For decades, submarines came in two discrete flavors: traditional diesel-electric submarines that need to surface every day or two to recharge their noisy, air-breathing diesel engines, and nuclear-powered submarines that could quietly hum along under the sea at relatively high speeds for months at a time thanks to their nuclear reactors.
The downside to the nuclear-powered variety, of course, is that they cost many times the price of a comparable diesel submarines and require nuclear propulsion technology, which may not be worth the trouble for a country only interested in defending its coastal waters. A diesel submarine may also run more quietly than a nuclear submarine by turning off its engines and running on batteries—but only for a very short amount of time. Still, there remains a performance gap in stealth and endurance that many countries would like to bridge at an affordable price.
One such country was Sweden, which happens to be in a busy neighborhood opposite to Russian naval bases on the Baltic Sea. Though Sweden is not a member of NATO, Moscow has made clear it might take measures to ‘eliminate the threat,’ as Putin put it, if Stockholm decides to join or support the alliance. After a Soviet Whiskey-class submarine ran aground just six miles away from a Swedish naval base in 1981, Swedish ships opened fire on suspected Soviet submarines on several occasions throughout the rest of the 1980s. More recently, Russia has run an exercise simulating a nuclear attack on Sweden and likely infiltrated Swedish territorial waters with least one submarine in 2014. . .
The Swedish firm has unveiled concept art depicting a submarine with a ‘chinned’ sail, X-shaped tail fins for greater maneuverability in rocky Baltic waters, and four 533-millimeter torpedo tubes can fire both heavyweight torpedoes, back up by two 400-millimeter tubes, all of which would use wire-guided torpedoes. The vessel’s four Stirling engines apparently allow allowing for higher sustainable underwater cruising speed of 6 to 10 knots. . .
Sweden’s two A26s should be completed between 2022 and 2024, at which point it will be possible to gauge whether they can meet their ambitious performance parameters. In general, advancements to AIP submarines are allowing countries across the globe to acquire capable short and medium-range submarines at an affordable price. (Read more from “Why Russia Fears Sweden’s Deadly Submarines” HERE)
Thousands of people in Sweden are having futuristic microchips implanted into their skin to carry out everyday activities and replace credit cards and cash.
More than 4,000 people have already had the sci-fi-ish chips, about the size of a grain of rice, inserted into their hands — with the pioneers predicting millions will soon join them as they hope to take it global. . .
Like glorified smartwatches, the chips help Swedes monitor their health and even replace keycards to allow them to enter offices and buildings.
They have particularly caught on, however, by enabling owners to pay in stores with a simple swipe of the hand, a big deal in a forward-looking country that is moving toward eliminating cash.
The microchips were pioneered by former body piercer Jowan Österlund, who calls the technology a “moonshot” — and who told Fortune magazine that he’s been hit up by hopeful investors “on every continent except Antarctica.” (Read more from “People Are Getting Implants in Their Hands to Replace Money” HERE)
https://joemiller.us/wp-content/uploads/28886680351_3da860cab1_b-2.jpg6781024Joe Millerhttps://joemiller.us/wp-content/uploads/logotext.pngJoe Miller2019-07-18 17:58:182019-07-18 17:54:54People Are Getting Implants in Their Hands to Replace Money
By Futurism. . .[A] growing number of people — including, for whatever reason, about 3,000 Swedes — are opting for something even more invasive, and arguably practical: a surgically inserted microchip, according to the Associated French Press.
The chip itself essentially acts as a digital keychain. NFC (near-field communication) is a way of sending information wirelessly from a passive chip to a reader, but only when they are about 4 cm (1.6 in) apart (you might have heard of radio frequency identification, or RFID — NFC is a more sophisticated form of it). A chip in the hand can help people do things like sign into the gym, unlock doors to cars and offices, and make credit card payments. Over time, as the technology progresses, the implant will be able to do even more. . .
But now, people who get the implant aren’t counterculture biohackers — they’re the everyman. This is especially true in Sweden, where these chips are so mainstream that, since June 2017, people have been able to buy train tickets with their microchips.
More bodies equipped with microchips doesn’t necessary sound like good news to everybody, however. NFC chips right below the skin give corporations a fair amount of control over you — they could track where you are, how long you take for lunch every day, or how many times you went to the bathroom, if the chip were scanned by a reader. And since most chips are offered through big companies, it’s just a matter of time until this happens. And opting out of this kind of data collection is a lot more convoluted when you’ve got a chip implanted in your bodily tissues. If you want to go off the grid in even the smallest way, you can leave your wallet at home, but removing a microchip requires bit more, uh, effort. (Read more from “All the Rage” in Sweden and on the Farm: The Mark of the Beast May Be Closer Than You Think” HERE)
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Subcutaneous Fitbits? These Cows Are Modeling the Tracking Technology of the Future
By Technology Review. . .These cows are the first to try a device called EmbediVet, created by a startup named Livestock Labs. For now, they’re just going about their normal lives, unintentionally providing data that helps train an artificial neural network. The hope is that in the near future, this AI will help farmers figure out quickly and easily how well cows and other livestock are eating, whether they’re getting sick or about to give birth—things that are typically done today just by watching and waiting but are difficult to spot when you’ve got hundreds or thousands of animals to keep an eye on.
Embedded RFID sensors and other trackers have long been used in livestock, though generally just for identifying each animal. There are already some behavior-tracking wearables out there, such as collars, that use sensors to pinpoint events like cud-chewing and illness. But Livestock Labs claims that once EmbediVet is implanted—currently in a surgical procedure done under local anesthetic—it’s less annoying to the cow than a wearable and, potentially, a more powerful way to collect useful data and spot bovine behavior patterns over time. . .
Within months, Livestock Labs readied a new device—now called EmbediVet—for testing in cattle. Covered in a clear resin, it includes an ARM processor and Bluetooth and long-range radios, as well as a thermometer, accelerometer, and heart-rate monitor and pulse oximeter for measuring heart rate, blood oxygen levels, temperature, and basic activity. It runs on a coin-cell battery the company expects will last for about three years.
Why do it? Rood thinks that this kind of device can be more accurate than a wearable one such as a collar or an anklet, especially when it comes to tracking a metric like body temperature, which correlates with disease, in thick-skinned animals. (Read more from “Subcutaneous Fitbits? These Cows Are Modeling the Tracking Technology of the Future” HERE)
https://joemiller.us/wp-content/uploads/35562065674_2dab03d464_b.jpg639960Joe Millerhttps://joemiller.us/wp-content/uploads/logotext.pngJoe Miller2018-05-17 00:21:572018-05-17 00:21:57“All the Rage” in Sweden and on the Farm: The Mark of the Beast May Be Closer Than You Think
Much has been written over the past several years about the massive influx of mostly Muslim refugee migrants to Europe and the radical cultural changes those migrants brought with them to the nations they ultimately settled in.
Bear in mind that the overwhelming majority of those migrants weren’t really refugees at all, as the United Nations High Commissioner on Refugees admitted in a report. For the year 2015, only about 0.4 percent (less than 300 total) of the 118,000 refugees accepted by other nations around the world were actually in dire need of resettling and could honestly proclaim themselves a refugee, according to The Western Journal.
That means more than 99 percent of those who fled North Africa and the Middle East for western and northern Europe were migrating for economic or criminal purposes, and though that fact is typically downplayed by European governments, the reality of the situation is increasingly intruding on their precious innocent refugees narrative.
Perhaps the most vivid example of this reality is the case of Sweden, a prosperous Scandinavian nation once considered one of the safest countries on earth but which is now wracked with rapidly spiking levels of violent crime, according to a shocking report in Politico.
Sweden took in so many migrants and refugees that the nation was dubbed a “humanitarian superpower,” and the generosity of the nation’s welfare state in conjunction with their open arms for third-world migrants was held up as the “Swedish model” for other progressive nations to emulate. (Read more from “Violence in Post-Refugee Sweden Reaches Staggering Levels” HERE)
The Church of Sweden is urging its clergy to use gender-neutral language when referring to the supreme deity, refraining from using terms such as “Lord” and “he” in favour of the less specific “God.”
The move is one of several taken by the national Evangelical Lutheran church in updating a 31-year-old handbook setting out how services should be conducted in terms of language, liturgy, hymns and other aspects.
The decision was taken on Thursday at the end of an eight-day meeting of the church’s 251-member decision-making body, and takes effect on 20 May on the Christian holiday of Pentecost.
A former state church, headquartered in Uppsala, some 37 miles north of the capital, the church has 6.1 million baptised members in a country of 10 million. It is headed by a woman, Archbishop Antje Jackelén. (Read more from “Church to Stop Referring to God as ‘He’ or ‘Lord'” HERE)
https://joemiller.us/wp-content/uploads/The_Holy_Bible-1.jpg450600Joe Millerhttps://joemiller.us/wp-content/uploads/logotext.pngJoe Miller2017-11-24 21:06:352017-11-24 21:11:50Church to Stop Referring to God as ‘He’ or ‘Lord’
The Swedish migration agency is handing out pop quizzes on the Bible to make sure migrants aren’t converting to Christianity to receive asylum.
Risk of persecution because of one’s religious faith can boost a person’s chances of gaining asylum. The Swedish migration agency is making unannounced visits to asylum seekers to quiz them on the Bible and make sure their conversions are genuine.
“How many books are in the New Testament?” and “What is the difference between Orthodox and Protestant churches?” are examples of questions converts have to answer.
Immigration lawyers have criticized the measure, but the agency defends the questions as knowledge true Christians should know.
“There are reasonable demands that the [asylum] applicant should have certain knowledge based on what they’ve told us and how they’ve gained knowledge of the Bible,” Carl Bexelius of the Swedish migration agency told state broadcaster SVT in an article published Saturday. “This knowledge should be there naturally, and it shouldn’t be something they need to read up on.” (Read more from “Migrants in Sweden Suspected of Converting to Christianity to Get Asylum” HERE)
https://joemiller.us/wp-content/uploads/Migrants_in_Hungary_2015_Aug_003-1.jpg600900Joe Millerhttps://joemiller.us/wp-content/uploads/logotext.pngJoe Miller2017-05-15 23:29:512017-05-15 23:29:51Migrants in Sweden Suspected of Converting to Christianity to Get Asylum
President Donald Trump’s tortured relationship with the spoken word can lead to problems. Case in point, his remarks about Sweden at a rally in Melbourne, Florida on Saturday night. While Trump seemingly made a remark about a recent terrorist attack in Sweden, what he meant was the reported uptick in crime in migrant centers in the country. His remarks have ignited a firestorm online. I try to wade through it all to present to you what is exactly “going on in Sweden.”
If President Trump is right and there is a growing Islamic migrant caused crime wave in Sweden, the first step is to define when the surge in refugees from predominately Muslim countries started to spike in the country. Migrationsverket, the Swedish Migration Agency, has published country of origin data from 1980 to 2014 (pdf). This data does not include 2015, which saw the highest level of asylum seekers in the recent history of the nation.
Migrationsverket breaks out nine Muslim majority countries in their data set. Those countries are Kosovo, Somalia, Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Iraq, Iran, Lebanon, and Syria. It is clear that the Syrian civil war and ISIS has created a significant uptick in refugees from Syria, beginning in 2012. Prior to that year, immigration from that country was negligible. The second largest number of migrants come from the Horn of Africa with Eritrea and Somalia combining for close to 6,900 persons. The agency has not yet compiled country of origin for the roughly 160,000 asylum seekers that entered in 2015, but there are reports that have placed the Syrian number at over 50,000.
The recent surge in refugees caused Sweden, in the middle of 2016, to toughen its rules. The New York Times reported that Sweden took steps to curb the open door policy it had in place. The country was on pace to admit 200,000 refugees in 2016, or two percent of its population, the majority of whom were from Muslim majority countries.
Does this dramatic uptick in migrants starting in 2012 have anything to do with crime in Sweden? That’s where it gets complicated. As Politfact noted, Swedish authorities do not break out crime data by immigration or refugee status. So it is impossible to determine if any crime increase can be definitively linked to migrants.
What is apparent however, despite the media cherry-picking two years 2014 and 2015, is the significant increase in the number of reported sexual assault and homicides that have coincided with the increased numbers of migrants. According to the Brå, which reports Swedish crime statistics, reported sexual assaults have increased from 17,077 cases in 2011 to 18,057 in 2015. They peaked in 2014 at 20,326, which was 19 percent higher than in 2011. Preliminary data from 2016 show a reported 20 percent increase in sexual “molestation” from 2015, according to Brå numbers. Rapes increased by 13 percent from 2015 to 2016 according to the same preliminary report.
Similarly, according to Brå, lethal violence has shown an increase. Lethal violence is described as murder, manslaughter, or assault that results in death. In 2011 there were 81 instances of lethal violence reported; in 2015 there were 112 cases. This is an increase of 38 percent. From 2014 the increase was almost 29 percent. Lethal crimes data for 2016 will not be available until the end of March according to Brå.
The data does show an uptick in violent crime, particularly sexual assault and lethal crimes that coincides with the increased migrant wave. That fact is undeniable and buttressed by the data from Swedish authorities. The media, who have cherry-picked the drop in reported sexual assaults from 2014 to 2015, are misleading with their reporting. But there are also two critical pieces of data missing: 2016 assault numbers, and a breakdown of crime by immigration status. Without those data points, both sides of the argument have cases to be made.
There is certainly a significant amount of anecdotal evidence to buttress the claims of increased violence by migrants in Sweden. Most significantly is the documentary by Ami Horowitz which kicked off the current news cycle. Horowitz was interviewed by Tucker Carlson the day before President Trump made his statement.
Horowitz, with on-the-ground reporting, shows a very different picture than what the MSM or Swedish authorities want you to believe.
In Norway, a bordering Scandinavian country, the authorities recently produced a guide on how migrants should treat women. This was a direct result of a rise in rapes that accompanied a similar increase in migrants.
A spring 2016 Pew poll showed that a whopping 88 percent of Swedes disapprove of the way the European Union, of which Sweden is a member, is handling the refugee crisis. That is the second highest number after Greece, which has been a first port of entry for many migrants as they make their way through Europe. The next highest is 77 percent in Italy.
No matter where the debate here in America stands on the issue, it is clear the Swedish people are concerned about migration to their country. That is why, as previously mentioned, the government took extraordinary means to limit refugee settlement after a long history of virtually open borders. This action happened shortly after the Pew poll was conducted.
The data clearly show an uptick in sexual assaults, and lethal crimes since the massive increase in refugees to Sweden from majority Muslim countries. It is careful to remember that correlation does not always equal causation. Until Sweden publishes data which includes the immigration status and country of origin in their crime statistics, on-the-ground experience will continue to drive the narrative. Politifact and other “MSM fact checkers” owe it to their readers to paint a complete picture. (For more from the author of “What the Mainstream Media Won’t Tell You About Donald Trump and Crime in Sweden” please click HERE)
https://joemiller.us/wp-content/uploads/Swedish_police_vans_in_Stockholm.jpg19442592Joe Millerhttps://joemiller.us/wp-content/uploads/logotext.pngJoe Miller2017-02-22 21:58:312017-02-25 22:35:19What the Mainstream Media Won’t Tell You About Donald Trump and Crime in Sweden
As if on cue, riots broke out in a heavily immigrant suburb of Stockholm as soon as the media mocked President Donald Trump for a vague warning about immigration-related problems in Sweden.
At a campaign rally over the weekend, Trump issued forth with a mystifyingly ominous statement. “You look,” he declared, “at what’s happening last night in Sweden.” What? Had the president invented a nonexistent terror attack? As it turned out, the reference was to a segment on Sweden he had watched on the Fox News show Tucker Carlson Tonight the previous night rather than to any specific event in the Nordic country . . .
By welcoming a historic number of asylum-seekers proportionate to its population, Sweden has indeed embarked on a vast social experiment that wasn’t well thought out and isn’t going very well. The unrest in the Stockholm suburb of Rinkeby after police made an arrest the other night underscored the problems inherent in Sweden’s immigration surge . . .
Sweden welcomed more than 160,000 asylum-seekers in 2015, and nearly 40,000 in October of that year alone. For a country of fewer than 10 million, this was almost equal to 2 percent of the population — in one year. The flow doubled the number of asylum-seekers at the height of the Balkans crisis in 1992 . . .
There is a stark gap in the labor-force-participation rate between the native born (82 percent) and the foreign born, (57 percent). As the Migration Policy Institute points out, Sweden is an advanced economy with relatively few low-skills jobs to begin with. On top of this, high minimum wages and stringent labor protections make it harder for marginal workers to find employment, while social assistance discourages the unemployed from getting work. (Read more from “What’s Happening in Sweden” HERE)
https://joemiller.us/wp-content/uploads/8696786470_a59af959a0_b.jpg7681024Joe Millerhttps://joemiller.us/wp-content/uploads/logotext.pngJoe Miller2017-02-22 20:29:202017-02-22 20:29:20What’s Happening in Sweden
The media pounced on President Trump after he declared Saturday that large-scale immigration in Sweden is not working out. Appearing at a campaign rally in Florida, the President defended his ban on immigrants from dangerous countries.
We’ve got to keep our country safe. You look at what’s happening in Germany. You look at what’s happening last night in Sweden. Sweden! Who would believe this? Sweden! They took in large numbers, they’re having problems like they never thought possible.
Swedish authorities immediately responded with denials, and much of the media media fixated on his reference to “last night.” Trump clarified later that he was referencing an episode of Tucker Carlson Tonight, which had aired the night before.
My statement as to what's happening in Sweden was in reference to a story that was broadcast on @FoxNews concerning immigrants & Sweden.
Rising Number of Rapes and Violence in Sweden, Largely by Muslim Immigrants
This was all an exercise in diversion from this glaring fact: Sweden’s increase in violence comes largely from the large influx of Muslim immigrants entering the country.
Rapes have increased by an alarming 250 percent since 2003, rising from 24.9 cases of reported rapes per 100,000 inhabitants to 66.5 last year. Reports of sexual molestation incidents increased by a “striking” 20 percent between 2015 and 2016, reaching 10,500 in 2016.
Örebro Police investigator Peter Springare says the crimes are mostly committed by Muslim immigrants. On February 3, he wrote on Facebook, “Mohammed, Mahmod, Ali, again and again.” Springare is now reportedly under criminal investigation for “incitement to racial hatred.“
In January, Malmö Police Chief Stefan Sinteus issued a desperate plea for help combating “the upward spiral of violence.” The city is composed of 32 percent immigrants. British UKIP leader Nigel Farage refers to Malmö as “the rape capital of Europe.”
Over the past 15 years, Sweden has taken in 650,000 immigrants seeking asylum. About 35,000 claimed to be “unaccompanied minors,” but could very well be young men disguising their age in order to improve their chances of not being deported.
Many are unemployed and jobless, straining the country’s welfare system. According to the Swedish Migration Agency, another 25,000 to 45,000 immigrants are expected this year.
Videos of the rioting and burning uploaded to YouTube reveal the extent of the violence, and contradict the media’s claims there has been no increase in violence. Rioters often outnumber the police, as they throw stones at the officers and beat them up.
What’s Really Happening
In the video below, a Swede in Rinkeby contradicts Swedish politicians and media reports. She says there isn’t a large police presence; they show up after the riots calm down. Law enforcement has set off 55 no-go zones, she reports. Law enforcement will not go into them unless in large patrols. The left-leaning media denies the existence of the no-go zones.
Videos show the radical Islamists plotting against law enforcement. They will plant a bomb in a trash can, then put it on fire. When the fire department comes to put out a fire, the bomb explodes on them. Similarly, they set traps for the police. They will report a rob and throw rocks at them.
The woman goes on to say that Trump’s remarks were accurate. In fact, the reason the violence doesn’t make the news is because it’s so prevalent. “There aren’t any headlines about this kind of stuff,” she explains, “since it’s so common.” Additionally, the Swedish politicians who deny it’s happening are “too proud … to admit they got it wrong. … They want to believe that they are so morally superior to everyone else that their multiculturalism can’t fail and that their feminism can’t fail.”
Rape as Jihad
Such violence by Muslim immigrants is not unique to Sweden. The problem is cropping in other European countries that have welcomed immigrants from Muslim countries. Writing in Algemeiner, Abigail R. Esman described the infamous New Year’s Eve attacks on women in Cologne, Germany, as “a different kind of terrorist attack.” Muslims in Europe have long exhibited misogyny, abuse and sexual exploitation of women, writes Esman, author of Radical State: How Jihad Is Winning Over Democracy in the West.
All of these trends have paved the way for sexual violence as a natural weapon for jihad in the age of ISIS. Indeed, we’ve seen it used not just in the mass gang rapes in Europe in recent years, but in the sexual enslavement of Yazidi girls in Syria and Iraq. We’ve seen it further in ISIS propaganda that even encourages its male members to rape women to bring them “closer to Allah.”
Thirty years ago, political and media elites might have been able to hide this. But they can’t prevent ordinary citizens from recording violent riots and arson with their smart phones and uploading the footage to YouTube and Facebook. The truth will get out. (For more from the author of “Fact Check: Trump Is Right. Violence Is Rising in Sweden” please click HERE)
https://joemiller.us/wp-content/uploads/burning-fire.jpg12801920Joe Millerhttps://joemiller.us/wp-content/uploads/logotext.pngJoe Miller2017-02-21 22:14:412017-02-21 22:14:41Fact Check: Trump Is Right. Violence Is Rising in Sweden
Sweden had been one of the top refugee intake countries in the world, accepting 160,000 asylum-seekers last year despite only having a population of 9.5 million.
But on Tuesday the country overwhelmingly passed a series of tough new restrictions that will limit the number of people granted permanent residency and make it harder for migrants to bring family members over.
A New York Times report says Sweden viewed the restrictions as “necessary to prevent the country from becoming overstretched”:
The government said that under the new rules, individuals who want to bring over family members but do not apply to do so within three months of arriving in Sweden, would have to prove they can financially support them; current regulations require sponsors to demonstrate only that they can support themselves. Permanent residency for asylum-seekers under the age of 25 would be restricted to those who have completed high school and can support themselves. (emphasis mine)
People who are formally granted refugee status would be able to bring over family members from abroad, but the legislation would circumscribe the family members who are eligible.
The new rules clearly have an emphasis on migrants being financially independent enough that they can support themselves and contribute to society.
Of course, human rights groups have already jumped on Sweden, denouncing the move as harmful to children, according to the New York Time. Protesters have gathered outside of Parliament declaring it “inhumane,” says the Associated Press.
Is a sovereign nation not permitted to decide who does and does not enter their borders?
Kudos to the Swedish lawmakers for finally paying attention to their citizens who have been negatively affected by Sweden’s past extremely liberal refugee policies. Better late than never. (For more from the author of “Burned by Liberal Refugee Policies, Sweden Now Wises Up” please click HERE)
https://joemiller.us/wp-content/uploads/5918017660_f164f3becf_o.jpg10671600Joe Millerhttps://joemiller.us/wp-content/uploads/logotext.pngJoe Miller2016-06-22 01:16:302016-06-22 01:16:30Burned by Liberal Refugee Policies, Sweden Now Wises Up
