Here we go.

December 17, 2015
By Michael S. Schmidt

Washington — Federal prosecutors (click here) plan to file charges against Enrique Marquez, a friend and neighbor of the couple who carried out the massacre in San Bernardino, Calif., earlier this month, according to law enforcement officials.

The Justice Department could make the charges public as early as Thursday. It would be the first time anyone has been charged in connection with the shooting on Dec. 2, which left 14 people dead.

Mr. Marquez, who converted to Islam several years ago, bought the two assault rifles that Syed Rizwan Farook and his wife, Tashfeen Malik, used in the shooting, according to law enforcement officials. They said Mr. Marquez has told investigators that he bought the guns for Mr. Farook, who believed he could not pass the required background check....

If we could read minds we might better understand the reasons for breaking the law and causing mass deaths, but we can't, so we are left with speculation.

Why would Farook not purchase his own gun. I don't think he had the money to carry out the purchase or otherwise. The idea he had to take loans in order to provide some kind of asset to the support of his child and mother after his death lends itself to the concept of conspiracy.

I think money is a larger reason for the buy by someone else, but, the idea Farook's identity wasn't attached to a gun purchase would not elevate any suspicions if their radicalism was discovered by intelligence agencies. Just because the USA intelligence agencies didn't find social sites interesting doesn't mean the people planning the assault isn't thinking about it. 

I understand Director Comey stated there was absolutely no reason the Farook couple would have been suspected. That might be the case for his practice, but, it is not the case with the NSA. The email metadata connected to the USA never picked this up. It should have. The communications between the Farroks and Europe and the middle east had to have been gathered in any NSA net operation.

That is the issue. The FBI might not have any suspicions, but, the FBI also relies on the NSA to provide any communications where danger to Americans may be a problem. 

FOX News is also stating Director Comey is calling the killing of our Marines in Chattanooga is a terrorist attack. The USA is failing to pick up important information to protect the country. The funding set aside for the NSA metadata sweeps is very expensive. The building alone where these activities take place was an enormous investment after the 2001 attacks. 

Basically, what the heck are we doing? Our investments haven't paid off as it should and now we are faced with how are we going to adequately address these problems? If Comey is saying there was no way to know these attacks were planned or going to happen; then we have a real problem, don't we?

In the 1950s it was "Duck and Cover." The terror in the country was attached to nuclear weapons. So, since 2001 the USA has their terror served up to them AGAIN with nothing that works to protect us. It is a concern and my best recommendation is for local governments to have their own security council. Let them get to know the town, merchants and all possible holes in their security fabric. Neighborhoods should have neighborhood Captains that carry concerns to the local security council. The Captains could be volunteers, but, please don't arm them otherwise we have Trayvon Martin all over again.

Neighborhoods (Watch) is legitimate where information exists to help define danger to citizens. I really do think it is the only viable answer. Then have regular meetings, let's say every six months, with FBI contact perhaps state by state to report the concerns as reported to the SBI. Not that the SBI has to wait to report activities in the state to the FBI. If there is a systematic review of potential danger, we can become better at detecting these dangers and moving against it. 

The examples to power such review of neighborhoods are within the USA experience in the face of failure such as Chattanooga, Boston and San Bernardino. Let's learn from them and find a way to LEGALLY provide surveillance. There has to be a way.

It appears President Putin finds firing ineffective workers an important tool to end cheating in sports and government.

December 17, 2015

All senior management (click here) of the Russian Anti-Doping Agency (RUSADA) have resigned, hours after Russian President Vladimir Putin pledged in his annual news conference that Russia would help eradicate the 'poison' of doping.

On December 10 RUSADA had amended its charter to create a supervisory board designed to monitor its activities and guarantee impartiality in its operations.

The mass resignations come after the supervisory board recommended that all top management of RUSADA resign immediately - including Executive Director Nikita Kamaeva and Deputy Director General for International Cooperation Igor Zagorski, as well as Ramil Khabriev, the CEO.

After the resignations, Anna Antseliovich was appointed acting CEO....

It wasn't long ago Russia sponsored the Winter Olympics. During that time he found he needed to appear at some venues where judges could have tainted the outcome of Russia competition. 

I think it was President Putin's first exposure to the seriousness of anti-doping policies and enforcing them. As a result he is taking a greater interest to insure Russian sports figures are safe, habit free and well within any standard of international competition. I congratulate him for taking Russian competitors as serious to their country and the sports important to them.

International competition where there are no or few professional teams within a country is a very serious aspect to a country's identity. This is a very good idea by President Putin. One of the enormously important sports to international competition is soccer. The "World Cup" is a national event in many countries.

Leo Messi (click here) will be unable to play against the Chinese champions / MIGUEL RUIZ - FCB

Things are done differently in Russia. C-Span has the Russian President's "State of the Nation" address. (click here) This was recently followed up by a FOUR HOUR news conference. Interesting how different Russia is when it comes to speaking to their news media. 

I have seen Foreign Minister Lavrov do the very same thing. They literally set aside a day where an entire block of time is dedicated to speaking to the media. They also include in that media conference young people with their own newspapers so they get to ask questions as well. 

Very different than the USA media. It would be a shock to the system of American media if President Putin or Secretary Kerry sat still for four hours to speak to the media.

What is the future of USA global support?

The numbers below is from 2013, but, the future of the USA global involvement may mean increasing missions of USAID.

The populations around the world are growing. We know for a fact poverty breeds extremism. The land currently in poor condition or involved in military disputes and ambitions needs to be restored to support people and the future of their children.

Land is going to be at a premium throughout the world as populations increase and demand for space and food becomes critical. An example of how the USA can turn can turn the fate of people around, is in Ethiopia. If Ethiopia were provided dams to collect water for irrigation and cities the future of this once lush land would improve.


May 6, 2013

Indeed, (click here) while foreign aid is well under 1 percent of the total U.S. federal budget, it's still counted in the multiple tens of billions of dollars – around $23 billion this year, or a total of $37 billion if you include assistance to foreign militaries. And that, of course, is a lot of money. Here are the precise figures:

Foreign Aid

In fiscal 2013, U.S. government funding for humanitarian assistance and international development will total around $23 billion. (Back in October, I included spending on diplomacy in the numbers that I reported. In order to directly address the question of how much we give in aid to other countries, I'm now leaving out diplomacy and operations of the State Department.)

Foreign Military Assistance

In addition, the U.S. will spend around $14 billion in fiscal 2013 for foreign military assistance – that's money spent on training foreign armies and providing them with weapons....

Ethiopia has been the subject of commercials for religious missions due to the famine. The drought in Ethiopia is historic and far longer than any land should have been left in this condition.

The USA Republican party states the best way to address charity overseas is to empower the farmer or the fisherman to support themselves. That is great idea

most Americans would support. When is it going to happen? 

This picture is what Ethiopian farmers see when they think about their land.

9 November 2015

The UN has warned (click here for video, too) that more than 8.2 million people in Ethiopia will be in need of food aid by the beginning of 2016 because of a severe drought.
A lack of rain has meant that crop yields in the worst-affected areas are down by 90% this year.
The Ethiopian government has set aside nearly £130m to deal with the crisis but the UN says a further £330m is needed.
Clive Myrie reports from Kobo in northern Ethiopia.

OMG! Mobile phones have become vital to any emergency situation.

There are households that do not have landlines which I think is foolish, but, the land line phones are becoming endangered.

December 17, 2015
By Anthony Cuthertson

A smartphone app (click here) used by Islamic State (Isis) to spread news and propaganda could be behind the massive attack on the internet's core infrastructure that took place earlier this month, according to several cybersecurity experts.

Analysis of the IS Amaq Agency app has revealed that it was potentially the source of a botnet created to perform a massive DDoS (distributed denial of service) attack on root name servers. A more powerful attack in the future could cause significant disruption to internet services and could even temporarily take down the internet.

The cyberattack, which took place between 30 November and 1 December, targeted the 13 internet root name servers that are responsible for supporting almost the entire internet. Cybersecurity experts, high-profile hackers and members of the hacktivist collective Anonymous now claim that a smartphone app was the most likely culprit for the botnet attack, which flooded the servers with five million queries per second at the peak of the attack. It is estimated that as few as 18,000 devices running the app through Wi-Fi networks would have been capable of creating such traffic....

President Obama will be visiting San Bernardino today.

What is it about this time of year? Are people more emotionally vulnerable during the holidays? Are they feeling the pain of loss and fear more than anytime of year? Are our holidays predatory to killers seeking maximum impact?

Washington, Dec 16 (Reuters)

President Barack Obama (click here) will travel on Friday to San Bernardino, California, the site of the Dec. 2 shooting by a radicalized Muslim couple that claimed 14 lives, the White House said on Wednesday.
Obama will meet privately with families of the victims, White House spokesman Josh Earnest told reporters, reprising the role of "consoler-in-chief" that he has often played after mass shootings during his presidency.
The Federal Bureau of Investigation believes U.S.-born Syed Rizwan Farook, 28, and his Pakistani-born wife Tashfeen Malik, 29, were inspired but not directed by Islamic State militants to open fire on Farook's co-workers.
The attack has made Americans increasingly nervous about their security. Obama has since worked to explain to Americans his strategy for combating Islamic State and preventing further attacks....

Fungal infections take more than 1.3 million lives each year worldwide, nearly as many as tuberculosis,

December 15, 2015
by Stacey Leigh Gonzalez

Can a zombie apocalypse really occur? (click here) Tara Smith, an associate professor from Ohio's Kent State University is issuing an international call to action to fund and promote studies on how to prevent a possible zombie outbreak.

"Zombie expert Matt Mogk defines a zombie with three criteria: it is a reanimated human corpse; it is relentlessly aggressive, and it is biologically infected and infectious. But Mogk notes that this definition has been altered by the recognition of 'rage' zombies, which are infected but still alive," Smith wrote on a recently published BMJ study....

There has been a focus in some states regarding problems with fungus and molds. The only way to stop a fungus that has taken over part of the body is removal of the appendage or otherwise. There have been some very disfiguring surgeries performed to save the lives of people. 

...In a report by EurekAlert, Smith believes that the increase of similar zombie pathogens should be a sign that additional attention and funding should be provided into studying possible disease outbreaks.

It makes sense that New Jersey's Rutgers would be working to fight fungal infections, because, it is the state where the pharmaceutical industry lives. This tragedy still goes on even in the USA.

December 23, 2015
Rutgers Biomedical and Health Sciences

Ask someone (click here) what the term 'fungus' brings to mind, and chances are it will be an image of something that smells or looks disgusting. Ask David Perlin, executive director of the Public Health Research Institute at Rutgers New Jersey Medical School, and the response will be far more somber -- because he knows how deadly fungi can be.

Fungal infections take more than 1.3 million lives each year worldwide, nearly as many as tuberculosis. Perlin has made it his mission to reduce the death toll and severe disability that fungi can cause.
"More than a million people around the world are blind because of fungal infections of the eye," Perlin points out, "and half of the world's 350,000 asthma-related deaths each year stem from fungal infection that could be treated effectively with drugs."
In addition, fungal infections can complicate the recoveries of organ recipients. They also are the stuff of vaginal yeast infections, which strike nearly three quarters of American women at least once in their lifetimes according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention....

Diflucan has been in practice for a long time. It is the best EARLY treatment to prevent the systemic tragedy of fungus. When a systemic infection sets in Diflucan can be used in conjuction with intravenous-in hospital theray Amphotericin B.

It seems to me the practice of medicine has answers that can help to drive away infection, however, the best medicine is still prevention in home and basement environments. Crawl spaces below homes can always be wet and breed the killer without anyone knowing it, except, 'FOR THAT SMELL.' 

Fluconazole is used to treat yeast infections of the vagina, mouth, throat, esophagus, and other organs. 

Fluconazole is also used to treat meningitis caused by a certain type of fungus, as well as to prevent yeast infections in patients who are likely to become infected because they are being treated with chemotherapy or radiation therapy before a bone marrow transplant.

Well, I'll be darn, those black folks can be civilized. Josh, he's cute.

I betcha they figured it out if one runs from cops they die, huh?

Yep. It must have been all those buzzing helicopters and drones that kept them in line.


December 17, 2015
By Kelly Stevenson

The streets of Baltimore (click here) were calm overnight Wednesday as activists urged peace and healing after the announcement of a mistrial in the trial of police officer William Porter.

People gathered across the city overnight to protest over the decision, but it remained largely peaceful.

Baltimore mayor Stephanie Rawlings-Blake called for calm after the decision was announced Wednesday afternoon."

"In the coming days, if some choose to demonstrate peacefully to express their opinion, that is there constitutional right. I urge everyone to remember that collectively, our reaction needs to be one of respect for our neighborhoods, and for the residents and businesses of our city," she said."...

The Wright Brothers first flight.

Revell 1:39 Wright Flyer "First Powered Flight" (click here)

Which one of the brothers was on the plane to take it through that historic flight? 

Click here for answer.