SoylentNews

Exclusive: U.S. special forces helping Philippines troops to end city siege

U.S. special forces are helping the Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP) to end a siege of the southern town of Marawi by militants allied to Islamic State, a U.S. embassy spokesperson in Manila told Reuters.

From one "strong man" to another.

Around the 50th anniversary of the sinking of the USS Liberty, the Modesto Bee and the Port Huron Times Herald interviewed surviving crew members. The Intercept published two classified documents (NSFW for U.S. government employees):

The first document, a formerly unreleased NSA classification guide, details which elements of the incident the agency still regarded as secret as of 2006. The second lists a series of unauthorized signals intelligence disclosures that “have had a detrimental effect on our ability to produce intelligence against terrorist targets and other targets of national concern.” Remarkably, information relevant to the attack on the Liberty falls within this highly secret category.

Winston Churchill said in 1943: "We shape our buildings and afterwards our buildings shape us,".

Now neuroscientists and psychologists have found the connections. Specialized cells in the hippocampal region of our brains are attuned to the geometry and arrangement of the spaces we inhabit. But this is something architects seems to ignore at the peril of those forced to live in their creations.

Researchers has made use of wearable devices such as bracelets that monitor skin conductance which is a marker of physiological arousal. To gauge the impact of environments.

It has been found that if a façade is complex and interesting, it affects people in a positive way; negatively if it is simple and monotonous. Access to green space such as woodland or a park can offset some of the stress of city living. People feel better in rooms with curved edges and rounded contours than in sharp-edged rectangular rooms – though, tellingly perhaps is that design students preferred the opposite.

Objects and artefacts in public spaces nudges people physically closer together and makes it more likely they would talk to each other, a process called “triangulation”. An example is the Rockefeller Center in New York City there by placing benches alongside the yew trees in its basement concourse instead of the people-repelling spikes the management had originally wanted, transformed the way people behaved.

To make people feel connected to a place they need to know how things relate to each other spatially. In other words, there needs to be a sense of direction. This applies both outdoors and indoors.

One visible rebellion against prescribed routes of architects and planners are the paths across grassy curbs and parks marking people’s preferred paths across the city.

Adopt to human scale, making sidewalks, bike lanes, parks and public access water.

A number of studies have shown that growing up in a city doubles the chances of someone developing schizophrenia, and increases the risk for other mental disorders such as depression and chronic anxiety. The main trigger appears to be what researchers call “social stress” – the lack of social bonding and cohesion in neighborhoods.

These are probably examples of good architecture:
Jakriborg (New Urbanism)
Art Nouveau

And there is also bad..

Does anyone know of a good site to watch cricket?
Don't really mind having to register (but would prefer not to), but don't want a bogus/scam site or a pay site.

Any suggestions?

UK election 2017: Conservatives 'to fall short of majority'

The Conservatives are set to be the largest party in the UK parliament, but without an overall majority, says the latest BBC forecast. It shows gains for the Labour Party after Thursday's general election.

[...] Prime Minister Theresa May - who had a small majority in the previous parliament - called an early election to try to improve her negotiation positions on Brexit. But analysts say it now appears the PM made a serious miscalculation. The BBC's political editor Laura Kuenssberg says Mrs May's decision may prove to have been one of the biggest political mistakes of modern times.

"I assured Trump on multiple occassions that we weren't investigating him, but he fired me to stop me investigating him." - near quote.

FFS - you can't have it both ways, man. You did enjoy a nice credibility rating. Today, you blew yourself out of the water. Sure, the partisans on both sides are going to work this to death. But, credibility you do not have. A statement like that doesn't come from a lawman, it comes from someone trying to play politics.

The thing is, I have little idea what Comey's politics are. It has often been suggested that Comey might be under duress from the Clinton clan. Haven't made my own mind up on that. Some things suggest that might be true, but then, Comey released statements that undermined Clinton's campaign.

Maybe Comey is actually working for Russia?

This guy is a mess, that's for damned sure.

"I assured Trump on multiple occassions that we weren't investigating him, but he fired me to stop me investigating him."

YouTube’s most famous PC builder isn’t happy about Intel’s Core i9 (14:30 YouTube video)

AMD Ryzen Threadripper Entry Level 16 Core, 32 Thread Processor To Cost $849 US, X399 Motherboards Expect To Cost A Lot

One of AMD's 16-core Threadripper CPUs is rumored to cost $849 (there may be one or two more expensive 16-core models). Compare to twice that, $1699, for Intel's Core i9-7960X with 16 cores.

AMD's TDPs are a bit lower and they have more PCIe lanes.

Goodbye, Intel.

Thought that Apple iPod was groundbreaking or new? MPman beat them at mp3. But here's the 1974 version of "iPod": Retro-Tech: The 1972 Desktop 'iPod'

The mechanics, inventiveness, control without computer etc. Fascinating.

(year of manufacture can be seen at 9:11 on the motor)

London attack at London Bridge using vehicle-ramming and at Borough Market using stabbing. 7 dead, 20 injured. Started 3 June 2017 21:08 UTC.

Hillary was widely predicted to win but Trump is now President. Maybe the reason is because Clinton and Podesta are pro-Disclosure?

Hillary Clinton 'KNOWS aliens exist' and 'would have outed truth if she became President'

Bonus story: The Roswell UFO crash really happened, 'witness' claims

Ufologists do fake news justice.