The looting of the entire country - that news is buried underneath the stories about

The looting in Baltimore.

But it is far more serious:

http://www.mcclatchydc.com/2015/04/23/264136/more-than-1-billion-in-us-emergency.html

WASHINGTON — The Defense Department can’t account for $1.3 billion that was shipped to force commanders in Afghanistan from 2004 to 2014 for critical reconstruction projects, 60 percent of all such spending under an emergency program, an internal report released Thursday concludes.

The missing money was part of the relatively small amount of Afghanistan spending that was routed directly to military officers in a bid to bypass bureaucracy and rush the construction of urgently needed roads, bridges, schools, hospitals, water treatment plants and other essential infrastructure. About 70 percent of the $100 billion the United States has spent to rebuild Afghanistan during more than 13 years of war went through the Pentagon, with the rest distributed by the U.S. Agency for International Development and other civilian departments.

Read more here: http://www.mcclatchydc.com/2015/04/23/264136/more-than-1-billion-in-us-emergency.html#storylink=cpy

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One Billion dollars would run my county's school district at 2009-10 levels for more than
Sixty years! It would pay for a good chunk of the entire completion of a fast rail travel system in California.

What bright object was I viewing at night Tuesday or Wednesday

Of this week?

The object looked to be Jupiter on steroids, and it was located a bit north of Due West in the 11Pm to midnight sky here in Northern California.

Was it Jupiter conjunct some other planet? Was it the international space station?

A friend said that possibly it was a tricked out drone, with extra lights, and that viewed from some distance, it then looked like a very large, very bright planet...

It remained stationary, or close to being stationary, for at least the 45 minutes I kept examining it.

Is there an ophthalmologist in the house?

I am posting this article with its link with some reservations.


the article deals with the topic of night vision and "night vision drops."


First of all, I totally agree with those on the site commenting at the end of the article that this is very poor science - to have only four people as participants inside a "scientific study."

But my main reason for posting this, despite this legitimate concern, is that the article mentions that there are eye drops that one can take that will rectify poor night vision...

Has anyone here heard of that? If so, I would be in the market, as my vision is always poor, except when I have had milk thistle aplenty in my system. (Carrots and vitamin A infused substances have not helped.)

http://www.unexplained-mysteries.com/news/279742/scientists-develop-night-vision-eye-drops

Scientists develop night vision eye drops

Posted on Friday, 27 March, 2015 | Comment icon 18 comments

Can eye drops help you to see in the dark ?
A group of California researchers has found a way to enhance a person's ability to see in the dark.

Independent research group "Science for the Masses" decided to take a special chemical used to treat night blindness and adapt it to enhance the latent night vision of biochemist Gabriel Licina who had no inherent problems with his eyesight.

The treatment, which was made using light amplification molecule Ce6, was applied to each eye as a thin black liquid solution and then left for around an hour with both eyes covered with a black lens to protect them from the light until testing could begin.
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More of the article at link above

I need to learn Linux, specifically ubuntu - what are some good sites to

visit where I can learn everything I need to know?

The fastest moving star - ever!?!

From the link in bold:

Fastest Star in the Galaxy Has a Strange Origin
by Calla Cofield, Space.com Staff Writer | March 05, 2015 02:01pm ET


http://www.space.com/28737-fastest-star-galaxy-strange-origin.html


The fastest-known star in the Milky Way is on a path out of the galaxy, and new research suggests it was a supernova that gave it the boot.

The runaway star, US 708, is traveling at 7,456 miles per second (12,000 km/s) — that's 26 million miles per hour (43 million km/h) —making it the fastest star in the Milky Way ever clocked by astronomers, according to the new research. Its speed will allow it to escape the gravitational pull of the galaxy, and eventually make its way into intergalactic space. A NASA animation shows the hypervelocity star's ejection after a star explosion, kicking off the rogue flight across the Milky Way.

Most other stars moving fast enough to get out of the galaxy are thought to be ejected by the monster black hole at the galactic center, the researchers say. US 708 is the first star with a different origin story, and the new research suggests its life has been strange and chaotic.

When it is stated that no one has been jailed for crimes of Iraq War era -

I just want to scream.

As one decent person was indeed jailed for illegal activities that came about during that war.

He is John Kiriakou, a man who exposed the ways that torture was being routinely conducted.

No other American has been brought to court and tried for actual crimes, only this one whistle blower.

But recently Democratic Congressman Moran, of Virginia, has asked for a pardon for Kirakou:

More on this story at this tiny url link:
http://tinyurl.com/moh35kr

Or else here if you are good a cutting and pasting long entries:
http://dissenter.firedoglake.com/2014/11/20/congressman-criticizes-selective-prosecution-of-cia-whistleblower-john-kiriakou-calls-for-pardon/#at_pco=cfd-1.0&at_ab=-&at_pos=6&at_tot=8&at_si=54ea3a6852856864

From the above article:
On the floor of House of Representatives on November 17, Virginia Democratic Representative Jim Moran put forward a stinging rebuke of the “selective prosecution” of former CIA officer and whistleblower John Kiriakou. He asked President Barack Obama to pardon Kiriakou and called the fifteen-year CIA veteran “an American hero.”

Kiriakou was the first member of the CIA to publicly acknowledge that torture was official US policy under President George W. Bush’s administration. He was convicted in October 2012 after he pled guilty to violating the Intelligence Identities Protection Act (IIPA). He was sentenced to two and a half years in jail in January 2013, and reported to Federal Correctional Institution Loretto in Pennsylvania on February 28, 2013, where he has been serving his sentence. (Firedoglake has been publishing Kiriakou’s letters from prison written as “Letters from Loretto”.)

what this week's Mainstream Media failed to mention about ISIS -

While watching TV on Wednesday, to hear again and again the stories of Iraqi people's internal organs being sold by ISIL/ISIS for profit for their war efforts, I received the following information in my email account.

Apparently there has been a major push by the United Nations to have a truce come about inside Syria, but that truce would only benefit ISIL/ISIS?

http://www.activistpost.com/2015/02/natoun-desperately-seek-ceasefire-to.html

THE UN looking for truce to help out ISIS?

From the above link:
*******

THE UN looking for truce to help out ISIS?
Interesting account of what is really going on with Syria and ISIS. Even "as the Syrian military is poised to make such a monumental victory over the Western-backed jihadists, the United Nations has announced its plans for a ceasefire in and around Aleppo.

"The plan, spearheaded by UN envoy Steffan de Mistura has apparently been in the works for months – since about the time that the Syrian military began its encirclement operation around Aleppo.

"De Mistura’s plan would involve a six-week truce and the halting of aerial bombardment and artillery shelling of Aleppo in all quarters of the city. De Mistura claims that he received assurances from Syrian President Assad that the Syrian government is willing to participate in the truce.

"However, it is worth noting that the peace deal benefits only the death squad fighters funded by the West and operating on the ground inside the country, particularly those fighting inside Aleppo. For instance, the proposal seeks to end all aerial bombardment and artillery shelling of all quarters of the city – handcuffs that affect the Syrian military much more so than the death squads since the jihadists have no air force with which to bombard the city."

Big Organized Money Attempts take over of Cannabis leglization efforts:

A friend just got approved to be on a radio talkshow and they need an email account

That can handle ten thousand emails or more. The day of the radio show, they could get as many as ten thousand emails requesting books and services.

They have corporate email, but that has difficulty handling anything more than 300 emails a day.

Any suggestions? Would gmail work for that high volume?

The Ukranian Economic (War) Ventures -

With VP Joe Biden's son sitting in a cozy position at an energy firm that will reap huge rewards should the USA keep the Ukrane "safe for democratic interests," it would behoove anyone interested in this part of the world a look-see at what is transpiring there.

So far, the best source I have is the folks over at Naked Capitalism:

http://www.nakedcapitalism.com/2015/01/poroshenko-makes-battle-donetsk-airport-precondition-new-50-billion-bailout-ukrainians-repelled-battle-davos.html

From the article:
In December, William Murray, Lagarde’s spokesman, insisted that if Ukraine wanted extra money without conditions, it had to get it from “the donor community”. Lagarde and Poroshenko have now agreed to reopen “policy discussions” on who the donors might be.

Sources close to the IMF board in Washington reveal fresh dismay at the loss of Poroshenko’s power to meet the IMF’s loan conditions. The sources say this is indicated by Poroshenko’s appointment last week of Stepan Kubiv (right foreground). He is now in charge of promoting the IMF loan conditions through the Verkhovna Rada. Kubiv, whose controversial career as a banker in western Ukraine, was ended by
Polish banking authorities, headed the National Bank of Ukraine between the ouster of President Victor Yanukovich last February, and the election of Poroshenko at the end of May. Kubiv’s record can be read here. (Link at Naked Capitalism site.)