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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.

The potential for scamming is reasonably high with any online market. I've liked Ebay for years now, because it usually enables me to beat competitors prices with a nice margin.

Recently, my OBD2 scanner has gone AWOL. The thing is pretty old, and pretty basic, it just gets the codes, and leaves you to figure out what they mean. So, it's AWOL. I asked my brainy son about a good replacement. Among his recommendations was the Autel MaxiLink ML629. It's not a super brainy device, but it does a little more than just read the codes. ABS brake alarms, airbag alarms, and transmission codes, as well as some kind of database to let you know what the codes mean.

I priced the thing as high as $160, Amazon had it for $129, and Ebay gave me about five hits for $109, with several other priced higher.

I didn't buy immediately. I just sat on the information for a few days. Went back to Ebay yesterday, and found that the particular sale that I "watched" had ended. So, do a search for the same item, and I'm faced with a wall of $114 sales.

Now, that price is obviously not "bad", but it seems suspicious that less than a week ago, there were five hits for $109, but now, the lowest "buy it now" price is $114.

Is Ebay running some kind of algorithm (like Amazon is purported to do) that establishes what I might be willing to pay, then gives me that price? It just seems odd, and oddities tend to catch my attention.

Possibly, they are trying to pressure me to buy now, rather than wait a few more days? "Oh, geez, it's gone up 5 dollar in four days, what will it be in five or ten more days?"

All of that, plus, I have an email in my inbox. "Your Ebay rock star report". WTF? Common dumbass television advertising tactics? Maybe that email is punishment for blocking advertising and trackers.

Is anyone else having weird and/or creepy experiences with Ebay? Are they beginning to go downhill?

An additional bit of weirdness:

In a different browser, using a different proxy, I did another search for the same item. There is a similar wall of offers for $114, but I'm also seeing others priced as high as $210, $199, $151, and $147. I'm definitely NOT seeing precisely the same results when using different browsers, or, more accurately, when I'm more anonymous.

I feel like I'm being gamed. Maybe not as badly as Amazon does, but the feeling is still there.

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.

This is a story. And I made it into a Sub. But I'm putting it in my journal too. Due to the very sad situation with OBSTRUCTIONIST Editors blocking my Subs. Enjoy!!!

"In an early morning tweet Tuesday, President Trump wrote: 'Getting ready to leave for Europe. First meeting - NATO. The U.S. is spending many times more than any other country in order to protect them. Not fair to the U.S. taxpayer. On top of that we lose $151 Billion on Trade with the European Union. Charge us big Tariffs (& Barriers)!'

And in another tweet President Trump wrote: 'NATO countries must pay MORE, the United States must pay LESS. Very Unfair!'

................

NATO was formed to defend against the Soviet Union and its Warsaw Pact allies. But the Soviet Union and the Warsaw Pact died in 1991 – and NATO’s original mission died then as well. Soviet tanks are no longer primed to head into Europe to conquer our NATO partners. NATO is now a world-class military alliance looking for a mission." foxnews.com/opinion/2018/07/10/trump-is-right-nato-is-obsolete-and-hes-delivering-that-message-loud-and-clear.html

"In a new assessment of the NATO spending and burden-sharing issues, the Center for Strategic and International Studies called Trump's language 'uniquely divisive' and said NATO members' contributions should be measured by more than simple budget numbers. The think tank was referring to the pledge at NATO's 2014 summit meeting that members would 'aim to move toward' spending at least 2 percent of gross domestic product on defense by 2024. By its count, only four of NATO's 29 member countries met the 2 percent goal in 2017. They were the U.S., Greece, Britain and Estonia." foxnews.com/us/2018/07/10/trumps-attacks-on-nato-raise-questions-about-its-future.html

Thank you, Estonia! We love Estonia. But unfortunately, very small Country. By the way here's the link to the Report. Graph 3 has the percentage of GDP. USA has the biggest percentage BY FAR. And the biggest GDP. So unfair! nato.int/nato_static_fl2014/assets/pdf/pdf_2018_07/20180709_180710-pr2018-91-en.pdf

Great story about Judge Brett, I made a tweet to it, no problem. 2nd tweet, big problems. Because the Website told me "404 File Not Found." I didn't say, find me the 404 File. I was trying to tweet. And it kept telling me that. Then my tweet went through -- but it went through twice! Making me look very foolish. And now I'm trying to write in my journal. And it looks so different, it looks very special. Like Arik's tweets.

ThorCon Molten Salt Reactor can be safer safe and scalable to 100 GW within a decade

Nvidia GTX 1180 to Use New High-Speed Connector: What You Need to Know

Quadrupling Wealth with a ten billion person Global City

Japan's Video Game Bars Are In Danger

Folks, it's my great honor to announce Bill Shine, formerly the Co-President of @FoxNews -- as my
White House Deputy Chief of Staff for Communications. Bill takes, very proudly, the job in which Sean Spicer, Mike Dubke, Anthony Scaramucci and Hope Hicks served me. He was outstanding as one of the top execs at Fox and he'll be amazing at the White House. Important job and we're giving him a VERY WARM welcome!!! foxnews.com/politics/2018/07/05/bill-shine-former-fox-news-executive-named-deputy-white-house-chief-staff.html

14m2s video: TWITCH VICTIMS

Polygon article: Streamer Amouranth is latest example of ‘Twitch thot’ harassment problem¹

In summary (since you may not be arsed to watch a 14 minute video), (some... many?) girl streamers wear skimpy clothing and cultivate a fanbase on Twitch and other streaming platforms. People, mostly young men (or boys with the parents' credit card), shell out lots of money² to get attention from these streamers, despite getting far less for their money than what a camgirl would show off. The streamers are often accused of violating Twitch's terms of service by "accidentally" shaking their ass, showing major cleavage, actual nudity, and other on-camera mishaps (you can look for compilations of these on YouTube if you want). However, Twitch tends to overlook these infractions (which are lucrative for Twitch since scantily-clad girl gamers drive traffic and Twitch gets a cut of the stream's ads or revenue), while punishing males more regularly for their bits of nudity and terms of service violations, sometimes including things that are done/said on entirely different platforms.

In this case, the streamer repeatedly lied on camera to portray herself as single, fueling the fevered dreams of her fans. She also revealed that she lived in Houston, TX (making doxxing her an easy task), and filmed inside of a gym (identifying it, since it was getting phone calls) and lied about it to the gym's employees and manager until she decided to leave. None of this is justification for being harassed or really so bad at all (lying to grift some horny kids and acting like an asshole in a private establishment aren't exactly crimes), but after being called out on her deception by fans and apparently harassed/"doxxed", she found a ready-made ally in the form of a lazy gaming media outlet.

^{1. Polygon appears to have made itself resistant to archive.is, but not archive.org.}

^{2. Apparently, lots more money than I expected. One of Amouranth's fans donated about $10-13k. Yikes.}

Why you should care: You don't have to, but it's another fascinating look at how millennials make a buck online these days.

Similar drama:

Pewdiepie vs. Twitch streamer Alinity

TanaCon (one big unmentioned detail is that the venue was intended to hold about a thousand, not the ~5,000 that tickets were sold to, so the event was doomed from the start and there are layers of lies involved)

Come to think of it, I keep on forgetting that Twitch is a subsidiary of Amazon now.

Big thanks to Scott Pruitt of my DEP, my Department of Environmental. Who's resigning to pursue other opportunities. Scott, you did terrific work. Canceling many regulations. So great for our industries. We're BRINGING BACK THE JOBS and you've done a lot to make that happen. Incredible guy!

And I'm bringing in another amazing guy. Andy Wheeler, very famous guy from our great coal industry. Andy's going to do great things and our coal miners are going to be very busy. Mining beautiful clean coal. And we're going to win many awards for environmental. Believe me. foxnews.com/politics/2018/07/05/scott-pruitt-resigns-as-epa-chief-trump-announces.html

Scarlett Johansson’s Casting as Transgender Man Draws a Backlash

Scarlett Johansson faced a storm of criticism this week after it was reported that she would play a transgender man in a movie, a year after she drew scrutiny for taking on a role that was originally Japanese.

The newly announced film, “Rub & Tug,” is based on the real-life story of Dante “Tex” Gill, who ran a string of massage parlors that were fronts for prostitution dens in the 1970s and ’80s.

The online backlash was led by transgender actors, who argued that such casting decisions take opportunities away from members of marginalized communities.

[...] The actress faced further anger online after the website Bustle published a statement from an unidentified representative for Ms. Johansson that said, “Tell them that they can be directed to Jeffrey Tambor, Jared Leto, and Felicity Huffman’s reps for comment.”

Scarlett Johansson faces firestorm amid news she will play a transgender man

Trans Actors Slam Scarlett Johansson Rub & Tug Casting

Scarlett Johansson's Defense of Her New Role as a Trans Man Is Only Fueling Critics

Scarlett Johansson