Thursday, October 10, 2013
Neptune's 'Lost Moon' Observed for 1st Time
Neptune’s tiny, innermost moon, Naiad, has now been seen for the first time since it was discovered by Voyager’s cameras in 1989. Dr. Mark Showalter, a senior research scientist at theSETI Institute in Mountain View, California, announced the result today in Denver, Colorado, at the annual meeting of the Division for Planetary Sciences of the American Astronomical Society. He and collaborators Dr. Jack Lissauer of the NASA Ames Research Center, Dr. Imke de Pater of UC Berkeley, and Robert French of the SETI Institute, also released a dramatic new image of Neptune’s puzzling rings and ring-arcs, which were first imaged by Voyager.
“Naiad has been an elusive target ever since Voyager left the Neptune system,” said Dr. Showalter. From Earth, Neptune is 2 million times brighter than Naiad, andthetwo are separated by only one arcsecond. “This is equivalent to the width of a human hair from 50 feet away,” noted collaborator Lissauer. The team of astronomers needed to develop new techniques to suppress Neptune’s glare. Naiad was finally revealed, moving across a sequence of eight images taken during December 2004.
Strangely, Naiad appears to have veered significantly off course. The astronomers are puzzled by the fact that Naiad is now far ahead of its predicted orbital position. They wonder whether gravitational interactions with one of Neptune’s other moons may have caused it to speed up, although the details remain mysterious. Further observations will be needed in order to understand Naiad’s motion.
In addition to its moons, Neptune hosts a family faint rings and ring-arcs. The arcs have been changing slowly in the years since their discovery. Whereas Voyager saw a set of four closely-spaced arcs, the leading two arcs have been fading away, and are completely absent from the newest images. The trailing arcs, however, are essentially unchanged. This system of arcs is probably confined by the gravitational effects of the nearby moon Galatea, but the reason for the long-term changes is unknown. Dr. de Pater has also been following the ongoing evolution of the arcs from the 10-meter W. M. Keck telescope in Hawaii.
Showalter and his collaborators had previously announced the discovery of a tiny moon of Neptune in July. That moon, which is no more than 20 km (12 miles) across, goes by the provisional designation “S/2004 N 1”. The new results reported today are based on further analysis of the same images, which were all obtained by Hubble between 2004 and 2009. Although 100-km Naiad is much larger than the moon announced in July, it orbits much closer to Neptune and so has proven to be much harder to detect.
“It is always exciting to find new results in old data," Showalter remarked. "We keep discovering new ways to push the limit of what information can be gleaned from Hubble's vast collection of planetary images.”
Credit to Dailygalaxy.com
Tehran moving nuclear research site
PARIS - An exiled Iranian opposition group said on Thursday it had information about what it said was a center for nuclear weaponization research in Tehran that the government was moving to avoid detection ahead of negotiations with world powers.
The dissident National Council of Resistance of Iran (NCRI) exposed Iran's uranium enrichment facility at Natanz and a heavy water facility at Arak in 2002. But analysts say it has a chequered track record and a clear political agenda.
An accusation it made in July about a secret underground nuclear siteunder construction in Iran draw a cautious international response, with France merely saying it would look into it.
The Islamic Republic says its nuclear energy program is entirely peaceful and rejects US and Israeli accusations that it is seeking the capability to make nuclear weapons.
The NCRI's latest allegation comes just a few days before Iran and six major powers are to meet in Geneva to try to end years of deadlock in a dispute over the Islamic state's nuclear program.
The election of Hassan Rouhani, a relative moderate, as new Iranian president has raised hopes of progress towards a negotiated settlement of the decade-old nuclear row.
The Paris-based NCRI, citing information from sources inside Iran, said a nuclear weaponization research and planning center it called SPND was being moved to a large, secure site in a defense ministry complex in Tehran about 1.5 km (1 mile) away from its former location.
It said the center employed about 100 researchers, engineers and experts and handled small-scale experiments with radioactive material and was in charge of research into the weaponization of nuclear weapons.
"There is a link between this transfer and the date of Geneva [talks] because the regime needed to avoid the risk of visits by [UN nuclear] inspectors," Mehdi Abrichamtchi, who compiled the report for the NCRI, told a news conference.
Credit to Jerusalem Post
A major step in pushing international use of the yuan.
China and the European Union have signed a 350 billion yuan (45 billion Euro) currency swap agreement, a major step in pushing international use of the yuan.
The deal, signed between the People's Bank of China and the European Central Bank (ECB) on Wednesday, aims to support bilateral trade and protect financial stability, according to a statement on the PBOC website.
The agreement lasts three years and can be extended if both parties agree, it said.
The two central banks began to discuss the currency swap issue in early 2013. PBOC governor Zhou Xiaochuan and ECB President Mario Draghi reached an agreement at the regular meeting of the Bank for International Settlements (BIS) in September.
"The new arrangement will provide more liquidity to the Renminbi market in the Euro area, promote the overseas use of the yuan, and help facilitate trade and investment," the statement said.
On October 1, China signed a 100 billion yuan currency swap agreement with Indonesia and it signed similar agreements with Hungary and Albania in September, bringing China closer to making its currency fully convertible.
Credit to CRI
Military Waste and Fraud Continue In the Middle of the Shutdown
Regular readers know that the government shutdown is caused by bad policies supported by bothparties, including out-of-control military boondoggles.
Image: Government shutdown.
We wouldn’t be in this crisis of hitting the debt ceiling in the first place if we hadn’t spent so much money on unnecessary wars … which are horrible for the economy.
But it goes far beyond actual fighting. We could easily slash the military and security budget without reducing our national security.
For example, homeland security agencies wasted money on seminars like “Did Jesus Die for Klingons Too?” and training for a “zombie apocalypse” instead of actually focusing on anti-terror efforts.
Republican Senator Tom Coburn notes that the Department of Defense can reduce $67.9 billion over 10 years by eliminating the non-defense programs that have found their way into the budget for the Department of Defense.
BusinessWeek and Bloomberg point out that we could slash military spending without harming our national security. Specifically, we could slash boondoggles that even the generals don’t want:
A devastating series by our colleagues at Bloomberg News shows that “the defense budget contains hundreds of billions of dollars for new generations of aircraft carriers and stealth fighters, tanks that even the Army says it doesn’t need and combat vehicles too heavy to maneuver in desert sands or cross most bridges in Asia, Africa, or the Middle East.”
BusinessWeek also notes that redundancy wastes a lot of money:
“One need only spend 10 minutes walking around the Pentagon or any major military headquarters to see excess and redundancy,” former Defense Secretary Robert Gates said in September at an event organized by the Center for Strategic & International Studies in Washington. He should know. As defense chief in 2009, he culled 20 weapons systems he thought unnecessary or too expensive, including the F-22 fighter. One place to start thinning the bureaucracy: the staff of the Joint Chiefs of Staff. That office has more than tripled in manpower, to 4,244 in 2012 from 1,313 in 2010, according to the Pentagon’s annual manpower report. (Fewer bureaucrats means fewer memos and fewer meetings. Win-win-win.)
BusinessWeek provides a list of cost-cutting measures which will not undermine national security. American Conservative does the same.
So why doesn’t Congress trim the fat? Because politicians want to bring home the pork. As BusinessWeek notes:
Why is sensible military budgeting so difficult? Because lawmakers, including small-government Republicans, protect defense business in their home states with the ferocity of Spartans. Even if the Pentagon offered up the cuts we’ve outlined here, Congress would almost certainly reject them. The senators and representatives don’t have the political courage to face voters and tell them that the republic simply does not need the weapon under construction in their hometown.
American Conservative reports:
The cuts to the Pentagon budget will be only 7% or some $40+ billion, not the $500 billion they bandy about! Anyone who confuses the (unlikely) ten year cut with next year’s cut is just promoting lies. A good example is the Wall Street Journal editorial, “The Coming Defense Crackup,” warning that the cuts would create the smallest navy since 1914. It intentionally confuses next year’s cut with the consequences of 10 year cuts. [In reality, the size of the proposed sequestration cuts aren't really that big.]
Ok, but when every smart bomb and missile hits its target, why does one need as many shells as the old battleships where most shots missed? During the Korean war the Air Force tried futilely for months to bomb a bridge over the Yalu River. Today destroying a bridge takes one cruise missile from a hundred miles away. In Washington we find all the big media opposed to cutting defense spending, waste and all, even the Washington Post. Politico, usually a leftist paper, publishes articles also intentionally confusing 10 years of cuts with a one year cut. Today’s congressmen can’t oblige future congresses on what they will spend; defense apologists use the 10-year number to try to stop the sequestration for one year, 2013. All the big Washington newspapers are full of costly ads from defense contractors.
Of course, this just scratches the surface.
In reality, the military wastes and “loses” (cough) trillions of dollars. See this, this, this, this, this, this,this, this, this, this, this and this.
The former Secretary of Defense acknowledged in May 2012 that the DOD “is the only major federal agency that cannot pass an audit today.” The Pentagon will not be ready for an audit for another five years, according to Panetta.
Billions In Wasted Defense Spending Are Continuing During Government Shutdown
If you assume that the waste in defense spending has stopped during the government shutdown, you’d be wrong.
Top military and constitutional law expert Jonathan Turley noted yesterday:
We recently saw how [American politicians and military personnel] prefer to deliver bags of money to Karzai, buy Russian aircraft that Afghans can’t fly or maintain, or build huge buildings to be then torn down unused. Of course, no one is ever fired for constructing massive buildings that no one wants only to tear them down. After all, these are contracts going to powerful companies with friends in the government. Now, we buying huge planes at $50 million a pop only to roll them directly from the factories into mothballs because no one wants them. To make this even more incomprehensible, we are not even making the cargo planes. Like the Russian helicopters that the Afghans cannot fly, we are buying the cargo planes from Italy . . . and we are continuing to order more as we struggle to find places to dump them.
The dozen Italian-built C-27J Spartans have been shipped to an Air Force facility in Arizona dubbed “the boneyard.” We are ordering five more, which are expected to be immediately sent with the others into mothballs. The Air Force has spent $567 million on 21 of the planes which will join some 4,400 other aircraft and 13 aerospace vehicles at the boneyard — more than $35 billion of unused airplanes.
Why order planes to be immediately mothballed? Ohio’s senators, Democrat Sherrod Brown and Republican Rob Portman wanted them to give a mission for Mansfield Air National Guard Base and to save 800 jobs. So we will spend $567 million to save 800 jobs. Wouldn’t it have been easier to give half a million to each of their constituents and save the rest of the money?
Of course, with citizens rising up against the latest effort of the Administration and Congress to intervene in another war, we could have a pile up of unused weapons . . . until we find a use for them.
(Even in the middle of the government shutdown, the CIA is ramping up covert training program for Syrian rebels.)
Ralph Nader points out this week:
Now seems like an ideal time to turn the attention to the $716 billion elephant in the room. If we are going to shutdown non-essentials in our country, let us start by shutting down the waste and fraud in our military budget.
And former FBI translator Sibel Edmonds wrote yesterday:
To give you an idea I am going to provide a few examples:
Afghanistan gets around $7 Billion= $7,000,000,000. Now, don’t mistake this for our money spent on our war in Afghanistan. That’s in the trillions of dollars. That’s a separate deal. No, this money goes to Afghanistan’s government – known for being crooks, criminals, heroin dealers, and terrorist breeders. ***
Of course Israel gets quite a lion’s share. That goes without saying. They get nearly $3 billion=$3,000,000,000, in military aid and another large sum as financial aid for …well, let’s put aside all the diplomacy and political correctness and call a duck a duck: They get all the military and foreign aid so that they can turn around and spend those dollars through their powerful network and lobby here, to make sure we are all screwed up in developing and implementing our foreign policy…. They get all those billions of dollars in foreign and military aid, come over here, get us into wars so that we go spend trillions of additional dollars in wars ….
Egypt gets its $1 billion of our tax money for … for what? Thank God it’s been in the news lately so even the mass ignoramus population in our nation is able to have an idea: guns and bullets to kill political dissenters, tanks and tear gas to be used against civilians, helicopters to fire at civilians below … bring about a coup de tat, and then bring about another one …Okay, so that one we get. We know what they use our money and military equipment for. No brainer. ***
Pakistan gets more or less $1 Billion. They get military aid to make sure they create desirable conditions so that our military can send its drones out there and bomb the hell out of them every day.
So, yes. Our government, somehow, amazingly, has plenty of money, thanks to its limitless money printing authority with zero oversight or accountability. They have trillions to spend on target practice, killing, butchering, torturing, kidnapping. They have billions and billions to spend on spying on you and just messing around with you and me for the heck of it-too much printed money gives them that luxury, you know. And of course, as we see, they’ve got billions of dollars to give crooks, criminals, tyrants, despots, heroin dealers and producers, terrorists, terrorist supporters …
The next time around when our government tells you we are miserably broke, believe them. It’s a no brainer: we are a broke nation. However, don’t let them give you bullsh.. about where they’re going to cut and snip to make ends meet. Do not let them tell you we must go on this way, and just keep printing the green in order to survive. Give them the amount in trillions spent on wars and target practice-shooting around the world.
Point to the billions of dollars yearly given to despots, torturers, criminals, and human target practice fields. Show them the hundreds of millions of dollars wasted by unaccountable agencies every single month. Just question, demand, and insist. Show that you matter and count. For once!
Credit to Infowars
Image: Government shutdown.
We wouldn’t be in this crisis of hitting the debt ceiling in the first place if we hadn’t spent so much money on unnecessary wars … which are horrible for the economy.
But it goes far beyond actual fighting. We could easily slash the military and security budget without reducing our national security.
For example, homeland security agencies wasted money on seminars like “Did Jesus Die for Klingons Too?” and training for a “zombie apocalypse” instead of actually focusing on anti-terror efforts.
Republican Senator Tom Coburn notes that the Department of Defense can reduce $67.9 billion over 10 years by eliminating the non-defense programs that have found their way into the budget for the Department of Defense.
BusinessWeek and Bloomberg point out that we could slash military spending without harming our national security. Specifically, we could slash boondoggles that even the generals don’t want:
A devastating series by our colleagues at Bloomberg News shows that “the defense budget contains hundreds of billions of dollars for new generations of aircraft carriers and stealth fighters, tanks that even the Army says it doesn’t need and combat vehicles too heavy to maneuver in desert sands or cross most bridges in Asia, Africa, or the Middle East.”
BusinessWeek also notes that redundancy wastes a lot of money:
“One need only spend 10 minutes walking around the Pentagon or any major military headquarters to see excess and redundancy,” former Defense Secretary Robert Gates said in September at an event organized by the Center for Strategic & International Studies in Washington. He should know. As defense chief in 2009, he culled 20 weapons systems he thought unnecessary or too expensive, including the F-22 fighter. One place to start thinning the bureaucracy: the staff of the Joint Chiefs of Staff. That office has more than tripled in manpower, to 4,244 in 2012 from 1,313 in 2010, according to the Pentagon’s annual manpower report. (Fewer bureaucrats means fewer memos and fewer meetings. Win-win-win.)
BusinessWeek provides a list of cost-cutting measures which will not undermine national security. American Conservative does the same.
So why doesn’t Congress trim the fat? Because politicians want to bring home the pork. As BusinessWeek notes:
Why is sensible military budgeting so difficult? Because lawmakers, including small-government Republicans, protect defense business in their home states with the ferocity of Spartans. Even if the Pentagon offered up the cuts we’ve outlined here, Congress would almost certainly reject them. The senators and representatives don’t have the political courage to face voters and tell them that the republic simply does not need the weapon under construction in their hometown.
American Conservative reports:
The cuts to the Pentagon budget will be only 7% or some $40+ billion, not the $500 billion they bandy about! Anyone who confuses the (unlikely) ten year cut with next year’s cut is just promoting lies. A good example is the Wall Street Journal editorial, “The Coming Defense Crackup,” warning that the cuts would create the smallest navy since 1914. It intentionally confuses next year’s cut with the consequences of 10 year cuts. [In reality, the size of the proposed sequestration cuts aren't really that big.]
Ok, but when every smart bomb and missile hits its target, why does one need as many shells as the old battleships where most shots missed? During the Korean war the Air Force tried futilely for months to bomb a bridge over the Yalu River. Today destroying a bridge takes one cruise missile from a hundred miles away. In Washington we find all the big media opposed to cutting defense spending, waste and all, even the Washington Post. Politico, usually a leftist paper, publishes articles also intentionally confusing 10 years of cuts with a one year cut. Today’s congressmen can’t oblige future congresses on what they will spend; defense apologists use the 10-year number to try to stop the sequestration for one year, 2013. All the big Washington newspapers are full of costly ads from defense contractors.
Of course, this just scratches the surface.
In reality, the military wastes and “loses” (cough) trillions of dollars. See this, this, this, this, this, this,this, this, this, this, this and this.
The former Secretary of Defense acknowledged in May 2012 that the DOD “is the only major federal agency that cannot pass an audit today.” The Pentagon will not be ready for an audit for another five years, according to Panetta.
Billions In Wasted Defense Spending Are Continuing During Government Shutdown
If you assume that the waste in defense spending has stopped during the government shutdown, you’d be wrong.
Top military and constitutional law expert Jonathan Turley noted yesterday:
We recently saw how [American politicians and military personnel] prefer to deliver bags of money to Karzai, buy Russian aircraft that Afghans can’t fly or maintain, or build huge buildings to be then torn down unused. Of course, no one is ever fired for constructing massive buildings that no one wants only to tear them down. After all, these are contracts going to powerful companies with friends in the government. Now, we buying huge planes at $50 million a pop only to roll them directly from the factories into mothballs because no one wants them. To make this even more incomprehensible, we are not even making the cargo planes. Like the Russian helicopters that the Afghans cannot fly, we are buying the cargo planes from Italy . . . and we are continuing to order more as we struggle to find places to dump them.
The dozen Italian-built C-27J Spartans have been shipped to an Air Force facility in Arizona dubbed “the boneyard.” We are ordering five more, which are expected to be immediately sent with the others into mothballs. The Air Force has spent $567 million on 21 of the planes which will join some 4,400 other aircraft and 13 aerospace vehicles at the boneyard — more than $35 billion of unused airplanes.
Why order planes to be immediately mothballed? Ohio’s senators, Democrat Sherrod Brown and Republican Rob Portman wanted them to give a mission for Mansfield Air National Guard Base and to save 800 jobs. So we will spend $567 million to save 800 jobs. Wouldn’t it have been easier to give half a million to each of their constituents and save the rest of the money?
Of course, with citizens rising up against the latest effort of the Administration and Congress to intervene in another war, we could have a pile up of unused weapons . . . until we find a use for them.
(Even in the middle of the government shutdown, the CIA is ramping up covert training program for Syrian rebels.)
Ralph Nader points out this week:
Now seems like an ideal time to turn the attention to the $716 billion elephant in the room. If we are going to shutdown non-essentials in our country, let us start by shutting down the waste and fraud in our military budget.
And former FBI translator Sibel Edmonds wrote yesterday:
To give you an idea I am going to provide a few examples:
Afghanistan gets around $7 Billion= $7,000,000,000. Now, don’t mistake this for our money spent on our war in Afghanistan. That’s in the trillions of dollars. That’s a separate deal. No, this money goes to Afghanistan’s government – known for being crooks, criminals, heroin dealers, and terrorist breeders. ***
Of course Israel gets quite a lion’s share. That goes without saying. They get nearly $3 billion=$3,000,000,000, in military aid and another large sum as financial aid for …well, let’s put aside all the diplomacy and political correctness and call a duck a duck: They get all the military and foreign aid so that they can turn around and spend those dollars through their powerful network and lobby here, to make sure we are all screwed up in developing and implementing our foreign policy…. They get all those billions of dollars in foreign and military aid, come over here, get us into wars so that we go spend trillions of additional dollars in wars ….
Egypt gets its $1 billion of our tax money for … for what? Thank God it’s been in the news lately so even the mass ignoramus population in our nation is able to have an idea: guns and bullets to kill political dissenters, tanks and tear gas to be used against civilians, helicopters to fire at civilians below … bring about a coup de tat, and then bring about another one …Okay, so that one we get. We know what they use our money and military equipment for. No brainer. ***
Pakistan gets more or less $1 Billion. They get military aid to make sure they create desirable conditions so that our military can send its drones out there and bomb the hell out of them every day.
So, yes. Our government, somehow, amazingly, has plenty of money, thanks to its limitless money printing authority with zero oversight or accountability. They have trillions to spend on target practice, killing, butchering, torturing, kidnapping. They have billions and billions to spend on spying on you and just messing around with you and me for the heck of it-too much printed money gives them that luxury, you know. And of course, as we see, they’ve got billions of dollars to give crooks, criminals, tyrants, despots, heroin dealers and producers, terrorists, terrorist supporters …
The next time around when our government tells you we are miserably broke, believe them. It’s a no brainer: we are a broke nation. However, don’t let them give you bullsh.. about where they’re going to cut and snip to make ends meet. Do not let them tell you we must go on this way, and just keep printing the green in order to survive. Give them the amount in trillions spent on wars and target practice-shooting around the world.
Point to the billions of dollars yearly given to despots, torturers, criminals, and human target practice fields. Show them the hundreds of millions of dollars wasted by unaccountable agencies every single month. Just question, demand, and insist. Show that you matter and count. For once!
Credit to Infowars
Rushing Ones Rebellion into the Hell Zone
The wondrous truths of time and ETERNITY apply to everyone of the world’s - past and present - lost and unregenerate children of Adam’s fallen race (Rom. 5:12). My friend, NO ONE will ever end up in the Lake of Fire for all ETERNITY without choosing to go there for themselves (John 3:36, 1 John 5:12). My friend, NO ONE ever ends up FOREVER in the Lake of Fire without fighting tooth and nail against the EVERLASTING grace and mercy of Almighty God’s Heavenly "Steel Curtain".
When an unregenerate individual - whether morally virtuous or wickedly vile - out right rejects Almighty God's ETERNAL sovereignty, he as a raging bull seeks to push the limits of Almighty God’s grace and mercy.
There comes the point in each individual’s life (this temporal earthly existence) in which they have solidly chosen and have set in concrete their decision for or against their Creator (Ezek. 24:13, Hosea 7:13, Matt. 23:37, Rom. 1:18-32). When an unregenerate individual - whethermorally virtuous or wickedly vile - out right rejects Almighty God's ETERNAL sovereignty, he as a raging bull seeks to push the limits of Almighty God’s grace and mercy. What is most tragic is that God will eventually step out of the way and lets these God haters beat their godless drum in this "brief existence" called "time" unto their ETERNAL doom (Rom 1:18-32).
History is filled with these countless precedents of the godless virtuous and vile who have rejected Almighty God’s saving grace through out the 6000 year history of creation. As Almighty God’s infallible Word so truly states, All have sinned (Rom. 3:23)! All have violated and have transgressed Almighty God’s ETERNAL RIGHTEOUS absolutes and His Ten Commandments in their hearts, souls, minds and with their actions(Rom. 3:10-23)! My friend, Virtuous or vile ALL have Sinned! ALL are violators of God’s ETERNAL righteous absolutes! ALL need God’s saving solution and Savior!
Beloved, God is Righteous!
My friend, for years some of us have prayed vigilantly for loved ones and individuals to come to a saving knowledge of the Savior, only to have these individuals choose to die in their sins and transgressions in the end(John 8:24, Rom. 6:23). My friends, has Almighty God turned a deaf ear to our desperate pleas and petitions for our loved ones? GOD FORBID!!!! Almighty God wants these individuals saved and regenerated more then we ever could.
God fully comprehends the entire magnitude of their ETERNAL destiny and loves them more then we ever could with A PERFECT AND ETERNAL LOVE (John 3:16-17, 1 John 4:9,16). God the Father sent and gave His only begotten Son to meet our ETERNAL dire needs (Rom. 6:23, 10:4, 2 Cor. 5:21, 1 John 3:5). God the Son put on humanity and violently died and shed His sinless blood on the cross for the sins of the whole world to be our perfect propitiation and Savior (Gal. 1:4, Heb, 10:7-10, 1 Peter 1:18-19, 1 John 2:2, Rev 1:5).
God fully comprehends the entire magnitude of their ETERNAL destiny and loves them more then we ever could with A PERFECT AND ETERNAL LOVE.
Through out these individuals’ (our loved ones and the whole world’s ) entire lives (existence in time) Almighty God has put up the “Heavenly Steel Curtain” and has made every attempt to deliver these godless and lawless individuals (whether virtuous or vile - good or evil) from their fallen state and ETERNAL doom, but in the end these choose ruin and destruction instead of ETERNAL righteousness and fellowship with their Creator in spirit and truth (Matt. 25:41, John 4:24, Rev. 20:11-15).
What is most tragic is that these individuals chose to rejected God’s saving grace through out their entire short “flower of the field” lives and live in a delusion about the ETERNAL realities of righteousness and judgment. These - in the end - dive head first over Almighty God's "Heavenly goal line stance" into ETERNAL perdition, ruin and judgment (i.e., into the Hell Zone). Each human being is the sole captain of their ETERNAL destiny. In the end, it is each ones own personal decision that chooses their ETERNAL destiny and habitation.
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In the end, it is each ones own personal decision that chooses their ETERNAL destiny and habitation.
.
My Beloved, always remember that in Almighty God is no evil or unrighteousness (Job 34:10, Psalm 116:5, Rom. 9:14). He NEVER can lie (Titus 1:2, Heb. 6:18). He is only LOVING, MERCIFUL, GRACIOUS, LONG SUFFERING and most of all RIGHTEOUS (Psalm 86:15, 103:8, 116:5, 145:17, John 4:9,16, 2 John 1:3)!
“Shall not the Judge of all the earth do right? (Gen 18:25c)”
There are many hard and overwhelming realities to deal with today in this lost and dying world. May we be bold as lions to see these realities for what they are from Almighty God’s Eternal perspective? It is from this Heavenly position that we will be set free from all of the temporal overwhelming realities of time and ETERNITY (John 8:32, 36, Col. 3:1-2).
My friends let me quote Almighty God once more.
"For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life. For God sent not his Son into the world to condemn the world; but that the world through him might be saved (John 3:16-17)."
My beloved, I do not know how to state anything more wonderful than that! Beloved, enjoy God and let him LOVE you as only He can in these trying days.
The Kingdom of Heaven is at hand!
DJP I.F.
Credit to The Ignorant Fishermen Blog
Obama Could Use Debt Crisis to Seize Total Power
Former Assistant Secretary of the Treasury Paul Craig Roberts warns that President Barack Obama could use the debt ceiling crisis to seize total power, by declaring a national emergency and passing an executive order in the name of preventing an economic collapse.
With the government still in shut down over the failure to pass a spending bill, the U.S. faces an October 17 deadline to raise the nation’s debt ceiling, which currently stands at almost $17 trillion dollars.
According to Roberts, there is a chance that Obama could exploit the disastrous consequences of a default to push for dictatorial control.
Roberts says that one of two scenarios will happen if Congress fails to make a temporary deal with the White House to raise the debt ceiling.
Either the Federal Reserve would simply lend the Treasury the money, similar to how they propped up foreign banks with at least $16 trillion in bailout funds, or Obama would “declare a ‘national catastrophe’ and simply assume the leadership of the government.”
“This would mean that the President, on his own authority, could raise the debt ceiling. So, either of those two events would happen if it looked like no deal was forthcoming from the Congress. It could be that President Obama, or others in the Executive Branch, are planning to use this crisis to invoke that Executive Order,” Roberts told KingWorldNews.
This would essentially render the US Congress a ceremonial body with no power and turn Obama into a Caesar-like figure.
“Generally when democratically regimes fail you end up with a Caesar, and a shutdown is of course the epitome of a democratic failure. So this would give President Obama all of the justification for exercising the Executive Order so that the President can rule independently of Congress and the courts,” said Roberts.
Despite his warning, Roberts still thinks that lawmakers are likely to cut a short term deal to raise the debt ceiling, if only to preserve the power of Congress.
“Congress would not want a presidential directive to be implemented that subordinates their position and possibly eliminates their meaningful participation in governance,” writes Roberts.
House Republican leaders will meet the President later today in order to thrash out a short term agreement after Obama said he was open to the idea of a temporary deal.
Credit to Infowars
It's Official: American Adults Are Dumber Than Average
The study is called the Program for the International Assessment of Adult Competencies and it tested 166,000 people aged 16 to 65 in more than 20 countries. It found that in math, reading and problem solving, American adults scored below the international average.
I can’t say this is surprising, after all, the public allowed the big banks that destroyed the economy to gift themselves trillions in the aftermath of the financial crisis with barely a peep in response. You don’t have to be a problem solving genius to figure that one out. Finally, there is some proof behind our long-held suspicions.
From the Associated Press via the New York Post:
WASHINGTON — It’s long been known that America’s school kids haven’t measured well compared with international peers. Now, there’s a new twist: Adults don’t either.In math, reading and problem-solving using technology – all skills considered critical for global competitiveness and economic strength – American adults scored below the international average on a global test, according to results released Tuesday.Adults in Japan, Canada, Australia, Finland and multiple other countries scored significantly higher than the United States in all three areas on the test. Beyond basic reading and math, respondents were tested on activities such as calculating mileage reimbursement due to a salesman, sorting email and comparing food expiration dates on grocery store tags.Not only did Americans score poorly compared to many international competitors, the findings reinforced just how large the gap is between the nation’s high- and low-skilled workers and how hard it is to move ahead when your parents haven’t.
Yes, it’s called feudalism.
The study, called the Program for the International Assessment of Adult Competencies, found that it was easier on average to overcome this and other barriers to literacy overseas than in the United States.Researchers tested about 166,000 people ages 16 to 65 in more than 20 countries and subnational regions. The test was developed and released by the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development, which is made up of mostly industrialized member countries. The Education Department’s Center for Education Statistics participated.Americans scored toward the bottom in the category of problem solving in a technology rich environment. The top five scores in the areas were from Japan, Finland, Australia, Sweden and Norway, while the US score was on par with England, Estonia, Ireland and Poland. In nearly all countries, at least 10 percent of adults lacked the most basic of computer skills such as using a mouse.
The above is somewhat surprising given the amount of time Americans spend glued to their iPhones for Facebook updates about what their cousin ate for breakfast. I can tell you one category in which Americans surely beat all global competitors. The art of mercilessly stampeding into one another like animals at Wal-Mart on Black Friday to purchase plasma televisions. That that world.
Credit to Zero Hedge
Radiation levels near Japan's damaged Fukushima reactor hit two-year high
Radiation levels in seawater just outside one of the damaged Fukushima reactors spiked this week to the highest level in two years, the operator of the crippled Japanese nuclear plant said on Thursday.
Radiation levels on Wednesday, the day six workers were exposed to highly radioactive water, jumped 13 times the previous day's reading, the highest levels since late 2011.
A massive quake and tsunami hit the power station, operated by Tokyo Electric Power Co, also known as Tepco, in March 2011, causing three reactor meltdowns and hydrogen explosions.
Tepco, which is pouring hundreds of tonnes of water to keep reactors cool, has struggled to contain the build up of radioactive water at the plant.
In the latest incident, a worker on Wednesday mistakenly detached a pipe connected to a treatment system, releasing seven tonnes of highly radioactive water.
The accidents at the Fukushima Daiichi plant, 220 km (130 miles) north of Tokyo, are adding to the crisis and stirring doubt over Tepco's abilities to carry out a complex cleanup widely expected to take decades.
Tepco said combined Cesium-134 and Cesium-137 readings just outside the damaged No. 2 reactor spiked to 1,200 becquerels per litre on Wednesday, more than 13 times the level on Tuesday.
Cesium-134 readings were 370 becquerels per litre while Cesium-137 was 830/litre within a silt fence right outside the reactor building. Regulatory limits for Cesium, which emits a strong gamma radiation and is harmful to the human body, is 90 bq/litre for Cesium-137 and 60 bq/litre for Cesium-134.
A Tepco spokesman said the sudden spike in radiation was caused by construction work near the No. 2 building.
Workers are injecting chemicals to harden the ground on the seaside of the Fukushima reactor buildings to prevent contaminated water from flowing out to the ocean. The pressure from pumping chemicals into the ground pushed some contaminated soil out into the port area, the spokesman said.
Tepco also said Cesium-137 readings just outside the silt fence next to the No.2 reactor rose to 160 bq/litre, also above the regulatory limit and almost double the previous day's level.
The readings were taken right next to the Fukushima plant but hundreds of meters from the port entrance that connects to the Pacific Ocean.
Radiation from water leaking from the facility is mostly confined to the harbour around the plant, officials have said.
Last week, Tepco said 430 litres (113 gallons) of contaminated water had spilled out of a storage tank at Fukushima and probably flowed to the ocean.
Cesium readings further out in the Pacific Ocean remain non-detectable and officials say there is no environmental threat to other countries as radiation will be diluted by the sea.
In September, Prime Minister Shinzo Abe promised the International Olympic Committee that radioactive water problems at Fukushima were "under control" and any contamination is limited to the harbour next to the Fukushima plant.
Japan's Nuclear Regulation Authority last week ordered Tepco to draft in additional workers and report within a week on its measures to tackle the hazardous clean-up.
Credit to Reuters
Almost 34,000 Government Workers Apply for Unemployment
Nearly 34,000 federal workers applied for unemployment benefits in the first week of the shutdown, according to government agencies.
A total of 16,078 furloughed workers in Maryland have applied for unemployment as of Sunday night, according to the Maryland Department of Labor, Licensing and Regulation. The agency only receives 3,000 claims from federal workers all year on average.
Washington, D.C., has also seen a “surge” in claims, as 9,000 federal government employees applied for benefits in the shutdown’s first three days. The total surpassed 10,000 by Monday.
Unemployment claims in northern Virginia jumped by 3,500, according to the Virginia Employment Commission (VEC) office in Alexandria, which serves Arlington, Fairfax, and Falls Church.
Joyce Fogg, a spokesperson for the Alexandria office, told the Washington Free Beacon that 959 federal workers were among those who applied between Oct. 1 and Oct. 7. The 3,500-increase in claims also likely represents government contractors who have been affected by the shutdown, she said.
Checks will start going out on Oct. 14, at a maximum of $378 a week.
6,559 federal workers in Pennsylvania applied for unemployment between Oct. 1 and Oct. 8, according to the state’s Department of Labor.
Even West Virginia is seeing an effect, with 268 federal workers filing claims as of Monday. The state warns, “due to the high volume of federal unemployment claims being taken, there may be a delay in the entry of your new claim.”
33,864 federal employees in all sought unemployment during the first week the government was closed.
If Congress passes legislation to pay furloughed workers retroactively, those who receive unemployment benefits will be required to pay them back. The House unanimously passed a bill on Saturday to ensure that federal employees will receive back pay, though the Senate has yet to vote on the measure.
Most of the states have a one-week waiting period before benefits can be approved, and in Virginia a person must be unemployed for at least two weeks before being considered.
Each state and the District of Columbia display shutdown disclaimers on their websites, advertising the availability of unemployment to furloughed workers.
Some 800,000 “nonessential” federal employees have been out of work since the government shut down at midnight on Oct. 1.
Government workers have enjoyed a significantly lower unemployment rate than the rest of the nation in recent years, with a 4.6 percent rate as of August, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics.
Credit to The Washington Free Beacon
Historic blizzard that killed tens of thousands of South Dakota cattle
An unusually early and enormous snowstorm over the weekend caught South Dakota ranchers and farmers unprepared, killing tens of thousands of cattle and ravaging the state's $7 billion industry — an industry left without assistance because of the federal government shutdown.
As many as 75,000 cattle have perished since the storm slammed the western part of the state Thursday through Saturday with snowfall that set records for the entire month of October in just three days, state and industry officials said.
Across the state, snow totals averaged 30 inches, with some isolated areas recording almost 5 feet,The Weather Channel reported.
The South Dakota Stock Growers Association estimated that 15 percent to 20 percent of all cattle were killed in some parts of the state. Some ranchers reported that they lost half or more of their herds.
The storm was accompanied by hurricane-force wind gusts, especially Friday night, which drove some herds seeking shelter miles from their ranches. A trail of carcasses left a gruesome sight, said Martha Wierzbicki, emergency management director for Butte County, in the northwestern corner of the state.
Parts of South Dakota are in cleanup mode after a strong winter storm pounded some areas. Kirsten Swanson of NBC station KNBN reports.
"They're in the fence line, laying alongside the roads," Wierzbicki told The Rapid City Journal. "It's really sickening."
Ranchers have no one to ask for help or reimbursement. That's because Congress has yet to pass a new farm bill, which subsidizes agricultural producers.
And even if there were a farm bill, the government shutdown means nothing could be done under one anyway.
State Agriculture Secretary Lucas Lentsch called the early-season blizzard "devastating to our producers," saying his agency was trying to figure out a response.
In the meantime, he said, the best farmers and ranchers can do is meticulously document their losses, with detailed photos, for use when and if claims can be processed.
The most immediate concern is proper disposal of the dead livestock, which state law says must be burned, buried or rendered within 36 hours — for the health not only of surviving herds but also for people.
"That can be a significant source of disease spread, so we want to make sure those carcasses are burned, buried or rendered as quickly as possible," Dustin Oedekoven, South Dakota's state veterinarian, told the Journal.
But the South Dakota Cattlemen's Association warned that the effects would be felt for years afterward. Not only were tens of thousands of calves killed, but so were thousands more cows that would have delivered calves next year.
And the stress of the storm will leave its mark on surviving herds, the South Dakota State University Agricultural Extension Service said, leaving the remaining cattle vulnerable to ruinous diseases with names like infectious bovine rhinotracheitis, bovine respiratory syncytial virus and bovine viral diarrhea virus.
Most of the diseases have incubation periods of a week or two, so those problems can't yet be assessed, the extension said.
"This is absolutely, totally devastating," Steve Schell, a rancher in Caputa, near Mount Rushmore, told the Rapid City newspaper. "This is horrendous. I mean the death loss of these cows in this county is unbelievable."
Credit to NBC
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