Mainstream News

Foodies Fight to Save Detroit With Job Hopes Pinned on Arugula

"For Greg Willerer, Detroit’s new urban frontier is a lot like the Wild West: 'For all intents and purposes, there is no government here,' said Willerer, 43, checking the greens and other crops he is growing on an acre off Rosa Parks Boulevard, across from an abandoned house with broken windows. 'If something were to happen we have to handle that ourselves.' In New York, the city has invested $600,000 in expanding Brooklyn Grange, a rooftop farming business that’s planning to open a business incubator. Seattle is breaking ground on a 'food forest,' planting seven acres of fresh produce open to the public." Continue reading →

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Attorney for Whistleblower: 400 U.S. Missiles Stolen in Benghazi

"On August 12, Joe DiGenova, attorney for one of the Benghazi whistleblowers, told Washington D.C.'s WMAL that one of the reasons people have remained tight-lipped about Benghazi is because 400 U.S. missiles were 'diverted to Libya' and ended up being stolen and falling into 'the hands of some very ugly people.' DiGenova represents Benghazi whistleblower Mark Thompson. He told WMAL that he 'does not know whether [the missiles] were at the annex, but it is clear the annex was somehow involved in the distribution of those missiles.'" Continue reading →

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White House insists NSA surveillance review will be independent

"The White House has moved to dampen controversy over the role of the director of national intelligence James Clapper in a panel reviewing NSA surveillance, insisting that he would neither lead it nor choose the members. Statements by Barack Obama and Clapper were widely interpreted as the director of national intelligence being placed in charge of the inquiry, which the president had announced on Friday would be 'independent'. The apparent involvement of Clapper, who has admitted lying to Congress over NSA surveillance of US citizens, provoked a backlash, with critics accusing the president of putting a fox in charge of the hen house." Continue reading →

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The Bitcoin crackdown

"Bitcoin is a virtual currency getting a lot of attention by the real world. Coinsetter is a company dedicated to making Bitcoin safe to use. Jaron Lukasiewicz, Coinsetter CEO, shares what the industry has to say. And Benjamin Lawsky, superintendent of NY Department of Financial Services, shares the regulators' side of the story." Continue reading →

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Hawaiian cannabis minister allowed to use religious defense

"The 64-year-old Christie has been in the Honolulu Federal Detention Center since he and 13 other Big Island residents, including Share Christie, were arrested by federal agents on July 8, 2010. All were charged with conspiracy to manufacture, distribute and possess with intent to distribute 284 marijuana plants, which carries a mandatory minimum prison term of five years and a maximum of 40 years if they’re convicted. The others were granted bail, but U.S. Magistrate Kevin Chang ordered Christie held without bail, calling him 'a danger to the community.'" Continue reading →

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New IRIS telescope sends stunning images of sun to befuddled scientists

"A new solar observatory is revealing remarkably fine details about a little-explored region of the sun's atmosphere, where temperatures leap from tens of thousands of degrees Fahrenheit at the sun's surface to to millions of degrees in its extended atmosphere. Dubbed the interface region by the observatory's science team, this first 2,000 to 3,000 miles of the sun's atmosphere is thought to play a key role in a range of processes, including those that power solar flares and even more potent coronal-mass ejections. These events can endanger satellites, disrupt radio communication and GPS navigation, as well as disrupt the power grid on Earth." Continue reading →

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‘Mini Lisa’: Georgia Tech researchers create world’s tiniest da Vinci reproduction

"Using a tiny heated probe, a team of scientists have 'painted' a grayscale replica of the Mona Lisa that is more than 25,000 times smaller than the original. The 'Mini Lisa,' as it is known, is just 30 millionths of a meter wide. That's roughly 0.001 inches, or one third of the width of a human hair. The team created it using a powerful microscope and a process known as ThermoChemical NanoLithography, or TCNL. Each 'pixel' was 125 billionths of a meter wide – smaller than the smallest known bacteria – and Carroll and the rest of the research team went pixel-by-pixel to create the reproduction." Continue reading →

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The mysterious company that just bought Newsweek

"Uzac, the CEO, turns 30 on August 7. He grew up in France and South Africa, carries a French passport, and studied geography and economics at the London School of Economics. His partner and IBT's chief content officer is Johnathan Davis, a 31-year-old American who studied computer engineering at UCLA and did time in Silicon Valley.Together they launched what became IBT Media in 2006, with personal savings, a SBA bank loan, and no input, financial or advisory, from VCs. They say they've been profitable since 2010. Headquarters are in New York, with offices in Bangalore, Shanghai, and Sidney. Total editorial employees: about 150." Continue reading →

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Bezos Paid a ‘Friendship Premium’ for the Washington Post

"The founder of Amazon.com Inc. (AMZN) plunked down $250 million for the Post newspaper division, about 17 times adjusted profit, according to data compiled by Bloomberg. That multiple implies a valuation for the New York Times of about $4 billion -- more than double its current market value. The value of newspapers has been cratering since Rupert Murdoch paid $5.2 billion for Wall Street Journal parent Dow Jones & Co. six years ago. The New York Times, the last major U.S. family-owned newspaper, has seen its market value fall 50 percent to $1.8 billion as print advertising dropped and readers migrated to the Internet for news." Continue reading →

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Why is Gibraltar a British territory?

"Gibraltar, a 2.6 square mile (6.7 square kilometre) peninsula that is home to about 30,000 people, is a British territory to which Spain has long laid claim. This week the old argument resurfaced as Spanish officials toughened border inspections, slowing traffic to a crawl, and Spain’s foreign minister threatened a €50 ($67) charge on crossings, to the alarm of locals on both sides of the border. The measures were apparently in response to the Gibraltar government’s decision to sink spiked concrete blocks into the sea to fend off Spanish fishermen, whom it accuses of poaching Gibraltarian fish." Continue reading →

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