A prime example of why the British royal family is a pestilence

Now that Jeffrey Epstein has died, attention has shifted to the others in his circle, like Ghislaine Maxwell. Of course, the more prominent the person, the greater the interest and one of the most prominent is Prince Andrew whom one of the young girls has accused of being forced by Epstein to have sex with him. He has denied the accusation, even though he continued to be intimate with Epstein even after his conviction for sex abuse and stayed at his home multiple times with young women going in and out.
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The Althea Gibson story

When we think of pioneering African-American athletes in sports like tennis and golf that traditionally were played only by white people or where the top tournaments were often closed to non-whites, we tend to think of Arthur Ashe and the Williams sisters and Tiger Woods. But long before any of them we had Althea Gibson, born in 1927 and who overcame a very tough childhood to win five Grand Slam tennis tournaments in the 1950s (French Open in 1956, Wimbledon in 1957, 1958 and the US Open in 1957, 1958). But for some inexplicable reason, her name has been allowed to fade into obscurity without her being give the full recognition she deserves. Unlike her contemporary Paul Robeson, the noted athlete, singer, and actor who was shunned during the McCarthy era because of his outspoken socialist views, Gibson was not political, which makes her neglect more surprising.
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Would Russia and China like to see Trump re-elected?

China yesterday announced retaliatory tariffs on imports from the US.

China threatened to impose additional tariffs on $75 billion of American goods including soybeans, automobiles and oil, in retaliation for President Donald Trump’s latest planned levies on Chinese imports that pushed U.S. stocks and farm commodities lower.

Some of the countermeasures will take effect starting Sept. 1, while the rest will come into effect from Dec. 15, according to the announcement Friday from the Finance Ministry. This mirrors the timetable the U.S. has laid out for 10% tariffs on nearly $300 billion of Chinese shipments.
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An extra 5% tariff will be put on American soybeans and crude-oil imports starting next month. The resumption of a suspended extra 25% duty on U.S. cars will resume Dec. 15, with another 10% on top for some vehicles. With existing general duties on autos taken into account, the total tariff charged on U.S. made cars would be as high as 50%.

China’s tariff threats take aim at the heart of Trump’s political support — factories and farms across the Midwest and South at a time when the U.S. economy is showing signs of slowing down. Soybean prices sank to a two-week low.

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The ‘Two Generals’ problem

Tom Scott explains what is known as the Two Generals problem in computer information theory, something that I had never heard of before, and how it can have real world implications, such as a recent case where the lack of awareness of the need to address this problem led to a food delivery company sending multiple orders to the same addresses.

Correcting the opinions of strangers

I have written before about the Nextdoor website that connects people in your neighborhood and enables them to share information, ask for advice, etc. It provides quite an interesting insight into your neighborhood.

But today, I got this message from a resident.

Free · Free fortune reading based on kabbalah and unique techniques

I took advantage of a free fortune reading advertised on Nextdoor and based on the Kabbalah. Just wanted to say to anyone who may be interested in this service (free or otherwise) that the reading was very spot on, and offered a bit of insight for me to further consider. I did not pay for this service (Kabbalah reading) but will be setting an appointment for a fuller reading in the future. This was quite a unique take on the system of numerology.

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A new form of carbon manufactured

All life on Earth is carbon-based which of course makes this molecule of considerable interest for scientists. A carbon atom has 6 electrons which means that it has four electrons in the valence shell and results in it being able to form different kinds of chains and combinations, such as buckminsterfullerenes (often shortened to just ‘fullerenes’, more popularly known as ‘buckyballs’) that consists of 60 carbon atoms in the shape of a geodesic sphere.
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New lawsuit alleges massive sexual abuse in Boy Scouts organization

While on my drive to California, many of the hotels I stayed at provided guests with copies of USA Today and the major story one day was a massive lawsuit brought by 800 people against the Boy Scouts of America for sexual abuse, with the accusations spanning nearly eight decades and covering almost every state.

Lawyers began collecting the accounts this spring as they prepared a suit, which they filed on behalf of a client who alleges his former scoutmaster plied him with drugs and alcohol before repeatedly sexually abusing him.

At a news conference Tuesday morning, the lawyers said they have nearly 800 other clients who were abused while Scouts. The suit says at least 350 abusers do not appear in the Boy Scouts’ disciplinary files, citing that as evidence that the organization has not adequately vetted its volunteers and hidden the extent of the sexual abuse scandal.
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Growing fears that Trump is unstable

James Fallows of The Atlantic magazine is a usually sober political analyst, not given to taking sensationalist positions. But in a new article he writes that recent events have pushed him over the edge and convinced him that Donald Trump is in a serious state of cognitive impairment and that there are only two jobs in which he would not be forced out of his job for what his words and actions indicate about his mental state.
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The bicycle: The vehicle that really should not work

Anyone who has ridden the bicycle knows how hard it is to learn to do so. I learned to ride in the time-honored way, with my father holding the seat to keep it from falling to the side and running behind me as I pedaled, and then after some time slowly letting go without my knowledge, while still running behind to catch me if I fell. After a few such attempts, I was able to ride alone. The feeling of exhilaration at not toppling over is something I still remember. I used the same method to teach my younger daughter but my older daughter learned to ride on her own, pedaling a bit and putting her foot down when in danger of falling over, until the pedaling parts got longer and longer and suddenly she was off.
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