Archive for 2018

MYSTERIES OF THE EAST: In Japan, a Buddhist Funeral Service for Robot Dogs. “An electronics repair company gives a compassionate farewell to mechanical pets, with a traditional ceremony held in a historic temple.”

NOT EVEN A FLESH WOUND: ‘Dead’ Russian Journalist Appears at a News Conference in Ukraine.

Mr. Babchenko created a sensation in Kiev on Wednesday by appearing at a news conference, billed as a police briefing about his assassination, at which he was greeted by whoops of surprise and scattered applause. It came less than 24 hours after his wife said she had found him bleeding to death on the floor of their apartment, shot in the back.

“First of all, I would like to apologize that all of you had to live through this, because I know the horrible feeling when you have to bury your colleagues,” Mr. Babchenko, 41, told the stunned room. “Separately, I want to apologize to my wife for all the hell she had to go through.”

Mr. Babchenko and the senior officials from the Ukrainian security services who appeared with him said that a contract for $40,000 had been put on his life, and that the only way to track down those responsible was to make it seem as if it had happened.

More to come, I’m sure.

SECONDARY PRESSURE POINT FROM TRUMP’S NEW MAXIMUM PRESSURE SANCTIONS: Europeans use “nuclear deal” leverage to press Iran to withdraw support of Yemen’s Houthi rebels.

To shield Iran from new US sanctions, the European powers have been pressing Tehran to be less aggressive in the region, including in the civil war in Yemen.

“The Iranians have given indications that they are now willing to offer their services to liaise with Al Houthis to move forward,” said a European official, speaking on condition of anonymity.

Here’s background on applying “maximum pressure” to Iran.

UPDATE: Link fixed. Sorry.

MEH. IF I CAN’T GO BACK AND KILL HITLER, I DON’T CARE: We Already Know How To Build A Time Machine. Though to be honest, it would probably be just as effective to go back and buy his paintings for inflated prices, and build him up into a major star of the art world. Which he had the temperament for anyway.

DEMOCRATS SELL OUT COMMITMENT TO CONSTITUTION: As if you needed more proof of the craven Stalinistic turn of the DNC, the party has pretty much given up on the First Amendment. Of course, their stenographers in the MSM won’t change a thing, and if this trend continues, boy are they going to be sorry.

“The notion that journalistic activity such as cultivating sources and receiving illegally obtained documents could be construed as part of a criminal conspiracy is, according to [Jim] Goodale, the “greatest threat to press freedom today.”

And they think Trump is the greatest enemy to press freedom. Dopes.

WHEN IS ‘IMPLICIT BIAS’ TRAINING DISCRIMINATORY? How about when it assumes all white men are actually KKK bigots just waiting to jump out? That’s why Starbucks’ three-hour sessions Tuesday for an estimated 175,000 employees may have violated the 1964 Civil Rights Act, contends Project 21’s Horace Cooper, according to LifeZette’s Connor Wolf.

PROCUREMENT BLUES: US Air Force Is Waiting a Year for Parts That It Could 3D-Print.

“I have airplanes right now that are waiting on parts that are taking a year and a half to deliver. A year and a half,” Will Roper, the assistant Air Force secretary for acquisition, technology and logistics, said in an interview.

Today’s 3D-printers could make short work of those deliveries, but some of those parts’ original manufacturers control the intellectual property — and so far, the service lacks clear policy for dealing with that.

The Air Force is already 3D-printing niche projects whose original suppliers no longer exist. The problem is with parts whose manufacturers are still around, but which no longer make the specific item in need.

Congress needs to look into altering and streamlining IP law.

U.S. DEPORTED HER HUSBAND BUT THIS WOMAN SAYS THE LAW COMES FIRST: Cindy Garcia may look somehow familiar because she was the gallery guest of Rep. Debbie Dingell (D-Mich) during the State of the Union address in January. Dingell hosted Garcia as part of the campaign to gain amnesty for illegal immigrants brought to America when they were children by their parents, as Garcia’s husband was 30 years ago.

But CNN host Brooke Baldwin was shocked Tuesday when she asked Cindy Garcia about President Donald Trump’s immigration policies. Perhaps Baldwin expected a tirade against Trump but what she got was anything but. LifeZette’s Brendan Kirby will tell you the rest right here.