Christian communities under threat to everyone’s detriment
Christianity, which started in a Bethlehem stable, has been an integral part of the Middle East for 2,000 years. At its best it has contributed greatly, along with Islam and Judaism, to the culture and life of the region; at its worst it has been a source of conflict.
Today, the destiny of the region’s Christian communities is umbilically linked to the future of the countries in which they live – and to the ideologies competing for power. Ahead of Pope Benedict’s visit to Lebanon this week, it is timely to look at the circumstances of Christian communities in the region.
The cruellest paradox is that Christian minorities – and others – are criticised for not embracing the ideologies and acts of those who seek to annihilate them.
The situation has varied from country to country, but Read more…
Was U.S. Ambassador Lynched?
Paul Joseph Watson
Despite initial reports suggesting he died in a rocket attack on the U.S. Consulate in Benghazi, photos appear to indicate that U.S. Ambassador J. Christopher Stevens was killed by a lynch mob, illustrating the disastrous consequences of the Obama administration’s military intervention in Libya – arming some of the very same men who carried out today’s attack.
“The US ambassador to Libya, Christopher Stevens, has been killed in a rocket attack in the eastern city of Benghazi along with three other embassy staff, the White House confirmed on Wednesday,” reports France 24.
However, images released in the hours after the attack show Stevens’ body being paraded around by a mob. The body appears to show signs of torture.
Subsequent reports speculated that Stevens’ car was attacked as he and the three other personnel attempted to escape from the Consulate. The other embassy staff were shot while Stevens’ died of “suffocation,” suggesting he was Full Article Here
Is Privacy Dead? 4 Government and Private Entities Conspiring to Track Everything You Do Online and Off
Americans’ personal privacy is being crushed by the rise of a four-headed corporate-state surveillance system. The four “heads” are: federal government agencies; state and local law enforcement entities; telecoms, web sites & Internet “apps” companies; and private data aggregators (sometimes referred to as commercial data warehouses).
Conventional analysis treats these four domains of data gathering as separate and distinct; government agencies focus on security issues and corporate entities are concerned with commerce. Some overlap can be expected as, for example, in case of a terrorist attack or an online banking fraud. In both cases, an actual crime occurred.
But what happens when the boundary separating or restricting corporate-state collaboration, e.g., an exceptional crime-fighting incident, erodes and becomes the taken-for-granted operating environment, the new normal? Perhaps most troubling, what happens when the traditional safeguards offered by “watchdog” courts or regulatory organizations no longer seem to matter? What does it say that the entities designed to Read more…
Permafrost thaw will speed up global warming, study says
A polar bear wanders along the Hudson Bay. New research suggets that permafrost soils in Canada’s Arctic are melting at a rate that will significantly speed up global warming. (iStock)Permafrost soils in Canada’s Arctic are melting at a rate that will significantly speed up global warming, according to new research from the University of Victoria.
The study, published this week in Nature Geoscience, predicts that the thawing permafrost will release between 68 billion and 508 billion tonnes of carbon into the atmosphere by the year 2100.
As a result of those carbon emissions, researchers say the Earth’s temperature will rise by more than 0.5 C by the end of the century.
Although seemingly insignificant, that amount is in addition to the two degrees the Earth’s temperature is expected to rise because of global warming from industrial sources.
Andrew Weaver, a climate scientist at the University of Victoria and one of the study’s authors, warns that once the planet warms by more than two Read more…
China Silent on Status of Ships Sent to Japanese-Controlled Islands
The status of two Chinese government ships sent to assert Beijing’s claim over Japanese-controlled islands in the East China Sea remained a mystery early Wednesday, with no word from either government on the ships’ whereabouts.
China’s official news agency Xinhua reported that the two China Marine Surveillance ships “reached the waters around” the disputed islands Tuesday morning. It said the Chinese agency in charge of the vessels had a plan to safeguard Chinese sovereignty and would “take actions pending the development of the situation.” Since then, Chinese state media have been silent on the ships’ movements.
Japanese officials also had no comment on the status of the Chinese government ships. Japan’s coast guard has confronted Chinese fisherman and nationalists in the waters of the archipelago several times in recent years. It was not clear if Japanese authorities were taking similar action this time.
Japan refers to the disputed islands as Senkaku, while China calls them Diaoyu. The waters around the islands contain Read more…
Astronomers see bright impact on gas giant Jupiter
The impact captured on Video by George Hall in Dallas, Texas. Image: George Hall.
Amateur astronomers in the United States of America have reported a bright fireball in the Jupiter clouds tops as a result of an apparent impact. The first to see and report the event was amateur astronomer Dan Peterson from Racine, Wisconsin, who just happened to be observing the gas giant through his 300-mm LX200 ‘scope when the fireball burst into view; “This morning (9/10/2012) at 11:35:30 UT, I observed a bright white two second long explosion just inside Jupiter’s eastern limb, located at about Longitude 1 = 335, and Latitude = + 12 degrees north, inside the southern edge of the NEB. This flash appeared to be about 100 miles in diameter. I used my Meade 12 LX200 GPS telescope and a binoviewer working at 400X for the observation, seeing was very good at the time. We’ll have to Read more…
We must find out what really happened on 9/11
Hindsight is supposed to provide clarity, perspective and truth, but 11 years after the global nightmare of Sept. 11, 2001, too many still mourn the devastation of loved ones lost, filled with agonizing doubt about what really happened that day. Why would it take 443 days to begin an alleged investigation into the most horrific crime on U.S. soil since Pearl Harbor? Evidence was suppressed and destroyed. There is much we don’t know.
We certainly know enough to justify a “real” investigation. Nearly 3,000 people were murdered that day, and thousands more have died as a result of wars invented on behalf of this event. Conspiracy theories abound, but “the official story” seems the biggest whopper of them all! This nation deserves much better — our heritage requires it, justice demands it. But most of all the victims, the heroes and their families deserve the compassion and closure of truth — instead of betrayal and lies.
“Truth” is the smallest measure of peace to demand from alleged leaders who claim a moral high ground when the shining beacon on the hill has all but fluttered its last ray of hope. The 9/11 victims and their families deserve the truth about that day. We all do.
Ken Olufs
Mysterious Changes in Ocean Salt Spur NASA Expedition
By Live Science
The Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution’s research vessel Knorr docked before its departure on Sept. 6 to study salinity in the mid-Atlantic ocean. (NASA)
By Wynne ParryOver the past 50 years, the salty parts of the oceans have become saltier and the fresh regions have become fresher, and the degree of change is greater than scientists can explain.
Researchers are heading out into one particularly salty ocean region, in the middle of the North Atlantic Ocean, in the hopes of better understanding what drives variation in salinity in the upper ocean.
Ultimately, they hope, research like this will offer insight on the dynamics behind the dramatic changes in the ocean’s salt content.
Many oceanographers have a hunch about what is going on: Climate change, Ray Schmitt, a senior scientist at the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution, told journalists during a news conference Wednesday (Sept. 5).
“Climate is changing all the time, and some of that change is due to natural variation,” Schmitt said. “The 50-year trend we are talking about, most of us believe is really due to the general trend of Read more…
Source of mystery odor still not found; some say Salton Sea to blame
Dead tilapia fish rot on the mud of the shore of the Salton Sea in March. Funding to stop the ecological collapse of the sea is not likely in the near futures with its $9 billion price tag. (Getty Images file photo)
A mail carrier in San Bernardino said it smelled like rotten eggs. A woman in Rancho Cucamonga blamed it on dairy cows in Chino. A man in Rialto said he couldn’t smell it at all. And about 60 miles west in Los Angeles, curious callers in the north end of the San Fernando Valley were calling the Fire Department seeking answers.
They were among thousands across the Southland on Monday to catch a whiff of what officials said was the result of biological decay, possibly from the Salton Sea, and an unusual wind that pushed it west.
Fontana resident Walter Martinez, 33, may have best described the foul odor wafting through the Inland area.
“It’s kind of funky,” he said. “If I go outside and take a breath, I cough. I feel an air irritation.”
Air quality officials from around the region fielded phone calls throughout the day from residents concerned about the smell.
Field inspectors with the South Coast Air Quality Management District in Diamond Bar spent the day investigating the possible causes of what they described as “widespread sulfur odors.”
“Fish kills, algae Read more…
Strange Sounds reported in Seattle and Kingston,Ontario
Seattle
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