·       Russia To Save World from Asteroid Strike

·       2011 BCS Game To Be In 3-D.

·       Obama Plan to Disarm America

·       China Warns Obama Over Taiwan

·       2010 Election Predictions.

Happy New Year! Everybody was off for Christmas . . . And apparently, so was Homeland Security . - Leno

Russian scientists will soon meet in secret to work on a plan for saving Earth from a catastrophic collision with a giant asteroid in 26 years, the head of Russia’s space agency said Wednesday.

“We will soon hold a closed meeting of our collegium, the science-technical council to look at what can be done” to prevent the asteroid Apophis from slamming into the planet in 2036, Anatoly Perminov told Voice of Russia radio.

“Better to spend a few hundred million dollars to create a system for preventing a collision than to wait until it happens and hundreds of thousands of people are killed,” Perminov said.

The Apophis asteroid measures approximately 350 metres (1,150 feet) in diameter and RIA Novosti news agency said that if it were to hit Earth when it passes nearby in 2036 it would create a new desert the size of France.

Perminov said a serious plan to prevent such a catastrophe would probably be an international project involving Russian, European, US and Chinese space experts.

Interfax quoted him as saying that one option would be to build a new “space apparatus” designed solely for the purpose of diverting Apophis from a collision course with Earth safely.

“There won’t be any nuclear explosions,” Perminov said. “Everything will be done according to the laws of physics. We will examine all of this.”

In a statement dated from October and posted on its website, the US space agencyNASA said new calculations on the path of Apophis indicated “a significantly reduced likelihood of a hazardous encounter with Earth in 2036.”

“Updated computational techniques and newly available data indicate the probability of an Earth encounter on April 13, 2036, for Apophis has dropped from one-in-45,000 to about four-in-a-million,” NASA said.

RIA Novosti said the asteroid was expected to pass within 30,000 kilometres (18,600 miles) of Earth in 2029 — closer than some geo-stationary satellites — and could shift course to hit Earth seven years after that.

Skeptics say the odds are it will miss Earth and the whole things is a Russian ploy to put dangerous weapons in space. Others point to the 1998 movie where a USA team sacrifices itself to stop just such a catastrophe and Russia’s desire to be a hero..Last week Russia unveiled plans for multiple manned and unmanned space missions to replace U. S. as space leader.

Cothurnal (koh-THUR-nuhl) adjective: Of or related to tragedy or tragic acting. ETYMOLOGY:From Latin, from Greek kothornos (a thick-soled laced boot worn by tragic actors in ancient Athenian tragedies).

Today is the 2010 Bowl Championship Series (BCS) national collegiate football championship game between slightly favored Alabama and Texas and if ESPN, owned by ABC, and Disney have their way next year’s game will be in 3D. That game plus 25 World Cup matches, college basketball and football, and the Summer X Games will also be shown in 3-D on home television sets according to ESPN.

Discovery Communications, Sony and Imax are also set to announce Tuesday a 3D network that would launch in 2011. The joint venture of the three firms doesn’t have an official name for the network yet, although it has created a logo that says “3D TV,” according to sources. 

ESPN has been testing ESPN 3D for more than two years. For example, it showed a USC-Ohio State college football game in select theaters and on USC’s campus.

viewers must have a 3D-ready TV set to see the 3-D broadcast, and might need a new set-top box. And yes, viewers also must wear 3D glasses.

Plus, the added cost of producing content in 3D will likely get passed onto the consumer, resulting in another cable pay tier similar to current high-definition packages.

The recent box office success of “Avatar,” which recently passed $1 billion worldwide and is set to become the #2 movie of all time behind director James Cameron’s own “Titanic,” has helped prove the 3D format can draw a stunning number of viewers. 

3-D has existed in some form since the 1890s. Frederick Eugene Ives patented his stereo camera rig in 1900. The camera had two lenses coupled together 1 3/4 inches apart. Many say the “golden era” of 3-D began in 1952 with the release of the first color stereoscopic feature, Bwana Devil, produced, written and directed by Arch Oboler.

Some will recall that Stereo sound was a response to 3-D movies and called “3-D radio”

Obama’s plan to begin unilateral phasing out U. S. nuclear weapons has run up against powerful resistance from the Pentagon and other US agencies, The Los Angeles Times reported late Sunday.

Obama laid out his vision of a nuclear-free world in a speech in Prague last April in what many saw as an audition for the Nobel Peace Prize.

Since then he has ended numerous defense programs including arguably the scraping air superiority F-22 fighter program, cutting the strategic bomber program, and reducing naval assets while China is arming to the teeth for a pushg against Taiwan and into the Pacific, and Russia is on the edge of military modernization and reexpansion.

But citing unnamed officials, the newspaper said the Obama administration is now locked in internal debate over a top-secret policy blueprint for shrinking the US nuclear arsenal and reducing the role of such weapons in country’s military strategy. Military commanders worry Obama’s plan is tantamont to disarming America and invites aggression against it and its allies who are already looking elsewhere for a reliable strategic partner.

Officials in the Pentagon and elsewhere have pushed back against proposals to cut the number of weapons and narrow their mission, the report said.

In turn, White House officials, unhappy with early Pentagon-led drafts of the blueprint known as the Nuclear Posture Review, have stepped up their involvement in the deliberations and ordered that the document reflect Obama’s preference for sweeping change, The Times noted.

The Pentagon has stressed the importance of continued US deterrence, an objective Obama has said he agrees with, the report said.

But a senior Defense official, who described the debate as “spirited,” acknowledged that some officials are concerned that the administration may be going too far, the paper pointed out.

Critics wonder what is to be gained by desolving the long held and successful “Peace Through Strength” ethos that formed the basis for the dissembling of the former Soviet Union and ending the Cold War without bloodshed.

 Investigators in the Florida Keys say they lured a suspected marijuana grower into turning himself in by leaving a ransom note in place of six seized pot plants.  Police left a number saying to call for the price to get his pot plants back. The grower called and offered $200 — the Einstein is in jail.

China on Tuesday again warned the United States against selling arms to Taiwan, amid media speculation that Washington could soon act on the island’s request for new weapons.

“We firmly oppose the US selling arms to Taiwan,” foreign ministry spokeswoman Jiang Yu told reporters at a regular briefing, saying Beijing has had “serious consultations” with Washington on the issue.

“We urge the US to recognise the gravity of selling arms to Taiwan… cancel any plans to sell arms to Taiwan and stop selling arms to Taiwan so as not to damage China-US relations.”

Taiwan’s President Ma Ying-jeou, despite warming ties with Beijing, has appealed to the United States for weapons, saying the island must stay on guard in light of the mainland’s sharp rise in military spending.

Taipei is reportedly seeking F-16 fighter jets as well as helicopters for military transport and rescue missions to modernise its ageing fleet, and Obama is expected to act on that request in the coming months.

Washington has been the leading arms supplier to independent Taiwan, despite switching diplomatic recognition from Taipei to Beijing during the Carter presidency,.

China and Taiwan split in 1949. Beijing still views the island as part of its territory awaiting reunification, by force if necessary.

During his visit to China in November, Obama reiterated that the United States believed there was only one China shocking the Taiwanese..

The United States is required by law to provide Taiwan with weapons of a defensive nature, under the Taiwan Relations Act.

US defense firm Raytheon said last month that it had been awarded a contract worth 1.1 billion dollars for new Patriot missile systems to Taiwan, but that the missiles themselves would be part of a separate contract.

China is increasingly confident that it can bull rush Obama getting what it wants as it surged into the Pacific.

In reelated news China is said to be interested in taking over as many as 200 U. S. radio stations which could give it a trangle hold on Americans’ information media.

The other day in Ohio, employees at a Wendy’s saved a man’s life. Apparently, they told him, “We’re closed.”– O’Brien

Neither Connecticut’s Democrat Senator Chris Dodd or Sen. Byron L. Dorgan (D-N.D.)  will seek reelection. Dodd is trailing badly in polls.

Nevada’s Democrat Senator Harry Reid is also expected to lose his seat as his popularity there has plummeted.

The party in the White House, with rare exception, lose ground in midterm elections. In 1954 Eisenhower lost 18 House and one Seante seat; In 1962 Kennedy lost 4 house seats but gained 3 senators; in 1970 Nixon lost 12 House seats and gained 2 in Senate; in 1978 Carter dropped 15 house members and 3 in Senate; Reagan lost 26 in the house and gain one Senator; Clinton set the record in 1994 losing 54 house members and 8 Senate seats. Ironically G. W. Bush is the only modern President to gain in the House and Senate adding 8 and 4 respectively in 2002.

Prognosticators predict a shift of at least 30 house seats and as many as 8 Senate seats in this November’s national election. Such loses would not give Republicans control but would shift the power center away from Obama. Republicans have to win 40 house seats and 11 in the Senate to take control – and that is unlikely. All 435 house members, 36 Senators and 37 state houses are up for grabs.

The history of midterm elections does not escape Obama and Democrats which explains what the near panic to push through his agenda before the 2010 campaigns heat up.  

The 2010 census  will trigger redistricting nationwide setting up major shifts across the nation in 2012 when odds are Obama will run for a second term in the White House  in an entirely new political environment  either building or reversing the 2010 outcomes.     

In most state the filing period has just opened or is about to begin. All candidates for the June primary must file, collect sufficient signatures from citizens who are reghistered to vote in the contested jurisdiction, and pay a fee to run for office.

The good news is that this Nigerian underwear bomber is now in custody. Remember the good old days when the only threat from Nigeria was spam e-mail? — Leno