China's New Aircraft Carrier Might Not Be Seaworthy

China sent its first aircraft carrier into formal service on Tuesday amid a tense maritime dispute with Japan.  Maritime experts and Chinese naval crew have their initial reviews.
According to China’s Ministry of Defense the newly named Liaoning aircraft carrier would “raise the overall operational strength of the Chinese navy.”  In the long term, this may be the case; in the short term, however, quality control issues cloud the vessel.
There are intelligence reports that the vessel has difficulty turning left because of a fracture in the steering linkage.  “An aircraft carrier that can only turn right will have difficulty navigating narrow straits and may limit China to the Northern Hemisphere,” said Naval Academy historian Brent Scunner.
Also, the aircraft carrier emits a chemical, plastic-like odor that makes its crew light-headed.  Liaoning was refitted from a ship bought from Ukraine by encasing it with a hard plastic shell.  Apparently, the plastic casing gives off smelly fumes.
“I recently bought a holder in my car for my iPhone,” said Chinese seaman Wang Zhijung.  “It also [was] made [in]China and smell same way.”
Other Chinese seaman have noted that fixtures break easily and do not fit properly.  One seaman sat on a fold out chair which broke at its hinges.  The fall to the ground caused contusions to his vertebrae.  He is on four-week sick leave.  Amateur video appears to show tens of seaman jumping from the side of the ship as it left it port in coastal city Dalian.
“Today China entered the era of the aircraft carrier,” said Chinese Minister of Defense Zhang Zhen on the bow of the ship in a ceremony yesterday.  Whether the entry is a smooth one is yet to be seen.

Israel Offers Free Abortions To Women Between 20 And 33

A famously child-friendly country with a federally subsidized universal health care system that offers free fertility treatments, Israel has made it easier for economically distressed women to obtain an abortion.
The 2014 “health basket” of medical services and medications approved by Israel’s cabinet Sunday (Jan. 5) includes free abortions for Israeli women aged 20 to 33, regardless of the circumstances.
The $4.6 million earmarked by the Health Ministry committee will cover some 6,300 abortions for women who cannot afford the procedure.
In 2013, almost 20,000 women received permission to abort from hospital termination committees, according to Efrat, an organization that encourages women considering abortion to have their babies.
Until now, government-funded abortions have been reserved for women younger than 19 or older than 40, and in cases where the fetus has a severe defect, the mother’s life is endangered, or the pregnancy is a result of sexual abuse. If a woman believed the pregnancy would cause her harm, physically or emotionally, she had had to pay for the procedure herself.
Ruth Tidhar, who heads Efrat’s assistance department, said that in a country like Israel, where mothers receive paid maternity leave and preschool education is heavily subsidized, “it gives a mixed message when contraceptives aren’t funded by the government while abortions are.”
Judaism does not share the Roman Catholic belief that life begins at conception, but various Jewish streams have a range of opinions on the issue. The one thing most Jews agree on: That abortion is always permissible if the mother’s life is in danger.

Rabbi David Stav, the head of Tzohar, a modern-Orthodox rabbinical organization, criticized the new abortion guidelines.
In a TV interview on Arutz Sheva, Stav said it is “immoral” for the state to fund abortions that result from a mother’s “personal decisions” rather than serious medical problems.
“The state (will be) allocating resources for personal decisions,” said Stav that are “forbidden by Jewish law.”
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Unbelievable: Popular South African Pastor Makes Members Eat Grass

It is surprising the things people do as they blindly follow a ‘man of God’. As if they are under a spell of some sort, worshippers in a church in South Africa were instructed by their shepherd to become sheep, quite literally.
They were required in ‘obedience to the word from the Lord’ eat grace outside the church’s compound. And eating they did.
The pastor behind this bizarre doctrine is Lesego Daniel. He is the founder and head of a briefcase church called Rabboni Centre Ministries, situated at Zone 2 GaRankuwa, north Pretoria.
The controversial cleric said he was basically trying to prove that human beings can be controlled by the spirit and that they can eat anything to feed their bodies.
Looking at the incredible pictures (see more below), the members seem convinced and are busy eating away the grass – and he didn’t need to pay them anything to do it. Wow!

HOW TO DEAL WITH JEALOUSY IN YOUR RELATIONSHIP AND MARRIAGE

There are many cool things about being in a relationship. Some of these things are love, commitment, understanding, closeness, affection, passion – all of which are positive, good emotions that make us better as a whole. Being emotionally stable is one of the main virtues you get from a stable relationship. You can deal with various things in life with more ease, if you have someone by your side all the time. But, as we all know, building such a bond is not a walk in the park, and we all soon realize that it’s not all going to be sunshine and lollipops.
There is one emotion that is, in most cases, the basis of each and every problem that a couple comes across and that is – jealousy.

Why does it occur?
First of all, there are two (let’s call them) types of jealousy. The first one is justified – when someone has a history of making wrong decisions – and the second one is unjustified – when someone is, in plain words, paranoid. In other words, if a person is jealous because his or her partner was not faithful in the past and is acting weird now, this kind of jealousy is only natural. On the other hand, if someone is paranoid… well, there is no need to go into detail.

How to solve it?
In both cases, the reason for all that’s happening is lack of communication, which is, as most experts say, the most important thing in a caring and loving relationship. If you talk about your problems, worries, and if you sort them out with your partner, not only will you be working on solving your problems, but you will also establish an even greater bond between you two. The hardest part is to overcome the beginning of the talk, when you are both hysterical and throwing words at each other. Try to be calm, try to listen and try to understand the problem from your partner’s point of view. If you both do that, the solution will undoubtedly present itself.

Are there any other reasons?
Another thing that sparks up jealousy in a person is lack of intimacy. This is a nightmare that haunts couples that have been in a relationship for a long time. But, of course, this kind of thing also has its solutions. One of the best things to do is, believe it or not, Dressing up as someone you are not and fulfilling some childhood fantasies might just do the trick. It is important to find a way to spice things up in the bedroom and to make it all interesting again since having regular intercourse is healthy both for your relationship and for your body.

Is there anything else?
Of course, there are cases when it is time to say goodbye and end the relationship. Sometimes it is better to break it up and go your separate ways than to try to work on something that cannot be worked on. Of course, it is important to try and fight for the relationship, but if you both realize that, in the end, it’s not worth it, then it is probably best to follow your instinct and do what your gut tells you.

So, is jealousy good or bad?
From everything stated above, you can deduce that jealousy is certainly a bad thing. The only thing about it is that, when you start to feel jealous, you realize that you have to start working on your relationship as soon as possible. It works as a kind of wake up call. It is important to overcome it and to work on building trust. Trust is one of the most important things in a relationship between any two people, not just couples. Without trust, you are just two people annoying each other.
Anyway, to wrap up, jealousy has been a popular human emotion for centuries. Men are jealous, women are jealous, and it is all normal. However, the fact that it is common doesn’t make it necessary. As you can see, you can do all sorts of thing to avoid jealousy. It is up to you to find a way.

Why did the AK-47 become so popular?

• Mikhail Kalashnikov shows a model of his AK-47 assault rifle at home in the Ural Mountain city of Izhevsk, 1,000km (625 miles) east of Moscow

  AP
• A member of the Mexican army shows an AK-47 rifle seized from alleged drugs traffickers

  AFP

MIKHAIL KALASHNIKOV died on December 23rd, aged 94. But his 66-year-old invention, the Avtomat Kalashnikova, has plenty more shots left to fire. Developed in 1947 and first used by Soviet forces in 1949, the AK-47 assault rifle and its many derivatives are now used by the armed forces of more than 80 countries, and by freelancers in many more. No-one knows quite how many are in circulation: 100m is a reasonable guess. As a proportion of all the guns in the world—another number no-one can be quite sure about—Kalashnikovs probably make up more than one in ten of all firearms. Why does an ageing Soviet invention still dominate modern warfare?
The cultural impact of the AK is felt all over the world. Quentin Tarantino’s villains celebrate its appropriateness for “when you've absolutely, positively got to kill every [enemy combatant] in the room”. Mexican outlaws boast about their cuernos de chivo, or “goat horns”, the nickname given to the rifle because of its curved magazine. In some parts of Africa, where the gun is seen as a symbol of the ousting of colonial rulers, Kalash is a popular name for boys. Mozambique displays the gun on its flag. In Lebanon, a model nicknamed the “Bin Laden” sells for twice the price of the standard AK-47, because it is the type that al-Qaeda’s former boss was seen toting in some of his videos.
The gun is nothing special. Its controls are unsophisticated; it is not even particularly accurate. But this simplicity is a reason for its success. Compared with other assault rifles, the AK-47 has generous clearance between its moving parts. That is bad for accuracy, but it means that the mechanism is unlikely to jam, no matter how clogged it gets with Sudanese sand or Nicaraguan mud. Designed to be operated by Soviet soldiers wearing thick winter gloves, it is simple enough for untrained recruits (including children) to use. These features explain why the gun has remained in demand. But its success is also down to supply. The Soviet Union wanted to standardise military equipment among its allies, and so shipped giant caches of the weapons to friendly states, where it also established factories to churn out the rifles by the hundreds of thousand. (The USSR was unconcerned with copyright, too, meaning that knock-offs proliferated.) The gun has spread all over the world. But where the Soviet Union had less influence, the AK-47 was less popular. To this day, bandits in the Philippines are more likely to use variants on the M16, an American-made assault rifle supplied to the Philippine army by the United States.
With the AK’s dominance firmly established, it has proved hard to displace. In Syria, some fighters were pictured using FAL assault rifles, which by some accounts are superior. But they didn’t last long because it proved hard to find ammunition: the FAL takes 51mm-long cartridges, which are thinner on the ground in conflict zones than the 39mm-long cartridges used in the older types of AK-47, according to Nicolas Florquin of the Small Arms Survey, a Swiss research-organisation. Perhaps most fundamentally, the basics of warfare haven’t changed all that much since the second world war. Drones and smart weapons are revolutionising rich-world armies. But elsewhere, much of today's bloodletting follows a similar pattern to that seen in the 1940s. Until warfare evolves, the AK-47 will remain as devastatingly useful as it was half a century ago.

Woman Pulls Gun From Vagina after Dispute with Lover

The ex-wife of Pulitzer Prize-winning author Cormac McCarthy was arrested Saturday after allegedly whipping a gun out of her vagina and threatening her boyfriend.
Jennifer McCarthy, 48, got into an argument with her 53-year-old lover about space aliens, according to a probable cause affidavit obtained by The Smoking Gun.
McCarthy left her Santa Fe residence, then came back and changed into lingerie. The outfit was accessorized by a silver handgun placed in her vagina, with which she began to have “inner course,” [sic] according to the affidavit.
While cleaning the chamber, McCarthy reportedly posed the question, “Who is crazy, you or me?” before pulling out the gun and pointing it at her boyfriend’s head, the Albuquerque Journal reported.
The boyfriend told deputies he wrested the weapon away from her and put it first in the toilet, then the trash can.
Gawker’s Tom Scocca was inspired to write a comedic take on the incident in the style of Cormac McCarthy.
“She was in the doorway. She had stripped in there and dressed her body for the boudoir, soft ladyclothes baring flesh and something more, down at the forking of her legs.
“Hard nickelplate steel, the Smith & Wesson. Her hand was on it. Whos crazy.”
McCarthy was charged with aggravated assault on a household member.

Disturbing Footage Emerges Of Drunk and Abusive 9-Year-Old Who Can Down Eighteen Cans Of Whisky and Smokes Weed

A drunk nine-year-old boy brags about smoking weed after claiming to have drunk 18 cans of whisky and cola given to him by his auntie, in a disturbing video clip that has emerged on the internet.
Filmed at a skate park in New Zealand, The Maori youngster is first seen leaning on a wall clutching a can seven per cent strong pre-mixed bourbon and cola before collapsing on the ground.
When the interviewer asks what he is doing drinking a girl on a scooter claims ‘he’s allowed’ and says he had been given the booze by his aunt who lives nearby.
After staggering around and slurring incomprehensibly the boy moves away sits down with another group of youngsters.
But the interviewer follows him over and asks how many cans he has drunk that day, to which the boy replies ’18′.
When the interviewer points out that his aunt could go to jail for supplying him with alcohol the boy begs him not to tell the police.
When someone in the background mentions smoking cannabis, the boy says: ‘I do smoke weed.’
He then walks across the skate park to join a group of older children. Among them is a teenager who claims to be the boy’s brother and says: ‘He’s Maori, he’s different’.
Incredibly the ‘brother’ does not seem to be at all concerned about the youngster’s welfare claiming it is alright and that he was drinking at the age of nine also.
After the interviewer suggests he could collapse and die from alcohol poisoning at any moment the teenager replies: Does he look dead to you?’
As the atmosphere becomes noticeably more aggressive the interviewer and cameraman decide to leave.
When police arrived at the scene in Fairfiled, a suburb of the city of Hamilton, the boy had disappeared, but they found out where he lived and spoke with his mother who was described as being ‘distraught’.
A police spokesman said he was appalled that not only had the boy had been supplied with alcohol by an adult but that victimising footage of him drunk had been uploaded to the internet.
A spokesman said: ‘I see the drunken activities of adults who one would think could make good choices in life.
‘But to have a vulnerable young boy consuming alcohol is very appalling.’
The boys father, who has not been named, told the New Zealand Herald he had separatred from the mother and now had little contact with his son.
He said: ‘My heart is ripping out at the moment, I’m trying to hold it together. It’s hard.
‘I haven’t seen my boys in that long, you know, and to have somebody ring me up stating that they’ve seen my son on YouTube wasted as f***, as it says on there – to me, that’s an unfit mother, right there.’
The man who uploaded the footage to the internet said he had done so to highlight the issue.

North Korea Claims It Has Nuclear Device In U.S.; White House Engages In Bold Diplomacy Effort

The State Department confirmed early Friday morning that North Korea’s young dictator leader Kim Jong-un has issued a stern warning to the U.S. that the Stalinist regime has successfully smuggled a nuclear device onto American soil across its southern border.  This follows North Korea's pledge to mount a “preemptive nuclear strike” against the U.S. “to destroy the strongholds of the aggressors.”  Now the U.S. is engaged in a flurry of diplomatic activity.
North Korea Makes Dire Warning of Smuggled Device
“The rogue state of North Korea has communicated to us claims that it has transported an atomic device to the U.S., but we have no confirmations that this is accurate,” the United States ambassador to the United Nations, Susan E. Rice, told reporters.  Ms. Rice added that even if North Korea has smuggled a device onto U.S. soil she “doubts it will detonate properly if detonation is attempted.”
On Thursday, the Obama Administration minimized North Korea’s threats of a nuclear strike since North Korea is not believed to have developed nuclear devices small enough to mount in a missile warhead.  Now the administration is adjusting its position and planning a major diplomatic outreach effort.

At approximately 6:00 a.m. Sir Dennis Rodman – knighted by Queen Elizabeth at approximately 3:00 a.m. EST – was seen exiting a White House limousine and entering the White House.  He carried with him a multi-colored bag of golf clubs but gave no indication to reporters of the purpose of his visit.
Sec. Napolitano Reports All Clear On Border
Homeland Security Chief Janet Napolitano spoke with reporters Friday morning in Palm Springs, CA while attending a leadership conference of the Women of Intellect Leadership Tribunal (“WILT”) with former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and keynote speaker Sandra Fluke.
Sec. Napolitano confirmed that ICE agents have not seen anything “looking like a nuclear missile” while patrolling the border.  She did confirm rumors, however, that on Wednesday at 9:54 p.m. PST the radiation detector at the Yuma, Arizona border crossing indicated the maximum level of radiation and then ceased operating.  It was dismissed as a mechanical malfunction but technicians are now inspecting the device.

Bold Diplomatic Mission To North Korea
Approximately one hour after Sir Rodman’s visit, White House Press Secretary Jay Carney told reporters at an unscheduled press conference that President Obama had reached “a breakthrough” with North Korean dictator Kim Jong-un on “negotiations for a comprehensive North Korean aid package.”  In a move that will rank with former President Nixon’s landmark visit to China, Obama plans to travel to North Korea with Sir Rodman.

Sec. Carney said that Pres. Obama intends to “bond through sport” with the North Korean dictator.  According to Sec. Carney, American golfing star Tiger Woods will join the group to create a “foursome.”  He added that due to a shoulder injury, Pres. Obama will not be able to play golf on the trip.  In an effort to be a “good guest” he will caddy for Kim-Jong-un.  “The president is not above showing due respect to local leaders,” said Sec. Carney.
The Department of Homeland Security urged Americans to report any suspicious objects that could contain an atomic bomb to local law enforcement authorities.

Brutalization of Two Ejigbo Women: Lagos Assembly Promises N1.25m for Information on Perpetrators

In what could be described as a last ditch effort to unravel the identity of the men involved in the brutalization and abuse of two women in Ejigbo Local Council Development Area, LCDA, last year, the Lagos state House of Assembly, yesterday, placed a bounty of N1.25 million on the head of the perpetrators.
Chairman of the five-man ad hoc committee investigating the matter, Mr. Ajibayo Adeyeye disclosed this at a stakeholders’ meeting on the matter at the Lateef Jakande Auditorium, Alausa Secretariat, Ikeja.
According to Adeyeye: “Anybody that gives information that leads to the arrest of the perpetrators of the heinous act shall be given N1 million. And I will add the sum of 250,000 from my private account to increase the sum to N1.25million”.
During the deliberation, the video clip of the incident which ran for about eight minutes was played, showing how the two women, alleged to be mother and daughter, were tortured by the perpetrators, who inserted foreign objects into their private parts for allegedly stealing pepper.
The video clip moved members of the committee at the meeting to tears.
It would be recalled that the President of Women Arise Initiative, Dr. Joe Okei-Odumakin had led a protest to the House on the matter, explaining that she saw the video for the first time on December 7, 2013.
Odumakin, who heads the Campaign for Democracy, CD, had stressed that the greatest gift anyone could give the women was to get justice for them.

Second Giant Sea Creature Washes Ashore Along Santa Monica Coastline - Alarms Sound Over Radioactive Gigantism Giant Squid Discovered On California Coast And Scientists Suspect Radioactive Gigantism

 

For the second time in recent months, a giant sea creature has washed ashore in California.  First it was a rare oarfish that had grown to a freakish 100-foot length.  This time it was a giant squid measuring a whopping 160 feet from head to tentacle tip.
These giants look different but experts believe they share one important commonality: they both come from the waters near the Fukushima Dai-ichi Nuclear Power Plant in the Futaba District of Japan.
Scientists believe that following the 2011 disaster at the Fukushima Dai-ichi Nuclear Power Plant an unknown number of sea creatures suffered genetic mutations that triggered uncontrolled growth – or “radioactive gigantism.”

Imagine a tuna fish that could feed a city the size of Austin, Texas.”

Unfortunately, this cadre of mutant giants seems to be drifting towards the continental U.S.  Local officials in Santa Monica, CA – where the creature drifted ashore – tried to calm residents.  “This creature appears to be deceased and even if alive only thrives in water,” said Santa Monica Parks Manager Cynthia Beard.  “We intend to move the creature in pieces to Scripps Research Institute so that they can study it,” she noted.
Although not yet well understood, radioactive gigantism is said to result when radiation causes changes to the growth regulating portions of the DNA of affected organisms.  When growth regulators fail to control cellular growth, an organism may reach many times its regular body size.
Local radioactive gigantism expert Santa Marino College biology professor Martin L. Grimm, PhD said that the nuclear disaster may have had some unintended benefits.  “These creatures give us the chance to study radioactive gigantism,” he said.  Grimm believes that harnessing radioactive gigantism may be like harnessing the atom to create atomic energy.  “Imagine a tuna fish that could feed a city the size of Austin, Texas,” he said.  “This is the possibility of radioactive gigantism.”

Take Jaws but make him the size of a Manhattan skyscraper.”

Others find the giant sea creatures to be a potential safety concern.  Even before the giant squid washed ashore, the U.S. Coast Guard had issued a “blue alert” for residents in central and southern Californian coasts “to remain watchful.”  Yesterday Admiral Sandy Duncan-Roberts said that she would need to raise the awareness level to a “yellow alert” which asks resident to “exercise caution” along the shoreline.
Are giant sea creatures really a threat for those on land?  “Take Jaws but make him the size of a Manhattan skyscraper,” said Bruce Kenner, a marine biologist at UC San Diego.  Kenner thinks that gigantism might distort sea creatures' navigational systems.  “If that guy took a wrong turn onto the coastline he could level 40 city blocks thrashing before he comes to rest,” he said.
Residents are anxious now that a second creature has surfaced.  “Before we only worried about parking when we went to the beach,” said Marquise Griffon.  “Now we have to worry about Godzilla [stuff] coming after us.”