NC Renegades

A child with a fever has been admitted to University of Chicago Medical Center to be checked for the Ebola virus after being screened at O’Hare International Airport.

The patient remains in stable condition Friday evening, according to a statement from the hospital.

The child, whose age and gender was not released, was admitted Friday morning “for observation to rule out Ebola virus disease,” the hospital said in an earlier statement. “Federal authorities identified the child as having a fever but no other symptoms of Ebola during screening at O’Hare.

“The patient has been isolated under strict quarantine protocols until the child’s condition improves and a diagnosis is established,” the statement said.

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Russian strategic bombers conducted a third circumnavigation of the U.S. Pacific island of Guam last week as other bombers flew close to Alaska and Europe, defense officials said.

Two Tu-95 Bear H bombers made the flight around Guam, a key U.S. military hub in the western Pacific, on Dec. 13. No U.S. interceptor jets were dispatched to shadow the bombers.

Separately, two Canadian F-18s intercepted two Bear bombers that intruded into the Alaska air defense identification zone on Dec. 8 that a military spokesman called “unwanted, provocative, and potentially destabilizing.”

Around the same time in Europe, NATO jets intercepted Russian Tu-95 and Tu-22 Backfire bombers also conducting provocative flights.

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An important aspect of using a topo map is the fact that you can pin-point a location on the earth, transpose that location onto the corresponding map with fair precision and then communicate that location to others. This allows you to locate and share items such as link-up points, caches, targets, en route rally points, etc. The most efficient method is the grid reference system.

I won’t go into a detailed topo map discussion here, Max Velocity’s already done that on his site with an excellent primer. He explains how to locate a point on any 1/25,000 OR 1/50,000 topo map using the Military Grid Reference System (GMRS). If you are attending his course he has written that this is the map system he will use. He goes on to write that you can buy any USGS topo map with the GMRS grids pre-printed on your personalized map at mytopo.com. I have ordered maps from them and I highly recommend them.

For those folks who already have a stock of USGS maps that are 1/24,000 maps, have the ability to print their own maps or have compasses in 1/24,000, I will explain how simple it is to draw a grid system on your map. The following is taken directly from maptools.com:

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In the shadow of the two year anniversary of one of the worst mass shootings in American history, at Sandy Hook Elementary School, an extensive new study by two Vanderbilt University researchers challenges common assumptions about gun violence and mental illness that often emerge in the aftermath of mass shootings.

When a mass shooting occurs there seems to be a familiar narrative that untreated mental illness is the primary cause for the terrifying act. But a new study published in the American Journal of Public Health by Dr. Jonathan Metzl and Kenneth T. MacLeish finds that an isolated focus on mental illness is misguided.

“Gun discourse after mass shootings often perpetuates the fear that ‘some crazy person is going to come shoot me,'” said Metzl, the study’s lead author. “But if you look at the research, it’s not the ‘crazy’ person you have to fear.”

Mentally Ill Not Violent

In the article, “Mental Illness, Mass Shootings and the Politics of American Firearms,” Metzl and MacLeish analyzed data and literature linking guns and mental illness over the past 40 years. They found that despite societal pre-conceived notions, most mentally ill people are not violent.

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North Korea dispatched covert commando teams to the United States in the 1990s to attack nuclear power plants and major cities in a conflict, according to a declassified Defense Intelligence Agency report.

The DIA report, dated Sept. 13, 2004, reveals that five units of covert commandos were trained for the attacks inside the country.

According to the report, the “Reconnaissance Bureau, North Korea, had agents in place to attack American nuclear power plants.”

The document states that the North Korean Ministry of People’s Armed Forces, the ministry in charge of the military, “established five liaison offices in the early 1990s, to train and infiltrate operatives into the United States to attack nuclear power plants and major cities in case of hostilities.”

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Update: the video showing Kim Jong-un being killed by a fire storm from a missile exploding into his helicopter has been deleted.

I will not argue that the premise of The Interview was in bad taste. The right to free speech is guaranteed under the 1st Amendment. The approval of this ending by the State Department will have consequences.

David DeGerolamo

by Bill Gertz

China carried out a long-range missile flight test on Saturday using multiple, independently targetable reentry vehicles, or MIRVs, according to U.S. defense officials.

The flight test Saturday of a new DF-41 missile, China’s longest-range intercontinental ballistic missile, marks the first test of multiple warhead capabilities for China, officials told the Washington Free Beacon.

China has been known to be developing multiple-warhead technology, which it obtained from the United States illegally in the 1990s.

However, the Dec. 13 DF-41 flight test, using an unknown number of inert maneuvering warheads, is being viewed by U.S. intelligence agencies as a significant advance for China’s strategic nuclear forces and part of a build-up that is likely to affect the strategic balance of forces.

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