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North Korea claims it has hydrogen bomb
Source: CNN
North Korean state media indicated Thursday that the reclusive nation has added the hydrogen bomb -- also known as a thermonuclear bomb -- to its arsenal, a development that, if true, would represent an upgrade to its nuclear weapons capabilities.
Observers in recent years believed that North Korea may have been working toward, but didn't yet have the capability to produce, a thermonuclear bomb, which can be hundreds of times more powerful than an atomic bomb.
North Korean leader Kim Jong Un made the claim, according to state media outlet KCNA, while touring a historic weapons industry site in the country.
The communist country has been turned "into a powerful nuclear weapons state ready to detonate self-reliant A-bomb and H-bomb to reliably defend its sovereignty and the dignity of the nation," Kim said, according to the KCNA report.
Read more: http://www.cnn.com/2015/12/10/asia/north-korea-thermonuclear-claim/index.html
Gorgeous Aerial Shots of Some of the World’s Largest Salmon Runs
//vimeo.com/146049113
Jason Ching is a research scientist with the University of Washington’s Alaska Salmon Program who uses photos and videos to document wildlife, landscapes, and ongoing research in Alaska. He recently took a drone camera out to Iliamna Lake, the largest lake in Alaska, and captured hours of footage of sockeye salmon on their spawning grounds in one of the largest runs in recent history.
Ching combined some of the best shots into the absolutely gorgeous 5.5-minute video above, titled “Above Iliamna.”
P.S. This location in Alaska is at the center of an ongoing battle over the proposed Pebble mine. It’s estimated that there are mineral deposits in the area worth up to $500 billion, but opponents of the project say the environmental effects could be devastating.
http://petapixel.com/2015/12/08/gorgeous-aerial-shots-of-some-of-the-worlds-largest-salmon-runs/
These Photos Show Jupiter From ‘Above’ and ‘Below’
When you think of the planet Jupiter, you probably think of that giant striped planet with the Great Red Spot anticyclonic storm swirling across the face. But that’s just one way of looking at Jupiter.
The photo above, created with images from NASA’s Cassini space probe, shows what Jupiter looks like from directly above the north pole.
This one, also captured by Cassini, shows the planet from “below”, or under the south pole — in this view, the Great Red Spot can be clearly seen:
more
http://petapixel.com/2015/12/09/these-photos-show-jupiter-from-above-and-below/#more-194168
Stunning Art About Emotional Trauma In Alaska
On the Alaskan Coast, a Crowd of Human Casts Captures Our Emotional Trauma
Sixty-eight life-sized sculptures of humans — some peering towards the sky, some shrouded with downcast eyes — currently stand along the snow-covered coastline of Anchorage, Alaska. Each is cast from someone affected by emotional trauma, whether from occasions of abuse, chronic or mental illnesses, depression, experiences in the military, or other severe life circumstances. The sprawling installation is the outcome of 100 Stone, a lengthy and collaborative creative undertaking to engage with such people all across the state and give their collective stories a visual presence (as its title implies, the project initially aimed to display 100 statues). Last weekend, nearly 1,000 participants, their families, and friends, met at Point Woronzof Overlook Park — near Ted Stevens International Airport — to commemorate the works, representing the network that formed and grew over the past two years in support of this particular community.
“Ultimately, this is a suicide awareness project, a creative project for people who experience acute and persistent vulnerabilities,” project lead Sarah Davies told Hyperallergic. “I’m hoping that a transformation happens — of our attitudes and approaches towards people who are particularly vulnerable.”
The endeavor began two summers ago, when Davies drove about 2,100 miles along the state’s central road system with a U-Haul van and a trailer full of cast-making material, stopping at local agencies and organizations to which she had previously reached out to meet people wrestling with personal traumas. Funding from organizations including ArtPlace America and Alaska’s Mat Su Health Foundation also enabled her to fly into more distant, rural areas. At each site, she and local volunteers created plaster-covered burlap casts of interested participants, listening to the stories of those willing to share them.
more
http://hyperallergic.com/260041/on-the-alaskan-coast-a-crowd-of-human-casts-captures-our-emotional-trauma/
A year after the Senate Torture Report, almost no one's read it and it might be destroyed
One year ago today, the Senate Intelligence Committee published a highly redacted executive summary of its investigation into the CIA’s torture and rendition program. The 525-page summary was shocking in many of its details, revealing the torture and rape of detainees held in CIA custody and encompassing treatment far in excess of even the torture techniques formally authorized by the Bush administration.
Despite the passage of 12 months, the actual report, comprising 6,700 pages, still has not been made publicly available. In fact, reading it appears to be prohibited among officials in the executive branch. Nearly a month and a half after the report’s initial release, it had not even been taken out of the package in which it was delivered to the Department of Justice and Department of State, according to government lawyers. Even the organization that was the subject of the report, the CIA, tightly controlled internal access and made “very limited use” of it, as had the Department of Defense, the lawyers said in a court filing.
That shunning of the torture report appears to be ongoing and very much by design: It turns out the Department of Justice has “refuse[d] to allow executive branch officials to review the full and final study,” Sens. Dianne Feinstein and Patrick Leahy wrote in a letter last month to the attorney general and FBI director, urging that they or their “appropriately cleared” underlings read the full report.
“The legacy of this historic report cannot be buried in the back of a handful of executive branch safes, never to be reviewed by those who most need to learn from it,” they added.
more
https://theintercept.com/2015/12/09/one-year-after-the-senate-torture-report-no-ones-read-it-and-it-might-be-destroyed/
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