Here is the new News Letter-- I don't see much that interest me, but y'all might.. it is snippets with a link at the end to the site that sends it to me..
1. Where is the United States in Prophecy?
Oil shortage could have worldwide ramifications
So are the peak oilists right? A series of recent events certainly appears to lend credence to those who argue that the world’s ageing oilfields are being sucked dry amid China’s and India’s determination to lift themselves out of poverty and the west’s reluctance to give up the luxuries of modern oil-dependent life. The fact that Russia’s oil production declined almost half a percentage point in April, the first drop in a decade, was shocking enough news from the world’s second biggest oil producer, whose output was growing at a rate of 12 per cent just five years ago. But Russian oil executives have gone a step further: Leonid Fedun, vice-president of Lukoil, told the Financial Times the country’s production may have already reached its peak. Just days later Saudi Arabia, the world’s biggest oil producer and by far the largest exporter, confirmed it had put on hold plans to increase the kingdom’s production capacity. Ali Naimi, Saudi energy minister, said the demand forecasts he was reading did not warrant an expansion past the 12.5m b/d capacity Saudi Arabia’s fields will reach next year, following a laborious investment of more than $20bn. King Abdullah, the country’s ruler, put it more bluntly: “I keep no secret from you that, when there were some new finds, I told them, ‘No, leave it in the ground, with grace from God, our children need it’.’’ Most other forecasts show the world will need Saudi Arabia’s oil. Thus the kingdom’s reluctance to invest further in its fields has led some to ask whether Saudi Arabia can boost production or whether, after 75 years, the world’s biggest oil deposit has been cashed............ read more
Iran - this is the strategic reality, like it or not
The situation in the Middle East is coming to a head. According to experts, American preparations for a military confrontation with Iran have been underway for years. Everyone knows the United States has the cruise missiles and bombers needed to smash Iran’s deepest nuclear program after trashing the Iranian air defense grid. There is no need for an invasion of Iran. A simple air strike will solve the Iranian nuclear problem once and for all. But the problem is not so simple. Would the U.S. President bomb Iran after Russian leader Vladimir Putin warned against such a move last year? President Bush appears to dismiss Putin’s warnings, refusing to believe that his “friend” would bring Russia into direct conflict with the United States. Never mind the fact that Russia has armed Iran with anti-ship missiles. Never mind the fact that Iran’s nuclear program wouldn’t have gotten off the ground without Russian help. Look at the price of oil, which Russia is selling in large quantities on the world market. It is in Russia’s interest to make things messy in the Middle East. Iran is not a pushover country, like Iraq. In any military showdown the Iranians have a trump card. They can close the Strait of Hormuz. Given the high price of oil today, would the U.S. President create a battle zone around the world’s most sensitive oil artery? If oil reaches $200 per barrel the global economy will sputter. How will the U.S. economy handle gasoline at $10 per gallon? Perhaps all of this helps explain why President Bush has been putting 70,000 barrels of oil per day into the U.S. Strategic Petroleum Reserve. .......... read more
The Old Titans All Collapsed. Is the U.S. Next?
More than 80 percent of Americans now say that we are on the wrong track, but many if not most still believe that the history of other nations is irrelevant -- that the United States is unique, chosen by God. So did all the previous world economic powers: Rome, Spain, the Netherlands (in the maritime glory days of the 17th century, when New York was New Amsterdam) and 19th-century Britain. Their early strength was also their later weakness, not unlike the United States since the 1980s. There is a considerable literature on these earlier illusions and declines. Reading it, one can argue that imperial Spain, maritime Holland and industrial Britain shared a half-dozen vulnerabilities as they peaked and declined: a sense of things no longer being on the right track, military or imperial overreach, economic polarization, the rise of finance (displacing industry) and excessive debt. So too for today's United States. ......... read more
Calif. quake scientists detail impact of 'Big One'
IThe "Big One," as earthquake scientists imagine it in a detailed, first-of-its-kind script, unzips California's mighty San Andreas Fault north of the Mexican border. In less than two minutes, Los Angeles and its sprawling suburbs are shaking like a bowl of jelly. The jolt from the 7.8-magnitude temblor lasts for three minutes - 15 times longer than the disastrous 1994 Northridge quake. Water and sewer pipes crack. Power fails. Part of major highways break. Some high-rise steel frame buildings and older concrete and brick structures collapse. Hospitals are swamped with 50,000 injured as all of Southern California reels from a blow on par with the Sept. 11 attacks and Hurricane Katrina: $200 billion in damage to the economy, and 1,800 dead. Only about 700 of those people are victims of building collapses. Many others are lost to the 1,600 fires burning across the region - too many for firefighters to tackle at once. A team of about 300 scientists, governments, first responders and industries worked for more than a year to create a realistic crisis scenario that can be used for preparedness, including a statewide drill planned later this year. Published by the U.S. Geological Survey and California Geological Survey, it is to be released Thursday in Washington, D.C. Researchers caution that it is not a prediction, but the possibility of a major California quake in the next few decades is very real. Last month, the USGS reported that the Golden State has a 46 percent chance of a 7.5 or larger quake in the next 30 years, and that such a quake probably would hit Southern California. The Northridge quake, which killed 72 people and caused $25 billion in damage, was much smaller at magnitude 6.7. "We cannot keep on planning for Northridge," said USGS seismologist Lucy Jones. "The science tells that it's not the worst we're going to face.".......... read more
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2. Israel - God's Timepiece
Orthodox Jewish Youths Burn New Testaments in Israel
Orthodox Jews set fire to hundreds of copies of the New Testament in the latest act of violence against Christian missionaries in the Holy Land. Or Yehuda Deputy Mayor Uzi Aharon said missionaries recently entered a neighborhood in the predominantly religious town of 34,000 in central Israel, distributing hundreds of New Testaments and missionary material. After receiving complaints, Aharon said, he got into a loudspeaker car last Thursday and drove through the neighborhood, urging people to turn over the material to Jewish religious students who went door to door to collect it. The books were dumped into a pile and set afire in a lot near a synagogue, he said. He said he regretted the burning of the books, but called it a "commandment" to burn materials that urge Jews to convert. "I certainly don't denounce the burning of the booklets," he said. "I denounce those who distributed the booklets." Calev Myers, an attorney who represents Messianic Jews, or Jews who accept Jesus as their savior, demanded in an interview with Army Radio that all those involved be put on trial. He estimated there were 10,000 Messianic Jews, who are also known as Jews for Jesus, in Israel.......... read more
Israeli military intel: Tel Aviv within range of Hamas rockets by 2010
Israel's military intelligence has projected that Hamas would be capable of producing missiles with a range of up to 50 kilometers. The military has concluded that Iran wants the Hamas regime in the Gaza Strip to achieve the capability of firing missiles and rockets at targets in Tel Aviv, about 50 kilometers from the Gaza Strip. "Every community within a 40-kilometer range may come within range of the Hamas rockets: Ashdod, Kiryat Gat, even Beersheva," Israeli military intelligence commander Maj. Gen. Amos Yadlin said. In an interview on Friday by the Israeli daily Haaretz, Yadlin said Hamas would achieve such a capability by 2010. Yadlin said Hamas wanted to reach similar capabilities as the Iranian-sponsored Hizbullah, which has acquired missiles with a range of at least 120 kilometers............ read more
Palestinians: Future state must have armed forces
The Palestinian Authority has demanded the right to establish a military after independence. PA sources said Palestinian negotiators have relayed a demand that any Palestinian state would be allowed to establish an army and air force. The sources said the military would be deployed along the borders with Israel and Jordan and ensure external security. "If we are to become an independent state, then we are responsible for our own security," a PA source said. "This has been our position." The PA demand was relayed by chief Palestinian negotiator Ahmed Qurei, a former prime minister. The sources said the position marked a departure of a previous commitment that any Palestinian state be demilitarized. Qurei submitted the Palestinian demand for a military during negotiations with Israeli Foreign Minister Tsipi Livni in Jerusalem on May 18. The sources said Ms. Livni was taken aback by Qurei's position and thought he meant that the new Palestinian state would create a strong police force. "Livni was very upset by the Palestinian demand and saw this as a violation of previous commitments," an Israeli official said. The Israeli official said the PA has hardened its positions during the latest U.S.-sponsored negotiations for a Palestinian state by 2009. The official said Qurei was supported by PA Chairman Mahmoud Abbas, who determined that the Palestinian state must not be inferior to the Hamas regime in the Gaza Strip, which has established a 10,000-man military........... read more
Israel & Syria spar over who gets what in Golan peace deal
Israel and Syria began sparring Thursday over what they expect the other to give up for a peace agreement, a day after the announcement that indirect negotiations between the countries are under way and two weeks before the talks are to resume in Turkey. While Prime Minister Ehud Olmert has kept Israel's expectations of Damascus vague, both Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni and Defense Minister Ehud Barak began sending out more concrete signals on Thursday on what Israel believes Syria needs to do in the framework of a peace agreement - and the Syrians were not pleased with what they heard. Olmert, however, remained short on specifics, telling visiting French Foreign Minister Bernard Kouchner that "the Syrians know what we want and we know what they want." He also told EU ambassadors in a meeting he held with them that Israel was keen on moving Iran out of the "axis of evil." In the evening, a number of booing protesters, waving banners reading "The people are with the Golan," interrupted Olmert during a speech he was making in Latrun. Livni was more explicit than Olmert about what she wants from Damascus. Before her meeting with Kouchner, she said, "Israel has always aspired to peace with its neighbors, and the negotiations with Syria are a part of that. But the Syrians must understand that this involves their complete renunciation of support for terror by Hamas, Hizbullah, and Damascus's problematic connections with Iran." Bilal reiterated what Syrian Foreign Minister Walid Moallem said a day earlier, that Olmert had committed Israel to a full withdrawal from the Golan Heights. "He knows that the whole of the Golan Heights will be returned to Syria and that Israel will withdraw to the lines of June 4, 1967," Bilal said........... read more
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3. A Revived Roman Empire?
European Union's new treaty approved in Germany
The German parliament's upper house approved the European Union's new treaty on Friday — the document's last legislative hurdle in the 27-nation bloc's most populous country. The document, known as the Lisbon Treaty, easily won the necessary two-thirds majority in the upper house, which represents the country's 16 state governments. All but one state voted in favor, giving the treaty 65 out of a possible 69 votes. Germany becomes the 14th country to approve the treaty in parliament. The treaty would alter the EU's decision-making process, envisioning more decisions by majority vote rather than unanimous endorsement. It would also provide for an EU president and a more powerful senior foreign policy official to give the bloc a stronger voice in global affairs. The treaty replaces a more ambitious draft constitution that EU leaders drew up to govern a bloc whose membership has expanded from 15 to 27 nations in recent years. That charter was rejected by French and Dutch voters in 2005. The new treaty must be ratified by all 27 EU members to take effect. Only one country, Ireland, is holding a referendum, set for June 12.......... read more
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4. The Gog/Magog War
Land of the Tsar
As ex-President Putin settles in to his new role as Prime Minister, he has every reason to congratulate himself. After all, he has not only written the script for his constitutional coup d'etat, but staged the play and given himself the starring role as well. Of course, he has given a walk-on role to Dmitry Medvedev, his personally anointed successor. But the transfer of power from Putin to his Little Sir Echo, Medvedev, and the show of military strength with those soldiers and clapped-out missiles in Red Square on Victory Day which followed it last week, made it clear who is really in charge. No decision of any significance for the Russian people or the rest of us will be made in the foreseeable future without the say - so of Medvedev's unsmiling master:.......... read more
Russia prepares to sign new arms deal with Syria
Fearing that Damascus is acquiring advanced military platforms, Israel is closely following meetings being held in Moscow this week between a high-level Syrian military delegation and Russian Defense Ministry officials. According to reports in the Russian media, the delegation, led by Syrian Air Force commander Gen. Akhmad al-Ratyb, will be in Moscow for five days and meet with Russian Defense Ministry and Air Force officials, as well as visit several military bases and units. According to the reports, the talks will focus on arms sales - including submarines, anti-aircraft missiles, the latest model MiG fighter jets and advanced surface-to-surface ballistic missiles. Israel is particularly concerned with a Syrian request for long-range S-300 surface-to-air missiles that could threaten IAF jets flying on the Israeli side of the Golan Heights. The S-300 is one of the best multi-target anti-aircraft-missile systems in the world and reportedly can track 100 targets simultaneously while engaging 12 at the same time. Syria recently received 36 Pantsir S1E air-defense systems from Russia. Iran is believed to have already procured several S-300 systems to protect its nuclear facilities. Israeli defense officials expressed grave concern over the possibility that Syria would obtain these new military platforms. Damascus, the officials said, had dramatically increased defense spending recently. In the past three years, Syria has spent more than $3 billion on weapons, up from less than $100 million in 2002........... read more
Allies of Gog fall into place as Russia boosts military cooperation with Libya
Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin on Tuesday promised Libya's leader Moamer Gathafi that Moscow would buttress economic and military ties with Tripoli, the government news service said. Putin and Gathafi spoke on the telephone and agreed to continue "the useful confidential dialogue between the two countries and noted mutual interest in boosting cooperation in both civil and military spheres," a statement said........... read more
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6. The Rise of Islam
Food crisis creates an opening for Muslim fundamentalists
The smell of freshly baked bread calms the room filled with women in frayed cloaks and worn slippers. Grateful for the assistance, they walk out of a Muslim Brotherhood social service center into the trash-strewn alley, clutching plastic bags packed with flat bread loaves. For five years, the Jordanian government has clamped down on the Islamist group's electoral ambitions and its charity programs, suspicious it was using good deeds to win political support. But the global food crisis has carved out new opportunities for the Brotherhood and other hard-line groups across the Muslim world. Increasingly unaffordable prices underscore criticism of autocratic governments and drive more people toward fundamentalist groups. Though the Brotherhood fared poorly last year in municipal elections, it has been steadily gaining ground in recent months, sweeping votes for the leadership of Jordan's professional associations. "We used to win some and lose some. Now, we win all of them," said Zaki Bani Arshid, leader of the Islamic Action Front, the political party of the Muslim Brotherhood in Jordan. The increase in food prices has challenged America's goals in the Middle East at a critical juncture, when it is attempting to win support from friendly governments for an Israeli- Palestinian peace initiative and for confronting Iran and Al Qaeda. The anger has taken on an increasingly anti-U.S. tone, even among elected officials. Egyptian lawmakers, for example, have accused the United States of causing the crisis by conspiring to keep their country dependent on wheat imports. "If we look at these main factors behind the increase in world food prices and the specter of famine and political turbulence, we will easily reach the conclusion that [the] Bush administration and the bunch of neoconservatives and their foolish policies in waging external wars . . . are, in practice, behind this deep crisis," said an April column in the pro-government daily newspaper Al Watan in Oman, a staunch U.S. ally. "America is being held responsible for what is happening," said Arshid, of Jordan's Islamic Action Front. .......... read more
Christians in Algeria face jail time for converting from Islam
A 37-year-old Algerian woman, Habiba Qawider, faces a possible three years in prison for abandoning the Islamic faith without government permission. Her court case is being held in Tiaret, 400 kilometers west of Algiers. Qawider was arrested during a police spot check of bus riders in April and found to be carrying 10 copies of the Bible. She didn't have a special permit to follow Christianity as required by law nor did she have the authorization to change her religion. Six other Christians face the same charges in a separate court case. Their trial starts on May 27............ read more
Iran looks to punish Muslim Apostates who convert to Christianity
Police in the southern Iran city of Shiraz this month cracked down against known Muslim converts to Christianity, arresting members of three Christian families and confiscating their books and computers. The arrests began at 5 a.m. on May 11, when two couples were taken into custody before boarding their flights at the Shiraz International Airport and sent directly to jail. All four were subjected to hours of interrogation, questioning them solely “just about their faith and house church activities,” an Iranian source told Compass. Two days later, local police picked up two more former Muslims involved in a separate house church in Shiraz as the Christian converts were talking together in a city park. Both men, Mahmood Matin and a second man identified only as Arash, are still jailed. Still another arrest incident was reported last month in the northern city of Amol, in Mazandaran province near the Caspian Sea. Two of the arrested converts to Christianity, one a pregnant woman, are still imprisoned, with no news of their whereabouts. Over the past two years, Iran’s harsh Shiite Muslim regime has continued to arrest, harass and intimidate dozens of citizens involved in the nation’s mushrooming house church movements. One such movement confirmed last month that its indigenous groups of Iranian converts to Christianity are doubling in size every six months. Converts from Islam are routinely subjected to both physical and psychological mistreatment while being held for days or weeks, usually in solitary confinement. Huge bail amounts are demanded for their release, under the threat of further detention or formal criminal prosecution if caught worshipping or spreading their faith. The large number of Iranians embracing Christianity has been attributed in part to a number of radio stations and satellite television channels launched in the past five years broadcasting Christian programs in Farsi into the country 24 hours a day. In January of this year, the Iranian parliament drafted a proposed criminal code that would make the death penalty mandatory for “apostates” who leave Islam for another religion............ read more
Christian faces death penalty in Pakistan for blasphemy against Quran
A Christian doctor is being held in a Pakistan jail while religious extremists demand that he be publicly hanged for blasphemy. Dr. Robin Sardar, 55, is facing a possible death sentence after an envious friend claimed he made offensive remarks about the Quran and Muhammad's beard, according to a report by the International Christian Concern, a Washington, D.C.-based human rights group. Sardar's former friend, Muhammad Yousaf, became jealous of the Christian's professional success and financial status, so he filed a First Information Report May 5 with police, claiming the doctor had made derogatory statements about the prophet. According to Sardar's nephew, a mob of more than 200 Muslims wielding guns, sticks and kerosene oil attacked the doctor's home and medical offices following the report to police. The men, wearing green turbans to represent their Islamic faith, broke into Sadar's home, shattered windows and ruined the family's furniture in their residence and clinic. The Islamic extremists protest daily on city streets, calling for the Christian doctor to be publicly executed. His nephew said Muslim clerics have been sending messages out over the mosque amplifier, urging the community to slay Sardar's family. According to Pakistan's laws against blasphemy, people who make disrespectful comments about Islam can receive punishments similar to sentences for murderers. Former President Mohammed Zia ul-Haq added Section 295-B to Pakistan's penal code in 1982, ordering that critical remarks about the Quran would be punishable by life in prison. Section 295-C, commonly referred to as the blasphemy law, states "Whoever by words, either spoken or written, or by visible representation or by any imputation, innuendo, or insinuation, directly or indirectly, defiles the sacred name of the Holy Prophet Muhammad (peace be upon him) shall be punished with death, or imprisonment for life, and shall also be liable to fine." In 1990, the federal Sharia court ruled, "The penalty for contempt of the Holy Prophet ... is death and nothing else." ........... read more
Free Quran coming to your doorstep?
If you're in your front yard, working in the flower bed or chatting with a neighbor, they'll pass by silently to attach one of the bags they're carrying to your frontdoor knob and leave without speaking or engaging you in debate. Their mission? To place a copy of the Quran in every home in the United States. "We're just trying to be honest brokers of information," Wajahat Sayeed, founder and director of Book of Signs, which is also known as the Al-Furqaan Foundation, told the Chicago Tribune. "You make your own judgment." Al-Furqaan is distributing its 378-page paperback English translation of Islam's holy book using teams of paid walkers who descend on neighborhoods, going door-to-door, much like other deliverers of newpapers and advertisements. They don't hand them directly to residents but, instead, leave them at the front door – but never on the ground. That would be disrespectful. The Addison, Ill.-based organization says it has distributed more than 30,000 free copies of the Quran to homes around Houston, Texas, and another 70,000 in the Chicago area, including the evangelical stronghold of Wheaton. Al-Furqaan is not the only Muslim group distributing free Qurans. WND previously reported the Council on American-Islamic Relations came under fire for distributing a free English-language edition of the Quran that had been banned by the Los Angeles school district because commentary notes accompanying the text were regarded as anti-Semitic. A complaint by a history teacher revealed problems with the CAIR-distributed version. In the index under "Jews" also are these phrases: "cursed," "enmity of," "greedy of life," "slew prophets," "took usury," "unbelief and blasphemy of" and "work iniquity." Author and researcher Robert Spencer, director of Jihad Watch, said that while the commentary notes in the CAIR-distributed version are particularly anti-Semitic, its rendering of the Quranic text largely is no different than any other version............ read more
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7. Increase in Knowledge/New Technologies
Big Brother database for phones and e-mails
A massive government database holding details of every phone call, e-mail and time spent on the internet by the public is being planned as part of the fight against crime and terrorism. Internet service providers (ISPs) and telecoms companies would hand over the records to the Home Office under plans put forward by officials. The information would be held for at least 12 months and the police and security services would be able to access it if given permission from the courts. The proposal will raise further alarm about a “Big Brother” society, as it follows plans for vast databases for the ID cards scheme and NHS patients. There will also be concern about the ability of the Government to manage a system holding billions of records. About 57 billion text messages were sent in Britain last year, while an estimated 3 billion e-mails are sent every day. Industry sources gave warning that a single database would be at greater risk of attack and abuse.......... read more
Would you pay to clone your pet?
A Northern California biotech company announced Wednesday that it will clone dogs for the five highest bidders in a series of online auctions. Some ethicists condemned the offer, fearing it could lead to human clones. Opening bids start at $100,000 for the service being offered by Mill Valley-based BioArts International. To conduct the clonings, BioArts has partnered with a South Korean research team that recently created three clones of Hawthorne's family dog, Missy, who died in 2002.Tests performed at the University of California, Davis' Veterinary Genetics Laboratory found that DNA samples taken from Missy and the three other dogs appeared to belong to the same individual. Hawthorne said that after spending 15 years with Missy, he is taking pleasure in seeing her mischievous streak coming out in her clones. They also like steamed broccoli just like she did, he said. Some groups that monitor advances in genetic technology argue that the company's project, called Best Friends Again, could serve as a gateway to more unsavory practices. "Many people consider pets to be part of our families," Marcy Darnovsky, associate director of the Oakland-based Center for Genetics and Society, said in a statement. "If we get used to cute cloned puppies, will some people expect cute cloned babies next?".. ....... read more
RFID scanners coming to border this summer
Radio frequency sensors are set to go up at Rio Grande Valley border crossings this summer and fall, preparing the ports of entry for stricter entry requirements next year. Known as RFID, or radio frequency identification, the sensors will be able to detect microchips embedded in new passports, border crossing cards and visas. Those with older passports will not be able to drive or walk through so easily, though - only passports, border crossing cards and visas issued in the past couple of years are equipped with the microchips. The microchips will allow U.S. Customs and Border Protection agents to pull up a traveler's information moments before a vehicle or pedestrian approaches an inspection booth. In many cases, travelers won't need to remove the cards from their pockets or purses. Customs officials say rolling out the sensors for mass use will help speed up traffic when new border crossing documentation requirements are implemented on June 1, 2009. On that date, all U.S. citizens are set to be required to present a passport or border crossing card to re-enter the country. The new law is part of the Western Hemisphere Travel Initiative that Congress passed in 2004 to protect U.S. borders. Travelers from states that use so-called enhanced driver's licenses - state-issued licenses that provide proof of identity and U.S. citizenship - will also be able to cross with minimal fuss. Texas has not adopted enhanced driver's licenses, though.... ....... read more
McDonald's Tries Out New RFID-enabled Pay-By-Phone Coupons
First, it was the Starbucks-style store redesign and new focus on the coffee. Now, the latest attempt by McDonald's to stay relevant is through a new e-coupon system that it is currently testing in Japan. Called the Kasazu coupon it is a payment application that is downloaded into your phone and is then placed on top of an RFID reader by the user for instant payments and coupon redemption. Many other companies are using this, such as Visa, and RFID is being used for everything from paying for parking meters to expediting border crossings in RFID-enabled passports. According to the press release, McDonald's will begin using the tech in 175 stores and eventually expand it to the other 3,800 stores in that country. There’s no word on when they expect to move this option to U.S. stores. Many phones in Japan include RFID tech, so it's a good place to set-up highly concentrated trials of a transaction technology that will likely go completely mainstream in the next few years.... ....... read more
Sentient World Simulation - Testing An Alternate Reality
Perhaps your real life is so rich you don't have time for another. Even so, the US Department of Defense (DOD) may already be creating a copy of you in an alternate reality to see how long you can go without food or water, or how you will respond to televised propaganda. The DOD is developing a parallel to Planet Earth, with billions of individual "nodes" to reflect every man, woman, and child this side of the dividing line between reality and AR. Called the Sentient World Simulation (SWS), it will be a "synthetic mirror of the real world with automated continuous calibration with respect to current real-world information", according to a concept paper for the project. "SWS provides an environment for testing Psychological Operations (PSYOP)," the paper reads, so that military leaders can "develop and test multiple courses of action to anticipate and shape behaviors of adversaries, neutrals, and partners". SWS also replicates financial institutions, utilities, media outlets, and street corner shops. By applying theories of economics and human psychology, its developers believe they can predict how individuals and mobs will respond to various stressors. SEAS can display regional results for public opinion polls, distribution of retail outlets in urban areas, and the level of unorganization of local economies, which may point to potential areas of civil unrest Yank a country's water supply. Stage a military coup. SWS will tell you what happens next. "The idea is to generate alternative futures with outcomes based on interactions between multiple sides," said Purdue University professor Alok Chaturvedi, co-author of the SWS concept paper.... ....... read more
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8. Christian Worldview/Issues
The end of fatherhood - woman win right to children without fathers
Single women and lesbian couples won landmark parental rights last night as MPs voted to remove the requirement that fertility clinics consider a child’s need for a father. The Human Fertilisation and Embryology Bill will replace the rule with a “need for supportive parenting” after opponents were defeated in two votes by unexpectedly wide margins. The decisions mean that the legislation will grant the most significant extension to homosexual family rights since gay adoption was sanctioned. It will stop fertility clinics turning away lesbians and single women because their children will not have a father or male role model. While the current law does not block such therapy, it is sometimes used to justify refusals. In another landmark decision last night, MPs rejected moves to prevent women having abortions up to 24 weeks into pregnancy. In the first vote on the issue in 18 years, an attempt to reduce the limit to 22 weeks was rejected by 71 votes. An attempt to reduce the limit to 20 weeks was defeated by a majority of 142. The Government has now won all four of the measures on which it agreed to grant Labour MPs a free vote. Moves to allow the creation of hybrid embryos for medical research, and “saviour siblings” screened as suitable tissue donors for sick children, were passed by large majorities on Monday. ........ read more
'Prince Caspian' walks tightrope for Christian fans
C.S. Lewis' Chronicles of Narnia book series is so revered by Christian readers that adapting the books into film becomes a delicate tightrope. Changes risk alienating fans, but what works in the books doesn't always translate well to the big screen. Last Friday, Walden Media and Disney released The Chronicles of Narnia: Prince Caspian, the sequel to the wildly successful 2005 film The Lion, The Witch, and the Wardrobe. The filmmakers faced the challenge of turning a beloved book with a slow plot into a modern film, but also one that retains the story's spiritual messages. "The underlying messages are so important, and so vital to the story," says Douglas Gresham, Lewis' stepson and co-producer of the new film "Which are the return to faith, truth, justice, honesty, honor, glory, personal commitment, personal responsibility. Also the message (that) no matter how far away we stray, there's only one way back." The first Narnia book, The Lion, The Witch, and the Wardrobe told the story of four Pevensie siblings who enter Narnia through an old wardrobe and defeat the tyrannical White Witch. They are aided by the great lion Aslan, but only after he submits himself to be killed in the place of turncoat Edmund Pevensie. The book is widely regarded as a retelling of Lewis' Christian faith, with Aslan shining as a golden Christ figure who returns after death. In Prince Caspian, the children return to Narnia (this time through a tube station near London's Trafalgar Square). Although they are only a year older, 1,300 years have passed in their former kingdom. The evil interloper Miraz has stolen the throne from Prince Caspian and forced the true Narnians into hiding. Aslan has not been seen in centuries. Each character in the movie faces the same crisis: They long to see Aslan but he remains elusive. William Moseley, who plays Peter Pevensie, sees the search for Aslan as a metaphor for faith. "When you talk about seeing, I think it's more believing," he said. "You believe, and then you see. Aslan represents God. People say, 'If God's there, why can't I see him?' Well, because you're not believing."......... read more
Study: Americans Not All Flocking to Bigger, Contemporary Churches
Most Americans change churches throughout their lives, but a new study shows that they are not flocking toward one particular house of worship. The American religious landscape remains diverse and not one worship style or form of church emerges as the dominant choice for the country's faithful. "The findings show a lot of individual change, but not a lot of broad trends,” said Ron Sellers, president of Ellison Research. “Most people go to a place of worship that’s a different size, but there’s no strong trend toward finding smaller congregations or larger ones. There’s also a lot of change in worship styles, but not a big overall trend toward going someplace more contemporary or more traditional." In a study of over 1,000 American adults, released Monday by Ellison Research, 69 percent of all Americans who currently attend worship services have attended more than one place of worship - which includes churches, temples, or houses of worship - as an adult. Only 31 percent say their current place of worship is the only one they have regularly attended since age 18. When changing where they worship, not all opt for a bigger congregation or a more contemporary worship style. When choosing size, Americans are nearly evenly divided between a larger or smaller congregation. Forty-three percent of American Protestants have moved to a larger congregation and 45 percent switched to a smaller one. Just 11 percent switched to a place that is about the same size of the place they left. Only 31 percent of Protestants say their current church has a more contemporary worship style while 42 percent say their new church is more traditional in worship. Sellers believes the study results challenges common perceptions that Americans are abandoning traditional worship and small churches.. .. ....... read more
Late Term Aborted Babies in UK Left to "Gasp for Breath" Until Death
The venerable Spectator, a leading British magazine of political news and commentary, has published excerpts from a letter from a British nurse who, in 2005, described babies surviving late-term abortions who are left to "gasp for breath for ten minutes on the side of a sink" until they die. The nurse, identified only as "Kay" in a newspaper column, said, "I know of two nurses who went off work with stress as a result of their experience with late terminations. I suffered horrendous nightmares and guilt for months. The guilt comes from the fact that you as a nurse cut the umbilical cord and, as dramatic as it sounds, we felt like murderers." In Britain, late term is defined as those abortions committed after 20 weeks gestation. The Spectator's Fraser Nelson wrote that Sun newspaper columnist Jane Moore had written a column about the nurse's letter but declined to discuss the matter on a television talk show with Andrew Marr because it was "unsuitable" to be talked about on air. Moore's March 2005 column did not publish the full text of the letter. Nelson, political editor of the Spectator, however, said that given the ongoing debates over the lowering of the gestational age limit for legal abortion in Parliament he would publish an edited version of Moore's column this Sunday. "I would say that I'd like every MP to read it before voting, but I suspect those voting to keep the 24-week limit would not expose themselves to descriptions of what, precisely, they are supporting," Nelson wrote. In her letter, Kay said, "It is all too easy for people to picture a clump of cells or mush. People don't want to picture perfectly-formed miniature babies and I don't blame them, I was once the same."... ....... read more
Same Sex Marriage & The End of the World
What do May 17, 2004, and May 15, 2008, have in common? One judge and a redefinition of marriage against the will of the people. Both the Massachusetts Superior Court and the California Supreme Court by a one-judge margin redefined what marriage has always been in every culture and every religion for more than 5,000 years of recorded history. Why does this matter? Jeffrey Satinover, who holds an M.D. from Princeton and doctorates from Yale, MIT and Harvard, was on my radio program one day and I asked him about where we are in history. He explained that according to the "Babylonian Talmud" – the book of rabbis' interpretation of the scriptures 1,000 years before Christ, there was only one time in history that reflects where we are right now. There was only one time in history, according to these writings, where men were given in marriage to men, and women given in marriage to women. Want to venture a guess as to when? No, it wasn't in Sodom and Gomorrah, although that was my guess. Homosexuality was rampant there, of course, but according to the Talmud, not homosexual "marriage." What about ancient Greece? Rome? No. Babylon? No again. The one time in history when homosexual "marriage" was practiced was … during the days of Noah. And according to Satinover, that's what the "Babylonian Talmud" attributes as the final straw that led to the Flood. On my Faith2Action radio program on Thursday, Rabbi Aryeh Spero verified this to be true. Rabbi Spero spoke of God's compassion before the Flood, in hopes people would repent and turn back to His ways. He showed patience for hundreds of years. But, he said, the Talmud's writings reveal that "before the Flood people started to write marriage contracts between men, in other words, homosexual 'marriage,' which is more than homosexual activity – it's giving an official state stamp of approval, a sanctification … of homosexual partnership." When I first heard this, my mind immediately went to a verse I've heard many times but never with such relevance. The verse is found in Matthew 24:37. It reads: "As it was in the days of Noah, so it will be at the coming of the Son of Man". – Mathew 24:37. I used to read this verse and think: It was bad at lots of points in history; it doesn't necessarily mean now, but if these Jewish writings are true, we are uniquely like the "days of Noah" right now – and only right now.... ....... read more
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9. Other events to watch
UFO's, Demons and the Vatican
Vatican chief astronomer Father Jose Gabriel Funes in a long interview with the L’Osservatore Romano newspaper this week made news by saying there is a certain possibility of intelligent life elsewhere in the universe, and that such notion “doesn’t contradict our faith.” “How can we rule out that life may have developed elsewhere? Just as we consider earthly creatures as ‘a brother,’ and ’sister,’ why should we not talk about an ‘extraterrestrial brother’? It would still be part of creation,” he said. The statements by Funes are the latest in a string of recent comments by Vatican astronomers confirming a belief that discovery may be made in the near future of alien life, including intelligent life, and that this discovery would not unhinge the doctrine of Christ. Before his death in 1999, maverick Catholic theologian Father Malachi Martin hinted at such more than once. In 1997, while on Coast to Coast AM radio, Art Bell asked him why the Vatican was heavily invested in the study of deep space at Mt Graham Observatory in southeastern Arizona. As a retired professor of the Pontifical Biblical Institute, Father Martin was uniquely qualified to hold in secret, information pertaining to the Vatican’s Advanced Technology Telescope (VATT) project at the Mount Graham International Observatory (MGIO). Martin’s answer ignited a firestorm of interest among Christian and secular UFOlogists when he said, “Because the mentality… amongst those who are at the… highest levels of Vatican administration and geopolitics, know that, now, knowledge of what’s going on in space, and what’s approaching us, could be of great import in the next five years, ten years.” Those cryptic words “…what’s approaching us, could be of great import in the next five years, ten years,” was followed in subsequent interviews with discussion of a mysterious “sign in the sky” that Malachi believed was approaching from the North. People familiar with Malachi believe he may have been referring to a near-future arrival of alien intelligence. If ET life is something Vatican officials have privately considered for some time, why speak of it so openly now, in what some perceive as a careful doctrinal unveiling over the last 24 months? Is this a deliberate effort by church officials to “warm-up” the laity to ET Disclosure? Are official church publications on the subject an attempt to soften the blow before disclosure arrives, in order to help the faithful retain their orthodoxy in light of unprecedented forthcoming knowledge? But What If ET Is Already Here, And He’s the Devil? Unidentified Flying Objects (UFOs) are historically connected to the idea of extraterrestrial life. In some cases, behavior of these strange sightings have left witnesses feeling as if they had observed something alive, not mechanical. “I have become thoroughly convinced that UFOs are real,” popular Christian writer Hal Lindsey once wrote. “I believe these beings are not only extraterrestrial but supernatural in origin. To be blunt, I think they are demons.” In Angels Dark and Light, Gary Kinnaman accepts UFO sightings as the manifestations of angels of darkness. “My main reason for thinking this is that UFO sightings have never, at least to my knowledge, led a person closer to God. In fact, most UFO experiences have just the opposite effect.”......... read more
Biblical Prophecy In The News
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Originally Posted by Twilight Flyer
