And now for something weird...

WBahn

Joined Mar 31, 2012
32,870

cmartinez

Joined Jan 17, 2007
8,768
Gotta hand it to her, she's not only brave, but she kept her cool the best she could and carried on.


As she was delivering her introduction, Chanago's speech became noticeably less clear as her false teeth fell out and affected her pronunciation.

Chanago didn't let the mishap fluster her. She turned her back to the audience to adjust her veneers before quickly turning back around and giving the camera her best model face.
 

nsaspook

Joined Aug 27, 2009
16,329
https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2026/04/06/he-helped-stop-iran-from-getting-the-bomb
Chalker said that, at least for him, the curious-scientist ruse never worked. He told me that every actual scientist he approached immediately guessed that he was a spy, from either the U.S. or Israel. “Every time I walk up and say, ‘Salaam habibi, how are you?,’ they just think, Oh, this is it, and they assume I am there to kill them.” Most of the time, he said, the terrified scientist was “compliant” enough to at least sit down in a café. Chalker typically had about ten minutes to explain, as gently as possible, that he was from the C.I.A., that he had the power to secure the scientist and his family a comfortable new life in the U.S.—and that, if the offer was rejected, the scientist, regrettably, would be assassinated. (Chalker tried to emphasize the happier potential outcome.)

Killing a civilian scientist would violate international law. The American government has denied ever doing it, and I found no evidence that the U.S. has carried out any such murders. A former senior agency official familiar with the Brain Drain project told me all that mattered was that Iranian scientists had believed they would be killed, regardless of whether the U.S. actually made good on the threat. And Israel had been conducting a campaign to assassinate Iranian scientists, which made the prospect of lethal reprisal highly plausible. Other former officials with knowledge of the project told me that the C.I.A. sometimes shared intelligence with Mossad which enabled its operatives to locate and kill a scientist. Such information exchanges were kept vague enough to preserve deniability if a more legalistic U.S. Administration later took office.
 

cmartinez

Joined Jan 17, 2007
8,768
https://nypost.com/2026/04/07/us-ne...o-find-lost-airman-in-iran-in-daring-mission/
"Ghost Murmur"

Quantum and AI in the same story, my BS meter is pegged.

The secret technology uses long-range quantum magnetometry to find the electromagnetic fingerprint of a human heartbeat and pairs the data with artificial intelligence software to isolate the signature from background noise, two sources close to the breakthrough said.
And my BS meter just broke indicator's glass and needle ...
 

cmartinez

Joined Jan 17, 2007
8,768
The perfect subject for conspiracy theorists:


Eskridge co-founded the Institute for Exotic Science and described her work as focused on experimental propulsion concepts, including what she referred to as "antigravity" research.

"We discovered anti-gravity and our lives went to (expletive) and people started sabotaging us," she said in a 2020 interview with Youtuber Jeremy Rys. "It’s harassment, threats. It’s awful."

"If you stick your neck out in public, at least someone notices if your head gets chopped off," Eskridge said. "If you stick your neck out in private, they will bury you. They will burn down your house while you’re sleeping in your bed and it won’t even make the news."

In the same interview, she described what she characterized as escalating pressure surrounding her work.

"I have to publish because it’s only going to get worse until I publish," she said, adding that the situation was "getting more and more aggressive."
 
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