Today's comic by Matt Bors is 3D printed guns:
Bolstering concerns that the Chinese military are hacking U.S. systems to steal corporate and government secrets, a report Monday suggested that Chinese hackers have accessed U.S. weapons designs. A report prepared for the Defense Department claimed that hackers accessed blueprints for combat aircraft and ships, as well as vital missile defenses. [...] Reuters reported:
Among the weapons listed in the report were the advanced Patriot missile system, the Navy’s Aegis ballistic missile defense systems, the F/A-18 fighter jet, the V-22 Osprey, the Black Hawk helicopter and the F-35 Joint Strike Fighter.
In about a week’s time, federal prison inmate 94405-198 will complete a 100-month sentence for taking bribes and no longer be in the custody of the U.S. Bureau of Prisons. Former Rep. Randy “Duke” Cunningham will, once again, be a free man. [...]
He pleaded guilty to conspiracy to commit bribery, mail fraud, wire fraud and tax evasion in 2005 and was sentenced to eight years and four months in federal prison by U.S. District Judge Larry A. Burns. Cunningham admitted taking at least $2.4 million in bribes from defense contractors and in return used his influence as a congressman to steer lucrative government contracts to the companies. He resigned his seat from Congress, which he had held since 1991, before being sentenced.
A new novel billed as an "old-fashioned bodice ripper romance" was inspired by the life of tea party champion and 2012 Republican presidential candidate Rep. Michele Bachmann (R-MN), the book's publisher claimed.
Fires of Siberia, written by Tréy Sager, centers around Danielle Powers, a presidential candidate "full of firebrand pluck and red state sex appeal," according to the book's press release.It will be released Wednesday by Badlands Unlimited, a company founded in 2010 that "publishes e-books, limited edition paper books, and artist works in digital and print forms," per the press release.
Last week, activists launched a campaign that urged companies to boycott Facebook advertising because the social media network allows users to post images of domestic violence against women, while banning advertisements about women’s health. More than a dozen companies have pulled their advertising as a result, including online bank Nationwide UK, Nissan UK, and J Street.
These posters, produced by the Medical Training Replacement Center at Camp Barkeley near Abilene, Texas, were meant to teach soldiers about to enter World War II to recognize and treat the effects of chemical weapons. [...]
Of the four chemicals mentioned here—phosgene, lewisite, mustard gas, and chlorpicrin—three were used in World War I. (Lewisite was produced beginning in 1918, but the war ended before it could be used.) Phosgene, which irritates the lungs and mucus membranes and causes a person to choke to death, caused the largest number of deaths among people killed by chemical weapons in the First World War. [...]
The smells that these posters warn soldiers-in-training to be wary of are the everyday scents of home: flypaper, musty hay, green corn, geraniums, garlic. The choice of analogies seems particularly appropriate for soldiers raised on farms—a population that would become increasingly small in every war to follow.
Jonathan M. Katz reported on the aftermath of the Haiti earthquake for the AP. What he saw there ran contrary to the prevailing narrative of violence, looting and lawlessness in the streets. Instead, what he found was another example of "Elite Panic", the UN's "relief" forces landing heavily armed people all around the island who treated everyone as a bestial looter. Katz's piece on the experience draws comparisons with the way that the aftermath of Katrina, Sandy and other disasters were reported -- a stilted, evidence-free narrative that demanded that life be like the movies, where the slightest faltering of the state is immediately attended by a descent into savagery.
Adrian Peterson, a star running back for the Minnesota Vikings and the reigning most valuable player of the National Football League, said he doesn't "believe in" same-sex marriage, ESPN.com reported Monday.
Peterson's remarks came during a radio interview last week when he was asked about the release of former Vikings punter Chris Kluwe, one of the most outspoken gay rights advocates in professional sports. The NFL's leading rusher in 2012 said he was hurt to see Kluwe go, but he doesn't share the punter's position on the issue.
Aquifers across the United States are being drawn down at an increasing pace, finds a new study released today by the U.S. Geological Survey. [...]
The depletion of aquifers has many negative consequences, including land subsidence, reduced well yields, and diminished spring and stream flows.
“Large cumulative long-term groundwater depletion also contributes directly to sea-level rise,” [report author USGS hydrologist Leonard Konikow writes, “and may contribute indirectly to regional relative sea-level rise as a result of land subsidence.”
On today's
Kagro in the Morning show: The shifting context of the IRS story. The White House tees up a filibuster fight over appointments to the DC Circuit Court of Appeals. That's the court that stood a last century of recess appointments practice on its head, so we dive into that.
Armando joins in discussion of Walter Pincus's article on the Fox News/James Rosen branch of the AP controversy. Also: have the budget battles impacted the National Weather Service, or not? Depends who you ask, and how you ask it. And: the latest in Conservative Crayzee: Unskewed Polls guy says Obama made Nate Silver buy crack from Hitler during Benghazi.