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Key Moriel
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Shalom and Greetings in Christ Jesus,
 "There will be signs in sun and moon and stars, and on the earth dismay among nations, in perplexity at the roaring of the sea and the waves, men fainting from fear and the expectation of the things which are coming upon the world; for the powers of the heavens will be shaken. - Luke 21:25-26 This alert is a collection of important "must read" news items gathered over the past months that I believe are still quite relevant and have yet to publish in 'Be Alert!'. We have truly seen a manifold increase in signs of the end of the age, so much so that I tend to hear it mentioned from unbelievers out in the world more than supposed believers other than what I would call the faithful remnant (and a small group of ministries that focus on this), that in itself I believe is a sign. "The sun will be turned into darkness And the moon into blood Before the great and awesome day of the LORD comes. - Joel 2:31 The "sun" is truly growing darker by the hour. That is the light of the Word of God obfuscated by the enemy using mass disinformation propagated by his secret agents planted throughout the church and the world. These agents, false prophets and false teachers, better known as "wolves in sheep's clothing" have been spreading any and every sort of false teaching and belief, some only a little off in one major doctrine, others way off the mark in many. The point is that this is classic strategy of deception and disinformation warfare to keep sheep lost and confused in a "room full of mirrors". Another sign that the day of the Lord is near is the fact that so few Christians fail to recognize this war is actually occurring. As the earth's moon reflects the light of the sun; so does the church reflect the light of the Son of God, shedding light on a dark world. However, as global deception and persecution increases exponentially (the serpent and the dragon), the moon is turning blood red. That is, as the earth blocks out the light of the sun as in a natural lunar eclipse so are the cares and concerns of the world along with deception and persecution blocking out the true Light of the World (Our Messiah Yeshua) from the church. This is why all things are and will be shaken and unfortunately, due to Western thinking rather than Hebraic Judeo-Christian thinking, so few believers understand what is happening and are unprepared for what will soon happen. Praise the Lord we know Jesus Christ has already won the war and He, the Good Shepherd will not lose any of His sheep. Be Alert! May the Lord bless you and keep you, Scott Brisk *To Forward this newsletter to others, send the link for the online posting (see click here above) or use the "Forward Email" link at the bottom. This way you can be sure you won't be unsubscribed by someone else. *NOTE: Purim starts on Thursday (Wednesday night, March 7 at Sundown) Adar 14, and will continue for 2 days until Friday (Friday night, March 9 at Sundown) Adar 15 |
Subculture of Americans prepares for civilization's collapse
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Vision of Doomsday at US Capital
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REUTERS [Thomson-Reuters] - By Jim Forsyth - January 21, 2012
When Patty Tegeler looks out the window of her home overlooking the Appalachian Mountains in southwestern Virginia, she sees trouble on the horizon.
"In an instant, anything can happen," she told Reuters. "And I firmly believe that you have to be prepared."
Tegeler is among a growing subculture of Americans who refer to themselves informally as "preppers." Some are driven by a fear of imminent societal collapse, others are worried about terrorism, and many have a vague concern that an escalating series of natural disasters is leading to some type of environmental cataclysm. ...
Tegeler, 57, has turned her home in rural Virginia into a "survival center," complete with a large generator, portable heaters, water tanks, and a two-year supply of freeze-dried food that her sister recently gave her as a birthday present. She says that in case of emergency, she could survive indefinitely in her home. And she thinks that emergency could come soon.
"I think this economy is about to fall apart," she said.
A wide range of vendors market products to preppers, mainly online. They sell everything from water tanks to guns to survival skills. ...
A sense of "suffering and being afraid" is usually at the root of this kind of thinking, according to Cathy Gutierrez, an expert on end-times beliefs at Sweet Briar College in Virginia. Such feelings are not unnatural in a time of economic recession and concerns about a growing national debt, she said.
"With our current dependence on things from the electric grid to the Internet, things that people have absolutely no control over, there is a feeling that a collapse scenario can easily emerge, with a belief that the end is coming, and it is all out of the individual's control," she told Reuters.
She compared the major technological developments of the past decade to the Industrial Revolution of the 1830s and 1840s, which led to the growth of the Millerites, the 19th-Century equivalent of the preppers. Followers of charismatic preacher Joseph Miller, many sold everything and gathered in 1844 for what they believed would be the second coming of Jesus Christ.
Many of today's preppers receive inspiration from the Internet, devouring information posted on websites like that run by attorney Michael T. Snider, who writes The Economic Collapse blog out of his home in northern Idaho.
"Modern preppers are much different from the survivalists of the old days," he said. "You could be living next door to a prepper and never even know it. Many suburbanites are turning spare rooms into food pantries and are going for survival training on the weekends."
Like other preppers, Snider is worried about the end of a functioning U.S. economy. He points out that tens of millions of Americans are on food stamps and that many U.S. children are living in poverty.
"Most people have a gut feeling that something has gone terribly wrong, but that doesn't mean that they understand what is happening," he said. "A lot of Americans sense that a massive economic storm is coming and they want to be prepared for it."
So, assuming there is no collapse of society -- which the preppers call "uncivilization" -- what is the future of the preppers?
Gutierrez said that unlike the Millerites -- or followers of radio preacher Harold Camping, who predicted the world would end last year -- preppers are not setting a date for the coming destruction. The Mayan Calendar predicts doom this December.
"The minute you set a date, you are courting disconfirmation," she said. ...
(Reporting by Jim Forsyth in San Antonio; Editing by Corrie MacLaggan and Greg McCune)
Edited :: See Original Report Here
http://www.reuters.com/article/2012/01/21/us-usa-civilization-collapse-idUSTRE80K0LA20120121
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Know this first of all, that in the last days mockers will come with their mocking, following after their own lusts, and saying, "Where is the promise of His coming? For ever since the fathers fell asleep, all continues just as it was from the beginning of creation." - 2 Peter 3:3-4
The Rapture Profiteers
Is the debt ceiling crisis resurrecting the apocalypse industry? |
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Mocking the Rapture
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BUSINESS WEEK [Bloomberg L.P.] - By Peter Savodnik - July 28, 2011
For nearly a year, nonagenarian preacher and radio personality Harold Camping predicted the world would end on May 21. Locusts would blanket the earth and millions would die while Camping and his flock would rise up to the sky, rendezvous with Jesus, and ascend to the Kingdom of Heaven. Instead, May 22 happened, Camping postponed the end of the world by five months, and then suffered a debilitating stroke-leaving a huge vacuum in the Rapture market.
The meltdown came at a propitious moment for apocalypse followers. A proliferation of earthquakes, a plague that may or may not be sweeping Brazil, the Greeks, and Kim Kardashian, among other things, may be conspiring to create a Rapture bubble. In addition to Camping's revised forecast-the world is definitely going to end on Oct. 21-many Rapture-seekers now believe the Aug. 2 debt-ceiling deadline signals that the end may be very, very near. "If the economy goes, that'll be fertile soil for the antichrist to take power," says Todd Strandberg of Little Rock, Ark. "Hitler came out of the Depression. A lot of us believe the antichrist will use the same stepping stone."
This means there are only so many days left to get rich. Strandberg, the proprietor of RaptureReady.com-the most popular Rapture-preparedness website in the world-is part of a new generation of entrepreneurs trying to take advantage of Camping's absence. Unlike Camping, the new apocalypse establishment is offering an unprecedented array of doomsday-themed literature, podcasts, survival kits, and other goods and services for navigating the end of times.
Jack Van Impe, a televangelist from Troy, Mich., has developed an e-commerce business hawking educational literature such as the Prophetic Guide to the End of Times ($14.95) in addition to DVDs like 11:59: The Countdown (two-discs, $34.95). Van Impe, who co-runs his ministry and budding apocalypse empire with his wife and fellow prophet, Rexella, is competing for market share with the Costa Rica-based writer Tim McHyde; Alex Dodson, whose Watchman Radio Hour enjoys a nationwide audience; and evangelical minister and author Tim LaHaye, who has co-written 16 Judgment Day-inspired novels. According to Cheryl Kerwin, senior marketing manager at Tyndale House Publishers, LaHaye's Left Behind series has sold 63 million copies worldwide.
All are facing a common problem of the Rapture business: They're making more money than they can spend before the world ends. Keith Preston, owner of Rapture Ready Consulting in Kenton, Ohio-which is completely unrelated to RaptureReady.com, he says-estimates his company grossed $380,000 in 2009 by selling products like screen savers featuring the Red Sea and a smartphone app for $4.99 that tells you if you're in a flood zone. Although sales plummeted to $200,000 in 2010-the short-lived economic uptick, Rapture-sellers say, cast a pall over the sector-Rapture Ready rebounded this year. Preston is currently at work on an app for everyone who is not Raptured. "Let's say 2 million people disappear," Preston says. "You've got doctors and police officers, you have IT guys, writers, and politicians. So the problem is, who's going to do whatever they were doing? You need an app for that." How he plans to sell it from Heaven remains unclear. ...
The Rapture economy even includes heathens. Since most Rapture prophets have traditionally declared pets barred from Heaven, insurance company Eternal Earth-Bound Pets is now offering a 10-year relocation policy. For $135, the company promises to place dogs, cats, bunnies, and so forth with a loving family of atheists who have no hope of being saved. Eternal owner Bart Centre, an atheist himself, says he already has 263 clients and expects that figure to jump by 60 or 70 in 2012. He also has a strict no-refunds policy. "In the remotely absurd chance that the Rapture happens and you're not Raptured," Centre says, "you can keep your pet, but you don't get your money back." (Van Impe, in a transparent play for ascension-ready hearts, has declared that domesticated animals will be admitted to Heaven. This is a huge selling point, since Rapture-believers' main concern is who-and what-will be among the elect.)
Yet the dirty little secret about the Rapture trade is that it's run by people who often hope there is no Rapture. The trick is to encourage belief in-and spending on-the Rapture for as long as possible. Camping's most recent failed prophecy-his fifth-has reaffirmed many Rapture-based entrepreneurs' conviction that staying vague is the best plan. Terry James, who co-runs RaptureReady.com with Strandberg, recently published his 22nd book on the end of the world. "We don't set dates," he says. "That's one thing that Jesus said. No one knows the hour except the Father." Left Behind author LaHaye urges his readers to log on to his site to "take your time, browse around, but by all means, get prepared for the coming of the Lord"-whenever that happens.
Regardless, many Rapture enthusiasts believe that even if the world does not end on Aug. 2 or Oct. 21, then 2012 is definitely the year to end all years. And this is good news for Harold Camping's own professional resurrection. A year off the Rapture circuit could do wonders, says Karen Kessler, president of public-relations firm Evergreen Partners in Warren, N.J. Failed prophets looking to reenter the market need only "come up with some rationale why you swore what was the case was not the case," she says. "Then you just have to hold your head up high and keep walking, and hope that if you sold enough memorabilia that'll ease the pain." Dr. William H. Sledge, a Yale University professor of psychiatry, says believers in the Rapture tend to be either psychotic or very "suggestible." In other words, if the world continues after the fall, they may be willing to give Camping a sixth chance. And a seventh.
Edited :: See Original Report Here
http://www.businessweek.com/magazine/the-rapture-profiteers-07282011.html
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Pachamama Wants Your Children
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Ark of Hope containing UN's Earth Charter
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TRUTH X CHANGE - Dr. Peter Jones - May 5, 2011 :: InsideOut article IO 78
Two years ago, President Evo Morales, of Incan/Aymaran descent, claimed the rights to all three branches of government, and his goons were eliminating opponents in the dead of night. At the time, I was teaching pastors in Cochabamba, Bolivia and so witnessed the rise of indigenous paganism as a political force. In January 2011, Morales introduced legislation that grants legal rights to the Earth and provides an ombudsman to hear nature's complaints as voiced by the all-knowing high priests of deep ecology, who claim to be spiritually in touch with Nature!
The worship of Pachamama, the fertility Goddess of Nature, is now a fundamental element in the law code of Bolivia, and Morales (in his commitment to Pachamama and to the ancient Incan religion of Bolivia) is supported by a shadow cabinet of shamans, who sacrifice llamas as part of this spirituality.
Bolivia is perhaps the first example of a Marxist state that is religiously, occultically pagan. Is Bolivia a picture of our global future-a spiritual, nature-worshiping collectivist state, where Caesar is Lord? Will ecology be the "power shift" (Van Jones's words to 10,000 young climate activists-to thunderous applause!) that joins pagan spirituality to coercive politics? An earth-worshiping "green agenda" will open the minds and souls of our youth to the iron grip of Pachamama. As Mary Poppins knew, "Just a spoon full of sugar makes the medicine go down!" Our urgent task is to teach our young people to worship the Creator, not Mother Earth.
You may think me overly sensational. Consider the fact that Bolivia just tabled a treaty at the United Nations, giving "Mother Earth" the same global rights as humans-complete with enforceable laws, by 2014. On April 22, 2011 the UN declared the second International Mother Earth Day, which the White House heralded on Easter weekend in an eight-paragraph statement-while making not one mention of Easter! ...
This agenda is more advanced than we might imagine, thanks to the very spiritual Maurice Strong and Mikhail Gorbachev. Their 2002 Earth Charter, a document determining environmental and ethical life on the planet for all nations, was received at the UN as the "new law" for the global age. Housed in "the Ark of Hope," it was clearly meant to replace the Law of Moses. In a public lecture I attended, one of the drafters of this document showed how placing phrases in the Preamble of The Earth Charter introduced an animistic spiritual interpretation of reality (e.g. "Humanity is part of a vast evolving universe...Earth, our home, is alive with a unique community of life"). ...
Edited :: See full report posted on the Be Alert! Blog
http://morielbealertblog.blogspot.com/2011/10/pachamama-wants-your-children.html
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Vatican calls for global authority on economy, raps "idolatry of the market"
... establishment of "a supranational authority" with worldwide scope and "universal jurisdiction" ...
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REUTERS [Thomson-Reuters] - By Philip Pullella - October 24, 2011
The Vatican called on Monday for the establishment of a "global public authority" and a "central world bank" to rule over financial institutions that have become outdated and often ineffective in dealing fairly with crises. The document from the Vatican's Justice and Peace department should please the "Occupy Wall Street" demonstrators and similar movements around the world who have protested against the economic downturn.
"Towards Reforming the International Financial and Monetary Systems in the Context of a Global Public Authority," was at times very specific, calling, for example, for taxation measures on financial transactions. "The economic and financial crisis which the world is going through calls everyone, individuals and peoples, to examine in depth the principles and the cultural and moral values at the basis of social coexistence," it said.
It condemned what it called "the idolatry of the market" as well as a "neo-liberal thinking" that it said looked exclusively at technical solutions to economic problems. "In fact, the crisis has revealed behaviours like selfishness, collective greed and hoarding of goods on a great scale," it said, adding that world economics needed an "ethic of solidarity" among rich and poor nations.
"If no solutions are found to the various forms of injustice, the negative effects that will follow on the social, political and economic level will be destined to create a climate of growing hostility and even violence, and ultimately undermine the very foundations of democratic institutions, even the ones considered most solid," it said.
It called for the establishment of "a supranational authority" with worldwide scope and "universal jurisdiction" to guide economic policies and decisions.
Asked at a news conference if the document could become a manifesto for the movement of the "indignant ones", who have criticised global economic policies, Cardinal Peter Turkson, head of the Vatican's Justice and Peace department, said: "The people on Wall Street need to sit down and go through a process of discernment and see whether their role managing the finances of the world is actually serving the interests of humanity and the common good. "We are calling for all these bodies and organisations to sit down and do a little bit of re-thinking."
Unedited :: Link to Original Posting
http://www.reuters.com/article/2011/10/24/idUS264245887020111024
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Saudi King Abdullah's Interfaith Center in Italy to Unify the World's Religions?
|  THE CHRISTIAN POST - By Nicola Menzie - October 17, 2011
King Abdullah of Saudi Arabia has been planning for years to find a way to unite the world's major religions in an effort to help foster peace, and believes a new international organization to be housed in Vienna, Italy will help make that dream a reality. As the institution was officially founded Thursday, some Christians are likely to start pointing to interpretations of biblical prophecy about the emergence of a one-world religion many believe precedes the return of Jesus Christ.
According to media reports, Saudi Foreign Minister Prince Saud al-Faisal, Austrian Foreign Minister and Vice Chancellor Michael Spindelegger and Spanish Foreign Minister Trinidad Jimenez Garcia-Herrera oversaw the signing of a contract between the three nations Thursday, in which they will cooperate in the building and organization of an interfaith center in Vienna. Other high level officials from the three nations were also reportedly in attendance at the treaty signing.
The building, to be called the "King Abdullah Bin Abdulaziz International Center for Interreligious and Intercultural Dialogue," was conceived of by its namesake and mostly financed by the Saudi government. According to media reports the center will be composed of a governing body of 12 representatives, among that number will be representatives from Islam (one each Sunni and Shiite), Christians (one each Catholic, Anglican and Orthodox), a Buddhist, a Hindu and a Jewish representative.
There will also be a consulting body with 100 representatives from various faiths, as well as "academics and members of civil society," Deutsche Welle news agency reports.
"The thesis is valid that world peace cannot exist without peace between the world's major religions," Saudi Arabian Foreign Minister Prince Saud al-Faisal said during the signing ceremony in Vienna, according to Deutsche Welle.
The news agency also reports that Spindelegger said the organization's structure has been designed to make sure no single faith has the upper hand and that politics would have no part in the center's government. Garcia-Herrera also noted that membership would be made available to other nations.
The religious center will be located at Schottenring in Vienna, according to the Austrian Independent. Dutch news paper Die Presse reports that the project will cost millions of dollars.
"(Our) paying for the operation is to create a fund that makes the center independent from any sort of political interference," the Saudi prime minister said during the news conference.
The Deutsche Well report reveals that King Abdullah conceived the idea after meeting with Pope Benedict XVI at the Vatican in 2007. It was after emerging from that meeting that King Abdullah called on Christians and Muslims to find common ground for world peace.
The Saudi king held three interfaith meetings between 2008 and 2009, in which he held discussions with religious leaders in Mecca, Madrid and Hofburg in Veinna, which is reportedly where the final plans for the center's governing body was decided upon.
The ratification of the agreement on the interreligious center has upset politicians, local media and moderate Muslims, who wonder if the Saudi government does not have some ulterior motive, the Austrian Independent reports.
Some critics also found the Saudi initiative ironic, as Saudi Arabia is ruled by Shariah law. The CIA World Factbook describes the country's population as "100 percent" Muslim. The U.S. State Department's 2010 International Religious Freedom Report found that "freedom of religion is neither recognized nor protected under the law and is severely restricted in practice." The 2010 Religious Freedom Report also noted that there were no public non-Muslim houses of worship, and that Christians gathered in secret to worship. Those who leave Islam risk being executed for apostasy. ...
According to the AP, the religious center's "founding document cites principles enshrined in the Universal Declaration of Human rights, 'in particular, the right to freedom of thought, conscience and religion.' It emphasizes 'human rights and fundamental freedoms for all without distinction as to race, sex, language or religion.' "
The Sun Daily reports that Cardinal Jean-Louis Tauran, head of the Vatican's department for interfaith dialogue, while critical of Saudi Arabia's lack of religious freedom, supports King Abdullah's interreligious plan. He reportedly noted that the Holy See might seek observer status. ...
As some observers have noted, this is not the first time an attempt has been made to somehow unify or find commonality among the world's leading religions. Also, as with previous cases, the official founding of King Abdullah's interreligious center will likely be perceived by some Christians as another "sign of the times" in light of purported biblical prophecies about a one-world religion preceding Christ's return to Earth. ...
The report by CBN News' Wendy Griffith featured comments from Robert Maginnis, a former director of the Family Research Council. Maginnis described the 2003 U.N. meeting as having a hidden agenda to unite the world's citizens under one "religious umbrella."
"You're taking the Muslim community, the Christian community, the Hindus, the Confucians and all the many hundreds of religious groups, trying to identify key leaders, and you are basically trying to co-opt them into cooperating with you," he said at the time.
Now that the "King Abdullah Bin Abdulaziz International Center for Interreligious and Intercultural Dialogue" has officially been founded, it is likely the world will be watching to see which representatives of which faith will emerge to take a place in the 12-member governing body. Christians, no doubt, will also be taking special note of who in the evangelical community will be willing to participate.
Edited :: See Original Report Here
http://www.christianpost.com/news/saudi-king-abdullahs-interfaith-center-in-italy-to-unify-the-worlds-religions-58241/
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Suit: Saudi Gov't Sponsored 9/11
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INVESTOR'S BUSINESS DAILY [William O'Neil+ Co.] - September 21, 2011
Justice: A new 9/11 lawsuit portrays the Saudi government as having more control over al-Qaida charities before the attacks than it (or the U.S.) has admitted. Let's hear the truth.
Lloyds of London seeks $215 million in damages from the kingdom to recover claims it paid 9/11 victims and their families. The suit charges that the Saudi government funded al-Qaida through its banks and charities.
The complaint, filed in U.S. court, states that without official Saudi sponsorship, "al-Qaida would not have possessed the capacity to conceive, plan and execute the Sept. 11 attacks." In other words, absent Saudi support, the Twin Towers would still be standing - along with nearly 3,000 Americans.
We're impressed by the documentation cited in the 156-page complaint by Cozen O'Conner, a major Washington law firm. It's much more detailed than the lawsuit brought on behalf of 9/11 families, which a federal judge dismissed for lack of evidence. This one might have a shot. It points to new intelligence, including recently leaked diplomatic cables.
Among the findings:
* Senior Saudi officials and Saudi royal family members - including Saudi Interior Minister Prince Naif - either served as executives of suspect charities or sat on their boards while the charities were used to launder money to al-Qaida; and they knew of the activities.
* The Saudi charities themselves often provided not only money but employment cover, ID badges and logistical support to al-Qaida operatives.
* For example, the Saudi Joint Relief Committee for Kosovo and Chechnya (SJRC) allegedly was used as a cover by several al-Qaida operatives, including two men acting as directors of the charity.
* Between 1998 and 2000, SJRC allegedly diverted more than $74 million to al-Qaida members and loyalists affiliated with its bureaus.
* At the time the SJRC was under the control of Saudi Prince Naif, who after 9/11 denied that Saudis were among the hijackers and hinted that Jews carried out the attacks.
* Each of the dozen branches of the Saudi-based International Islamic Relief Organization, one of the charities Osama bin Laden used to finance his terror camps, is overseen by a Saudi royal; and a Philippines office was founded by bin Laden's brother-in-law.
* The Saudi royal family used its national bank to channel funds to bin Laden, and the family's longtime banker, Khalid bin Mahfouz, allegedly "is also a primary financier of al-Qaida."
* "Bin Mahfouz has acknowledged making a $270,000 contribution to bin Laden contemporaneous with the establishment of al-Qaida," the claim says. And it alleges that he and his "handpicked" bank partner, Yassin al-Kadi, now a wanted terrorist, "necessarily were aware of the terrorist activities."
As interior minister, Naif placed employees inside the Saudi embassy as well as consulates throughout the U.S. before 9/11. Some Los Angeles consulate officials and a San Diego-based Saudi intelligence agent have been linked to the hijackers and other terrorists.
In addition, computer hard drives seized in a post-9/11 raid of the offices of the Saudi High Commission for Relief of Bosnia and Herzegovina, a suspected al-Qaida front, included: materials for forging U.S. State Department ID badges; files on pesticides and crop-duster aircraft; photos of the bombed U.S. embassies in East Africa and the bombed USS Cole; and before and after photos of the World Trade Center.
Of course, Saudi officials have repeatedly denied any ties to 9/11 or al-Qaida. But the plaintiffs in this case have assembled in one place the most extensive record yet of Saudi government involvement.
The federal judge hearing the case should not be quick to dismiss it, no matter how many Saudi-bought lawyers and lobbyists argue otherwise.
Unedited :: Link to Original Posting
http://www.investors.com/NewsAndAnalysis/Article.aspx?id=585607&p=1
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The kings of the earth take their stand
"And I will bless them that bless thee, and curse him that curseth thee..."
- Genesis 12:3 Live microphone captures private conversation of Sarkozy & Obama at G20 | |
Sarkozy calls Netanyahu 'liar' and admits he 'can't stand' the Israeli premier. Obama: You're fed up with him? I have to deal with him every day!
YEDIOTH AHRONOTH [Yedioth Ahronoth Group - Private] - November 7, 2011
French President Nicolas Sarkozy reportedly told US President Barack Obama that he could not "stand" Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and that he thinks the Israeli premier "is a liar."
According to a Monday report in the French website "Arret sur Images," after facing reporters for a G20 press conference on Thursday, the two presidents retired to a private room, to further discuss the matters of the day.
The conversation apparently began with President Obama criticizing Sarkozy for not having warned him that France would be voting in favor of the Palestinian membership bid in UNESCO despite Washington's strong objection to the move.
The conversation then drifted to Netanyahu, at which time Sarkozy declared: "I cannot stand him. He is a liar." According to the report, Obama replied: "You're fed up with him, but I have to deal with him every day!"
The remark was naturally meant to be said in confidence, but the two leaders' microphones were accidently left on, making the would-be private comment embarrassingly public. ...
The surprising lack of coverage may be explained by a report alleging that journalists present at the event were requested to sign an agreement to keep mum on the embarrassing comments. A Reuters reporter was among the journalists present and can confirm the veracity of the comments.
A member of the media confirmed Monday that "there were discussions between journalists and they agreed not to publish the comments due to the sensitivity of the issue."
He added that while it was annoying to have to refrain from publishing the information, the journalists are subject to precise rules of conduct.
Edited :: See Original Report Here
http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-4145266,00.html
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The United States and the Policy of Targeted Killing
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The faint criticism of intensive targeted killings campaign by the US ... is especially noteworthy in light of the serious condemnations Israel has received for the same conduct.
CANADA FREE PRESS (CFP) [Indy Media-Online/Judi McLeod] - By INSS Yoram Schweitzer and Einav Yogev - June 22, 2011
United States policy on targeted killings in the war on terror made headlines with the May 2011 raid by the Navy SEALs in the heart of Pakistan that killed al-Qaeda leader Osama Bin Laden. The SEALs were previously involved in commando actions of this type against other senior al-Qaeda figures. In September 2009, a SEALs team killed Saleh Ali Saleh Nabhan, an al-Qaeda commander in Somalia, in a land operation that was carried out in Somalia. Nabhan was the partner of Fazul Abdullah Mohammed, who was killed two weeks ago by Somali security forces. Fazul was sought by the United States for his involvement in the 1998 al-Qaeda suicide attacks on the US embassies in Kenya and Tanzania as the operational chief on the ground, and for his involvement as a commander, alongside Nabhan, in the coordinated al-Qaeda terror attack in Kenya in 2002.
This attack included the attempted use of an anti-aircraft missile to shoot down an Arkia passenger plane departing from Kenya to Israel, at the same time that a suicide attack, which killed fifteen people, including three Israelis, was underway in the Mombasa Paradise Hotel. Another important object of US targeted killings was Ilyas Kashmiri, who was killed in early June in an aerial operation. Kashmiri was also in al-Qaeda's external branch unit and was a senior operational commander in a Pakistani jihad organization. His name was tied to fatal terrorist attacks executed and planned in India, Pakistan, and Europe.
These targeted killings are part of an intensive campaign in the war against global terrorism begun by the United States immediately after September 11. In the course of this campaign the United States has become entangled in a conventional war and in other ongoing, expensive, and bloody sub-conventional battles in a number of states. Given the complexity and the prolonged nature of the war against al-Qaeda and its affiliates, public opinion has come to feel that the terrorists have succeeded in making a mockery of the world's largest superpower and its allies.
However, a careful examination of the terror fighting strategy, and especially the operational conduct of the United States, indicates that the combination of technology and human resources, along with actions by armed unmanned aerial vehicles, has allowed the Americans to carry out effective targeted attacks within the territories in which their ground forces' freedom of movement is limited. In this way, the United States and its allies have succeeded in killing or capturing the commanders of the special al-Qaeda unit that is responsible for carrying out terror attacks abroad. They have also been able to expel many additional senior military commanders and most of the senior activists of al-Qaeda and its main affiliates in the Taliban and other terrorist organizations and networks that operate in the Afghanistan-Pakistan sector. At the same time, the United States and its allies have succeeded in foiling most of the attempted terrorist attacks by al-Qaeda and global jihad activists.
In spite of the protests heard recently, mostly in Afghanistan and Pakistan, against the aerial killings because of the harm done to uninvolved civilians - harm caused both by the terrorist organizations' deliberate custom of taking shelter among a civilian population, and by human error - the United States, which is leading the struggle against al-Qaeda and its affiliates, has unmistakably and publicly adopted this pattern of action and is in particular implementing it in the sub-conventional battles underway in these theaters.
Furthermore, the Americans have also recently been preparing to step up the use of targeted killings from the air in politically unstable Yemen, which against the backdrop of the increased activity of al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula has been marked as another central theater of conflict. The United States, which about a decade ago had already used targeted killings sporadically in Yemen, recently began using them again when it attempted an aerial killing of Anwar al-Awlaki, a radical Muslim cleric and an official of al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula.
The faint criticism of the intensive targeted killings campaign by the United States, which is heard only rarely around the world, is especially noteworthy in light of the serious condemnations Israel has received for the same conduct. For decades Israel has fought terrorism that threatened its citizens, and during this period it made sparing use of the tools of targeted killings against prominent terrorist leaders. The murderous large scale terrorism carried out against Israeli citizens during the second intifada, which was manifested largely in suicide terrorism, led to the government of Israel's developing and expanding the use of this operational tool and aiming it at the most prominent and dangerous planners and perpetrators of terrorism. ...
Edited :: See Original Report Here
http://www.canadafreepress.com/index.php/print-friendly/37788
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Obama: God backs jobs plan
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AGENCE FRANCE PRESSE - By Stephen Collinson - November 2, 2011
President Barack Obama Wednesday said even God wanted to put Americans back to work, invoking divine blessing for his joust with Republicans over measures designed to slice into high unemployment.
Obama also taunted his foes with historic arguments in favor of repairing vital infrastructure once made by conservative icon Ronald Reagan, as he stumped for a $60 billion infrastructure bill being taken up by the Senate.
The president rebuked the House of Representatives for passing a bill reaffirming the US motto "In God We Trust" rather than getting to work on his stalled $447 billion jobs program.
"That's not putting people back to work. I trust in God, but God wants to see us help ourselves by putting people back to work," the president said.
Obama's spokesman Jay Carney denied that Obama had perhaps gone too far by dragging the Almighty into a fierce political spat.
"I believe that the phrase from the Bible is 'the Lord helps those who help themselves,'" Carney said.
"I think the point the president is making is that, you know, we have it within our capacity to do the things to help the American people."
The White House was later forced to clarify however that the phrase Carney used, though often mistaken for scripture, was not in fact biblical. ...
Edited :: See Original Report Here
http://news.yahoo.com/obama-presses-republicans-bridge-scheme-151914720.html
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Don't Tarnish the Revolution
| WORLD AFFAIRS JOURNAL [American Peace Society] - By Judy Bachrach - March 7, 2011
On the night Hosni Mubarak was toppled from power, the crowd in Cairo's Tahrir Square found itself liberated from all sorts of constraints: dictatorship, brutal rule, censorship, casual imprisonment, torture. And civilization. Mariam Nekiwi, a young video editor, found this out first-hand when, as her boyfriend recalled for the Los Angeles Times, "A group of men surrounded her from four directions and closed her off."
First someone grabbed her groin, then others grabbed the rest of her body, pulling at her clothes. She couldn't see, but she did manage to scream.
The reaction of those around her?
"People started yelling at me to be quiet," Nekiwi told the newspaper. "They said: 'Don't tarnish the revolution. Don't make a scene.'"
That was just before a crowd of men began another, much more publicized round of brutality and sexual assault, this time on CBS's Lara Logan. She was beaten by an assortment of strangers, and so battered that after being flown back to the United States, she needed hospital treatment. For days, Egyptian television had assured viewers that foreign-born journalists covering the crisis were secretly agents of the Mossad (or alternatively, interestingly, emissaries of Hezbollah). "Jew! Jew!" shouted the men who molested the helpless reporter.
Not that they needed much provocation: there were a fair number of women, non-journalists as it happens, molested in precisely the same way. A government was gone. But still very much alive was the traditional Egyptian response to foreign women, career women and traditional women, women in burkas and veils and women in Western dress: Fair game, as ever, only now the game is really on.
Don't tarnish the revolution. In the days following the victorious efforts of the Egyptian populace, Tahrir Square, home of the revolution against political tyranny, embarked on its own special voyage through Hell. The tyranny of the mob. The tyranny of men who know women are helpless against large groups of men. The tyranny of nameless, faceless cowards who know that the mob will protect them. The difference between Mubarak and the men of the mob? No tyrant in Tahrir Square was forced by popular demand to leave the country.
But let's not confine ourselves to Egypt. Tunisia, once ruled by President Zine El Abidine Ben Ali was a country best known for (a) massive corruption, which is not exactly rare in the Muslim world; and (b) women's rights, which are, in fact, rare in the Muslim world.
As Ida Lichter writes in the Australian, say what you will about Tunisia, it had its good points. Polygamy had long been abolished. Moreover, under the much-reviled Ben Ali, things got even better for women. No one under 18 could marry. Wife-batterers got jail time. Literacy improved so much that 64 percent of Tunisian women can now read. And, adds Lichter, "Divorced mothers could be granted full custody of children and could refuse consent for the marriage of a child."
So pleasant though it is to imagine a Muslim world where people dance in the streets to celebrate their new-found freedoms and rejoice in revolution, my suspicion is the revelry has started way too early. The women of that world may have to sit this one out.
As they always have.
Unedited :: Link to Original Posting
http://www.worldaffairsjournal.org/new/blogs/bachrach/Dont_Tarnish_the_Revolution
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National goal: Islamic world domination Muslim Brotherhood text reveals scope of radical creed
|  Translated by Palestinian Media Watch, book details group's goal of global Islamic conquest THE JERUSALEM POST [Mirkaei Tikshoret] - By OREN KESSLER - February 9, 2011
One of the greatest beneficiaries of the unrest in Egypt has been the Muslim Brotherhood. ...
Pundits have portrayed the Brotherhood as uncompromising zealots or beneficent providers of social services that long-deprived Egyptians desperately need.
But a translation released Tuesday of a 1995 book by the movement's fifth official leader sheds light on just how Egypt's Brotherhood views itself and its mission. Jihad is the Way is the last of a five-volume work, The Laws of Da'wa by Mustafa Mashhur, who headed the Muslim Brotherhood in Egypt from 1996-2002. ...
They detail the Brotherhood's objectives of advancing the global conquest of Islam and reestablishing the Islamic Caliphate, the public and private duties of jihad and the struggle Muslims must wage against Israel. ...
"The Islamic ummah," it says, referring to the supranational community of Muslims, "can regain its power and be liberated and assume its rightful position which was intended by Allah, as the most exalted nation among men, as the leaders of humanity." ...
Jihad is the Way explicitly endorses the reinstatement of a worldwide Islamic regime.
"It should be known that jihad and preparation towards jihad are not only for the purpose of fending off assaults and attacks of Allah's enemies from Muslims, but are also for the purpose of realizing the great task of establishing an Islamic state and strengthening the religion and spreading it around the world." ...
http://www.jpost.com/MiddleEast/Article.aspx?id=207415
Also:
Translation of important Muslim Brotherhood book: Jihad is the way The Muslim Brotherhood - in its own words PMW translation of "Jihad is the way" by Mustafa Mashhur Leader of the Muslim Brotherhood in Egypt, 1996-2002 PMW (Palestinian Media Watch) - By Itamar Marcus and Nan Jacques Zilberdik - February 9, 2011
One of the results of the turmoil in Egypt is the rise in influence of the Muslim Brotherhood. In order to understand the implications, Palestinian Media Watch has translated the book Jihad is the way by Mustafa Mashhur, who was the official leader of the Muslim Brotherhood in Egypt 1996-2002. ...
PMW has selected the following quotes from Jihad is the way to illustrate central ideas of Muslim Brotherhood ideology. PMW's translation of the book follows below.
National goal: Islamic world domination ... - "It should be known that Jihad and preparation towards Jihad are not only for the purpose of fending-off assaults and attacks of Allah's enemies from Muslims, but are also for the purpose of realizing the great task of establishing an Islamic state and strengthening the religion and spreading it around the world..." ...
http://www.palwatch.org/main.aspx?fi=157&doc_id=4603
The Voice of Egypt's Muslim Brotherhood DER SPIEGEL [BMG: Bertelsmann Media Group/Gruner & Jahr Magazines] - By Alexander Smoltczyk - February 15, 2011
[...] The Al-Jazeera television network has been broadcasting Qaradawi's program "Shariah and Life" every Sunday for the past 15 years. Some 60 million Muslims watch him as he talks imploringly about the genocide in Gaza ...
Qaradawi advocates establishing a "United Muslim Nations" as a contemporary form of the caliphate and the only alternative to the hegemony of the West. He hates Israel and would love to take up arms himself. In one of his sermons, he asked God "to kill the Jewish Zionists, every last one of them." ... http://www.spiegel.de/international/world/0,1518,745526,00.html
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Bridal slaves
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Girls under 10 yrs old wed in Gaza
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India has the world's largest number of slaves, among them an increasing number of women and girls sold into marriage.
AL JAZEERA - November 15, 2011
India has one of the world's fastest growing economies. But the southwest Asian country also has the largest number of slaves in the world.
In the midst of widespread poverty, fueled by economic inequality and rampant corruption, a new form of slavery - bridal slavery - has flourished. Women and young girls are sold for as little as $120 to men who often burden them with strenuous labour and abuse them.
In a country where female children are sometimes considered a financial burden, the common practice of infanticide and gender-selective abortion has led to a shortfall in the number of women available for marriage - something made all the more problematic by high dowry costs. Experts say this has encouraged bride trafficking.
Jamila, a former bride slave, says her traffickers kidnapped and drugged her, before selling her to an abusive man. "He would hit me and beat me day and night. I would have to work all day in the heat .... That's no life .... Is it worth living?"
Shafiq Khan, who runs a grassroots organisation dedicated to tracking down bride traffickers and their victims, explains: "The girls do equal amounts of work in two jobs. They are sex slaves, not just to one man but a group of 10 or 12 men. Apart from that there is agriculture - working on the farms with animals from morning until night."
Unedited :: Link to Original Posting
http://www.aljazeera.com/programmes/slaverya21stcenturyevil/2011/10/2011101013102368710.html
New Saudi Fatwa Defends Pedophilia as "Marriage"
FRONTPAGE MAGAZINE - By Raymond Ibrahim - July 26, 2011
Muslim "child-marriage" - euphemism for pedophilia - is making headlines again, at least in Arabic media: Dr. Salih bin Fawzan, a prominent cleric and member of Saudi Arabia's highest religious council, just issued a fatwa asserting that there is no minimum age for marriage, and that girls can be married "even if they are in the cradle."
Appearing in Saudi papers on July 13, the fatwa complains that "Uninformed interference with Sharia rulings by the press and journalists is on the increase, posing dire consequences to society, including their interference with the question of marriage to small girls who have not reached maturity, and their demand that a minimum age be set for girls to marry." ...
Edited :: See Original Report Here
http://frontpagemag.com/2011/07/26/new-saudi-fatwa-defends-pedophilia-as-marriage/
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Make way for the Kings of the East
Unquenchable thirst
A growing rivalry between India, Pakistan and China over the region's great rivers may be threatening
South Asia's peace
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... a "mega-arc of hydro insecurity" emerging from western China along the Himalayas to the Middle East and farther west ...
THE ECONOMIST [The Economist Newspaper Ltd] - November 19, 2011
DELHI, DHAKA, ISLAMABAD and SRINAGAR - [...] Compared with much of South Asia, Kashmir, a disputed territory in northern India, has many rivers and relatively few people. But even here fresh water is running short. To see how contentious this can be, drive half a day south to where the Baglihar dam (shown above) is rising up. An enormous wall bisects the valley, dressing it in white spray, and three huge jets of water blast from its sluices.
Half complete, the dam is already a local wonder that tourists gape at. It generates 450MW for the starved energy grid of Jammu and Kashmir. Once the scheme fully tames the water, by steering it through a tunnel blasted into the mountain, the grid will gain another 450MW.
The river swirls away, white-crested and silt-laden, racing to the nearby border with Pakistan. But there Baglihar is a source of bitterness. Pakistanis cite it as typical of an intensifying Indian threat to their existence, a conspiracy to divert, withhold or misuse precious water that is rightfully theirs. Officials in Islamabad and diplomats abroad are primed to grumble about it. Pakistan's most powerful man, the head of the armed forces, General Ashfaq Kayani, cites water to justify his "India-centric" military stance.
Others take it further. "Water is the latest battle cry for jihadis," says B.G. Verghese, an Indian writer. "They shout that water must flow, or blood must flow." Lashkar-e-Taiba, a Pakistani terror group, likes to threaten to blow up India's dams. Last year a Pakistani extremist, Abdur Rehman Makki, told a rally that if India were to "block Pakistan's waters, we will let loose a river of blood."
Assorted hardliners cheer them on. A blood-curdling editorial in Nawa-i-Waqt, a Pakistani newspaper, warned in April that "Pakistan should convey to India that a war is possible on the issue of water and this time war will be a nuclear one." ...
Bashir Ahmad, a geologist in Srinagar, Kashmir who studied the Baglihar dam, gives grim warning about the Indians' future intentions: "They will switch the Indus off to make Pakistan solely dependent on India. It's going to be a water bomb." A less excitable report in February by America's Senate offered a similar assessment: "The cumulative effect of [many dam] projects could give India the ability to store enough water to limit the supply to Pakistan at crucial moments in the growing season." Dams are a source of "significant bilateral tension", the report concludes.
More dams are to come, as India's need to power its economy means it is quietly spending billions on hydropower in Kashmir. The Senate report totted up 33 hydro projects in the border area. The state's chief minister, Omar Abdullah, says dams will add an extra 3,000MW to the grid in the next eight years alone. Some analysts in Srinagar talk of over 60 dam projects, large and small, now on the books. ...
Countries downstream have genuine reasons to fret. Pakistan is exposed. Like Egypt it exists around a single great river, though the Indus is nearly twice the Nile's size when it reaches the sea. It waters over 80% of Pakistan's 22m hectares (54m acres) of irrigated land, using canals built by the British. In turn that farming provides 21% of the country's GDP, as well as livelihoods for a big proportion of its 180m people. Many of them are already thirsty. ...
More rows between India and Pakistan are certain. India may keep on dismissing them as Pakistani bluster, an easy thing to do if you are upstream. But India is downstream in another highly tricky area: its border with China.
Tension already exists over the status of India's Arunachal Pradesh state, which China refuses to recognise. A quarrel over rivers in the region could serve as a focus for wider disputes about territory. ... And one of India's largest rivers, the Brahmaputra (Tsangpo in China), flows south from the Tibetan plateau and into Assam not far from the disputed land. ...
The scarcity of water in South Asia will become harder to manage as demand rises. South Asia's population of 1.5 billion is growing by 1.7% a year, says the World Bank, which means an extra 25m or so mouths to water and feed: imagine dropping North Korea's entire population on the region each year. ...
Worse, overall supply will not only fail to keep up with rising demand but is likely to fall (unless a cheap way is found to turn sea water fresh). The Himalayan glaciers are melting. ...
Others give even scarier predictions. Sundeep Waslekar, who heads a Mumbai think-tank, the Strategic Foresight Group, which has picked water as a long-term threat to Asian stability, sees a "mega-arc of hydro insecurity" emerging from western China along the Himalayas to the Middle East and farther west. The strain of bigger populations, diminishing water tables and a changing climate could all conspire to produce a storm of troubles. South Asia is especially vulnerable: Mr Waslekar sees a cut of 20% in total available fresh water over the next two decades.
The greatest threat of all would be from any change to the monsoon, which delivers most of the region's fresh water each summer. Here, again, worries arise. Indian meteorologists who have studied rainfall data from 1901 to 2004 have noted signs in recent decades of more dry spells within the peak monsoon months. ...
Edited :: See Original Report Here
http://www.economist.com/node/21538687
Also:
Environment at risk as parched Jordan taps water
AGENCE FRANCE PRESSE - By Ahmad Khatib - April 4, 2011
AMMAN - In its desperate efforts to battle chronic water shortages, Jordan, one of the world's 10 driest countries, is mulling "unconventional" and "environmentally unfriendly" plans, experts say. ...
Jordan is tapping into the ancient southern Disi aquifer, despite concerns about high levels of radiation, while studies are underway to build a controversial canal from the Red Sea to the Dead Sea. ...
The plan is to provide the capital Amman with water for 50 years, said water ministry official Bassam Saleh, who is in charge of the project that was launched in 2008 and is due to be completed in 2012.
A 2008 study by Duke University, in the United States, shows that Disi's water has 20 times more radiation than is considered safe, with radium content that could trigger cancers.
"Our research shows that the Disi aquifer is heavily contaminated with radium," according to the study done by the Durham, North Carolina team which tested 37 pumping wells in the aquifer. ...
Edited :: See Original Report Here
http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20110405/sc_afp/jordanwaterenvironment_20110405030509
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Another reason not to trust the millions/billions "age" put fourth by science ...
The strange case of solar flares and radioactive elements
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When researchers found an unusual linkage between solar flares and the inner life of radioactive elements on Earth, it touched off a scientific detective investigation that could end up rewriting some of the assumptions of physics.
STANFORD REPORT - By Dan Stober - August 23, 2010
It's a mystery that presented itself unexpectedly: The radioactive decay of some elements sitting quietly in laboratories on Earth seemed to be influenced by activities inside the sun, 93 million miles away. ...
Researchers from Stanford and Purdue University believe it is. But their explanation of how it happens opens the door to yet another mystery. ...
The story begins, in a sense, in classrooms around the world, where students are taught that the rate of decay of a specific radioactive material is a constant. This concept is relied upon, for example, when anthropologists use carbon-14 to date ancient artifacts and when doctors determine the proper dose of radioactivity to treat a cancer patient. ...
Ephraim Fischbach, a physics professor at Purdue, was looking into the rate of radioactive decay of several isotopes as a possible source of random numbers generated without any human input. (A lump of radioactive cesium-137, for example, may decay at a steady rate overall, but individual atoms within the lump will decay in an unpredictable, random pattern. Thus the timing of the random ticks of a Geiger counter placed near the cesium might be used to generate random numbers.)
As the researchers pored through published data on specific isotopes, they found disagreement in the measured decay rates - odd for supposed physical constants.
Checking data collected at Brookhaven National Laboratory on Long Island and the Federal Physical and Technical Institute in Germany, they came across something even more surprising: long-term observation of the decay rate of silicon-32 and radium-226 seemed to show a small seasonal variation. The decay rate was ever so slightly faster in winter than in summer.
Was this fluctuation real, or was it merely a glitch in the equipment used to measure the decay, induced by the change of seasons, with the accompanying changes in temperature and humidity?
"Everyone thought it must be due to experimental mistakes, because we're all brought up to believe that decay rates are constant," Sturrock said.
The sun speaks
On Dec 13, 2006, the sun itself provided a crucial clue, when a solar flare sent a stream of particles and radiation toward Earth. Purdue nuclear engineer Jere Jenkins, while measuring the decay rate of manganese-54, a short-lived isotope used in medical diagnostics, noticed that the rate dropped slightly during the flare, a decrease that started about a day and a half before the flare.
If this apparent relationship between flares and decay rates proves true, it could lead to a method of predicting solar flares prior to their occurrence, which could help prevent damage to satellites and electric grids, as well as save the lives of astronauts in space.
The decay-rate aberrations that Jenkins noticed occurred during the middle of the night in Indiana - meaning that something produced by the sun had traveled all the way through the Earth to reach Jenkins' detectors. What could the flare send forth that could have such an effect?
Jenkins and Fischbach guessed that the culprits in this bit of decay-rate mischief were probably solar neutrinos, the almost weightless particles famous for flying at almost the speed of light through the physical world - humans, rocks, oceans or planets - with virtually no interaction with anything.
Then, in a series of papers published in Astroparticle Physics, Nuclear Instruments and Methods in Physics Research and Space Science Reviews, Jenkins, Fischbach and their colleagues showed that the observed variations in decay rates were highly unlikely to have come from environmental influences on the detection systems.
Their findings strengthened the argument that the strange swings in decay rates were caused by neutrinos from the sun. The swings seemed to be in synch with the Earth's elliptical orbit, with the decay rates oscillating as the Earth came closer to the sun (where it would be exposed to more neutrinos) and then moving away. ...
A surprise
Going back to take another look at the decay data from the Brookhaven lab, the researchers found a recurring pattern of 33 days. It was a bit of a surprise, given that most solar observations show a pattern of about 28 days - the rotation rate of the surface of the sun.
The explanation? The core of the sun - where nuclear reactions produce neutrinos - apparently spins more slowly than the surface we see. "It may seem counter-intuitive, but it looks as if the core rotates more slowly than the rest of the sun," Sturrock said.
All of the evidence points toward a conclusion that the sun is "communicating" with radioactive isotopes on Earth, said Fischbach.
But there's one rather large question left unanswered. No one knows how neutrinos could interact with radioactive materials to change their rate of decay. ...
Chantal Jolagh, a science-writing intern at the Stanford News Service, contributed to this story.
Edited :: See Original Report Here
http://news.stanford.edu/news/2010/august/sun-082310.html
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January 2011
The sun rises two days early in Greenland, sparking fears that climate change is accelerating
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LONDON DAILY MAIL [Associated Newspapers/DMGT] - January 11, 2011
The sun over Greenland has risen two days early, baffling scientists and sparking fears that Arctic icecaps are melting faster than previously thought.
Experts say the sun should have risen over the Arctic nation's most westerly town, Ilulissat, yesterday, ending a month-and-a-half of winter darkness.
But for the first time in history light began creeping over the horizon at around 1pm on Tuesday - 48 hours ahead of the usual date of 13 January.
The mysterious sunrise has confused scientists, although it is believed the most likely explanation is that it is down to the lower height of melting icecaps allowing the sun's light to penetrate through earlier.
Thomas Posch, of the Institute for Astronomy of the University of Vienna, said that a local change of the horizon was 'by far the most obvious explanation'.
He said as the ice sinks, so to does the horizon, creating the illusion that the sun has risen early.
This theory, based on the gradual decline of Greenland's ice sheet, is backed by recent climate studies.
A report by the World Meteorology Organisation shows that temperatures in Greenland have risen around 3C above average over the last year.
It also reported that December was much warmer than usual with rainfall instead of snow recorded for the first time in Kuujjuaq since records began.
It has even been suggested that the sun's early appearance could have an astronomical explanation.
But Wolfgang Lenhardt, director of the department of geophysics at the Central Institute for Meteorology in Vienna, scotched this theory.
He said: 'The constellation of the stars has not changed. If that had happened, there would have been an outcry around the world.
'The data of the Earth's axis and Earth's rotation are monitored continuously and meticulously and we would know if that had happened.'
Unedited :: Link to Original Posting
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/article-1346936/The-sun-rises-days-early-Greenland-sparking-fears-climate-change-accelerating.html?printingPage=true
Strange Claim: The Sun Rose 2 Days Early in Greenland
LIVE SCIENCE.com [Tech Media Network] - By Wynne Parry - January 17, 2011
Residents of a town on the western coast of Greenland may have seen the sun peek over the horizon 48 hours earlier than its usual arrival on Jan. 13, sparking speculation, and disagreements, over possible causes. ...
http://www.livescience.com/10417-strange-claim-sun-rose-2-days-early-greenland.html
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And His voice shook the earth then, but now He has promised, saying, "YET ONCE MORE I WILL SHAKE NOT ONLY THE EARTH, BUT ALSO THE HEAVEN."
- Hebrews 12:26
Japan's March 11 Earthquake Almost Shook Space: Study | |
INTERNATIONAL BUSINESS TIMES - By IBTimes Staff Reporter - August 5, 2011
Vibrations from the devastating earthquake that hit Japan in March 2011, which triggered a massive tsunami, had almost reached the outer space, a new study has revealed.
According to the atmosphere-vibrations study published in the Journal of Geophysical Research, the vibrations from Japan quake and tsunami waves traveled towards upper atmosphere, the ionosphere, where they were amplified to thousands of times their original sizes, the National Geographic News reported.
The velocity and the magnitude of the atmospheric disturbance have not yet been revealed but March 11 earthquake and the following tsunami caused the biggest such phenomenon ever, researchers said.
Such a trend has also been observed during other massive earthquakes in the world.
On December 26, 2004, the 9.3 magnitude Sumatra earthquake and tsunami in the Indian Ocean had excited "giant" disturbances in the ionosphere, according to the journal's report in 2006.
Two giant ionospheric disturbances were observed in Taiwan. The first disturbance resulted in vertical ionospheric fluctuations with a maximum velocity of about 70 meters per second. The second disturbance, propagating at a horizontal speed of over 300 meters per second, was caused due to coupling of the atmospheric gravity waves with the tsunami waves, the journal had revealed in its report.
On March 11, 2011, a 9 magnitude earthquake occurred in the Western Pacific Ocean off Japan's Honshu Island that caused a massive tsunami. According to Japanese National Police Agency, more than 15,000 people were killed while over 5,000 victims are still missing.
The tsunami waves also destroyed Tokyo Electric Power Company (TEPCO)'s Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant in Fukushima prefecture, dubbed the worst nuclear disaster since the Chernobyl nuclear power plant disaster of 1986 in North Ukraine.
Unedited :: Link to Original Posting
http://www.ibtimes.com/articles/192837/20110805/japan-s-march-11-earthquake-almost-shook-the-space-study-japan-tsunami-fukushima-daiichi-nuclear-pow.htm
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Japan megaquake shifted gravity satellite orbits
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NEW SCIENTIST - By Anil Ananthaswamy - December 7, 2011
The Tohoku earthquake that rattled Japan on 11 March changed Earth's gravitational field enough to affect the orbits of satellites. The satellites' altered courses suggest that the earthquake was stronger and deeper than instruments on Earth indicated.
These weren't just any satellites: they are the twin spacecraft of the Gravity Recovery and Climate Experiment (GRACE), which fly 220 kilometres apart in a polar orbit about 500 kilometres above Earth. GRACE's job is to map the Earth's gravity field, and it does this by monitoring the effect of minute variations in the field on the trajectories of the satellites and the changing distance between them. ...
Han and colleagues have already studied the effects of two previous megaquakes - the Sumatra-Andaman earthquake in 2004 and last year's earthquake in Chile. After GRACE was launched in 2002, these were the only earthquakes that had had a measurable effect on the satellites' orbits - until the Tohoku earthquake.
The researchers calculated how the relative velocity of the two satellites changed as they passed over the affected region. ...
The researchers then built models of the earthquake using data from seismographs and surface GPS instruments, and estimated what the satellites' range rate would be in these models. They found that a model in which the earthquake was of magnitude 9.1 and occurred in Earth's lower crust came closest to the true range rate. By contrast, conventional estimates have put the Tohoku earthquake's strength at 9.0 and located it in the upper crust. ...
Edited :: See Original Report Here
http://www.newscientist.com/article/dn21250-japan-megaquake-shifted-gravity-satellite-orbits.html
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"And the nations were enraged, and Your wrath came, and the time came...to destroy those who destroy the earth."
- Revelation 11:18
Wake up Church!: They're already doing it
Tweaking the climate to save it: Who decides?
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Tell tale iridescent display (rainbow as in an oil slick) from Chem spraying
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"By most accounts, the leading contender is stratospheric aerosol particles," ... The particles would be sun-reflecting sulfates spewed into the lower stratosphere from aircraft, balloons or other devices ...
ASSOCIATED PRESS - By Charles J. Hanley - April 4, 2011
CHICHELEY, England - To the quiet green solitude of an English country estate they retreated, to think the unthinkable.
Scientists of earth, sea and sky, scholars of law, politics and philosophy: In three intense days ... four dozen international thinkers pondered the planet's fate as it grows warmer, weighed the idea of reflecting the sun to cool the atmosphere, debated the question of who would make the decision.
The unknown risks of "geoengineering" - in this case, tweaking Earth's climate by dimming the skies - left many uneasy.
"If we could experiment with the atmosphere and literally play God, it's very tempting to a scientist," said senior Kenyan earth scientist Richard Odingo. "But I worry."
Arrayed against that worry is the worry that global warming at some point - in 20 years? 50 years? - may abruptly upend the world we know, by melting much of Greenland into the sea, by shifting India's life-giving monsoon, by killing off marine life.
If climate engineering research isn't done now, climatologists say, the world will face grim choices in an emergency. ...
The question's urgency has grown as nations have failed, in years of talks, to agree on a binding long-term deal to rein in their carbon dioxide and other greenhouse-gas emissions blamed for global warming. ...
Science committees of the British Parliament and the U.S. Congress urged their governments last year to look at immediately undertaking climate engineering research - to have a "Plan B" ready, as the British panel put it, in case the diplomatic logjam persists.
Britain's national science academy, the Royal Society, subsequently organized the Chicheley Hall conference .... From six continents, they invited a blue-ribbon cross-section of atmospheric physicists, oceanographers, geochemists, environmentalists, international lawyers, psychologists, policy experts and others, to discuss how the world should oversee such unprecedented - and unsettling - research.
An Associated Press reporter was invited to sit in on their discussions, generally off the record, as they met ... 40 miles northwest of London, a secluded spot where Britain's Special Operations Executive trained for secret missions in World War II.
Provoking and parrying each other over questions never before raised in human history, the conferees were sensitive to how the outside world might react.
[...] Many geoengineering techniques they have thought about look either impractical or ineffective.
Painting rooftops white to reflect the sun's heat is a feeble gesture. Blanketing deserts with a reflective material is logistically challenging and a likely environmental threat. Launching giant mirrors into space orbit is exorbitantly expensive.
On the other hand, fertilizing the ocean with iron to grow CO2-eating plankton has shown some workability. Massachusetts' prestigious Woods Hole research center is planning the biggest such experiment. Marine clouds are another route: Scientists at the U.S. National Center for Atmospheric Research in Colorado are designing a test of brightening ocean clouds with sea-salt particles to reflect the sun.
Those techniques are necessarily limited in scale, however, and unable to alter planet-wide warming.
Only one idea has emerged with that potential.
"By most accounts, the leading contender is stratospheric aerosol particles," said climatologist John Shepherd of Britain's Southampton University, briefing the Chicheley Hall assemblage on the climate engineer's toolkit.
The particles would be sun-reflecting sulfates spewed into the lower stratosphere from aircraft, balloons or other devices - much like the sulfur dioxide emitted by the eruption of the Philippines' Mt. Pinatubo in 1991, estimated to have cooled the world by 0.5 degrees C (0.9 degrees F) for a year or so. ...
Shepherd and others stressed that any sun-blocking "SRM" technique - for solar radiation management - would have to be accompanied by sharp reductions in carbon dioxide emissions on the ground and some form of carbon dioxide removal, preferably via a chemical-mechanical process, not yet perfected, to suck the gas out of the air and neutralize it.
Otherwise, they point out, the stratospheric sulfate layer would have to be built up indefinitely, to counter the growing greenhouse effect of accumulating carbon dioxide. And if that SRM operation shut down for any reason, temperatures on Earth would shoot upward.
The technique has other downsides: The sulfates would likely damage the ozone layer shielding Earth from damaging ultraviolet rays; they don't stop atmospheric carbon dioxide from acidifying the oceans; and sudden cooling of the Earth would itself alter climate patterns in unknown ways over parts of the planet.
"These scenarios create winners and losers," said Shepherd, lead author of a pivotal 2009 Royal Society study of geoengineering. "Who is going to decide?"
Many here worried that someone, some group, some government would decide on its own to conduct large-scale atmospheric experiments, raising global concerns ... They fear some in America might push for going straight to "Plan B," ...
In addition, "one of the challenges is identifying intentions, one of which could be offensive military use," said Indian development specialist Arunabha Ghosh.
Experts point out, for example, that cloud experimentation or localized solar "dimming" could - intentionally or unintentionally - cause droughts or floods in neighboring areas, arousing suspicions and international disputes. ...
The conferees worried, too, that a "geoengineering industrial complex" might emerge, pushing to profit from deployment of its technology. And Australian economist-ethicist Clive Hamilton saw other go-it-alone threats - "cowboys" and "scientific heroes."
"I'm queasy about some billionaire with a messiah complex having a major role in geoengineering research," Hamilton said. ...
But at the meeting in March, Chicheley Hall experts largely assumed that a coalition of scientifically capable nations, led by the U.S. and Britain, would arise to organize "sunshade" or other engineering research, perhaps inviting China, India, Brazil and others to join in a G20-style "club" of major powers. ...
Edited :: See Original Report Here
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/42401859/ns/us_news-environment/t/tweaking-climate-save-it-who-decides/
Also:
Start with your own family Mr. Gore.
Al Gore: Stabilize population to combat global warming
LOS ANGELES TIMES [Tribune Company] - June 22, 2011
Word Games: "Fertility Management" is just a glossed over way of promoting "eugenics" and an eventual "one child policy". The greenhouse gas theory is ridiculous when all across the planet when "radiational cooling" is experienced with cloud free skies. Global warming is a religion if there ever was one.
From the safety of the political sidelines, former Vice President Al Gore is venturing into a touchy topic, presenting his holistic view of how to curb the buildup of greenhouse gases warming the planet. Besides improving technology to reduce fossil fuel emissions, he is advocating "educating and empowering girls and women."
"That's the most powerful leveraging factor," Gore said in a speech Monday in New York. "When that happens, then the population begins to stabilize and societies begin to make better choices."
Although not entirely spelled out in the speech, Gore's thinking goes this way: If women are confident their children will survive, and if they have access to "fertility management," and if they have the power to decide how many children they want and when to have them, the result would be stabilization of the global population. ...
Edited :: See Original Report Here
http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/greenspace/2011/06/al-gore-climate-change-population-contraception-fertility.html
Have scientists discovered how to create downpours in the desert?
LONDON DAILY MAIL [Associated Newspapers/DMGT] - January 3, 2011
[...] Fifty rainstorms were created last year in the state's eastern Al Ain region using technology designed to control the weather. ...
Edited :: See Original Report Here
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/article-1343470/Have-scientists-discovered-create-downpours-desert.html?printingPage=true
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Roundup: Perhaps the World's Most Overlooked Poison
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MERCOLA.com - By Dr. Joseph Mercola - October 7, 2011 Summary: The vast majority of processed foods containing corn, soy, or canola, or any derivative thereof, are made from genetically modified 'Roundup Ready' crops, which have never been proven safe for human consumption. Roundup causes birth defects and deformities in frogs and chicken embryos, according to study published last year. Report shows that industry and regulators were aware of these effects as early as the 1980's, but kept the information hidden from the public. Regulations are primarily based on unpublished industry studies showing glyphosate, the active ingredient in Monsanto's herbicide Roundup, is "safe." Numerous animal studies suggest reproductive problems are a common side effect of glyphosate exposure and consumption of genetically engineered (GM) Roundup Ready crops. Edited :: See Original Report Herehttp://articles.mercola.com/sites/articles/archive/2011/10/07/are-you-being-kept-in-the-dark-about-birth-defects-from-weed-killers.aspxAlso:Farmers Cope With Roundup-Resistant Weeds
NEW YORK TIMES [NYTimes Group/Sulzberger] - By William Neuman and Andrew Pollack - May 3, 2010
[...] Just as the heavy use of antibiotics contributed to the rise of drug-resistant supergerms, American farmers' near-ubiquitous use of the weedkiller Roundup has led to the rapid growth of tenacious new superweeds. To fight them, Mr. Anderson and farmers throughout the East, Midwest and South are being forced to spray fields with more toxic herbicides, pull weeds by hand and return to more labor-intensive methods like regular plowing. ... Farm experts say that such efforts could lead to higher food prices, lower crop yields, rising farm costs and more pollution of land and water. "It is the single largest threat to production agriculture that we have ever seen," said Andrew Wargo III, the president of the Arkansas Association of Conservation Districts. ... Roundup - originally made by Monsanto but now also sold by others under the generic name glyphosate - has been little short of a miracle chemical for farmers. It kills a broad spectrum of weeds, is easy and safe to work with, and breaks down quickly, reducing its environmental impact. ... But farmers sprayed so much Roundup that weeds quickly evolved to survive it. "What we're talking about here is Darwinian evolution in fast-forward," Mike Owen, a weed scientist at Iowa State University, said. Now, Roundup-resistant weeds like horseweed and giant ragweed are forcing farmers to go back to more expensive techniques that they had long ago abandoned. ... Pigweed can grow three inches a day and reach seven feet or more, choking out crops; it is so sturdy that it can damage harvesting equipment. In an attempt to kill the pest before it becomes that big, Mr. Anderson and his neighbors are plowing their fields and mixing herbicides into the soil. ... Edited :: See Original Report Herehttp://www.nytimes.com/2010/05/04/business/energy-environment/04weed.html?th=&emc=th&pagewanted=print
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Without natural affection
Mass Burial Held For Over 1,600 LA County Residents
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KNX 1070kHz-AM / KTWV 94.7MHz-FM / HD-3 | LOS ANGELES, CALIFORNIA [CBS Radio] - December 7, 2011
LOS ANGELES - The remains of hundreds of Los Angeles County residents whose bodies were never claimed by family or friends were buried in a mass burial Wednesday.
"This holiday season many of us are reminded how fortunate we are to be surrounded by our loved ones," Supervisor Don Knabe said Tuesday, when he and his colleagues on the Board of Supervisors observed a moment of silence for the people being buried. "Sadly, not everyone shares this blessing."
He said the 1,639 people designated for the mass interment at the Los Angeles County Crematory and Cemetery "are individuals that, for one reason or another, have no one but the county to provide them with a respectful and dignified burial."
"700 [were] basically just neglected, unclaimed individuals, which is so sad, they just had no one," said Knabe. "The remainder were either homeless, indigent, with no immediate family members or no contact with family for many, many years and the family just said,'Let the county do it'."
KNX 1070s Brian Ping reports the county has been performing these mass interments for over a century.
If a family member is contacted upon a death, Knabe said, they have 30 days to decide whether to claim the body. After that, the remains are cremated and held for three years, after which they are buried if still unclaimed.
"Regardless of what their status in life was, each one of their lives matters," he said. "It matters to us, their county family."
Unedited :: Link to Original Posting
http://losangeles.cbslocal.com/2011/12/07/mass-burial-held-for-over-1600-la-county-residents/
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Reborn Dolls - the new trend in fake babies for some women
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HULIQ - By Roz Zurko - June 30, 2011
In a strange and bizarre new trend, "Reborn Dolls" are taking the place in the lives of some women as fake babies instead of having a real one for a variety of different reasons today. These dolls, which are nothing like the ones you would see in a local toy store, can cost more than your hospital bill when giving birth. Their resemblance to a newborn baby is so realistic that you would not know the difference unless you picked one up. These beautiful works of art are taking the place of having a real baby for some women today.
The dolls can cost more than $12,000, but many are offered for several hundred to a few thousand dollars, which is still a hefty price for a doll, no matter how realistic they are. The dolls have incredible life-like features of the face, hands, feet and over all presence. "Reborn Dolls" are hand-made by artists that spend many hours creating these fake babies, carefully applying each eyelash and tufts of hair. The dolls come in a variety, some are even created to look like a premature baby and they come complete with an IV and incubator.
The strange part about the "Reborn Dolls" is what they are being used for. They are not something being purchased mainly as a collectible for their beauty. The majority of purchases are made by women who claim the dolls satisfy their maternal needs. Some middle-aged women claim the dolls comfort them as their empty nest stage of life is upon them. This happens when the kids leave for college, or move out of the family home to start a life of their own.
Many of these companies will produce a baby in the likeness of the woman's own babies from pictures of their newborns from 20 years ago. These dolls are not put on shelves as part of a collection, many of the doll owners are taking the babies out for walks in a stroller, strapping them into car seats, rocking them at home while they watch TV and going about a ritual with the "Reborn Dolls" that you would if you had a real baby.
The majority of these women have not crossed over the line, where they actually believe these babies are real. This would come along with a delusional mental health diagnosis if they had, but they are suspending the real life around them and opting for the adult play-like activity with these dolls to satisfy their need to have baby at certain time in life. This time is different for many. Young women are buying the dolls instead of having a baby while working on their careers, where having a real baby would just take up too much time. Then the mothers, whose kids are grown, and even older women who couldn't take care of a baby, but would do fine with a doll.
In a recent article on Fox News, it is pointed out that while many would say this is harmless, ... is it a symptom of people losing their grip on reality. ... The article also makes the comparison of these dolls to drugs, in which both are used to escape reality. ...
Edited :: See Original Report Here
http://www.huliq.com/12079/newborn-dolls-new-trend-fake-babies-some-women
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