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The Pentagon’s latest annual report on Chinese military developments mainly deals with non-nuclear issues, but it also contains important new information about developments in China’s nuclear forces. This includes: The size of China’s ICBM force has been relatively stable over the past five years China has deployed a new version of a medium-range ballistic missile A new intermediate-range ballistic missile is not yet deployed China’s SSBN fleet has yet to conduct its first deterrent patrol The possibility of nuclear capability for Chinese bombers Changes (or not) to Chinese nuclear policy ICBM Developments The future development of China’s ICBM force has...

The United States has begun manufacturing nuclear spacecraft fuel for the first time in a generation, but full production of the stuff is still seven years or so away. In December, officials at the Department of Energy's (DOE) Oak Ridge National Laboratory in Tennessee announced that researchers at the site had generated a 1.8-ounce (50 grams) sample of plutonium-238, the fuel that powers deep-space missions such as NASA's New Horizons Pluto probe and Cassini Saturn orbiter.

Novgorod or Veliky Novgorod, is one of the major historical cities of Russia, and it started out as a trading station for the Varangians who traveled from the Baltic region to Constantinople by (possibly) late 10th century AD. But as it turns out, this historically significant settlement of northern Russia is also home to around thousand personal ‘tomes’ that are inscribed on bark of birch trees and are almost preserved in perfect condition. In fact, historians hypothesize that there are 20,000 similar specimens still waiting to be salvaged from the conducive anaerobic clay soil layers of the city environs. And...

To the frantic manager of a Coon Rapids Burger King Friday night, the choice was to act fast or face disaster. A caller who said he was a fire department official said there was a gas leak in the building and that unless the windows were smashed, a gas buildup in the building would cause an explosion. So the manager and Burger King employees evacuated the restaurant and started smashing ground floor windows. Every single one. Problem was, it was a hoax. The caller was no firefighter. There was no gas.

Words are weapons. And when you’re taking aim at a political enemy, the word "fascist" is the equivalent of a howitzer. In the post-Auschwitz era, accusing someone of "fascism" is just about the most devastating charge you can make. Yet rarely has the word experienced a comeback on the scale we’re seeing today. Godwin’s Law — which says that every exchange on the Internet will end up with someone comparing someone else to Hitler — clearly needs a bit of tweak. The biggest accelerant these days, of course, is the crisis in Ukraine. Vladimir Putin and Russia’s state-controlled media love...

The Head of Russia's military intelligence service, Colonel-General Igor Sergun, was killed in January during a secret mission in the Lebanon's capital, Beirut, the Lebanese daily newspaper al-Akhbar reported Thursday. The Kremlin announced the death of Sergun on January 4, saying that he died in Moscow after a heart attack. The military intelligence chief played a key role in the Russian seizure of Crimea in March 2014, and reportedly died three weeks after he was sent to Syria by Russian President Vladimir Putin to demand Syrian President Bashar Assad step aside.

Russia is about to test-launch a volley of intercontinental ballistic missiles from nuclear-powered submarines, during an exercise to test the combat readiness of its nuclear deterrence forces, according to a report in the newspaper Izvestia. The missiles will include the new Bulava submarine-launched ballistic missile, which is intended as the future cornerstone of Russia's nuclear capability and is the country's most expensive weapons project.

When Barack Obama meets this week with Xi Jinping during the Chinese president’s first state visit to America, one item probably won’t be on their agenda: the possibility that the United States and China could find themselves at war in the next decade. In policy circles, this appears as unlikely as it would be unwise. And yet 100 years on, World War I offers a sobering reminder of man’s capacity for folly. When we say that war is “inconceivable,” is this a statement about what is possible in the world—or only about what our limited minds can conceive? In 1914,...

For modern political Zionism, the root of the “Jewish problem” was the Jews’ minority status in exile. Theodor Herzl (1860-1904), the movement’s founding prophet, envisaged that the creation of a Jewish state would result in the negation of the galut (exile). No Jew would find it necessary to live under alien rule; Jews would gradually withdraw to their homeland; anti-Semitism would wither, and those Jews who opted to stay put would be absorbed by their societies. Herzl granted that there would be a smattering of Jews who would continue to live as Jews outside the Jewish state. In contrast, cultural...

With technology changing rapidly I am looking for a solution to take payment for goods and services via credit card through my smart phone. Many small time operators have been using Square Reader for their point of purchase reader and my main concern is their policy of not allowing purchases of guns and ammunition. I support the Second Amendment and I don't want to use Square Reader if there are better alternatives out there. Square Reader takes 2.75% per transaction as well. Does anyone use another reader with a better constitutional record and/or lower fees?

Sometimes I enjoy playing a couple of my favorite songs on Youtube and end up seeing where the sidebar takes me. I started with The Highwayman and now I'm listening to Steve Earl's Copper Head Road. Next up is John Prine and Steve Goodman's Souvenirs If you care to post your favorites, other Freepers might just enjoy the jukebox tonight.

Founded in 1960, Oklahoma City’s Penn Square Bank made a spark with its shopping mall setting and drive-through teller window convenience. By the mid-’70s, the bank shifted from suburban housewives to focus on financing a new customer: the oil and gas industry. The bank grew by “aggressively making large and speculative loans” to the energy industry, according a historical account of bank crises by the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation. But oil prices peaked in April 1981 and started to fall. A year later, rumors of problems spooked a deposit runoff, and on July 5, 1982 Penn Square Bank was declared...

On Oct. 24, 2001, then-House Speaker J. Dennis Hastert (R-Ill.) shepherded the Patriot Act through the House of Representatives. It passed 357 to 66, advancing to the Senate and then-President George W. Bush’s desk for signing. Hastert took credit for House passage in a 2011 interview, claiming it “wasn’t popular, and there was a lot of fight in the Congress” over it.

MINNEAPOLIS (KMSP) - Federal charges have been filed against the alleged “straw buyer” who purchased 3 shotguns through an online auction that were later given to New Hope City Hall shooter Raymond Kmetz. Michael Ronald Garant, 42, is charged with making a false statement to acquire firearms on behalf of another person. Garant made his first court appearance Wednesday afternoon in U.S. District Court in St. Paul, Minn. He was released on bail, with the judge telling him, "Don't do any more favors for friends."

At the southern end of Madagascar lie four enormous wedge-shaped sediment deposits, called chevrons, that are composed of material from the ocean floor. Each covers twice the area of Manhattan with sediment as deep as the Chrysler Building is high. On close inspection, the chevron deposits contain deep ocean microfossils that are fused with a medley of metals typically formed by cosmic impacts. And all of them point in the same direction — toward the middle of the Indian Ocean where a newly discovered crater, 18 miles in diameter, lies 12,500 feet below the surface. The explanation is obvious to...

A former Utah high school teacher had sex with an underage student after she was arrested in October 2013 in another sex abuse case involving that boy and two others, prosecutors said this week. Brianne Altice, 35, was arrested again Wednesday on four new sex abuse charges and released from jail after posting $10,000 bail, court documents say.

Hackers don't take a holiday, it seems. Hours after Microsoft’s Xbox Live went down Wednesday, Sony’s PlayStation Network went down, too. These are two giant networks that console gamers access to play their games online. It's especially bad timing since a lot of people are probably getting new PlayStations and Xboxes for Christmas.

A cat with an uncanny ability to detect when nursing home patients are about to die has proven itself in around 50 cases by curling up with them in their final hours, according to a new book.

Overview A new CFR-sponsored Independent Task Force report, North America: Time for a New Focus, asserts that elevating and prioritizing the U.S.-Canada-Mexico relationship offers the best opportunity for strengthening the United States and its place in the world. "It is time to put North America at the forefront of U.S. policy," the report says. "The development and implementation of a strategy for U.S. economic, energy, security, environmental, and societal cooperation with its two neighbors can strengthen the United States at home and enhance its influence abroad." Chaired by David H. Petraeus, retired U.S. Army general and chairman of the KKR...

SALEM, Ore., April 3, 2014 – Another new solar sunspot record peak of 73.2 was set for Cycle 24 last month. It smashed the old 68.9 record peak set the previous month. In a big surprise, the number is now over six spots higher than the first sunspot peak set in early 2012 and will probably go higher. A secondary peak above the first this much is almost unheard of. The new sunspot peak is unusual for two conflicting reasons: The secondary peak is higher than the first Current physics suggests the solar cycle should be weakening Conflicting signals coming...