News You Can Use

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Disney’s Next Movie Could Be Watching You, Too

There’s this term in the processed food industry for when something is quantifiably at its most delicious, but also–critically–still unsatisfying enough that you always crave more. It’s called the bliss point, and it’s what ensures that you always want another sip of that soft drink, or the crunch of that potato chip. It’s about maximizing the bliss of consumption so that you consume more.

Now, Disney Research has developed a neural network that seems to be chasing a similar idea–but for the world of movies. The system has been trained to watch an audience of theatergoers as they watch a film. It can track reactions like smiling and laughter on hundreds of faces in a dark theater, allowing Disney to quantify whether or not a film is working as intended on a granular scale. It’s easy to imagine such technology eventually reaching well beyond the movie theater, into the real world, where Disney parks could react to your mood with real-time Disney magic.

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Princeton's new ‘men’s engagement manager’ to combat aggressive masculinity on campus - The College Fix

Are young men at Princeton University violent, aggressive, hyper-masculine, stalkers, or rapists?

A new position at the Ivy League institution indicates campus officials apparently think enough of its male students grapple with such problems that it warrants hiring a certified clinician dedicated to combating them.

The university is in the process of hiring an “Interpersonal Violence Clinician and Men’s Engagement Manager” who will work with a campus office called SHARE that’s dedicated to “survivors” of sexual harassment, assault, dating violence and stalking.

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Perhaps the Ancients Weren’t So Dumb: A Flood of Evidence Is Embarrassing the ‘Experts’

Western experts were less than enthused at the news. The Times quotes several prominent archaeologists who scoff at the discoveries as attempts to read too much into Chinese myths. Dr. Paul Goldin of the University of Pennsylvania derides what he sees as a “fixation” among Chinese archaeologists with “[proving] that all the ancient texts and legends have some fundamental truth … It shouldn’t be every archaeologist’s first instinct,” he says, “to see if their findings are matched in the historical sources.”

Come again? Shouldn’t archaeologists want to know if what they’re digging up has significance in known history? Sadly for many in the West, the answer is a resounding “not really.” This dismissal of ancient writings—including the Bible—is rooted in chronological snobbery. The ancients, experts today assume, were just too dumb or superstitious to get their own histories right.

This attitude has not only blinded us to potential discoveries, it’s made it very embarrassing for archaeologists when the ancients do turn out to be correct. I think, for example, of the recent discovery of Goliath’s hometown, Gath. Or what about the unearthing of evidence for the biblical King Hezekiah, the likely discovery of the palace where Pilate tried Jesus, or the compelling evidence that “the house of David,” contrary to decades of secular scholarship, was founded by a real, historical man after God’s own heart?

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Former CIA Director Calls For A Coup If Trump Fires Mueller | Zero Hedge

In the most vocal opposition to president Donald Trump yet, former CIA Director John Brennan said that if the White House tries to fire special counsel Robert Mueller, government officials should refuse to follow the president orders, as they would be - in his view - “inconsistent” with the duties of the executive branch.

"I think it's the obligation of some executive branch officials to refuse to carry that out. I would just hope that this is not going to be a partisan issue. That Republicans, Democrats are going to see that the future of this government is at stake and something needs to be done for the good of the future," Brennan told CNN's Wolf Blitzer at the Aspen Security Forum, effectively calling for a coup against the president should Trump give the order to fire Mueller.

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China and India Locked in 'Eyeball-to-Eyeball' Border Standoff - Bloomberg

China and India, two nuclear-armed powers with a combined population of 2.7 billion, have been in an “eyeball-to-eyeball” military stand-off over territory in Bhutan, a kingdom in a remote area of the Himalayas, since mid-June. The flare-up, one of the most serious since China won a border war in 1962, comes as the two rising powers jostle for regional influence. The current dispute is near a three-way junction between Bhutan, China’s Tibet and India’s Sikkim.

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POTUS Trump RIPS Obama - Scouts Chant "We Love Trump!" at National Jamboree (VIDEO)

The scouts chanted “We Love Trump!” tonight at the National Jamboree in West Virginia.

The massive crowd of tens of thousands of boy scouts cheered the president at the jamboree.
The crowd was enormous – nearly 40,000 people!

Trump ripped Barack Obama for NEVER attending a jamboree.
The massive crowd grumbled then started chanting—

“We love Trump! We love Trump!… “

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New U.S. Navy aircraft carrier sets sail with no urinals - NY Daily News

The U.S. Navy has decided on a new form of berth control.

The USS Gerald R. Ford — the newest U.S. Navy aircraft carrier, and the first in its class of ships — is ditching urinals, introducing “gender neutral” bathrooms.

Each sleeping quarter — what the Navy calls a berthing area — will have traditional porcelain bowls in the heads (or bathrooms) of the newly designed aircraft carrier, which can hold over 5,000 sailors.

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Robots could 'threaten humanity' and will be physically stronger than humans "in the next few years", warns scientist - Mirror Online

Robots could 'threaten our existence' and even become physically stronger than humans "in the next few years", according to new documentary.

Experts claim robots could even be classed as an "invasive species" due to the fact they are evolving at such a rapid rate.

And according to a new BBC science documentary into their evolution, technology is advancing to the point of allowing robots to consciously make decisions.

Science experts appearing on the show, Hyper Evolution: Rise of the Robots, claim this poses a far greater threat to humanity than that depicted in movies such as The Terminator.

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Federal spending is skyrocketing — along with US debt | New York Post

Federal spending topped $400 billion for the first time in June.

That has the unfortunate distinction of beating the record of $392.8 billion that was spent in March of 2017.

I mention this because the US debt is getting awfully close to $20 trillion — a level which, as I said in a column a while ago, the media should give as much attention as it does whenever the Dow Jones industrial average passes through milestones.

Except, of course, the US debt level is more of a millstone around the country’s neck than a milestone.

As of Monday afternoon, the US National Debt Clock is less than $34 billion shy of $20 trillion.

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Rand Paul: Conservatives are getting 'squat' from Senate leadership | TheHill

Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.) said early Tuesday that "conservatives are getting squat" from GOP leaders in negotiations to overhaul the nation's healthcare system.

"There's no promise of a clean repeal vote," he said on "Fox & Friends. "If they're not even going to talk with conservatives, if we're going to be excluded from the process, conservatives don't need to participate in this pork fest."

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Trump: no transgender people will serve in U.S. military - Twitter

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. President Donald Trump said on Wednesday he would not allow transgender individuals to serve in the U.S. military in any capacity.

"After consultation with my Generals and military experts, please be advised that the United States Government will not accept or allow transgender individuals to serve in any capacity in the U.S. Military," Trump wrote in a series of Twitter posts.

"Our military must be focused on decisive and overwhelming victory and cannot be burdened with the tremendous medical costs and disruption that transgender in the military would entail," the Republican president wrote.

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Scientists dim sunlight, suck up carbon dioxide to cool ...

Raymond Pierrehumbert, a professor of physics at Oxford University, said solar geo-engineering projects seemed "barking mad".

By contrast, he said "carbon dioxide removal is challenging technologically, but deserves investment and trial."

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Scientists build DNA from scratch to alter life's blueprint

At Jef Boeke's lab, you can whiff an odor that seems out of place, as if they were baking bread here.
But he and his colleagues are cooking up something else altogether: yeast that works with chunks of man-made DNA.
Scientists have long been able to make specific changes in the DNA code. Now, they're taking the more radical step of starting over, and building redesigned life forms from scratch. Boeke, a researcher at New York University, directs an international team of 11 labs on four continents working to "rewrite" the yeast genome, following a detailed plan they published in March.
Their work is part of a bold and controversial pursuit aimed at creating custom-made DNA codes to be inserted into living cells to change how they function, or even provide a treatment for diseases. It could also someday help give scientists the profound and unsettling ability to create entirely new organisms.

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Davis Islamic Center Under Fire After Online Sermon Translation « CBS Sacramento

DAVIS (CBS13) — The Islamic Center of Davis is under fire after a translation of a sermon posted online said it called for the annihilation of Jews.

The Davis Imam’s two-hour long sermon is mostly in Arabic. According to a translation from the Middle East Media Research Institute, Ammar Shahin calls for the annihilation of Jews, and asks his higher power to liberate the Al Asqa mosque from their filth.

He’s referring to the Temple Mount in Jerusalem where tensions are high after the Israeli government installed metal detectors when a terrorist shot and killed two Israeli soldiers earlier this month. In English, the Imam is clear- praying for a day of judgment between Muslims and Jews.

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Republicans Toy with a Misguided Tax on the First Amendment | LifeZette

President Donald Trump and the Republican-controlled Congress have laudably made passing tax reform — real tax reform, not just shuffling money from one group to another — a top priority. Now, however, some supply-side economics skeptics are open to the possibility of taxing free speech — a constitutional right — to fill Washington’s coffers.

As you read this, the “Big Six” are meeting to discuss which deductions to keep or eliminate, and Ways and Means Committee Chair Kevin Brady must quell these whispers of taxing advertising. Imposing such a levy would trample on our country’s liberty and values, setting a dangerous precedent for further constitutional breaches in the foreseeable future.

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More than a third of California households have virtually no savings, are at risk of financial ruin, report says

More than 37 percent of California households have so little cash saved that they couldn’t live at the poverty level for even three months if they lost a job or suffered another significant loss of income.

That’s the grim assessment of the 2017 Prosperity Now Scorecard. The report was compiled by Prosperity Now, a Washington, D.C.-based organization seeking to help people — particularly people of color and those with limited income — achieve financial security and prosperity.

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Newly declassified memos detail extent of improper Obama-era NSA spying | TheHill

The National Security Agency and Federal Bureau of Investigation violated specific civil liberty protections during the Obama years by improperly searching and disseminating raw intelligence on Americans or failing to promptly delete unauthorized intercepts, according to newly declassified memos that provide some of the richest detail to date on the spy agencies’ ability to obey their own rules.

The memos reviewed by The Hill were publicly released on July 11 through Freedom of Information Act litigation by the American Civil Liberties Union.

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New diesel and petrol cars banned from UK roads by 2040, as Government unveils new pollution tax on drivers in busiest areas

Diesel drivers on congested roads in towns and cities across the UK face new pollution taxes under Government plans which will ultimately herald the end of the traditional car.

Ministers have identified 81 major roads in 17 towns and cities where urgent action is required because they are in breach of EU emissions standards, putting people's health at risk.

The Government will also commit to banning the sale of all new diesel and petrol cars by 2040 in a bid to encourage people to switch to electric and hybrid vehicles.

The air quality strategy urges local authorities to first try to reduce emissions by retrofitting the most polluting diesel vehicles, changing road layouts and removing speed humps.

However it concedes that as a last resort councils will be allowed to impose tough restrictions on the most polluting diesel vehicles as soon as 2020 to bring down the levels of harmful nitrogen dioxide emissions.

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California Muslim Just Went On TV To Say It’s Time To Start Annihilating Americans – BIG Mistake

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African-American women are increasingly buying guns, statistics show – Women in the World in Association with The New York Times – WITW

Up to 59 percent of African-American households now view owning a gun as a “necessity,” according to a recent study from the Pew Research Center released this month, and African-American women have outpaced all other races and genders in terms of securing concealed carry permits in Texas between 2000 and 2016, according to demographic information released by the state. It wasn’t always this way — as recently as 2012, Pew had found that less than a third of black families saw gun ownership as a positive. Philip Smith, the founder of the National African American Gun Association, says that politics — and police shootings such as the recent slaying of Philando Castile — have caused the sudden upswing in gun ownership. And, in his opinion, owning a gun is perhaps the only way that African-American men and women can truly protect themselves.

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Chaos Erupts At City Hall At Committee Hearing For Proposed Gun Bill « CBS Baltimore

After all of Tuesday’s events, council members voted through the amended gun bill by a 5-2 vote, moving it to the next round.

In a matter of minutes, rising tensions overflowed, police moved in and people pushed back, which ended with two arrests and a lot of upset people.

Police were called to move in as activists clashed with council members inside a meeting on a controversial gun bill. Council members had issued several warnings before officers started removing people.

But before the gavel dropped on any kind of decision, the cuffs came out. People were pushed to the floor and into walls.

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Meet Tally: The Grocery Stocking Robot About To Eradicate 1,000's Of Minimum Wage Jobs | Zero Hedge

But, as we pointed out back in May, well before Amazon's decision to buy Whole Foods, Amazon's success in penetrating the traditional grocery market was always a matter of when, not if.  Concept stores, like Amazon Go, already exist that virtually eliminate the need for dozens of in-store employees which will allow them to generate higher returns at lower price points than traditional grocers.  And, with grocery margins averaging around 1-2% at best, if Amazon, or anyone for that matter, can truly create smart stores with no check outs and cut employees in half they can effectively destroy the traditional supermarket business model.

And while the demise of the traditional grocery store will undoubtedly take time (recall that people were calling for the demise of Blockbuster for nearly a decade before it finally happened), make no mistake that the retail grocery market 10-15 years from now will not look anything like the stores you visit today.

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Pakistani council orders "revenge rape" of 16-year-old girl

ISLAMABAD (Reuters) - Pakistani police have arrested 25 members of an informal village council accused of ordering the rape of a 16-year-old girl as revenge for her brother's alleged sexual assault of another girl.

The Supreme Court also requested a report on the case, which echoed a notorious case from 2002 in which another teenager was gang-raped on a local council's order.

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Muslim gang rampaged through Liverpool attacking strangers because they were white “non-Muslims” - Liverpool Echo

A gang of Muslim men rampaged through Liverpool city centre attacking strangers because they were white “non-Muslims”.

One witness feared Amin Mohmed, Mohammed Patel and Faruq Patel were ISIS terrorists.

The drunken yobs targeted three unknown men before Mohmed, 24, and Mohammed, 20, set upon Gary Bohanna when he revealed he was Christian.

Laughing Faruq, 19, who was not convicted of a racial or religious motive, then filmed Mohmed punching St Helens councillor Paul Lynch to the ground, as his terrified girlfriend tried to protect him.

Liverpool Crown Court heard counter-terrorism officers raided the three men’s homes in Bolton after the shocking incident on March 20 last year.

The judge, Recorder Louise Brandon, said: “This was a disgraceful and sustained campaign of violence carried out on the streets of this city.”