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France drops fourth-gen nuclear project after investing hundreds of millions of euros


Reuters
Fri, 30 Aug 2019 17:09 UTC
france nuclear
© REUTERS/Regis Duvignau
Cooling towers are seen near the Golfech nuclear plant on the border of the Garonne River between Agen and Toulouse, France, August 29, 2019.
France's CEA nuclear agency has dropped plans to build a prototype sodium-cooled nuclear reactor, it said on Friday, after decades of research and hundreds of millions of euros in development costs.

Confirming a report in daily newspaper Le Monde, the state agency said it would finalize research in so-called "fourth generation" reactors in the ASTRID (Advanced Sodium Technological Reactor for Industrial Demonstration) project this year and is no longer planning to build a prototype in the short or medium term.

"In the current energy market situation, the perspective of industrial development of fourth-generation reactors is not planned before the second half of this century," the CEA said.

In November last year the CEA had already said it was considering reducing ASTRID's capacity to a 100-200 megawatt (MW) research model from the commercial-size 600 MW originally planned.

Le Monde quoted a CEA source as saying that the project is dead and that the agency is spending no more time or money on it.

Comment: As RT points out, "The only two industrial-grade reactors of the type - BN-600 and BN-800 - are operated by Russia at the Beloyarsk Nuclear Power Plant. A few other nations, however, including China and India, have operational experimental installations with fast-breeder reactors."

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Briefcase

California appeals court overturns illegal immigrant's gun conviction in Kate Steinle case


NBC News
Sat, 31 Aug 2019 17:00 UTC
kate steinle murder
© Michael Macor/San Francisco Chronicle/Associated Press/File
Jose Ines Garcia Zarate, right, is led into a courtroom by San Francisco Public Defender Jeff Adachi, left, and Assistant District Attorney Diana Garciaor, center, for his arraignment at the Hall of Justice in San Francisco on July 7, 2015.
A California appeals court on Friday reversed a conviction against a Mexican man in the country illegally who was acquitted in the 2015 murder of Kate Steinle in San Francisco.

Jose Ines Garcia Zarate, 46, did not get a fair trial when he was convicted of being a felon in possession of the gun used in the shooting, the Court of Appeal for the First Appellate District ruled Friday.

The San Francisco Superior Court judge who oversaw the murder case disallowed his argument that he never had legal possession of the deadly weapon.

"Because the error was prejudicial, we are compelled as a matter of law to reverse," the appeals court said in its ruling.
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Cow

Arnold Schwarzenegger, lying to himself, says he loves plant-based food 'more than meat'

Charlotte Pointing
The Washington Post
Thu, 29 Aug 2019 00:01 UTC
Arnold Schwarzenegger

Arnold Schwarzenegger doesn't eat meat anymore, he prefers plants.
Arnold Schwarzenegger -- who appears in the upcoming vegan documentary "The Game Changers" -- says he prefers plant-based foods to meat.

Arnold Schwarzenegger says he now loves plant-based foods more than meat.

The former bodybuilder and filmstar makes the claim in "The Game Changers" documentary, which is set to be screened in a global theatrical event in September.

"The Game Changers" posted an exclusive clip of Schwarzenegger on its Instagram account. Talking about his bodybuilding days, he says, "I ate a lot of meat — I ate my 10, 15 eggs a day. I had my 250 grams of protein in a day because I weighed 250 pounds."

Comment: Now that he's not a big movie star, or governing California, Arnold must need a way to pay the bills. And what better way than to cash in on the unstoppable vegan propaganda train! Get it while the gettin's good, Arnie, 'cuz this train's goin' off the rails!

See also:

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Laptop

Internet loses its mind over 'racist' Dior perfume ad featuring Johnny Depp & Native American dancer


RT
Sat, 31 Aug 2019 12:08 UTC
Johnny Depp
Dior has pulled posts promoting its 'Eau Sauvage' men's perfume after a new ad for the fragrance triggered the PC cyber police. The ad's unspeakable crime? Featuring a Native American grooving to Johnny Depp's guitar.

A clip of the promotion, called 'We are the Land', was posted on Dior's social media accounts on Friday. The teaser shows Depp, clad in a poncho, shredding on an electric guitar as a Native American, decked out in full ceremonial garb, performs a tribal dance.

In an apparent attempt to preempt internet outrage over alleged 'cultural appropriation', Dior noted that the spot was filmed with the help of Native American consultants. In a caption to a now-deleted Instagram post, the company wrote that the film was made in "close collaboration" with Americans for Indian Opportunity (AIO) "in order to respect Indigenous cultures, values and heritage."

However, what some would argue was the brand's attempt at preemptive damage control did little to help Dior escape the internet's wrath, spurred by accusations of cultural appropriation and outright racism.
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Eye 1

Court rules airline passengers can sue TSA agents for abusive searches


RT
Sat, 31 Aug 2019 12:01 UTC
TSA searches man
© Reuters / Carlos Allegri
A federal appeals court ruled travelers can sue Transportation Security Administration officers for "abusive conduct," stripping the controversial agency of the government immunity that has protected it thus far.

The 3rd US Circuit Court of Appeals in Philadelphia declared TSA screeners act as "investigative or law enforcement officers" when searching passengers, meaning they can be subject to civil claims for intentional wrongdoing under the Federal Tort Claims Act. The decision reverses a controversial 2018 ruling by a three-judge panel from the same court that effectively gave TSA officers immunity under the law.

The "intimate physical nature" of the screenings classifies them as a law enforcement act, the court ruled in a 9-4 decision on Friday, meaning the government's immunity from lawsuits does not apply in cases where TSA agents abuse their power.

"If you think you are a victim of intentional misconduct by TSA agents, you can now have your day in court," exulted lawyer Paul Thompson. His client, Nadine Pellegrino, sued the TSA over a 2006 incident in which she was imprisoned for 18 hours and charged with crimes including assault and making terroristic threats, after objecting to an especially invasive screening as she attempted to board a US Airways flight at Philadelphia International Airport.

Comment: See also: Shameful: TSA slammed for 'invasive groping' of triple-amputee US veteran

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Info

Straw men and viewpoint manicheanism

Rick Repetti
Quillette
Wed, 14 Aug 2019 00:01 UTC
scarecrow
© AdobeStock
The fallacy of special pleading — also known as the double standard — occurs when one offers a special excuse for one's own violation of a standard that one continues to apply to others. At a buffet, one person says to another, "Let's stock up before all the hoarders get here," as if preemptive hoarding is different from hoarding. This move resembles the fundamental attribution error, which occurs when one attributes the negative behaviors of others to fundamental features of their character, while attributing one's own negative behaviors to circumstantial factors.

When opposing parties adopt these attitudes toward one another's views, a vicious cycle results: Each "side" sees the other's behavior as evidence of evil, and their own behavior as justified on the ground that we good folks must defend ourselves against them. This suboptimal and highly contagious cognitive condition, which unfortunately characterizes much of our contemporary political landscape, is what I'll call "Viewpoint Manicheanism."

People on the collectivist Left often discount the evils historically associated with socialism, attributing them to totalitarianism or dictatorship, while attributing the evils historically associated with capitalism to its very nature, which they identify as the selfish profit motive. People on the libertarian Right, meanwhile, often dismiss the evils historically associated with capitalism, attributing them to corruption or government interference, while describing the historical evils associated with socialism as the inherent features of an evil ideology that tramples over individual rights.

Comment: Ideally, this is how all arguments, political or otherwise, would be engaged in. However, in the current landscape of reactionary hot takes and point scoring, this argument style is unlikely to get much traction. Twitter is limited to only 280 characters, after all.

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Bizarro Earth

UK military vet suspect in UAE erotic massage death, as Dubai sees rise in extortion incidents


Sputnik
Fri, 30 Aug 2019 19:25 UTC
dubai
© AP Photo / Kamran Jebreili
There have recently been a large number of incidents involving robberies and blackmail in Dubai massage parlours, in some cases resulting in tragedy.

A former British soldier David Reed, who is a married father-of-four, has been held in custody in Dubai for over a month now on suspicion of murder following an incident that led to the death of a prostitute, the Daily Mail reported.

Reed, who served as a combat medic with the army from 1991 to 2003 and currently works as a paramedic for the Group 4 security firm in Iraq, was arrested on 4 August when the woman he allegedly invited to his hotel room for a "massage" was stubbed to death.

Comment: See also:

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Mr. Potato

Cornell study: Jordan Peterson, Ben Shapiro 'infect' people with alt-right beliefs

Corinne Weaver
MRC NewBusters
Tue, 27 Aug 2019 16:33 UTC
jordan peterson dave rubin ben shapiro
A study from Cornell University claims YouTube channels that feature prominent conservative figures are "infecting" users with alt-right beliefs.

"Auditing Radicalization Pathways on YouTube," written by five academics, concluded that "channels in the Intellectual Dark Web (IDW) and the Alt-lite would be gateways to fringe far right ideology." The study, released August 22, linked The Daily Wire founder Ben Shapiro, Dr. Jordan Peterson, comedian and host Joe Rogan, and host Dave Rubin to fringe racist figures like Richard Spencer and Jared Taylor.

The study concluded that YouTube's "recommender system enables Alt-right channels to be discovered, even in a scenario without personalization." Four Brazilian researchers — Manoel Horta Ribeiro, Raphael Ottoni, Virgilio A. F. Almeida, and Wagner Meira — joined with Yonsei University Professor Robert West to analyze how many viewers from three different groups on YouTube have moved to watching alt-right content on the platform.

Comment: The study, as reported here, basically views individuals as complete, unthinking, authoritarian follower automatons, unable to reason and discern for themselves or think about the content they're watching, just sitting by ready to accept wholeheartedly any ideology that happens across their screens. This is how leftist academics think of human beings - more or less as a reflection of themselves.

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No Entry

Portland State U punishes professor for proving gender studies is a joke

Peter Wood and David Randall
The Federalist
Fri, 30 Aug 2019 00:01 UTC
portland state university
© Visitor7 / Flickr
Portland State University is punishing Peter Boghossian for demonstrating that grievance studies are nonsense. Dr. Boghossian, an assistant professor of philosophy at Portland State, joined two other academics to hoax the purveyors of gender studies and kindred fields committed to turning personal gripes into taxpayer-funded "studies."

Boghossian and his colleagues submitted articles including an analysis of "canine rape culture" and an extract from "Mein Kampf" translated into the language of feminist theory. These were accepted by what counts as "major" journals in these pseudo-disciplines. In 2018, Boghossian and his colleagues made public these hoaxes, which elegantly and hilariously made the point that these fields' "scholarship" cannot be distinguished from applesauce and horsefeathers.

Comment: See also:

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Star of David

'This place is only for Jews': The apartheid springs of the West Bank

Gideon Levy and Alex Levac
Haaretz
Fri, 30 Aug 2019 20:53 UTC
illegals settlers apartheid israel west bank springs
© Alex Levac
Soldiers at a West Bank spring. More than 60 such sites have been seized by settlers as part of a project of plunder there that began 10 years ago.
Settlers have taken over dozens of springs in the West Bank, all of them on private Palestinian land, and are keeping the owners away. Rina Shnerb, a Jewish teen, was murdered last week at one of them

What could be more idyllic than the sight of a natural bubbling spring amid craggy boulders, welling up from the hills, its crystalline waters flowing silently into a small pool where people are cavorting in delight? What could be more innocent than parents and children splashing about in a natural pond of greenish water, the gurgling of the water mingling with yelps of joy? And what could be more moving than the sign next to one of these springs of salvation: "Dear hikers, Welcome to Anar Springs, built thanks to an intensive effort by the youth of [the nearby settlement of] Niria. Lovers of this place, we have one small request: to dress in a way that respects all visitors, based on consideration for the needs of the Other. We built the site for your sake and for the sake of the people of Israel. Our goal is for everyone to hike and enjoy the springs together."

The heart swells at the words "lovers of this place," "consideration for the needs of the Other," "enjoy the springs together." Mankind is happy, nature is spectacular, but this spring, like all the others like it in the West Bank, was stolen from its owners. Robbed. Plundered. With a stomach-churning crudeness and violence. The "everyone" and the "consideration" - those words refer to Jews only.
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