Blog Heap of Links for the day 16 April 2016

…As Barack Obama prepares to visit Saudi Arabia, the Saudi royal family has taken custody of nine longtime Guantánamo Bay detainees, bringing Obama closer to his goal of shuttering the infamous detention facility.

The transfer puts the residual Guantánamo detainee population at 80, the lowest it has been in its 14-year history.…

A LEADING scientist involved in the development of Artificial Intelligence (AI) has warned that it could rise up against us and end humanity within decades.…

A sperm bank is facing legal action from three families after it was alleged that the facility had lied to them about the health and background of a donor. The families, all from Canada, were allegedly told that the donor was a "genius", but the donor had a history of mental health issues and a criminal record.… some of at least 36 women to have used the donor's sperm to become pregnant. …

…Because of acute shortages, people can't find basics like toilet paper. Now, it will be harder to make overseas calls or watch pay TV.

The problem is this: the global drop in oil prices has made dollars much more scarce in Venezuela -- which is dependent almost totally on petroleum for hard currency. So local telecoms companies don't have greenbacks to pay international suppliers.…

…Because as ports struggle to cope with a global oil glut, huge queues of supertankers have formed in some of the world's busiest sea lanes, where some 200 million barrels of crude lies waiting to be loaded or delivered, Reuters reports today.

The vessels, filled with oil worth around $7.5 billion at current market prices, would stretch for almost 40 km (25 miles) if formed up in one straight line.…

…On Friday, an 8-month-old baby was pulled from the rubble of Japan’s devastating earthquake. Rescuers cradled the infant who was apparently unharmed.… it took six hours to reach the baby, who has reportedly reunited with her parents. It is unclear how many more people could still be trapped under debris.…

9 Presidents Who Screwed Up America and Four Who Tried to Save Her, A Book Review… McClanahan says that we should judge them on how well they kept their oath and NOT on what they “do” because most, if not all, of what they do is unconstitutional.… So, who were the four presidents who tried to save the Republic according to McClanahan?…

… hot air hand dryers… Time-consuming, don’t really dry your hands thoroughly—and now I discover that they throw a bunch of viruses into the air, particularly one of the newer designs called the Dyson…

1,700 more migrants landed in various parts of Italy yesterday, making a total of 6,000 new arrivals since Tuesday. Meanwhile, Italian Prime Minister Matteo Renzi pooh-poohed the idea that the immigrants constitute an “invasion”, and reassured his fellow Italians that the total number of migrants this year is only slightly higher than at same time last year.

In other news, the Swiss government announced that it is considering deploying tanks along its border with Italy in the event that the Italians fail to get their migration problem under control.…

…Phone Transcript of Hillary Admitting She Knew Benghazi Was Planned Attack…
…Meet Jia Jia the ‘robot goddess’…
…Miss Kitty rescued after 4 days on high voltage pole…

…The Sexy Bride Look and the Designers Behind Them…
…‘Tiger Whisperer’ mauled to death by tiger…
…The Under-reported Disaster Of Renewable Energy Schemes…

…this post is so long, I’ve had to divide it into three parts so your eyes don’t get all buggy.…

…Michelle Malkin: The Wall Street Journal’s Stupid Berlin Wall Meme…
… This Ain’t Hell: “Today, The Vast Majority Of Marine Corps Aircraft Can’t Fly”…
…Mark Steyn: Where The Streets Have No Jokes, Continued…

Slept lat this morning so no news.…

Republican presidential candidate Ted Cruz swept Wyoming’s remaining 14 delegates at Saturday’s state convention… now holds a total of 23 of Wyoming’s 26 delegates… one delegate to Donald Trump and one to Marco Rubio. The remaining delegate has not pledged support for any candidate.…