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The “cross between Concorde, a rail gun and an air hockey table” will deliver passengers between US cities faster than the speed of sound.The history of transport is replete with dreamers who have concocted such schemes for getting people from A to B in previously unimagined haste. And many of them have remained just that, impractical ideas on a drawing board that will never see the light of day.

But the latest mysterious project, which has had the technology world buzzing for months, has one crucial difference. Its backer is a Silicon Valley wunderkind with a proven track record of turning science fiction into reality.
Billionaire Elon Musk’s CV is impressive, to say the least. He made his initial fortune from PayPal, the online secure payment system, before going on to launch spaceships. Last year his SpaceX venture became the first private operation to dock a cargo capsule with the International Space Station.

Back on Earth, Mr Musk also founded Tesla, which has made electric sports cars viable and profitable.
The mercurial, fictional character of Tony Stark, played by Robert Downey Jr in the Iron Man films, is reputedly based on him.So when Mr Musk, 42, announced that he would be publishing plans for the Hyperloop on Monday, August 12 - tomorrow - scientists were sent into a tailspin.

They will have to wait for Mr Musk to post his “alpha design” on the internet then but he has dropped several hints about its features, including that the system will be powered by solar panels.Mr Musk will not be patenting the design and it will be “open source”, meaning anyone can modify it, or try to build it.

The fevered speculation about what it would actually look like has ranged from wild theories on Star Trek-style teleportation to more achievable ones involving cars being pushed through vacuum sealed tunnels using magnets.
Mr Musk has denied it will be a so-called “vactrain”, a concept that is already being pursued by a company in Colorado. His idea “does involve a tube, but not a vacuum tube”, he said, adding: “Not frictionless, but very low friction.”

In recent weeks a large part of the mystery appeared to have been solved. A technology enthusiast in Canada called John Gardi published a diagram of how the Hyperloop might work. He went on to ask Mr Musk on Twitter: “Can you give me some basic clues? What diameter of tube so I can start designing stations and throughways?”
To his extreme surprise Mr Musk replied: “Your guess is the closest I’ve seen anyone guess so far. Pod diameter probably around 2m.”

Mr Gardi, who describes himself modestly as a “tinkerer”, came up with a tunnel 9ft in diameter, raised above the ground on pylons. His tube could be made from materials already used for sewer pipes. It would form a continuous loop between two destination points. Giant turbines would blast a stream of air into the tube. The two-metre wide pods, carrying people, would be moved by a rail gun - a tube that uses magnets to accelerate material passing along it.
As they approach their journey’s end they would be routed out of the air stream and slowed down using a magnetic braking system.

In an extensive analysis published on the website Motherboard, Mr Gardi concluded: “I believe that Hyperloop is merely a modern day version of the pneumatic tubes used in banks, stores, and industry to move money and small items over long distances or to other floors of a building.“They’ve been around for over a century, though not so much these days. One reason I think Hyperloop is simpler than folks think is that Elon Musk has resurrected another technology from the depths of time, one that was a contender once, too - the electric car!”

Mr Musk’s intended location for the first Hyperloop is California, between Los Angeles and San Francisco. His motivation for the project came from disillusionment with the Golden State’s high speed rail project, which has been dubbed the “bullet train to nowhere” after a series of setbacks.

He believes the Hyperloop could be built for a tenth of the cost and deliver passengers between the two cities in just 30 minutes, compared to three hours for the bullet train.The bullet train is currently estimated to be costing $68 billion and may not be completed until 2028. It would reach top speeds of only around 130mph. In a survey seven in 10 people said, if the train ever does run, they would “never or hardly ever” use it anyway.

In an internet conversation this week with Sir Richard Branson, Mr Musk said: “I originally started thinking about it when I read a thing about California’s high speed rail project, which was somewhat disappointing. It is actually worse than taking the plane. I get a little sad when things are not getting better in the future.

“Another example would be like the Concorde being retired and the fact there is no supersonic passenger transport. I think that is sad. You want the future to be better than the past, or at least I do.
“The Hyperloop is something that would go effectively faster than the speed of sound. Conceivably you could live in San Fran and work in LA.”Mr Musk said the Hyperloop would be best used between paired cities less than 1,000 miles apart, and would be safer than air travel.

However, Mr Musk said last week that he is too busy with space to build it himself. He added: “I think I kind of shot myself in the foot by ever mentioning the Hyperloop, because I’m too strung out. Obviously I have to focus on core Tesla business, and SpaceX business, and that’s more than enough.”
Mr Gardi has confidence though. He said: “Building Hyperloop’s main line for a tenth the cost of high speed rail is not only feasible, it’s doable.”

http://www.punchng.com/news/jtf-arrests-radical-lawyer-doctor-in-borno-yobe/

Operatives of the Joint Task Force are detaining two professionals, a medical doctor and a lawyer, allegedly for their roles in the prevailing violence in the area.

The authorities of the Defence Headquarters are silent on the issues that culminated in the arrest of the doctor and the lawyer.

It was gathered that while the doctor was arrested in Maiduguri, Borno State, the lawyer is said to be a prominent defender of the ideology and activities of the insurgents in Potiskum, Yobe’s largest city.

Investigation revealed that the doctor, who is being held in a JTF detention centre, was believed to have links with the World Health Organisation and other international non- government organisations.

A highly placed source in the JTF said the doctor was arrested while riding with suspected Boko Haram members in a pickup van, which was carrying Improvised Explosive Devices, several AK 47 Assault riffles and other dangerous weapons.

It was gathered that the driver and the other occupants refused to stop at a JTF road block and abandoned the truck after engaging the security agents in a gun duel.

It was learnt that the doctor, suspected to me a medical expert to the sect, was caught while attempting to retrieve a forgotten laptop in the van several hours after the incident.

The vehicle was said to be under watch by operatives of the JTF.

But the doctor was said to have told his interrogators that he was doing some work with the World Bank and had to board the pickup van belonging to the terror suspects when he had issues with his car.

Security operatives have dismissed the explanation given by the doctor as untenable, arguing that a doctor, who had issues with his car, could not have been riding with terror suspects in a car loaded with explosives, guns and other dangerous weapons.

It was further leant that several non-governmental organisations, including international human rights body, the Amnesty International, had visited the Defence Headquarters, Abuja, in relation with the arrest of the doctor.

Apart from the shocking arrest of the doctor, the JTF in Yobe is holding a “highly placed lawyer” in Potiskum for suspected act of terrorism.

The lawyer was said to have been arrested and detained as a result of intelligence report that he was aiding terrorism and had always appeared for the insurgents in court.

Security operatives are said to have established some links between the lawyer and the killing of a teacher and 29 students of the Government Secondary School, on July 5.

It was learnt that the lawyer was said to have threatened that Potiskum would not know peace until he was released.

A security operative stated that the school students were killed on the second night of his alleged threat that there would be vengeance for his arrest.

In another development, Vanguard gathered that the recent attack at Government Secondary School, near Potiskum in Yobe State during which 29 students and a teacher were killed, was the fallout of the arrest of a lawyer with alleged links with the sect.

Vanguard gathered that the lawyer (names with-held), was the one who always provided legal services for suspected Boko Haram terrorists each time they were arrested and he was said to be an ideological/ intellectual contributor to their activities in Yobe State.

Following his arrest by JTF forces, the lawyer allegedly said, “So you have arrested me. Let me warn you that this town will know no peace until I am released”.

The source said that two days after, the secondary school near Potiskum was attacked and the children (students) slaughtered”.

After the massacre of the children, neighbours living in the area said they heard the terrorists shouting “Allahu Akbar, yes we have taken revenge for his arrest”.

The source said: “The most horrifying aspect of the students’ killing was that they asked the students, both boys and girls to pull off their dresses, and any student found with pubic hair on his or her private parts, was not only shot and killed, they also used axes or machetes to cut off their legs from their body”.
Both the medical doctor and the lawyer are however said to be in custody of the JTF
forces and would not be released until investigations into their alleged connivance with the terrorists are concluded and they are prosecuted”.

Be on alert this festive season. It shall be well with Nigeria. No weapon fashioned against this country shall prosper.

Nigeria will know and remain in Peace.

US lawmakers have said it was a huge plot in the final stages, but have offered no specifics.

On Monday, a top member of the House intelligence committee Dutch Ruppersberger told CNN the warnings were not designed to frighten Americans, though he said a planned attack could be "anywhere".

"Americans should live their lives... we just want them to be aware," Representative Ruppersberger said.

White House spokesman Jay Carney said he could not be "specific" about the threats.

He said: "Our current information suggests that al-Qaeda and affiliated organisations continue to plan terrorist attacks both in the region and beyond. And our information suggests that they may focus efforts to conduct attacks in the period between now and the end of August."

Be careful with where you go especially on August the 8th and 9th. Avoid large gatherings or huge public infrastructure just to be on the safe side sequel to this warning by the United States of America.

However, it sounds funny that people will intercept electronic communication when all forms of criminals already know the NSA can listen and read all our electRonic chatter- from email, to even remotely turning on our camera phones and webcams to sopy on us.

Let us watch and see.

Nearly two dozen U.S. embassies throughout North Africa and the Middle East were closed Sunday after the U.S. intercepted communications between the leadership of AQAP and al Qaeda's remaining leadership in Pakistan, which suggested a major operation was underway, senior U.S. officials said. The diplomatic posts are expected to remain closed this week.

In addition to the new liquid bomb, a U.S. official said American spy agencies are concerned the attack could use what some call "Frankenbombers," suicide bombers who could carry an improvised explosive device sewn into their body cavity.

Sunday on "This Week," Rep. Dutch Ruppersberger, D-MD — the ranking member of the House Intelligence Committee — said the intercepted communications called for a "major attack."

The U.S. also has stepped up surveillance in Africa, flying unarmed observation drones from Libya, focused in that country on a mix of militant groups in the town of Darna. A newer U.S. operation opened last year at an airfield in Niger, aimed at tracking another affiliate, al-Qaida in the Islamic Maghreb, in neighboring Mali.

The model for both is the U.S. operation in Somalia. CIA officers there provide intelligence, and special operators advise U.N. peacekeeping troops on tactics as well as delivering surveillance and intelligence — carrying out the occasional raid against pirates or militants.

Acting on what it said was an "overabundance of caution," the State Department on Sunday closed a total of 19 diplomatic posts until next Saturday. They include posts in Bangladesh and across North Africa and the Middle East as well as East Africa, including Madagascar, Burundi, Rwanda and Mauritius. The closure of the African facilities came just days before the 15th anniversary of al-Qaida's bombings of American diplomatic missions in Kenya and Tanzania.

Please be careful about your movement in public places this week. It is a precautionary measure, thanks

Saturday, the international police agency, Interpol, published a global security alert following "the escape of hundreds of terrorists and other criminals" in the past month, including jailbreaks in Iraq, Libya and Pakistan.

Interpol feared that the escapees would team up with al Qaeda to hit Western targets.

It has been suspected for some years that doctors and surgeons in Yemen in the service of Al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula were experimenting with implanting of plastic explosive devices inside the bodies of suicide bombers or even animals. According to Western counterterrorism sources, the surgeon would open the abdominal cavity and implant the explosive device amongst the bomber’s internal organs.

Some US sources are calling the current threat the most serious since 9/11. They are alarmed by the degree of confidence AQIM leaders show in openly using electronic communications to boast about the unstoppable attack they are plotting.

http://app.debka.com/n/article/23170/US-sources-Terror-alert-prompted-by-suspected-suicide-bombers-with-implanted-explosives-

According to one high placed US official, concern focuses on the possibility of terrorists carrying explosive devices implanted inside their bodies. debkafile’s counterterrorism sources add that plastic explosives in the body of a would-be suicide bomber without metal components are undetectable by standard screening devices such as those used at most international airports.

There are new sophisticated suicide bombers with plastic bombs surgically implanted to escape metal detectors.

This is the reason for the multiple shut down of US embassies.

At the November 2012 election, Colorado voters passed constitutional amendment 64, legalising recreational marijuana in their state. In May, Democrat governor John Hickenlooper reluctantly bowed to the will of the people and signed a series of measures to create the world’s first fully taxed and regulated recreational marijuana market. Pot – yes, Americans still call it that – remains illegal at a federal level, but the Obama administration has so far shown little interest in disrupting Colorado’s grand experiment.

Medical marijuana is already permitted in 18 US states, as well as Washington DC. At least four more are poised to enact similar legislation within the year. Washington state has also passed a law legalising recreational weed. Before long, the drug will likely be allowed in some form across more than half of the country. But Colorado, which approved medical marijuana in 2000, was the first to adopt a for-profit model. It remains the most advanced medical marijuana market in the US, catering to well over 100,000 patients. Next year, it will become a test-bed for broad legalisation, and every sensible government would do well to take notes.

http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/americas/mile-high-city-inside-denvers-billiondollar-marijuana-industry-8740525.html

Stocks in pot and pot-related businesses are booming: Seattle-based Privateer Holdings, the first private-equity firm with a remit to invest in the ‘cannabis space’, recently raised $7m in its initial funding round. Former Microsoft executive Jamen Shively held a news conference in May, to lay out his plans for a national chain of weed shops – a ‘Starbucks of pot’ – for which he hopes to attract start-up cash to the tune of $10m. “We’re going to mint more millionaires than Microsoft with this business,” Shively boasted, and he may not be far off: medical marijuana is now a $1.5bn industry. Some estimate that federally legal, recreational marijuana could be worth $110bn.

Which is why accountants, bankers and management consultants are all descending on Denver to join the so-called ‘Green Rush’. Mark Koenig, a 32-year-old former finance professional who now works as a weed industry consultant in the Mile High City, says many of his old colleagues are desperate to invest. “A couple of years back I wanted to make a decision about my future,” Koenig says. “I was looking at the economy, talking to my friends on Wall Street who analyse other industries. A couple of hedge fund manager friends told me: ‘Almost every industry is screwed right now. We don’t see a true growth industry anywhere’. But cannabis is a growth industry.”

That industry now directly employs some 10,000 people in Colorado, and the Green Rush came at just the right moment to rescue the state from the worst of the recession, providing peripheral jobs to construction workers, to advertisers, to lawyers, to graphic designers.

Frank Wolf, a US congressman who represents the district that contains CIA headquarters in Langley, Virginia, is one of 150 members of Congress for a new investigation into the failures in Benghazi.

"I think it is a form of a cover-up, and I think it's an attempt to push it under the rug, and I think the American people are feeling the same way," he said. "We should have the people who were on the scene come in, testify under oath, do it publicly, and lay it out. And there really isn't any national security issue involved with regards to that."

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/africaandindianocean/libya/10218288/CIA-running-arms-smuggling-team-in-Benghazi-when-consulate-was-attacked.html

Up to 35 CIA operatives were working in the city during the attack last September on the US consulate that resulted in the death of Ambassador Chris Stevens and three other Americans, according to CNN.

The circumstances of the attack are a subject of deep division in the US with some Congressional leaders pressing for a wide-ranging investigation into suspicions that the government has withheld details of its activities in the Libyan city.
The television network said that a CIA team was working in an annex near the consulate on a project to supply missiles from Libyan armouries to Syrian rebels.

Sources said that more Americans were hurt in the assault spearheaded by suspected Islamic radicals than had been previously reported. CIA chiefs were actively working to ensure the real nature of its operations in the city did not get out.

So only the losses suffered by the State Department in the city had been reported to Congress.

Urgent security measures need to be taken this Ramadan and eid period to prevent loss of life

http://www.tribune.com.ng/news2013/index.php/en/component/k2/item/17902-army-arrests-42-suspected-boko-haram-members-in-lagos,-ogun-%E2%80%A2boko-haram-plans-to-strike-during-eid-el-fitri-sss.html

Officers of the division raided Hausa populated places in the two states, including Ibafo and new trailer garage in Ogun State; Mafoluku, Alaba rago, Ijora Badia, Aviation quarters, Oshodi, Ketu Mile 2 motor parks, Orile trailer park, Lekki new extenson and the Bar Beach, all in Lagos State.

“In response to intelligence report on the Influx of Boko Haram terrorists into Lagos and Ogun states, the command organised and conducted raids, in conjunction with intelligence operatives in various parts of these states.

“The terrorists influx is adduced to their plan to unleash terror in some parts of the South-West, which includes 81 Division area of responsibility.

“The raid were conducted from July 12 to 23 in various hideouts in Lagos and Ogun states, which are fast becoming Boko Haram terrorist enclaves.

“From investigations, we cannot say if they are in Lagos to stage an attack or running for their lives. Investigations would reveal that,” he said.

However, in Lagos, 42 suspected members of Boko Haram were on Monday paraded by the 81 Division of the Nigerian Army in Lagos.

They were nabbed between July 12 and July 23 in various parts of Lagos and Ogun states

According to the Nigerian Army, the suspects fled from Borno State following a state of emergency declared by the Federal Government.

Although most of the suspects spoke in Hausa language, a few who managed to communicate in pidgin, confessed that they had been involved in terrorist activities in the past.

One of them, Hassan Ibrahim, who admitted recruiting some of the suspects, disclosed that he, in company with Ibrahim Ismail and Alhaji Black, killed a soldier and a civilian identified only as Buka in Maiduguri.

He said, "We rode a tricycle in Maiduguri and killed a soldier and one Buka. It was Alhaji Black that pulled the trigger. We also carried out some other operations in the area.

"Later, I met both Ismaili and Alhaji Black in Lagos, while I was riding okada (motorcycle)."

Black, who was also accused by Ismail of being a member of the sect, denied the accusation. He said he had been riding a motorcycle in Lagos in the past five years, adding that he was arrested during a raid in Kirikiri, a surburb of Lagos.

Some of the other suspects denied being terrorists, saying that they had been in Lagos for many years.

The General Officer Commanding the 81 Division,Maj.- Gen. Obi Umahi, said the suspects were arrested during raids by intelligence operatives. He explained the raid was carried out following intelligence report that the sect planned to unleash terror on parts of the South-West.

He said the raids were conducted at Ibafo trailer park and Ileke new trailer garage in Ogun State; Aviation quarters at Mafoluku, Oshodi; Ketu/Mile 12 Motor Park; Orile Trailer Park; Lekki new extension and Bar Beach.

These places, according to him, were fast becoming Boko Haram enclaves.

Umahi said that during interrogation,some of the suspects gave useful information that led to the arrest of others.

The GOC said, "The raids were conducted between July 12 and July 23 in various hideouts in Lagos and Ogun states which are fast becoming Boko Haram terrorist enclaves."

The army boss did not say if arms were recovered from the suspects, but he added that they were still trying to track their weapons.

"From investigations, we cannot say if they are in Lagos to stage an attack or running for their lives. Investigations would reveal that," he said.

Our correspondent learnt that due to the pressure from the armed forces in Borno, Yobe and Adamawa states, suspected Boko Haram members had been fleeing to the South-West.

I am getting my information from a source who has VERY credible inside information regarding the outcomes (win/losses) of the matches themselves.

He has since maintained a perfect record, even leaking the results of contests involving wrestling superstars such as John Cena and The Undertaker.

"These people whom are leaking this information are profiting off it at the expense of the WWE, the fans, and the integrity of the product," Dolphins1925 said.

"I am hoping that spreading the word will get WWE's attention," he wrote. "I am hoping that it will put a stop to spoilers from being leaked."

WWE refused to acknowledge that it could have a leaker in its ranks. It said in a statement: “We may have a modern day Nostradamus on our hands.

“We might have to monitor these posts in advance of our next pay-per-view to see how good he or she really is.”

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/northamerica/usa/10187246/WWE-embarrassed-as-wrestling-match-outcomes-leaked-online.html

The mystery fan, who identifies himself online as Dolphins1925, claims he has obtained the information from a source at Worldwide Wrestling Entertainment (WWE), and is revealing the results to highlight the organisation's failure to keep its storylines confidential.

Dolphins1925 started posting the results on Reddit's pro-wrestling forum after another fan launched a "prediction series", asking users for their picks ahead of the matches. He has since maintained a perfect record, even leaking the results of contests involving wrestling superstars such as John Cena and The Undertaker.

He insists he does not work for WWE. “I am just a WWE fan like everyone else, and I am getting my information from a source who has VERY credible inside information regarding the outcomes (win/losses) of the matches themselves.

“Given that this information is out there, we both feel that I should continue to share this information until it garners the attention of WWE.”

He accused WWE management of failing to take "reasonable measures" to protect its plotlines.

While anti-depressant use is surging in Sweden (up 1000% since 1980), bursting in Britain (up 495% since 1991), and up an astounding 400% since 1994 in the USA (with 1 in 10 on some kind of 'prozac'), it is the poor-old Nigerians that should really be complaining. Based on seven variables, Bloomberg has scored 74 nations around the world for their "stressed-out" factor and finds the USA to be 54th (so stop whining and suck it up), Norway the least stressed-out of all and El Salvador and South Africa at the top with Nigeria (with the roiling Egyptians ranking 15th).
Bloomberg ranked countries based on the stressfulness of their living environments.

Methodology

Seven equally weighted variables were considered:

Homicide rates - El Salvador and Venezuela were the worst
GDP per capita on a purchasing-power-parity basis -0 Blanladesh, Pakistan, India, and Nigeria were the lowest
Income inequality - South Africa and Colombia had the largest Gini Coefficient (with USA 20th worst)
Corruption perception - Venezuela, Bangladesh, and Nigeria are seen as most corrupt
Unemployment - Macedonia, Greece, Bosnia, and Spain have the highest unemployment
Urban air pollution - Mongolia, Pakistan, Egypt, and Iran are most polluted
Life expectancy - Nigeria, South Africa, and India have the lowest life expectancy


https://www.zerohedge.com/sites/default/files/images/user3303/imageroot/2013/07/20130717_stress_0.jpg

http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2013-07-17/prozac-world-these-are-most-stressed-out-countries

http://www.cnbc.com/id/100886286?__source=yahoo%7Cfinance%7Cheadline%7Cheadline%7Cstory&par=yahoo&doc=100886286%7CExpect%20$50%20oil,%20but%20not%20$

US media have been under increasing control of the Pentagon since the 1950s and the beginning of Operation Mockingbird:

Operation Mockingbird was a secret Central Intelligence Agency campaign to influence media beginning in the 1950s. Organized by Cord Meyer and Allen W. Dulles in the 1950s, it was later led by Frank Wisner after Dulles became head of CIA. The organization recruited leading American journalists into a network to help present the CIA's views, and funded some student and cultural organizations, and magazines as fronts. As it developed, it also worked to influence foreign media and political campaigns, in addition to activities by other operating units of the CIA.

Now the military control of the media is complete.  No one in the US reports news that shows the military in a bad light.  The New York Times clears its stories with the Pentagon first.  That is why they can get away with false-flag events and illegal wars based on conjured-up intelligence.  Here is a recent example of the lapdog media in the US:

The extraordinary silence of the American media on the state killing of Ibragim Todashev, a key witness in relation to the recent Boston bombings, calls the official account of the bombings even further into question.

On May 22, Todashev was shot seven times by an FBI agent inside his house in Orlando, Florida, including once in the head, under the most dubious circumstances. Todashev was an acquaintance of alleged bombers Tamerlan and Dzhokhar Tsarnaev. In the days following Todashev’s death, a half-dozen wildly inconsistent accounts of the killing were presented in the media before the story was dropped and buried.

The media first reported that Todashev attacked an FBI agent with a knife. After approximately a week, the “knife” story was unceremoniously abandoned without any explanation and replaced with a series of increasingly incredible accounts. (See “The state killing of Ibragim Todashev”) One account involved Todashev retrieving a “samurai sword.” Another involved a “metal pole” that “might have been a broomstick.”

http://www.wsws.org/en/articles/2013/06/11/toda-j11.html

The New York Times conveniently forgot to report that Todashev was shot seven times by the FBI, including once in the head:

http://www.nytimes.com/2013/05/23/us/officer-involved-in-shooting-of-man-tied-to-tsarnaev.html?_r=0

In journalistic circles it is a pleasing custom to speak of the Press as a Great Power within the State. As a matter of fact its importance is immense. One cannot easily overestimate it, for the Press continues the work of education even in adult life. Generally, readers of the Press can be classified into three groups:
 
First, those who believe everything they read;
 
Second, those who no longer believe anything;
 
Third, those who critically examine what they read and form their judgments accordingly.
 
Numerically, the first group is by far the strongest, being composed of the broad masses of the people. Intellectually, it forms the simplest portion of the nation. It cannot be classified according to occupation but only into grades of intelligence.

Under this category come all those who have not been born to think for themselves or who have not learnt to do so and who, partly through incompetence and partly through ignorance, believe everything that is set before them in print. To these we must add that type of lazy individual who, although capable of thinking for himself out of sheer laziness gratefully absorbs everything that others had thought over, modestly believing this to have been thoroughly done.

The influence which the Press has on all these people is therefore enormous; for after all they constitute the broad masses of a nation. But, somehow they are not in a position or are not willing personally to sift what is being served up to them; so that their whole attitude towards daily problems is almost solely the result of extraneous influence. All this can be advantageous where public enlightenment is of a serious and truthful character, but great harm is done when scoundrels and liars take a hand at this work.

ADOLF HITLER -MEIN KAMPF

Israel and Germany unveiled the fifth Dolphin-class submarine constructed for the Israel Navy at a ceremony at the German port of Kiel on Monday.

The submarine – called the INS Rahav – is the most expensive defense platform ever purchased by Israel. The vessel is set to undertake several long-range classified missions that are critical for Israel’s security.

The submarine is viewed by the navy as an important “force multiplier” that will enable Israel to cope with threats in the increasingly unstable Middle East region.

According to foreign reports, the navy’s Dolphins also provide Israel with nuclear second-strike capabilities, as they can travel far from Israel’s territorial waters and are reportedly able to carry long-range cruise missiles tipped with nuclear warheads.

Some defense analysts consider the submarines to be a crucial aspect of Israeli nuclear deterrence vis-à-vis Iran.

Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu welcomed the announcement, calling the submarines “a strong, strategic tool for the IDF.”

“The State of Israel,” said the prime minister, “is ready to act anytime, anywhere – on land, sea and air – in order to ensure the security of Israel’s citizens.”

Among their many capabilities, submarines can launch conventional missile attacks on near and distant targets, fire torpedoes at various naval vessels and engage in intelligence-gathering.

The latest Dolphin-class subs can remain submerged longer than their predecessors.

The INS Rahav, together with the INS Tanin – the fourth Dolphin sub, delivered to Israel in 2012 – and the sixth sub, which is still being built, will cost a total of some 1.4 billion Euro ($1.8 billion). The German government is reportedly covering a third of the cost.