ISIS Threatened Obama

“Know also that we will cut off your head in the White House, and transform America into a Muslim Province.”

- ISIS fighter in new beheading video

A new beheading video from ISIS included this direct threat against President Obama. This is also one of three new warnings from ISIS, including pledges to kill Jordanian and Japanese hostages if a hostage held by Jordan is not freed. 

These men also had warnings for European nations.

“And this is my message to France and to its sister, Belgium,” he said. “We advise you that we will come to you with car bombs and explosive charges, and will cut off your heads.”

"Any more delays by the Jordanian government will mean [that] they are responsible for the death of their pilot, which then will be followed by mine [i.e. my death],” says a voice believed to be that of Kenji Goto Jogo, one of two Japanese hostages shown in a video released a week ago, along with a demand for $200 million from Japan. "I only have 24 hours left to live, and the pilot has even less. Please don't leave us to die."

The White House, apparently, didn't respond immediately to requests for comment about the new threats, including the one specifically directed at President Obama. 
In that video, the Islamic State fighters also single out Masoud Barzani, the president of the Kurdish-controlled portion of Iraq.

“But as for you, oh Masoud, you dog, we are going to behead you and throw you into the trash bin of history,” he shouted during the video, while waving his fist in the air. “Know that we are men who fear no one. We will institute the laws of Allah, may He be exalted and praised.”


He then issued another warning, saying that for every missile launched by Kurdish forces, that they would behead one of their soldiers before slitting the throat of the Kurd fighter as people gathered to watch the incident on a public street.

 http://www.foxnews.com/world/2015/01/27/isis-threatens-obama-japanese-and-jordanian-hostages-in-new-online-messages/

Final Exam: Question 3- Paris

 On Wednesday 7 January, a black Citroen C3 drove up to the Charlie Hebdo building in Rue Nicolas-Appert. Two masked gunmen, dressed in black and armed with Kalashnikov assault rifles got out and approached the offices. They went into number 6, Rue Nicolas-Appert, then realized that htye had the wrong address. They then moved down the street to number 10 - where the Charlie Hebdo offices are on the second floor.

Once inside, the men, now known to be brothers Cherif and Said Kouachi, asked maintenance staff in reception where the magazine's offices were, before shooting dead caretaker Frederic Boisseau.

The gunmen threatened one of the magazine's cartoonists and forced her to enter the code to get in. They killed the editor's bodyguard, then asked for four cartoonists by name and killed them along with three other editorial staff and a guest that was at the weekly meeting that was taking place when this happened.

Witnesses said they had heard the gunmen shouting "We have avenged the Prophet Muhammad" and "God is Great" in Arabic while calling out the names of the journalists.


Police, alerted to a shooting incident, arrived at the scene as the gunmen were leaving the building.



One police officer was killed.

As police continued their search for the Charlie Hebdo attack suspects, a lone gunman shot two people in the southern Paris suburb of Montrouge.

The gunman, armed with a machine-gun and a pistol, shot dead a policewoman and injured a man before fleeing. The French authorities initially dismissed any suggestion of a link between the shooting and the Charlie Hebdo killings, but later confirmed the two were connected.

On Friday, the men were killed and two police officers were injured.

Meanwhile, a gunman took several people hostage at a kosher supermarket at Porte de Vincennes in the east of Paris after a shootout. Police quickly surrounded the building.

All in all, 17 people were killed because of this.

Frankly, I would not feel completely safe at all traveling to Paris right now. Although, if it was absolutely necessary, I would be alright with it. This was a planned out attack on a specific place, not just a random shooting.

Final Exam: Question 2- Ferguson

On August 9, an 18 year old black male, Michael Brown was shot and killed by white Officer Darren Wilson. The Grand Jury decided that Wilson would not go to court. This caused riots and people started destroying their own community. Why? Why are they burning their own buildings? What does that do for them? Nothing. It doesn't help them what so ever. It only makes the situation worse. I don't understand why this is such a big deal. 

Most importantly though, I don't understand why they are doing this. They are looting and burning their own stores and buildings. They are just creating more chaos. The thing is, stuff like what happened to Michael Brown and other shootings where a person is killed is and the shooter gets away or not charged happens all the time. Why are people making such a big deal over this one and select others? 

It's race. A WHITE police officer shot and killed a BLACK unarmed 18 year old. Nothing as big at what happened in Ferguson would have happened if it was any other race, not even close.

Is there a group that is underrepresented? I believe the police officers are. They put their lives on the line for us to protect us every day. And what thanks do they get for it? This. 

Final Exam: Question 1-November Election

This past November, there were many Senate seats that were up for reelection. I followed the Kansas Senate race. This race was between Greg Orman, an Independent candidate, and Pat Roberts, Republican, who was up for reelection. There was a third candidate, a Democrat, Chad Taylor, that dropped out in hopes that Orman would win and side with the Democrats. 

After Taylor dropped out, Orman took the lead over Roberts.

Orman must have felt extremely confident that he would win because then Roberts took the lead narrowly. From then on it was an extremely close race. 

Sen. Pat Roberts has narrowly won the Kansas Senate Race 53.24% to 42.50%. I completely agree with the voters. Roberts won because he over come the anti-incumbent fervor, his weak showing in the primary, criticism that he was out of touch with the state, and an unusually cold Kansas political scene for Republicans. Outside groups also helped by putting $10 million to support him and oppose Orman. All of these efforts and his aggressive campaign saying that Orman was a lapdog for Washington Democrats helped Roberts pull off a win.

"Beautiful" People Eat Free?

So "beautiful" people eat free now? Um, excuse me?

A restaurant in Zhengzhou, China, is experimenting with allowing customers to pay with a new form of currency, their beauty. Reported by China's official news agency, this restaurant uses a "face scanner" and takes a picture of customers before they are seated. Their appearances are then judged by a panel of "experts," who are actually plastic surgeons that the restaurant has some sort of joint promotion agreement with. Those who meet the standards set by the "experts" eat at the restaurant, called Jeju Island, for free.

Makes you wonder how anyone can still be hungry after hearing about the deal, barfing seems like the most appropriate response.

In the city of Zhengzhou, local authorities were not impressed and took down an advertisement saying "Free meal for the goodlooking." Despite the advertisement being taken down, restaurant owners said that the promotion will continue.

If you happen to be in Zhengzhou and you're hungry, the word is that protruding foreheads are considered an advantage among the judges. Good to know there's one place in galaxy where Klingons can get a free meal.

But this really upsets me. How could people do this? So many people have a negative self-image, why are they doing this? Outward beauty is all a matter of opinion. Never let an "expert" tell you that you are not beautiful. Especially if it is based only on your appearance. You appearance isn't even what makes you beautiful. It's how you think, how you act, what you say. All those things make you beautiful. If you are beautiful on the inside, then you most certainly are gorgeous on the outside.

Flu Shot Not Working?

This year's flu vaccine is only 23 percent effective, according to new estimates from the CDC. This confirms the earlier speculation among public heath officials that this flu season's vaccine was a poor match for the dominant strains that were out.

In the 10 years the CDC has been studying flu vaccine effectiveness, seasonal vaccines have ranged from 10 percent to 60 percent in their effectiveness to prevent flu-related visits to medical practices.

According to the CDC, more than two-thirds of A (H3N2) viruses, this season's dominant stain, in circulation have become genetically different from the A (H3N2) component used in this year's vaccine.

Nevertheless, the CDC continues to recommend all persons 6 months and older get the vaccine, because of its potential to prevent at least some flu viruses, as well as reduce the number of complications and hospitalizations among those who do become ill.

Drug manufacturers say they've produced ample supplies of antiviral medications to meet the increased demand. Although there is no national shortage of these meds, the CDC has received anecdotal reports of temporary spot shortages.

So make sure you wash your hands and try not to sneeze or cough on anyone.

Explosion Near NAACP

On Tuesday, there was an explosion outside a local NAACP in Colorado Springs, Colorado. The FBI said an improvised explosive device detonated next to a gas can but the can did not ignite, according to NBC station KOAA. The blast left singe marks against the building which houses the local NAACP chapter and a hair salon called Mr. G's Hair Design Studios, KOAA reported.

The FBI are still looking for a potential person of interest. However, FBI spokeswoman Amy Sanders told The Associated Press that investigators were looking for a balding white man in his 40s that could possibly be driving a dirty pickup truck that might have an open tailgate or a missiong or covered license plate.

The president of the local NAACP chapter, Henry Allen Jr., told KOAA that "apparently we are doing something correct," suggesting the attack was targeted at his organization.

"Apparently we have the attention of someone that knows we are working for civil rights for all," he said. "That is making some people uncomfortable, so therefore they feel the need to target."

Urban Outfitters: Promoting The "Inner Thigh Gap"

Urban Outfitters is being accused of promoting something called the “inner thigh gap,” a term used to describe the space between a thin woman’s thighs. The UK's Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) forced them to remove an image of a model that has an "unhealthy" gap.

A complaint was filed with the ASA saying the model was extremely underweight and could have a negative impact on young consumers. The ASA – which regulates misleading, harmful or offensive advertisements – said: “The complainant, who believed that the model in the picture was unhealthily thin, challenged whether the ad was irresponsible and harmful. We considered that the model was very thin, and noted, in particular, that there was a significant gap between the model’s thighs, and that her thighs and knees were a similar width.” 

It added: “We understood that Urban Outfitters’ target market was young people and considered that using a noticeably underweight model was likely to impress upon that audience that the image was representative of the people who might wear Urban Outfitters’ clothing, and as being something to aspire to. We therefore concluded that the ad was irresponsible.”

Urban Outfitters replaced the image below with this one:

Urban Outfitters told the ASA that it did not believe that the image was a problem and still has images like these:

still up on their website. It said it was “common practice to use slim models in the underwear industry”, and that the firm “did not consider that the model was underweight or unhealthily thin”.

I don't believe that these types of pictures should be used. It creates an imagine in peoples minds that that is the way they have to look. 

And That Concludes The Interview

Sony has canceled the plans for the Christmas day release of "The Interview." A link to put the blame on North Korea for the hacking attack on Sony came out shortly after this news. Getting Sony not to show the movie was one of the hackers' public demands. Officials say that the attack originated outside North Korea, but believe the people behind it were acting on orders from the North Korean government. 

This attack is worrying to the intelligence community because this is the first time destructive malware has targeted a U.S. firm. The malware used in the Sony attack has two destructive threads (1) overwrites data and (2) it interrupts execution processes. The FBI warns that this can be so destructive that the data could be lost forever.

This week North Korea's state-run media KCNA said that the hacking was done by "sympathizers." 

An expert on North Korea has said that this will been seen that America is vulnerable to blackmail and that North Korea will try this again. "Sony was stupid to make a movie about killing Kim Jung-un but was even more stupid to cave in to pressure," says another expert.

A Steve Carell "paranoid" thriller "that was to be set in North Korea" has been scrapped.

In an interview with president Obama, he encouraged Americans to go to the movies.