Tag Archives: National

Supreme Court skeptical of greenhouse gas permits

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Justices appear to be leaning toward a ruling that would eliminate just one method the Environmental Protection Agency uses to regulate greenhouse gas emissions from stationary sources

1372376433000-ourviewWASHINGTON — The Supreme Court on Monday appeared headed toward restricting the federal government’s authority to require permits for major emitters of greenhouse gases.

Such a ruling from the court’s conservative wing wouldn’t affect an effort by the Obama administration to regulate the sources of global warming, but it would eliminate one method of doing so.

At issue is the Environmental Protection Agency’s decision to change the threshold in the Clean Air Act for the amount of emissions from a power plant, refinery or other stationary source that requires a permit. Liberal justices said it was a reasonable move to avoid an absurd over-regulation of greenhouse gas emissions, but conservatives said it went too far.

Read more at USA Today.

Bible stops two bullets to save life of Ohio bus driver, police say

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busmessage
A Bible saved the life of a Ohio bus driver after the man was shot twice in the chest early Monday, police said.

Rickey Waggoner, a Dayton RTA bus driver, was making a mechanical fix outside his bus when three assailants approached him and shot him in what appears to have been a gang initiation, the Dayton Daily News reported.

Waggoner was shot twice in the chest at close range, but a contemporary version of the Bible, titled “The Message,” absorbed the bullets that would otherwise have killed the 49-year-old bus driver, according to police documents obtained by the newspaper.

Read more at FOX News

Government Lab Reveals It Has Operated Quantum Internet for Over Two Years

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MIT Technology Review, May 6, 2013

QC networkA quantum internet capable of sending perfectly secure messages has been running at Los Alamos National Labs for the last two and a half years, say researchers

One of the dreams for security experts is the creation of a quantum internet that allows perfectly secure communication based on the powerful laws of quantum mechanics.

The basic idea here is that the act of measuring a quantum object, such as a photon, always changes it. So any attempt to eavesdrop on a quantum message cannot fail to leave telltale signs of snooping that the receiver can detect. That allows anybody to send a “one-time pad” over a quantum network which can then be used for secure communication using conventional classical communication.

That sets things up nicely for perfectly secure messaging known as quantum cryptography and this is actually a fairly straightforward technique for any half decent quantum optics lab. Indeed, a company called ID Quantique sells an off-the-shelf system that has begun to attract banks and other organisations interested in perfect security.

These systems have an important limitation, however. The current generation of quantum cryptography systems are point-to-point connections over a single length of fibre, So they can send secure messages from A to B but cannot route this information onwards to C, D, E or F. That’s because the act of routing a message means reading the part of it that indicates where it has to be routed. And this inevitably changes it, at least with conventional routers. This makes a quantum internet impossible with today’s technology

Various teams are racing to develop quantum routers that will fix this problem by steering quantum messages without destroying them. We looked at one of the first last year. But the truth is that these devices are still some way from commercial reality.

Read more at MIT Technology Review

NYC: More Black Babies Killed by Abortion Than Born

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According to New York Daily News, there were 236 murders in which a firearm was used in 2012.

AP Photo

AP Photo

(CNSNews.com) – In 2012, there were more black babies killed by abortion (31,328) in New York City than were born there (24,758), and the black children killed comprised 42.4% of the total number of abortions in the Big Apple, according to a report by the New York City Department of Health and Mental Hygiene.

The report is entitled, Summary of Vital Statistics 2012 The City of New York, Pregnancy Outcomes, and was prepared by the New York City Department of Health and Mental Hygiene, Office of Vital Statistics. (See  Pregnancy Outcomes NYC Health 2012.pdf)

Table 1 of the report presents the total number of live births, spontaneous terminations (miscarriages), and induced terminations (abortions) for women in different age brackets between 15 and 49 years of age. The table also breaks that data down by race – Hispanic, Asian and Pacific Islander, Non-Hispanic White, Non-Hispanic Black – and also by borough of residence: Manhattan, Bronx, Brooklyn, Queens, Staten Island.

– See more at CNS News

Hillsdale College Constitution 101 course starts Monday.

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Hillsdale College Campus

Hillsdale College in Michigan is starting up a free basic online course on the Constitution on Monday, February 24. Potential students can per-register now.

These courses are non-credit courses which are based on the curriculum that the resident students must take in order to graduate. These are great extra-study courses for high school students and students of other colleges.

These well-done courses consist of video lectures and downloads from their Constitutional Reader and other sources. The course covers the Constitution in the view of the founders through their words and the government-approved Federalist Papers.

The course is complete with examinations and you even receive a certificate of completion for the courses.

Upon completion, there is a Constitution 201 course available. They also have two history courses and a new economics course.

The course comes in ten weekly sections with a video about 45-minutes long. The reading depends on how much time you devote. If you want a good understanding of the Constitution, this is about the best ten weeks you can spend.

Air Force will take ‘appropriate action’ over viral POW/MIA emblem photo

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By Jon Harper
Stars and Stripes

pow-imageWASHINGTON — The Air Force is “disappointed” in the airman who appeared in a photo that is being circulated of her posing with her tongue in the mouth of the prisoner of war depicted on the iconic black-and-white POW/MIA emblem.

“We do not yet have all the details behind the photo, but it certainly is a concern; it’s a concern any time someone shows disrespect for prisoners of war and those missing in action,” Chief Master Sgt. of the Air Force James Cody said in a statement. “They deserve our utmost respect and we must always remember their sacrifice and the legacy they’ve left for us as men and women serving our nation.

“I want to make it clear that this is not a reflection of Airmen who wear this uniform; it is a case of poor judgment of one Airman … to say we are disappointed would be an understatement. We are gathering all the details and will take appropriate action at the appropriate level,” he said. “Our Airmen fully understand the significance of the POW/MIA flag and the sacrifice of the men and women it honors.”

Read more at Stars and Stripes

Love in bloom

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This column first appeared in Stars and Stripes on Feb. 8, 2011. It is now part of an upcoming book by Terri Barnes, “Spouse Calls: Messages From a Military Life,” (Elva Resa Publishing) available March 1.

By Terri Barnes

The sign said “One dozen Roses — Only $6 for Valentine’s Day delivery.” What was an 11-year-old to think?

He figured he had more than enough.

Quite a few bills and coins rustled and rattled in the jar he used for his savings, left over from cash sent by grandparents for his birthday and Christmas. He knew he had way more than six dollars.

He probably spread the money out on his bed, counting it carefully before putting it all in his jeans pocket.

It’s likely his mom thought he was off to play with the neighborhood boys when he hopped on his bike and headed down the street.

The flower shop wasn’t too far away. He didn’t even have to cross a big street to get there. He only had to follow the residential streets for a couple of blocks, then cut across on the dirt road that came up behind the shopping center.

His mom sometimes let him go that far anyway, he reasoned, to skateboard in the parking lot or buy candy and a Coke at the convenience store. Maybe she wouldn’t mind — if she found out.

He parked his bike and went inside.

Read more at Stars and Stripes

Moon with a view.

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640px-earthriseOn December 24, 1968 at about 4:38 pm—just before we took one giant leap—Apollo 8 orbited the moon snapping photos and taking reconnaissance. The small capsule held astronauts Frank Borman, Jim Lovell, and William Anders.

As they orbited, they made a significant turn which brought into view the earth rising over the moon. They snapped a picture that would appear on the front cover of TIME and become an icon of the environmental movement. It was listed in LIFE magazine’s 100 photos that changed the world.

According to Business Insider, William Anders described the event in a television interview:

I don’t know who said it, maybe all of us said, ‘Oh my God. Look at that!’ and up came the Earth. We had had no discussion on the ground, no briefing, no instructions on what to do. I jokingly said, ‘well it’s not on the flight plan,’ and the other two guys were yelling at me to give them cameras. I had the only color camera with a long lens. So I floated a black and white over to Borman. I can’t remember what Lovell got. There were all yelling for cameras, and we started snapping away.

To commemorate the 45th anniversary of the event, NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center created a video showing the events surrounding the historic photo. They released the video on December 20th of last year.

The video combines the photos of the moon being taken at the time, the records of the flight and the photos taken of the moon to create a simulation showing the sequence of events.

First Native American Arizona Senator dies at age 102.

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Art_HubbardPHOENIX – Arthur Hubbard, Sr., American Navajo Code Talker and Arizona’s first Arizona State Senator, was laid to rest in Phoenix after a service at Pinnacle Presbyterian Church in Scottsdale at 102-years old.

Mr. Hubbard was born in January of 1912 in Topawa on the Tohono O’odham Indian Reservation, but was raised on the Navajo reservation with Christian, Navajo and O’odham traditions.

He joined the Marines and during World War II trained Navajo code talkers who were instrumental in success in the war in the Pacific. They used their native language to describe various Japanese military equipment and movements in their own native language which became the code the Japanese could not break.

Other Native American code talkers were deployed by the United States Army during World War II, including Cherokee, Choctaw, Lakota, Meskwaki, and Comanche soldiers. Soldiers of Basque ancestry were used for code talking by the U.S. Marines during World War II in areas where other Basque speakers were not expected to be operating.

FOX 10 News | myfoxphoenix.com

According to Indian Country, Navajo Nation President Ben Shelly said

“The Navajo Code Talkers are living treasures of the Navajo Nation. With the passing of Arthur Hubbard, Sr., we have lost a true American hero. The Nation offers our heartfelt condolences to the family during this time.”

In 1972 he became the first Native American Arizona Senator and served six terms.

Shirley Temple Black, iconic child star, dies at 85

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Shirley-temple-ca-1936-everettShirley Temple Black, who as the most popular child movie star of all time lifted a filmgoing nation’s spirits during the Depression and then grew up to be a diplomat, has died. She was 85.

Black died late Monday at her home in Woodside, Calif., according to publicist Cheryl J. Kagan. No cause was given.

From 1935 through 1938, the curly-haired moppet billed as Shirley Temple was the top box-office draw in the nation. She saved what became 20th Century Fox studios from bankruptcy and made more than 40 movies before she turned 12.

Read more at The LA Times