Favorite Links Friday Week of July 29, 2016

Upcoming Events and Raffle for the POW Shooting Club

Walker opts not to veto bill putting local school boards in charge of sex ed

A bill that puts local school boards in charge sex education will become a law, after Governor Bill Walker decided against vetoing it Thursday. House Bill 156 requires that school boards approve any sex education curriculum, as well as any teachers who aren’t employed under a contract with schools.

The bill also allows parents to opt their children out of any lesson. It also gives parents the right to review sex education curriculum and teachers’ credentials. And it bars the state from requiring school districts to administer standardized tests for two years, unless the federal government threatens to withhold money. [Full Source]

North Korea: U.S. crossed 'red line'...[N.K. Almost declares War]

PYONGYANG, North Korea — North Korea’s top diplomat for U.S. affairs told The Associated Press on Thursday that Washington “crossed the red line” and effectively declared war by putting leader Kim Jong Un on its list of sanctioned individuals, and said a vicious showdown could erupt if the U.S. and South Korea hold annual war games as planned next month.

Han Song Ryol, director-general of the U.S. affairs department at the North’s Foreign Ministry, said in an interview that recent U.S. actions have put the situation on the Korean Peninsula on a war footing.

This region has always been in a near constant 'war footing' since the Korean War never actually officially ended--there was just a cease fire agreed upon.

“The Obama administration went so far to have the impudence to challenge the supreme dignity of the DPRK in order to get rid of its unfavorable position during the political and military showdown with the DPRK,” Han said, using the acronym for North Korea’s official name, the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea.

“The United States has crossed the red line in our showdown,” he said. “We regard this thrice-cursed crime as a declaration of war.”

Echoing earlier state-media reports, Han ridiculed Mark Lippert, the U.S. ambassador to South Korea, for a flight on a U.S. Air Force F-16 based in South Korea that he said was an action “unfit for a diplomat.”

“We regard that as the act of a villain, who is a crazy person,” Han said of the July 12 flight. “All these facts show that the United States is intentionally aggravating the tensions in the Korean Peninsula.”

Han warned that Pyongyang is viewing next month’s planned U.S.-South Korea exercises in this new context and will respond if they are carried out as planned. [Source]

While we are used to N.K. making ridiculous comments. Make no mistake this is not normal behavior and something to be cautious about.

Poor Sleep Makes You More Forgetful (Science confirms common sense)

A study of more than 1,000 UK adults showed that 25 per cent of those who spend less than five hours in the land of Nod suffer from memory malfunction which affects their quality of life.

Participants aged 18 to 80 were asked to measure their sleep against five different “everyday” memories: having to check whether they’ve done something; forgetting to tell somebody something important; where things are normally kept; doing something they intended to do such as posting a letter and finding it difficult to concentrate.

Poor sleep was classed as under five hours a night and the results found that all aspects of memory are affected by low levels of sleep.

The most commonly reported memory failure was having to check whether they had done something with 50 per cent struggling with this problem at least once a week but the figure rose to two thirds for poor sleepers.

Although what's amazing is that 75% of those who sleep under five hours have no impact on their memory...

The independent academic research by psychologists at University of Leeds and leading bed maker Silentnight looked at the effects of sleep on memory and how people function day-to-day, outside of a lab, among the general public.

Dr Anna Weighall, a developmental cognitive psychologist with expertise in sleep research who led the study said: “Good sleep leads to improved memory performance and this leads to a better quality of life.

“It has long been said this is the case and we have noticed such findings in a lab, but this is the first time we have gone out to people in their everyday lives and achieved measurable results.

“It proves to us beyond doubt that those people getting a good night’s sleep can potentially have a better quality of life and hopefully, as a result, be happier. [Full Source]

Breaking: 2 San Diego Police Officers Shot

Authorities say two police officers have been shot in a San Diego neighborhood, and a suspect is reportedly in custody.

The San Diego Union-Tribune is reporting that police said the shooting occurred late Thursday night.

The officers have been taken to a hospital, but their condition was not released.

There was no immediate word on what touched of the violence, which occurred around 11 p.m. PDT in the southeastern part of town.

The paper says police flooded the area in search of suspects, while residents were urged to stay inside.

Police spokesmen did not immediately return calls for further comment, but the department says in a Twitter posting that one suspect was in custody and other possible suspects were being sought. [Source]