Support for a Young Earth? Scientists Baffled by Preserved Dinosaur Blood Cells

The discovery of well-preserved blood and proteins in a supposedly 75-million-year-old dinosaur fossil has stumped secular scientists and led one Christian apologist to herald the findings as evidence of a young Earth.

A team of scientists at the U.K.’s Imperial College London carefully examined eight Cretaceous dinosaur bones discovered in North America, scrutinizing the bones’ interiors with an electron microscope. The researchers were stunned when they discovered what appeared to be red blood cells in one of the specimens.

Upon closer examination, the British scientists identified an internal structure within the dinosaur cells, complete with nuclei and amino acids. Then, in addition to the blood cells, the scientists discovered excellently-preserved collagen, which is a common soft tissue.

The scientists published their findings last week in “Nature Communications,” emphasizing that the dinosaur bones they studied were “not exceptionally preserved.”

“It has long been accepted that protein molecules decay in relatively short periods of time and cannot be preserved for longer than 4 million years,” the researchers noted. They described the discovery of preserved blood cells and soft tissue as unprecedented and “very exciting.”

A number of similar discoveries have recently cast doubt on secular scientists’ claims that most fossils are millions of years old. As previously reported, scientists recently found protein-rich materials somehow preserved within ancient shells. Last year, a California university fired a biologist for discovering soft tissue on a Triceratops fossil and questioning evolutionary assumptions.

A report last week from “Discover” magazine explains the controversial nature of these finds.

“Many of these discoveries … have been contentious within the paleontological community, and the presence of molecular-level preservation in the fossil record remains controversial,” the magazine explained. “This is because proteins and other molecular components are thought to break down within about four million years.”

Ken Ham, a well-known Christian apologist and president of Answers in Genesis, believes the dinosaur fossils analyzed by the British scientists are not millions of years old after all. Rather, Ham says the discovery of preserved blood cells and tissues undermine secular assumptions and create a problem for evolutionists.

“How could soft tissue survive for 75 million years? Are evolutionists questioning their assumptions that the fossil is 75 million years old? Of course not!” Ham wrote in a blog post. “Instead, they simply assume the materials somehow survived for 75 million years because they believe on the basis of their evolutionary presuppositions that the fossil is that old.”

However, the existence of preserved blood cells and tissues in dinosaur fossils makes sense in the young earth Biblical worldview, Ham argues.

“This new find is consistent with the young age of the Earth as described in God’s Word and in no way confirms evolutionary ideas about the past,” he wrote. “Of course evolutionists can’t even consider the possibility that these bones are not millions of years old, as they have to have their supposed millions of years to propose their ideas of molecules-to-man evolution. Actually, believing in millions of years is a necessary part of the religion of naturalism (atheism).”

“But finds like the one the researchers in the London museum discovered affirm biblical—not evolutionary—ideas about the not-so-distant past,” Ham concluded. “We can trust God’s Word to provide us with an accurate history of Earth.”

Credit to Christian News

http://christiannews.net/2015/06/15/support-for-a-young-earth-scientists-baffled-by-preserved-dinosaur-blood-cells/

BRICS Bank Officially Launches As Sun Sets On US Hegemony

Before the Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank and, to a lesser extent, the Silk Road Fund became international symbols for the end of Western economic hegemony, there was the BRICS Bank. 

Or at least there was the idea of the BRICS bank. 

The supranational lender imagined by Russia, China, Brazil, India, and South Africa is, like the AIIB, largely a response to the failure of US-dominated multilateral institutions to meet the needs of modernity and offer representation that’s commensurate with the economic clout of their members. As Bloomberg points out, the countries’ combined economic output is now roughly equal to that of the US. “Back in 2007, the U.S. economy was double the BRICS,” Bloomberg notes.

As a refresher, here’s how the Washington Post described the bank’s structure and purpose on the heels of last summer’s BRICS summit in Fortaleza:

The NDB has been given $50 billion in initial capital. As with similar initiatives in other regions, the BRICS bank appears to work on an equal-share voting basis, with each of the five signatories contributing $10 billion. The capital base is to be used to finance infrastructure and “sustainable development” projects in the BRICS countries initially, but other low- and middle-income countries will be able buy in and apply for funding. BRICS countries have also created a $100 billion Contingency Reserve Arrangement (CRA), meant to provide additional liquidity protection to member countries during balance of payments problems. The CRA—unlike the pool of contributed capital to the BRICS bank, which is equally shared—is being funded 41 percent by China, 18 percent from Brazil, India, and Russia, and 5 percent from South Africa.

On Tuesday, ahead of this year’s summit in Ulfa, the BRICS countries officially launched the new bank along with the reserve currency pool. Here’s WSJ:

The group of five major emerging economies known as Brics launched a development bank on Tuesday ahead of a summit in the Russian industrial city of Ufa, where Russia seeks to demonstrate it hasn’t been isolated by Western sanctions.

The long-planned development bank, aimed at financing projects mainly in member countries Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa, will select its first projects to finance by the end of the year, Russian Finance Minister Anton Siluanov said on Tuesday. The countries’ national banks also signed a deal Tuesday to create a $100 billion reserve fund by the end of July that can be tapped in financial emergencies.

The Bank of Russia said it signed an “operational agreement” with Brics counterparts to create a $100 billion pool of mutual reserves. The group agreed to create the fund in 2013 as an alternative to the International Monetary Fund, after seeing investors pull money away from emerging economies, causing their currencies to weaken.

The currency pool would be drawn on by the central banks of Brics states whenever they suffered a shortage of dollar liquidity, helping them maintain financial stability, Russia’s central bank said.

China will contribute $41 billion to the currency pool. Brazil, India and Russia will each provide $18 billion, while the remaining $5 billion will come from South Africa.

The BRICS nations will also look to begin settling more trade in national currencies,a shift we highlighted recently in “The PetroYuan Is Born: Gazprom Now Settling All Crude Sales To China In Renminbi”, “PetroYuan Proliferation: Russia, China To Settle "Holy Grail" Pipeline Sales In Renminbi,” and “De-Dollarization Du Jour: Russia Backs BRICS Alternative To SWIFT.” This comes at a convenient time for Russia, which is attempting to diversify away from the dollar amid Western economic sanctions (recently extended into next year) imposed on Moscow in retaliation for the Kremlin’s perceived involvement in Ukraine. RT has more:

BRICS countries will definitely start using their local currencies for mutual settlements quite soon, the head of Russia’s VTB bank Andrey Kostin told RT Wednesday at the BRICS summit in Ufa.

“We definitely see a growing interest from the countries to make settlements in local currencies,” the CEO of Russia’s second biggest bank said. 40-50 percent of all the mutual settlements among the BRICS countries can be performed in domestic currencies, Kostin estimated, RIA reported.

The Chinese yuan as the leading currency can be used in settlements among BRICS member states, Kostin said, adding that the Russian ruble can be used for that as well.

He says there will be a growing interest from leading Russian exporters to the process of switching to national currencies.

And of course no story about the BRICS bank (or the AIIB for that matter) would be complete these days without some mention of Greece and the possibility that Athens may be forced to look elsewhere for help in the event it's driven out of the euro and Jean Claude-Juncker's "humanitarian" plan B proves inadequate to keep the country out of the Third World after Berlin digitally bombs its citizens back to barter status. For today's Russian/Chinese pivot allusion, we go to IBTimes: 

Greece could get financing from the New Development Bank operated by Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa (BRICS) if it buys a few shares of the institution to become a member. The bank, which is set to begin operations next April, is seen an alternative to Western financing.

Deputy Russian Finance Minister Sergey Storchak said becoming a part of the bank would require Greek officials to make a political decision.

"We do not have any co-relation between a contribution and an amount of funding,” Russian news agency Tass quoted Storchak as saying. “There is general agreement that the system of the countries’ assets will be balanced."

Russian Finance Minister Anton Siluanov said Tuesday it is necessary for the new bank to "carve out a niche" since competition among international banks is intense.

Yes, the bank must "carve out a niche", and preferably one which takes every opportunity to undercut the influence of the US-dominated multilateral institutions that have defined the post-war world and served to underwrite six decades of dollar dominance. 

So we suppose it's not all bad news for China these days. Beijing may have a decelerating economy and a stock market collapse on its hands, but at the end of the day, the country now controls not one (AIIB), not two (Silk Road Fund), but three (BRICS bank) development banks, which gives Xi Jinping quite a few options when it comes to embedding the yuan in global investment and trade which, in the long-run, is far more important than where the SHCOMP closes on Thursday. 

Credit to Zero Hedge

NYSE temporarily suspends trading

Trading in all securities were halted on the New York Stock Exchange on Wednesday following earlier reports of technical difficulties, although NYSE-listed issues was still trading on other exchanges.

After the halt, U.S. stocks extended their losses, but in low volumes, with the S&P 500 hitting a session low and the Dow Jones Industrial Average and Nasdaq both falling more than 1 percent.

"It's under control. We're just waiting for word. There's no sign of panic at all," Mark Otto of J. Streicher & Co in New York said from the NYSE floor.

Photos from inside the Stock Exchange today:

"We're waiting to hear word on if there's going to be a reopening, and when it is or any more details."

U.S. markets were in the red even before the halt, which started just after 11:30 a.m. ET, as the slide in Chinese markets spurred concerns over its impact on global economic growth.

Beijing unveiled yet another battery of measures to arrest the sell-off in shares and the securities regulator warned of "panic sentiment" gripping investors in the world's second-largest economy.

Chinese shares have fallen more than 30 percent in the last three weeks, and some investors fear China's turmoil is now a bigger risk than the crisis in Greece.

"With China, investors fear that could be indicative of a broader economic weakness," said Scott Brown, chief economist at Raymond James in St. Petersburg, Florida.

The New York Stock Exchange tweeted the announcement that they aren't under a cyber-attack!!!

Credit to Ipad.aol.com

China Makes Selling For Big Investors Illegal

With another bloody session in the books for China’s bursting equity bubble, it’s now abundantly clear that Beijing and the PBoC have lost control not only of the market but of the narrative as well, despite dozens of attempts to steer both in the “right direction.” 

Having corralled selling by the National Social Security fund earlier this week and after discouraging local reporters from mentioning selling in the press, China has now made it illegal for big investors to dump shares over the next six months. Here are the details via Bloomberg: 

China’s securities regulator banned major shareholders, corporate executives and directors from selling any of their stakes for six months, the latest effort to stop a $3.5 trillion rout in the nation’s equity market.

Controlling shareholders and investors holding more than a 5 percent stake in a company will be prevented from cutting their holdings over that time period, the China Securities Regulatory Commission said in a statement.

And here’s the official word from the CSCR (Google translated):

Recently, the stock market fell irrational, for the maintenance of the capital market, and earnestly safeguard the legitimate rights and interests of investors, is now on the relevant matters are announced as follows: First, from now on within six months, the controlling shareholders of listed companies and shareholders holding more than 5% (hereinafter, saying large shareholders) and its directors, supervisors and senior management personnel shall not reduce shares held by the secondary market. Second, the major shareholders of listed companies and the directors, supervisors and senior management personnel who fails to reduce shareholdings in the Company, the China Securities Regulatory Commission will be given serious treatment. Third, the major shareholders of listed companies and the directors, supervisors and senior management personnel in the six months after the reduction of shares from shareholders with specific measures, separately.

Yes, the stock market "fell irrational" lately. And by "irrational" the CSCR apparently means that temperament that tends to fall over people once they realize they've helped to faciliate a completely "irrational", debt-fueled mania that's sent valuations on many listings into the stratosphere and lured in millions of farmers and hairdressers who are now collectively leveraged to gills. 

In any event, this, like every other move in China's rapidly expanding plunge protection playbook, will fail miserably, meaning Beijing with ultimately be left with no choice but to "halt" whatever shares are still trading by the end of the week. 

We can now add one more desperation measure to the annotated history of Chinese market intervention:

Credit to Zero Hedge

Rabbi Jonathan Cahn: The Mystery of Pergamon

Is This What The First World Cyber War Looks Like: Global Real Time Cyber Attack Map

After a series of cyber failures involving first UAL, then this website, then the NYSE which is still halted, then the WSJ, some have suggested that this could be a concerted cyber attack (perhaps by retaliatory China unhappy its stocks are plunging) focusing on the US. So we decided to look at a real-time cyber attack map courtesy of Norsecorp which provides real time visibility into global cyber attacks.

What clearly stands out is that for some reason Chinese DDOS attacks/hackers seem to be focusing on St. Louis this morning.



Whether this is related to the series of suspicious cyber failures today, is so far unclear, although if there is a connection at least there is a way to keep track of the first global cyberwar in real-time.




Credit to Zero Hedge

Nigel Farage: Your moment has come, Mr Tsipras, take back control of your country