Something mysterious is blocking vehicle key fobs from working in a small Alberta town

Key fobs that suddenly won't unlock vehicles. Cars that won't start. Alarms that go off for no reason. Something mysterious is thwarting drivers outside a grocery store in the small Alberta town of Carstairs — and it's sparking all kinds of theories.
Read more: https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/calgary/carstairs-westview-co-op-grocery-car-key-fob-1.4999558?source=Snapzu

Mueller says Russians are using his discovery materials in disinformation effort

Russians are using materials obtained from special counsel Robert Mueller's office in a disinformation campaign apparently aimed at discrediting the investigation into Moscow's election interference, federal prosecutors said on Wednesday.
Read more: https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/justice-department/mueller-says-russians-using-his-discovery-materials-disinformation-effort-n964811?source=Snapzu

Bell Asked Canadian Government to Ban Certain VPNs

Newly revealed documents show that media giant Bell previously urged the Canadian Government to ban 'copyright infringing' VPNs. The request was made in a 2017 submission regarding the NAFTA trade deal negotiations. This call didn't lead anywhere but with site-blocking still on the agenda, VPNs remain a topic of interest.
Read more: https://torrentfreak.com/bell-asked-canadian-government-to-ban-certain-vpns-190129/?source=Snapzu

The reports of bitcoin environmental damage are garbage

I have a background in electricity, from when I was an investment banker. I worked in a Natural Resources & Power group for about 8 years and modelled electricity systems and assets in the UK and China in the context of acquisitions, capital raisings, restructurings, and regulatory submissions. One of the banks that I worked for was HSBC, in their emerging markets M&A team, and I know China well.
Read more: https://hackernoon.com/the-reports-of-bitcoin-environmental-damage-are-garbage-5a93d32c2d7?source=Snapzu

Time Is Running Out for a Beloved Mechanical Horse-Race Game in Vegas

There's only one Sigma Derby machine left.
Read more: https://www.atlasobscura.com/articles/what-is-sigma-derby?source=Snapzu

Chicago Is So Ridiculously Cold That the Railroad Tracks Need to Be on Fire to Keep the Trains Moving

There are over 140,000 miles of privately-owned standard-gauge rail in the United States, vital to the transportation of billions of tons of freight and people. Occasionally, it gets really cold where some of those train tracks sit. Like right now, in Chicago, where Wednesday’s high temperature is expected to be thirteen degrees below zero. Those temperatures are potentially deadly for humans, and deforming for the long pieces of metal that trains ride on.
Read more: https://jalopnik.com/chicago-is-so-ridiculously-cold-that-the-railroad-track-1832177510?source=Snapzu

How Cold Is It In Canada And The Upper Midwest? Colder Than Mars, In Parts

We knew we were in for a very cold, potentially life-threatening, week, but we had no idea that it was going to be this cold, like Mars-is-looking-pretty-good-now-compared-to-Earth degree of coldness. According to Mars Weather, a Twitter account that posts updates on the weather on the red planet, in certain parts of North America, the high temperatures yesterday were even lower than Mars' last reported high...
Read more: http://digg.com/2019/us-canada-colder-than-mars?source=Snapzu

US government scientists debunk Trump’s ‘global waming’ tweets with cartoon

US government climate scientists take unprecedented step of tweeting a rebuttal to PDonald Trump’s recent tweets implying that winter storms and cold weather in US somehow disprove global warming.…
Read more: https://reneweconomy.com.au/us-government-scientists-debunk-trumps-global-waming-tweets-with-cartoon-92722/?source=Snapzu

A Former Pastor Of Trump's Church Says He Never Saw Him There

President Donald Trump gave Bible literacy legislation a shout-out on Monday with a tweet praising states that are “starting to make a turn back” to an unspecified time when public schools apparently relished in Bible study. As The Washington Post’s Mark Chancy noted, there was no such time in American history. And as Trump’s former pastor noted, in any case, the president can’t exactly speak with much authority on the subject.
Read more: https://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/former-marble-collegiate-pastor-says-he-never-saw-trump-at-church_us_5c51f51ee4b04f8645c728a8?source=Snapzu

Couple Stumble on 1950s Suitcase Full of Cash Hidden in a Wall While Renovating Basement

When a Cleveland couple decided to renovate their home, the last thing they expected was to come out of the whole ordeal $23,000 richer. As they shared in a recent post on Imgur, though, a foray into the previously untouched basement during their renovations yielded quite a handsome payout! The couple, who posted on Reddit under the name Branik12, explained that they had started remodeling their 1940s house on the main floor and hadn’t gotten to the basement until a few years into their residency.
Read more: https://www.theepochtimes.com/couple-stumble-on-1950s-suitcase-full-of-cash-hidden-in-a-wall-while-renovating-basement_2784222.html?source=Snapzu

Why some Japanese pensioners want to go to jail

Japan is in the grip of an elderly crime wave. Poverty and loneliness are two of the possible causes.
Read more: https://www.bbc.com/news/stories-47033704?source=Snapzu

NM to join 18 states in climate change coalition

Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham has ordered New Mexico to join a national coalition of states seeking to combat the effects of climate change, as part of a far-reaching plan to shift the state toward a renewable energy economy. At a news conference in the state Capitol, the Democratic governor described the order as a “game-changer” that outlines broad, state-level initiatives to make up for a lack of federal action on climate change.
Read more: https://www.abqjournal.com/1274267/governor-signs-executive-order-on-climate-change.html?source=Snapzu

Bill Gates says poverty is decreasing. He couldn’t be more wrong

Last week, as world leaders and business elites arrived in Davos for the World Economic Forum, Bill Gates tweeted an infographic to his 46 million followers showing that the world has been getting better and better. “This is one of my favourite infographics,” he wrote. “A lot of people underestimate just how much life has improved over the past two centuries.”
Read more: https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2019/jan/29/bill-gates-davos-global-poverty-infographic-neoliberal?source=Snapzu

Medical Marijuana Commercial Rejected for Super Bowl

CBS rejected a 60-second Super Bowl ad promoting the federal legalization of medical marijuana. The ad features three people with health issues who say that medical marijuana helped them: Austin, a Florence, CO, boy with Dravet syndrome (a type of epilepsy); Greg Kazmierczak, a man from Buffalo, NY, who has had three back surgeries and was on opioids for 15 years; and Ryan Miller, an Oakland, CA, former Army infantry officer who lost his leg due to a combat injury.
Read more: https://www.procon.org/headline.php?headlineID=005428?source=Snapzu

The Creator of the Roomba Just Launched a Lawn Mower

Product to go on sale in Germany in 2019, globally in 2020.
Read more: https://www.bloombergquint.com/business/irobot-s-follow-up-act-to-the-roomba-vacuum-mowing-the-lawn#gs.hkzRXmgX?source=Snapzu

Adulterer Trump approves of forcing public schools to teach Bible classes to improve morality

North Dakota State Representative Aaron McWilliams has introduced a bill that would require high schools to teach a Bible class instead of the required semester of civics. The law would not distinguish between teaching the course as “literature” or religious studies. The bill is seen as a gift to evangelical Christians who have attempted to use similar laws to push anti-LGBTQ, misogynistic, and xenophobic religious teachings to children.
Read more: https://www.lgbtqnation.com/2019/01/adulterer-trump-approves-forcing-public-schools-teach-bible-classes-improve-morality/?source=Snapzu

NASA is back to work, but the effects of the government shutdown linger

This week, thousands of civil servants and contractors are back at work at NASA’s various centers throughout the country following a record 35-day government shutdown — but it will be a while before it’s work as usual again at the agency. These first few days back on the job will be consumed with practical matters, such as figuring out employee backpay and how to dive back into projects.
Read more: https://www.theverge.com/2019/1/29/18202071/nasa-government-shutdown-recovery-backpay-contractors?source=Snapzu

EU proposes ban on 90% of microplastic pollutants

European Chemicals Agency draft law aims to cut 400,000 tonnes of plastic pollution
Read more: https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2019/jan/30/eu-european-union-proposes-microplastics-ban-plastic-pollution?source=Snapzu

“Space: 1999” is a blast from a past that never was…

When I was a kid, 1999 was a year of a far-off future where we’d have flying cars, robots in every home, and of course, moonbases. It was a year that seemed poised on the cusp of greatness. One of the most popular songs when I was in high school was “Party Like It’s 1999,” from the late pop star Prince (still sad that I have to say ‘late’). It was a year that promised much in a shiny new millennium.
Read more: https://musingsofamiddleagedgeek.blog/2019/01/29/space-1999-is-a-blast-from-a-past-that-never-was/?source=Snapzu

Extreme cold torturing much of the US, Minnesota may see wind chills of minus 70 degrees

"Neither snow nor rain nor heat nor gloom of night stays these couriers from the swift completion of their appointed rounds," the saying goes. But whoever said that didn't face weather of the kind predicted for Wednesday. So postal workers won't be out delivering anything in six entire states, and parts of four others. The US Postal Service said Tuesday night on Facebook that because of the predicted deteriorating weather conditions in the Midwest, delivery will be suspended in some areas.
Read more: https://cnn.it/2B82TrU?source=Snapzu

These YouTubers are owed $1.7 million, and they’re probably never going to get it

A group of approximately 50 YouTube creators allegedly owed more than $1.7 million following the collapse of network Defy Media are unlikely to see that money. Ally Bank, one of Defy Media’s financial backers, tweeted a statement on January 25th following a video from popular YouTube creator Matthew “MatPat” Patrick asking Ally to give him and other YouTube creators the money they’re owed by Defy.
Read more: https://www.theverge.com/2019/1/29/18202131/matpat-defy-media-youtube-ally-bank-ryland-adams-multi-channel-network?source=Snapzu

Electronics Are 'the Fastest-Growing Waste Stream in the World’

Electronic waste is a growing threat to the environment. Thanks to the low cost of manufacturing, it’s easier than ever for corporations to pump out millions of laptops, smart phones, internet of things devices, and other electronics. Electronics companies want consumers to keep buying new products, and believe repair and reuse hurts their bottom line. Old CRT monitors and televisions fill warehouses across the country, and companies like Apple and Microsoft pay lip service to the problem, but often pursue business practices that make the problem worse.
Read more: https://motherboard.vice.com/en_us/article/8xynba/world-economic-forum-at-davos-electronics-are-the-fastest-growing-waste-stream-in-the-world?source=Snapzu

FBI Finds No Motive In Las Vegas Shooting, Closes Investigation

More than a year after the FBI began its investigation, the agency has completed an analysis of the man behind the Oct. 1, 2017, mass shooting in Las Vegas, concluding there was "no single or clear motivating factor" driving Stephen Paddock's killing rampage and subsequent suicide.
Read more: https://www.npr.org/2019/01/29/689821599/fbi-finds-no-motive-in-las-vegas-shooting-closes-investigation?source=Snapzu

U.S. on track to add $12 trillion to national debt by 2029 unless Washington changes course

Washington has been drowning in red ink for years and it’s only going to get a lot worse over the next decade, a fresh government estimate shows. The U.S. is likely to add $12 trillion in public debt from 2020 to 2029 through a combination of higher government spending and slower economic growth, according to the Congressional Budget Office. That’s on top of the $16.6 trillion the government is expected to owe to the public at the end of 2019.
Read more: https://www.marketwatch.com/story/us-on-track-to-add-12-trillion-to-national-debt-by-2029-unless-washington-changes-course-2019-01-28?source=Snapzu

Vatican has 'one of the largest homosexual communities in the world'

LSN reported that a press release is to be be published today in several different languages that contains more disclosures about the book authored by French journalist Frédéric Martel, above. According to the French version of the press release, the book, which became available on Amazon last week, claims that there now exists in the Vatican...
Read more: https://www.patheos.com/blogs/thefreethinker/2019/01/vatican-has-one-of-the-largest-homosexual-communities-in-the-world/?source=Snapzu

A boy who was lost in the woods says a bear kept him company. No one can prove it didn't happen.

We may never know what Casey Hathaway was doing during the three days he was missing. He was found on Thursday, cold but alive, in a mess of vines and thorns. But the 3-year-old has volunteered one noteworthy detail about those days in the woods: a bear kept him company. "He made a comment about having a friend while he was in the woods -- his friend was a bear," Maj. David McFadyen with the Craven County Sheriff's Office told CNN Monday. "In the emergency room he started talking about what happened in the woods and he said he had a friend that was a bear with him while he was in the woods."
Read more: https://www.cnn.com/2019/01/28/us/casey-hathaway-bear-claims/index.html?source=Snapzu

‘World’s Loneliest Duck’ Dies on Tiny Pacific Island That Loved Him

His nickname was a little off, since Trevor, the only duck on the island of Niue, was beloved by its 1,600 residents. They mourned after he was killed by a stray dog.
Read more: https://www.nytimes.com/2019/01/29/world/asia/niue-loneliest-duck.html?source=Snapzu

US shutdown cost $3bn, says budget office

The partial shutdown of the US government is estimated to have cost the US economy $3bn (£2.3bn). The loss is expected to slash 0.02% from the country's growth in 2019, the Congressional Budget Office (CBO) said. The agency said overall damage amounted to about $11bn, but much of that will be recovered as work resumes. New trade tariffs could also knock about 0.1% off growth up until 2029, as higher costs prompt lower consumption and investment, it said.
Read more: https://www.bbc.com/news/business-47033219?source=Snapzu

Lawmakers Propose Bill That Would Make Animal Cruelty A Felony In The U.S.

A pair of Florida congressmen reintroduced a bill last week that would make animal cruelty a felony nationwide. According to the Orlando Sentinel, the Preventing Animal Cruelty and Torture (PACT) Act from Rep. Ted Deutch, D-West Boca, and Rep. Vern Buchanan, R-Sarasota, would target “crushing, burning, drowning, suffocating and impaling animals.” The measure would also address bestiality and other efforts to sexually exploit animals.
Read more: https://5newsonline.com/2019/01/28/lawmakers-propose-bill-that-would-make-animal-cruelty-a-felony-in-the-us/?source=Snapzu

The tiny library bringing books to remote villages

“Without a book, so often the child is alone,” says Antonio La Cava. The retired schoolteacher converted his three-wheeled van into a mobile library, the Bibliomotocarro. Driving the hills and mountains of Basilicata, Italy, La Cava is able to reach children in remote villages like San Paolo Albanese, which only has two children of primary school age. “I was strongly worried about growing old in a country of non-readers.” La Cava believes that it’s important to spread the joy of literature to as many children as possible: “carrying out such action has a value, not only social, not only cultural, but has a great ethical meaning.”
Read more: http://www.bbc.com/culture/story/20190125-the-tiny-library-bringing-books-to-remote-villages?source=Snapzu

$1.5 trillion tax cut had no major impact on business spending

The Trump administration's $1.5 trillion tax cut package appeared to have no major impact on businesses' capital investment or hiring plans, according to a survey released a year after the biggest overhaul of the tax code in more than 30 years. The National Association of Business Economics' quarterly business conditions poll, published on Monday, found that while some companies reported accelerating investments because of lower corporate taxes...
Read more: https://www.nbcnews.com/business/economy/1-5-trillion-tax-cut-had-no-major-impact-business-n963411?cid=sm_npd_nn_tw_ma?source=Snapzu

US charges Chinese tech giant Huawei with fraud and stealing trade secrets

US federal prosecutors went after Chinese telecommunications giant Huawei for financial fraud in a sweeping 13-count indictment unsealed Monday, and announced 10 additional charges against Huawei and its US subsidiary for allegedly stealing trade secrets. Both indictments could escalate tensions between Washington and Beijing — right as the two try to sort out their trade war.
Read more: https://www.vox.com/world/2019/1/28/18201190/huawei-meng-indictment-china-trump-iran?source=Snapzu

Park Rangers Return to Work to Assess ‘Irreparable’ Damage as Government Shutdown Ends (for Now)

The partial government shutdown that has endangered nature and visitors at understaffed national parks finally came to an end Friday, when President Donald Trump agreed to temporarily reopen the government despite not receiving any money for his proposed border wall. The deal will put some 800,000 federal workers, who have now missed two paychecks, back to work while the president and Congress try and reach a deal over funding for the wall that would put 93 species at risk from extinction. But the fix, which ends the longest government shutdown in U.S. history, is only temporary.
Read more: https://www.ecowatch.com/national-parks-conservation-trump-shutdown-2627304417.html?source=Snapzu

NOW TV want to pay someone £35,000 to binge watch box-sets

A £35,000 salary to watch loads of TV, what's the catch? Well, there is only one position going. The job comes courtesy of NOW TV - and the streaming service will be offering one lucky person the chance to take a 'box-set sabbatical'. Essentially what this means is that they're going to pay someone a lot of money - £35,000 to be exact - to binge-watch box-sets every day for an entire year.
Read more: https://www.manchestereveningnews.co.uk/news/tv/nowtv-binge-watch-shows-job-15729020?source=Snapzu

LSD Changes Something About The Way You Perceive Time

We measure time in set amounts— seconds, minutes, and hours. But the way time feels is more slippery. 
Read more: https://tonic.vice.com/en_us/article/j5zd7p/lsd-changes-something-about-the-way-you-perceive-time?source=Snapzu

The Personal Toll of Whistle-Blowing

Why one physician took the risk of becoming an F.B.I. informant to expose alleged Medicare fraud.
Read more: https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2019/02/04/the-personal-toll-of-whistle-blowing?source=Snapzu

Trump lifts sanctions on firms linked to Russian oligarch Oleg Deripaska

The Trump administration on Sunday lifted sanctions on three companies, including the aluminum giant Rusal, linked to Russian oligarch Oleg Deripaska. Democrats had led a push in Congress to continue the restrictions. Earlier this month, Senate Republicans blocked an effort to keep the sanctions on Rusal, En+ Group and JSC EuroSibEnergo. Some lawmakers from both parties have said it is inappropriate to ease sanctions on companies tied to Deripaska, an ally of Russian president Vladimir Putin, while special counsel Robert Mueller investigates whether Trump’s 2016 presidential campaign colluded with Moscow.
Read more: https://www.theguardian.com/world/2019/jan/27/us-lifts-sanctions-oleg-deripaska-russia?source=Snapzu

South Korea rules pre-installed phone bloatware must be deletable

New guidelines will require the industry to allow smartphone users the option to delete unnecessary pre-loaded applications, to rectify unreasonable practices and reduce inconvenience.
Read more: https://www.zdnet.com/article/south-korea-rules-pre-installed-phone-bloatware-must-be-deletable/?source=Snapzu

From secrecy to dignity: trust and policy implications of shifting attitudes to privacy

The public typically trusts governments to protect personal data more than they trust the private sector. Social media companies are among the least trusted.News & events
Read more: https://nsc.crawford.anu.edu.au/department-news/13675/secrecy-dignity-trust-and-policy-implications-shifting-attitudes-privacy?source=Snapzu

Speaking Black Dialect in Courtrooms Can Have Striking Consequences

A soon-to-be published study found court reporters in Philadelphia regularly made errors when transcribing sentences spoken in a dialect linguists term African-American English.
Read more: https://www.nytimes.com/2019/01/25/us/black-dialect-courtrooms.html?source=Snapzu

Alice Cooper - Billion Dollar Babies

Trashes the World
Read more: https://snapzu.com/Appaloosa/alice-cooper-billion-dollar-babies?source=Snapzu

Detained blogger revealed true picture of Chinese information warfare

Dr Yang Hengjun is that rare combination of a scholar superbly trained in China and the West.
Read more: https://www.smh.com.au/world/asia/detained-blogger-revealed-true-picture-of-chinese-information-warfare-20190125-p50tmq.html?source=Snapzu

Germany Lays Out a Path to Quit Coal by 2038

A committee of disparate interests envisages sending billions of euros and thousands of government jobs to coal country as mines and power plants shut down.
Read more: https://www.nytimes.com/2019/01/26/world/europe/germany-quit-coal-2038.html?source=Snapzu

Family behind OxyContin maker engineered opioid crisis, Massachusetts AG says

In a lawsuit, the state targets eight members of the Sackler family.
Read more: https://www.cbsnews.com/news/purdue-pharma-lawsuit-massachusetts-attorney-general-blames-sackler-family-for-creating-opioid-crisis-oxycontin/?source=Snapzu

Trump donates $100,000 to alcoholism research from presidential salary

President Donald Trump has donated his salary from the third-quarter of 2018 to the federal agency that researches alcoholism and alcohol-related problems. The White House says Trump donated $100,000 to the National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism. Alcoholism is a personal issue for the president. His older brother, Fred Jr., died in 1981 after struggling with alcoholism, and the president has said he learned from his brother's experience.
Read more: https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/politics/2019/01/26/trump-donates-part-salary-alcoholism-research/2688769002/?source=Snapzu

Secret filming shows sick cows slaughtered for meat in Poland

Undercover film raises fears of serious health risks from major EU exporting country
Read more: https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2019/jan/27/secret-filming-shows-sick-cows-slaughtered-for-meat-in-poland?source=Snapzu

IRS will need at least a year to recover from government shutdown, watchdog tells Congress

The Internal Revenue Service has told lawmakers it would return from the government shutdown buried in millions of unanswered taxpayer letters, weeks behind schedule on training for workers and in need of hiring thousands of new employees for this tax filing season, according to two House aides.
Read more: https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/2019/01/26/irs-will-need-least-year-recover-government-shutdown-watchdog-tells-congress/?source=Snapzu

Why Is TV So Addicted to Crime?

In 1949, CBS started broadcasting a show called Man Against Crime. It starred Ralph Bellamy, and the general idea would be familiar to anybody watching TV in 2019: A crime happens, and then a man “solves” it. Bellamy played Detective Mike Barnett, a beefy, gun-wielding tough who would discover clues and pressure witnesses, rooting out the ne’er-do-wells to return things to the status quo.
Read more: https://www.vulture.com/2019/01/why-is-tv-addicted-to-crime-shows.html?source=Snapzu

People keep dialing 911 on this statue of a homeless Jesus in Minneapolis

He watched medics hop out and surround a thin figure draped in a blanket on a nearby bench. He was not alarmed, nor was he concerned for the person on the bench. The figure is not a person at all, but a statue. The “Homeless Jesus” sculpture has been stationed outside the basilica since 2017. It depicts a man lying on a bench with his face totally shrouded, huddling to keep warm. The only way you can tell it’s Jesus at all is by the twin piercings in its feet.
Read more: http://www.citypages.com/news/people-keep-dialing-911-on-this-statue-of-a-homeless-jesus-in-minneapolis/504838782?source=Snapzu

Wikileaks denies ties to Roger Stone, says Mueller indictment shows nothing but “braggadocio”

Hours after Donald Trump associate Roger Stone was indicted for lying to congress about his communications with the transparency organization Wikileaks, the organization disavowed its ties to the longtime Republican political operative and argued that the indictment was proof that there was no “back channel” between it and the Trump campaign.
Read more: https://www.newsweek.com/wikileaks-denies-ties-roger-stone-says-mueller-indictment-braggadocio-1305370?source=Snapzu