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Ben Issacs, oldest Pullman porter, dies at 107
Ben Issacs worked for more than thirty years for Pullman as a porter, a uniformed railway man who served first class passengers who traveled in the luxurious sleeping cars.
Founded by George Pullman in 1867, the Pullman Palace Car Company was most famous for developing the railroad sleeping car. The company primarily hired African-Americans for their porter positions, which was a much coveted job between the 1870s and late 1960s as it most often lifted the porters into a middle class status.
Issacs, who was just three weeks shy of his 108th birthday was born Sept. 8, 1904, in Kansas City, Kansas. One of five children of Breckenridge “B.R.” Isaacs, a butcher, and Cora, a school teacher and beautician. He graduated from the local Sumner High School, which educated black children.
In a 2010 interview with the Los Angeles Times, Isaacs fondly recalled his days on the trains. Though challenging—at times he would service up to 50 berths—the job opened up Isaacs’ world.
“I just kind of liked traveling around and seeing the country, and helping people,” he said.
Intrusion embarrasses "Fort Knox of uranium"
The Y-12 National Security Complex, just west of Knoxville, makes uranium parts for every warhead in the US nuclear arsenal, dismantles old weapons and is the nation's primary storehouse for bomb-grade uranium and has long boasted security as tight as Fort Knox. That boast made it especially embarrassing when the plant was penetrated by three anti-war protesters, the leader of which was an 82 year-old nun.
Peter Stockton, a former DOE adviser on nuclear security in the Clinton administration and a senior investigator with the Project On Government Oversight, said the incident hasn't been taken seriously enough because the intruders had no violent intentions.
"We were lucky in that regard that it was the nun and her cohorts, rather than a serious terrorist outfit," Stockton said. POGO, a Washington-based independent watchdog known for exposing overpriced military parts and other government shortcomings, has been a frequent critic of security lapses at the facility.
Stockton called the July 28 intrusion the "only serious penetration of a plant" that he's aware of since becoming involved in nuclear security issues in the mid-1970s.
"It is simply (expletive) unbelievable," he said.
The three struck in the pre-dawn darkness and did little to conceal a near half mile trek into the restricted area which bore a number of signs warning intruders they could be shot.
The intruders used bolt cutters to get through 3 fences tripping alarms in each case. They told their fellow peace movement activists they spent more than two hours inside the restricted area before being discovered.
Way To Go, "sister"!
The Mindset List, created in 1998, is an annual compilation of the worldview of the average 18 year old entering college as a freshman. It serves as a reminder to college professors to update their references lest they be met with a questioning stare by their students. Here are some excerpts from this year's Graduating Class of 2016 Mindset List:
For this generation of entering college students, born in 1994, Kurt Cobain, Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis, Richard Nixon and John Wayne Gacy have always been dead.
-- They have always lived in cyberspace, addicted to a new generation of “electronic narcotics.
-- If they miss The Daily Show, they can always get their news on YouTube.
-- They have never seen an airplane “ticket.”
-- For most of their lives, maintaining relations between the U.S. and the rest of the world has been a woman’s job in the State Department.
-- Exposed bra straps have always been a fashion statement, not a wardrobe malfunction to be corrected quietly by well-meaning friends.
-- They have lived in an era of instant stardom and self-proclaimed celebrities, famous for being famous.
-- They watch television everywhere but on a television.
-- The Green Bay Packers have always celebrated with the Lambeau Leap.
Last, but hardly least, here is your Friday Funny:
Have you ever wondered how French women always manage to stay in such good shape? The answer is right here (eeff, you don't need the sound so watch it)