Why Elon Musk’s ‘X App’ could be an even bigger headache for D.C. than Twitter

(Worthy Insights) – Even before Elon Musk’s dramatic and controversial takeover of Twitter, the restless mogul was pitching the social-media company as his key to realizing a much bigger dream.

Musk calls his next idea the “X App.” And if Musk-owned Twitter has already been a challenge for Washington’s politicians and regulators, the disruption caused by the X App could easily dwarf it.

The idea is a Western version of WeChat, the Chinese super-app that more than a billion people use for messaging, payments, shopping, rideshares, gaming, news and other daily activities. Musk is clearly serious about the plan: He tweeted about it this fall and pitched it to Twitter employees before he even bought the company, and reiterated the idea during a Twitter Spaces session in early December, saying “WeChat has a lot of functionality that Twitter should have.” [ Source: Politico (Read More…) ]

Jan. 6 Committee Raises ‘White Flag,’ Withdraws Major Action Against Trump

(Worthy Insights) – The House Jan. 6 committee has dropped its subpoena against former President Donald Trump as it wraps up work and prepares to dissolve next week.

Mississippi Rep. Bennie Thompson, the committee’s Democratic chairman, wrote in a letter to Trump lawyer David Warrington on Wednesday that he is formally withdrawing the subpoena.

“As you may know, the Select Committee has concluded its hearings, released its final report and will very soon reach its end,” Thompson wrote. “In light of the imminent end of our investigation, the Select Committee can no longer pursue the specific information covered by the subpoena.” [ Source: Western Journal (Read More…) ]

‘I Also Orchestrated It’: Uncharged J6 Witness Ray Epps Transcript Released

(Worthy Insights) – Ray Epps, the uncharged man identified as a key instigator behind the January 6, 2020 Capitol Breach for telling people to storm the Capitol, said in a text message to his nephew that he “orchestrated” things, according to newly released witness transcripts from the January 6th Committee. [ Source: ZeroHedge (Read More…) ]

 

Woolly Mammoth Hybrids Could Be Roaming Earth in Just Five Years

(Worthy Insights) – Over four billion species are estimated to have walked this planet over the last 3.5 billion years. Ninety-nine percent of them are now gone. But today’s researchers are hoping to reintroduce these lost species—or at least something very similar to them—within the next five years.

One biotechnology company, called Colossal Biosciences, is aiming to do just that with the long-extinct giant of the last ice age: the woolly mammoth. Launched by tech entrepreneur Ben Lamm and renowned geneticist George Church, Colossal Biosciences hopes to use gene editing technology to create a cold-resistant elephant that closely resembles its ancient ancestor in form and function.

Woolly mammoths went extinct around 3,700 years ago, but their close genetic relatives still walk among us to this day. [ Source: NewsWeek (Read More…) ]

2 New Minerals Discovered in Meteorite

(Worthy Insights) – Scientists have identified two minerals never before seen on Earth in a meteorite weighing 15.2 metric tonnes (33,510 pounds).

The minerals came from a 70-gram (nearly 2.5-ounce) slice of the meteorite, which was discovered in Somalia in 2020 and is the ninth-largest meteorite ever found, according to a news release from the University of Alberta.

One mineral’s name — elaliite — derives from the space object itself, which is called the “El Ali” meteorite since it was found near the town of El Ali in central Somalia.

Herd named the second one elkinstantonite after Lindy Elkins-Tanton, vice president of Arizona State University’s Interplanetary Initiative. Elkins-Tanton is also a regents professor in that university’s School of Earth and Space Exploration and the principal investigator of NASA’s upcoming Psyche mission — a journey to a metal-rich asteroid orbiting the sun between Mars and Jupiter, according to the space agency. [ Source: CTV (Read More…) ]

A startup says it’s begun releasing particles into the atmosphere, in an effort to tweak the climate

(Worthy Insights) – A startup claims it has launched weather balloons that may have released reflective sulfur particles in the stratosphere, potentially crossing a controversial barrier in the field of solar geoengineering.

Geoengineering refers to deliberate efforts to manipulate the climate by reflecting more sunlight back into space, mimicking a natural process that occurs in the aftermath of large volcanic eruptions. In theory, spraying sulfur and similar particles in sufficient quantities could potentially ease global warming.

It’s not technically difficult to release such compounds into the stratosphere. But scientists have mostly (though not entirely) refrained from carrying out even small-scale outdoor experiments. And it’s not clear that any have yet injected materials into that specific layer of the atmosphere in the context of geoengineering-related research. [ Source: MIT Technology (Read More…) ]

Can artificial skin be used to help burn victims? Growing industry eyes ‘revolution’

(Worthy Insights) – Far from the humble sticking plaster, medical firms and researchers are seeking to create the “ultimate dressing” — artificial skin they hope will revolutionize the treatment of severe burns.

For the last 18 months, researchers from the French firm Urgo have been working toward achieving this Holy Grail of wound treatment, which would save serious burn victims from the painful and repeated skin grafts they currently endure.

The 100 million euro ($106,000 million) “Genesis” project hopes to have a product ready by 2030. [ Source: Times of Israel (Read More…) ]

‘Twitter Files’ Bombshell Exposes Biden Admin’s Disturbing Pandemic Agenda

(Worthy Insights) – Another installment in the “Twitter Files” saga is once again exposing how Big Tech worked hand-in-glove with the Biden administration to further their agenda.

This time, it concerns how Twitter worked with the Biden administration to stop what it deemed “misinformation” about COVID-19 from being spread on the platform.

On Monday, author and journalist David Zweig took to Twitter to post a thread about how the social media giant “rigged the COVID debate,” by censoring inconvenient information about the pandemic, silencing health experts who dissented from the government’s consensus, and “suppressing ordinary users, including some sharing the CDC’s *own data*.” [ Source: Western Journal (Read More…) ]

Twitter’s James Baker Tried to Censor Trump for Sharing COVID Calm

Former FBI legal counsel James Baker made another appearance in Monday’s latest Twitter Files, the 10th edition, drawing a rebuke for attempting to have former President Donald Trump suspended for telling Americans to not be afraid at the start of the COVID-19 pandemic.

But, that is not all, Twitter CEO Elon Musk vowed Monday, teasing more revelations to come next week on COVID-19 censorship on the platform.

“Much more to The Twitter Files: Covid Edition than this introductory thread,” Musk tweeted. “Follow-up piece to come next week, featuring leading doctors & researchers from Harvard, Stanford & other institutions.” [ Source: NewsMax (Read More…) ]

How China’s Social Credit System Works

In mid-November, China’s top government agencies published a draft law to establish the country’s social credit system, envisioned as a giant, fully integrated mechanism to assess every legal entity in the country.

Beijing’s vision revolves around “creditworthiness,” a concept extended from the financial sector to measure reliability. A centralized database could, in theory, give relevant parties access to a rolling review of an individual or company’s trustworthiness in the form of a social credit score.

The rules would extend to the civil service and judiciary, too, with a view to increasing fairness and reducing corruption across departments. To encourage more self-discipline in the public and self-regulation in business, a system of reward and punishment could help the government fill a trust deficit in society. Source: NewsWeek (Read More)…

Shock wave from sun has opened up a crack in Earth’s magnetic field, and it could trigger a geomagnetic storm

A mysterious shock wave in a gust of solar wind has sent a barrage of high-speed material smashing into Earth’s magnetic field, opening up a crack in the magnetosphere. The barrage of plasma could lead to a geomagnetic storm today (Dec. 19), according to spaceweather.com.

The shockwave’s origins aren’t exactly known, but scientists think it could have come from a coronal mass ejection launched by the sunspot AR3165, a fizzing region on the sun’s surface that released a flurry of at least eight solar flares on Dec. 14, causing a brief radio blackout over the Atlantic Ocean.

Sunspots are areas on the sun’s surface where powerful magnetic fields, created by the flow of electrical charges, knot into kinks before suddenly snapping. The resulting release of energy launches bursts of radiation called solar flares, or plumes of solar material called coronal mass ejections (CMEs). Once launched, CMEs travel at speeds in the millions of miles per hour, sweeping up charged particles from the solar wind to form a giant, combined wavefront that (if pointed toward Earth) can trigger geomagnetic storms. Source: LiveScience

Latest ‘Twitter Files’ Bombshell Shows FBI Neck-Deep In Russian Disinformation Lie To Kill Hunter Biden Laptop Story

The night before the New York Post published emails recovered from an abandoned Hunter Biden laptop that established Joe Biden’s connections with his son’s business dealings, the FBI used a private communications channel to send 10 documents to a top Twitter executive.

While those documents and others remain cloistered at Twitter headquarters — likely because they are designated as classified — additional materials released Monday as part of the “Twitter Files,” part seven, suggest the FBI was extensively involved in crafting the Russian disinformation narrative to kill the Hunter Biden laptop story. Source: The Federalist

Twitter Files Part 8: Platform ‘directly assisted’ U.S. military’s influence operations

Investigative journalist Lee Fang released the eighth edition of the “Twitter Files” on Tuesday, putting a spotlight on how the social media juggernaut “quietly aided the Pentagon’s covert online PsyOp campaign.”

“Despite promises to shut down covert state-run propaganda networks, Twitter docs show that the social media giant directly assisted the U.S. military’s influence operations,” Fang wrote to kick off the lengthy thread detailing the company’s role in an alleged online psychological operation aimed at shaping opinion in the Middle East and beyond.

Elon Musk had been vocal about being transparent when it comes to Twitter’s past and present actions curating content on the platform, including censored content. The Twitter owner has enlisted journalists to slowly release evidence of these actions in a series dubbed the “Twitter Files” that continue to expose once-secret communications. Source: Fox News (Read More…)