 6:14 am
One popular science-y argument for God is that DNA is information. In fact, its not only information, its a software program. Programs require programmers, and for DNA, this programmer must be God.
For example, Scott Minnich, an associate professor of microbiology and a fellow at the Discovery Institute, said during the 2005 Kitzmiller v. Dover trial, The sophistication of the information storage system in nucleic acids of RNA and DNA [have] been likened to digital code that surpasses anything that a software engineer at Microsoft at this point can produce. Stephen Meyer, also of the Discovery Institute, said, DNA functions like a software program. We know from experience that software comes from programmers.
But how does DNA brings anything new to the conversation? The idea that the human body is like a designed machine has been in vogue ever since modern machines. The heart is like a pump, nerves are like wires, arteries are like pipes, the digestive system is like a chemical factory, eyes and ears are like cameras and microphones, and so on. We dont hear, Animals arteries and veins are like the water and drain pipes in a house, so there must be a celestial Plumber!
I dont find the celestial Programmer claim much more compelling, but lets push on and respond to the apologists claim that programs (in the form of DNA) require programmers.
As a brief detour, notice how we tell natural and manmade things apart. Nature and human designers typically do things very differently. This excerpt from my book Future Hype: The Myths of Technology Change explores the issue:
By the 1880s, first generation mechanical typesetters were in use. Mark Twain was interested in new technology and invested in the Paige typesetter, backing it against its primary competitor, the Mergenthaler Linotype machine. The Paige was faster and had more capabilities. However, the complicated machine contained 18,000 parts and weighed three tons, making it more expensive and less reliable. As the market battle wore on, Twain sunk more and more money into the project, but it eventually failed in 1894. It did so largely because the machine deliberately mimicked how human typesetters worked instead of taking advantage of the unique ways machines can operate. For example, the Paige machine re-sorted the type from completed print jobs back into bins to be reused. This impressive ability made it compatible with the manual process but very complex. The Linotype neatly cut the Gordian knot by simply melting old type and recasting it. . . .
As with typesetting machines, airplanes also flirted with animal inspiration in their early years. But flapping-wing airplane failures soon yielded to propeller-driven successes. The most efficient machines usually dont mimic how humans or animals work. Airplanes dont fly like birds, and submarines dont swim like fish. Wagons roll rather than walk, and a recorded voice isnt replayed through an artificial mouth. A washing machine doesnt use a washboard, and a dishwasher moves the water and not the dishes.
With DNA, we again see the natural vs. manmade distinction. It looks like the kind of good-enough compromise that evolution would create, not like manmade computer software. The cell has no CPU, the part of a computer that executes instructions. Also, engineers have created genetic software that changes and improves in an evolutionary fashion. This software can be used for limited problems, but it must be treated as a black box.
The same is true for a neural network used for artificial intelligence. It can be trained to recognize something, but that set of interconnections looks nothing like the understandable, maintainable software that humans create.
As another illustration of the how DNA is unlike software, the length of an organisms DNA is not especially proportionate to its complexity. This is the c-value enigma, illustrated with a chart that compares DNA length for many animals here.
We actually have created DNA like a human programmer would create it, at least short segments of it. In 2010, the Craig Venter Institute encoded four text messages into synthetic DNA that was then used to create a living, replicating cell. Thats what a creator who wants to be known does. Natural DNA looks . . . natural. It looks sloppy. Its complex without being elegant. (See more on the broken stuff in human DNA here and how this defeats the Design Hypothesis here.)
If God designed software, wed expect it to look like elegant, minimalistic, people-designed software, not the Rube Goldberg mess that we see in DNA. Apologists might wonder how we know that this isnt the way God would do it. Yes, God could have his own way of programming that looks foreign to us, but then the DNA looks like Gods software argument fails.
Consider more broadly this supposed analogy between human design and biological systems.
But these traits of human designs dont apply to biological systems, and vice versa. So where is the analogy? The only thing they share is complexity, which means that the argument becomes the nave conclusion, Golly, biological systems are quite complicated; I guess they must be designed. This is no evidence for a designer, just an unsupported claim that complexity demands one. And why think complexity is the hallmark of design? Shouldnt we be looking for elegance instead?
The DNA = software analogy brings along baggage that the Christian apologist wont like. The apologist demands, DNA is information! Show me a single example of information not coming from intelligence!
This makes them vulnerable to a straightforward retort: Show me a single example of intelligence thats not natural. Show me a single example of intelligence not coming from a physical brain. These apologists are living in a glass house when appealing to things that have no precedent (and far too comfortable with things that have no evidence, like the supernatural).
Does the Christian imagine multiple Designers of DNA? Because most human designs come from teams. Are those Designers finite? Are they fallible? Were they born? Because these are the properties of human designers (h/t commenter Loren Petrich).
Christians will respond by pointing to the imagined properties of the Christian God, but this is the fallacy of special pleading. They pick the parts of the God/designer analogy they like and dismiss the ones they dont. This might make it an illustration of Gods properties, but by selecting the parts they like based on their agenda, they make clear that its not an argument.
Actually, we find information in lots of nonliving natural things. The frequency components of starlight encodes information about that stars composition and speed. Tree rings tell us about past precipitation and carbon-14 fluctuation. Ice cores and varves (annual sediment layers in a pond) also reveal details of climate. Smell can tell us that food has gone bad or if a dead animal is nearby. Snowflakes record the atmospheric conditions that created them.
Commenter NS Alito observed:
In my sedimentary geology classes, we used various rock deposition construction patterns to determine the environment in which it was formed, such as preserved ripple structures, proportions of sand vs. clay, silica concretions in sandstone, etc. The various programmers of this information were wave energy, upstream eroded material, water chemistry and other natural physical processes.
The popular DNA = software analogy should be discarded for lack of evidence.
To ask an atheist what evidence would change their mindis to admit were in a naturalistic universeand thus make the question void. commenter primenumbers
.(This is an update of a post that originally appeared 3/18/17.)
Image from AndreaLaurel (license CC BY 2.0).
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Responding to DNA is a Program, and Programs Demand a Programmer - Patheos
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He took a DNA test for fun and found out he was not the father of his 12-year-old son – Market Research Telecast
Posted: at 6:14 am
A family was shocked after 12 years to discover that the man was not the father of one of their two children. What started out as fun ended up being something that worried parents from Utah, United States.
In 2007, Vanner and Donna Johnson decided to find their second child. However, after trying naturally, the couple opted for IVF without knowing what was going to happen next. And it is that although both fulfilled the necessary procedure for the treatment, something happened in the middle.
And it is that the couple together with their children decided to have a test of ADN as something funny but the result showed that the child who was born as a product of medical treatment, did not have the genes of his father.
The family performed the test that came with the DNA kit 23andMe, who acquired it as a game that all members of the family would do. When they received the results a month later, they were in shock.
When I looked at that page and saw the phrase: unknown father I thought what do you mean by unknown father, if I am his father?' He revealed Vanner Johnson remembering the moment he learned the truth. When we saw those results we knew there must be something wrong, added Donna.
The test of ADN disclosed that Vanner is not the biological father of her child and that Donnas egg was fertilized by the sperm of another person, whose name or whereabouts is unknown, during the process of In vitro fertilization. I understood that there is a possibility of some error during the treatments, but it is not really common, it is very remote, revealed the frustrated father.
Video de Youtube @abc4utah.
There were a lot of emotions that we had to overcome. We had to separate what is love for our son, who has not changed for a second, from the problem we were dealing with. How could it happen and what do we do now? Added the man, surprised by everything that happened.
According to the parents, it took more than a year to reveal the truth to their son. I took him for a ride in our car, we were actually going to have ice cream. I wanted to make sure his attention was only on our conversation, said the father.
He knew that his birth was the product of a fertilization treatment so I told him: It turns out that when we did it, something happened and we are not sure what happened, but I am not really your biological father,' added the man. .
However, the young mans reaction was to tell the father how much he loved him, making it clear that it would not change their relationship.
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The enduring appeal of the Bond villain – Spectator.co.uk
Posted: at 6:13 am
Daniel Craigs fifth and final outing as Bond may not have as many pulses racing due to No Time to Dies frequently cancelled release dates (the first trailer was back in December 2019), but fans are still keen to see the return of the iconic British spy.
Indeed, recent events have conspired to make 007 more relevant than in previous years, with shiny-pated Amazon boss Jeff Bezos emulating both villains Blofeld (who took over the entertainment assets of billionaire Willard Whyte in Diamonds are Forever) and Hugo Drax (Moonraker) with his recent acquisition of 007 studio MGM and brief space flight.
Until No Time to Die is released, the jury is obviously out on Rami Maleks (Bohemian Rhapsody) turn as bad guy Lyutsifer Safin (crazy name, crazy guy, as the saying goes), but we know that Christoph Waltzs Blofeld (Spectre) will be in the picture, ridiculous Freudian backstory and all.
One thing noticeable in the franchise as a whole is the general absence of top-flight female antagonists for Bond.Sure, weve had formidable second stringers like knife-booted Rosa Klebb (Lotte Lenya, From Russia with Love), Fatima Blush (Barbara Carrera, Never Say Never Again), Xenia Onatopp (Famke Janssen, Goldeneye) and Pussy Galore (Honor Blackman, Goldfinger), but only The World is Not Enough (1999) boasts a woman as 007s principal adversary.
The film cast French actress Sophie Marceau as double-dealing oil magnate Elektra King, aided by her rather useless sidekick Renard (Robert Carlyle), unable to feel pain due to a bullet lodged in his brain, rendering him akinto The Black Knight from Monty Python and the Holy Grail (1975).
Perhaps in his next iteration, 007 will face a female (or transgender) mastermind capable of giving the shaken, not stirred secret agent a run for his money.
On that note, my selection of Bonds ten most memorable foes (in no particular order):
For me, Scaramanga (Christopher Lee) and cheeky Nick Nack (Herv Villechaize) make an all-time classic double act of Bondian villainy.
Roger Moores second time as 007 proved a (relative) financial failure and reviews were lacklustre, possibly as the movie was seen to be aping the kung fu craze of the period.
A shame, as Lees three-nippled villain is an impressive opponent, comparing himself to Bond (we are the same) in both his skillset and deadly efficiency.
Scaramanga also possesses the wry sense of humour so missed in many of the modern Bond films, commenting to then superior Hai-Fat on Bonds escape from a karate school: What do they teach at that academy? Ballet dancing?
The added value in the picture is provided by Herv Villechaizes diminutive sidekick Nick Nack, who enjoys a bantering relationship with his boss and shares an equal dedication to ridding the world of James Herbert Bond.
Like Diamonds are Forevers pervy pair Wint & Kidd, Nick Nack also seemed to be something of a voyeur, but as 007 was always being caught in flagrante, I dont suppose he minded that much.
Moonraker is not a great Bond movie by any means, but the late Michael Lonsdale's poetic Hugo Drax is a wonderful baddie in fact hes my favourite of the entire gallery of rogues.
He gets the best lines (And you, Dr Goodhead, your desire to become America's first woman in space will shortly be fulfilled) and appears a decent employer, boosting the then sagging world economy with his hiring of the unemployed Jaws (Richard Kiel) after Bond killed his previous #1 henchman Chang.
Draxs strictures about physical perfection rebound on him towards the end of the picture when Jaws and his lady friend Dolly realise that they may not be suitable candidates for the would-be World Kings new Earthly Eden.
The film suffers from its attempt to cash in on the Star Wars craze, upping the global stakes still further after The Spy Who Loved Me (1977).
The gondola chase in Venice is best forgotten, a scene which could easily have been accompanied by the Benny Hill Show theme.The next Bond movie (1981s For Your Eyes Only) was a conscious attempt to bring the franchise down to earth (sic) with a more realistic (for Bond) premise.
Admittedly, Robert Shaw's Red Grant is not technically the main villain in From Russia with Love, but hes a great adversary, one who is no pushover for Connerys 007.Even if he doesn't know which wine to serve with fish...
Along with his Nazi Colonel in The Battle of The Bulge (1965) and Henry VIII in A Man for All Seasons (1966), Shaw never looked in better fettle, a stark contrast to his grizzled Quint in Jaws (1975) when he was (shockingly) only 48 years old.
In fact, From Russia WithLove is a rarity in having no main villain, with the chores being shared by SPECTRE myrmidons under the orders of #1 (aka Blofeld, played by Anthony Dawson), shown in shadow from the chest down, stroking his customary white moggy.
Does portly German golf andcard game cheat Auric Goldfinger (Gert Frbe) remind you of anyone?
Former President Trump (of German ancestry on his fathers side) also shares Aurics love of gold, as evidenced by the garish decoration of his hostelries and private apartments.
Back to Goldfinger, hes a rather boorish character, but with an eye for talent, backed up by loyal henchman Oddjob and Pussy Galores all-female Flying Circus of pilots, although Galore does rat him out in the end after succumbing to Bonds brutish charms.
Goldfingers plan to irradiate Fort Knox to increase the value of his own gold stockpile is a sound one, but (as usual in Bond movies) sloppiness in follow-up work on a captured 007 proves the baddies undoing, as he wanders off before a prone 007 is due to be cut in half by a laser beam.
Poor finishing, as TV football pundits are wont to say.
Prior to his international fame in the 1970s as Greek American lollipop-loving NY detective Theo Kojak, Telly Savalas was perhaps best known as a bad guy in the movies, aided by his trademark shaven head and slightly depraved air.
Telly Savalas is my favourite incarnation of the Bond nemesis Blofeld, closely followed by Donald Pleasence in You Only Live Twice (1967).
He is superb in OHMSS, even though his scheme to blackmail the world through germ warfare to recognise his title as Count Balthazar de Bleuchamp does appear to be on the petty side.Much like Dr Evil asking for 1m in the first Austin Powers movie (1997).
Director Peter Hunts movie is one of the best in the series, and although former Frys Chocolate model George Lazenby is no Connery, hes convincing in the action sequences.
The Antipodean Lazenby has a decent chunk of his dialogue dubbed by George Baker, as he couldnt quite nail the accent required for his disguise as College of Arms genealogist Sir Hilary Bray (played by Baker at the beginning of the film).
Looking if anything older than his 57 years (consider that Brad Pitt was just a year younger in 2019s Once Upon a Time in Hollywood), Roger Moore is a very creaky 007 in his final Bond.
Back in the 2015 BBC documentary Premium Bond, Mark Gatiss (Inside #9) went so far as to comment:If you watched this film, not as a James Bond film, but as a film about an elderly man who thinks he's a secret agent, its absolutely charming.
Luckily the movie has a decent villain, with Christopher Walken especially good value as Nazi-bred bermensch Max Zorin.Walken plays the role with a light touch, in some scenes even appearing to wink at the audience.And why not, as the plot is pretty much tripe (something about submerging Silicon Valley)
'Let the mayhem begin' says scheming Murdochian media mogul Elliot Carver (Jonathan Pryce) in Pierce Brosnans second Bond movie.Carvers plan is to start a war between the UK and Communist China in the South China Sea.Why? To sell more papers and increase viewing to his cable news channels of course.
Its up to Bond to uncover the plot and put paid to Carver; his task complicated by his previous relationship with the billionaires trophy wife Paris (Terri Hatcher). Was Tony Blair influenced by the movie or was it vice versa?
Pryce is underrated as the white-wigged Mao-jacket sporting megalomaniac, serving up his dialogue with evident relish:Soon I'll have reached out to and influenced more people than anybody in the history of this planet, save God himself. And the best he ever managed was the Sermon on the Mount.
Joe Don Baker (Edge of Darkness) pops up in the movie (and in 1995s Goldeneye) as CIA liaison Jack Wade; curious since he was the villain Brad Whitaker in The Living Daylights (1987) eight short years earlier.
The second of the Craig quintet is the shortest Bond picture and one of the most derided on release, not least for its dull title, taken from one of Ian Flemings 007 short stories.
But since then, Quantum of Solace has quietly been accruing a reputation as a decent addition to the series.
Following directly on from Casino Royale, the Bourne-style action sees 007 track down heads of the Quantum organisation (a Spectre front), chiefly eco-millionaire Dominic Greene who is busy gaining a monopoly of Bolivian water rights.
Mathieu Amalric (Munich) is good fun as the weaselly Greene, who unfortunately has possibly the lamest sidekick in the franchise Elvis (Anatole Taubman), whose potential for menace is undercut by his gormless Moe Howard (Three Stooges) bowl cut.
Amalrics weird squealing during his fight scene with the far beefier Craig is a highlight of the picture.
I do have a problem with Bonds decision to sling murdered friend/ally Ren Mathis (the great Giancarlo Giannini) into the nearest refuse skip, rather than arranging for his remains to be sent back to his loving wife in France.He wouldnt care,'Bond intones as he dumps the unfortunate Mathis onto a smelly heap of Bolivian garbage.Personally, I think he would.
Usually acknowledged as the best of the Moore Bonds, TSWLM sees web-handed aquatic wanna-be world dictator Carl Stromberg (Curt Jrgens) attempt to provoke a global nuclear war with the aim of eventually emerging as the head of an underwater empire.
As ambitions go, its certainly original, and to be sure, Strombergs vision of a marine kingdom Under the Sea bears scant comparison to the Little Mermaids Atlantica.
The usually sedentary Stromberg is aided in his efforts by towering henchman Jaws (Richard Kiel), who has yet to reveal the softer side he displayed in Moonraker.
Spectacular sets from Ken Adam, a great foil to Bond in Barbara Bachs Soviet Agent Triple X and Carly Simons theme song (Nobody Does it Better) make Spy an enjoyable watch, although the silliness of some of the later Rog entries is foreshadowed by increasingly gimmicky gadgets.
None thankfully in the realm of Die Another Days (2002) invisible car though.
Not an 'official' Bond movie, but NSNA boasts a first-class foe in the shape of the jumpy Largo, played by the excellent Klaus Maria Brandauer (Mephisto). Barbara Carrera backs the senior Spectre operative as his equally unhinged henchperson Fatima Blush.
Both roles seem to have been written (or at least performed) as a pair with serious cocaine habits, given the amount of twitching, wild-eyed staring and general tomfoolery going on.Donning the Bond toupe for his final outing, Sean Connery apparently had a miserable time making the film, bringing in sitcom writers Dick Clement and Ian La Frenais (Porridge) to punch up the script.
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Evolution (marketplace) – Wikipedia
Posted: at 6:13 am
Evolution
Type of site
Evolution was a darknet market operating on the Tor network. The site was founded by an individual known as 'Verto' who also founded the now defunct Tor Carding Forum.[4]
Launched January 14, 2014, it saw rapid growth within its first several months, helped in part by law enforcement seizures of some of its competitors during the six-month-long investigation codenamed Operation Onymous.[5] Speaking about why Evolution was not part of Operation Onymous, the head of the European police cybercrimes division said it was "because there's only so much we can do on one day."[6] Wired estimated that as of November2014[update] it was one of the two largest drug markets.[7][8]
Evolution was similar to other darknet markets in its prohibitions, disallowing "child pornography, services related to murder/assassination/terrorism, prostitution, ponzi schemes, and lotteries".[8] Where it most prominently differed was in its more lax rules concerning stolen credit cards and others kinds of fraud, permitting, for example, the wholesaling of credit card data.[8][9]
In mid-March 2015, administrators froze its users escrow accounts, disallowing withdrawals, citing technical difficulties.[10] Evolution had earned a reputation not just for its security, but also for its professionalism and reliability, with an uptime rate much higher than its competition.[11][10] Partly for that reason, when the site went offline a few days later, on March 18, the user community panicked.[10] The shut down was discovered to be an exit scam, with the operators of the site shutting down abruptly in order to steal the approximately $12 million in bitcoins it was holding as escrow.[12][13]
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