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Defence Minister John Faulkner has announced the Government has approved buying the first batch of Joint Strike Fighters. Senator Faulkner says the Government will buy 14 of the next generation aircraft at a cost of about $3 billion, to be delivered from 2014. He says the fighters are expected to be ready for testing in five years and in operation from 2018. The Government plans to buy 100 of the fighters, which would be Australia's biggest defence purchase. Senator Faulkner says the Joint Strike Fighters will make sure Australia maintains its strategic capability. "This decision was underpinned by an unprecedented...

Israel is increasing the production of its Arrow anti-missile missiles. Costing over three million dollars each, and partly constructed in the United States (by Boeing), the Arrow missiles are Israel's principal defense against Syrian and Iranian ballistic missiles. Since Arrow entered service nine years ago, Only about 120 missiles have been built. Currently, Israel has about a hundred Arrows available, and would like to increase that to 150 or 200 in the next few years. More than half the nearly three billion dollar cost of developing and building Arrow has come from the United States. In addition, American firms have...

The Japanese ministry of defence has selected the Lockheed Martin F-35 Lightning-II as its next mainstay fighter jet but will sign a contract for 40 of these 'high-tech' fighters only in 2011, in order to ensure that the much-talked about stealth jet actually delivers on its performance parameters. Japanese agency reports say the defence ministry will seek fiscal allocation only in the 2011 budget for the purchase of 40 of these advanced 'stealth' fighter jets. The Lockheed Martin F-35 Lightning II is a fifth-generation, single-seat, single-engine, stealth, multirole fighter that, currently, is estimated to cost 9 yen billion ($101 million)...

9/11 tragedy pager intercepts. From 3AM on Wednesday November 25, 2009, until 3AM the following day (US east coast time), WikiLeaks is releasing over half a million US national text pager intercepts. The intercepts cover a 24 hour period surrounding the September 11, 2001 attacks in New York and Washington. The messages are being broadcast to the global community "live", sychronized to the time of day they were sent. The first message is from 3AM September 11, 2001, five hours before the first attack, and the last, 24 hours later. Text pagers are usualy carried by persons operating in...

The fast-moving international case against a Pakistani-Canadian businessman charged with plotting a terror attack in Denmark and suspected of others in India moved into Pakistan on Monday night with news of the capture of another suspect.Illyas Kashmiri, a former Pakistani military officer and now a reputed commander of the Pakistan-based Harkat-ul-Jihad-al-Islami (HuJI) militant group, is believed to have been detained by Pakistan at the behest of the FBI, according to an unconfirmed report in The Times of India.It's not clear when and where Kashmiri may have been taken into custody or if he is among as many as five people...

Venomous redback spiders are on the march in Japan, where they are believed to have arrived years ago as stowaways on cargo ships, a wildlife expert has warned. The creepy-crawlies, named after their fiery markings, have infested the Osaka region and are drawing closer to the capital Tokyo, said Japan Wildlife Research Centre official Toshio Kishimoto. A dozen people have reportedly been bitten in Osaka prefecture alone, media reports say, including a six-year-old boy who was treated with antivenom in June, the first time the medication had been used in the country. "Their poison is strong and they are particularly...

U.S. first lady Michelle Obama eats during a state dinner hosted by her husband President Barack Obama for India's Prime Minister Manmohan Singh (L) in a giant tent on the South Lawn of the White House November 24, 2009. REUTERS/Jason Reed A giant tent serves as the venue for a state dinner hosted by U.S. President Barack Obama for India's Prime Minister Manmohan Singh on the South Lawn of the White House, November 24, 2009. REUTERS/Jason Reed Kalpen Modi, actor and White House director of the Office of Public engagement, arrives for a State Dinner hosted by President Barack Obama...

Japan Maritime Self-Defence Force escort ship Kurama (L) sails during 2009 fleet review in Sagami Bay, October 25, 2009 The nation's Maritime Self-Defence Force is reportedly planning to construct a new 284 metre long destroyer capable of transporting 14 helicopters, 4,000 people and 50 trucks. The purchase is part of a wider military build up in which Defence Ministry has sought funds to purchase around 40 F-35 fighter jets which will become the future mainstay of the nation's air force, according to Kyodo News. The F-35 Joint Strike Fighter (JSF), is projected to cost around £61 million (nine billion yen)...

I grew up in a small city in the New York suburbs. My parents scrimped and saved to give us a saner life than in the Bronx. Unlike most other towns in the county, our area was diverse, with a wealthy population in opulent estates; a middle class group (mine); and a large, low income population, mostly comprised of black residents. In the 60's, liberal policy makers conceived of forced busing so that deprived kids could enjoy tonier surroundings. The utopians envisioned the dazzling spectacle of ethnic bonding. At my elementary school, the black kids arrived each day by bus...

Ultracold beryllium ions tackle 160 randomly chosen programs Using a few ultracold ions, intense lasers and some electrodes, researchers have built the first programmable quantum computer. The new system, described in a paper to be published in Nature Physics, flexed its versatility by performing 160 randomly chosen processing routines. Earlier versions of quantum computers have been largely restricted to a narrow window of specific tasks. To be more generally useful, a quantum computer should be programmable, in the same way that a classical computer must be able to run many different programs on a single piece of machinery. The new...

The UN's World Meteorological Organisation (WMO) said the trend could be pushing the world towards the most pessimistic assessments of the rise in temperatures expecsted in coming decades and said this underlined the need for urgent action. The European Union said earlier that the position of the US and China ahead of the Copenhagen summit was "untenable" because they had yet to commit themselves to cuts in emissions. But a White House spokesman said the US would issue targets at Copenhagen next month, depending on the progress of Senate legislation on the matter, and President Barack Obama would decide this...

"White House Defends Stimulus Act Despite Government Audit Questioning the Job Numbers" SNIPPET: "(CNSNews.com) - The White House defended the effectiveness of the economic stimulus act on Monday after a government audit last week called many of the reported job numbers into question. The Government Accountability Office (GAO) reported that $173 billion of the $787 billion stimulus package had been paid out by the federal government as of Sept. 30. That’s about 22 percent of the total, and it indicates that 78 percent of the stimulus funds have not been paid out – at a time when unemployment was rising."

Was Newton right and Einstein wrong? It seems that unzipping the fabric of spacetime and harking back to 19th-century notions of time could lead to a theory of quantum gravity. Physicists have struggled to marry quantum mechanics with gravity for decades. In contrast, the other forces of nature have obediently fallen into line. For instance, the electromagnetic force can be described quantum-mechanically by the motion of photons. Try and work out the gravitational force between two objects in terms of a quantum graviton, however, and you quickly run into trouble—the answer to every calculation is infinity. But now Petr Hořava,...

Washington (CNN) -- The United States won't join its NATO allies and many other countries in formally banning landmines, State Department spokesman Ian Kelly said during his midday briefing Tuesday. "This administration undertook a policy review and we decided our landmine policy remains in effect," Kelly said in response to a question. "We made our policy review and we determined that we would not be able to meet our national defense needs nor our security commitments to our friends and allies if we sign this convention." Opponents of the U.S. landmine policy said they were surprised.

ACORN’s San Diego office isn’t the only place its been careless with sensitive documents. Late last year, ACORN abandoned an office in Oklahoma. In its haste to vacate the office–and skip out on the landlord’s claim of back-rent–ACORN abandoned piles of documents, as well as a computer. Below is a copy of ACORN’s “Oklahoma Power Plan,” a long-term political plan to reshape politics in the Sooner State. (Document at link) The “Power Plan” is a very interesting document. First, it provides another example for how ACORN’s political operation thinks strategically. The plan is focused on impacting state legislative races to...

With the crunch climate change summit in Copenhagen fast approaching, even McDonalds has decided to go green at least with its logo, a senior executive said on Monday. At German branches of the US fast-food chain, the famous golden arches will be emblazoned on a green background, rather than its usual red, McDonalds Germany vice-president Holger Beeck said. The change will be made on all new and refitted restaurants "out of respect for the environment," Beeck told the Financial Times Deutschland. The instantly recognisable logo is the world's sixth most valuable brand, according to a 2009 report by Interbrand consultancy,...

The Washington Post is closing its remaining U.S. news bureaus in New York, Chicago and Los Angeles, but will retain the six reporters from those bureaus and recall them to Washington. The paper's spokesperson, Kris Coratti, confirmed the closures Tuesday. Three news aides, one per each bureau, will be cut. "These changes are part of The Post's long-term strategy to focus our resources on covering Washington as a place to live and its impact on the nation and the world," Coratti wrote in an email to TheWrap. "The Post will continue to cover national news of interest to our core...

How is Obama ever gonna get negative press when 2 network anchors, a morning show host, a NYTimes Columnist and a CEO all get invited to a State Dinner at the White House? (Photos of those in attendance)

The debate on environmentalism -- specifically as regards the environmental movement itself -- has been marked by confusion since the beginning. Criticism of environmentalist thinking tends to confuse means with goals. Environmentalist reforms, however they are presented and whatever they may involve, are simply means of pushing forward the Green agenda. As for the goals inherent in that agenda... they are something else entirely. We see this misapprehension at work today in the debate concerning renewable power sources. Critics continually object that renewables such as wind, solar, and hydroelectric power simply can't provide enough energy to run a modern industrial...

Delivering an update on Shell's two flagship gas projects in Qatar, which are costing the group $21bn (£12.6bn), Mr Voser admitted that one – a liquiefied natural gas (LNG) plant – would overrun by about 10 months. However, he said construction was on track for Pearl, the other development, to start producing in 2011. It will be the world's largest gas-to-liquids facility when completed, having spiralled in cost from $5bn to $19bn since 2003. Both projects will lift Shell's output by 10pc – or 350,000 barrels per day - and contribute $4bn per year in revenues. "Qatar is key to...

On January 20th, 2009, I hoped for change — now 9 months later, I am just hoping for a little spare change. I feel like I have been reliving my own version of Balloon Boy; as the country has been spellbound with rapt attention to a Jiffy-Pop hot-air balloon carrying off our hope-and-change President, we come to realize that while we have been anxiously watching shiny objects in the sky, our very own “Urkel Goes to Washington” is holed up in a smoke-filled back room playing three-card monty with Rahm and Axelrod while Geithner greases up the government printing presses....

Why is Sarah Palin’s “Going Rogue” book tour stopping at The Villages, a Florida retirement center, on Nov. 24? Here’s a thought – maybe it’s because The Villages is mentioned in the book. On page 265, Ms. Palin describes the place at some length as she writes about stopping there for a rally. She is particularly taken by the fact that the main mode of transportation in this retiree-heavy community is the golf cart, decorated and jacked up to fit the owner’s personality. “My family and I had never seen anything like this and thought it was the Florida version...

A year ago tomorrow, as no one in India needs reminding, Urban Jihad set sail from hostile shores, came aground in Mumbai, flickered live on our TV screens, and purveyed death across the city. Recovering from the monstrous invasion, a wounded and incensed India that had had enough of Pakistan-sponsored terrorism seriously contemplated letting rip against terrorist targets in Pakistan-occupied Kashmir. But following entreaties to hold back in the interests of not diverting attention and military resources away from the larger goal of targeting jihadi forces in Afghanistan, it exercised tremendous restraint. A year later, look at where Pakistan stands....

Only a year after he had helped Barack Obama get elected by eviscerating his close friend, Clinton White House colleague and Yale Law School classmate, Hillary Clinton, Craig was himself eviscerated by the Obama inner circle. Writing in Politico, Elizabeth Drew called it “the shabbiest episode of his presidency,” saying that it had caused people who had helped Obama rise to question whether he would behave in as classy and non-Clintonian a fashion as they had hoped. It is especially puzzling given that Obama faces tough midterms and a less-than-certain re-election — and given that we all now know someone...

As the evidence of climate fraud at the University of East Anglia’s prestigious Climactic Research Unit (CRU) continues to mount, those who’ve been caught green-handed continue to parry their due opprobrium and comeuppance, thanks primarily to a dead-silent mainstream media.  But should the hubris and duplicity evident in the emails of those whose millennial temperature charts literally fuel the warming alarmism movement somehow fail to convince the world of the scam that’s been perpetrated upon it, certainly these revelations of the fraud cooked into the computer programs that create such charts will. First -- Let’s briefly review a few pertinent...

How easy is it to hide £62 billion? That is the question that has been flummoxing the City today. For it transpires that last autumn, to the almost complete ignorance of most of the City (and, I admit, most of the journalists who, like myself, keep a pretty close eye on the UK economy), the Bank of England lent a staggering amount of cash to Royal Bank of Scotland and HBOS. I was dumbfounded when I found out. Not because there was any surprise about RBS or HBOS needing the cash – we know now from the fact that they...

Democrat overlords in Washington are apparently planning on adding huge taxes on cosmetic surgery. Notice how their answer to everything is a tax. This will be a heavy tax on women and not wealthy women. The American Society for Aesthetic Plastic Surgery reports that 91% of cosmetic procedures are done for women. In terms of patient income, "a 2005 study found that almost 60 percent of people who had recently had plastic surgery or were seriously considering plastic surgery had a household income of $30,000–$90,000 a year."This is just one more place where the Obama lie is exposed that no...

Alex talks with Dr. Tim Ball, retired professor, climatologist, and leader of the Natural Resources Stewardship Project.

Think about it.... Using a name like that will drive the liberals totally nuts. Shades of Nixon and all.

FORT LEONARD WOOD, Mo. (Nov. 20, 2009) — The 7th Weapons of Mass Destruction Civil Support Team completed two days of internal training that focused on mission essential tasks this week at Fort Leonard Wood. The Missouri National Guard team responded to an “incident” at Abrams Theater and another at the training tunnels at the 1st Lt. Joseph Terry Chemical, Biological, Radiological, Nuclear Responder Training Facility. The first exercise was coordinated by 1st Lt. Richard Sambolin, the unit’s reconnaissance section officer in charge. In this scenario, the theater was set in Anywhere, USA. A chief of a fire department requested...

Obama Quietly Backs Patriot Act ProvisionsWilliam Fisher NEW YORK, 23 Nov (IPS) - With the health care debate preoccupying the mainstream media, it has gone virtually unreported that the Barack Obama administration is quietly supporting renewal of provisions of the George W. Bush-era USA Patriot Act that civil libertarians say infringe on basic freedoms. And it is reportedly doing so over the objections of some prominent Democrats. When a panicky Congress passed the act 45 days after the terrorist attacks of Sep. 11, 2001, three contentious parts of the law were scheduled to expire at the end of next month,...

As Iran tests the capabilities of its air defense systems in nationwide exercises, the Israeli air force is reported to be planning special seminars to prepare its attack pilots to cope with heavy surface-to-air missile defenses. According to The Jerusalem Post, the sessions will encompass "future conflict with Hamas, Hezbollah, Syria and Iran" in which air force crews will "have to deal with an unprecedented number of surface-to-air missiles, most of them Russian-made." None of these adversaries is considered to pose an overwhelming air-defense threat, although Israeli intelligence believes that Iran has supplied some shoulder-fired surface-to-air missiles to the Palestinian...

By now, millions of Americans are familiar with Anita Dunn, who recently resigned her post as Barack Obama’s White House Communications Director after it was learned that she had previously cited Mao Zedong, the late Communist dictator and mass murderer, as one of her “favorite political philosophers.” By contrast, few people know anything substantive about Dunn’s husband, Robert Bauer, who has replaced Gregory Craig as President Obama’s White House Counsel. Craig resigned abruptly on November 13, after having repeatedly denied, for weeks, that he had any plans of stepping down. A 1976 graduate of the University of Virginia School of...

Scientists in the US have discovered a new class of biological antifreeze molecules - the first that do not contain proteins. The antifreeze, extracted from an Alaskan beetle capable of surviving at -60°C, consists of linked mannopyranose and xylopyranose sugars, termed xylomannan, associated with a lipid. Large molecules that cause thermal hysteresis - a difference between the melting and freezing points of a solution - have been identified in many organisms that survive in the cold, from Antarctic fish to plants and bacteria. In all cases identified so far, thermal hysteresis appears to be caused by proteins, known as antifreeze proteins or...

Ban Lifted For Green-Card Applicants With HIV A two-decade-old rule kept those with the virus out of the U.S. Now such immigrants will be able to visit the country and apply for legal status. By Anna Gorman November 25, 2009 A stamp in Heidemarie Kremer's passport reveals her health status as HIV-positive. Because of the disease, Kremer -- a native of Germany -- has been barred from becoming a legal resident of the United States. She and her two children are fighting possible deportation, and their plans for the future are on hold. But that soon may change. This month,...

Raytheon achieved a key milestone for the U.S. Navy as the Tactical Control System (TCS) was deployed recently on the USS McInerney to support a counternarcotics mission in Central America as part of the MQ-8B Fire Scout program. "This truly is a critical milestone on our road to success toward a full fleet introduction on Littoral Combat Ships," said Capt. Tim Dunigan, U.S. Navy. "Deploying Fire Scout aboard the USS McInerney will allow for the continued maturation of our system while increasing the warfighting effectiveness of the ship." The U.S. Navy TCS system provides an opportunity to develop a low-risk,...

November 25, 2009                                     Wednesday of the Thirty-fourth Week                             in Ordinary Time   Reading 1Responsorial PsalmGospel Reading 1Dn 5:1-6, 13-14, 16-17, 23-28 King Belshazzar gave a great banquet for a thousand of his lords,with whom he drank.Under the influence of the wine,he ordered the gold and silver vesselswhich Nebuchadnezzar, his father,had taken from the temple in Jerusalem,to be brought in so that the king, his lords,his wives and his entertainers might drink from them.When the gold and silver vesselstaken from the house of God in...

China has stepped up efforts to halt the explosive growth in credit, ordering the country's five top banks to raise capital over coming weeks or face lending sanctions. The move amounts to monetary tightening in China's state-run banking system. The news triggered a sell-off on Asian stock markets and raised broader concerns about the strength of the global rally. The Shenzen index fell by 4.5pc on Wednesday. Crackdown: China has stepped up efforts to halt the explosive growth in credit "For practical purposes, the recovery in risk assets since last winter is now over," said Charles Dumas, of Lombard Street...

Does Adam Lambert creep you out? He seems to be front page news these days, primarily due to a racy performace at Sunday's American Music Awards where he kissed a member of his band - a male member of his band - most likely as a publicity stunt in order to garner attention and provide an additional platform from which to speak. Since then, Adam Lambert's face and a still photo of that taboo moment have been plastered on headlines all over the internet. As a result, no one surfing the internet is safe from his Tammy Faye features and...

An idealistic president takes office promising an era of American moral renewal at home and abroad. The effort includes a focus on diplomacy and peace-making, an aversion to the use of force, the selling out of old allies. The result is that within a couple of years the U.S. is more suspected, detested and enfeebled than ever. No, we're not talking about Barack Obama. But since the current administration took office offering roughly the same prescriptions as Jimmy Carter did, it's worth recalling how that worked out. How it worked out became inescapably apparent 30 years ago this month. On...

This makes the bow to Emperor Akihito that much worse, it wasn't an accident if Obama did it 2 other times on his trip to Asia...Photos and Video

e21 has a very perceptive post about the Medicare payroll tax that Harry Reid has inserted into his bill to pay for his health care proposal. Link here: http://www.economics21.org/commentary/payroll-tax-increase-loophole-and-ticking-time-bomb The Democrats are double-counting the money raised from the tax. They're counting it to reduce the coming deficit in Medicare and they're also counting it to help pay for the present bill. Revenues from the HI tax are “deposited” in the Medicare Part A Trust Fund, which is running a $20.5 billion deficit (p. 56 of pdf) in 2009. The Trust Fund is expected to continue to hemorrhage money for the...

In accepting his appointment to be the first permanent president of the European Council in the European Union, Herman Van Rompuy affirmed his belief that the new world order would be dominated by international organizations that would seek to destroy the last vestiges of nation-states on the face of the globe...

Part Four:   Lord, Teach Us To Pray The Invocation:  “ Our Father, Who Art in Heaven” Table of Contents     We open the Lord’s Prayer by addressing God as Father. The Pater Noster is addressed to the Holy Trinity, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. But we speak to Him as Father because God is our Father by every possible title. He is our Father because He is our Creator, who brought us into existence out of nothing. He is our Father because He is our Redeemer and therefore the source of our supernatural life. He is our Father because we are His...

The Republican National Committee has no comment on the emails that suggest that manmade global warming is a hoax perpetrated by biased “scientists.”

Obama upbeat on climate, report shows worse crisis(AFP) – 16 hours ago WASHINGTON — US President Barack Obama sought Tuesday to boost hopes of a landmark deal at the Copenhagen climate summit, as a new report showed the crisis facing the planet is deeper than previously thought. Obama said the world was "one step closer to a successful outcome in Copenhagen," as he hosted key developing nation India at the White House a week after returning from top global polluter China. "It's also essential that all countries do what is necessary to reach a strong operational agreement that will confront...

Russian computer hackers have published emails and source code from the UN-affiliated Climate Research Unit showing profound corruption, fraud, and criminal activity. What's really behind the Copenhagen treaty? Video More at site

JEFFERSON CITY, Mo. (Nov. 20, 2009) — Michelle Hartmann, of Jefferson City, has been named the Missouri National Guard's first-ever director of psychological health. Hartmann oversees the Missouri Guard's psychological health program. The program, which is funded through the National Guard Bureau, is designed to promote readiness through psychological fitness. Hartmann said the program's guidelines are intentionally vague, which allows each state's director to tailor it to the specific needs of each state. Hartmann said one of her goals is to make mental health a more normal part of conversation. To some extent, Hartmann said, the stigma associated with psychological...

RELATED: CLIMATE BOMBSHELL: Hacker leaks thousands of emails showing conspiracy to “hide” the real data on manmade climate change One of the leaked climate emails was apparently a press release from “Earth Government” Newsletter dated 27 Mar 2003. The document calls for a ‘democratic’ world government that would amalgamate and reform the prevailing global institutions including the United Nations, IMF, World Bank WTO, NAFTA, FTAA and others “for the good of all.

New Hampshire Attorney General Michael A. Delaney has refused the request of NH State Representatives Rappaport and Vita, to investigate the election fraud which occurred in his state in 2008, saying that it is a Federal matter. Rep. Laurence M. Rappaport has led the effort in New Hampshire to move the State Government to action regarding the evident violations of NH Statutes regarding the application of Barack Hussein Obama for admission to the State Ballot in the 2008 Presidential Election. On September 10th he brought his initial complaint to Mr. William Gardner, the NH Secretary of State. Gardner subsequently declined...