SoylentNews

Moscow Police Arrest More Than 500 at Election Protest

The police in Moscow arrested more than 500 people who had gathered outside City Hall on Saturday to protest what they call unfair elections and demand that opposition candidates be allowed to run for city government.

In anticipation of the unauthorized demonstration, the authorities on Wednesday arrested Aleksei A. Navalny, a foe of President Vladimir V. Putin and a major opposition leader, and sentenced him to 30 days in jail. Other prominent opposition politicians — including Ilya Yashin, Dmitry G. Gudkov and Ivan Zhdanov — have also been detained. A post on the Facebook page of Mr. Yashin, a street activist, said 10 masked police officers had removed him from his apartment in Moscow overnight before the Saturday demonstration.

The Moscow City Council has 45 seats and is responsible for a very large municipal budget. It is controlled by the pro-Kremlin United Russia party. All of its seats, which have a five-year-term, are up for election on Sept. 8. To compete in the elections, candidates not endorsed by a political party must collect about 5,000 signatures, depending on the size of their district. Election officials have so far registered nearly 200 candidates, all of whom are largely supportive of Mr. Putin.

Russia protests: Police arrest hundreds at Moscow rally

Hong Kong protests: Police fire tear gas at Yuen Long rally

Hong Kong police have fired tear gas at an unauthorised protest involving tens of thousands of people.

Demonstrators had been marching through the northern district of Yuen Long, condemning an assault on pro-democracy protesters by armed masked men that took place there last week.

Police have been accused of turning a blind eye and colluding with the attackers, claims they deny.

Forced penetration: If a woman forces a man to have sex, is that rape?

When a man has penetrative sex with a woman without her consent, that's rape. But what if a woman makes a man have penetrative sex with her, without his consent? That's not rape under the law of England and Wales, but the author of a new study of the phenomenon says perhaps it should be.

[...] Aspects of John's story are repeated in the experiences of some of the other men Dr Weare has interviewed. One of her findings is that the perpetrator in "forced-to-penetrate" (FTP) cases is often a female partner or ex-partner (her research focuses only on forced penetration involving men and women), and that the experience is frequently one element in a wider pattern of domestic abuse.

[...] One myth Weare's research dispels is that forced penetration is impossible because men are physically stronger than women. Another is that men view all sexual opportunities with women as positive.

A third myth is that if men have an erection they must want sex. In fact, Weare says, "an erection is purely a physiological response to stimulus".

"Men can obtain and sustain an erection even if they're scared, angry, terrified etc," she says. "There's also research that shows women can respond sexually when they are raped (e.g. have an orgasm) because their body is responding physiologically. This is an issue for both male and female victims that is not discussed enough, but there is clear evidence in this area."

A number of the participants in Weare's 2017 study reported FTP experiences after getting extremely drunk or high, and being unable to stop what was happening. One of those interviewed for the new study describes going home with a woman after a night out clubbing, and blacking out after being given what he suspects was a date rape drug. He says he was then forced to engage in non-consensual sex.

FTP is not rape, but all PIV is rape (of a female).

Telegramgate

Puerto Ricans in Protests Say They’ve Had Enough

Puerto Rico Governor Misread Anger Brewing Against Him

Who Is Wanda Vázquez, Who Is in Line to Become Puerto Rico’s Next Governor?

Watching the Everyday Astronaut stream.

Would be a nice palate cleanser after the scrubbed CRS-18 launch.

Oh, here's an official stream.

Edit: Confirmed not happening today.

ASUS Announces New ROG Phone II: 120Hz OLED, 6000mAh & Snapdragon 855+

12 GB of RAM, 802.11ad wireless. Phone size, thickness, and weight increased significantly.

Also features one of the new ARM DynamIQ core cluster configs, that I think I've seen on at least one other recent smartphone:

1x Cortex-A76 @ 2.96GHz
3x Cortex-A76 @ 2.42GHz
4x Cortex-A55 @ 1.80GHz

I imagine that in 10 years, every smartphone sold will have specs exceeding this and will be intended for use with a dock and monitor/TV so it can be used as a portable desktop replacement. Or forget the dock, and just use a successor to 802.11ad to connect to a display wirelessly, maybe while laying it down on a nearby charging pad.

Never forget.

Corsair Unveils 32 GB Vengeance LPX DDR4 DIMMs, 64 GB & 128 GB Dual-Channel Kits

$150 for 1× 32 GB @ 2400 MT/s, $155 for 1× 32 GB @ 2666 MT/s (price for 3000 MT/s not specified). Basically no additional charge for 64, 128, and 256 GB kits.

That's the equivalent of $37.50-$38.75 for 8 GB, which isn't so awful but shows how DRAM pricing has stagnated over the last decade. If we had scaled down, we might be looking at $1-2 per GB today. Hopefully we will reach a point where 128 GB costs $100-$150, and larger module capacities could help make that happen.

This one from last month is a bit more expensive: Samsung 32GB DDR4-2666 Non-ECC Memory at Retail: $168

So when do we reach the point when all DIMMs have ECC by default? 64 GB modules? 128 GB? We have to protect against all those cosmic rays, right? ?

Patriot Launches P200 SSDs with Maxio and Silicon Motion Controllers: From $31.99

This is a launch of a budget line of SSDs. Not specified if it uses QLC NAND, but it has better rated endurance than Samsung 860 QVO (for the 1 TB models: 640 TB for P200, 360 TB for 860 QVO).

256 GB for $31.99 ($0.125/GB)
512 GB for $49.99 ($0.0977/GB)
1 TB for $87.99 ($0.088/GB)
2 TB for $189.99 ($0.095/GB)

That's newly released products, not sale prices.

A quick Slickdeals search finds:

$85: 1TB Intel 660p QLC 3D NAND NVMe M.2 2280 PCIe Internal SSD
$80: 1TB Crucial P1 3D NVMe PCIe M.2 SSD
$80.5: 1TB Samsung 860 QVO 2.5" SATA III Internal Solid State Drive
$80: Crucial 1TB BX500 2.5” SATA Internal SSD + F/S

Looks like $80 is a good sale price right now, with lower than $80 sure to come for drives like the Patriot P200 SSDs.

Even if you don't trust them as far as you can throw them, they might make good portable drives if you can insert them into an enclosure.

Following the Nintendo Switch Lite, they announced a refresh of the original. Same features, but longer battery life due to using a die shrink of the Tegra X1.

Someone somewhere speculated that it could improve performance a little bit by alleviating thermal limits.

You would have to wait for a "Switch 2" or "Switch Pro", but maybe that's a good thing.

Nintendo Announces New Version of Switch with Longer Battery Life

Nintendo Switch Delivers On Promises Of Streaming, Doug Bowser Says

Tape shows Donald Trump and Jeffrey Epstein discussing women at 1992 party

The November 1992 tape in the NBC archives shows Donald Trump partying with Jeffrey Epstein at Trump’s Mar-a-Lago estate, now a private club, more than a decade before Epstein pleaded guilty to felony prostitution charges in Florida.

The president says he hasn’t spoken to Epstein since, and that his relationship with him was no different than that of anyone else in their elite circle. “I knew him like everybody in Palm Beach knew him,” Trump said last week. “I was not a fan.”

But on the tape, Trump gives Epstein plenty of personal attention.

Bruh momentum.

FULL Morning Joe [6AM] 7/17/19 | MSNBC News Today July 17, 2019

30:07: Pre-commercial break teaser
32:28: Segment starts
33:35: Footage from tape starts
34:13: Trump greets Epstein and 2 other guests
34:33-35:12: Trump totally not vibing with Epstein
39:41: Segment ends

The ‘Lady of the House’ Who Was Long Entangled With Jeffrey Epstein

One former employee of Mr. Epstein’s mansion in Palm Beach, Fla., referred to her as the “lady of the house.” Euan Rellie, an investment banker who attended dinner parties that she and Mr. Epstein hosted in New York, said she “seemed to be half ex-girlfriend, half employee, half best friend, and fixer.”

One of Mr. Epstein’s accusers, in court papers, used another word: madam.

Jeffrey Epstein had cash, diamonds and a foreign passport stashed in safe, prosecutors say

Jeffrey Epstein had a foreign passport that listed an address in Saudi Arabia to protect himself from 'hijackers or terrorists,' his lawyers claim in new court documents

Epstein's lawyers argued that the passport acquired in the 1980s was only used "for personal protection" in connection with Middle East travel because Epstein is Jewish.

[...] "Epstein - an affluent member of the Jewish faith — acquired the passport in the 1980s, when hijackings were prevalent, in connection to Middle East travel," they wrote. "The passport was for personal protection in the event of travel to dangerous areas, only to be presented to potential kidnappers, hijackers or terrorists should violent episodes occur."

"The government offers nothing to suggest — and certainly no evidence — that Epstein ever used it," his lawyers argued.

How Jeffrey Epstein Lost $80 Million in a Hedge-Fund Bet Gone Bad

Real Hedge-Fund Managers Have Some Thoughts on What Epstein Was Actually Doing

Remembering the Time Jeffrey Epstein Rode on Donald Trump’s Plane

^ Mentioned in MSNBC segment panel discussion.

Previously: Jeffrey Epstein Settles Suit
Jeffrey Epstein Plea Deal Must Stand
Epstein Charged Again

Move Over Therapy Dogs. Hello, Therapy Cows.

Even without a psychology degree, Bella’s natural talents made her an excellent therapist: She is calm and accommodating of a range of personalities, with the patience to listen to endless problems without so much as a judgmental moo.

From a lush, secluded pasture on the Mountain Horse Farm, a 33-acre bed-and-breakfast in the Finger Lakes region of New York, 3-year-old Bella and 2-year-old Bonnie are the highlander-angus crossbred cows that provide animal-based therapy.

Cow cuddling, as the practice is called, invites interaction with the farm animals via brushing, petting or heartfelt chats with the bovines. The experience is similar to equine therapy, with one game-changing difference: Horses tend to stand, but cows spontaneously lie down in the grass while chewing their cud, allowing humans to get even more up close and personal by joining on the ground and offering a warm embrace.

[...] Each session is overseen by two human counterparts: an equine therapist, usually Ms. Vullers, who can read the animals’s moods to ensure a safe, positive interaction with their new human friends, and a second handler, who keeps a watchful eye on the other animals in the field.

Neither has a psychology degree, which is kind of the point: “Whatever they’re going through, they don’t have to talk about it,” said Ms. Vullers. “It’s not like therapy, right?”

Tell me moo about your problems.

Related: Alaskan Ranch Offers "Reindeer Yoga"