SoylentNews

Microsoft to hold HoloLens 2 press event next month

Microsoft is holding a press event at Mobile World Congress next month, and it looks like we’ll get some details on HoloLens 2. The software giant will hold its event on Sunday February 24th at 5PM CET (11AM ET), and CEO Satya Nadella, Technical Fellow Alex Kipman, and CVP Julia White will all be in attendance. Kipman’s name indicates this will likely be a HoloLens 2 event, given his close involvement with this project.

[...] Microsoft has been working on its next-generation HoloLens headset for years. Codenamed Sydney, the headset is expected to include an improved field of view, and be a lot lighter and more comfortable to wear. HoloLens 2 will also include Microsoft’s latest generation of the Kinect sensor and a custom AI chip to improve performance. Microsoft is also rumored to be using Qualcomm’s Snapdragon 850 processor inside the HoloLens 2, making it an ARM-powered device.

President Trump Directed His Attorney Michael Cohen To Lie To Congress About The Moscow Tower Project

President Donald Trump directed his longtime attorney Michael Cohen to lie to Congress about negotiations to build a Trump Tower in Moscow, according to two federal law enforcement officials involved in an investigation of the matter.

Trump also supported a plan, set up by Cohen, to visit Russia during the presidential campaign, in order to personally meet President Vladimir Putin and jump-start the tower negotiations. “Make it happen,” the sources said Trump told Cohen.

The special counsel’s office learned about Trump’s directive for Cohen to lie to Congress through interviews with multiple witnesses from the Trump Organization and internal company emails, text messages, and a cache of other documents. Cohen then acknowledged those instructions during his interviews with that office.

If that's all true, then:

Presidential historian: First impeachment article against Nixon was ‘obstruction by directing others to lie’

Presidential historian Jon Meacham on Friday resurfaced the first article of impeachment brought against former President Nixon in a discussion following a bombshell report that President Trump directed his former longtime lawyer Michael Cohen to lie to Congress.

“The first article of impeachment against Nixon was just this: obstruction by directing others to lie,” Meacham tweeted early Friday morning. “This is not hysteria or hyperventilating. It’s history.”

She set her phone to block all texts. That was unexpected.

I hope that's because of someone else, not because of me. But really I don't know.

Even so, she's a drop dead knockout working in a highly-visible oldest profession. I expect they get stalkers all the time.

Sometimes, they turn up dead: it's wasn't just Jack The Ripper preyed on them.

Kill Me.

In other news, really, really early this morning I finally got it together to shop at the better grocery store. While some of WinCo Foods' prices are cheaper than Grocery Outlet's not all are, however WinCo has a Jesus Big selection.

The God Emperor announced that February's Food Stamps will be coming out on January 20th, so I'm going to stockpile some non-perishables. Also I'm going to make a Metric Buttload of Guacamole then freeze it, this because Avocado is rich in Vitamin B6.

Just now I read that Opioid abuse can lead to Vitamin B12 deficiency as it degrades the lining of the stomach, which is responsible for the secretion of Intrinsic Factor that's part of the process that enables the small intestine to absorb B12.

So I have yet _another_ reason to obsess about B12. My brother-in-law bought me some 1000 ug Methylcobalamine tables - the US RDA for _normal_ people is just 2.4, but a helpful Soylentil who if I remember correctly actually _has_ B12 Deficiency - or maybe it was Pernicious Anemia - pointed out that _some_ such patients can get by with tablets and so don't need injections.

My Neurologist now thinks it's unlikely I really do have B12 Deficiency; she based that on my first test for low B12, a Methylmalonic Acid Blood Level was normal. While I'm somewhat skeptical and so request at least one of the other half-dozen or so tests, another physician pointed out to me that if I really was low in B12, the symptoms would not come and go as they do for me, rather they would persist until I was getting the injections.

It's quite likely that _most_ of my symptoms can be explained as being due to Temporal Lobe Epilepsy, but in my understanding _not_ the numbness in the soles of my feet, the palms of my hands and in both my lips.

I eagerly await the result of the Electroencephalograph Test I had just after Christmas. While I fully intended to be well-rested for it, I of course stayed up all night doing Hookers And Blow and so fell asleep during the test.

But the EEG tech actually said that my falling asleep was quite helpful.

Pence declares 'ISIS has been defeated' on the same day as deadly Syria attack

On the same day that an ISIS-claimed attack killed US service members in Syria, Vice President Mike Pence declared that "the caliphate has crumbled and ISIS has been defeated."

Pence's remark to the Global Chiefs of Mission conference at the US State Department came about an hour after the US-led coalition confirmed that American troops had been killed in an explosion in Manbij.

"U.S. service members were killed during an explosion while conducting a routine patrol in Syria today. We are still gathering information and will share additional details at a later time," the tweet from Operation Inherent Resolve said.

ISIS claimed responsibility for the attack, which the ISIS-affiliated Amaq agency said was carried out by a suicide bomber with an explosive vest.

Pence Declares ISIS ‘Defeated’ Hours after Group Brags of Killing U.S. Troops

Mission Accomplished.

As Coast Guard paychecks went undelivered Tuesday as the result of an ongoing partial government shutdown, the service's top officer urged its members to stay the course.

In a public letter published Tuesday afternoon on his social media pages, Adm. Karl Schultz said the day's missed paycheck, to his knowledge, marked the first time in the history of the nation "that service members in a U.S. Armed Force have not been paid during a lapse in government appropriations."

The Coast Guard, the only military service to fall under the Department of Homeland Security, is also the only service with payroll affected by the shutdown, which began Dec. 22. The Coast Guard was able to issue final paychecks for the year, but will be unable to distribute further pay until a budget deal is reached or another appropriation agreement is made.

In all, some 55,000 Coast Guard active-duty, reserve and civilian members are going without pay; the number includes 42,000 active-duty service members.

Coast Guard civilians have been on furlough or working without pay since the shutdown began.

For the First Time in History, a US Military Service Is Working Without Pay

I had three dollars, enough to Get There And Back Again with four bits left over.

I was getting fixated on sex. This isn't - not for me at least - quite the same as getting horny, rather it's an inability to think about anything else.

However it was early evening. I do the best at getting tipped from late morning to mid-afternoon, but since yesterday every fucking Portland street corner has been occupied by canvassers who were raising money for a campaign whose objective is to legalize shrooms for treatment of depression, a cause I heartily support. Whenever I spoke with such a canvasser, I promised I'd shell out a generous portion of my tips, but my take is down lately.

It worked really well to print a US Letter-sized poster that read "Please Buy Me And My Lady Tickets To Spiderman And Some Popcorn $20.00" I actually raised $25 in just two twenty minute sets; two different people each gave me ten spots.

But since then I've used a sign that reads "Please Buy Me Five Hundred Business Cards $9.95 At Vistaprint" with the result that my gross revenues dropped right down into The Seventh Circle Of Hell".

Now that everybody - incorrectly - believes I've already seen Spiderman - she wasn't feeling well that night, so "Sarah" - not her real name - and I instead blew it on Caffein, seeing how she's so comfortable with being a drug addict.

So instead I'll ask for $22.00, seeing as how Portland's Living Room Theater, this because that particular theater's tickets cost eleven clams a head.

No one will believe - correctly - that I've already seen it. And I recommend it _highly_ to the lot of you. But I must advise you that if you've ever been with an addict, that movie is going to be hard to take - I burst into tears toward the end.

So now I've only got the four bits and no train fair.

The happy news is that I got blown by two different gents. They both requested I reciprocate at the same time, the first that's happened. Having only one oral pleasuring unit, I instead gave them both handjobs.

Do.
Yer.
Worst.

Think I got a taste of why people disdain Reddit.

Yesterday, a moderator for r/programminglanguages took offense to my message and banned me from that particular subreddit. Claimed that a private message I sent was insulting to the entire community, I had a bad attitude, blah, blah. No warning, no 3 strikes, no consensus with other moderators or anyone else, just that moderator's sole judgment, and apparently it's a permanent ban, not timed. Reddit's new interface does a poor job of informing banned users that they are banned. To check, have to try to post and see if it is rejected.

It occurred to me that I could simply make another account. But Reddit threatens extreme reprisal for doing that, as in, they will delete all your accounts if they detect that you are working around a ban in that fashion.

I have never been more than a very occasional user of Reddit. I don't know the ropes there too well. From what I read, bans happen all the time, and it is a bit random. Eh, Reddit is too harsh and absolute. Lousy system. One mistake and ZAP! Account gone. (Say it like "Caribou gone.") I suspect the harshness is one factor that results in all around lower quality discussions, and I have heard complaints along those lines about Reddit. Much, much rather hang out here on SoylentNews than chance the whims of such all powerful, capricious individuals.

Gunman who killed officer left a note accusing police of hitting him with 'sonic waves'

The gunman who killed an officer in Northern California left behind a letter accusing the Davis police department of hitting him with "ultra sonic waves."

A man on a bicycle shot Davis police Officer Natalie Corona, 22, Thursday night as she responded to a triple-car crash in the city of Davis. He was later found dead with a self-inflicted gunshot wound.

[...] Limbaugh left behind a letter, according to Davis police spokesman Lt. Paul Doroshov, who read the letter on camera to CNN affiliate KMAX.

"The Davis police department has been hitting me with ultra sonic waves meant to keep dogs from barking. I notified the press, internal affairs, and even the FBI about it. I am highly sensitive to its affect [sic] on my inner ear," the letter reads. "I did my best to appease them, but they have continued for years and I can't live this way anymore."

The letter is signed "Citizen Kevin Limbaugh."

My Medicaid got cancelled as I was too sick to prepare the Profit And Loss Statement the Washington State Health Authority wanted from me so as to prove my income eligibility.

To run out of my Happy Pills won't make me crazy for a while, but skip just one dose of either of two of them will make me quite physically ill.

The ER won't give me many doses but it will give me _some_.

I'll take the bus, as I'm not so sick - not yet anyway - that I need at ambulance.

Lawyers for Trump’s disgraced former campaign chairman, who was convicted of tax and bank fraud last year, submitted a filing in Washington, D.C., federal court responding to Special Counsel Robert Mueller’s assertion that Manafort had lied to Mueller’s office and so violated his plea agreement. Manafort’s lawyers pushed back on that claim by saying that he had extensively cooperated with Mueller, meeting with the government lawyers and investigators a dozen times and twice testifying before a grand jury.

But Manafort’s team screwed up.

They tried to redact four different passages in their filing, but failed to do so properly, leaving the redacted text in plain sight. For instance, Manafort’s lawyers responded to Mueller’s allegation that Manafort lied to the government about his interactions with a man named Konstantin Kilimnik, who was Manafort’s right-hand man during his time as a powerful political consultant in Ukraine. What’s more noteworthy is that Kilimnik has alleged connections to Russian intelligence.

What the redacted text says is that Manafort allegedly misled Mueller about meeting with Kilimnik during the 2016 presidential campaign and discussing a “Ukraine peace plan” with Kilimnik “on more than one occasion.” Another improperly redacted section revealed that Mueller has alleged that Manafort “lied about sharing polling data with Mr. Kilimnik related to the 2016 presidential campaign.”

Paul Manafort’s Lawyers Appear to Accidentally Blow the Door Open on Collusion

Oops! Not a mistake I would expect out of "the best people!"

Fox News' Shep Smith and Andrew Napolitano now see proof of 'collusion' between Trump's team and Russia

"This shows that Bob Mueller can demonstrate to a court, without the testimony of Paul Manafort, that the campaign had a connection to Russian intelligence and the connection involved information going from the campaign to the Russians," Napolitano said. "The question is, was this in return for a promise of something from the Russians, and did the candidate, now the president, know about it?” That would be "a conspiracy," he added, regardless of whether the Trump campaign actually got anything of value from the Russians.