Dollar Dive: China's economy soon to leave US far behind

Amazing Superpowers Humans Will Be Able To Get From Brain Implants

A tiny computer chip surgically embedded in your brain could give you superpowers. It sounds crazy, but scientists already use these devices to restore sight for some blind people and hearing for the deaf.

In the future these implants, also known as neuroprosthetics, will be able to do much more — sometimes with the help of super-sensitive eye or ear implants.

By using electronic signals to stimulate parts of the brain, these chips can now deliver visual and auditory signals and restore connections that have been severed by trauma. Once our understanding of the brain has improved, researchers think it will be possible to deliver more data to the mind.

It’s currently risky to drill into the skull and put a small electronic device in there, but the technology is rapidly advancing. Soon, things we consider superpowers will be readily available to anyone who wants them — and can afford it.

Here are some of the things that brain implants will make possible.

1. Hear a conversation from across a room, or in a crowded club.

Already, cochlear implants can restore hearing for some people, and even allow them to hear for the first time. With the help of specialised hardware, they could tune out what you don’t want to hear, or use sensitive equipment to pick up far-off soundwaves.

2. Give you the ability to see in the dark.

FDA-approved retinal implants can restore the ability to see motion and shapes for people blinded by a certain genetic condition already. As understanding of the ocular nerve improves, better versions of these implants could give you the night vision of a cat.

3. Give you sight that can zoom in on things that are far away.

Researchers have already developed contacts that can zoom. But a retinal prosthetic that could do the same thing should make it possible to do this all the time.

4. Make you better at maths and navigation.

Directly stimulating areas of the brain can already boost people’s mathematical and navigational abilities in a lab setting. With a brain implant that did this all the time, it’d be a lot harder to pull the “I’m just not a maths person” excuse anymore.

5. Allow you to download skills like in “The Matrix.”

Researchers claim that once we understand how practicing a skill transforms the brain over time, we might be able to use implants to cause those same transformations to occur, providing the motor memory for kung-fu skills, or whatever else you want to learn.

6. Restore damaged memories.

The military’s Defence Advanced Research Projects Agency is already experimenting with brain implants that will help soldiers suffering from traumatic brain injuries by using electrodes to stimulate damaged tissue. In the future, this could be a valuable medical technology.

7. Cure depression and control mood.

DARPA is also working on neuroprosthetics that could cure depression and PTSD. This is similar to recent research showing how Transcranial Magnetic Stimulation might be an extremely effective antidepressant. Future implants could regulate the brain and make sure it keeps working the way it should, providing stimulation when necessary.

8. Enhance focus and energy, like stimulants without the drugs.

Drugs like Adderall and Ritalin are well known for their alertness-boosting abilities, but also for their serious side effects. Brain stimulation could both enhance focus and mental clarity, but without the jittery, speedy, up-all-night feelings — and the post-amphetamine crash.

9. Control machines with your mind.

It sounds crazy, but researchers have already used a neuroprosthetic sensor to control a robotic arm. As this technology is refined, that control will only become more accurate, allowing for remote control of robots, computers, and more.

10. Search the web and translate languages.

Once these implants can transmit and receive information, it should be possible to think of a topic — or look at a tree or painting — and send that information to the web, and have relevant results fed back into your brain. This technology is still far away, and will depend on smaller and biologically safer computer chips, as well as better brain maps.

Once that’s possible, it will have even greater implications. Imagine being able to travel anywhere in the world and being able to understand what’s being said. The same technology that transmits auditory information could potentially feed that data through a translating service and interpret it for you in real time, like your very own Babel fish.




Credit to Prophecy News Watch


Read more at http://www.prophecynewswatch.com/2014/May19/195.html#HKPBhAiCSMKEMESK.99

China Piles Troops, Tanks, Artillery And APCs Near Vietnam Border

Earlier today, Putin did his usual "we are pulling our forces away from the Ukraine border" gambit (sure he is... and is replacing them with a massive airforce drill), and as usual the algos fell for it, after European stocks suddenly surged out of nowhere on the now quite generic bounce catalyst (Update: RASMUSSEN: NO SIGN OF RUSSIAN TROOP PULLBACK FROM NEAR UKRAINE - what a surprise), but what is shaping up as a far more dangerous escalation is what China is doing next to its border with Vietnam, where as reported previously protesters destroyed Chinese factories and killed Chinese civilians in retaliation over yet another maritime territorial spat. According to the Epoch Times, "troops, tanks, trucks, artillery, and armored personnel carriers of China’s military were seen heading to the Vietnamese border on May 16 and 17, according to photographs taken by by residents near the border."

Chinese netizens have been posting photographs of the large movement of the People’s Liberation Army, many of them showing Chinese troops in full combat gear heading to the local train station in Chongzuo, along with military vehicles.

One netizen said the Chinese military was taking the train from the Chongzuo station to Pingxiang City, which shares a 60-mile border with Vietnam. The netizen said that the Huu Nghi Border Gate to Vietnam is also now closed.

One of the photos, taken from inside a passenger train, shows the Chinese military preparing artillery for transport on a train track. Others show Chinese troops and military vehicles traveling along dirt roads.

Another photograph shows troops walking under the red-colored entrance to the Longzhou International Building Materials Market, on Provincial Road in the city of Chongzuo.

A reverse image search of each of the photographs using Google indicated that the photographs had appeared on the Internet only recently. Most were indexed by Google on Saturday.

Collectively, the images and eyewitness reports from the ground show what Taiwanese media are calling an “endless stream” of Chinese troops.

Why is China doing this? Simple: "One netizen, with the username Zhiyuan0703, echoed a common sentiment on the Chinese social media site, “Conflict between China and Vietnam is imminent.”

And just in case the US gets any ideas to support its one time foe, China has already taken measures:

Fang Fenghui, the Chinese military’s chief of the general staff, spoke with reporters at the Pentagon on May 15, alongside U.S. Joint Chiefs of Staff Chairman Gen. Martin Dempsey.

Fang defended China’s oil drilling in disputed waters with Vietnam. He also warned the United States on taking sides, saying through a Chinese translator “there is possibility that these issues could affect or disturb the relationship between the two countries and two militaries.”

White House press secretary Jay Carney reiterated the U.S. stance on China’s oil rig, however, during a May 15 press briefing.

He said China’s oil rig, which the Chinese regime has accompanied with “numerous government vessels” is a “provocative act and it raises tensions in the region, and by raising tensions makes it more difficult to resolve claims over disputed territory in a manner that supports peace and stability in the region.”

Carney said the United States takes no position on the territorial claims, but, “We do take a position on the conduct of the claimants who must resolve their disputes peacefully, without intimidation, without coercion, and in accordance with international law.”

Regarding China’s oil rig and the tensions that have formed around it, Carney said, “We consider that act provocative and we consider it one that undermines the goal that we share, which is a peaceful resolution of these disputes and general stability in the region.”

But fear not: the futures are actively monitoring this, and all other global geopolitical conflicts, and are absolutely confident the Fed will fix it should war break out. As usual, we wish algos the best of luck, because as ET summarizes, "China is currently involved in territorial conflicts with nearly all its neighbors." Once again - what can possibly go wrong? Judging by the photos below, nothing at all.

A Bradley Attack Vehicle troop transport of the Chinese military, is seen in Kunming, Yunnan, in Southwest China. Chinese netizens have posted several photos showing the Chinese military moving toward the Vietnamese border. (Weibo.com)

A Chinese tank is seen near the border with Vietnam, as tensions grow more tense between the two countries. (Weibo.com)

Chinese troops carrying anti-tank weapons are seen marching in Guangxi Province, near the border with Vietnam. Local netizens report a strong smell of gunpowder. (Weibo.com)

A convoy of Chinese military vehicles are seen in Fangchenggang City in Guangxi, near the Vietnam border. (Weibo.com)

Chinese troops march in Chongzuo City in Guangxi Province near the Vietnam border. Chinese netizens say the troops are moving along the border. (Weibo.com)

Chinese troops are seen marching in a city street in Chongzuo in China’s Guangxi Province near the Vietnam border. (Weibo.com)

Chinese artillery is being transported in Chongzuo City, Guangxi Province. (Weibo.com)

Credit to Zero Hedge

Groundbreaking Info On Martial Law Training Base In Virginia

The heaviest rains since records began 120 years ago.

Soldiers and energy workers have stacked thousands of sandbags to protect Serbia's biggest power plant from flood waters, which are expected to keep rising after the heaviest rains in the Balkans in more than a century killed dozens of people.

On Monday, Bosnian state radio reported that the swollen Sava river, which has wreaked havoc in Serbia, Bosnia and Croatia, had again overwhelmed flood defences late on Sunday and flooded parts of the northern town of Orasje.

Waters receded in other parts of Bosnia, leaving behind mud, debris and dead animals. Another 1,000 people were evacuated from the border town of Bijeljina, threatened by flood waters from the Sava and the Drina, as well as 5,000 people from the northern town of Odzak, reports said.

In Serbia, a wall of sandbags several miles long was built around the Nikola Tesla power plant in the flood-hit town of Obrenovac, 20 miles south-west of the capital, Belgrade. It covers roughly half of Serbia's electricity needs.

A Reuters cameraman saw another 10 trucks stacked with sandbags standing by. Authorities in Belgrade said emergency services and volunteers had filled 60,000 bags and dispatched them to the power plant.

 

Map of the floods in the Balkans

A union spokeswoman at Serbia's EPS power utility said some employees had worked three days with barely a break because their relief team could not reach the plant.

"The plant should be safe now," Djina Trisovic said. "We've done all we could. Now it's in the hands of God."

Parts of the plant were already shut down as a precaution, and it would have to be powered down completely if the waters breached the defences.

Serbia is bracing for another flood wave from the Sava, swollen by the heaviest rains since records began 120 years ago.

Credit to The Guardian

Elites Prepare For Engineered Societal Collapse

MISSION ACCOMPLISHED & MESSAGE SENT

May 14, 2014: “We decided long ago that the dangers of excessive and unwarranted concealment of pertinent facts far outweighed the dangers which are cited to justify it.” That single sentence, selected from an address given by former President John F. Kennedy to the American Newspaper Publishers Association on April 27, 1961, is perhaps more relevant today than ever before. We know that plans, plots and schemes are afoot today, many to our collective and individual detriment. They are being conducted under various pretexts and concealed by collusion of the elected and appointed to an unwitting and often apathetic public.

Many patriots appear to have given up hope in their quest for truth, as the government seems to be doubling down and refining their tactics of concealment. Combined with a disinterested or perhaps complicit media, it is easier to acquiesce rather than fight, particularly when the general perception is that few care for the truth of a matter. They claim that there is a “lack of public interest.” Accordingly, we are told that we don’t need to know the facts of a matter, whatever that matter might be, for it is not in the interest of the public. There is an arguably corrupt element entrenched within the government who expects us to stop asking and quietly go away, downtrodden and defeated, adherent to the adage that we “cannot fight city hall.”

Should any interest of a particular matter rise to a level of collective concern, this criminal element will use other tactics to keep truth buried, evidence hidden, and information from our view. Often, they will characterize those of us asking questions as conspiracy theorists or use other pejoratives to dissuade us from pursuing the truth. As no one likes such labels that assail our intellect, rationale and even our sanity, making us appear foolish even at the most superficial of levels, we often back down from our quest for answers. It’s an information war and a numbers game combined. The playing fields are numerous, from the general media to internet forums, where each venue is filled with operational assets or mere sycophants to the cabal of authority. Through the use of these varied tactics, they are counting on us to back down so they may continue their nefarious agenda unmolested by “problem children.”

A mission to obtain information in the strange death of Loretta Fuddy

I proudly write this column today to state that we have proven them wrong, at least in one instance that has the potential to reveal possible criminal activity, criminal conspiracy and collusion spanning a significant area of concern for all Americans. Yesterday, I wrote about one internet researcher’s quest for information from government sources about the circumstances involving the water landing of the plane carrying Hawaiian Department of Health Director Loretta Fuddy, and her reported death. She was the sole fatality of that water landing, and just happened to be the person who authenticated the long form birth certificate of Barack Hussein Obama.

The internet researcher using the name Butterdezillion, although known to this investigator by her true name and credentials, filed Freedom of Information Act requests for documents related to that airplane “crash.” What she has received to date shows a pattern of inconsistencies that warrant additional investigation and documentation available under FOIA. When she requested the needed documentation and a waiver of the fee for the same, citing that the information was in the public interest, she was denied, as were her appeals. As such, she was told, the fee for the requested data would be about $2,000.00.

As we discussed our options, I wondered whether there is indeed public interest, contrary to the government’s claims. Well, the government bureaucrats claiming that public interest in this matter is limited to a very tiny fringe of nutcases were proven wrong. Very wrong.

On the Monday edition of my radio show, I asked those who believe that the revelations contained in the government documents are in the public’s interest to step forward and step up, to help us pay the fee assessed by the government for this data. I wrote about the facts here, and asked not for large contributions, but intentionally smaller contributions to illustrate that there are many people who are demanding the truth and this is not a fringe issue.

Less than 24 hours after my appeal, we had a tremendous response and met the burden of the government’s fee. Because of you, we have collected the necessary funds to overcome this obstacle through the money received and pledged. Through your involvement, you’ve also sent a strong message to those in power. We want and expect answers. We can fight city hall. Yesterday, we went “all in” and guaranteed payment for the information, thus starting the FOIA clock that puts the government on a particular schedule. We eagerly anticipate receiving this information, reviewing the same, and publishing it in the interest of the public.

Simply stated, we won this battle on the numbers. We have shown that there many concerned Americans, and even some in other countries, who want the truth. They are demanding the truth, and have proven their willingness to fight for it.

The urgency of our request was met with a response that shows there are people who refuse to roll over and still believe we can fight city hall. The urgency of our request was based in the thought that the sooner we can obtain the requested data the less time they have to alter, edit, redact or remove information, which are tactics we’ve seen regarding this matter. You, the listeners my show and the readers of this website, have proven that you’re people of action and not just words. By your actions, you have placed the gatekeepers of information on notice that you will not be deterred in your quest for the truth. Much like the recent events of Bunkerville, Nevada, you’ve sent a clear message to those in power.

As such, I am grateful to report, for this portion of the information war, “MISSION ACCOMPLISHED.” Stay tuned for more information as we await the government’s response for the release of the data requested. Take heart in knowing that you were instrumental in helping us overcome one large obstacle on the pathway to truth. For your efforts, please know you are valued and appreciated as we seek not just truth, but justice as well.


Credit to The Hgamann and Hagmann Report