Category Archives: National

The Professor is gone.

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220px-Russell_Johnson_Black_Saddle_1960Russell Johnson, best known for his role as the Professor on Gilligan’s Island died today at his home in Washington. He died of natural causes with his wife and daughter at his side. He was 89.

Johnson began his career in 1950 as a sailor in the Fireside Theater production of A Man Without A Country. He had the role of Chopper in The Adventures of Superman in 1953 and appeared in various westerns and science fiction movies. He played Fletcher Christian in the You Are There presentation of Mr. Christian Seizes the Bounty.

He is best known for his role as high school science teacher Roy Hinckley which ran for three years but is popular in syndication today. The Memorable Entertainment network runs two episodes a night. The professor had to come up with various fixes to the equipment and create equipment for various applications. Ironically, he appeared in the popular MacGyver television series in 1986, but we’re not sure if he had to come up with any explosive devices from two bobby-pins and a can of hair spray.

According to a FOX News report, Johnson once quipped that the only thing he couldn’t figure out is how to fix the leaky boat so they could return to civilization.

Co-star Dawn Welles posted on her Facebook page:

My 2 favorite people are now gone. The Professor past away this morning. My heart is broken.

and

Russell was a true gentleman, a good father, a great friend, and “the rest”.
I love him and shall miss him. My heart goes out to Connie and his daughter Kim. I love you.

Dawn Welles and Tina Louise are the only surviving members of a group of misfit castaways marooned after a failed “three hour tour” which seems to show no sign of stopping in syndication. Probably the best tribute an actor can receive.

N.S.A. Devises Radio Pathway Into Computers

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By DAVID E. SANGER and THOM SHANKERJAN. 14, 2014

WASHINGTON — The National Security Agency has implanted software in nearly 100,000 computers around the world that allows the United States to conduct surveillance on those machines and can also create a digital highway for launching cyberattacks.

While most of the software is inserted by gaining access to computer networks, the N.S.A. has increasingly made use of a secret technology that enables it to enter and alter data in computers even if they are not connected to the Internet, according to N.S.A. documents, computer experts and American officials.

The technology, which the agency has used since at least 2008, relies on a covert channel of radio waves that can be transmitted from tiny circuit boards and USB cards inserted surreptitiously into the computers. In some cases, they are sent to a briefcase-size relay station that intelligence agencies can set up miles away from the target.
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The radio frequency technology has helped solve one of the biggest problems facing American intelligence agencies for years: getting into computers that adversaries, and some American partners, have tried to make impervious to spying or cyberattack. In most cases, the radio frequency hardware must be physically inserted by a spy, a manufacturer or an unwitting user.

The N.S.A. calls its efforts more an act of “active defense” against foreign cyberattacks than a tool to go on the offensive. But when Chinese attackers place similar software on the computer systems of American companies or government agencies, American officials have protested, often at the presidential level.

Read more at The New York Times
Related: Obama to Place Some Restraints on Surveillance

Jackson: Gun owner unarmed, unwelcome in Maryland

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tbo.comHUDSON – John Filippidis, silver-haired family man, business owner, employer and taxpayer, is also licensed to carry a concealed firearm.

He’d rather he didn’t feel the need, “but things aren’t like they used to be. The break-ins, the burglaries, all the crime. And I carry cash a lot of the time. I’m constantly going to the bank.

“I wanted to be able to defend my family, my household and the ground I’m standing on. But I’m not looking for any trouble.”

Filippidis keeps his gun — a palm-sized Kel-Tec .38 semiautomatic, barely larger than a smartphone in a protective case — in one of two places, always: in the right-hand pocket of his jeans, or in the safe at home.

“There are kids in the house,” Filippidis says, “and I don’t think they’d ever bother with it, but I don’t want to take any chances.”

He’s not looking for any trouble, after all.

Read more at The Tampa Tribune

Maine becomes second state to require GMO labels

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Monsanto has threatened to sue other states over labeling legislation; in 2012, the threat of legal action effectively halted a GMO measure that had been advancing through the Vermont legislature.

Top_Stories_Maine-009dc_image_982wMaine will become the second state to require labels on food that contains genetically modified ingredients under new legislation signed by Gov. Paul LePage (R) this week — but only after other states follow suit.

LePage signed the legislation, initially introduced by a Republican state representative, over the objections of agriculture giants who produce many of the raw ingredients that go into everyday foods.

The U.S. Department of Agriculture estimates that about 70 percent of the food products sold in supermarkets contain genetically modified ingredients, the Portland Press-Herald reported.

Read more at Washington Post

Where President Obama’s Promise Zones Can Meet Rand Paul’s Economic Freedom Zones

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Across the aisle, Senator Rand Paul introduced a bill to Congress to create “Economic Freedom Zones” that would reduce taxes and ease government regulation in distressed areas.

imgres2Income inequality is the name of the political game in 2014.

Democrats and Republicans alike have taken on the challenge of addressing America’s rampant, deep-seated inequality as the cornerstone of their platform for the upcoming midterm elections.

President Obama made it clear in his 2013 State of the Union address that the growing income gap in America is the greatest challenge of our time. And just this week, Senator Marco Rubio and Congressman Paul Ryan – both potential White House hopefuls – have made the issue their own, with Rubio proposing his own changes to anti-poverty programs and Ryan discussing it with NBC’s Brian Williams.

To be sure, this has traditionally been a Democrat issue and we have recently seen the Democrats push to increase the federal minimum wage and extend unemployment benefits.

Read more at Forbes

Indiana guardsman stopped for speeding in Madison County had 48 bombs, prosecutor says

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By Laura Arenschield, The Columbus Dispatch

andrew-scott-boguslawskiAn Indiana National Guardsman was arrested outside Columbus on New Year’s Day after a state trooper found nearly 50 bombs and the blueprints for a Navy SEAL training facility inside his car, the Madison County prosecutor said yesterday.

Andrew Scott Boguslawski, 43, also had a remote-control device to detonate the bombs, Madison County Prosecutor Stephen Pronai said. Boguslawski’s civilian job is as a groundskeeper at the Muscatatuck Urban Training Center in south-central Indiana. Prosecutors could not say definitively yesterday whether the blueprints in his car were for the facility where he worked.

Boguslawski also had a bulletproof vest in his car, Pronai said.

Read more at The Columbus Dispatch

36 Signs The Media Is Lying To You About How Radiation From Fukushima Is Affecting The West Coast

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Fukushima-Radiation-450x270The west coast of the United States is being absolutely fried by radiation from the Fukushima nuclear disaster, and the mainstream media is not telling us the truth about this. What you are about to see is a collection of evidence that is quite startling. Taken collectively, this body of evidence shows that nuclear radiation from Fukushima is affecting sea life in the Pacific Ocean and animal life along the west coast of North America in some extraordinary ways. But the mainstream media continues to insist that we don’t have a thing to worry about. The mainstream media continues to insist that radiation levels in the Pacific and along the west coast are perfectly safe. Are they lying to us? Evaluate the evidence compiled below and come to your own conclusions…

#1 Independent researchers have measured alarmingly high levels of radiation on the beaches of the west coast. For example, the video posted below was taken on December 23rd, 2013 at Pacifica State Beach. As you can see in this video, radiation levels near the water are up to five times higher than normal background radiation…

#2 According to Oceanus Magazine, the total amount of cesium-137 that has been released into the Pacific Ocean from Fukushima is 10,000 to 100,000 times greater than the amount released into the oceans by the Chernobyl disaster or by the atmospheric nuclear weapons tests of the 1960s.

#3 Former MSNBC host Cenk Uygur has admitted that while he was at MSNBC he was instructed not to warn the public about the radiation coming from Fukushima…

“I was on MSNBC at the time when this happened, I said, “Don’t trust what the Japanese government is saying, they’ll say trust what the electric power company is saying. Go, go, go, get outta there. Get as far away from that plant as you can. It’s literally a core meltdown.” And they always don’t want people to panic, so they were always like, “Oh it’s going to be okay.” […] I’m like, “You’re crazy man, don’t be anywhere near that reactor.” And I remember at the time, of course not at The Young Turks, but on cable news, people were like, “Hey Cenk, you know, I don’t know that you want to say that, because the official government position is that it’s safe.” Oh, is that the official government position? Now go explain that to the people who served on the USS Ronald Reagan.”

#4 71 U.S. sailors who assisted with the initial Fukushima relief efforts have developed serious diseases such as testicular cancer, thyroid cancer, Leukemia, “unremitting gynecological bleeding” and brain tumors since that time as a result of exposure to radiation coming from Fukushima.

#5 Something is causing starfish all along the west coast of the United States to literally disintegrate into piles of “white goo“…

Researchers say nuclear pollution from the 2011 earthquake in Japan that damaged the Fukushima Nuclear Power Plant could be partially to blame for a disease wiping out starfish along the West Coast.

Dr. Peter Raimondi of the University of Santa Cruz says something is making starfish susceptible to whats believed to be a bacteria coined “Wasting Disease.” It essentially disintegrate the marine invertebrates into a white goo, after the starfish loses its legs.

Read more at The Truth

SEE ALSO: As Fukushima radiation makes landfall on California beaches, Natural News announces lab to test foods for radioactive cesium-137, How Can You Detect Radiation?

HISD school bus drivers disciplined for praying after child’s death

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HOUSTON (KTRK) — Houston ISD bus drivers came together to support a coworker and to protest a move by the school district.

Several drivers were reprimanded for praying with that coworker, after she lost a child. In response to that — they’re praying even more.

On December 16, a 12-year-old girl was struck by a car as she walked home from school in north Harris County. She would later die from her injuries. She was the daughter of an HISD bus driver, whose coworkers rallied around her.

Bus driver Cynthia Cormier said, “From a parent’s point of view and from a grandparent’s, prayer is the answer.”

As news of the tragedy spread among the community of HISD school bus drivers, they spontaneously prayed for one of their own who was grieving. They joined not holding hands, but by using a back channel on the bus radio system.

Wretha Thomas, with the Educational Support Union, said, “Somebody else heard it and called in and reported it to the administration and they chose to write them up.”

Read more at ABC 13

Current legislation of interest to veterans.

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Veterans and current military members are certainly aware of the reduction of retiree pay while blocking Republican efforts to close tax credits for illegal aliens.

The Air Force Sergeants Association Facebook page has compiled a list of current legislation of interest to the military and veterans.

Many of the efforts address the reduction in veteran retirement in one fashion or another. Democrat Daniel B. Maffei of New York, for example, would restore military pay while closing “corporate tax loopholes.”

The list from the Air Force Sergeants Association is as follows:

H.R. 3787, by Rep. James Lankford, R-Okla., would repeal of annual adjustment of retired pay and retainer pay amounts for retired members of the Armed Forces under age 62. Note: This bill would restore $6 billion to replace the cuts in military retirement by combining DoD and VA drug-buying power, that Lankford contends would save an estimated $7 billion.

H.R. 3788, by Rep. Michael G. Fitzpatrick, R-Pa., (and 45 cosponsors), would repeal the reductions in military retirement benefits made by the Bipartisan Budget Act of 2013; and require inclusion of the taxpayer’s social security number to claim the refundable portion of the child tax credit.

H.R. 3789, by Rep. Jeff Miller, R-Fla., (and 120 cosponsors), would exempt the retired pay of certain disabled veterans from the reduced adjustment of retired pay and retainer pay amounts for retired members of the Armed Forces under age 62; and prevent any adverse impact of the reduced adjustment on annuities under the Survivor Benefit Plan based on retired or retainer pay.

H.R. 3790, by Rep. Jeff Miller, R-Fla., (and 87 cosponsors), would repeal of annual adjustment of retired pay and retainer pay amounts for retired members of the Armed Forces under age 62.

H.R. 3792, by Rep. Robert J. Wittman, R-Va., would bill to repeal the reduction in the annual percentage increases of retired pay and retainer pay amounts for retired members of the Armed Forces under age 62.

H.R. 3793, by Rep. Daniel B. Maffei, D-N.Y., (and 36 cosponsors), would restore full military retirement benefits by closing corporate tax loopholes.

H.R. 3794, by Rep. Gus Bilirakis, R-Fla., would repeal the annual adjustment of retired pay and retainer pay amounts for retired members of the Armed Forces under age 62.

H.R. 3797, by Rep. Scott DesJarlais, R-Tenn., would repeal an annual adjustment of retired pay and retainer pay amounts for retired members of the Armed Forces under age 62.

H.R. 3798, by Rep. Scott DesJarlais, R-Tenn., would repeal an annual adjustment of retired pay and retainer pay amounts for retired members of the Armed Forces under age 62.

H.R. 3801, by Rep. Darrell E. Issa, R-Calif., would repeal the reductions in military retirement benefits made by the Bipartisan Budget Act of 2013; and authorize the United States Postal Service to implement a modified Saturday delivery schedule.

S. 1869, by Sen. Kelly Ayotte, R-N.H., would repeal section 403 of the Bipartisan Budget Act of 2013, relating to an annual adjustment of retired pay for members of the Armed Forces under the age of 62, and provide an offset.

S. 1872, by Sen. Mark L. Pryor, D-Ark., would provide that the annual adjustment of retired pay for members of the Armed Forces under the age of 62 under the Bipartisan Budget Act of 2013 shall not apply to members retired for disability and to retired pay used to compute certain Survivor Benefit Plan annuities.

S. 1880, by Sen. Patty Murray, D-Wash., would provide that the annual adjustment of retired pay for members of the Armed Forces under the age of 62 under the Bipartisan Budget Act of 2013 shall not apply to members retired for disability and to retired pay used to compute certain Survivor Benefit Plan annuities.

This Man Chased A Nazi Fighter Plane Under The Eiffel Tower

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william-overstreetToday, people on two continents mourn the death of 92-year-old William Overstreet Jr. He was a resident of Roanoke, Virginia, a retired accountant, and like many men from his generation, a veteran of World War II. And in the spring of 1944, Overstreet did something people in France and the U.S. still talk about.

Overstreet, who died Sunday at a Roanoke hospital, is remembered for being the U.S. Army Air Corps pilot who flew underneath the Eiffel Tower’s arches in his P-51 Mustang during an aerial battle while in hot pursuit of a German fighter plane, which he ultimately shot down.

Even back in war-torn, Nazi-occupied Paris, that wasn’t something you saw every day. Or ever. And it was an act that is said to have reignited the spirits of the French resistance fighters who witnessed it from the ground. The Richmond Times-Dispatch quoted the son of one fighter, who had this to say:

One of those French Resistance fighters was the father of Bernard Marie. A French dignitary who has hosted D-Day events every year since 1984, Marie said he met Overstreet in 1994.

He knew Overstreet was well-known for his flight underneath the Eiffel Tower but didn’t understand its true importance until he spoke with his father.

“My father began shouting at me — ‘I have to meet this man,’ ” Marie said. Members of the French Resistance had seen his flight and it inspired them, including Marie’s father, he said.

“This guy has done even more than what people are thinking,” Marie said. “He lifted the spirit of the French.”

Read more at JALOPNIK