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Ukraine is burning through ammunition for 155mm howitzers quickly and it is leaving the United States in a bind, according to a new report by think tank CSIS. It could take up to five years for the industrial base to produce enough rounds to replenish American stocks. It is not just cannon shells. Javelin and Stinger missiles could take six to eight years to normalize for the U.S. inventory.

Famed astrophysicist Stephen Hawking warns that humans will need to go beyond the planet Earth if they are to survive as a species. “We must continue to go into space for humanity,” Hawking told a gathering this week in Los Angeles, California. “We won’t survive another 1,000 years without escaping our fragile planet.” Hawking, 71, has long been a proponent of space exploration. Speaking at a 2008 ceremony marking the 50th anniversary of the U.S. space agency, NASA, Hawking called for a new era in human space exploration, comparable, he said, to the European voyages to the New World more...

The new Democratic chairman of a US congressional intelligence committee did not know what Hizbollah was and incorrectly described al-Qa'eda as deriving from the Shia rather than Sunni sect of Islam. Representative Silvestre Reyes was flummoxed when a journalist rounded off a 40-minute interview by asking him two basic questions about the Islamic groups that are the principal targets of America's intelligence agencies. "Al-Qa'eda is what – Sunni or Shia?" Jeff Stein, the Congressional Quarterly magazine's national security editor, asked Mr Reyes. "Al-Qa'eda, they have both," came the reply. "You're talking about predominately?" the congressman then asked, before venturing: "Predominantly...

Bankers, lenders remain bullish, but rate hikes may collapse house of cards As the home-loan delinquencies rise nationwide, Nevada's numbers remain surprisingly strong. However, the pending interest-rate hikes by the Fed, the day-to-day fluctuations in oil prices, and the Silver State's high percentage of interest-only and adjustable-rate mortgages have left some lenders and analysts wondering if the bubble will burst. "Where you will probably have problems is with the no-down-payment, 100-percent-financed ARM (type of loans), and interest rates go up," Nevada State Bank Senior Vice President Jeff Bargerhuff said. "It's kind of like the perfect storm of mortgage lending."Nevada ranks...

Let's let all the Freeper who are panicking use THIS thread so they won't be cluttering up the OTHER THREADS.

Call it what you will...heavy rain threatens Gulf Coast 8:10 P.M. ET 9/22/2004 Buzz Bernard & Anthony Diaz, Meteorologists, The Weather Channel National Forecast Video South Resurrected Tropical Storm Ivan bears watching in the Gulf of Mexico as it churns toward the upper Texas/Louisiana Gulf Coast bearing squally bands of rain. Tides may come up a bit, too, and a coastal flood watches and warnings have been issued for parts of the northwestern Gulf Coast. Showers from Ivan may punch inland Thursday over far eastern Texas, Louisiana and northward up the lower Mississippi Valley.

Torando just reported in Arlington..100 MPH gust measured by local weather guy..damage reports coming in