2015-04-30

'Think salt is causing your blood pressure to spike? You may be surprised by this new study — it's low potassium (maybe)'

http://natmonitor.com/2015/04/30/think-salt-is-causing-your-blood-pressure-to-spike-you-may-be-surprised-by-this-new-study-its-low-potassium-maybe/

Fwd: Korea

'Satellite images of North Korea have captured what appears to be the imminent public execution of a group of people with six anti-aircraft guns.

Released by the Committee for Human Rights in North Korea and AllSource Analysis, a US-based image interpretation company, the pictures were taken on October 7, 2014, from above the Kanggon Military Training Area, some 24 kilometres north of Pyongyang.

On a small-arms firing range, analysts have identified six ZPU-4 anti-aircraft guns lined up in front of a viewing area. Behind the weapons are what appear to be a line of troops or equipment, while parked nearby are a number of military trucks, a large trailer and a bus.

In a press release, Greg Scarlatiou, executive director of HRNK, suggests the bus indicates that senior officers or VIPs were on hand to witness what was happening.

About 30 metres down the firing range, and throwing distinct shadows, are a line of what appear to be people.

"The most plausible explanation of the scene ... is a gruesome public execution", said Mr Scarlatiou. "Anyone who has witnessed the damage one single US .50 calibre round does to the human body will shudder just trying to imagine a battery of 24 heavy machine guns being fired at human beings.

"Bodies would be nearly pulverised", he said. "The gut-wrenching viciousness of such an act would make 'cruel and unusual punishment' sound like a gross understatement".'

http://www.smh.com.au/world/satellite-images-capture-north-korea-executions-carried-out-with-antiaircraft-guns-20150430-1mxefy.html

Fwd: Iran

'If Iran strikes a deal with the West, all sanctions will be lifted very quickly and there's nothing the U.S. Congress can do to stop it, Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif told a New York audience Wednesday.

In a set of blustery and self-righteous remarks, Iran's top diplomat assured the crowd at New York University that President Barack Obama would be compelled to stop enforcing sanctions only days after any nuclear agreement was signed and would have to figure out how to lift congressional sanctions on Iran within weeks, no matter what Congress has to say about it. He also said that any future president, even a Republican, would be compelled to stick that agreement.

http://www.bloombergview.com/articles/2015-04-29/iran-s-zarif-says-congress-can-t-stop-obama

Fwd: Navy

'CNN has learned that U.S. Navy warships will now accompany every U.S.-flagged commercial vessel that passes through the Strait of Hormuz due to concerns that ships from Iran's Revolutionary Guard Corps navy could try to seize a U.S. cargo ship.

The classified plan was approved by the Pentagon Thursday, according to a senior defense official.

While the Navy maintains a routine ship presence in the Persian Gulf and the North Arabian Sea, this new effort specifically requires an armed warship to be in the narrow channel between Iran and Oman when a U.S. commercial vessel passes through.

http://www.cnn.com/2015/04/30/politics/us-navy-escort-cargo-ships-iran-strait-of-hormuz/

2015-04-29

Fwd: Camera

'' When a crystal lattice is excited by a laser pulse, waves of jostling atoms can travel through the material at close to one sixth the speed of light, or approximately 28,000 miles/second. Scientists now have a new tool to take movies of such superfast movement in a single shot.

Researchers from Japan have developed a new high-speed camera that can record events at a rate of more than 1-trillion-frames-per-second. That speed is more than one thousand times faster than conventional high-speed cameras. Called STAMP, for Sequentially Timed All-optical Mapping Photography, the new camera technology "holds great promise for studying a diverse range of previously unexplored complex ultrafast phenomena," said Keiichi Nakagawa, a research fellow at the University of Tokyo, who worked to develop the camera with colleagues from an array of Japanese research institutions.

Conventional high-speed cameras are limited by the processing speed of their mechanical and electrical components. STAMP overcomes these limitations by using only fast, optical components.

http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2015/04/150429113213.htm

2015-04-27

Fwd: Europe

'The humanitarian disaster unfolding on the Mediterranean is likely already providing a "shield" for Islamist terrorists to infiltrate waves of migrants attempting the perilous crossing from North Africa to Europe, terrorism experts and other strategic observers are warning. And they say a UN plan to resettle 1 million refugees in Western nations would turn the situation into a full-blown security crisis.

The exodus now unfolding, as well as the UN call to take in refugees from war-torn Middle Eastern and African nations over the next five years, is providing a "shield for the passage of jihadists to Europe," said one analyst. Once absorbed into the societies of Europe and other rich countries such as the United States, ISIS operatives would be set to eventually gain all the freedoms of other citizens of those countries – including the freedom to travel, often without having to go through the extra scrutiny involved in obtaining a passport visa.

"ISIS has threatened to [infiltrate the migrants] and German intelligence already said that this is a real threat," Dutch lawmaker Geert Wilders told FoxNews.com from The Netherlands. "An open door policy would – both for the USA and Europe – mean that the threat of Islamists and terrorists entering our countries would increase to a very dangerous level."'

http://www.foxnews.com/world/2015/04/27/un-plan-to-settle-1m-refugees-invitation-to-terror-warn-critics/

2015-04-24

Our climate models are WRONG

Congressional GOP Mulls Backing Obamacare Subsidies

Drone Strikes Reveal Uncomfortable Truth: U.S. Is Often Unsure About Who Will Die

David Petraeus gets probation for mishandling classified material

2015-04-23

Fwd: Europe

'Europe must urgently set up an effective rescue operation for migrants at sea and commit to receiving significantly higher numbers of refugees, top U.N. officials and the International Organization for Migration said on Thursday…

Thursday's statement was co-signed by the U.N. refugee boss Antonio Guterres, U.N. human rights chief Zeid Ra'ad Al Hussein, U.N. special representative for migration Peter Sutherland and William Lacy Swing, head of the International Organization for Migration.'

http://www.reuters.com/article/2015/04/23/us-europe-migrants-un-idUSKBN0NE1BF20150423

http://pjmedia.com/blog/how-isis-plans-to-sack-rome/

Fwd: Food

'Being dangerously overweight is all down to bad diet rather than a lack of exercise, according to a trio of doctors who have reopened the debate about whether food, sedentary lifestyles or both are responsible for the obesity epidemic.

In an article for a leading health journal the authors – who include British cardiologist Dr Aseem Malhotra, an outspoken critic of the food industry – accuse food and drink firms such as Coca-Cola of having wrongly emphasised how physical activity and sport can help prevent people becoming very overweight.

The truth, they say, is that while physical activity is useful in reducing the risk of developing heart disease, dementia and other conditions, it "does not promote weight loss".

"In the past 30 years, as obesity has rocketed, there has been little change in physical activity levels in the western population. This places the blame for our expanding waistlines directly on the type and amount of calories consumed."

The authors add: "Members of the public are drowned by an unhelpful message about maintaining a 'healthy weight' through calorie counting, and many still wrongly believe that obesity is entirely due to lack of exercise." '

http://www.theguardian.com/society/2015/apr/22/obesity-owes-more-to-bad-diet-than-lack-of-exercise-say-doctors

http://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/2013/sep/07/sugar-diet-who-uk-experts

2015-04-22

Fwd: Greece

The idea that free trade is beneficial to all sides derives from a theory of the classical economist David Ricardo, whose essay on comparative advantage was published in 1817. Comparative advantage asserts that free trade allows each nation to pursue the production and export of those products in which the nation has some advantage, expressed in profits, and that even if a nation has a wide range of advantages, focusing on the greatest advantages will benefit the country the most. Because countries benefit from their greatest advantages, they focus on those, leaving lesser advantages to other countries for which these are the greatest comparative advantage.

...

To begin with, the law of comparative advantages does not mean that each country does equally well. It simply means that given the limits of geography and education, each nation will do as well as it can. And it is at this point that Ricardo's theory both drives much of contemporary trade policy and poses the core problem for the European Union. The theory is not, in my opinion, wrong. It is, however, incomplete in looking at the nation (or corporation) as an integrated being and not entities made up of distinct and diverse interests. There are in my mind three problems that emerge from the underlying truth of this theory.

...

The first of these is the problem of geopolitical consequences. Economic power is not the only type of power there is. Disparate rates of economic growth make the faster growing economy more powerful in its relation to the slower growing economy. That power is both political and military and can be used, along with economic advantage, to force nations into not only subordinate positions but also positions where their lesser comparative advantage diminishes even further. This does not have to be intentional. Maximizing comparative advantage makes some powers stronger than others, and over time that strength can leave the lesser power crippled in ways that have little to do with economics.

http://www.realclearworld.com/articles/2015/04/22/grexit_and_the_problem_of_free_trade_111136-2.html

2015-04-20

Fwd: Ukraine

'The Ukrainian president, Petro Poroshenko, is expected to sign a package of laws on "decommunisation", recently passed by parliament, which will lay down an official version of Ukrainian 20th century history. The laws ban Nazi and Communist symbols and the "public denial of the criminal nature of the Communist totalitarian regime 1917–1991"; they open former KGB archives; replace the Soviet term "great patriotic war" with the European second world war, and provide public recognition to anyone who fought for Ukrainian independence in the 20th century.

Proponents say the legislation, based on other post-Soviet countries such as Poland and the Baltic states, is long overdue to free Ukraine of a painful past and create a new national identity based on events repressed or rewritten by the Soviet regime.'

http://www.theguardian.com/world/2015/apr/20/ukraine-decommunisation-law-soviet

A Nuclear Turning Point

Fwd: Liquid biopsy

'liquid biopsy and through recent and very expensive techniques the doctors might only need a blood sample in order to test for cancer DNA in the body. The test is able to find tiny traces of such DNA material in the patient's blood.

The thing with the blood draw is that it bears benefits for both the patient and the doctor; the patient goes to less trouble than undergoing a traditional biopsy or even a CT scan; and the oncologist can be sure about the efficiency of a treatment and it offers a more stable monitoring tool. If the treatment appears to be failing, oncologists will know to abandon it quicker, sparing the patient of unnecessary side effects and offering the possibility of trying out better alternatives...

The largest study so far used the test on 126 lymphoma patients – a study conducted by the National Cancer Institute. The results were published in The Lancet Oncology. Apparently, the test was so accurate that it could predict the reappearance of cancer with up to 3 months before CT scans could finally detect them.'

http://www.wallstreetotc.com/liquid-biopsies-offer-new-promises-in-cancer-detection-and-monitoring/217450/

2015-04-19

Fwd: Doubt

'C. Everett Koop, Surgeon General under President Ronald Reagan, was an ardent crusader against smoking. As he said of himself in 1998, "I frequently spoke of the sleazy behavior of the tobacco industry in its attempts to discredit legitimate science as part of its overall effort to create controversy and doubt." Koop was referring to doubt surrounding the relationship between smoking and lung cancer.

The word "doubt" carried special resonance. It conjured an infamous 1968 internal memo from the Brown and Williamson Tobacco Company. "Doubt is our product," a B and W executive instructed his colleagues… "[It] is the best means of competing with the 'body of fact' that exists in the mind of the public… of establishing a controversy."

The tobacco companies are no longer blowing smoke about the hazards of combusted-tobacco cigarettes. But the critics of electronic cigarettes — an important new technology that has the potential to replace smoking worldwide – have begun mass-producing doubt about the product.

Only 8 percent of all former smokers have converted to vaping. That percentage needs to grow. But agencies such as the CDC and state of California are doing their best to halt the progression….

The CDC and the California Department of Health have ripped a page from the Big Tobacco playbook. "Strongly call out the point – Controversy! Contradiction! Other Factors! Unknowns!" as Hill and Knowlton, the PR firm that advised the tobacco industry, urged it to do in the 1950s and 60s.

By warping the perception of risk, these agencies will surely create enough doubt about the very real benefits of e-cigarettes that smokers will simply say to themselves, "Why switch?" And keep inhaling dangerous smoke. If there were such a thing as public health negligence, the nation's flagship public health agency and California's health department could rightly stand accused.'

http://www.forbes.com/sites/sallysatel/2015/04/14/their-product-is-doubt-deceptive-government-campaign-against-electronic-cigarettes/3/

Fwd: organic molecules

Complex organic molecules such as formamide, from which sugars, amino acids and even nucleic acids essential for life can be made, already appear in the regions where stars similar to our Sun are born. Astrophysicists from Spain and other countries have detected this biomolecule in five protostellar clouds and propose that it forms on tiny dust grains.

http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2015/04/150416084210.htm

Antibiotic Effectiveness Boosted by Maple Syrup Extract

2015-04-17

Fwd: ISIS

'The FBI has huddled with Mexican authorities in Ciudad Juarez to develop a "press strategy" in response to reports of an ISIS presence just across the border in Mexico, according to a Washington watchdog…

"Publicly, U.S. and Mexico have denied that Islamic terrorists are operating in the southern border region," the organization continued, "but the rapid deployment of FBI brass in the aftermath of JW's report seems to indicate otherwise.

"A Mexican army field grade officer and a Mexican federal police inspector were among the sources that confirmed to JW that ISIS is operating a camp just a few miles from El Paso, Texas. The base is around eight miles from the U.S. border in an area known as 'Anapra' situated just west of Ciudad Juárez in the Mexican state of Chihuahua."

The report from Judicial Watch earlier this week followed other reports from the organization in recent months that Islamic terrorists have been captured in Texas after coming across the U.S. border from Mexico.

Judicial Watch said its sources within the Department of Homeland Security said several ISIS terror group members were arrested by federal authorities and the Texas Department of Public Safety in McAllen and Pharr.

The reports conflict with claims by the Department of Homeland Security that there is no imminent danger of ISIS breaching the nation's southern border.

In its report this week, Judicial Watch said its sources for the information about the ISIS camp were high-level.

The report detailed the terror group in Anapra and said there was more.

"Another ISIS cell to the west of Ciudad Juárez, in Puerto Palomas, targets the New Mexico towns of Columbus and Deming for easy access to the United States, the same knowledgeable sources confirm," Judicial Watch said.

It was during a recent joint operation that "Mexican army and federal law enforcement officials discovered documents in Arabic and Urdu, as well as 'plans' of Fort Bliss – the sprawling military installation that houses the U.S. Army's 1st Armored Division. Muslim prayer rugs were recovered with the documents during the operation," Judicial Watch said.'

http://www.wnd.com/2015/04/fbi-huddles-over-isis-in-mexico/

Shoot The Close Ones First

Exclusive: Boston Bomber’s Mom Calls Her Son “Best Of The Best’

Exclusive: Boston Bomber's Mom Calls Her Son "Best Of The Best'

Fwd: China

'China's island building program in the South China Sea may result in it gaining control of some of the world's most important waterways, the U.S.'s most senior military commander for Asia said.

"If this activity continues at pace, is that it -- those would give them de facto control" of the maritime territory they claim, Admiral Samuel Locklear, head of the U.S. Pacific Command, told the U.S. Senate. Locklear said China could install long-range detection radars, base warships and warplanes on the islands, potentially giving it the ability to enforce an air defense identification zone.

Satellite photos this month showed images of Chinese dredgers at work at Mischief Reef in the Spratly Islands, a feature also claimed by Vietnam, the Philippines and Taiwan. President Barack Obama said April 10 that the U.S. is concerned that China is using its "muscle and power" to dominate smaller countries in the region.

Locklear said the pace of China's building program was "astonishing" and added that the islands would improve China's ability to locate a maritime security force in the waters that would be larger than the combined coast guards of the Southeast Asian countries…

Locklear said the increasing number and technical sophistication of the submarines in the Indo-Pacific was changing the dynamic of how the U.S. navy operates in the area. He estimated that of the 300 submarines in the world that aren't U.S. vessels, 200 are in the Indo-Pacific, which he said was the "most militarized part of the world.'

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2015-04-17/china-may-control-south-china-sea-with-new-isles-u-s-navy-says

Fwd: 2/3

'Talk-show host Mark Levin erupted.

"The United States Senate just rewrote the treaty provision of the Constitution," he exclaimed. "This may be over the heads of most commentators … but it's not over my head, and it won't be over yours."

He said under the Constitution, the president has the power to negotiate treaties, and they are approved "provided two-thirds of the senators present concur."

He said such a supermajority (67 votes) was called for by the nation's Founders because they believed that leaving such decisions to a single person or a single body wasn't responsible.

"Alexander Hamilton tells us" that joint possession of such power provides the greater prospect of success, he said.

Under the proposed legislation, Congress can review the president's deal with the radical Islamists and can reject it with a 60-vote margin. But Obama then can veto it, and it would take a 67-vote total to overturn the veto.

"We've turned the treaty provision on its head," Levin said. "Instead of requiring two-thirds of the senators present to approve, this bill explicitly" demands 67 votes to stop the president.

"You need 67 votes to override a presidential veto to undo what Obama's done," he said. "Now we need a supermajority to override '

http://www.wnd.com/2015/04/senate-just-rewrote-the-constitution/#6CEkskpsqRc5hqOO.99

Fwd: Iran

'Yet what makes the framework nuclear deal so grotesque and dangerous isn't Iran's trail of deception. The real reason to block any nuclear accord with Tehran's rulers isn't that they always lie. It's that they don't.

Even President Obama admits Iran could abide by the terms agreed to and just wait for them to run out in a little more than a decade.

Maybe Iran would cheat on the loophole-ridden deal being promoted by the Obama administration. But it wouldn't have to. Even President Obama admits Iran could abide by the terms agreed to and just wait for them to run out in a little more than a decade. "At that point, the breakout times [to nuclear weapons capability] would have shrunk almost down to zero," the president told NPR. Cheat or don't cheat, the end is the same: The Lausanne deal paves Iran's path to the bomb either way.

And then it will be clear — apocalyptically clear — that the ayatollahs were telling the truth.

They were telling the truth last November, when the Iranian Revolutionary Guards proclaimed "the US is still the great Satan and the number one enemy of the [Islamic] revolution and the Islamic Republic."

They were telling the truth in February, when Ali Shirazi, a senior Iranian cleric and aide to Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, declared that his troops are in a global war that will bring "the banner of Islam over the White House."

They were telling the truth a decade ago when Hassan Abassi, a high-ranking intelligence operative, warned that Iranian agents had identified "29 sensitive sites in the West, with the aim of bombing them."

They were telling the truth when a commander of Iranian forces insisted "America has no other choice but to leave the Middle East region beaten and humiliated." And when Iran's supreme leader raged that "there is only one solution to the Middle East problem, namely the annihilation and destruction of the Jewish state." And when Mahmoud Ahmadinejad asserted that "a world without America is not only desirable, it is achievable."

And when, over and over, they have incited crowds in chants of "Death to America."

Tehran's rulers may have lied for years about their nuclear activities; their negotiated commitments to suspend enrichment and submit to inspections may not be worth the ink they sign them with.

But the mullahs don't lie about what matters to them most: death to America, the extermination of Israel, unrelenting global jihad. They say they are deadly serious.

Believe them.'

http://www.bostonglobe.com/opinion/2015/04/16/danger-iran-deal-not-because-tehran-lies-but-because-doesn/GneT0yRSOp9GDMDJxjuQkM/story.html#

Fwd: ISIS

'The new 150-page book distributed on file sharing sites this week follows other titles in the ISIS series including an e-book on how the jihadists plan to sack Rome.'

http://pjmedia.com/blog/how-isis-plans-to-destroy-israel'

'An ISIS e-book on how to accomplish their caliphate goal of sacking Rome stresses enlisting "the Islamic State's secret weapon = secret white converts" to take on Italy.

Much of the book, "Black Flags from Rome," is dedicated to laying out a case for why Muslims in Europe should rise up and assist ISIS from within, citing justifications for discontent from modern-day anti-immigration protests back to post-Ottoman creation of Muslim "ghettos."

http://pjmedia.com/blog/how-isis-plans-to-sack-rome/

2015-04-16

Fwd: Vietnam

'The removal of the US trade embargo against Vietnam in 1994 opened up an era of economic cooperation, leading to a comprehensive bilateral trade agreement in 2000, normalisation of trade relations in 2006, and Vietnam's ascension to the WTO in January 2007. As a result, US–Vietnam bilateral trade has grown from US$451 million in 1995 to nearly US$35 billion in 2014. US direct investment in Vietnam rose from US$126 million in 2000 to US$1.1 billion in 2013…

Military relations have begun to accelerate since 2009 as the security interests of Vietnam and the US have converged. In 2009, China drew a nine-dashed line claiming 80 per cent of the South China Sea, before placing a huge oil rig within Vietnam's claimed exclusive economic zone in 2014. http://www.eastasiaforum.org/2015/04/16/the-us-and-vietnam-go-from-mutual-menace-to-mates/

Five strangest ways to get into space (that we've tried) - This is Genius

Check out this video on YouTube:

http://youtu.be/OHF7RqqOE6w

2015-04-15

Fwd: Iran

'Then there's the oil-for-goods deal, which has been under discussion for about a year and may already have started. It would involve supplies of about 500,000 barrels a day of Iranian oil in exchange for Russian food and industrial goods, bringing back about half of the export volume that Iran lost because of international sanctions. Such a deal wouldn't violate the UN sanctions against Iran, and can circumvent financial sector restrictions imposed by the U.S. and the European Union by using barter. In recent days, Russian officials have said the swap is taking place.

Iran won't confirm or deny the arrangement, possibly because the U.S. is worried about it and stepping up cooperation with Russia in this way could jeopardize the multilateral deal and so delay the easing of international sanctions. Yet Russia's willingness to get involved in the swaps is another signal to the Iranian regime that, while Western nations are still hesitant to rekindle ties with them, Russia is open to big energy deals immediately, even before anything is settled on the nuclear issue…

Doing more business with Iran wherever possible should also help Putin build a political alliance with a major Middle Eastern regional player, cemented by the strong anti-Americanism in both Moscow and Tehran. '

http://www.bloombergview.com/articles/2015-04-15/putin-s-iran-game-bests-obama

Tax day. Salt Lake City

2015-04-13

Fwd: Russia/Iran

'Russia yesterday lifted a ban on supplying Iran with an air defence missile system which could be used to protect nuclear sites.

Vladimir Putin gave the go-ahead for the deal, with the defence ministry saying it was ready to supply the S-300 missile equipment 'promptly'.

The move is likely to anger both the U.S. and Israel at a time of heightened tensions between the world powers and following a landmark deal on nuclear weapons.

Moscow blocked deliveries of the surface to air missiles to Iran in 2010 after the United Nations imposed sanctions on Tehran over its nuclear programme, barring hi-tech weapons sales.'

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-3037407/Russia-ignores-sanctions-provide-Iran-missile-used-defend-missile-sites.html#ixzz3XE4E7EwT

Fwd: malware

'Microsoft and Interpol have teamed up to derail a malware infection that compromised more than 770,000 Windows PCs worldwide.

Simda is a "pay-per-install" software nasty: fraudsters pay miscreants some sum of money for every 1,000 or so machines they compromise. The hackers effectively earn cash by selling access to the infected computers, renting out the botnet real-estate to other crooks.

The Simda malware, once installed and has set itself up to run after every system startup, kills off antivirus software, logs keystrokes made by the user so it can steal passwords and other sensitive information, downloads and executes banking Trojans and other malicious programs, upload copies of the user's files, and so on.

It opens a backdoor to a command-and-control server, so it can receive orders from the brains behind the malware, and send back any stolen data.

The botnet was seeded by compromising legitimate websites, and hijacking them to redirect visitors to sites hosting exploit kits – which are webpages booby-trapped with code that exploits software vulnerabilities to install the malware.

The most heavily infected countries were the US, UK, Russia, Canada and Turkey, although Simda spreads its tentacles worldwide. The vast majority of victims were located in the US, where there were more than 90,000 new infections since the start of 2015 alone.

In a series of raids last Thursday, 10 command-and-control servers were physically seized in the Netherlands, with additional servers taken down in the US, Russia, Luxembourg and Poland. The operation involved officers from the Dutch National High Tech Crime Unit (NHTCU), the FBI in the US, and the Russian Ministry of the Interior's Cybercrime Department "K" supported by the INTERPOL National Central Bureau in Moscow.

Security firms Trend Micro and Kaspersky Lab provided the cops the technical knowhow to locate the systems. The crackdown effectively decapitated the botnet by taking away the servers that sent infected PCs their instructions and received swiped passwords and other data.

Windows PCs keelhauled into the botnet remain compromised, hence the need for a cleanup operation. In order to help victims disinfect their PCs, Kaspersky Lab has created a website that will check your public IP address against a database of machines known to be infiltrated by Simda. This database was lifted from the command and control servers during the takedown raids.'

http://www.theregister.co.uk/2015/04/13/simda_botnet_takedown/

2015-04-10

Fwd: Lost Biscuit

'When you're President of the United States, you can lose a vote, you can lose popular support, and you can lose a round of golf. But you're never, ever supposed to lose the biscuit.

That's what they call the card the president is meant to keep close at hand, bearing the codes that he has to have in order to launch a nuclear attack. And for several months during the Clinton administration, a former top military officer says they lost the biscuit.

Gen. Hugh Shelton, who served under Clinton as Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, tells the story in his memoir…

"At one point during the Clinton administration," Shelton writes, "the codes were actually missing for months. [...] That's a big deal -- a gargantuan deal." '

http://abcnews.go.com/WN/president-bill-clinton-lost-nuclear-codes-office-book/story?id=11930878

Fwd: Iran

'If Iran's enriched-uranium stockpile remains in the country and is only reduced to powder, Iran will retain the capability to make eight or more nuclear weapons in about three months. Former IAEA deputy director Olli Heinonen recently published a chart on Iran's nuclear "breakout" time that shows how Iran could make enough enriched uranium for one weapon in twelve weeks from reactor-grade uranium using 6,000 centrifuges, and how it could do so in 16 weeks using only 1,000 centrifuges.

The decision to let Iran keep its previously secret, heavily fortified Fordow enrichment facility is a major American cave. President Obama said in 2012 about this facility: "We know they don't need to have an underground, fortified facility like Fordow in order to have a peaceful [nuclear] program."

The preliminary agreement legitimizes — and even allows the advancement of — Iran's uranium-enrichment program. It does not appear to delay the breakout time for an Iranian nuclear weapon. Incredibly, no enrichment equipment or facilities will be disassembled or destroyed. Given Iran's long history of cheating on nuclear agreements and covert nuclear activities, allowing it to do any uranium enrichment is very dangerous.'

http://www.nationalreview.com/article/416404/not-good-deal-fred-fleitz

'"Negotiations . . . to prevent an Iranian capability to develop a nuclear arsenal are ending with an agreement that concedes this very capability . . ."— Henry Kissinger and George Shultz, the Wall Street Journal, April 8

It was but a year and a half ago that Barack Obama endorsed the objective of abolition when he said that Iran's heavily fortified Fordow nuclear facility, its plutonium-producing heavy-water reactor, and its advanced centrifuges were all unnecessary for a civilian nuclear program. The logic was clear: Since Iran was claiming to be pursuing an exclusively civilian program, these would have to go. Yet under the deal Obama is now trying to sell, not one of these is to be dismantled. Indeed, Iran's entire nuclear infrastructure is kept intact, just frozen or repurposed for the length of the deal (about a decade). Thus Fordow's centrifuges will keep spinning. They will now be fed xenon, zinc, and germanium instead of uranium. But that means they remain ready at any time to revert from the world's most heavily (indeed comically) fortified medical isotope facility to a bomb-making factory.

And upon the expiration of the deal, conceded Obama Monday on NPR, Iran's breakout time to a nuclear bomb will be "almost down to zero," i.e., it will be able to produce nuclear weapons at will and without delay. And then there's cheating. Not to worry, says Obama. We have guarantees of compliance: "unprecedented inspections" and "snapback" sanctions. The inspection promises are a farce. We haven't even held the Iranians to their current obligation to come clean with the International Atomic Energy Agency on their previous nuclear activities. The IAEA charges Iran with stonewalling on eleven of twelve issues.'

http://www.nationalreview.com/article/416726/what-hasnt-us-given-iran-negotiations-charles-krauthammer

https://www.washingtoninstitute.org/policy-analysis/view/irans-nuclear-breakout-time-a-fact-sheet

Headliens

Hillary to Announce Sunday, Then Raise 'Insane Amount of Money'

Ayatollah Says White House 'Lying' About Nuke Deal

FCC's Net Neutrality Rules Open Door to New Fee on Internet Service

Obama, Cuba's Castro Speak by Phone Ahead of Summit

Fwd: Stops

'As a candidate and in City Hall, Bill de Blasio played a facile numbers game. It went as follows: The cops were arresting or issuing summonses to only 12% of the people whom they had stopped on suspicion of criminality. Thus, the vast majority of the NYPD's then-annual 700,000 stops targeted people who had done nothing wrong. Thus, the NYPD was violating the rights of huge numbers of people…

Starting under Commissioner Ray Kelly and continuing under Commissioner Bill Bratton, the NYPD has sharply cut the number of stops. They are projected to total about 40,000 this year. At the same time, the hit rate has climbed to 18%...

He spoke proudly — and incorrectly. By his own standard, at a hit rate of 18%, the cops are still letting go 82% of the people they've stopped.'

http://www.nydailynews.com/opinion/editorial-de-blasio-stop-and-frisk-double-standard-article-1.2179918

'So let's do the math. 12% of 700,000 is 84, 000 people who broke the law in some way. And 18% of 40,000 is 7,200 people who broke the law in some way.

Now the article does not mention what type of criminal activity was committed by these individuals or what weapons may have been confiscated during the stop-question-frisk program. But what we do know is that 76,800 "alleged" criminals are on the street because the program has been curtailed. '

2015-04-08

Fwd: Islands

'China is creating a 'great wall of sand' in the South China Sea, the US Navy has said.

The latest huge land mass is 1.5 square miles (four square kilometres) in size and was created by dumping sand on live coral reefs, possibly damaging local ecosystems.

But this is just one of several artificial islands China has been creating in the region - and the exact purpose of them is unknown.

The large expanses of sand and concrete - the latest being Johnson Reef - are being built among the Spratly Islands in the South China Sea.

China is creating the area by using dredging vessels to dig up sediment from the sea, and then dumping it on subermeged coral reefs to make islands, Ethan Rosen - a geopolitical researcher in China - explained.

And experts have told MailOnline that the activities could be hugely damaging to local ecosystems.

China has supposedly been carrying out the land reclamation in order to build airstrips and other structures in the region.

Five islands in total have been built in this way, and two more are in development.'

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/article-3021363/China-building-great-wall-SAND-Coral-reefs-turned-artificial-islands-experts-warn-severe-threat-marine-life.html

'US Wary of Possible China Island Fortresses

U.S. Secretary of Defense Ash Carter said the U.S. was concerned by China's land reclamation efforts in the South China Sea and by the possibility that construction there has a military dimension.

Speaking to reporters after meeting Japanese Defense Minister Gen Nakatani on Wednesday, Mr. Carter said the U.S. prioritizes stability in the Asia-Pacific and wants to ensure "no changes in the status quo are made coercively and that territorial disputes, which are long-standing, are not militarized."

China has embarked on a dramatic expansion of construction of artificial islands on disputed South China Sea reefs, which defense experts say could form a network of island fortresses to help China control most of the South China Sea. Chinese officials have defended the construction work as necessary and lawful.'

http://www.wsj.com/articles/u-s-wary-of-chinese-building-in-south-china-sea-1428474870

'US military commander: Russian military 'far more capable' than Soviet Union's'

http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2015/04/08/us-military-commander-russian-military-far-more-capable-than-soviet-unions/

Best wishes,

John Coffey

http://www.entertainmentjourney.com

Federal Court Shoots Down Challenge to 2012 Obama Amnesty Order

Sleep

http://www.businessinsider.com/smartphone-impact-brain-body-sleep-2015-2

2015-04-05

Fwd: Iran

'Below are the key parameters of a Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA) regarding the Islamic Republic of Iran's nuclear program that were decided in Lausanne, Switzerland. These elements form the foundation upon which the final text of the JCPOA will be written between now and June 30, and reflect the significant progress that has been made in discussions between the P5+1, the European Union, and Iran. Important implementation details are still subject to negotiation, and nothing is agreed until everything is agreed. We will work to conclude the JCPOA based on these parameters over the coming months.

Enrichment

Iran has agreed to reduce by approximately two-thirds its installed centrifuges. Iran will go from having about 19,000 installed today to 6,104 installed under the deal, with only 5,060 of these enriching uranium for 10 years. All 6,104 centrifuges will be IR-1s, Iran's first-generation centrifuge.
Iran has agreed to not enrich uranium over 3.67 percent for at least 15 years.
Iran has agreed to reduce its current stockpile of about 10,000 kg of low-enriched uranium (LEU) to 300 kg of 3.67 percent LEU for 15 years.
All excess centrifuges and enrichment infrastructure will be placed in IAEA monitored storage and will be used only as replacements for operating centrifuges and equipment.
Iran has agreed to not build any new facilities for the purpose of enriching uranium for 15 years.
Iran's breakout timeline – the time that it would take for Iran to acquire enough fissile material for one weapon – is currently assessed to be 2 to 3 months. That timeline will be extended to at least one year, for a duration of at least ten years, under this framework.

Iran will convert its facility at Fordow so that it is no longer used to enrich uranium

Iran has agreed to not enrich uranium at its Fordow facility for at least 15 years.
Iran has agreed to convert its Fordow facility so that it is used for peaceful purposes only – into a nuclear, physics, technology, research center.
Iran has agreed to not conduct research and development associated with uranium enrichment at Fordow for 15 years.
Iran will not have any fissile material at Fordow for 15 years.
Almost two-thirds of Fordow's centrifuges and infrastructure will be removed. The remaining centrifuges will not enrich uranium. All centrifuges and related infrastructure will be placed under IAEA monitoring.

Iran will only enrich uranium at the Natanz facility, with only 5,060 IR-1 first-generation centrifuges for ten years.

Iran has agreed to only enrich uranium using its first generation (IR-1 models) centrifuges at Natanz for ten years, removing its more advanced centrifuges.
Iran will remove the 1,000 IR-2M centrifuges currently installed at Natanz and place them in IAEA monitored storage for ten years.
Iran will not use its IR-2, IR-4, IR-5, IR-6, or IR-8 models to produce enriched uranium for at least ten years. Iran will engage in limited research and development with its advanced centrifuges, according to a schedule and parameters which have been agreed to by the P5+1.
For ten years, enrichment and enrichment research and development will be limited to ensure a breakout timeline of at least 1 year. Beyond 10 years, Iran will abide by its enrichment and enrichment R&D plan submitted to the IAEA, and pursuant to the JCPOA, under the Additional Protocol resulting in certain limitations on enrichment capacity.

Inspections and Transparency

The IAEA will have regular access to all of Iran's nuclear facilities, including to Iran's enrichment facility at Natanz and its former enrichment facility at Fordow, and including the use of the most up-to-date, modern monitoring technologies.
Inspectors will have access to the supply chain that supports Iran's nuclear program. The new transparency and inspections mechanisms will closely monitor materials and/or components to prevent diversion to a secret program.
Inspectors will have access to uranium mines and continuous surveillance at uranium mills, where Iran produces yellowcake, for 25 years.
Inspectors will have continuous surveillance of Iran's centrifuge rotors and bellows production and storage facilities for 20 years. Iran's centrifuge manufacturing base will be frozen and under continuous surveillance.
All centrifuges and enrichment infrastructure removed from Fordow and Natanz will be placed under continuous monitoring by the IAEA...'

http://www.state.gov/r/pa/prs/ps/2015/04/240170.htm

'Dubai/Beirut: All United Nations Security Council resolutions related to Iran`s nuclear programme will be lifted immediately if a final deal is agreed, Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif said on Saturday, stressing the benefits to Iran of this week`s negotiations.

After leading Iranian negotiators to a preliminary deal with world powers in Switzerland, Zarif must now convince a domestic audience that the talks are heading toward a final deal that is in Iran`s interest.

He disputed a "fact sheet" released by the United States shortly after the deal that emphasised Iranian concessions and referred to sanctions being suspended rather than lifted and only after confirmation that Tehran has complied with the terms of the agreement.

"The Americans put what they wanted in the fact sheet... I even protested this issue with (U.S. Secretary of State John) Kerry himself," he said in a television interview cited by the Fars news agency, adding that U.N. Security Council would oversee any deal.

"Either side in this agreement can, in the case of the other side violating the agreement, cease its own steps," Zarif said. He mirrored earlier comments by U.S. President Barack Obama that sanctions could be reapplied if Iran did not stick to its word.

"Whatever work we have on the nuclear programme can be restored... Our knowledge is local and no one can take that away from us," he added.

Iran`s lead negotiator, who was welcomed back to Tehran by cheering crowds on Friday, insisted that Iran had negotiated from a position of strength to secure a good preliminary deal.

He pointed to the changes in the demands of the P5+1 group of countries - the United States, France, Britain, Germany, Russia and China - as evidence of the success of negotiations that began two years ago.

"They realised they can`t shut down Iran`s nuclear programme."

Zarif said Iran would keep its promises so long as the West also did so, and suggested a deal could open the door to more productive relations with the international community, echoing comments on Friday by President Hassan Rouhani.

"We don`t want anything more than our rights," he said. "We`ve never pursued a bomb in the past or now. We`re also not looking for regional hegemony. We want good relations with our neighbours in the region."

U.S. officials have insisted that a detailed list of specific items agreed at the Lausanne talks, which the U.S. side released on Thursday, was not open to further negotiation and would be part of the final overall agreement to be worked out by end-June.

A senior U.S. official told reporters on Friday that Iran and the six nations had agreed they could release their own interpretations of the deal, but there were not to be any discrepancies about facts.

"We understood we would have different narratives, but we wouldn't contradict each other," the official said.

The U.S. fact sheet described its contents as "the key parameters" of a final deal to be agreed by June 30. It said key details were subject to further negotiation, adding that "nothing is agreed until everything is agreed."

Separately, France has released its own fact sheet on the nuclear deal, which includes additional detail about the easing of limitations on Iran`s enrichment programme after 10 years. While it does not contradict the U.S. fact sheet, it notes that Tehran would eventually be able to use advanced centrifuges.

The French fact sheet said Tehran would be allowed a "gradual and precisely defined increase in (enrichment) capacity between the tenth and thirteenth years with the introduction of advanced IR-2 and IR-4 centrifuges."

The fact that under a final deal Tehran would eventually be permitted to use advanced centrifuges that purify uranium several times more efficiently than the first generation IR-1 machines Iran currently uses is likely to raise concerns in Israel and Republican-dominated U.S. Congress.

Under the Lausanne agreement, Tehran would only use IR-1s for the first decade'

http://zeenews.india.com/news/world/zarif-stresses-benefits-to-iran-of-framework-nuclear-deal_1573513.html

IRAN: U.S. LYING ABOUT NUCLEAR DEAL, 'FACT SHEETS' ON NEGOTIATIONS ARE 'SPIN'

Mere minutes after the U.S. released a fact sheet that purportedly lays out what the basic framework agreed upon by the Iranian regime and P5+1 world powers entailed, Iranian officials accused the United States of misleading the public about its agreement.

"The solutions are good for all, as they stand. There is no need to spin using 'fact sheets' so early on," tweeted Iran's foreign minister, Javad Zarif.

Iran's state-run Press TV reported that the agreement allowed for Iran to continue enriching uranium, and none of its facilities would be shut down.

"In the framework of the agreement, none of Iran's nuclear facilities as well as the previous activities will be stopped, shut down or suspended and Iran's nuclear activities in all its nuclear facilities including Natanz, Fordow, Isfahan and Arak will continue," said the Iranian media report.

Iranian media also reported that all of the UN Security Council, United States, and European Union sanctions against the regime will be lifted immediately, once the Joint Plan of Action has been implemented.'

http://www.breitbart.com/national-security/2015/04/02/iran-u-s-lying-about-nuclear-deal-fact-sheets-on-negotiations-are-spin/

2015-04-04

10 future technologies that are going to kill us all

2015-04-02

Fwd: Baby Galaxies

'Astronomers stunned to discover massive clusters of baby galaxies in distant universe

Scientists have discovered the precursors to huge clusters of galaxies that are seen today, and it's all thanks to the European Space Agency's Herschel and Planck space observatories.

Astronomers have combined observations of the distant universe made by the Herschel and Planck space observatories to discover what led about to the huge galaxy clusters we see today, according to a Space Daily

Galaxies are rarely found floating on their own, and instead are usually found in large clusters of galaxies of tens or even hundreds. However, clusters like this haven't always existed, and the question has always plagued scientists: how and when did they form?

With these new insights, scientists should now be able to form better theories and gain new insight into how galaxy clusters evolved, including how dark matter influences these formations.

Astronomers used the Herschel and Planck observatories to peer deep into space and into the distant universe, examining what the universe looked like at 3 billion years old. Brenda Frye, an assistant astronomer at the University of Arizona's Steward Observatory who participated in conducting the research, said that scientists had discovered a cluster of galaxies that might be what a baby cluster would look like, according to the report.'

http://natmonitor.com/2015/04/02/astronomers-stunned-to-discover-massive-clusters-of-baby-galaxies-in-distant-universe/

NEW STUDY CLAIMS EATING BACON MAY PROLONG YOUR LIFE

Well, maybe not.

2015-04-30

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2015-04-20

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2015-04-08

2015-04-05

IRAN: U.S. LYING ABOUT NUCLEAR DEAL, 'FACT SHEETS' ON NEGOTIATIONS ARE 'SPIN'

Mere minutes after the U.S. released a fact sheet that purportedly lays out what the basic framework agreed upon by the Iranian regime and P5+1 world powers entailed, Iranian officials accused the United States of misleading the public about its agreement.

2015-04-04

2015-04-02