Did FBI Surveillance Push Hemingway to Suicide?

Shake Shack latest fast food chain to try automated ordering

#Shake Shack, a relatively small fast-food chain with stores mainly in urban areas, is dipping its toe into automation. A Shake Shack store in Manhattan has dispensed with cashiers and has instead deployed kiosks where one can order a meal. One can also order food via a smartphone app. The store will not accept cash, only credit or debit card. When the food is ready, a text message is sent to the customer who picks it up at the counter.

What would traveling halfway around the world on a rocket ship be like?

One of the most intriguing aspects of SpaceX’s #Elon Musk’s vision of the future that he laid out during a recent conference in Australia was the idea of point to point travel using the BFR launch vehicle on Earth. What would such travel be like? Is it even possible or financially feasible?

The Pavlovian drive for ‘common sense’ gun control

One of the more tiresome but predictable Pavlovian reactions to #Mass Shootings such as the one that occurred in Las Vegas [VIDEO] has been calls for more “#Common Sense” #Gun Control from the left. Twice failed presidential candidate Hillary Clinton led the charge on Twitter [VIDEO]. The cry was taken up in Congress and on late-night TV, increasingly a venue for political nonsense. The calls for cracking down on gun ownership inevitably results on a pushback that can be expressed by, “Not this again?!”

Why is ISIS claiming the Las Vegas shooter as one of their own?

Hot Air is reporting that ISIS is persisting in claiming Stephen Paddock, the #Las Vegas shooter who sprayed a country music concert [VIDEO] with automatic weapon fire as one of their own. While terrorism experts suggest that the terrorist organization does not claim responsibility for every mass casualty attack, the Islamic State has been getting sloppy about that sort of thing recently. The question that arises is, why would ISIS claim a 64-year old Caucasian as a soldier for Allah?

The Las Vegas mass shooting brings out ugliness from some people

The #mass shooting that took place in #Las Vegas, in which a man named Stephen Paddock open fire on a crowd at a country music concert, has mainly elicited expressions of shock and sympathy. However, as with most tragedies of this sort, what is now being called the Mandalay Massacre has brought out the ugly in some people. The expressions went beyond Hillary Clinton’s attempt to get political.

What are some of the ‘nontechnical’ objections to Elon Musk’s Mars scheme?

Most of the objections to SpaceX’s Elon Musk’s Mars colonization plans have delved into its technological and financial aspects. Can Musk build the BFR launch vehicle and operate it as advertised? Will he be able to afford it? Linda Billings, a self-described communication expert and a frequent critic of space settlement schemes, offers a few objections that are not in either category.

United Arab Emirates to develop an astronaut corps

Space News is reporting that the #United Arab Emirates has started a human spaceflight program. The policy move is #Part of the UAE’s drive to change its economy from an #Oil And Gas based one to one based on technology. The Gulf country is already working on a robotic mission to Mars due to launch in 2020.

Hillary Clinton throws a political spin for the Las Vegas mass shooting

As law enforcement and the media were still trying to uncover the details of the mass shooting in Las Vegas, Hillary Clinton [VIDEO] took to Twitter and attempted to take political advantage of the crime. Like most people, including the president of the United States, she expressed her grief and sympathy for the victims. However, the twice-failed presidential candidate decided to go further.

Lyft invokes the spirit of Apollo to sell modern ride sharing

The Apollo missions to the moon have been used in advertising ever since Tang became the official powdered drink mix for the astronauts. The latest example is a series of Lyft ads featuring Tilda Swinton, a British actress, and Jordan Peele, an American actor, and comedian, in the command module of an Apollo spacecraft in orbit around the moon circa 1971.

Is Trump using a ‘Madman’ strategy in North Korea?

When #Secretary of State Rex Tillerson announced that the State Department had opened a direct line of communication with the North Korean regime, most observers of foreign policy nodded their heads in approval. The announcement seemed to indicate that the Trump administration was serious about trying to find a diplomatic solution to the #Korean Missile Crisis.

How ‘Blade Runner’ and its new sequel proves the future isn’t what it used to be

As the long-awaited sequel to “#Blade Runner,” “Blade Runner 2049” draws near, #Jonah Goldberg reminds us that the corporations depicted in what was in 1982 the far future #Los Angeles of 2019 either no longer exist or have been significantly altered. The movie and its new sequel remind us that the future is not what it used to be. Since some of those depicted futures were dystopias, that fact is reassuring, to say the least, from the perspective of the 21st Century.

NASA funds study of space-based mining using solar power satellites

#NASA does many things to enable the exploration and, beyond, the economic exploitation of #Space, at its core technology development. However, a new initiative is funding a number of studies examining the economics of space-based enterprises with the goal of finding out whether they can be viable as businesses. One of the more interesting studies is being conducted by the Colorado School of Mines and concerns the impact of space-based solar power on mining asteroids and the moon, according to Discover Magazine.

Will SpaceX’s BFR be a Space Launch System killer?

One capability that the BFR launch vehicle that SpaceX’s Elon Musk proposed for his dreams of colonizing Mars and doing a lot of other things as well as its advertised capacity to lift 150 metric tons to low Earth orbit. Indeed, with on-orbit refueling, the BFR can take the same mass to the moon or Mars. Indeed, that is what it is designed to do.

Do the Kurds deserve their own country?

The recent overwhelming vote for Kurdish independence is being regarded as yet another headache coming out of the Middle East by the Trump administration and the State Department. To be sure, if anyone deserves their own country, it is the #Kurds. They are a religiously diverse and tolerant people who respect the rights of women, rare in the region and have been a stalwart American ally for decades. However, moral right is running up against geopolitical reality, as #Hot Air points out.

Trump gets into a tweetstorm over Puerto Rico disaster relief

President Donald Trump has rightly gotten high praise for his handling of Hurricanes Harvey and Irma which hit Texas and Florida respectively. However, Hurricane Maria that ravaged #Puerto Rico has proven to be a different matter. The infrastructure of the island has all but collapsed, making the distribution of relief supplies very difficult. This fact led the Mayor of #San Juan Carmen Yulín Cruz to make an impassioned plea for more to be done. In turn, Trump did not react very well.

According to the poll numbers, Trump has sacked the NFL

When President Donald Trump came down on the kneeling #Football Players at the rally in Atlanta, many of his critics were aghast, especially at his use of vulgar language. Many pundits predicted that the president would turn out to be a loser. Besides, he has better thing to do with his time than trolling protesting professional athletes. The spread of the kneeling protests seems to validate this assessment, though the fans seemed to react badly to the displays during the national anthem.

California may ban gasoline powered cars by 2040

A state lawmaker in #California is considering offering legislation in the next legislative session that would prohibit the sale of gasoline-powered cars by 2040. California would be following the lead of such countries as Great Britain, France, India, and China, all of which have laws on the books that mandate an end date for the internal combustion engine. The motivation is, of course, an attempt to mitigate the emissions of CO2 into the atmosphere and hence climate change. However, the advance of technology over the next 23 years may make such a law moot.

School librarian rejects Melania Trump's gift of Dr. Seuss books

Dr. #Seuss is one of the most famous children’s authors of all time. Very few, if any, Americans who grew up in the last few decades are unfamiliar with “Green Eggs and Ham,” “The Grinch Who Stole Christmas,” and “Horton Hears a Who” among many other wonderful stories. Dr. Seuss had a fantastic knack of language that seemed musical, appealing to children of all ages.

Lockheed Martin rolls out Mars lander concept

It turns out that SpaceX’s Elon Musk is not the only person to have announced ambitious space plans at the space conference in Adelaide, Australia. #Lockheed Martin has proposed adding a lander to its #Mars Base Camp concept. The additional lander will not only give astronauts a way to access the Martian surface at will but also be adapted to lunar landing.