Ichingcarpenter
Ichingcarpenter's JournalLack of Miracles in US due to higher education(ivy league) Pat Robertson
Today on the 700 Club, a viewer asked host Pat Robertson why miracles such as “people raised from the dead, blind eyes open, lame people walking” seem to “happen with great frequency in Africa, and not here in the USA?” Robertson first responded by joking it is “because those people overseas didn’t go to Ivy League schools.”
But Robertson was actually serious.
“Well, we are so sophisticated, we think we’ve got everything figured out, we know about evolution, we know about Darwin, we know about all these things that says God isn’t real, we know about all this stuff,” Robertson lamented, “in many schools, in the most advanced schools, we have been inundated with skepticism and secularism.”
Unlike these too-educated Americans, “overseas they are simple and humble” and are more ready to accept miracles.
http://www.rightwingwatch.org/content/robertson-simple-foreigners-more-likely-experience-miracles-sophisticated-americans
http://www.rightwingwatch.org/content/robertson-simple-foreigners-more-likely-experience-miracles-sophisticated-americans
2 Big Fundraisers for Colbert's sister in DC and NY- democratic party supported
ephen Colbert is hosting two expensive fundraisers on behalf of his sister Elizabeth Colbert Busch.
Tickets to both events run as high as $10,000 and include both an exclusive private reception and a general reception, according to invites obtained by POLITICO.
An event in Washington featuring the Comedy Central host is scheduled for April 15, while Colbert and former investment banker Sallie Krawcheck will host a New York City event April 23; that event will be at Krawcheck’s home.
For the D.C. event, a minimum donation of $2,600 is required to attend the private reception, while general admission tickets to the fundraiser cost $500.
DNC Chairwoman Debbie Wasserman Schultz (D-Fla.), Minority Whip Steny Hoyer (D-Md.), Assistant Democratic leader Jim Clyburn (D-S.C.) and Sens. Al Franken (D-Minn.), Kirsten Gillibrand (D-N.Y.) and Mary Landrieu (D-La.) are all listed as co-hosts to the D.C. event.
Reps. Joe Crowley (D-N.Y.), Earl Blumenauer (D-Ore.), Anna Eshoo (D-Calif.), Hank Johnson (D-Ga.), Joseph Kennedy (D-Mass.), Jim Langevin (D-R.I.), John Lewis (D-Ga.), Zoe Lofgren (D-Calif.), Carolyn Maloney (D-N.Y.), Gwen Moore (D-Wis.) and Adam Smith (D-Wash.) are also listed as co-hosts.
Read more: http://www.politico.com/story/2013/04/stephen-colbert-hosting-fundraisers-for-his-sister-89524.html#ixzz2PJaLsJwJ
http://www.politico.com/story/2013/04/stephen-colbert-hosting-fundraisers-for-his-sister-89524.html#ixzz2PJNd7aDJ
Five reasons why Colbert Busch could beat Mark Sanford
1. Voters haven’t forgiven Mark Sanford
A number of voters continue to feel betrayed by Sanford over the 2009 scandal that cost him his reputation and a promising political future — when he admitted to an extramarital affair after telling staffers he was hiking on the Appalachian Trail.
A recent survey from the Democratic firm Public Policy Polling showed that 58 percent of voters hold an unfavorable opinion of Sanford, while just 34 percent like him.
more reasons
Read more: http://thehill.com/blogs/ballot-box/house-races/291311-five-reasons-why-elizabeth-colbert-busch-could-beat-mark-sanford-in-south-carolina#ixzz2PJbECTHW
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Samoa Air has become the world's first airline to implement "pay as you weigh"
Samoa Air has become the world's first airline to implement "pay as you weigh" flights, meaning overweight passengers pay more for their seats.
"This is the fairest way of travelling," chief executive of Samoa Air, Chris Langton, told ABC Radio. "There are no extra fees in terms of excess baggage or anything – it is just a kilo is a kilo is a kilo."
Like many Pacific island nations, Samoa has a serious obesity problem and is often included in the top 10 countries for obesity levels. As such, Mr Langton believes his airline's new payment policy will also help promote health and obesity awareness.
"When you get into the Pacific, standard weight is substantially higher [than south-east Asia]," he said. "That's a health issue in some areas. [This payment system] has raised the awareness of weight."
Under the new system, Samoa Air passengers must type in their weight and the weight of their baggage into the online booking section of the airline's website. The rates vary depending on the distance flown: from $1 per kilogram on the airline's shortest domestic route to about $4.16 per kilogram for travel between Samoa and American Samoa. Passengers are then weighed again on scales at the airport, to check that they weren't fibbing online.
Read more: http://www.smh.com.au/travel/travel-news/airline-to-charge-overweight-passengers-more-20130402-2h495.html#ixzz2PHy17923
DNA study links indigenous Brazilians to Polynesians
Indigenous people that lived in southeastern Brazil in the late 1800s shared some genetic sequences with Polynesians, an analysis of their remains shows. The finding offers some support for the possibility that Pacific islanders traded with South America thousands of years ago, but researchers say that the distinctive DNA sequences, or haplogroups, may have entered the genomes of the native Brazilians through the slave trade during the nineteenth century.
Most scientists agree that humans arrived in the Americas between 15,000 and 20,000 years ago, probably via the Bering land bridge linking northeastern Asia with what is now Alaska. But the precise timing and the number of ‘migration waves’ is unclear, owing largely to variations in early Americans’ physical features, says Sérgio Pena, a molecular geneticist at the Federal University of Minas Gerais in Belo Horizonte, Brazil.
One broad group of these Palaeoamericans — the Botocudo people, who lived in inland regions of southeastern Brazil — stands out, having skull shapes that were intermediate between those of other Palaeoamericans and a presumed ancestral population in eastern Asia.
http://www.nature.com/news/dna-study-links-indigenous-brazilians-to-polynesians-1.12710
Mark Twain on April Fool's Day
Google:
Google began April Fools’ Day early by unveiling some of its pranks on Sunday, which include launching a scent-based search engine and shutting down YouTube, among other fake announcements.
Users of Google Analytics reported seeing web traffic from the International Space Station Sunday afternoon. The number of astronauts allegedly visiting a user’s page totaled 41, which represents April 1, or April Fools’ Day.
Google also launched a beta product called Google Nose. Google Nose, if it were real, would allow users to search for various smells, including “wet dog,” “horse manure” and “locker room.”
Read more: http://dailycaller.com/2013/04/01/googles-april-fools-day-jokes-revealed/#ixzz2PByfhA8J
Precursors of April Fools' Day include the Roman festival of Hilaria, held March 25,[2] and the Medieval Feast of Fools, held December 28,[3] still a day on which pranks are played in Spanish-speaking countries.
In Chaucer's Canterbury Tales (1392), the "Nun's Priest's Tale" is set Syn March bigan thritty dayes and two.[4] Modern scholars believe that there is a copying error in the extant manuscripts and that Chaucer actually wrote, Syn March was gon.[5] Thus, the passage originally meant 32 days after April, i.e. May 2,[6] the anniversary of the engagement of King Richard II of England to Anne of Bohemia, which took place in 1381. Readers apparently misunderstood this line to mean "March 32", i.e. April 1.[7] In Chaucer's tale, the vain cock Chauntecleer is tricked by a fox.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/April_Fools'_Day
The NRA's and tobacco industy vision for US children and schools.
Syrian 7 year old..... is that his school in the background?
I find this photo forbidding, distrubing and tragic.
EPA.."Major oil spill' in the Canadian pipeline
An Exxon Mobil crude oil pipeline ruptured near the town of Mayflower in the US state of Arkansas, spilling thousands of barrels of oil, the company said.
Exxon shut the 50-centimetre Pegasus pipeline, which carries crude oil from Pakota, Illinois, to the Gulf Coast, after the leak was discovered on Friday afternoon.
Exxon, which was hit with a $1.7m fine by regulators this week over a 2011 spill in the Yellowstone River, said a few thousand barrels of oil had been observed.
Local media reported the spill occurred in a subdivision, and Mayflower police said the oil had not reached the nearby Lake Conway.
Federal, state and local officials were on site and the company said it was staging a response for a spill of more than 10,000 barrels "to be conservative."
http://www.aljazeera.com/news/americas/2013/03/201333142826356825.html
At 6,700-acres, Lake Conway is the largest man-made game and fish commission lake in the United States. Construction of the lake began in 1948, with its waters coming from the runoff of Stone Dam Creek, Gold Creek, Palarm Creek, Little Cypress Creek and Panther Creek. Its average depth is six feet, with a maximum depth of 18 feet. The lake is approximately eight miles long with 52 miles of shoreline.
Fishing: Known as an excellent fishing lake, Conway is stocked with bass, catfish, bream and crappie. Several free public launch areas are maintained by the Arkansas Game & Fish Commission; boat rentals are available at several commercial docks on the lake. Adams', Brannon's, Bream's Nest, Gold Creek, Highway, Lawrence, Martin's Northshore, Palarm Creek, Paradise, Pierce Creek and Sevier's are the landings with boat ramps. Old creek channels that can be found on all sides of the lake are some of the best places to bass fish. Lake Conway is home to the Crappie Master’s State Tournament in the spring.
Commander of the ISS says
Chris HadfieldVerified account
@Cmdr_Hadfield
Don't tell my crew, but I brought them Easter Eggs
Rhetoric and Reality of North Korea's military by top asian analysis
This report was originally presented at the East Asia Nuclear Security workshop held on November 11, 2011 in Tokyo
North Korea occasionally threatens to “turn Seoul into a Sea of Fire”. The South Korean, U.S. and other international media often relay this statement, amplifying its effect. But can North Korea really do this? Does it matter if they can? The short answer is they can’t; but they can kill many tens of thousands of people, start a larger war and cause a tremendous amount of damage before ultimately losing their regime.
Therefore, it doesn’t matter whether they can do it directly since they have the capability to ignite a sequence of events leading to widespread destruction and likely regime change in Pyongyang. Previous Nuclear Weapon Free Zones have usually required about three decades to implement after discussions started during periods of stasis.
Therefore, this is a period of stasis in which to explore confidence building measures and possibly something as radical as a Korea Japan Nuclear Weapon Free Zone.
If the North Korean Peoples Army (KPA) were to start a doctrinal, conventional artillery barrage focused on South Korean forces, we could expect to see around three thousand casualties in the first few minutes, but the casualty rate would quickly drop as the surprise wears off and counter-battery fires slow down the North Korean rates of fire.
If the KPA were to engage Seoul in a primarily counter-value fashion by firing into Seoul instead of primarily aiming at military targets, there would likely be around thirty-thousand casualties in a short amount of time. Statistically speaking, almost eight-hundred of those casualties would be foreigners given Seoul’s international demographic. Chinese make up almost seventy percent of foreigners in Seoul and its northern environs which means KPA might also kill six-hundred Chinese diplomats, multi-national corporation leaders, and ranking cadre children who are students in Seoul.
Horrible, but nothing approaching “millions”. Three primary factors and three secondary factors account for the huge discrepancy between rhetoric and reality:
Three Primary Factors
Range – Only about 1/3 of Seoul is presently in range from artillery along a DMZ trace. The northern reaches of Seoul within artillery range have much lower population densities than Seoul proper;
Numbers – Even though KPA has a tremendous number of artillery pieces, only a certain number are emplaced to range Seoul. KPA can’t emplace every weapon near Seoul or the rest of North Korea’s expansive border would be unguarded and even more vulnerable.
Moreover, an artillery tube immediately reveals its location as soon as it fires.
Therefore only about two-thirds of artillery will open fire at a time. The rest are trying to remain hidden;
Protection – Artillery shelters for twenty million people exist in the greater Seoul metropolitan area.
After the initial surprise has worn off, there simply won’t be large numbers of exposed people. Even during the initial attack the vast majority of people will either be at work, at home, or in transit. Few people will be standing in the middle of an open field with no protection whatsoever available anywhere nearby.
Three Secondary Factors
Read more: http://nautilus.org/napsnet/napsnet-special-reports/mind-the-gap-between-rhetoric-and-reality/#ixzz2P6VwXM3D
BTW every newly elected Government in the south is tested by the north with angry rhetoric.
Go to the link for more analysis.
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