Blog Heap of Links for the day 1 May 2016

…new Benghazi-related State Department documents… showing then-White House Deputy Strategic Communications Adviser Ben Rhodes and other Obama administration public relations officials attempting to orchestrate a campaign to “reinforce” President Obama and to portray the Benghazi consulate terrorist attack as being “rooted in an Internet video, and not a failure of policy.” Other documents show that State Department officials initially described the incident as an “attack” and a possible kidnap attempt.…

…Finally, the mystery was solved: The $2 bill wasn’t a fake at all.…

Proponents of autonomous vehicles are in a sticky situation. Self-driving technology is expected to have a tremendous impact on public health and reduce the 1.25 million deaths every year on global roads. At the same time, this emerging technology is a threat to the employment of the millions who are paid to sit behind the wheel — from truck drivers to cab drivers and delivery workers.

Baidu chief scientist Andrew Ng, an expert in the world of artificial intelligence, acknowledges the unemployment concerns, but he sees a way forward that offers society the benefits of autonomous vehicles and blunts the negative impact of job losses.…

The Rev. Daniel Berrigan, a Jesuit priest famous for his anti-war and anti-capitalism protests, died Saturday in New York at the age of 94.… sprang into the spotlight in 1968 when he and several other activists seized 600 draft cards of troops about to be deployed in Vietnam and burned the files in rubbish bins with homemade napalm.…

FREMONT, Wis., April 29 (UPI) -- A trio of friends fishing in a Wisconsin river… [hooked] a 60-year-old… six pack of Budweiser cans.… "They were empty unfortunately…"

Sony has come up with intelligent contact lenses capable of recording and playing video – all with the blink of an eye.…

Two students at the Queensland University of Technology who had been sued over “racism” as expressed in Facebook posts are counter-suing the Australian Human Rights Commission. They say they were discriminated against because they are white heterosexual males.

In other news, surgeons in Germany are undergoing special training to deal with injuries from bomb blasts and other wounds that might be caused by a terrorist attack.…

Mizzou race relations committee releases anti-racism videos…
Trump prompts Latino rush to citizenship…
Nigeria: Muslims slaughter 40 people, burn church…
ISIS in Caribbean recruitment drive…

…On this day in 1884 Communist labor unions meeting in Chicago issued a proclamation of the demand for an eight-hour workday in the United States. …

Senate Majority Leader Sen. Mitch McConnell (R-KY) is scheming to slam the door of the Senate in the face of another conservative Republican like Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX).

McConnell’s super PAC has aggressively bought air time to ensure establishment candidate Rep. Todd Young (R-IN) replaces retiring Sen. Dan Coats. Young is running in the primary against Rep. Marlin Stutzman (R-IN) – a member of the House Freedom Caucus who voted against former Speaker John Boehner. In addition to McConnell’s super PAC, establishment GOP ally the U.S. Chamber of Commerce has spent $1 million to promote Young and keep out anti-establishment Stutzman.…