Quote:Sabotage Not Ruled Out in Break of Communications Cable in Baltic Sea

A major submarine communications cable running between Finland and Germany has been broken, Finnish media reports. The break was discovered early Monday morning, and a repair ship is reportedly on its way from Calais, France, to the breakage point. The break is located about mid-point, in Sweden’s economic zone, south of the island of Öland.

A press release from state-owned communications company Cinia said that the cause of the break, which is affecting international communications, was not known but was under investigation. The company had no information about potential sabotage, but company CEO Ari-Jussi Knaapila said outages like this “do not occur in these waters without external impact.” No seismological observations have been made that could point to an underwater explosion, Yle said.

The double-armored cable has two steel reinforcements protecting the communications cables inside. Each year, about 200 submarine cable breaks happen worldwide. Cinia suspects it has been completely broken, as all fiber connections have been cut, Knaapila said in a press conference.

Finnish National Cyber Security Center Traficom communications chief Samuli Bergström said disruptions can occur from time to time, and there may be various reasons for them, such as exposure to weather and damage caused by maritime activities. The main cause of cable breaks is human activity, like fishing or anchoring.

Cybersecurity professor Tapio Frantti told the state broadcaster that intentional sabotage is more likely than an accident, based on the information he’s received from the media. “It raises suspicions when a cable breaks, prompting questions about why it happened. Quickly, attention turns to who might have a motive to do such a thing.”

Frantti said one suspect is Russia. “They even believe that they have special rights to do these kinds of things. The motive for sabotage is generally that it is done simply because it can be done.”

While the cable break takes quite a bit of communications capacity off the table, Finland has other connections, among them, through Estonia and Sweden, and most internet users are unlikely to notice, the professor said but pointed out that if the cable has been damaged intentionally, that is cause for concern.

Commissioned in 2016, the C-Lion1, which runs from Helsinki to Rostock, is the only Finnish submarine cable with a direct connection to Central Europe and is owned by the Finnish government together with a pension insurance company.

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Quote:…we here highly resolve that these dead shall not have died in vain—that this nation, under God, shall have a new birth of freedom—and that government of the people, by the people, for the people, shall not perish from the earth.

    Abraham Lincoln, Gettysburg Address, November 19, 1863.

In composing the Gettysburg Address, Lincoln must have been reminded of the words of David Wills, a prominent citizen of Gettysburg charged with cleaning up after the grisly battle of July 1-3, 1863. Wills asked the president to attend the ceremony and make a “few appropriate remarks,” stating in his letter of invitation that Lincoln’s presence would:

Quote:…kindle anew in the breasts of the Comrades of those brave dead, who are now in the tented field or nobly meeting the foe in the field, a confidence that they who sleep in death on the Battle Field are not forgotten by those highest in Authority; and they will feel that, should their fate be the same, their remains will not be uncared for.

Edward Everett, perhaps the most popular orator of the day, spoke for two hours at the ceremony. Yet, Everett admitted to Lincoln, “I should be glad, if I could flatter myself that I came as near to the central idea of the occasion, in two hours, as you did in two minutes.” In spite of Lincoln’s disclaimer that “the world will little note, nor long remember what we say here,” his brief speech continues to resonate in the American memory.

Quote:Electromagnetic Impulse Weapon

Mike Turner, Chairman of the House Permanent Select on Intelligence, a senior member of the House Armed Services Committee, and head of the U.S. delegation to the NATO Parliamentary Assembly delivered a major speech 20 June 2024 about the Russian nuclear anti-satellite threat at the Center for Strategic and International Studies. "The Biden Administration, only after having been challenged by a group of bipartisan Members of the House Intelligence Committee, reluctantly declassified that Russia is developing a nuclear anti-satellite weapon intended to be placed in orbit in outer space. No additional information has been released. News reports have speculated that the weapon is past development, exists, and is preparing to launch. Additional news reports have speculated that Russia already has a satellite in orbit that is a "test" first phase of Russia's anti-satellite nuclear weapon system. Without confirming or denying the accuracy of any of these reports, the questions they raise must be answered by the Biden Administration immediately.

"Regardless of Russia's timing or the possible immediacy of this evolving threat, this crisis is the "Cuban Missile Crisis in Space," and the Administration is failing. The advances that mankind has made during the Space Age are at risk, and the Administration is sleepwalking into an irreversible "Day Zero."... In order to avoid "Day Zero" the Biden Administration must immediately declassify all known information concerning the status of Russia's nuclear anti-satellite weapons program. Vladimir Putin thrives in secrecy. Putin's plans and weapons programs must be fully disclosed by the Administration and understood by the world.... The Biden Administration is incredibly reluctant to take any action that would appear to be escalatory. However, Russia is the aggressor, and an escalation has already occurred. Now, the United States must stand strong with our allies to stop "Day Zero" and preserve space, as the UN Outer Space Treaty intended, for the betterment of all mankind."

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Around that time there was also evidence of renewed Russian interest in their Novaya Zemlya nuclear test range, silent since the end of the Cold War. Then on 03 October 2023 Margarita Simonova, editor-in-chief of the Russian Today propaganda empire, proposed using a nuclear electromagnetic pulse (EMP) weapon.

This plan might proceed in eight stages:

    description of the concept, already in progress.
    Denunciation of the Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty, already in progress.
    Announcement of an intention to resuming testing.
    Conduct an underground nuclear test in the Arctic.
    A nuclear test in space above Siberia, creating a damaging EMP over Russian territory and crippling many satellites in space.
    A nuclear attack against the US, with a nuclear detonation in space, over Manhattan, which could cause a blackout across the Northeastern United States and damage or destroy electronic devices.
    A nuclear attack against the entire US, with a nuclear detonation in space, over the central USA, which could cause a blackout across the whole USA, and damage or destroy electronic devices.
    further escalation

Simonyan said the EMP taatcks over Siberia, which would render all iPhones and iPads useless, would take us "back to the year of 1993 or so, corded phones". She added: "I'll tell you. It was a wonderful life." It would be the “most humane” and “harmless” form of nuclear blackmail, she claimed, but her outburst appeared too extreme even for her paymasters in the Kremlin.

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Quote:While the campaign was never taken seriously in mainstream circles, it was further hampered by Victoria’s involvement in publishing the details of the Beecher scandal. She would be in and out of courtrooms and jailhouses for charges of libel and obscenity over the next five years. In 1876, Woodhull and Claflin’s Weekly was forced to fold, and nearly broke, the sisters moved to England, marrying into wealthy families and reinventing themselves as aristocrats and patrons of the arts. While their days of agitating for women’s rights and social reform were over, both lived to see women gain the right to vote both in the United States and their adopted homeland of Great Britain. Victoria Woodhull died in 1927 at the age of 88.

The First Woman To Run For President: Victoria Woodhull

Quote:During his service in Nicaragua, Butler led an assault on the city of Granada. Despite a 104-degree malaria-induced fever, his tenacious leadership and ferocity inspired his fellow Marines. There they coined the nickname “Old Gimlet Eye” and it stuck. Their exact intent in calling him this remains unclear. Prior to his days as a Prohibitionist, Butler was known to enjoy the occasional cocktail. Additionally, in malaria-prone regions, it was not uncommon for foreigners to ingest impressive quantities of gin or other beverages (paired with medicinal quinine) to help ward off disease. In letters to his wife Ethel, Butler noted that he had served for a week without food, taking in only “quinine and limeade”. Whether the drink was spiked or not we may never know, but his men undoubtedly saw the officer with a piercing glare and a green colored beverage…and so the nickname stuck!

The Drinks of the Marine Corps: Smedley Butler and the Origin of “Old Gimlet Eye”

Quote:1970: Down With the Midi! Wait, what?

As Miami Fashion Week hits the runway, we can't help but wonder if, for all the bijou and bling, the styles on show this week will provoke the kind of passion recorded in this clip.

It's 1970 and if you're an American with a problem your course is clear -- paint a sign, hit the street, and form a picket line! In this clip a number of Miami women come together at Northside Shopping Center to register their opposition to the midi skirt.

And what, you ask, is a "midi skirt?" The "midi," with its hemline somewhere between the knee and the ankle, was a response to the super-short mini skirt of the late 1960s. A none too popular reaction, if the mini skirt supporters in this clip are any indication.

In the heady, activist days of the late 1960s and early 1970s, with the Women's Movement taking shape, a "fashion statement" was often a political statement.

Many found the mini skirt comfortable, sexy, even liberating. In contrast, the longer, more conservative midi looked like a step backward. And some women -- such as the women in this clip -- were not having it.

Quote:A spokesman said the risk of an egg being infected with salmonella was less than 200 million to one.

The National Farmers' Union said it might seek legal damages.

Legal action

Mrs Currie has been unavailable for comment since her remarks were made.

She has represented her constituency since 1983 and was made junior health minister in 1986.

During her short time at the Department of Health, Mrs Currie has courted controversy with her outspoken opinions.

She upset northerners when she claimed they were dying of "ignorance and chips".

And she was branded patronising and callous for advising the elderly to broach the winter months with a pair of long-johns.

One of her most controversial remarks was on the subject of Aids.

She said: "Good Christian people who would not dream of misbehaving will not catch Aids."