military

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USS Indianapolis was a Portland class heavy cruiser of the US Navy, flagship for Admiral Raymond Spruance while he commanded the Fifth Fleet in battles across the Central Pacific. On 30 July 1945, the ship was torpedoed by the Japanese submarine I-58, sinking in 12 minutes. Of 1,196 crewmen aboard, 300 went down with the ship. The remaining 900 faced exposure, dehydration, saltwater poisoning, and shark attacks. Her sinking led to the greatest single loss of life at sea in the history of the U.S. Navy.

On 30 July 1945, the ship was torpedoed by the Imperial Japanese Navy submarine I-58, sinking in 12 minutes. Of 1,196 crewmen aboard, approximately 300 went down with the ship.

The remaining 900 faced exposure, dehydration, saltwater poisoning, and shark attacks.

Out of the Depths: A WWII Vet's Miracle of Survival Edgar Harrell, survived the sinking of the USS Indianapolis in 1945.
Harrell saw fierce combat on the ship - events that shook him to the core. The 89-year-old vividly recalls one harrowing incident when a Japanese kamikaze plane struck the Indianapolis in the battle for Okinawa. "I can remember seeing that plane, thinking that life is over," Harrell shared. "This is the end of life because he's diving for the fantail."  read more »

Radioactive Seawater Impact Map (update: March 2012)

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Taipei, Dec. 3 (CNA) - Taiwan will express its deep concerns to Japan if Japanese authorities interfere with Taiwanese civilian aircraft flying through an area where the two countries' airspace zones overlap, an official said Tuesday. "If our Civil Aeronautics Administration (CAA) notifies us of such a case, we will immediately hold serious consultations with Japan" and ask it to refrain from such actions, said Ministry of Foreign Affairs spokeswoman Anna Kao at a news conference Tuesday.  read more »

new version "all-in-one: judge, jury and executioner"

Hal 9000, the supercomputer who commits murder in Stanley Kubrick's film "2001: A Space Odyssey."

Einstein warned us long ago: "It has become appallingly obvious that our technology has exceeded our humanity."...
Philosophers and scientists: "In the case of artificial intelligence, it seems a reasonable prediction that some time in this or the next century intelligence will escape from the constraints of biology" (...will, or have escaped?) "...advanced technology could be a threat when computers start to direct resources towards their own goals, at the expense of human concerns like environmental sustainability."
VP of space technologies at Physical Sciences: "30,000 unmanned drones (which can hover 100 feet above your home or zip past your office window) estimated could be aloft by 2020. 'We’re in a rapid spool-up phase now, where we’re thinking about going from producing tens of aircraft per month to a thousand or more...' "

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*update* March 19, 2013 US magazine calls Stephen Harper an ‘exceptional leader’, praising his leadership, his foreign policy and his stewardship of the economy coming out of the 2008 recession. National Review: "Stephen Harper, Canada’s PM, 'Leader of the West', 'a very disciplined politician'"
*update* Marketwire: "Proud to stand up for honest, hard-working Canadians against thieves and criminals". March 11, 2013, Canada announced "Bill C-26, the Citizen's Arrest and Self-defence Act, has come into force", committed to keeping our streets and communities safe", for Canadians to protect themselves against criminal acts and "the justice system is behind them, not against them", said Minister Nicholson. "Those who have been the victim of a crime should not be re-victimized by the criminal justice system." Canada "will continue to stand up for law-abiding Canadians."

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She has been arrested 40 or 50 times for acts of civil disobedience and once served six months in prison. In the Nevada desert, she and others knelt down to block a truck rumbling across the government’s nuclear test site, prompting the authorities to take her into custody.

Now, Sister Megan Rice, 82, a Roman Catholic nun of the Society of the Holy Child Jesus, and two male companions have carried out what nuclear experts call the biggest security breach in the history of the nation’s atomic complex, making their way to the inner sanctum of the site where the United States keeps crucial nuclear bomb parts and fuel.

“Deadly force is authorized,” signs there read. “Halt!” Images of skulls emphasize the lethal danger. With flashlights and bolt cutters, the three defied barbed wire as well as armed guards, video cameras and motion sensors at the Oak Ridge nuclear reservation in Tennessee early on July 28, a Saturday. They splashed blood on the Highly Enriched Uranium Materials Facility — a new windowless, half-billion-dollar plant encircled by enormous guard towers — and hung banners outside its walls.

“Swords into plowshares,” read one, quoting the Book of Isaiah. “Spears into pruning hooks.” The plant holds the nation’s main supply of highly enriched uranium, enough for thousands of nuclear weapons.  read more »

*update* Dec. 01, 2012
The first-ever flying drone competition “In the next few years the idea of drones will dramatically change. You no longer need a PhD... The same functions every Web programmer uses to build apps can now make drones navigate, take pictures, find people, fly through windows, play games, and so on. When the low level control of hardware comes built-in, hobbyists can focus on writing algorithms and routines." "Autonomous Flight, with a Few Lines of Javascript"

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July 4, 2012 U.S. drone 'hijackings' - University of Texas professor and grad students manipulate unmanned crafts' flight paths...even able to make them land

Thousands of drones are destined for US skies. The use of drones is taking off in America. Local governments and private businesses see them as a cheap and effective way of maintaining an eye from the sky.

But will the drones be fully under their control? A college professor and his students say not necessarily.

A civilian drone aircraft was "hijacked" by Professor Todd Humphreys and his graduate students at the University of Texas at Austin. They were able to hack into the drone's GPS signals. Later, in an exercise done in conjunction with the Department of Homeland Security at White Sands, N.M., they were even able to make the drone land.  read more »

Question from apolitical minds who have no clue but simply follow instinct: Does Dr. Ron Paul sound like George Washington leading peasants across the Delaware River fighting the Battle of Trenton? Jefferson (together with other Founding Fathers Adams, Franklin...) writing the US Constitution? Churchill stubbornly holding the floor without audience (deserted by his British Parliament peers), insisting on warning about looming WWII? Or Ronald Reagan (who once said, veteran and physician doctor "Ron Paul is one of the outstanding leaders fighting for a stronger national defense. As a former Air Force officer, he knows well the needs of our armed forces, and he always puts them first. We need to keep him fighting for our country!")?

*UPDATE March 19, 2012*
Wikipedia: "Greece public debt-to-GDP ratio: 159.1% of nominal GDP"; "US public debt-to-GDP ratio: 115% since Feb/2012”
http://www.brillig.com/debt_clock/
"US Outstanding Public Debt as of 19 Mar 2012 is: $15,580,446,972,442
The estimated population of US is 312,429,020
Each citizen's share of this debt is $49,868.76.
The National Debt has continued to increase an average of $4.02 billion per day since Sept. 28, 2007!"


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