A day after President Donald Trump finally broke his silence on North Korea after the isolated nation twice provoked its geopolitical adversaries in the span of just four days, Yonhap is reporting that the US sent four F-35B stealth jets and two nuclear-capable B-1B strategic bombers to train with South Korea's F-15K fighter jets over the Korean Peninsula on Thursday in what it described as an "unprecedented" escalation of the allies' military response to N.Korea's provocations.
Thursday’s air-to-ground precision-strike drills were conducted a mock bombing drill, which simulated a surgical strike of key enemy facilities, over the Pilsung Range in the eastern province of Gangwon.
The "unprecedented" combined maneuver involved the F-35Bs from Japan and the long-range bombers based in Guam as well as a squadron of four F-15Ks, Yonhap said.
They used MK-84, MK-82 and GBU-32 bombs, according to Yonhap. In a statement, US Pacific Command said the flyover was a "direct response to North Korea's intermediate range ballistic missile launch." "North Korea's actions are a threat to our allies, partners and homeland, and their destabilizing actions will be met accordingly," said Gen. Terrence O'Shaughnessy, commander of Pacific Air Forces.
The exercise was designed to "strongly counter North Korea's repeated ballistic missile tests and development of nuclear weapons," a South Korean official told CNN.
In response, KCNA, the state-run North Korean news agency, threatened more missile tests, saying “we will in the future, too, conduct ballistic rocket launching drill targeting the Pacific where the US imperialist aggressor forces’ bases are stationed."
The demonstration followed the formal conclusion of the annual 11-day military drills between the US and the South known as the “Ulchi-Freedom Guardian” war games. The drills followed a demonstration of "overwhelming force" from the South Korean military that was ordered in response to the isolated North's latest provocation.
Also mobilized was a KC-135 Stratotanker aerial refueling plane, a defense source said.
The F-35 Joint Strike Fighter, the most expensive and one of the most controversial weapons systems in US history, is held out as "the cornerstone" of US defense in the Pacific. Based at a US base in Iwakuni, the first of 16 fighters arrived in Japan in January, showing Washington's "commitment to the defense of Japan with the most capable and modern equipment in the US inventory," a US Marines official told CNN at the time.
According to the Marines, the deployment of the fighters to Japan was ordered under the Obama administration, and was not related to ongoing tensions with North Korea.
Credit to Zero Hedge
Monsoon rains have killed at least five people, including two toddlers, in Mumbai as India's financial capital ground to a halt under flooding.
Roads were hit by waist-deep flooding, flights cancelled and train services suspended, stranding tens of thousands.
More rain is expected but the situation has improved for now, the BBC's Suranjana Tewari says.
The rains in Mumbai follow devastating floods across a swathe of South Asia, which have killed more than 1,200.
At least 500 of the deaths happened in the northern Indian state of Bihar, according to officials.
Some 16 million people have been affected across South Asia, say aid workers. They estimate that tens of thousands of people have been displaced.
Mumbai has seen a slow return to normalcy, although schools and offices remain closed on Wednesday.
Credit to BBC
“Lo, I will send the navi Eliyahu to you before the coming of the awesome, fearful day of Hashem.” Malachi 3:23 (The Israel Bible™)
In a dramatic escalation of hostilities, North Korea fired a missile over Japan on Tuesday morning, setting off warning sirens and sending residents running to shelter, and at least according to one rabbi, opening the door for Elijah the Prophet to appear.
At six AM Tuesday morning, an unidentified North Korean missile flew over Erimo Misaki District, on the northern island of Hokkaido, breaking into three pieces before falling into the Pacific Ocean about 733 miles off the Japanese coast. There were no efforts by the Japanese to down the missile as it passed over their airspace. The Trump Administration responded immediately and strongly with the ominous warning, “All options are on the table.”
In a commentary on current events, Rabbi Moshe Grylak, co-publisher of the religious Jewish Mishpacha Magazine and a prolific author, hinted last week at just such an escalation, in which North Korea’s rogue leader, Kim Jong Un, would be the first to act, engaging in a senseless flexing of nuclear muscle.
However, the rabbi had a Biblical perspective on the turmoil emanating from North Korea, explaining that it is actually part of the process of redemption because it generates the necessary final ingredient to bring the Messiah: fear.
“When the world realizes that all their efforts fail, they will be terrified and some will take this and turn it into fear of heaven,” Rabbi Grylak told Breaking Israel News. Rabbi Grylak named this process ‘Elijah’, the prophet who will return to announce the arrival of the Messiah, as described in the Book of Malachi.
He shall reconcile parents with children and children with their parents, so that, when I come, I do not strike the whole land with utter destruction. Lo, I will send the navi Eliyahu to you before the coming of the awesome, fearful day of Hashem. Malachi 3:24
“Elijah is not an old man with a flowing white beard who will blow on a shofar,” explained Rabbi Grylak. “The Elijah that precedes Moshiach (Messiah) is an unprecedented awakening of hearts to God’s will.”
Rabbi Grylak quoted Michtav MeEliyahui, a book on Jewish philosophy written by Rabbi Eliyahu Dessler, a 20th century Talmudic scholar, who wrote, “Only when men come to see the futility and emptiness of a life dedicated to this world, will they be enabled to rise to a spiritual outlook and the light of Moshiach will be revealed.”
“This awakening is sorely lacking right now,” Rabbi Grylak said. “But when two crazy men threaten the world with nuclear war, it generates fear. That is certainly one way to wake people up.”
In fact, multiple conflicts and catastrophes are generating concern around the globe: hurricanes in Texas, multiple armies vying for position in Syria, Iran flexing its muscles, and the internal polarization in America. Rabbi Grylak emphasized that at the root of the turbulence was the issue of Jerusalem and the Jews.
“So many times I heard people say they hate Israel today because when Israel was first established, and even more so after we conquered the Temple Mount in ‘67, they expected so much from Israel,” the rabbi explained. “We disappointed them. The truth is hidden under a great darkness of hatred of Jews. But even within this hatred is the key, the seed of hope from which the Moshiach will grow.”
The rabbi cited Isaiah to illustrate how an essential aspect of this pre-Messiah global awakening has to be focused on Jerusalem.
For the sake of Tzion I will not be silent, For the sake of Yerushalayim I will not be still, Till her victory emerge resplendent And her triumph like a flaming torch. Nations shall see your victory, And every king your majesty; And you shall be called by a new name Which Hashem Himself shall bestow. Isaiah 62:1-2
“Israel is presenting itself as a great success, which it is, but we are focusing on the wrong things,” Rabbi Grylak said. “We are focusing on the material when what the world really needs from Israel is to be a spiritual light of Torah, to guide them through this fear, to take them to the next stage before it is too late.”
Credit to Breaking Israel News
Read more at https://www.breakingisraelnews.com/93948/north-korean-missile-japan-final-element-bring-messiah-says-rabbi/#PyqxuAiojyHRSbem.99
By Claire Swedberg
The smallest chip the team has developed so far measures 22 microns (about a fifth the thickness of a human hair), which they plan to test reading with a specialized RFID interrogator.
One physical limitation that RFID technology has faced as it has been adopted in most vertical markets is chip size. Although chips have become smaller (they can now be inserted into a tag the size of a grain of rice, for instance), that is still too large for some applications.
Researchers at Stanford University are now several phases into a development project to create a passive, 60 GHz RFID transponder that is small enough to be inserted into a human body's cell. Thus far, the group has been able to scale the chip and antenna down to about 22 microns (0.0009 inch) wide—one fifth the diameter of an average human hair—which is small enough that it could be inserted inside a cell, and thus be readthroughout a person's body. The chip, in fact, has been inserted into a mouse melanoma cell. RFID could also be placed within a mass of cells, such as a tumor.
The group has designed a specialized RFID reader to transmit to—and receive responses from—a tag that small. Researchers call this miniaturized tag and associated specialized reader a promising step toward continuous, real-time monitoring of activities at cellular levels.
Both Hitachi and Murata have developed very small RFID tags. Hitachi's chip measures 300 microns (0.01 inch)—see Hitachi Unveils Smallest RFID Chip. The Murata tag, however, measures approximately 700 microns (0.03 inch)—see Murata Mass-Produces 'World's Smallest HF Tag'.
The Stanford team's chip is too small to be seen with the human eye. The researchers—members of the university's electrical engineering department—call the system a micrometer-scale magnetic resonance-coupled RFID transceiver for wireless sensors in cells. Their goal is to create the chip with an associated RF antenna at a microscopic size, so that it could be used for health-care diagnostic and research purposes. For instance, a chip embedded in a person's living cell could remain inert in a specific part of the body, and respond to interrogation from a reader outside the body, in order to indicate where it is located, as well as any sensor-based data if linked to such technology.
The octagonal-shaped tag consists of several layers. One layer is a piece of titanium measuring 5 nanometers (0.0000002 inch) in thickness, with gold film measuring 200 nanometers (0.000008 inch) laid on it, while the second layer is a sheet of aluminum 1,000 nanometers (0.00004 inch) in thickness. Finally, a 16 nanometer (0.0000006-inch)-thick electrical insulated layer of hafnium dioxide is included. The layers are encapsulated in silicon dioxide to protect the tag and the cells that come in contact with it. The tag is encoded with a unique identifier that makes it possible for health-care providers and other users to identify it within a mass of tissue or cells.
Credit to rfidjournal.com
http://www.rfidjournal.com/articles/view?16498/
