Year: 2014

Breitbart – by Matthew Boyle

Some comments from Sen. Rand Paul (R-KY), made during a radio interview this week, seem to make it appear as though he supports President Barack Obama’s move to open relations again with Cuba.

“The 50-year embargo just hasn’t worked,” Paul said in an interview on with Tom Roten of News Talk 800 WVHU in Huntington, West Virginia. “If the goal is regime change, it sure doesn’t seem to be working, and probably, it punishes the people more than the regime because the regime can blame the embargo for hardship.   Continue reading “Rand Paul: Let’s ‘Co-Opt Cuba,’ Force Open Elections With The Power Of Trade”

Japan Times

FUKUSHIMA – Up to 6 tons of radioactive water has leaked into the ground at the crippled Fukushima No. 1 nuclear power plant, according to Tokyo Electric Power Co.

The water, which had been scrubbed by Units A and C of the advanced liquid processing system (ALPS), leaked from pipes while being transported to storage tanks on Wednesday afternoon, the utility said.   Continue reading “Six tons of tainted water leak at Fukushima No. 1 during Korean safety tour”

Bloomberg Business Week – by Jason Scott and Isabel Reynolds

Australia is considering buying top-secret technology from Japan to build a fleet of new generation submarines, a move that would risk reigniting diplomatic tensions with China only recently smoothed over.

China and Japan are competing to build their domestic arms industries, and for China the export of Japanese military technology is particularly sensitive given their wartime history and territorial disputes. Choosing Japan to play a role in the multi-billion dollar submarine project could prompt a stern response from Australia’s biggest trading partner.   Continue reading “Australia Mulls Japan Submarines Under China’s Cautious Gaze”

New York Daily News – by Kenneth Lovett

ALBANY — The state attorney general sent cease-and-desist letters to some of America’s largest retailers for selling toy guns that look too much like the real thing.

The letters, sent at the height of the holiday shopping season, said the retailers were violating a New York law that prohibits selling realistic-looking toy guns that do not carry a prominent markings.   Continue reading “New York attorney general sends cease-and-desist letter to retailers over toy guns”

USA Today – by Trevor Hughes

The attorneys general of Nebraska and Oklahoma sued Colorado in the U.S. Supreme Court on Thursday, arguing state-legalized marijuana from Colorado is improperly spilling across state lines.

The suit invokes the federal government’s right to regulate both drugs and interstate commerce, and says Colorado’s decision to legalize marijuana has been “particularly burdensome” to police agencies on the other side of the state line.   Continue reading “Colorado sued by neighboring states over legal pot”

Fox 10 Phoenix

PHOENIX (AP) — A judge cleared the way Thursday for thousands of young immigrants in Arizona who are protected from deportation under an Obama administration policy to get driver’s licenses.

The preliminary injunction issued by U.S. District Judge David Campbell bars the state from enforcing Gov. Jan Brewer’s policy of denying the licenses to about 20,000 immigrants.   Continue reading “Arizona: Young illegals allowed to get driver’s licenses”

Bearing Arms – by Bob Owens

Michael Bloomberg and his gun-grabbing billionaire friends might have the cash to effective “buy” anti-gun laws like Washington’s I-594, but forcing citizens to comply with these laws, and getting prosecutors and law enforcement officers who were strong opposed to the draconian legislation in the first place to enforce it, are other matters entirely.

Just days after 1,000 people rallied at the state Capitol to intentionally violate the law (without consequence), Lewis County, Washington’s top law enforcers have released a public statement that they will not be enforcing the new provisions of I-594 as written. They will instead only go after those offenders intending to commit criminal transfers.   Continue reading “WILL NOT COMPLY: Prosecutor, Sheriff Say They Will Not Enforce I-594 As Written”

Strange Universe – by Paul Seaburn

Multiple eyewitnesses, including one who was quick with her camera, spotted strange squiggly contrails just before dawn one morning this week over Biysk in southern Russia. Many of the witnesses believed the contrails were from UFOs. Were they?

According to reports, Elisha Ponomaryov saw other people looking skyward and pointing at the contrails. She didn’t know what they were but had the presence of mind to take a photo. Unfortunately, she was too late to capture what caused the contrails. However, other witnesses claimed to have seen three or four yellow spheres flying haphazardly and leaving the trails behind them. One was Zemfira Bocharova, who gave this description:   Continue reading “Strange Contrails Appear Over Russian Town”

GHacks – by Martin Brinkmann

Ports are used for communication in computing. It would go too far to describe the technical details involved but you can think of ports as doors that allow interaction with a device.

Common ports are TCP port 21 ftp, port 23 for Telnet or port 80 for the hypertext transfer protocol (HTTP).

While it makes sense to keep certain ports open on your system, as you would not be able to use services associated with them otherwise, it is usually a good idea to make sure only ports that you require are open.   Continue reading “Display all open ports on your network using PortScan for Windows”

Natural Society – by Christina Sarich

Jackson County, Oregon voted by an overwhelming majority of 66% to ban GMO crop cultivation beginning June 6, 2015 via Measure 15-119. This date is fast approaching, and Monsanto thinks they are above the law.The biotech giant is trying to use two Jackson County GMO farmers to overturn the ban.   Continue reading “Monsanto Tries to Overturn 66% Majority GMO Ban”

Natural Society – by Christina Sarich

A Japanese government official has reported, “I was overwhelmed by the amount of contaminated water coming from the reactors, we must dump it in the ocean.” This isn’t such great news for the US since President Obama and the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) recently gave their approval for “dramatically raising permissible radioactive levels in drinking water and soil following “radiological incidents,” such as nuclear power-plant accidents and dirty bombs.”   Continue reading “Obama Increases Allowable Levels of Radiation in Drinking Water ‘Dramatically’”

RT

The Pentagon has confirmed the military buildup along Russia’s borders to ensure long-term “peace and stability” in the region. Earlier Moscow accused NATO of a sharp increase in air activity and intelligence flights in the border zone.

Replying to RIA Novosti’s query on the increased number of NATO flights around Russia’s borders, a Pentagon representative told the news agency that the military presence of the alliance has increased, but all operations are carried out under utmost“transparency.”   Continue reading “Pentagon confirms military buildup along Russian borders for ‘peace and stability’”

Truthout – by Moshe Z. Marvit, In These Times

Stories of the horrid conditions for workers in Amazon warehouses have been trickling out for years: The temperatures at the warehouses vary wildly, with some workers having to work in sub-zero conditions, others passing out from days where the temperature soared above 100 degrees, workers crying from not being able to keep up the brutal pace demanded, and then being threatened with termination for crying. And we can now add another indignity to the list, coming yesterday at the hands of the US Supreme Court, which ruled in a 9-0 decision that it is legal for Amazon warehouse workers not to be paid for a portion of their workday.   Continue reading “SCOTUS Rules Workers Don’t Need to Be Paid for All Their Time Working”

The Daily Caller – by MICHAEL BASTASCH

Climate scientists are saying 2014 is on track to be the hottest year on record, but it’s also been a record year for global sea ice coverage.

Global sea ice coverage hit the highest coverage since 1988 during December 2014 — the fourth highest global sea ice extent ever recorded for that time. Most of this has come from huge expansions of Antarctic sea ice during the South Pole’s winter, but scientists have recently acknowledged that Arctic sea ice is looking more stable than was previously thought.   Continue reading “‘Hottest Year On Record’ Sees Record-High Sea Ice Coverage”

Descrier

A pub has been inundated with offers to help after its offer to give a free Christmas dinner to local homeless people went viral.

Adam Hardiman, head chef at William IV pub at Shepherdess Walk, London, offered to make lunch for 100 homeless people, and posted the offer to Twitter   Continue reading “Pub’s offer to give homeless a free Christmas dinner goes viral”