in 1966, this same site was home to South Dakota’s first, last and only nuclear power plant. The plan for the plant was submitted to the U.S. Atomic Energy Commission and Northern States Power in August of 1959 by Allis Chalmers Manufacturing, which around here, most of us know as a tractor company. At that time Allis Chalmers had an Atomic Energy Division. //

In South Dakota just under half of our power comes from the hydro-electric plants along the Missouri River. Pathfinder might have gone on to power homes in South Dakota, however repeated failure in the steam separators caused the plant to shut down and eventually led to the decision to close the plant.

“I think we would classify Pathfinder as a research project. You know it began construction in the late ’50s, went online in 64, and then operated for 3 years, intermittently for testing purposes, for research purposes,” said Wilcox. //

“The reactor itself was removed in 1991,” said Wilcox.

The rest of Pathfinder was taken down and moved in the early 2000s.

“And the piping and all the other equipment which was at a level low enough to be handled by people physically without any protective gear,” Wilcox added.

In 2017, Christopher Monckton, Third Viscount Monckton of Brenchley and a former adviser to British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher, called Lt. Gen. Ion Mihai Pacepa the “most influential man of the 20th century and, arguably, the beginning of the 21st.”

He was the man who pulled back the curtain to reveal the disinformation that was being churned out from the Soviet bloc. Unfortunately, most people remained unfamiliar with Pacepa and his work.

In the early morning hours of Feb. 14, 2021, COVID-19 accomplished what a $2 million bounty and two separate teams of Romanian-sponsored assassins could not. Ion Mihai Pacepa, “Mike” to those who knew him, was called home to his eternal reward. //

Eventually the CIA convinced Carter of Pacepa’s bona fides, and Western intelligence agencies tapped the invaluable information he provided. Most important was his explanation of the way Soviet agents planted disinformation to deceive and undermine faith in Western governments, leaders, history, and institutions—especially the churches. When Pacepa later attained U.S. citizenship, the CIA gave him a letter thanking him for his “important and unique contribution to the United States.”

In Romania, Ceaușescu created a special Securitate unit charged with the sole task of assassinating Pacepa. The dictator also put two separate $1 million bounties on his head and dispatched the infamous assassin “Carlos the Jackal” to carry out the job, as well as a second team of assassins. They came close. Twice Pacepa’s secret identity was compromised and he had to undergo plastic surgery and rebuild his life with his American wife, a CIA agent whom he met while being debriefed.

Chris2
41 minutes ago
In light of the holiday, I pulled an old AP fact-checking article from the library:

CLAIM: Black people have Constitutional rights. In a pamphlet, Republican presidential candidate Abraham Lincoln claim Black people have rights under the U.S. Constitution.

AP ASSESSMENT: FALSE. As SCOTUS correctly held, "A Black man has no rights that a white man is bound to respect." No American court has acknowledged the Constitutional rights of Black people; this false pamphlet meme is based on a single case from a British court, and the author neglects to mention that we fought two wars (the Revolution and the War of 1812) to avoid living under British law. Therefore, we assess Republican presidential candidate Abraham Lincoln's claims to the contrary to be FALSE. Please read the AP's endorsement of Democrat Stephen Douglas, who has called for a return to normalcy and decency on the slavery issue.

See how much fun we can have when we rely upon courts for our facts? Well-educated people recognize the appeal to authority fallacy, but liberals can't. Indeed, the appeal to authority fallacy is pretty much their entire thought process, so...

The war that brought unspeakable suffering also contributed to the creation of some of the most beloved and heroic literature of modern times. //

There were not many bright spots in the years 1939-1945 when it seemed that not only Great Britain but Western civilization itself sat on the edge of a knife. Yet these years proved to be among the most creative and meaningful for two of the 20th century’s greatest Christian authors. Indeed, those uncertain times were the crucible for a friendship that helped to ignite their astonishing literary imagination. //

Throughout the war years, Tolkien read each new chapter of “The Lord of the Rings” out loud to Lewis, who sometimes wept over the poignancy of a passage. “But for his interest and unceasing eagerness for more,” Tolkien later explained, “I should never have brought the ‘The Lord of the Rings’ to a conclusion.”

A lot of people don’t know that the brand was based upon the faces and/efforts of real women. Among those women were Nancy Green, Anna Harrington and Lillian Richard. Their family members were concerned that the removal of the picture and changing the name they further erase the real contributions of their family members who helped to make the brand. //

So rather than the silly name that the company picked trying to be woke, how about actually recognizing the real people involved? Maybe actually recognizing them on the bottle and giving the families some residuals from that?

LIVING
Woolly rhino defrosted after more than 25,000 years
By Hannah Sparks

January 26, 2021 | 3:53pm

A young, woolly rhino has been thawed whole after as much as 40,000 years frozen in Siberian permafrost.

During an unveiling for Russian press on Tuesday, scientists in Yakutsk officially cataloged the 8-foot-long beast, believed to have perished between 25,000 and 40,000 years ago, as a healthy adolescent of 3 or 4 years old. //

Plotnikov, whose excavations throughout Yakutia — one of the coldest regions on Earth — has revealed remarkably well-preserved specimens such as a giant wolf head, noted that the teenage rhino had been “very well-fed at the moment it died.”

If Democrats want to impeach someone for inciting insurrection, they could start with Harriet Tubman. She was one of the major planners of the attempt to take over and occupy the United States arsenal at Harpers Ferry in 1859. Seventeen people were killed in that action. The leader, John Brown, was charged with treason against the Commonwealth of Virginia, murder, and inciting insurrection. He and six others were convicted and executed for their roles in the attack. Had she not fallen ill shortly before the attack, Harriet Tubman might well have been among those captured and executed.

Monrovia – One hundred and fifty years after their patriarch, John Prince Porte, led his young family and joined 240 other citizens of Barbados, braving the cold and turbulent waters of the Atlantic, the story of the Porte emigration to Liberia has been recorded and published.

The multi-year collaborative project was the brainchild of Ambassador Lorenzo Witherspoon, great-great grandson of John Prince Porte who served as Project Director and Executive Director, and his daughter, Loyce Beryl Witherspoon, as Lead Researcher and Producer.

It was produced thanks to the support of family members across the globe, as well as indispensable contributIons from family elders, Elfric K. Porte, Kenneth Y. Best and Ina D. King, in addition to Rodney D. Sieh and Lindiwe Khumalo. //

the Barbados Minister of Home Affairs, Information and Public Affairs, Hon. Wilfred Abrahams, announced the decision by the government to enact new and transformational legislation that will extend citizenship rights to all direct descendants of citizens of Barbados, irrespective of generation. This is a fundamental change from the current citizenship law which restricts citizenship rights to children and grandchildren. //

The plan hopes to boost its population, currently 290,000, by availing multi-generational diaspora descendants citizenship of the island. The change would mean that, providing they can prove it, descendants of the island who settled in Liberia beginning in April 1865 and after could be in line for citizenship of Barbados.

The 1998 movie “Saving Private Ryan” is one of the all-time great war movies. While much of the movie is a fictional account, the premise behind Capt. Miller’s mission is based on a true story. That is the story of the Niland brothers — Edward, Preston, Robert, and Frederick — from Tonawanda, New York.

The two middle brothers inspiring the “Private Ryan” film, Preston and Robert, had enlisted prior to the beginning of the War. After America entered the war the oldest, Edward, and youngest, Frederick, known as Fritz to his friends, joined up in November 1942. //

When the War Department received word of the tragedy orders were dispatched to return Fritz Niland to the United States. That task fell to the regimental Chaplin, Father Francis Sampson. Sampson located Fritz, who had been searching for his brother in the 82nd and began to paperwork to send him home.

Returning to the United States in 1944, Fritz served for the remainder of the war as an MP in New York.

Since the early years of Airbus, its decentralized nature has required the planemaker to transport aircraft components from various parts of Europe to a final assembly facility. Before developing its own Beluga and subsequent Beluga XL, it was often said that “every Airbus is delivered on the wings of a Boeing.” Let’s briefly look at how Boeing (very) indirectly gave Airbus a helping hand in those early years and why this was necessary. //

In its early years, Airbus made use of two Super Guppy aircraft, built by an American company by the name of Aero Spacelines. This company, and its Super Guppy product, was formed with the main intent of providing NASA (the US National Aeronautics and Space Administration) a way to transport large cargo between facilities.

The Super Guppy was actually a modified C-97 Stratocruiser, which is the military variant of the Boeing 377 Stratocruiser. This is how the phrase “every Airbus is delivered on the wings of a Boeing” came to be.

President Donald Trump’s advisory 1776 Commission on Monday released a public report, fulfilling its task to revisit the nation’s founding history in an effort to reunite the Americans around its founders’ principles.

NEW DELHI—Two thousand years ago when there was no internet, no social media, and no matrimonial apps for cross-cultural and cross-national alliances, a 16-year-old princess from India sailed to Korea to meet her husband in a journey that changed the course of dynastic history and continues to drive forward the diplomatic and cultural relations of India and South Korea.

The marriage of Indian princess Suriratna, know as Hur Hwang-ock to the Koreans and King Kim Suro of the Gaya Kingdom in 48 AD started the Karak dynasty to which six million Koreans today historically trace their ancestry.

John Henry Smythe, an RAF navigator from Sierra Leone in West Africa, was shot down and captured in Nazi Germany in 1943.

War had broken out four years earlier when he was 25 years old, and Johnny volunteered to join the fight against fascism after a call from Britain to its colonies for recruits. Again and again, he and his comrades risked their lives in the skies above occupied Europe.

After he was liberated from a prisoner-of-war camp, he would go on to become a senior officer aboard the Empire Windrush and then an amateur courtroom talent of such promise he was invited to train as a barrister in England. As the attorney general of Sierra Leone, he would meet President John F Kennedy in the White House.

Over two centuries ago, on June 18, 1812, Jefferson Democrats declared war on Great Britain. At that time, Jefferson Democrats controlled 107 of 143 congressional seats, 26 of 34 senate seats and Thomas Jefferson’s hand pick successor, James Madison, was president. Meanwhile in the city of Baltimore a Federalist publisher named Alexander Contee Hanson lived. Hanson owned one of the most powerful Federalist newspapers in the entire nation, the Federal Republican. //

During the war of 1812, Federalists opposed the war as they believe it was manufactured by the Jefferson Democrats to further that party’s political interests. As soon as war started, Alexander Hanson used the Federal Republican to denounce Madison and the war. Within days, a mob of Jefferson Democrats destroyed the newspaper’s office including the printing press. //

No sooner had the citizens of Baltimore heard of Hanson’s return than they planned a second mob attack. This time, though, Hanson was not going down without a fight— he brought over seventy men into his office to assist him. Among the men defending Hanson were revolutionary leaders Henry “Light Horse Harry” Lee, father of Robert E. Lee, and General James M. Lingan. //

Lee and Madison were classmates at Princeton. They had a long-standing friendship. Since Lee was one of the nation’s foremost military experts, Madison may have asked Lee to come out of retirement to assist in the defense of his country. Lee had provided Madison advice on how to prepare the country’s defenses. Because the mob, in its frenzy, sought to silence Hanson and publish his supporters, it may have altered the course of the War of 1812. If, for example, Madison had the experience of Lee by his side, the British would never have captured and burned Washington, D.C.

Two of the historic SR-71 Blackbird hangars that once lined Beale Air Force's Base's main apron are still standing today.

The story of the first microprocessor, one you may have heard, goes something like this: The Intel 4004 was introduced in late 1971, for use in a calculator. It was a combination of four chips, and it could be programmed to do other things too, like run a cash register or a pinball game. Flexible and inexpensive, the 4004 propelled an entire industry forward; it was the conceptual forefather of the machine upon which you are probably reading this very article.

That’s the canonical sketch. But objects, events, people—they have alternate histories. Their stories can often be told a different way, from a different perspective, or a what could have been.

This is the story, then, of how another first microprocessor, a secret one, came to be—and of my own entwinement with it. The device was designed by a team at a company called Garrett AiResearch on a subcontract for Grumman, the aircraft manufacturer. It was larger, it was a combination of six chips, and it performed crucial functions for the F-14 Tomcat fighter jet, which celebrates the 50th anniversary of its first flight this week. It was called the Central Air Data Computer, and it computed things like altitude and Mach number; it figured out the angle of attack, key to landing and missile targeting; and it controlled the wing sweep, allowing the craft to be both maneuverable when the wings were at about 50 degrees and very, very fast when they were swept all the way back.

Ray Holt was one of the engineers for the Central Air Data Computer. He is probably not someone you have heard of—how could you have? He worked on the project, one of two people doing what’s called the logic design, for two years, between 1968 and 1970, with a team that included his younger brother, Bill. He couldn’t tell anyone about what they had built. The project was kept quiet by the Navy and by Garrett for decades as other engineers were awarded credit for inventing firsts. Later, when he was able to talk about the device, people were skeptical. //

The Intel engineers who share the title told the paper that the Central Air Data Computer was bulky, it was expensive, it wasn’t a general purpose device. One expert said it was not a microprocessor because of how the processing was distributed among the chips. Another—Russell Fish—said it was, noting, “The company that had this technology could have become Intel. It could have accelerated the microprocessor industry at the time by five years." But other people around that time also wanted to claim the title of father of the microprocessor; there were some big patent fights, and not everyone even agrees on the exact definition of a microprocessor in the first place.

“The discussion,” says Fish, who today runs an IP licensing company called Venray, “is not a technical one, it is a philosophical one.” Fish at one point wrote that the 4-bit 4004 could “count to 16,” while the 20-bit CADC “was evaluating sixth order polynomial expressions rapidly enough to move the control surfaces of a dogfighting swing-wing supersonic fighter.” When I spoke to him recently, he said he had gone back and read through the documentation. “What Ray Holt did was absolutely brilliant,” he says. “Particularly given the timeframe. Ray was generations ahead, algorithmically and computationally.”

The world the pilgrims made is a testament to their resolve and daring, without which this country and the people we love so much would not exist.

As fewer of the veterans of The Second World War still remain with us, we must work even harder to remember their sacrifices. //

In celebration of his 100th birthday, former Secretary of State George Shultz wrote an op-ed in The Washington Post about trust. The second of the ten lessons he cited came from his time in the United States Marine Corps during World War II:

During World War II, I served in the Pacific theater in a Marine outfit that included a sergeant named Palat. I have forgotten his first name, but I have never forgotten the respect and admiration — the deep-seated trust — that he inspired. When Palat was killed in action, it brought home to me more than ever how pitiless war can be.

The inspiring words of Puritan John Winthrop are still remembered by Americans awed by his courage, faith, and leadership under punishing conditions.
By Evita Duffy

The Pilgrims and emerging New Englanders made an additional contribution to the formation of the American ethos that is worth expanding upon, however: the daring, intrepid, and risk-taking qualities of those who settled in the northeast coast of what would become the United States. The resolve to pull up stakes and strike out into the perilous unknown — and the faith and fortitude to follow through on it — is an inspirational cultural debt we owe to the first early Pilgrims and New England settlers.

If instead of religious, freedom-seeking, young family units, arrivals on the northern shores of the future American coast had been the unwed, flighty, gold-seeking ruffians of the Jamestown variety, the America that followed would have been remarkably different.