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Folks always think, "oh, Israel is a Jewish Country, it's the only Jewish Country." But, now it's official. Now it's the law. New law, they call it the Basic Law: Israel as the Nation State of the Jewish People. And it says Hebrew is the language. And Jerusalem is the capital. Officially! haaretz.com/israel-news/israel-passes-controversial-nation-state-bill-1.6291048

And you won't hear this from our Fake News Media. But I think I should get a lot of credit for this one. Because my predecessors said, "oh, Jerusalem is the capital." But they put our Embassy in Tel Aviv. And they left our Embassy in Tel Aviv. They said one thing. They did something else! Can we call that lying? I was the only guy that said, let's put our Embassy in the capital. We moved our Embassy -- for very little money. Very smart deal on that one. And maybe you're thinking, "that's not so great for the folks in Tel Aviv." Believe me, they're doing beautifully in Tel Aviv. Because we kept that one open, it's not our Embassy anymore. But it's a branch office.

President Putin also is helping Israel. And we both spoke with Bibi Netanyahu, and they would like to do certain things with respect to Syria, having to do with the safety of Israel.

So in that respect, we absolutely would like to work in order to help Israel. And Israel would be working with us. So both countries would work jointly.

And I think that when you look at all of the progress that’s been made in certain sections, with the eradication of ISIS, we’re about 98%, 99% there. And other things that have taken place that we’ve done, and that, frankly, Russia has helped us with in certain respects.

But I think that working with Israel is a great thing. And creating safety for Israel is something that both President Putin and I would like to see very much.

Including Americans...

The G7 foreign ministers today issued the following statement in advance of the anniversary of the downing of Malaysian Airlines Flight MH17:

We, the G7 foreign ministers, of Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, the United Kingdom, the United States of America, and the High Representative of the European Union, are united in our condemnation, in the strongest possible terms, of the downing of Malaysia Airlines Flight MH17, a civilian aircraft flying from Amsterdam to Kuala Lumpur on July 17, 2014.

MH17 was carrying 298 crew and passengers, nationals of Australia, Belgium, Canada, Germany, Indonesia, Ireland, Israel, Italy, Malaysia, the Netherlands, New Zealand, the Philippines, Romania, South Africa, Vietnam, the United Kingdom and the United States of America.

We fully support the work of the Joint Investigation Team (JIT), an independent criminal investigation led by the Netherlands, Australia, Belgium, Malaysia and Ukraine. The JIT’s findings on Russia’s role in the downing of MH17 are compelling, significant and deeply disturbing. The G7 recalls that UN Security Council Resolution 2166 demands that all states cooperate fully with efforts to establish accountability. We are united in our support of Australia and the Netherlands as they call on Russia to account for its role in this incident and to cooperate fully with the process to establish the truth and achieve justice for the victims of MH17 and their next of kin.
In a rules-based international order, those responsible for unacceptable actions, such as the firing or launching of the BUK missile of Russian origin, which intercepted and downed a civilian aircraft, must be held accountable. To this end, we call on Russia to immediately engage with Australia and the Netherlands in good faith to explain and to address all relevant questions regarding any potential breaches of international law.

We express once again our deepest condolences to the families of the victims of MH17. We stand together against the impunity of those who engage in aggressive actions that threaten the rules-based international order, anywhere, anytime, and under any circumstances.

Joint Statement From G7 Foreign Ministers on MH17

Ok Trump/Russia supporters, how do you rationalize this one?

Accused Russian agent Mariia Butina tried to trade sex for influence, say prosecutors - Previously, the FBI had said Butina was trying to establish relationships with a "gun rights organization," which NBC News has reported is the NRA.

The gunslinging Russian woman accused of cozying up to American officials to infiltrate the U.S. political system — at the behest of her Kremlin-linked mentor and with the help of her American boyfriend — allegedly tried to trade sex for influence.

The "Red Sparrow" scenario was unveiled Wednesday in a government memorandum that laid out the reasons why prosecutors believe Mariia Butina, 29, should remain jailed until trial.

During a detention hearing in federal court on Wednesday afternoon, Butina pleaded not guilty to being an unregistered foreign agent and was again ordered held without bail.

Well, other than probably winning an argument with The MiBu,* I tried to convince khallow that it might be possible to replace someone's decision making power with a deterministic software simulation without them ever noticing any loss of freedom.

I think such a simulation could work but it couldn't just be a simple neural network. It would need to simulate the senses and the chemical neurotransmitters that the brain uses to represent things like emotions.

I think there's a fair chance that the person might never notice the exchange, unless of course you told them! In that case I suspect they would get extremely upset. You might think the decision-making software wouldn't allow them to decide to get upset about it, but I think it would. It just needs to be able to model what would happen if the person were to be told about the existence of such an experiment.

What you couldn't do is build a software simulation that could predict a human's actions many steps in advance. That's because you'd have to simulate not just the human but their external world as well. And if they discovered the prediction software, it would have to simulate itself as well, which would lead to it never being able to halt.

I suspect there are similar problems with attempts to predict economic events with algorithms. Once people learn the algorithms they can deliberately do the opposite of whatever the algorithm says people will do.

^{*This is satire. Ain't Poe's law a bitch? Of course I won it! ;)**
**Ah dammit -- just read he's gone outta town. He'll never take the bait now!}

A turtle scientist’s crude behavior has sparked a #metoo moment in herpetology

Scientist Loses Distinguished Award After Acceptance Presentation Full of Racy Photos

Scientist Loses Award After Acceptance Lecture Featured Students in Bikinis

I like turtles

A criminal complaint was unsealed today in the District of Columbia charging a Russian national with conspiracy to act as an agent of the Russian Federation within the United States without prior notification to the Attorney General.

The announcement was made by Assistant Attorney General for National Security John C. Demers, U.S. Attorney for the District of Columbia Jessie K. Liu, and Nancy McNamara, Assistant Director in Charge of the FBI’s Washington Field Office.

Maria Butina, 29, a Russian citizen residing in Washington D.C., was arrested on July 15, 2018, in Washington, D.C., and made her initial appearance this afternoon before Magistrate Judge Deborah A. Robinson in the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia. She was ordered held pending a hearing set for July 18, 2018.

According to the affidavit in support of the complaint, from as early as 2015 and continuing through at least February 2017, Butina worked at the direction of a high-level official in the Russian government who was previously a member of the legislature of the Russian Federation and later became a top official at the Russian Central Bank. This Russian official was sanctioned by the U.S. Department of the Treasury, Office of Foreign Assets Control in April 2018.

The court filings detail the Russian official’s and Butina’s efforts for Butina to act as an agent of Russia inside the United States by developing relationships with U.S. persons and infiltrating organizations having influence in American politics, for the purpose of advancing the interests of the Russian Federation. The filings also describe certain actions taken by Butina to further this effort during multiple visits from Russia and, later, when she entered and resided in the United States on a student visa. The filings allege that she undertook her activities without officially disclosing the fact that she was acting as an agent of Russian government, as required by law.

Russian National Charged in Conspiracy to Act as an Agent of the Russian Federation Within the United States

Congratulations to France, who played extraordinary soccer, on winning the 2018 World Cup. Additionally, congratulations to President Putin and Russia for putting on a truly great World Cup Tournament -- one of the best ever! breitbart.com/sports/2018/07/15/party-begins-as-delirious-french-revel-in-world-cup-victory

Looking forward to meeting with President Putin in Helsinki tomorrow! Unfortunately, no matter how well I do at the Summit, if I was given the great city of Moscow -- always so much fun -- as retribution for all of the sins and evils committed by Russia over the years, I would return to criticism that it wasn’t good enough -- that I should have gotten Saint Petersburg in addition! Much of our news media is indeed the enemy of the people and all the Dems know how to do is RESIST & OBSTRUCT! This is why there is such HATRED & DISSENSION in our Country -- but at some point, I will heal it! 💉😷💉

Joint Press Conference from Helsinki, Finland: pscp.tv/w/bhy5sDFvTlFs…

New Grow Light Technology Being Tested in Canada

A new, broad-spectrum light that mimics sunlight more closely than others is being tested in Canada, the Edmonton Journal reports. The light is manufactured by Edmonton-based G2V Optics and was originally designed to test solar cells at the University of Alberta.

Michael Taschuk, the developer of the light, previously managed a team of researchers at the University of Alberta. The lights have been in use at Endless Sky Canna Corp in British Columbia, Canada.

Endless Sky’s CEO Travis George reports that the lights are twice as effective as other grow lights the company has used.

HOME / INSPIRING

NASA Is Training This 17-Year-Old Girl to Become One of the First Humans on Mars

Better than dying on the Space Shuttle, I suppose.

A guy i know makes socks geared towards bicyclers (geared! get it?). His business is Sneaky Socks.

He was telling us about making socks (more interesting than you'd think) and he says it's hard to produce socks like China at their price because they have ENTIRE CITIES based on making things for your body:
Sock city: an entire city based on the production (and support) of socks.
They also have entire cities doing sweaters, shirts, pants, etc.

Imagine trying to compete with that.

He also says that they use cheap wool and nylon and the fibers are run between ropes drenched with kerosene in order to keep the 'fuzzing' down: better socks are made with better fibers and this is not needed.

It was, really, more interesting than i thought.

Two quick searches led me to these:
https://www.nytimes.com/2004/12/24/business/worldbusiness/in-roaring-china-sweaters-are-west-of-socks-city.html/

https://www.theguardian.com/business/2012/sep/09/sock-city-decline-china-economy