Again? Wilmington police have quite a history of knee jerk shootings.

Wilmington is not a rural community. It is a college town on the North Carolina coast, where by the city uses that to eek out an economy. There are members of the police force with short tempers. One police officer even shot a young man through a door after he had stolen a computer game console from a campus resident. The young man died. A high price to pay for taking a computer console.

If the town had decent investigative journalists that weren't afraid of the city council and county freeholders who worry about driving tourism and business away; it might even solve it's problems some day. Last time I was there the economy exhibited more pawn shops than gas stations and bars. Oh, yeah, even more pawn shops than churches, too.

Violent crime rate in 2011

Wilmington:	307.7
U.S. Average:	213.6

Not an excuse, but, just a fact. It isn't even a big city. Population 100,000. But, there are frequent murders. Some of the police just 'don't have time' for anything except self-defense in any situation.

Shortly after President Obama took office there was a crack down by the US Justice Department on a drug network. Something like 50 members of the drug network were in North Carolina and at least 12 were rounded up in Wilmington. But, that was an FBI sting operation. Yes, indeed, the Port City has plenty of problems. They have had the same pathetic mayor for what seems like forever. 

Mayor Saffo and Chief Evangelous (click here)

They like to bask in their own joy.

And this is the radio station that likes to think they 'set the social order.' (click here)

guns in abundance.

By M. Alex Johnson
Staff Writer, NBC News

North Carolina prosecutors (click here) promised Monday to get to the truth — "wherever the truth leads"—  in the death of a mentally ill teenager whose family claims police shot him in cold blood over the weekend.

Keith Vidal, 18, of Boiling Springs Lakes, was shot and killed Sunday afternoon, authorities said.

At least three law enforcement agencies responded after the family called for help just after noon, saying Vidal was in the midst of a schizophrenic episode.

Vidal was declared dead of a gunshot wound at a hospital....

2,600,000-3,100,000 Japanese perished in WW II.

...Housewives and children (click here) were incinerated instantly or paralysed in their daily routines, their internal organs boiled and their bones charred into brittle charcoal....



Little discussed is the large numbers of India military and civilian deaths due to WWII.

1,500,000-2,500,000 India citizens. Why? Because they were a British possession and 2 million soldiers were sent to fight the Nazis.

A bit convoluted are the deaths of the Chinese. 20,000,000 dead with about 4 million were military. China was supported by both the USA and Russia to fight the Japanese as well. China was a natural enemy of the Japanese when Japan had an imperialist leader.

Germany lost 6,600,000-8,800,000 of which 5.5 million were military during WWII.

The Soviet Union lost 24,000,000 of which about 10 million were military.

Indonesia, then known as The Dutch East Indies, lost 3-4,000,000 civilians when the Allied Forces were unsuccessful in defending the islands during the Pacific Campaign against the Japanese.

Yugoslavia lost one million of which half were military.

The USA lost 418,500 citizens of which all but 2000 were military. 

The other nations involved lost less numbers, but, proportionally they died in significant numbers.

The American Buffalo (Bison) never faced extinction until the American westward migration.

...Thus, according to Ward Churchill, (click here) a professor of ethnic studies at the University of Colorado, the reduction of the North American Indian population from an estimated 12 million in 1500 to barely 237,000 in 1900 represents a"vast genocide . . . , the most sustained on record." By the end of the 19th century, writes David E. Stannard, a historian at the University of Hawaii, native Americans had undergone the"worst human holocaust the world had ever witnessed, roaring across two continents non-stop for four centuries and consuming the lives of countless tens of millions of people." In the judgment of Lenore A. Stiffarm and Phil Lane, Jr.,"there can be no more monumental example of sustained genocide—certainly none involving a 'race' of people as broad and complex as this—anywhere in the annals of human history."...

This is a joke, right? Since FOX News lives in a glass house they should not throw stones.

110 million in the past century. I got that right? 

Vietnam - estimated 2 million in the Vietnam War, primarily civilians in less than ten years time.

Europeans - countless dead in conquests. Genocide? In the Americas alone there were complete destruction of entire cultures for the sake of wealth.

USA Civil War - Roughly 2% of the population, (click here) an estimated 620,000 men, lost their lives in the line of duty. That was the war, but, there is the entire issue of slavery. In the book, "American Holocaust" the author David Stannard estimated 30 - 60 million were killed while enslaved. That is not accounting for the 20% that died on ships from Africa.

Meet David Stannard, Yale educated, of course. Don't get bored now, this isn't at all as fashionably terrorizing as FOX News, but, it is far more horrifying.

Now, when FOX News wants to propagandize, they should do so in a "Fair and Balanced" methodology, don't you think?

Congratulations Intel.

By Joe Miller
7 January 2014

Intel (click here) will no longer use minerals mined in conflict zones to build its microprocessors, the company has said.

Speaking at the Consumer Electronics Show (CES) in Las Vegas, Intel's chief executive Brian Krzanich urged the "entire industry" to follow suit.

Gold, tungsten and other minerals used in electronics manufacturing are mined in the Democratic Republic of the Congo and surrounding countries.

Production and trade of the materials are often controlled by armed groups.

Intel's policy comes after increased international pressure for technology firms to investigate the sources of their raw minerals....

I'm just sayin'. Ya, know? War never stopped Halliburton and Iraq's oil fields. The USA is FINALLY becoming a country with a conscience. Interestingly, when Sam Brownback was a Senator he wrote the regulation. But, it was never adopted. It was included in the Dodd-Frank Bill and Wall Street has been moaning and groaning ever since.

Geology and natural resources of the Islamic State of Afghanistan (click here)

Contains data on 192 mineral deposits and 225 shows: name, coordinates, main valuable components and by-products, valuable component concentrations, exploration maturity, genetic and industrial type, size, orebody morphology and composition, country rock age and composition, mineralization age, reserves....

USGS Assessment (click here)

Why are No Conflict Minerals important? Because their sales act to fuel the conflict, increase death and inhibits any nation from growing an economy and a society reflecting a civilized values.

"The differences have been narrowed..." How much is it going to cost Mr. McCain?

Three Cheers for the Trans-Pacific Partnership.

National

January 8, 2014

TOKYO —

More than 350 people across Japan (click here) have fallen ill after eating pesticide-contaminated frozen food produced by the nation’s largest seafood firm, national broadcaster NHK said Tuesday.

People have reported vomiting, diarrhea and other symptoms of food poisoning after eating products including including pizzas, croquettes and deep fried food made by Aqli Foods Corp, a subsidiary of Maruha Nichiro Holdings, according to surveys carried out by NHK and local media.

Police began investigating the company last month after it revealed that some of its frozen food had been tainted with malathion, an agricultural chemical often used to kill aphids in corn and rice fields.

The tainted products were made in October and November....

Oh, good. Another Neocon heard from; Bob Gates the man that brought the USA the F-35 Strike Fighter.

United States Secretary of Defense Robert Gates visited Lockheed Martin final assembly operation for the F-35 Lightning II stealth fighter today, conveying optimism for the programfuture and emphasizing the F-35importance to global security.

So, let me get this right. The F-35 was an answer along with the war in Iraq and Afghanistan. And he has the nerve to complain about a President that never voted for the war in Iraq? Who the hell does he think he is?

U.S. Defense Secretary Underscores F-35 Importance During Lockheed Martin Visit (click here)

Published August 31, 2009

By Marcel van Leeuwen

...The visit was Gates first to Lockheed Martin Fort Worth plant, which also has served as the final assembly point for the B-24 Liberator, B-36 Peacemaker, B-58 Hustler, F-111 Aardvark and F-16 Fighting Falcon....

Precision, my ass !

...More than 20,000 individual (click here) components all come together to produce the F-35 Lightning II at Lockheed Martin's mile-long factory in Fort Worth, Texas....

It is good to know that President Obama isn't a puppet to a military willing to fight any war Neocons find NECESSARY.

DEFECTIONS HAVE BEGUN: Canada Rejects The Pricey F-35 Joint Strike Fighter (click here)

Robert Johnson
Dec. 7, 2012

Following public outrage and a lengthy political battle, Canadians have finally said thanks but no thanks to America's F-35 Joint Strike Fighter.

The 5th-generation plane had become a source of controversy after costs soared far beyond the initial estimate from Lockheed Martin and the Pentagon.

Then last spring Auditor General Michael Ferguson called out a bunch of party conservatives who'd been low-balling the jets costs....

One other thing...

...these phenomena are called "Polar Vortexes" because they over the POLES of the planet or at least they should be. It has nothing to do with cold. It is a geographical reference. 

90 degrees latitude. 

The Poles of Earth. That is where these air masses belong and are no longer!

It just happens that the air masses at 90 degrees latitude are frigid. The description of Polar Vortex as nothing to do with temperature. It is LATITUDE that determines the name of this DISPLACEMENT.

"The Polar Vortex" is weakened due to far less ice of the Arctic Ocean.

This is global warming. This is not the usual "Mid-Latitude Vortex." That is NOT at all a Mid-Latitude Vortex. Don't tell me meterologists and climatologists are that confused about this EVENT. This is a breakdown in the climate of Earth.

The FRIGID AIR of the ARCTIC OCEAN no longer exists in quantities enough to support the stability of the polar vortex. IT IS THE ARCTIC ICE that is gone in large amounts.

Just because the Polar Vortex may recede in coming days, doesn't mean this isn't a huge concern for our Earth. All that means is there was significant enough HEAT EXCHANGE to resolve the imbalance between the Arctic and the Lower Latitudes.

This is a breakdown of Earth's climate. This is not a minor weather event.

This EVENT is a HEAT TRANSFER EVENT.

And all Wall Street and the GOP can talk about is "Drill, Babe, Drill." You've got to be joking. When these events occur all that means is there is another march toward a hot planet. Believe me you won't need carbon fuels when the final stages arrive.

The GOP has a lot more to worry about than the declassification of the Polar Bear.

This is NOT new to the Climate Scientists. This was KNOWN. It is the governments that have ignored the facts. I was studying this at UNCW back in ????????? 2000 something. I don't remember the exact year. This was KNOWN to happen.

Tree huggers ain't huggin' trees for no reason! Money before human life. 

1996 and 1994 were post warning about Greenhouse Gases. Try again!


Warm Arctic, Cold Continents (click here)

Changes in the Arctic Are Hitting Closer to Home

...“When the Polar Vortex — a ring of winds circling the Arctic — breaks down, this allows cold air to spill south, affecting the eastern United States and other regions,” says Dr. Overland. “This can result in a warmer-than-average Arctic region and colder temperatures that may include severe winter weather events on the North American and European continents.”...

How many more of the Homeless are actually a "Missing Person?"

It is a delicate balance in identifying the Homeless. If they get the idea they are being tracked and have irrational fears, they might not come in from the cold and endanger their own lives. Just the same, finding Missing Persons is an outreach the country should indulge to link families to their Homeless.

...Family members (click here) also reached out to AP photographer Jacquelyn Martin, who captured the image.

Communication between Simmons' family, DiBlasio, Martin, and the Greece Police Department helped the Washington Metropolitan Police track down Simmons.

Now he's reunited with his family, police said.

Washington Metro Police Officer Araz Alali said he's considered a "missing person returned."

On the Facebook page, his mother Michelle Simmons said she was stunned.

"We are going to get him home safe, and this is by far the greatest example of God's love and divine intervention I have ever experienced," she wrote, according to the Democrat & Chronicle.

"I am beyond able to put into words how I am feeling." ...       

English.news.cn   2014-01-07 11:26:55

BEIJING, Jan. 7 (Xinhuanet) -- The trapped Chinese icebreaker Xuelong, (click here) or Snow Dragon, warmed up its engine and widened a path through the ice on Monday, preparing to break out of frozen floes in Antarctica, as weather conditions may turn favorable before Wednesday.

"The path is up to 80 meters wide and 1 kilometer long, which will help the vessel in breaking free," Qu Tanzhou, director of the Chinese Arctic and Antarctic Administration under the State Oceanic Administration, said on Monday.

Although the southeast wind did not turn into a favorable west wind as expected on Monday, the heavy snow of the past few days turned to sleet, which melted parts of the ice floes, Qu said.

"It's good news!"...

"Snow Dragon" by Linda Trude Jansson

Try an outhouse!

Reddit (click here)

Published time: January 07, 2014 10:35

Disgruntled with NSA spying on US citizens, (click here) two senators from opposing parties have introduced a bill banning companies in California from providing essential utility services to the agency – including cutting off its computer-cooling water supply.

The NSA is a very resource-hungry organization which could stand to lose a lot from this. The initiative by activists and other organizations, apparently seeks to incapacitate the agency in return for its rights violations.

The news comes just as elsewhere, in Maryland, the agency made a deal to pay $2 million a year for the region’s treated sewage water.

But California has not been so kind. Hitting back at the federal government after a mountain of recent allegations of outright violations of its citizens’ rights, senators Ted Lieu (D) and Joel Anderson (R) formally introduced Senate Bill 828 on Monday....

New McCarthyism: Fear of science and the war on rationality

Posted on September 7, 2009
By citybrights_pgleick@sfgate.com (Peter Gleick)

As more and more of the world looks to knowledge, education, and science (click here) as the routes out of poverty and conflict, parts of America seems to be slipping back toward the Dark Ages, when fear of knowledge and science led to an impoverishment of civilization that had lasting effects for centuries.

I’ve recently returned from two weeks in northern Europe and a series of scientific water meetings and discussions with people from over 130 countries. They read the news from the United States with incredulity. America is still seen as the place to come for aspiring students and scientists around the world. Our public universities, despite assaults on budgets, independence, and knowledge, still struggle to maintain their excellence. But my friends and colleagues from overseas are increasingly shocked, as are many of us in the U.S., by the expanding efforts of home-grown extremists to undermine rational discourse, eliminate the use of fact and science in policymaking, and shut down public debate over the vital issues of our times through hate, vitriol, and ad hominem attacks.

Looking through the eyes of my overseas colleagues, what do we see?...

The Syrian government must be represented at the peace conference.

By AFP | 7 Jan, 2014, 11.01AM IST 

TOKYO: A UN-hosted peace conference on Syria must work to remove President Bashar al-Assad from power because of his culpability for tens of thousands of deaths, Turkey's Prime Minster Recep Tayyip Erdogan said in Tokyo on Tuesday.

"In Geneva 2, we must make sure that... all the measures will not fail...so that we can (bring) in an era without Bashar al-Assad," he said, referring to peace talks planned later this month in Switzerland.

The Syrian conflict is estimated to have....

Currently there are no indictments of Assad. It would be very short sighted for those involved with the Peace Conference to believe it will be successful without representation of the current government. The Assad government has been cooperative in disarming from chemical weapons and there is no reason to believe that will continue without his authority present.

...The 30 countries invited to the Geneva talks include Saudi Arabia, a major backer of the Syrian opposition, as well as the five UN Security Council permanent members -- and Syria's neighbours Turkey, Iraq and Jordan.

Japan's foreign minister Fumio Kishida is also expected to attend. "In the Geneva 1 there were several issues that were taken up and in the Geneva 2 we will make sure that these will not fail.... It is very important that Japan takes part in this," Erdogan said....

For as difficult as it is to accept, Syria's Assad had a right to have chemical weapons previous to signing the Chemical Weapons' Convention. So, to assume President Assad will be indicted on any kind of international crime and against international law is an error.

I am fairly confident the leaders of Jordan and Saudi Arabia have been in contact with President Assad during these times and have been instrumental in encouraging him to disarm from his chemical stockpiles. All the nations invited to the peace conference should have a say to the presence of President Assad.

In changing the topic, Saudi Arabia would be aware of the circumstances in Iraq regarding Al Anbar and the Sunnis attempting to rebuild their province. I would not underestimate Saudi Arabia's influence with the Al Anbar Province. It is completely wrong for Baghdad to start a civil war with their own people in the face of an international community able to establish stability.

Why are our troops still in Afghanistan? Troops out now.

January 7, 2014 - 12:20PM

The Afghan government (click here) says it will release 88 prisoners seen as posing a security threat by the US, ignoring warnings from Washington ahead of a planned pullout of international forces from the country later this year.

The head of a government-appointed panel reviewing the prisoners' cases says they found no evidence to show they were involved in terrorist activities and have freed them.

The government made the announcement last week when it released some 650 prisoners.

The decision has angered US officials, who say the 88 prisoners are Taliban fighters involved in attacks that killed at least 60 American soldiers and more than 50 civilians.

FACING THE POLAR VORTEX AND HOMELESS IN CHICAGO (click here)

Homeless man Clifton Johnson tells US correspondent Nick O'Malley how he plans to survive temperatures below -20 degrees Centigrade on the streets of Chicago.

If I were a good friend of the young North Korean leader, ...

...I would encourage him to put emphasis on better health care services to the people. Even his closest relatives are dying at a far younger age than most their age in the rest of the world. I am sure he feels sorrow for those lost. He has young children and he is still very young, it would be best if he concentrated some of his resources on a better health care system, that might include better food quality including fishing and agriculture.

It was an accomplishment his father was unable to achieve.

Zee Media Bureau 

Pyongyang: North Korean leader (click here) Kim Jong Un's aunt and Jang Song Thaek's wife, Kim Kyong Hui, has died, a report said on Tuesday. 

Notably, Kim had reportedly executed his uncle Jang Song Thaek last month. Chosun Ilbo, a major newspaper, has quoted a source in the South Korean government as saying that Kim Kyong Hui, 67, has either "committed suicide or died from a heart attack". South Korean intelligence sources have yet to confirm the news....

...The last time she was seen in the public was on September 10, when she attended a musical performance with Kim Jong Un and his wife, Ri Sol Ju. However, she did not attend the ceremony commemorating the second anniversary of the death of her late brother, Kim Jong Il, on December 17. 

"It would not come as a surprise if she is indeed dead," Toshimitsu Shigemura, a professor at Tokyo's Waseda University and an authority on North Korean affairs, told The Daily Telegraph. "She is not well, she has been treated for cancer, and the alcoholism dates back about 30 years." 

Ron the Bison, at the Chicago Zoo, found the weather enjoyable.

INDIANAPOLIS — Frigid air (click here) that snapped decades-old records will make venturing outside dangerous for a second straight day, this time spreading to southern and eastern parts of the U.S. and keeping many schools and businesses shuttered. Meanwhile, residents driven from their homes by power outages in the Midwest worried about burst pipes.

Monday’s subzero temperatures broke records in Chicago, which set a record for the date at minus 16, and Fort Wayne, Ind., where the mercury fell to 13 below. Records also fell in Oklahoma and Texas, and wind chills across the region were 40 below and colder. Officials in states like Indiana already struggling with high winds and more than a foot of snow urged residents to stay home if they could.

“The cold is the real killer here,” Indianapolis Mayor Greg Ballard said Monday as he asked schools and businesses to remain closed another day. “In 10 minutes you could be dead without the proper clothes.”...

Thank you, Mayor Ballard. Many people I have met these past two days are saying, "I am seriously considering being a Snowbird."