Monday, October 21, 2013
Another Chinese Megapolis Shut Down By "Hazardous" Smog
Just two weeks ago we discussed the dismal smog that had closed roads and ariports around Beijing during the recent holiday. The situation has got worse, far worse, since then.
As Reuters reports (and the stunning images below show),choking smog all but shut down one of northeastern China's largest cities on Monday, forcing schools to suspend classes, snarling traffic and closing the airport in the country's first major air pollution crisis of the winter.
An index measuring PM2.5, or particulate matter with a diameter of 2.5 micrometers (PM2.5), reached a reading of 1,000 in some parts of Harbin, the gritty capital of northeastern Heilongjiang province and home to some 11 million people. A level above 300 is considered hazardous! China’s leadership is concerned about air quality because it is a constant source of public anger.
Users of China's popular Twitter-like Sina Weibo microblogging site reacted with both anger and bitter sarcasm over Harbin's air pollution."After years of effort, the wise and hard-working people of Harbin have finally managed to skip both the middle-class society and the communist society stages, and have now entered a fairyland society!" wrote one user.Other parts of northeastern China also experienced severe smog, including Tangshan, two hours east of Beijing, and Changchun, the capital of Jilin province which borders Heilongjiang.
The World Health Organisation recommends daily levels of particulate matter with a diameter of 2.5 micrometers to be no more than twenty.Anything above 300 is considered dangerous. Levels around 1,000 were recorded in some parts of Harbin. All schools were shut and the airport was closed.Harbin is home to some 11 million people and lies in the northeastern Heilongjiang province of China. Other parts of northeastern China also experienced severe smog.Visibility has reduced to only around 10 metres causing traffic jams.China’s leadership is concerned about air quality because it is a constant source of public anger.The smog is expected to continue for the next 24 hours.
This is the freeway... (spot the cars)
Via CTV,
Credit to Zero Hedge
UK doctors given bonuses for placing patients on ‘death lists’ in order to reduce the number of occupied hospital beds.
General practitioners in England have been receiving £50 bonuses for placing patients on controversial ‘death lists’ in order to reduce the number of occupied hospital beds. The move is yet another tactic aimed at cutting NHS costs, UK media reported.
Each death which occurs outside an NHS hospital has been calculated to save the health system some £1,000 ($1,600) in England. On average, deaths which occur inside NHS hospitals cost the service around £3,065 (just under $5000), while those elsewhere cost £2,107 (around $3,400).
Doctors have been given bonuses for drawing up ‘end-of-life advanced care plans’ for patients they predict will die within a year.
The payments in question apparently have the intention of keeping NHS costs as low as possible.
According to documents seen by the Daily Mail on Sunday, a “key objective” of the project - which underwent a trial period in England’s east - was “to shift the place of death” away from hospitals, thus“reducing ...healthcare costs.”
“I think it’s got everything to do with money, with the cost of a hospital bed being £200 a day,” Dr Anthony Cole, acting chairman of the Medical Ethics Alliance, told the paper. He stated his belief that its advocates were mired in financial concerns, and suggested that it may result in insufficient medical care in a patient’s final days.
The ‘Yellow Folder’ pilot scheme was trialed in 41 medical practices in Ipswich and East Suffolk, and lasted from July 2011 until last month. The doctors received payment for every care home patient they successfully signed up to an end of life plan. Ipswich and East Suffolk Clinical Commissioning Group (CCG), which ran the scheme, would not tell the paper how much money it allocated for bonuses.
Reuters / Luke MacGregor
Patients on the program were required to state their preferred location of death, whether they would like to be resuscitated, and their preferred drugs for the final hours of their life.
An NHS ‘Call to Action’ pack, available on the trust’s website, cited a “growing population with more complex needs” as one of the main issues facing British healthcare. It stated that the “number of people with multiple long term conditions [is] set to grow from 1.9 to 2.9 million from 2008 to 2018.”
However, people behind the development of the scheme have cited the primary motivation to be to give patients a more comfortable death. According to surveys cited by the Mail, 66 percent of people would prefer to be at home at the end of their lives, whereas only 43 percent actually do, on account of the majority being admitted to hospital.
On Thursday, Britain’s Daily Telegraph reported that senior members of Britain’s upper chamber, the House of Lords, said that the NHS is being faced with bankruptcy, as it will become unable to cope with Britain’s aging population. One member reportedly called the system a “demographic time bomb.”
NHS cost-cutting has been making waves in the British press over the past few days. On Saturday, it emerged that some patients are being transported to hospitals in police cars because of a massive shortage of ambulances. On Sunday, the head of England's Accident and Emergency departments said that a lack of available consultants during weekends posed a risk to patients.
Critics argue that the scheme could cause patients to be denied important medical treatment. Three months ago, the paper published a report documenting how ambulance crews can choose whether to transport people to hospital if they have stated on their ‘care plan’ that they would like to die at home.
Reuters / Luke MacGregor
“Why should a GP be paid for this conversation, as opposed to any other?” said Dr Gillian Craig, a retired geriatrician. “I feel doctors are paid very well and there should be no extra payments. Anything else is open to abuse and misuse.”
She added that the program may even block the course of treatment by “closing the door on potentially life-saving hospital treatment...a doctor may not realize that, while the person appears to be dying, they actually have a reversible condition.”
In a new study recently published in Britain’s Lancet, it was found that a separate UK palliative care pathway – Liverpool Care Pathway for the Dying Patient – “provides the same quality of care as that usually provided to cancer patients who are dying in hospital.” The scheme was adopted in the late 1990s and began to garner serious criticism in the UK press as it grew. The study went on to add that“any initiative to replace the pathway in England should be grounded in scientific evidence and tested in controlled trials before it is implemented.”
NHS trusts adopting the Liverpool Care Pathway are offered financial incentives for doing so. More than six out of ten of those trusts – just over half the total – have received or are due to receive financial rewards amounting to at least £12 million (just under $19 million), according to The Daily Telegraph.
The scheme involves the withdrawal of tests or treatments deemed unnecessary for the patient. In a 2012 letter to the newspaper, six doctors warned that hospitals may be using the scheme to reduce strain on hospital resources.
“Remarks on the Liverpool Care Pathway by Professor Patrick Pullicino…gave rise to controversy. But he is not wrong to say that there is no scientific way of diagnosing imminent death. It is essentially a prediction. Other considerations may come into reaching such a decision, not excluding the availability of hospital resources,” the letter read.
RT
Each death which occurs outside an NHS hospital has been calculated to save the health system some £1,000 ($1,600) in England. On average, deaths which occur inside NHS hospitals cost the service around £3,065 (just under $5000), while those elsewhere cost £2,107 (around $3,400).
Doctors have been given bonuses for drawing up ‘end-of-life advanced care plans’ for patients they predict will die within a year.
The payments in question apparently have the intention of keeping NHS costs as low as possible.
According to documents seen by the Daily Mail on Sunday, a “key objective” of the project - which underwent a trial period in England’s east - was “to shift the place of death” away from hospitals, thus“reducing ...healthcare costs.”
“I think it’s got everything to do with money, with the cost of a hospital bed being £200 a day,” Dr Anthony Cole, acting chairman of the Medical Ethics Alliance, told the paper. He stated his belief that its advocates were mired in financial concerns, and suggested that it may result in insufficient medical care in a patient’s final days.
The ‘Yellow Folder’ pilot scheme was trialed in 41 medical practices in Ipswich and East Suffolk, and lasted from July 2011 until last month. The doctors received payment for every care home patient they successfully signed up to an end of life plan. Ipswich and East Suffolk Clinical Commissioning Group (CCG), which ran the scheme, would not tell the paper how much money it allocated for bonuses.
Reuters / Luke MacGregor
Patients on the program were required to state their preferred location of death, whether they would like to be resuscitated, and their preferred drugs for the final hours of their life.
An NHS ‘Call to Action’ pack, available on the trust’s website, cited a “growing population with more complex needs” as one of the main issues facing British healthcare. It stated that the “number of people with multiple long term conditions [is] set to grow from 1.9 to 2.9 million from 2008 to 2018.”
However, people behind the development of the scheme have cited the primary motivation to be to give patients a more comfortable death. According to surveys cited by the Mail, 66 percent of people would prefer to be at home at the end of their lives, whereas only 43 percent actually do, on account of the majority being admitted to hospital.
On Thursday, Britain’s Daily Telegraph reported that senior members of Britain’s upper chamber, the House of Lords, said that the NHS is being faced with bankruptcy, as it will become unable to cope with Britain’s aging population. One member reportedly called the system a “demographic time bomb.”
NHS cost-cutting has been making waves in the British press over the past few days. On Saturday, it emerged that some patients are being transported to hospitals in police cars because of a massive shortage of ambulances. On Sunday, the head of England's Accident and Emergency departments said that a lack of available consultants during weekends posed a risk to patients.
Critics argue that the scheme could cause patients to be denied important medical treatment. Three months ago, the paper published a report documenting how ambulance crews can choose whether to transport people to hospital if they have stated on their ‘care plan’ that they would like to die at home.
Reuters / Luke MacGregor
“Why should a GP be paid for this conversation, as opposed to any other?” said Dr Gillian Craig, a retired geriatrician. “I feel doctors are paid very well and there should be no extra payments. Anything else is open to abuse and misuse.”
She added that the program may even block the course of treatment by “closing the door on potentially life-saving hospital treatment...a doctor may not realize that, while the person appears to be dying, they actually have a reversible condition.”
In a new study recently published in Britain’s Lancet, it was found that a separate UK palliative care pathway – Liverpool Care Pathway for the Dying Patient – “provides the same quality of care as that usually provided to cancer patients who are dying in hospital.” The scheme was adopted in the late 1990s and began to garner serious criticism in the UK press as it grew. The study went on to add that“any initiative to replace the pathway in England should be grounded in scientific evidence and tested in controlled trials before it is implemented.”
NHS trusts adopting the Liverpool Care Pathway are offered financial incentives for doing so. More than six out of ten of those trusts – just over half the total – have received or are due to receive financial rewards amounting to at least £12 million (just under $19 million), according to The Daily Telegraph.
The scheme involves the withdrawal of tests or treatments deemed unnecessary for the patient. In a 2012 letter to the newspaper, six doctors warned that hospitals may be using the scheme to reduce strain on hospital resources.
“Remarks on the Liverpool Care Pathway by Professor Patrick Pullicino…gave rise to controversy. But he is not wrong to say that there is no scientific way of diagnosing imminent death. It is essentially a prediction. Other considerations may come into reaching such a decision, not excluding the availability of hospital resources,” the letter read.
RT
The message was delivered, but was it received?
Following the vote to suspend the debt ceiling last Wednesday night, 48 year-old Dianne Reidy, a floor stenographer for the U.S. House of Representatives for the last 8 years, surprised everyone when she briefly but unexpectedly took over the microphone on the House floor at about 10:00 pm.
C-Span footage shows her calmly walking to the dais where she began making statements about God, the founding of the United States, our Constitution, and the influence that Freemasonry played in the founding of our country. She warned House members that they could not serve two masters and that God will not be mocked. Unsurprisingly, Mrs. Reidy was whisked from the dais and ultimately taken to George Washington University Hospital for “mental evaluation.” She was released after about two hours of evaluation.
The media, including nearly all conservative and even Christian reporters, columnists and pundits who even bothered to cover the story, portrayed Diane Reidy as someone who suffered a humiliating and very public mental breakdown. They used patronizing language and empathetic inflection usually reserved for the most fragile mental patients, attributing her actions to long hours and stress. They have not only dismissed the actions of Diane Reidy, but dismissed her message as well, even as they continue to decry the state of our nation.
Obviously, they did not pay attention to her message, nor did they listen to the interview of her husband by Rick Wiles of TruNews the next day. Mr. Reidy revealed critical details about events that led to her actions on the House floor, providing important context not just to her actions, but to the content of her message.
The message
To be clear, let’s examine the words spoken by Diane Reidy speak into the microphone. The following is the text of her message, compiled from two separate audio sources:
“God will not be mocked. The greatest deception here is this is not one nation under God. It never was. Had it been, it would not have been. No. It would not have been. The Constitution would not have been written by Free Masons. They go against God. You cannot serve two masters. You cannot serve two masters. Praise be to God, the Lord Jesus Christ. Praise forever.”
So, that was her message, or as much as she was able to get out before being forcibly removed by two members of the House security detail.
The “run-up” to her message
According to her husband, they are both practicing Christians of firm faith. In four-(4) weeks preceding Wednesday’s incident, Mrs. Reidy would awaken early, sometimes in the middle of the night, and spend time reading the Holy Bible. She would spend a few hours reading and often return to bed, something she had not done before.
Despite this change of behavior, her activities at home were not affected, nor were her duties at work. The former was verified by her husband, while the latter was verified by her co-workers through publicized interviews subsequent to Wednesday’s incident. But something changed, according to her husband, and herein lies the story behind the headlines and mischaracterizations by the media.
Mr. Reidy emphasized that his wife took her job extremely seriously and would never do anything to willingly jeopardize her position or disrespect the protocol of the House chambers. During the four weeks of immersing herself in the Bible, admittedly a behavioral change according to her husband, however, he could tell that she was struggling with some type of inner conflict.
It was as if she was being led to do something, knowing that if she did, her actions would have ramifications to her position as a House stenographer. It was as if she was a reluctant participant, knowing that if she followed the instructions given to her through the Word of God, there would be blowback. This, of course, became clearer to him after the incident and the discussion that ensued between the two.
Message delivered
During his interview on TruNews, Mr. Reidy stated that she did not share the burden of her mission with him, nor did she appear to have any particular plan. He stated that his wife told him afterward that she felt led to speak when she did, although she denied knowing what she was going to say or when she was to speak. It was as if she was merely a vessel, or just a messenger prompted by the Holy Spirit to speak the words she did at the time she spoke them. It was a message intended for those to hear.
It is interesting if not particularly relevant to note how her husband described his wife’s demeanor after being led away from the microphone and escorted to the hospital for evaluation. Not only was she calm, but she seemed utterly relieved, according to her husband. It was as if her job, the specific job of acting as a messenger, was over.
Furthermore, she was very calm throughout the entire process, as if she was mentally prepared for the consequences, and accepted the process with quiet resignation. She knew that her actions would not only have a negative impact on her job, but that she would be publicly and privately depicted as mentally imbalanced. Yet, according to her husband, she did what she believed she was guided to do, albeit reluctantly, then knowingly and willingly accepted the consequences.
Diane Reidy feels that the event is over, the message has been delivered, and she does not want any attention. She just wants to spend time with her children and her family.
Dismissal due to discomfort
Most people, including many Christians, will be quick to dismiss the actions and words of Diane Reidy and characterize her in unflattering terms. It would appear that Diane Reidy knew and expected that, as her subsequent actions indicated. It would appear that she struggled with – and even fought against the task she was given, and was relieved when it was over.
This incident is not without precedent. To Christian and Jewish believers, Biblical history documents God speaking through scribes. Even in antiquity, they did not relish the task and were mocked, ridiculed and persecuted. Nonetheless, they did what they were led to do and accepted the consequences and their place in history.
I do not believe this is about Diane Reidy, however, nor should it be. It was and always will be about the message, not the messenger. Given God’s historical track record and the prophetic utterances that were often used to warn both men and nations, I suggest that we take heed to the message, for it is not only simple, but true. “God will not be mocked.”
Looking at this message through the lens of Biblical eschatology, can you think of a better place or time for a modern-day scribe to rise up and deliver such a message? For it is within those walls of power that men and women leaders have sold their very souls to embrace and endorse the immoral and the profane. Through their laws, they have perverted God’s laws. Instead of reinforcing the laws of God, they have mocked Him by redefining them.
Through the various secret and occult societies of man, our nation has been captured from within. It is under the current leadership, however, by both sides of the political aisles, that our nation has been placed on the ultra fast-track of self destruction as we are willingly subjugating ourselves to an un-Godly agenda of a one world order and all of its trappings, including a diluted form of Christianity that so many now readily embrace.
It can be uncomfortable for even the most awake among us to come to terms with not only the relationship with the occult and secret societies had by many of our founders, but the existence of that same relationship by our modern day political leaders. It is disturbing to learn the unvarnished truth about our founders and the leaders many consider to be conservative, Christian and above-reproach. But we must become disturbed and be awakened from our spiritual slumber to understand that the events of today were set into motion a long time ago.
Let us not forget that during the inauguration of former President George W. Bush on January 20, 2001, he twice made specific references to an angel that “rides in the whirlwind and directs this storm” while facing the Masonic Obelisk we commonly call the Washington Monument. It was exactly thirty-three-(33) weeks later, a number of significance to occult secret societies, that events took place that would change life in America as we know it.
There is more, much more evidence to be offered, but it is this common thread of cryptic and coded messages, word-crafting, subtle yet clear messaging (past and present) that is open to be seen and heard by those with eyes to see and ears to hear, that we are being led into a “new order of the ages.” And this new order is not one inspired by God, but by the angel of darkness.
Last Wednesday, a message was delivered, but how many really heard it?
Credit to Doug Hagmann
Pope Rejects Meeting with Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu in Rome
Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu will not be meeting with Pope Francis during his visit to Rome on Wednesday, a diplomatic source told AFP on Sunday.
A statement last week from Netanyahu’s office had said he would be "meeting Pope Francis next Wednesday at the Vatican" and with U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry for updates on nuclear talks with Iran and negotiations with the Palestinian Authority.
A diplomatic source on Sunday told AFP, however, that no such meeting with Pope Francis will be taking place. The source noted that audiences with the Pope must be arranged sufficiently in advance.
A spokesman for Netanyahu refused to comment on the matter. This was to be Netanyahu's first meeting with Pope Francis.
On Thursday, PA Chairman Mahmoud Abbas met with the pope and invited him to the Middle East. Israeli President Shimon Peres also invited Pope Francis during a visit earlier this year.
Francis has said he would like to travel to the Middle East, but the Vatican has not confirmed the trip, despite a report by Israel's Channel 2 television that it will take place in March.
Abbas is the fourth Middle East leader to have met Pope Francis after Peres, Lebanese President Michel Sleiman and King Abdullah of Jordan.
Israel National News
US Navy's largest destroyer ever built gets ready to set sail
With its fearsome array of weapons, radar evading silhouette and $7billion price tag, this is one of America's most deadly - and expensive - warships ever.
USS Zumwalt - the largest destroyer ever made - is just days away from leaving the specially constructed dry docks and entering the water.
Equipped with guns capable of firing warheads 100 miles, stealth features, and engine able to generate enough power to run 78,000 homes, America is hoping it with guarantee its naval supremacy for decades to come.
Fearsome: The $7billion first-in-class Zumwalt rises from the dry docks in Bath Iron Works in Bath, Maine
Hulking: First-in-class USS Zumwalt is the largest U.S. Navy destroyer ever built
After embarrassing troubles with its latest class of surface warships, the Navy is hoping for a winner from a new destroyer that's ready to go into the water.
So far, construction of the first-in-class Zumwalt, is on time and on budget, something that's a rarity in new defense programs, officials said.
The christening of the ship bearing the name of the late Adm. Elmo 'Bud' Zumwalt was canceled a week ago because of the federal government shutdown.
Without fanfare, the big ship will be moved to dry dock and floated in the coming days.
In action: An artist rendering of the USS Zumwalt class destroyer which will be one of the more heavily armed and expensive ships in the U.S Navy
Meanwhile, the public christening ceremony featuring Zumwalt's two daughters will be rescheduled for the spring.
Adm. Zumwalt served in destroyers during World War II and was awarded a Bronze Star for valor at the Battle of Leyte Gulf.
As the nation's youngest chief of naval operations, appointed at age 49 by President Richard Nixon, he fought to end racial discrimination and allowed women to serve on ships for the first time.
Like its namesake, the ship is innovative.
It is so big that Bath Iron Works, a General Dynamics subsidiary, built a 106-foot-tall, $40 million 'Ultra Hall' to accommodate its large hull segments. The ship is 100 feet longer than the existing class of destroyers.
Deadly force: Armed with up to 80 Tomahawk cruise missiles and designed to back up Marines on amphibious missions the USS Zumwalt is so expensive only three will be built
Resembling a 19th century ironclad warship the USS Zumwalt uses a 21st century version of a 'tumblehome' hull
It features an unusual wave-piercing hull, electric drive propulsion, advanced sonar and guided missiles, and a new gun that fires rocket-propelled warheads as far as 100 miles.
Unlike warships with towering radar- and antenna-laden superstructures, the Zumwalt will ride low to the water to minimize its radar signature, making it stealthier than others.
HOW USS ZUMWALT IS EQUIPPED TO DOMINATE THE SEAS
Displacement: 14,564 long tons (14,798 t)
Length: 600 ft (180 m)
Beam: 80.7 ft (24.6 m)
Draft: 27.6 ft (8.4 m)
Propulsion: 2 Rolls-Royce Marine Trent-30 gas turbines driving Curtiss-Wright generators and emergency diesel generators, 78 MW (105,000 shp); 2 propellers driven by electric motors
Speed: Over 30 kn (56 km/h; 35 mph)
Warpons:
20 × MK 57 VLS modules, with a total of 80 launch cells
RIM-162 Evolved Sea Sparrow Missile (ESSM), 4 per cell
Tactical Tomahawk, 1 per cell
Vertical Launch Anti-Submarine Rocket (ASROC), 1 per cell
2 × 155 mm/62 caliber Advanced Gun System
920 × 155 mm rounds total; 600 in automated store with Auxiliary store room with up to 320 rounds (non-automatic) as of April 2005
70–100 LRLAP rounds planned as of 2005 of total
• 2 × Mk 110 57 mm gun (CIGS)
Originally envisioned for shore bombardment, the ship's size and power plant that can produce 78 megawatts of electricity — enough to power 78,000 homes — make it a potential platform for futuristic weapons like the electromagnetic rail gun, which uses a magnetic field and electric current to fire a projectile at seven times the speed of sound.
There are so many computers and so much automation that it'll need fewer sailors, operating with a crew of 158, nearly half the complement aboard the current generation of destroyers.
'The concept of the Zumwalt is sort of a bridge between the traditions of the past and the new world of networked warfare and precision guided munitions,' said Loren Thompson, defense analyst at the Lexington Institute.
'It's not so much a radical concept as it is an attempt to pull off a full range of missions with a ship that has one foot in the present and one foot in the future.'
The Navy once envisioned building more than 20 of the ships. But the ship has so many sophisticated features and its cost grew so high that senior Navy officials tried to kill the program. Instead, it was truncated to just three ships, the first being Zumwalt.
The Zumwalt will cost more than $3.5 billion — about three times that of current destroyers — but the program has not been beset by big cost overruns or delays, officials said.
The fact that construction has gone smoothly is a relief for the Navy, which has dealt with embarrassing troubles on its new class of speedy warship, dubbed the 'littoral combat ship.'
Those smaller ships, designed to operate close to shore in littoral waters, have been plagued by escalating costs, production delays and mechanical problems.
What you get for $7 billion dollars: A guide to the USS Zumwalt's unique features
A model of the Zumwalt Class destroyer to be built by Bath Iron Works and Northrop Grumman Shipbuilding is displayed during a contract signing ceremony at the Pentagon
Mission modules that give them the flexibility to perform roles including anti-submarine warfare and minesweeping are not ready, even though the first ships have been commissioned.
'That ship is a total disaster,' said Norman Polmar, a naval historian, analyst and author.
Against that backdrop, shipbuilders at Bath Iron Works have been toiling away on the Zumwalt, the first entirely new ship built on the banks of the Kennebec River since the original Arleigh Burke was christened more than 20 years ago.
The keel plate for the USS Zumwalt-class destroyer the destroyers will be a new class of multi-mission U.S. Navy surface combatant ship designed to operate as part of a joint maritime fleet
Dan Dowling, president of Local S6, which represents 3,200 shipbuilders, said it's been a challenging project with a new hull design, composite materials and new technology.
'It is a radical departure from what we've known. Whether the Navy is satisfied with the design of the ship is up to them. We can only build what they asked for,' he said, adding, 'I hope they'll be pleased with it. We'd like to build as many of them as we can.'
Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2469982/The-7billion-warship-rule-waves-US-Navys-largest-destroyer-built-gets-ready-set-sail.html#ixzz2iMmndLvM
USS Zumwalt - the largest destroyer ever made - is just days away from leaving the specially constructed dry docks and entering the water.
Equipped with guns capable of firing warheads 100 miles, stealth features, and engine able to generate enough power to run 78,000 homes, America is hoping it with guarantee its naval supremacy for decades to come.
Fearsome: The $7billion first-in-class Zumwalt rises from the dry docks in Bath Iron Works in Bath, Maine
Hulking: First-in-class USS Zumwalt is the largest U.S. Navy destroyer ever built
After embarrassing troubles with its latest class of surface warships, the Navy is hoping for a winner from a new destroyer that's ready to go into the water.
So far, construction of the first-in-class Zumwalt, is on time and on budget, something that's a rarity in new defense programs, officials said.
The christening of the ship bearing the name of the late Adm. Elmo 'Bud' Zumwalt was canceled a week ago because of the federal government shutdown.
Without fanfare, the big ship will be moved to dry dock and floated in the coming days.
In action: An artist rendering of the USS Zumwalt class destroyer which will be one of the more heavily armed and expensive ships in the U.S Navy
Meanwhile, the public christening ceremony featuring Zumwalt's two daughters will be rescheduled for the spring.
Adm. Zumwalt served in destroyers during World War II and was awarded a Bronze Star for valor at the Battle of Leyte Gulf.
As the nation's youngest chief of naval operations, appointed at age 49 by President Richard Nixon, he fought to end racial discrimination and allowed women to serve on ships for the first time.
Like its namesake, the ship is innovative.
It is so big that Bath Iron Works, a General Dynamics subsidiary, built a 106-foot-tall, $40 million 'Ultra Hall' to accommodate its large hull segments. The ship is 100 feet longer than the existing class of destroyers.
Deadly force: Armed with up to 80 Tomahawk cruise missiles and designed to back up Marines on amphibious missions the USS Zumwalt is so expensive only three will be built
Resembling a 19th century ironclad warship the USS Zumwalt uses a 21st century version of a 'tumblehome' hull
It features an unusual wave-piercing hull, electric drive propulsion, advanced sonar and guided missiles, and a new gun that fires rocket-propelled warheads as far as 100 miles.
Unlike warships with towering radar- and antenna-laden superstructures, the Zumwalt will ride low to the water to minimize its radar signature, making it stealthier than others.
HOW USS ZUMWALT IS EQUIPPED TO DOMINATE THE SEAS
Displacement: 14,564 long tons (14,798 t)
Length: 600 ft (180 m)
Beam: 80.7 ft (24.6 m)
Draft: 27.6 ft (8.4 m)
Propulsion: 2 Rolls-Royce Marine Trent-30 gas turbines driving Curtiss-Wright generators and emergency diesel generators, 78 MW (105,000 shp); 2 propellers driven by electric motors
Speed: Over 30 kn (56 km/h; 35 mph)
Warpons:
20 × MK 57 VLS modules, with a total of 80 launch cells
RIM-162 Evolved Sea Sparrow Missile (ESSM), 4 per cell
Tactical Tomahawk, 1 per cell
Vertical Launch Anti-Submarine Rocket (ASROC), 1 per cell
2 × 155 mm/62 caliber Advanced Gun System
920 × 155 mm rounds total; 600 in automated store with Auxiliary store room with up to 320 rounds (non-automatic) as of April 2005
70–100 LRLAP rounds planned as of 2005 of total
• 2 × Mk 110 57 mm gun (CIGS)
Originally envisioned for shore bombardment, the ship's size and power plant that can produce 78 megawatts of electricity — enough to power 78,000 homes — make it a potential platform for futuristic weapons like the electromagnetic rail gun, which uses a magnetic field and electric current to fire a projectile at seven times the speed of sound.
There are so many computers and so much automation that it'll need fewer sailors, operating with a crew of 158, nearly half the complement aboard the current generation of destroyers.
'The concept of the Zumwalt is sort of a bridge between the traditions of the past and the new world of networked warfare and precision guided munitions,' said Loren Thompson, defense analyst at the Lexington Institute.
'It's not so much a radical concept as it is an attempt to pull off a full range of missions with a ship that has one foot in the present and one foot in the future.'
The Navy once envisioned building more than 20 of the ships. But the ship has so many sophisticated features and its cost grew so high that senior Navy officials tried to kill the program. Instead, it was truncated to just three ships, the first being Zumwalt.
The Zumwalt will cost more than $3.5 billion — about three times that of current destroyers — but the program has not been beset by big cost overruns or delays, officials said.
The fact that construction has gone smoothly is a relief for the Navy, which has dealt with embarrassing troubles on its new class of speedy warship, dubbed the 'littoral combat ship.'
Those smaller ships, designed to operate close to shore in littoral waters, have been plagued by escalating costs, production delays and mechanical problems.
What you get for $7 billion dollars: A guide to the USS Zumwalt's unique features
A model of the Zumwalt Class destroyer to be built by Bath Iron Works and Northrop Grumman Shipbuilding is displayed during a contract signing ceremony at the Pentagon
Mission modules that give them the flexibility to perform roles including anti-submarine warfare and minesweeping are not ready, even though the first ships have been commissioned.
'That ship is a total disaster,' said Norman Polmar, a naval historian, analyst and author.
Against that backdrop, shipbuilders at Bath Iron Works have been toiling away on the Zumwalt, the first entirely new ship built on the banks of the Kennebec River since the original Arleigh Burke was christened more than 20 years ago.
The keel plate for the USS Zumwalt-class destroyer the destroyers will be a new class of multi-mission U.S. Navy surface combatant ship designed to operate as part of a joint maritime fleet
Dan Dowling, president of Local S6, which represents 3,200 shipbuilders, said it's been a challenging project with a new hull design, composite materials and new technology.
'It is a radical departure from what we've known. Whether the Navy is satisfied with the design of the ship is up to them. We can only build what they asked for,' he said, adding, 'I hope they'll be pleased with it. We'd like to build as many of them as we can.'
Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2469982/The-7billion-warship-rule-waves-US-Navys-largest-destroyer-built-gets-ready-set-sail.html#ixzz2iMmndLvM
Taiwanese government introduces terrifying Special Forces clone army
Taiwanese Special Forces and a select few other military units recently received updated bulletproof armor that includes a ballistic face mask that serves to protect operators from lethal headshots and to reduce fighting effectiveness of opposing forces, seemingly by causing them to immediately curl into the fetal position and cry for their mothers. Check out one of the scariest-looking armies ever after the jump.
The United States has also used the ballistic mask for small teams in Iraq and Afghanistan, as well as during the drug war of the 1980s. A handful of these guys approaching is likely enough to disconcert even the most hardened cartel enforcer, but an entire platoon marching in lockstep is so terrifying we assume the weapons they’re carrying are just for show.
After all, it’s hard to hit a target that’s fleeing full-sprint in the other direction.
Each ballistic mask is apparently rated to block close-range shots from a .44 magnum – which, if our extensive video game experience is any indication, is a hell of a weapon. It should be noted, however, that the mask distributes the impact of a bullet over a relatively small surface area, meaning a headshot, while not lethal to the mask wearer, is sure to ruin his day and probably his dating prospects for a very long time.
Other than the obvious added protection and intimidation factor of the masks, there is one other possible explanation for the Taiwanese government issuing them: they don’t want us to realize that they’ve actually just introduced a horrifying army of supersoldier Boba Fett clones.
Credit to RocketNews24
BISHOP: POPE LEADING CHURCH TO 'DISASTER'
Citing the famous prophecies of Fatima, traditionalist Roman Catholic Bishop Bernard Fellay warned in an address in Kansas City that Pope Francis is precipitating the church’s decline and could be a herald that the world is entering the age of the Antichrist.
Fellay, who leads a society that has no canonical status in the Roman Catholic Church, said the “modernist views” professed by the pontiff are at odds with traditional Catholic teaching.
“The situation in the Catholic Church is a real disaster and the present pope is making it 10,000 times worse,” Fellay charged Oct. 12 at the Angelus Press Conference in Kansas City.
Fellay is superior general of the Society of St. Pius X, whose ministers, according to the Vatican, do not legitimately exercise ministry in the church.
Fellay, in his address, drew heavily from the Third Secret of Fatima, which many Catholics believe was given by the Virgin Mary, the mother of Jesus, to Lucia Santos, one of three poor children who claimed to experience a series of six apparitions of Mary in Fatima, Portugal, between May and October in 1917.
Is a 900-year-old prophecy being fulfilled before our eyes? See the astounding movie “The Last Pope?”
The Third Secret centers on an apocalyptic vision in which an unidentified future pope is seen going up a steep mountain. At the top is a rough-hewn cross. The pope passes through a city in ruins, only to be killed at the foot of the cross by a group of soldiers who fire a barrage of bullets and arrows that wound the bishops, priests and believers of various ranks and positions accompanying the pope.
Fellay noted that when Sister Lucia was asked what the Third Secret of Fatima predicted, she pointed to chapters 8 through 13 of the Apocalypse, referring to the final book of the New Testament, also known as “The Revelation of St. John the Divine.”
Observing that chapter 8 of the Apocalypse speaks of the coming of the Antichrist, Fellay noted that Pope St. Pius X said at the beginning of his pontificate the “son of perdition” may already be on earth.
Fellay cited Cardinal Luigi Ciapi, the papal theologian of all popes from Pope Pius XII through Pope John Paul II, who said the Third Secret warned the apostasy within the church would begin at the top.
In 2000, the Vatican released what was declared to be the complete text of the Third Secret of Fatima, accompanied with a commentary authored by then-Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger, the future Pope Benedict XVI.
Fellay stressed the “end times” nature of Sister Lucia’s vision by referring to a famous 1957 interview in which Lucia stressed that when the Third Secret is fulfilled “various nations will disappear from the face of the earth” and the “devil will do all in his power to overcome souls consecrated to God.”
‘Very scary times’
Fellay attacked Francis for advancing a new format for the Catholic Mass, following in the path of Vatican II, and for suggesting the Catholic Church condemns homosexuality, but not homosexuals, and that even atheists might achieve salvation if they live according to conscience.
Claiming these are “very scary times,” Fellay spoke of abortion as a sin that cries to Heaven for vengeance. He characterized same-sex marriage as an “unnatural re-definition of marriage and related sins.”
Praying for a return to traditional Catholic values and practices, Fellay reiterated Sister Lucia’s plea for Catholics to recite the Rosary and to apply themselves to the Devotion of the Immaculate Heart of the Blessed Virgin Mary as the last remedies God has given to mankind.
Insisting there is “definitely a material chastisement of the world in sight,” Fellay warned of a coming catastrophe.
“How? When?” Fellay asked. “I have no idea. But if you put everything together, it is clear that God has had enough of the sins of man.”
Fellay’s Society of St. Pius X, or SSPX, was founded in 1970 by French archbishop Marcel Lefebvre, who strongly opposed communists and “Catholic socialists” who he believes hijacked Vatican II to abandon traditional Catholic practices and beliefs, including replacing the Latin Mass with a modern format in the vernacular of local cultures.
In 1988, in an apostolic letter titled “Ecclesia Dei,” or “The Church of God,” Pope John Paul II officially excommunicated Fellay because he was consecrated by Lefebvre in an act the Vatican characterized as “unlawful” and “schismatic.”
In 2009, the Congregation for Bishops, on instructions from Pope Benedict XVI, rescinded Fellay’s excommunication, while stressing that the SSPX has no canonical status in the Catholic Church and that any minister established by the SSPX has no right to exercise its ministry in the church.
Pope Francis, born Jorge Mario Beroglio, has been identified with “liberation theology,” a Marxist revolutionary version of Christianity, ever since he was appointed Archbishop of Buenos Aires in 1998.
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