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Explanation: In only about 12,000 years Vega will be the North Star, the closest bright star to our fair planet's North Celestial Pole. By then, when you fix your camera to a tripod long exposures of the night sky will show the concentric arcs of star trails centered on a point near Vega as Earth rotates on its axis. Of course, presently the bright star conveniently near the North Celestial Pole is Polaris, but that will change as the Earth's axis of rotation precesses, like the wobble of a spinning top with a precession period of about 26,000 years. If...

an has built an active front from Israel's northern Mediterranean border adjacent to Rosh Hanikra, all the way to the Golan Heights. The goal: to undermine and wage war against the "Zionist entity" with conventional, powerful military means from within Lebanon and Syria. So says Yigal Carmon, Counter-terrorism Adviser to prime ministers Yitzhak Shamir and Yitzhak Rabin, and founder and president of the prestigious Middle East Media Research Institute (MEMRI). "Iran has taken advantage of the chaos in the Middle East to form a united front from Tehran, through Baghdad, Syria and Lebanon," Carmon told Kol Yisrael public radio on...

North Korean state newspaper Rodong Sinmun released images on 7 February showing a new type of surface-to-surface missile (SSM) being fired from a surface-effects ship (SES) from the Korean People's Navy (KPN) Eastern Fleet. The images, which showed North Korean leader Kim Jong-un in attendance, were accompanied by an article translated by the English-language website KCNA Watch. The article noted that the test-firing proved in a "scientific" way that the capabilities of the long-rumoured vessel and its weapons system had reached design and engineering specifications.

This was the satellite photo which shamed North Korea by showing how the people of the hermit kingdom endure inky blackness at night. But now the hermit kingdom's propaganda machine has hit back, proclaiming that the stoic workers of the People's Republic have no need for 'flashy lights'. A recent editorial in the Rodong Sinmun, North Korea's tightly leashed newspaper of record, also says the photo represents the future of the U.S. - 'an old superpower that is meeting its sunset'.

North Korean leader Kim Jong-un executed an army general last month following a difference of opinion as part of his latest purge of senior government officials. Gen. Pyon In Son, head of operations in the Korean People’s Army, was killed for disagreeing with the “Supreme Leader,” a South Korean official told reporters in Seoul Wednesday, but did not make clear what the two disagreed on, Bloomberg reported.

North Korea is attempting to put nuclear weapons to sea, according to a longtime regime watcher. Joseph Bermudez—an expert on North Korean weapons—believes the evidence is commercial satellite imagery showing a submarine with possibly two vertical launch tubes. The regime also appears to have constructed a test stand for launching sea-based ballistic missiles. The two revelations may not be directly related. For one, the vessel might not end up carrying nuclear-capable missiles. But Bermudez’s evidence is highly suggestive. And if the North is planning to put nukes aboard submarines, this would make Kim Jong Un’s atomic arsenal more survivable in...

The McKenzie County sheriff's department used its K9 team to track down three men who fled an accident scene in McKenzie county last week. The dogs led deputies and officers from the U-S Border Patrol through three miles of badlands where they found two of the men. They caught the third man two days later near Williston, after reports of a drug transaction. The Border Patrol was involved because all three of the suspects are illegal immigrants. The sheriff's office reports that one of the men has been deported 33 times.He will be charged with felony immigration violations. The suspects...

Looks like the "Guardians of Peace" scored another victory ... Sony quietly gave in to another hacker demand by wiping almost all traces of "The Interview" from its social media pages. Hackers threatened top level Sony execs Friday saying, "We want everything related to the movie, including its trailers, as well as its full version down from any website hosting them immediately." The movie studio almost immediately obliged ... the movie's Twitter page no longer has any tweets, the Facebook page has been deleted and all "Interview" footage has been wiped from its YouTube page.

In the ebullience that surrounded the supposed end of the Cold War, few analysts worried about the nuggets of communist opposition that the tide of freedom had failed to sweep away. Cuba was harmless. China was capitalizing. Those weird little statelets left in the USSR’s wake? Whatever, bro. ........................................................ In fact, Hollywood has amassed so much undisclosed TMZ fodder that it’s willing to do whatever the North says. There is no margin for error, and no taking of chances. Spend enough time in the right/wrong circles here in L.A., and you’ll pick up a tabloid’s worth of sordid stories. Sometimes...

The Daily Beast has unearthed several emails that reveal at least two U.S. government officials screened a rough cut of the Kim Jong-Un assassination comedy The Interview in late June and gave the film—including a final scene that sees the dictator’s head explode—their blessing. The claim that the State Department played an active role in the decision to include the film’s gruesome death scene is likely to cause fury in Pyongyang. Emails between the Sony Entertainment CEO and a security consultant even appear to suggest the U.S. government may support the notion that The Interview would be useful propaganda against...

The country's top five theater circuits have decided not to play Sony's The Interview, a knowledgeable source tells The Hollywood Reporter. Regal Entertainment, AMC Entertainment, Cinemark, Carmike Cinemas and Cineplex Entertainment have all decided against showing the film. Carmike Cinemas confirmed its decision to drop the film on Tuesday. The other chains did not immediately respond to a request for comment. Sony also had no immediate comment.

A former EPA official tied to a controversy over allegations of federal overreach at an Alaska mine project has mysteriously gone off the grid, sources tell FoxNews.com, complicating lawmakers' efforts to question him. Emails from Phillip North, a now-retired Environmental Protection Agency employee, recently surfaced that seem to show the Alaska-based biologist tried to get the Pebble Mine project killed as far back as 2008. Those emails -- and memos indicating government officials worked early on with tribal leaders and environmental groups to oppose the venture -- raised questions about the agency's claims that when it ultimately vetoed the gold-and-copper...

A former North Korean counter-intelligence officer has claimed that Kim Jong-Un is no longer in control of the nation and is now just a 'puppet leader'. Jang Jin-sung, who used to be an influential officer in Kim Jong-il's propaganda division, made the sensational assertion at a September conference in Holland attended by several elite exiles, it's been reported. The capital, Pyongyang, meanwhile, has been placed into lockdown with even the elite banned from entering or leaving, according to a respected news site. This adds weight to Jin-sung's claim, as a North Korean expert said that this kind of measure is...

Governor Pat McCrory knocked heads with the General Assembly — and lost — on the issue of waiving the use of E-verify to do residency checks on temporary workers across the state. Now, it appears that a group of Republican House members is seeking to repeal the legislation passed despite the governor’s veto. Reps. Cleveland, Millis and Conrad are sponsoring HB 1184, which seeks to repeal the e-verify exemption for temporary workers and appropriates funds for an extra investigator.

Last September, I noted how Deacon Scott Colley, the administrator (at least at the time if not still so) of the Facebook page for the North Quabbin Catholic Community, which includes several parishes in and around Athol, Massachusetts, banned me for taking issue with the applause which often breaks out during Holy Mass at Our Lady Immaculate Parish in Athol. See here. And back in 2011, I disagreed with Father Krzysztof Korcz when he blamed parents as being the sole cause of the lack of vocations and the exodus of young people from Catholic life. See here. Lastly, I noted...

North Korea Tuesday threatened to carry out “a new form of nuclear test” in response to US President Barack Obama’s Asia tour. “The DPRK (North Korea) will advance along the road of bolstering up nuclear deterrent, unhindered, now that the US brings the dark clouds of a nuclear war to hang over the DPRK,” Xinhua quoted a spokesperson of the North Korean foreign ministry as saying in a statement. “There is no statute of limitations to the DPRK’s declaration that it will not rule out a new form of nuclear test clarified by it in the March 30 statement. This...

This week, Australian justice Michael Kirby, who led the U.N. Commission of Inquiry on Human Rights in North Korea, is briefing members of the U.N. Security Council regarding the widespread atrocities being committed on a daily basis against innocent people by one of the world’s most repressive regimes. Given Russia’s recent actions in Ukraine and other global challenges, the report of this U.N. commission has not received the attention it deserves.

NATIONAL HARBOR, Md. — Former Marine Corps. Lt. Col. Oliver North said Friday that Ukraine is paying the price for America’s lack of leadership under President Barack Obama. “The people of Ukraine are at this very minute paying the terrible price for America’s leadership deficit disorder and the Obama organization’s utopian rush to unilateral disarmament,” North said at the annual Conservative Political Action Conference held outside Washington, D.C. He continued, ramping up his criticism of President Obama’s approach to national defense and foreign policy. “We don’t need a head of state who guts our defenses and draws phony red lines...

Oliver North is a former United States Marine Corps Lieutenant Colonel and, currently, a political commentator on Fox News and author. His latest book, “American Heroes,” looks at the individuals working to fight Islamic terrorists. “The profession of arms in the United States arm force has to be the most challenging vocation in the world — for those who serve, and for those who love the service member,” North writes. “There is no other calling I know of that places so many challenges on familial relationships, so much stress on loved ones, as military service.” North joins POLITICO for the...

Full title: Col. Oliver North: 'There is no strategy' to the defense budget that reduces military to pre-WWII levelsVIDEO at link: Ollie North up to the 4:45 minute mark. GRETA VAN SUSTEREN, FOX NEWS HOST: Colonel Oliver North joins us. Nice to see you, Colonel. LT. COL. OLIVER NORTH, HOST, 'WAR STORIES' & FORMERLY U.S. MARINE CORPS: Good to be with you but not on a day like this. VAN SUSTEREN: All right. I was going to ask you two things. Two-part question. First, do we have to make cuts in the military? Is that smart and wise? And secondly,...