POTATOS

The annual Great California ShakeOut Drill will be held today, with millions of Southland residents joining people across the state — and around the world — as they drop, cover and hold to practice their readiness for a major earthquake. As of Wednesday, nearly 3.6 million Los Angeles County residents had registered at ShakeOut.org to participate in the drill, along with nearly 830,000 in Orange County. Across the country and globe, more than 10 million people had already signed on for the exercise. The drill itself will be held at 10:19 a.m. — the time reflecting the date of Oct. 19. At that time, participants including students, business employees and government workers will be instructed to “drop” to the ground, take “cover” under a desk, table or other sturdy surface and “hold on” for 60 seconds, as if a major earthquake were occurring. “To react quickly you must practice often,” according to ShakeOut organizers. “You may only have seconds to protect yourself in an earth...

Police and protesters swarmed the  University of Florida  on Thursday as the campus braced for a speech by white nationalist Richard Spencer, whose planned appearance led Florida's governor to declare a state of emergency for the area. Spencer, whose last major public appearance with other white nationalists ended with a riot in Charlottesville, Va., this year, was expected to speak in the afternoon at the Phillips Center for the Performing Arts on an isolated corner of the campus. Weapons have been banned from the event, along with a wide range of other items, including water bottles, masks, shields and hats. Spencer gained national prominence in recent years for his support of  President Trump  and for his views calling for a separate nation for white people. The apparent resurgence in white nationalism in the U.S. has sparked anti-supremacists to mobilize with their own efforts, which have included nonviolent demonstrations and pressure campaigns on compa...

The following is a list of  states  that have admitted the possession of nuclear weapons or are presumed to possess them, the approximate number of  warheads  under their control, and the year they tested their first weapon and their force configuration. This list is informally known in global politics as the "Nuclear Club". With the exception of Russia and the United States (which have subjected their nuclear forces to independent verification under various treaties) these figures are estimates, in some cases quite unreliable estimates. In particular, under the  Strategic Offensive Reductions Treaty  thousands of Russian and U.S. nuclear warheads are inactive in stockpiles awaiting processing. The fissile material contained in the warheads can then be recycled for use in  nuclear reactors . From a high of 68,000 active weapons in 1985, as of 2016 there are some 4,000 active nuclear warheads and 10,100 total nuclear warheads in the world....

Obama said he was "surprised" and "deeply humbled" by the award. In remarks given at the  White House Rose Garden  on the day of the announcement, Obama stated, "I do not view it as a recognition of my own accomplishments but rather an affirmation of American leadership on behalf of aspirations held by people in all nations." "Throughout history, the Nobel Peace Prize has not just been used to honor specific achievement; it's also been used as a means to give momentum to a set of causes," Obama said. "And that is why I will accept this award as a call to action — a call for all nations to confront the common challenges of the 21st century." He said those common challenges included the goal of eliminating nuclear weapons (which he said might not occur in his lifetime), nuclear proliferation, climate change, tolerance "among people of different faiths and races and religions", peace between and security for Israelis a...

Alfred Nobel   was born on 21 October 1833 in  Stockholm , Sweden, into a family of engineers. He was a chemist, engineer, and inventor. In 1894, Nobel purchased the  Bofors  iron and steel mill, which he made into a major  armaments   manufacturer . Nobel also invented  ballistite . This invention was a precursor to many smokeless military explosives, especially the British smokeless powder  cordite . As a consequence of his patent claims, Nobel was eventually involved in a patent infringement lawsuit over cordite. Nobel amassed a fortune during his lifetime, with most of his wealth from his 355 inventions, of which  dynamite  is the most famous. In 1888, Nobel was astonished to read his own obituary, titled  The merchant of death is dead , in a French newspaper. As it was Alfred's brother  Ludvig  who had died, the obituary was eight years premature. The article disconcerted Nobel and made him appre...