Photo Credit: Ryan O’Shea/Grindhouse WetwareBody implants are a staple of science fiction. They turn members of futuristic societies into super-humans, making them stronger, smarter and more capable than an average person . . .
As amazing as body implants sound, though, how close are we normal humans to getting one of those? In other words, are contemporary science, medicine and technology advanced enough to allow us to seamlessly meld with the technology and actually improve our lives? Keep reading to find out.
We’ll start by introducing Northstar, a subdermal LED sensor that lights up when it’s in the vicinity of a magnet. It can be used to detect the magnetic north and act as a compass. Implanting such a basic device may sound like a silly and needlessly dangerous procedure to go through, but these biohackers did it anyway . . .
If you think having LEDs in your forearm is silly, you may like this better: an antenna implanted in the skull. In 2004, Neil Harbisson had the device implanted in his cranium in an effort to fight color blindness. A camera at the far end of the device records whatever he is seeing and converts the image color data into a series of sound waves, which he has memorized. Instead of seeing various hues, he “hears” them with the help of a camera he calls Eyeborg. (Read more from “Biohackers Implant Computers, Earbuds and Antennas in Their Bodies” HERE)
https://joemiller.us/wp-content/uploads/MW-EF165_Jurica_20160209105803_NS.jpg8221096Joe Millerhttps://joemiller.us/wp-content/uploads/logotext.pngJoe Miller2016-02-10 21:55:552016-04-11 10:52:49Biohackers Implant Computers, Earbuds and Antennas in Their Bodies
By Dylan Byers. Huffington Post took a visceral and aggressive approach to Donald Trump’s victory in New Hampshire on Tuesday night, blasting the GOP front-runner as a “racist, sexist demagogue.”
The headline on the homepage, in bold, red, 72-point font, reads: “NH GOES RACIST SEXIST XENOPHOBIC.” The headline on the story: “A Racist, Sexist Demagogue Just Won The New Hampshire Primary” . . .
In late January, Huffington Post announced that all of its Trump-related articles would include an editor’s note reading, “Donald Trump is a serial liar, rampant xenophobe, racist, misogynist, birther and bully who has repeatedly pledged to ban all Muslims — 1.6 billion members of an entire religion — from entering the U.S.” (Read more from “Huffington Post Goes off on Trump, Calls Him a ‘Racist, Sexist Demagogue'” HERE)
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Trump Echoes Supporter’s Vulgar Insult of Ted Cruz
By Sopan Deb. Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump has made cursing a campaign staple for him on the stump. Most speeches will sprinkle in a “damn,” or a “crap.”
At a September speech in New Hampshire, Trump called Florida Sen. Marco Rubio and former Florida Governor Jeb Bush’s friendship “political bulls***.”
But at Monday night’s rally in Manchester, Trump ratcheted up his practice of keeping television censors (and reporters) on their toes with what might be his most off-color profanity yet: He repeated a woman calling Texas Sen. Ted Cruz, “a p****.”
Trump was in the middle of a riff about his answer on waterboarding at Saturday’s GOP debate, when he made light of Cruz’s answer on the same question.
“They asked Ted Cruz, serious question, ‘Well what do you think of waterboarding?’ Is it okay?” Trump said. “And honestly I thought he’d say absolutely. And he didn’t.” (Read more from “Trump Echoes Supporter’s Vulgar Insult of Ted Cruz” HERE)
https://joemiller.us/wp-content/uploads/20573036330_63227292fa_o.jpg504706Joe Millerhttps://joemiller.us/wp-content/uploads/logotext.pngJoe Miller2016-02-10 00:16:402016-04-11 10:52:49Huffington Post Goes off on Trump, Calls Him a ‘Racist, Sexist Demagogue’
By Patrick Healy and Jonathan Martin. Donald J. Trump and Senator Bernie Sanders of Vermont harnessed working-class fury on Tuesday to surge to commanding victories in a New Hampshire primary that drew a huge turnout across the state.
The success by two outsider candidates dealt a remarkable rebuke to the political establishment, and all but guaranteed protracted, bruising races for each party’s presidential nomination.
Mr. Trump, the wealthy businessman whose blunt language and outsider image have electrified many Republicans and horrified others, benefited from an unusually large field of candidates that split the vote among traditional politicians like Gov. John Kasich of Ohio, who finished second, and former Gov. Jeb Bush of Florida.
But Mr. Trump also tapped into a deep well of anxiety among Republicans and independents in New Hampshire, according to exit polling data, and he ran strongest among voters who were worried about illegal immigrants, incipient economic turmoil and the threat of a terrorist attack in the United States. (Read more from “The Winners of the New Hampshire Primaries” HERE)
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Christie Heading Home to Evaluate Campaign’s Future
By Ben Kamisar. Chris Christie said he is taking a pause from the campaign trail to “take a deep breath” and evaluate his presidential campaign’s future after a poor showing in New Hampshire.
“We are going to go home to New Jersey tomorrow, and we are going to take a deep breath, see what the final results are tonight, because that matters,” Christie said at a speech Tuesday night as the New Hampshire primary results poured in.
“We will make our next step forward based on the complete results in New Hampshire.”
Christie had banked his presidential hopes on New Hampshire. With about half of the votes counted, he is in sixth place.
If he fails to finish in the top five, he’ll likely miss the cut for Saturday’s GOP debate. (Read more from “Christie Heading Home to Evaluate Campaign’s Future” HERE)
https://joemiller.us/wp-content/uploads/hqdefault-20.jpg360480Joe Millerhttps://joemiller.us/wp-content/uploads/logotext.pngJoe Miller2016-02-10 00:15:072016-04-11 10:52:50The Winners of the New Hampshire Primaries
Retired neurosurgeon Dr. Ben Carson left the door open on Tuesday to serving as vice president in a Trump administration.
Fox Business host Neil Cavuto, interviewing Carson from New Hampshire, pressed him on this issue as primary voters began casting ballots. The Republican hopeful recently settled for a fourth-place finish in the Iowa caucus and has polled at the bottom of the pack in the Granite State.
“Would you ever be open to a VP spot [with Trump]?” asked Cavuto, Mediaite reported.
“I would have to have major philosophical alignment with whoever it was. I would have to have guarantees that I could do some substantial things,” replied Carson. “I certainly would sit down and discuss it” . . .
“Rather than get into that, let’s say as long as there is significant philosophical alignment, I wouldn’t have any problem. … I’m aiming to really change this country in the same way that I came up with new ways to do very complex things that people have been trying to do for a long period of time. That’s what I want to do with this country,” said Carson. (Read more from “Ben Carson Just Made a Major Announcement About VP” HERE)
https://joemiller.us/wp-content/uploads/hqdefault-21.jpg360480Joe Millerhttps://joemiller.us/wp-content/uploads/logotext.pngJoe Miller2016-02-10 00:14:512016-04-11 10:52:50Ben Carson Just Made a Major Announcement About VP
The biggest attack on Ted Cruz lodged by his detractors is that he is loathed inside Washington, especially in the Senate. One often hears this refrain from mainstream media: We understand you are looking for an anti-establishment figure, but this man is absolutely detested by everyone. There must be something legitimate to this universal hatred for Cruz.
In reality there is no enigma as to why Cruz is so hated. There is a quintessential example from yesterday that perfectly demonstrates why he is held in such low esteem by his colleagues. Judge for yourself whether this is a good thing or a bad thing.
Despite being embroiled in the heat of the most important weeks of this presidential campaign, Cruz sent word to Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell that he was placing a hold on all State Department nominees until Obama comes clean on the Iran deal. Consequently, McConnell was obliged to block the unanimous consent request from Sen. Amy Klobuchar (D-MN) to confirm Obama’s choices for ambassadorships to Norway and Sweden. Cruz has placed a blockade on all State Department nominees and has been enforcing it throughout the past few months.
Now ask yourself this question: What do you think Sen. Klobuchar and her colleagues think of Ted Cruz?
We all know that every Republican runs as an intrepid conservative:
“I’m pro-life.”
“I’m for traditional marriage.”
“We need to secure the border.”
“Government is too large.”
“Isn’t the Iran deal terrible?”
These are the platitudes you will hear from every Republican. But with a belligerent Democrat Party that will fight to the death in defense of their positions on those issues, what good is it to “align” with the conservative side if you will not do what it takes to advance the cause?
Think of it this way: Is it possible for an intellectually conservative member to be liked by fellow senators? Of course. As long as he stays in the corner and keeps his conservatism to himself. He can even vote his conscience as long as it doesn’t alter the outcome. They might even allow him to hold some policy briefings and draft some white papers about reform conservatism. That is where the conservatism of most elected conservatives ends; but it’s where Ted Cruz’s begins. Cruz understood from day one that as a senator you are not just a vote but a voice for a cause and can use legitimate tools to leverage against harmful policies.
In the case of the Iran deal, Republicans passed the Corker-Cardin bill signing off on it and then declined to defund it in the budget bill. The only tool left in the Article I arsenal of Congress is to hold up confirmation of executive and judicial nominees. Unfortunately, the other senators refused to join Cruz in enforcing the blockade and extracting concessions from Obama after he violated the conditions of his own deal. And that’s the way they like it. Unlike Cruz, they want to be respected, smart, serious, and productive conservatives. “Productive” in the sense that their principles are never actually converted into action — at least not enough to derail liberal policies in a meaningful way.
A president doesn’t vote at all. A president is only a voice for a cause. Much like a senator has tools in his arsenal to protect the Constitution and play legislative hardball against the powers that be, a president can use his Article II leverage to defend the Constitution as well. A president’s personal views on the issues are meaningless if he is unwilling to play hardball using all legal channels to enact and defend his agenda.
There are those in the conservative intelligentsia who say they personally like Ted Cruz but desire a nominee who will push conservatism in a way that does not elicit such hatred from others in Washington. These people need to learn there is no such thing as lukewarm hell. Modern-day Democrats are not willing to compromise on anything. As such, the only way to move forward and restore our republic is with brute force, harnessing the power of the outside against the inside, not working with the insiders who got us into this mess in the first place.
Sadly, we’ve reached a point where congeniality works inversely with effectiveness. That is not the fault of Ted Cruz. It’s the fault of years of complacency from other conservatives who have legitimized anti-constitutional policies of the Democrat Party and emboldened them to take nothing less than a full loaf of bread. (For more from the author of “Cruz Demonstrates Why Senators Hate Him: A Bad Thing?” please click HERE)
https://joemiller.us/wp-content/uploads/cruz-at-obama-care-conference.jpg373663Joe Millerhttps://joemiller.us/wp-content/uploads/logotext.pngJoe Miller2016-02-10 00:14:332016-04-11 10:52:50Cruz Demonstrates Why Senators Hate Him: A Bad Thing?
President Barack Obama’s plan to impose strict new regulations on U.S. power plants hit a significant legal snag on Tuesday with a split decision by the nation’s highest court. According to news reports, the 5 to 4 U.S. Supreme Court ruling put up an immediate roadblock, blocking the implementation of carbon emission caps favored by the Obama administration.
As Fox News reported this week, Obama has defended his plan to slash power plant emissions by insisting it would help stave off the effects of global warming. Under his proposal, each state would be required to submit a proposal by this September to the Environmental Protection Agency, detailing how power plants located within its borders would cut carbon dioxide emissions by roughly 33 percent before 2030. (Read more from “Supreme Court Just Brought Obama’s Big Plan to a Halt, He’s Going to Be Livid…” HERE)
https://joemiller.us/wp-content/uploads/7811068144_6efdb00d3d_o.jpg25923872Joe Millerhttps://joemiller.us/wp-content/uploads/logotext.pngJoe Miller2016-02-10 00:12:472016-04-11 10:52:50Supreme Court Just Brought Obama’s Big Plan to a Halt, He’s Going to Be Livid…
Kata’ib Sayyid al Shuhada (KSS), an Iranian-backed Shia militia which operates in both Syria and Iraq, has been spotted using a US-made M1 Abrams tank in a recently released video. The video, which is a montage of different militias within the Popular Mobilization Units (PMU’s), a Shia-led collection of militias in Iraq, has been shared on several PMU social media outlets.
Around the 16 second mark of the video, a KSS flag can clearly be seen atop an Abrams. It is unclear exactly where the militia is located during this clip, but it is likely within Iraq’s central Salahadin province, where KSS has done a considerable amount of fighting against the Islamic State. It is also unclear when the footage was taken, however, the footage is likely recent since the montage was released two days ago. It is also likely the tank is from the Iraqi Army, as the militias operate with and alongside the Iraqi security forces.
KSS is not the first Shiite militia to publicize its use of an M1 Abrams. The Hezbollah Brigades, a US-designated foreign terrorist organization, showed an Abrams flying the Hezbollah Brigades flag earlier last year. Additionally, the group has also published two videos from Iraq’s Anbar province in which several US-made vehicles are used by its forces. [See LWJ report, Video shows Hezbollah Brigades convoy transporting American M1 tank, and Threat Matrix report, Hezbollah Brigades flaunts US equipment in Anbar operation.] (Read more from “Iranian-Backed Militia Seen With US Tank in Iraq” HERE)
https://joemiller.us/wp-content/uploads/KSS-Abrams-768x432.png432768Joe Millerhttps://joemiller.us/wp-content/uploads/logotext.pngJoe Miller2016-02-10 00:12:322016-04-11 10:52:52Iranian-Backed Militia Seen With US Tank in Iraq [+video]
The city of San Diego is being charged with taking political correctness to “a whole new extreme” by banishing the phrase “Founding Fathers” from the vocabulary of city employees.
“This brings it to a new level, without question,” said Brad Dacus, the chief of Pacific Justice Institute, which raised questions about the issue with the city and is challenging its censorship.
“When you can’t utter the phrase ‘Founding Fathers’ without possibly losing your job and you work for government, that is a sad day for free speech,” he told WND.
In a letter to San Diego Mayor Kevin Faulconer, PJI Senior Staff Attorney Matthew B. McReynolds explained the city’s new “Visual and Correspondence Style Guidelines” held a number of novel demands for city employees . . .
“Many Americans, including city employees, will no doubt be surprised to learn that the city considers them biased for merely mentioning ordinary words and phrases like ‘the common man,’ ‘mankind,’ ‘manmade’ and ‘man up,’ to name a few of the manual’s parade of horribles,” McReynolds wrote. (Read more from “Major US City Now Bans ‘Founding Fathers'” HERE)
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UPDATE: City Walks Back its “Founding Fathers” Ban
By Bob Unruh. Officials in San Diego are walking back a directive in a new “Visual and Correspondence Style Guidelines” publication that had been issued to employees to not reference the “Founding Fathers.”
Read more at https://www.wnd.com/2016/02/u-s-city-walks-back-ban-on-founding-fathers/#QIpy5ry79dZXEB4Q.99
The instructions, as WND reported on Tuesday, warned against the use of “a number of words and phrases widely accepted in the English language,” according to a critic.
“Many Americans, including city employees, will no doubt be surprised to learn that the city considers them biased for merely mentioning ordinary words and phrases like ‘the common man,’ ‘mankind,’ ‘manmade’ and ‘man up,’ to name a few of the manual’s parade of horribles,” Matthew McReynolds, a staff attorney for Pacific Justice Institute, told city officials in a letter asking them to reverse their course.
They did a short time later, following WND’s report on the dispute.
“Suggesting that our Founding Fathers should be referred to as ‘Founders’ is political correctness run amuck. We are proud of our nation’s history and there is nothing wrong with referring to the Founding Fathers. Once the mayor became aware of this yesterday he directed the ‘Founders’ example to be removed from the document,” Matt Awbrey, the mayor’s chief of communications, told WND in an email. (Read more about the Founding Father’s controversy in San Diego HERE)
Read more at https://www.wnd.com/2016/02/u-s-city-walks-back-ban-on-founding-fathers/#QIpy5ry79dZXEB4Q.99
https://joemiller.us/wp-content/uploads/san-diego-79567_960_720.jpg720931Joe Millerhttps://joemiller.us/wp-content/uploads/logotext.pngJoe Miller2016-02-10 00:12:182016-04-11 10:52:53Major US City Now Bans ‘Founding Fathers’; UPDATE: City Walks It Back
As anyone who’s filled up their tank lately can attest, oil prices are down – way down. Inexpensive trips to the gas station may put a smile on the average driver’s face, but the ramifications are significant for economies dependent on oil. Few states are feeling this more acutely than Alaska. With oil prices and oil production in decline, the state lacks two-thirds of the revenue needed to cover this year’s $5.2 billion budget.
Unfortunately, Alaska Governor Bill Walker is proposing a quick-fix solution that could do long-term damage: the imposition of a state income tax. As analysis in An Inquiry into the Nature and Causes of the Wealth of States shows, adopting an income tax spells disaster. Each and every state (there are eleven in total) that introduced the income tax since 1960 has experienced decline across a broad array of metrics. In terms of population, all eleven states have declined in comparison to the remaining 39 states (West Virginia is the unenviable “leader” of this pack, with a relative population decline of a full 50%). In terms of state gross domestic product, all eleven states also declined as a share of the remaining 39 states (Michigan took a particularly precipitous plunge, with a relative fall in gross state product of 57%).
As my Wealth of States co-authors and I write: “The lesson is pretty basic – if you don’t currently have an income tax, do not adopt one.” No place should understand this better than Alaska, which in 1980 eliminated the state income tax for individuals. Under Governor Walker’s proposed plan, which would turn the clock back on more than 35 years of economic progress . . . (Read more from “Alaska Has a Bigger Problem Than Low Oil Prices” HERE)
https://joemiller.us/wp-content/uploads/Potlatch_gas.jpg401600Joe Millerhttps://joemiller.us/wp-content/uploads/logotext.pngJoe Miller2016-02-10 00:11:482016-04-11 10:52:53Alaska Has a Bigger Problem Than Low Oil Prices
It is rare for the wise and powerful to admit that they are ignorant. But that is what the majority of Supreme Court justices did in Roe v. Wade, claiming that science offered no answer to the fundamental question of when human life began. Citing debates among biologists and physicians, the justices said that there had never been a consensus about the moral and legal status of unborn children. So the justices stepped in to fill this alleged gap with an invention of its own: a “right of privacy” spun from subtle inferences they found between the lines of the actual words in the Constitution.
From that legal fiction, they and subsequent majorities wove the seamless shroud of abortion on demand, in 50 states for nine months of pregnancy, and in practice, for any reason at all — among the laxest, most ethically vacuous abortion laws in the world, outside of Communist China.
But the veil of ignorance has been lifted. Forty years of advancing medical technology have answered the factual question, if it ever really existed: A human being is genetically distinct and explosively alive from the moment of conception. Its DNA is human, and it reproduces independently of its mother, upon whom it relies only for nutrients and protection. It meets every test that scientists regularly use for determining whether something is a) alive and b) human.
We can watch tiny unborn children move around and adjust themselves in the womb to get more comfortable. We know that they feel pain. Doctors can take them on as patients and perform subtle surgeries inside the womb. We have witnessed on ultrasounds something our ancestors never could have: unborn twins engaged in horseplay. And now thanks to Doritos, we have seen that unborn boys crave some of their dads’ tortilla chips.
I can’t tell you how delighted I was to see, in the middle of the Super Bowl, a snack-chip company buy one of the most expensive ad slots available on television to show us a goofy, glorious spectacle like this one:
Of course, abortion lobbyists reacted with outrage:
The misanthropes at NARAL were outraged for a reason. Doritos was calling them on the lie that butters their bread. How dare a maker of tortilla chips engage in “humanizing” human fetuses, which we all know are really… what, exactly? Clumps of cells? Parasites? Tadpoles?
Too many couples have taken those grainy ultrasounds and pasted them on their fridges and Facebook profiles for such crude lies to last much longer. But this year’s Super Bowl was the gift that kept on giving, because the NFL itself offered us another commercial with a clear pro-life message. This one wasn’t funny, but genuinely uplifting:
The message of this ad was straightforward and delightful: loving couples who watch their teams win the Superbowl take to bed and celebrate, and the result is … human life. These human lives, who are singing now in front of us on the television. And the invitation is clear, in the ad that ends with the slogan “Football Is Family”: Go ye therefore and do likewise.
Of course not everyone was inspired. Here’s a sampling of the blowback from people who don’t necessarily like being reminded where babies come from:
That #SuperBowlBabies ad is the creepiest ad I may have ever seen. Nails on a chalkboard. Thank Christ that no #Patriots fans were involved.
What these ads and other recent events tell me is that we’re winning. In fact, if we keep pushing forward, we are about to win. In the most recent Republican debate, every single candidate on stage was someone who takes a pro-life stance—from the insurgent voice of the GOP base, Ted Cruz, to the angry populist Donald Trump. In fact, the candidate whom the party establishment regards as most electable, Marco Rubio. took a brave and principled stand favoring protection for every unborn child, even those fathered in the appalling crime of rape — insisting that he would rather lose an election than be wrong about human life.
Keep in mind this is the same party which before Ronald Reagan was loudly neutral about abortion — an issue which party mandarins claimed put Reagan outside the American mainstream.
Where’s your mainstream flowing now? Popular music stars like Justin Bieber are outspokenly pro-life. On the hit show The Blacklist, the hard-bitten female FBI agent is agonizing over a pregnancy — over whether to raise the child or put it up for adoption. Pop films depicting the abortion issue honestly keep getting made and making money, from Bella to Knocked Up to Juno. People are plainly tired of pretending not to know the plainest facts of human life: We are woven inside our mothers, and alive from the beginning. Whether or not we were conceived after the Super Bowl, or craved our dad’s Doritos, we were us, real human beings, not protoplasm or euphemisms (such as the “products of conception”).
Even the tragic facts of the Planned Parenthood videos are leaking through the media’s shoddy filters: Before Congress and on TV, defenders of that organization are being forced to insist that their traffic in eyes and lungs and livers was technically legal. Just think how many Americans are hearing about that on the news and thinking: “Eyes, lungs, and livers? I thought they were blobs of tissue….” Those facts, which the Supreme Court didn’t want to hear and NARAL doesn’t want you to learn, will take on a life of their own. They’ll divide, and reproduce, and sooner than we expect they will emerge with an ear-splitting cry.
It’s the cry of life, for life, and no one will be able to silence it. (For more from the author of “This Year’s Super Bowl: A Pro-Life Tipping Point?” please click HERE)
