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Making Unique Observations in a Very Cluttered World

Wednesday 24 June 2015

New US Pentagon manual declares journalists can be enemy combatants -

New US Pentagon manual declares journalists can be enemy combatants - 



The Pentagon’s new thick book of instructions for waging war the legal way says that terrorists also can be journalists.

The description appears in a 1,176-page, richly footnoted “Department of Defense Law of War Manual” that tells commanders the right and wrong way to kill the enemy. It says it’s OK to shoot, explode, bomb, stab or cut the enemy. Surprise attacks and killing retreating troops also are permitted. But a U.S. warrior may not use poison or asphyxiating gases.

Going back decades, this is the Pentagon’s first comprehensive, all-in-one legal guide for the four military branches, who over the years had issued their own law of war pamphlets for air, sea and ground warfare.

The manual pushes aside the George W. Bush-era label of “unlawful enemy combatant” for al Qaeda and the like. The new term of choice: “unprivileged belligerent.”

An eye-catching section deals with a definition of journalists and how they are expected to stay out of the fight.

The manual defines them this way: “In general, journalists are civilians. However, journalists may be members of the armed forces, persons authorized to accompany the armed forces, or unprivileged belligerents.”

Lumping terrorist writers with bona fide scribes prompted one officer to call the paragraph “odd.” A civilian lawyer who opines on war crime cases called the wording “an odd and provocative thing for them to write.” 

Read more - 
http://governamerica.com/news/19659-new-pentagon-manual-declares-journalists-can-be-enemy-combatants

Leap second on June 30 will be 'mini-Y2K' - U.S. exchanges will pause around the leap second as a precaution -

Leap second on June 30 will be 'mini-Y2K' - U.S. exchanges will pause around the leap second as a precaution -  



Short on time? Don't worry. This month you'll get an extra second.

A "leap second" will be added on June 30 at midnight Coordinated Universal Time (or 8 p.m. EDT). Leap seconds are added occasionally to help keep the atomic clock synced up with the earth's rotation.

"The earth's spin isn't uniform, it's not constant," Nick Stamatakos, the chief of earth orientation parameters at the United States Naval Observatory, told USA TODAY Network.

Because of the earth's inconsistent speed, scientists in the 1950s created an atomic clock to keep precise track of time. However, as the earth's rotation sped up and slowed down, the atomic clock continued steadily ahead and the two time indicators grew farther apart.

To fix that inconsistency, scientists then created the UTC (Coordinated Universal Time) to help bridge the gap between the earth time and the atomic clock. However, the atomic clock continues to race ahead, so at least once every 10 years scientists add an extra second to the UTC to keep them closer together. It's particularly important for things like GPS navigation, Stamatakos said.

"The GPS will tell a user where his location is relative to the GPS spacecraft," he said. In order to do that, the GPS spacecraft has to know time very accurately and that time has to incorporate the earth speeding up and slowing.

"If you don't know the time accurately you can mistake where you are and your speed," according to Stamatakos.

"Having these leap seconds every so often is like having a mini Y2K every couple years," Stamatakos said. In advance, many people working with computer systems have tested them to see how they will deal with the extra second, he said.

The stock market is sometimes impacted because computers are so fast now that trading can happen in a second or less.

"Some U.S. exchanges will pause around the leap second as a precaution or will halt after-hours trading beforehand," according to MarketPlace's Mitchell Hartman.

"In every-day life, this extra second has practically no importance. However, in every field where exact time is needed (e.g. astronomy, navigation, spaceflight, but also computer networks for stock markets or energy supply, and much more) this second is of great importance," Wolfgang Dick, a spokesman for the International Earth Rotation and Reference Systems Service, the organization that maintains global time, told USA TODAY Network in an email.

What will you do with your extra second?

Read more - 
http://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation-now/2015/06/09/leap-second-atomic-clock-earth-rotation/27786459/

Obama And Hillary Both Had No Problem Using Confederate Flag During Presidential Campaigns -

Obama And Hillary Both Had No Problem Using Confederate Flag During Presidential Campaigns - 




In the wake of the Charleston shooting, and subsequent pictures of the shooter posing with a Confederate flag, Barack Obama this week said that the flag belongs in a museum.
It seems he has changed his tune in the last three years somewhere, however, given that he was using the symbol during his 2012 re-election campaign.

Indeed, Obama had his own Confederate flag campaign badge, which states “Where the confederate flag still flies, we have built a powerful coalition of African Americans and white Americans.”
The quote was taken from Obama’s racially heated speech in 2008, during which he also praised his mentor former pastor the controversial Reverend Wright.
Obama was not alone in using the symbol of the Confederate flag, synonymous with the South, to solicit political support.
Hillary clinton had her own brand of Confederate merchandise in 2008.




She’s also staying quiet about her husband’s previous use of the ‘racist’ symbol.




Strange given that she has also stated that the flag has no place in the US today.




And the fact that it flew above her house for 12 years:




While online auction site eBay declared it would prohibit Confederate flag merchandise, these items still remain available.

Walmart and other retailers have jumped on the bandwagon to ban a flag, as if this will make any difference to racial tensions currently playing out across the nation.
As Deborah Simmons wrote in her column for The Washington Times yesterday, “I ask, what happens after the flag comes down? Are racism and bigotry supposed to go poof?”
“It’s undeniable that the history and the heritage of South Carolina, rebel U.S. state of the first order, are intertwined. Period.” Simmons added, urging that the flag represents heritage.
“You cannot give true due to South Carolina and its history and heritage without marking the roles that blacks have played, as well as their history and heritage.” Simmons added.

Read more - 
http://www.prisonplanet.com/obama-and-hillary-both-had-no-problem-using-confederate-flag-during-presidential-campaigns.html