U.S. Intelligence Officials Tell Senate They Will Not Repeat What Was Said in Conversations With Trump

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At a Senate intelligence hearing for an unrelated matter this week, senators ended up asking NSA and other intelligence brass about the president and the Russia investigation.

The officials told senators they would not discuss the specifics of conversations with the president.

They said they thought it was confidential information that should be protected from public hearing. They also said they were waiting for more guidance from the White House.

There was some talk about senators now being concerned about their ability to look into these matters and get answers from U.S. intelligence, and whether power has now shifted to the executive.

Comey Testifies About Trump Meetings

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Fired FBI Director James Comey has delivered a prepared statement to Congress this week.

The statement described the six meetings Comey had with the president, some of which are considered quite unusual by analysts.

During one meeting with Trump, Comey testified, he shared with the president sensitive information of a salacious nature that had been gathered as part of the FBI’s Russia investigation. At another meeting Trump asked everyone to leave except Comey and then spoke about “letting Flynn go.”

Trump several times referred to “a cloud” being over the White House because of the Russia investigation, according to Comey, who also related that Trump told him “had not been involved with hookers in Russia,” among other references.

Trump’s attorney issued a statement that he felt vindicated because Comey had said Trump himself was not under investigation.

A Straw Detects Date-Rape Drugs, Turns Color

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It was invented by some teenagers for a high school business plan competition in Miami.

GHB and Ketamine are common date rape drugs (as well as being used voluntarily for recreation). They don’t have a smell or taste, so victims can’t know when they’ve been slipped into their drinks.

The straw invented has a strip that turns blue when it comes in contact with GHB and Ketamine. The three girls behind the idea are seeking a patent for their design.

Grads Graduating Without Learning Any Critical Thinking Skills

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On the test that measures critical thinking, some colleges actually had scores lower for grads than for freshmen, although other schools showed pretty good improvements.

‘Critical thinking’ refers to certain skills: Being able to understand the value of an argument based on the validity of facts involved, forming a conclusion about veracity based on available information, as well as being able to form cohesive arguments, are included.

The tests, called CLA+, started less than 20 years ago. Their purpose was to assess what really took place in a student’s learning over their 4-6 years at college, rather than testing the domain-specific facts and other information memorized in classes.

An example of a test question would be a challenge to a student to form an argument for or against purchasing a particular model of business plane for the company they work for, when that model had recently been reported in the news after being in a crash. The student is provided with written material about the plane to inform their argument, such as newspaper articles about the accident, federal reports on the type of engine and its known issues, charts on the planes performance, magazines with reviews of the plane and other similar models. The student has to “prepare a memo that addresses several questions, including what data support or refute the claim that the type of wing on the model of plane leads to more in-flight breakups, what other factors might have contributed to the accident and should be taken into account, and your overall recommendation about whether or not the company should purchase the plane.”

With these tests, it’s not a matter of just looking at the numbers, like 1,100 out of 1,600 versus 1,200 out of 1,600. People also look at a student’s position compared to others who took the same test.

When Wall Street Journal looked at test results recently. though, they looked at how many students were in the “below basic skills” level. While some colleges saw improvements, — numbers like 40% for freshmen to less than 10% for grads — a lot of others only saw changes of a few percent, including a couple of schools where the grad score was lower than the freshman.

What does the CLA+ test?

Qatar Cut Off by Neighbors

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Saudi Arabia and other neighbors of Qatar have accused Qatar of supporting terrorism and embracing Iran, and have cut it off.

Diplomatic communications and air transport was halted. Embassies, borders, air space, and maritime access (40% of Qatar’s food supplies come from Saudi Arabia by boat) were shut off.

It is considered a dramatic escalation to a longer-term issue in the region.

Qatar says they are not sponsoring terrorism, but the nation does regularly (and currently) host prominent extremists.

Analysts have called it “almost an Arab region Cold War.’

Kuwait is seen as trying to mediate a solution to the crisis, and if they do, citizens of Qatar might not be expelled from their neighboring countries.

Chinese Brand Enters Top 10 Most Valuable, Along With 9 American Brands

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Who is Tencent? It’s the largely unknown (maybe because it’s pretty media shy) parent company of China’s ubiquitous WeChat social media app.

Their market cap is $330b, more than JPMorgan Chase.

500m people in China (of 650m total) use WeChat for communicating, finding goods and services, getting directions, and paying for things.

Who else is on the top 10 list?

Google is still #1, for the last 11 years. It’s market cap is around 600b.

After that, there’s Apple, Microsoft, Amazon, Facebook, AT&T, Visa, Tencent at #8, IBM, and McDonald’s.

VHS Era Ends

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I mean really ends.

Archivists and preservationists are feeling pressed for time as the VHS magnetic tape deadline approaches. Some are calling it the “magnetic media crisis.”

15-20 years is all VHS tapes are really expected to be good for. Like all magnets, the strength fades over time, and once enough of the magnetic field fades from a tape, you can’t recover the video. Another thing with tapes which isn’t usually an issue in the modern digital era is that there is often only one copy of each video.

So a lot of people who want to preserve their video memories made during the 80s and 90s are bringing business to companies that transfer their VHS tapes onto digital formats, which have a much longer shelf-life, and can be saved easily in multiple places and shared.

Walgreens Pharmacist Refused to Fill Prescription for Birth Control (Again)

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A Walgreens in New Mexico is being criticized after one of its pharmacists refused to fill a prescription for birth control (Misoprostol), according to the frustrated mother.

The ACLU is now in on the action. They’re filing a complaint against Walgreens: “A mother and her daughter who were discriminated against when they attempted to pick up a prescription related to the daughter’s birth control at a Walgreens pharmacy here in Albuquerque,” said Erin Armstrong, an ACLU Reproductive Rights Attorney.

It’s not the only case of this happening, either. Other complaints have been lodged.

Walgreens’ responded by saying they allow their pharmacists to step away from the counter rather than doing something against their moral beliefs, and that another pharmacist or employee will step in to fill the perscription.

Walgreens’ statement on the matter:

“Our policy is to allow pharmacists and other employees to step away from completing a transaction to which they may have a moral objection, and requires the pharmacist or other employee to refer the transaction to another employee or manager on duty to complete the customer’s request.

“The policy’s objective is to ensure that in these rare instances, patients – both male and female – are offered reasonable alternatives to access legally prescribed medications.

“We have expressed our desire to work closely with the ACLU of New Mexico to address its concerns, and also as we review our policies and evaluate other services to help meet the needs of patients and customers.

“Additionally, we have taken the opportunity to retrain all of our pharmacists and store leadership in New Mexico on policies and procedures relating to conscientious objection, to ensure that we’re providing the highest level of patient care and service.

Dronefence Gets Funding

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Drones in commercial, industrial, government, public, and private spaces — everywhere — pose various threats. And they can be just a plain nuisance as well.

One company working on this problem is Dronefence. They have a patent-pending tech that basically uses 2 cameras in stereo and a sensor, as well as some software, to identify drones in the air, check if their registration passes muster, and sound an alarm if it doesn’t. The system also records video footage of the drone.

Currently, Dronefence is just working on the identification. How to deal with intruding drones is another thing. But they’ve now acquired seed funding for their project from VP Capital, Larnabel Ventures, Boundary Holding, and the Technology and Business Consulting Group.

World’s First Hybrid Aeroboat

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It’s capable of travelling over water, snow, sand and land, it can carry 10 people, and it has no problem with steep slopes and embankments … and it’s about to be unveiled at the Skolkovo Foundation’s Startup Village in Russia this week. … By the way, its very different from hovercraft, and it goes way faster (keep reading).

Who will end up buying these boats? Government agencies (for emergencies and surveillance), corporations (for transporting passengers and cargo to infrastructure sites such as oil and gas rigs in shallow waters), and individuals (for transport and recreation).

“They can be used for a whole variety of applications, including search and rescue operations, transportation of people and cargo, leisure, sports, fishing, monitoring of ports and surveillance,” according to the designers.

The Aeroboat was made as a joint Russia-India project, and was designed by IIAAT Holding. The St. Petersburg firm designed the Aeroboat in order to do what is currently impossible: Shallow water, dry patches, and marine plant-life in marshy or flooded areas pose a problem for traditional boats and other vehicles, and nevermind that terrain sometimes changes drawstically with the seasons.

So how is it different from hovercraft?

Besides being more robust, cheaper to maintain and fuel, the company explained, “Hovercrafts work on static air-cushion, whereas Aeroboats work on dynamic air-cushion. This feature gives Aeroboats a huge advantage in terms of speed and maneuverability.

“While hovercrafts on average move at around 45-50 kmh, Aeroboats are capable of going at around 150 kmh and even more on water, These speed levels are critical, especially during search and rescue operations, where sometimes every minute of swiftness can result in saving lives, as well as frequency in transportation of both passengers and cargo.”

Other interesting things about the Aeroboat: IIAAT developed nanomaterial-based anti-friction technology for the engine and selected mechanical parts, which greatly reduces friction and energy losses. The Aeroboat comes with either a standard gas or a hybrid gas-electric engine for increased efficiency and reduced pollution.

“Additionally, we are equipping our Aeroboats with [Internet of Things] technology, which allows us to remotely monitor and control/diagnose the equipment, as well as troubleshoot selected faults,” commented Sukrit Sharan, a senior board member of IIAAT. IIAAT is working with InfoWatch Group (Russian cybersecurity) in order to ensure its IoT tech stays secure.

India has already bought 25 units, and 5 have been delivered, and its expected the Aeroboats will be used in India’s vast regions of rivers and canals, which are sometimes dry land, sometimes monsoon flood. A similar but different use is predicted for Russia, where there is also government interest, because parts of the country with rivers and canals that are sometimes frozen, and so boats can’t transport year-round.

And guess what? They’re already working on a new version: an electric-only one Aeroboat with tandem wings.

Jumbo-Diamond Detecting System Attracts Attention From Mining Company

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Developed by the Russian company Diamant, the tech uses the tagged neutron method to find large diamonds inside kimberlite ores.

The unique advantage of the TNM method is to provide an image of the hidden object in three-dimensions, without having to crack open a bunch of rock.

Alrosa has come out as one of Diamant’s first customers. Currently, Alrosa crushes kimberlite to find diamonds, but this can end up damaging the precious stones, as well as being more expensive than Diamant’s dry method.

Teresa May Says Internet Must Now Be Regulated, Following Violent Muslim Attacks

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The British PM called the internet a safe space for ideas to breed, and, she said, we cannot allow that:

“We cannot allow this ideology the safe space it needs to breed – yet that is precisely what the internet, and the big companies that provide internet-based services provide.”

Therefore, and in the wake of the recent violent Muslim attacks in the UK, democratic governments should work together to “reduce the risks of extremism” by making new international agreements to regulate the internet, May said.

However, during the same speech, she noted that the three recent attacks were not linked by “common networks” but were “bound together by the single evil ideology of Islamic extremism.”