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In 1995, Michael Pillsbury, an expert on China who has worked with every US president since Nixon and has, he writes, “arguably had more access to China’s military and intelligence establishment than any other Westerner,” was reading an article written by “three of China’s preeminent military experts” about “new technologies that would contribute to the defeat of the United States.” Enlarge Image Michael PillsburyWikipedia It was in this article that Pillsbury first saw the term “Assassin’s Mace,” which refers to a weapon from Chinese folklore that guarantees a small combatant victory over a larger, more powerful opponent.

This document is the product of collaboration between the World Health Organization (WHO) Global Influenza Programme and the WHO Collaborating Centre for Infectious Disease Epidemiology and Control, School of Public Health, The University of Hong Kong.

25 minute news conference by Sheriff Judd of Polk County, Fl concerning the triple homicide near Frostproof, Fl.

See how your community is moving around differently due to COVID-19 As global communities respond to COVID-19, we've heard from public health officials that the same type of aggregated, anonymized insights we use in products such as Google Maps could be helpful as they make critical decisions to combat COVID-19. These Community Mobility Reports aim to provide insights into what has changed in response to policies aimed at combating COVID-19. The reports chart movement trends over time by geography, across different categories of places such as retail and recreation, groceries and pharmacies, parks, transit stations, workplaces, and residential.

Link to chart breaking down deaths by provinceAfter entering Italy, Coronavirus (COVID-19) has been spreading fast. As of March 31, 2020, approximately 12.4 thousand deaths were reported by the authorities, of which 7.2 thousand in the region of Lombardy, 1.6 thousand in the region of Emilia-Romagna, and 854 in the region of Piedmont, the regions mostly hit. As of March 19, 2020, the number of coronavirus deaths in Italy exceeded that registered in China. The total number of cases reported in the country reached nearly 106 thousand. The North of the country was mostly hit, and the region with the...

The National Institute of Informatics (NII) in Japan claims that taking and publishing photos of subjects who are flashing the popular two-fingered 'V' or peace sign could lead to identify theft. It warns that fingerprint recognition technology is now so advanced that even casual snapshots can be used to retrieve fingerprint information. The report also says the technology is widely available and easy to use.

A novel virus from Peru and the Republic of Congo called enterovirus C105 is now suspected in last year's wave of mysterious cases of sudden childhood paralysis. Initially, enterovirus D68, the respiratory virus that took the lives of 12 children in the US last year, was the main suspect in these polio-like illnesses, involving at least 118 children, including a cluster of cases in Denver, CO and another in Syracuse, NY. But soon researchers admitted they were stumped. In the fall of 2014, the CDC asked clinicians to report all such pediatric paralysis cases. Today, disease detectives at the University...

In the midst of controversy over the Israeli prime minister's plans to address Congress next month, a researcher has won the release of a decades-old Defense Department report detailing the U.S. government's extensive help to Israel in that nation's development of a nuclear bomb. "I am struck by the degree of cooperation on specialized war making devices between Israel and the US," said Roger Mattson, a former memer of the Atomic Energy Commission technical staff. The 1987 report, "Critical Technology Assessment in Israel and NATO Nations," compares the key Israeli facilities developing nuclear weapons to Los Alamos and Oak Ridge...

If you, like this author, always dreamed of using a camo-covered, Army-issue Humvee as your personal golf cart, your dreams can finally come true — for a price. According to the Army Times, the Department of Defense will start auctioning off as many as 4,000 military-spec Humvees to the public as part of its surplus-reduction efforts. In previous years, the off-road behemoths would have been sent straight to the military scrapyard, but due to changes in policies in recent years and what the Defense Logistics Agency spokesperson Michelle McCaskill describes as “cooperation from other government offices," the used Humvees will...

The foe now has four legs. But a century on, the rugged reliability and brute firepower that made the Lee-Enfield rifle the standard-issue weapon for entrenched Canadian troops during the latter half of the First World War makes it an ideal choice still for a modern group of this country’s soldiers. The Canadian Rangers — a component of the armed forces reserves — conduct sovereignty patrols and assist search and rescue missions in the Far North and in remote coastal regions across the country.

More than 700,000 records relating to WWI, as well as photos, films and audio recordings were made accessible on a new portal on the Federal Archive's website. The collection includes private material as well as files of military and civilian authorities, records left by politicians and military officers, documentaries and propaganda films. Access to the complete archive is free. The archive will also help people compiling family histories, say curators, since it has extensive information about locations where individual soldiers served. It also contains letters written to and by combatants in the war, which began on July 28, 1914, and...

Meteorologist Lennart Bengtsson has long been considered a cool head in the often heated conflict over global warming. In an interview, he defends his decision to join an organization that is skeptical of climate change. The debate over climate change is often a contentious one, and key players in the discussion only rarely switch sides. But late last month, Lennart Bengtsson, the former director of the Hamburg-based Max Planck Institute for Meteorology, one of the world's leading climate research centers, announced he would join the academic advisory council of the Global Warming Policy Foundation (GWPF). ANZEIGEGWPF, based in Britain, is...

A suspected World War Two bomb has exploded in a Bangkok scrap yard, killing at least seven people and injuring 19. Workers were using a blow-torch to take the bomb apart and detonated it in the process, officials say.

Fears of a cover-up over the fate of flight MH370 grew yesterday after claims that a photo of two passengers was tampered with. Images of two men who boarded the Malaysian Airlines jet with stolen passports appear to show them having the same set of legs. CCTV footage stills released by officials three days after the Boeing 777-200 vanished from the skies shows the pair with identical green trousers and brown shoes.

I didn't even know they had wolfs/coyotes in that part of the world.

CANBERRA, Australia (AP) — The latest attempt to rescue passengers on board a research ship that has been trapped in Antarctic ice for more than a week was delayed again Thursday after sea ice prevented a barge from reaching one of the rescue vessels. The Australian Maritime Safety Authority’s Rescue Coordination Centre, which is handling the operation, said earlier on Thursday that weather conditions had improved and rescue flights were expected to commence. A helicopter was expected to airlift passengers to a Chinese icebreaker, the Snow Dragon, and a barge would then ferry them to a nearby Australian vessel. But...

ABOARD XUELONG, Jan. 1 (Xinhua) -- Chinese helicopter Xueying (Snow Eagle) on board the icebreaker Xuelong has been prepared for the airlift of trapped passengers on a Russian vessel stuck in sea ice off Antarctica, Xueying captain Jia Shuliang told Xinhua on Wednesday. "The crew members have been readied to transport the 52 scientists and tourists aboard MV Akademik Shokalskiy with their luggage to Xuelong in groups of 12," Jia said. According to the rescue plan, six crew members will be split into three two-person teams, respectively responsible for flying the helicopter and guaranteeing the ground service on board Xuelong...

An 18-person crew will be left aboard the Akademik Shokalskiy for weeks -- or even months -- while tourists and scientists are evacuated. The Australian icebreaker Aurora Australis today failed in its second attempt to free the Russian-registered ship -- which has been stuck since Christmas Day with 76 people aboard. "The Australian Maritime Safety Authority's Rescue Co-ordination Centre was advised this morning by the Aurora Australis that the ship will not be able to reach the MV Akademik Shokalskiy," AMSA said in a statement. "The Aurora Australis advised RCC Australia it would be at risk of becoming beset by...

Former Florida quarterback and Heisman winner, Tim Tebow, has been hired as a college football analyst for the SEC Network launching in August 2014. Through a multi-year agreement, Tebow’s primary role will be as an analyst for SEC Nation, the network’s traveling pregame show that will originate from a different SEC campus each week beginning August 28, 2014. In the months leading up to launch and after, he will contribute to a variety of ESPN platforms including SportsCenter, ESPN Radio, and the network’s Heisman Trophy coverage, offering in-depth perspective as a legendary Southeastern Conference player.Click link to read article.

The recently concluded investigation into Newtown killer Adam Lanza revealed that a psychiatrist who treated him as a teen has since surrendered his license. Dr. Paul Fox once held licenses to practice in Connecticut and New York but in 2012 he gave them both up in the face of charges he may have crossed a line in his relationship with a patient. Investigators reached Fox in New Zealand, where he now lives, in a telephone interview told detectives all he remembered about the cold-blooded killer.According to the Danbury News Times, Fox was cited for 'negligence on more than one occasion'...