The story of the youngest survivor of the Buchenwald concentration camp to be liberated by the Americans.

The story of the youngest survivor of the Buchenwald concentration camp to be liberated by the Americans.

At age seven, he was separated from his mother when she thrust him over to the menโ€™s side during deportation. โ€œTulek, take Lulek,โ€ she said, entrusting him to Naftali in the hope that the men were more likely to survive. Naftali smuggled him into the Buchenwald labor camp since a child his age would have been exterminated on the spot if discovered. Rabbi Lau thus became the youngest and smallest inmate in the camp. His survival over the next year was largely due to Naftaliโ€™s constant self sacrifice and protection.

You don’t have to be Jewish or even believe in God to agree with this man that miracles do happen every day.

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The Chinese national who had been arrested at Dulles airport as he left for China with a NASA laptop has been released after pleading guilty to one charge, having porn on the laptop.

The Chinese national who had been arrested at Dulles airport as he left for China with a NASA laptop has been released after pleading guilty to one charge, having porn on the laptop.

Investigators found no classified information on the computer. As part of the release agreement, however, the man must leave the U.S.

Though the man, Bo Jiang, was very careful to bring nothing secret with him when he tried to flee to China in March, the circumstantial evidence suggests that he should not have had access to this information in the first place, and that in the past he might have illegally funneled classified information to China.

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Senator Harry Reid (D-Nevada) says the federal government isn’t spending enough to implement Obamacare.

Gee what a surprise: Senator Harry Reid (D-Nevada) says the federal government isn’t spending enough to implement Obamacare.

Even if the federal government was not spending money it doesn’t have and was in the black, there will never be enough money to fund this monstrosity. Too bad Reid and the rest of the Democrats couldn’t figure that out. (Or maybe they did and simply wanted the country to go bankrupt. I wonder.)

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In a NASA contest, a nine-year-old has named asteroid 1999 RQ36 after the Egyptian god Bennu.

A rose by any other name: In a NASA contest, a nine-year-old has named asteroid 1999 RQ36 after the Egyptian god Bennu.

1999 RQ36, or Bennu, is an important asteroid for two reasons. First, NASA is sending an unmanned sample return mission to it in 2016. Second, some calculations suggest the asteroid has a 1 in a 1000 chance of hitting the Earth in 2182.

In other naming news, the private space company Uwingu has launched its “Adopt-a-Planet” campaign.

This open-ended campaign gives anyone in the publicโ€”worldwideโ€”the opportunity to adopt exoplanets in astronomical databases via Uwinguโ€™s web site at www.uwingu.com. Proceeds from the naming and voting will continue to help fuel new Uwingu grants to fund space exploration, research, and education.

As noted earlier, they are ignoring the IAU’s stuffy insistence that only the IAU can name things in space.

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Large majorities in the Muslim world want the Islamic legal and moral code of sharia as the official law in their countries

Large majorities in the Muslim world want the Islamic legal and moral code of sharia as the official law in their countries.

While the poll included many encouraging things, I found this to be its most disturbing statistic:

Suicide bombing was mostly rejected in the study by the Washington-based Pew Forum, but it won 40 percent support in the Palestinian territories, 39 percent in Afghanistan, 29 percent in Egypt and 26 percent in Bangladesh.

Name for me any other culture or religion in the world today where more than a quarter of the population thinks suicide bombings are a good thing.

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Congress is considering exempting itself and its staffers from Obamacare.

Now Congress has found out what’s in it: Lawmakers are considering exempting themselves and their staffers from Obamacare.

If they think the law is too onerous for themselves, then maybe they might finally realize that it is too onerous for everyone, and repeal the damn thing. Unfortunately, such common sense is not likely to appear in Washington.

Update: The story above suggested the exemption was being pushed by both parties. This apparently is not entirely true. There does appear to be some common sense in Washington, at least among some on the Republican side, as indicated by Republican statements from both the House and Senate. As noted by Speaker John Boehner’s office,
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