HAB911
HAB911's JournalNASA’s Largest Space Telescope Completed
The largest space telescope built by NASA so far is finally complete, 20 years after the project began. The James Webb Space Telescope will now undergo testing and is scheduled to be launched in October 2018.
Compared to its predecessor, the Hubble Space Telescope — which has a 2.4-meter diameter mirror — Webb’s primary mirror has a diameter of 6.5 meters. The telescope can see in both visible light and in infrared. The mirror is comprised of 18 hexagonal segments, made of ultra-lightweight beryllium, which will unfold and adjust after the telescope has launched.
The most significant feature of the Webb telescope is a five-layer sunshield the size of a tennis court that “will prevent the background heat from the sun from interfering with the telescope’s infrared sensors.” Made from kapton, each of the layers has the thickness of a human hair. “The layers work together to reduce the temperatures between the hot and cold sides of the observatory by approximately 570 degrees Fahrenheit.”
James Cooper, Webb telescope sunshield manager at NASA Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland, said in a statement: “All five layers are beautifully executed and exceed their requirements. This is another big milestone for the Webb telescope project.”
The sunshield was designed by Northrop Grumman, NASA’s main industrial partner for the space observatory, while the membrane layers were designed and built by NeXolve Corporation, a process that took over three years. After its launch, Webb will be managed by the Space Telescope Science Institute.
Jim Flynn, Webb sunshield manager at Northrop Grumman, said: “The groundbreaking sunshield design will assist in providing the imaging of the formation of stars and galaxies more than 13.5 billion years ago.”
Exorcisms Are On The Rise
Priest Who Performs Exorcisms Says Number Of People Requesting Them Is Increasing
With a sudden increase in the number of people interested in the concept of Satanism and the “knowledge of the hidden,” there has also been a dramatic rise in the demand for real-life vanquishers of evil spirits — commonly referred to as exorcists — according to a Brownsburg, Indiana, priest.
Father Lampert, a Roman Catholic priest who has been appointed to serve as an exorcist at St. Malachy Parish by bishops, told WRTV, a local affiliate of CNN, that the number of people who wanted to undergo exorcisms in his area had hit “an all-time high.”
“An exorcism at it’s very core is a prayer,” said Father Lampert, stressing that people choose their path on the basis of faith in God, “So there does seem to be a correlation with people who believe they are experiencing evil in their life at the same time where faith in God is less relevant.”
Father Lampert said he receives almost 20 requests for an exorcism every week, of which only 10 percent of the people need to undergo the process. He added, “Most people by the time they call me they've already diagnosed themselves.”
While there were only 12 bishop-appointed exorcist priests in the U.S. at one point of time, the country now has over 50. This stems from the sharp spike in the demand for exorcisms. Pope Francis has routinely mentioned the subject, which was once a taboo, regularly, adding that it was the Church’s duty to guard against the work of the devil.
“This generation, and many others, have been led to believe that the devil is a myth, a figure, an idea, the idea of evil,” Francis said in a Mass shortly before Halloween 2014. “But the devil exists and we must fight against him.”
The pressure the exorcists have to deal with is also mounting with weight of their evil-fighting duties.
“I am a full-time pastor and this is a very intense ministry,” said the Rev. Gar Thomas, the official exorcist of the diocese of San Jose, California. “Almost every free night that I have is taken up with exorcisms.”
“After one here in Indiana on the way home, you asked how do I unwind,” Father Lampert said. “I stopped at Dairy Queen and had a chocolate shake on the way home.”
If Trump wins, it probably won't be a pretty picture for stocks.
Wall Street's long-running view that Hillary Clinton would easily become the next president has been replaced by a new fear that Donald Trump could win, and it probably won't be a pretty picture for stocks if he does.
Bond yields have moved lower and so have stocks, as the markets have begun to react to the possibility of a Trump victory in the last several days. The S&P 500 Wednesday was off 13 points at the key support level of 2,097 and was down 1.3 percent for the week so far.
The work of two economics professors may provide a glimpse of how the stock market might react if Donald Trump were elected. They studied the predictions market, including PredictIt.org and the reaction in the financial markets to events around the election. One of the economists says their findings point to a sharp immediate sell-off if Trump wins and a slight rally if Clinton wins. The amount of the rally or sell-off depends on the predicted outcome.
http://www.cnbc.com/2016/11/02/this-is-what-could-happen-to-the-stock-market-if-donald-trump-wins.html
Florida utilities spend $43 million to make case to limit rooftop solar
Source: Tampa Bay Times
TALLAHASSEE — Lost in the tumultuous presidential election and the down-ballot fears, something big has been happening quietly in Florida this year: Electric companies have dropped $42.7 million into political campaigns.
Since January 2015, $20 million of the industry's profits went to finance and promote Amendment 1, the ballot initiative that attempts to frustrate the expansion of consumer-owned rooftop solar in Florida, but another $15 million more went to fuel the campaigns of a select group of powerful legislative leaders in an effort to prepare for a prolonged war against rooftop solar.
The bulk of the money is being used to promote Amendment 1 but, if that effort fails, the industry is also investing heavily into the Legislature to create favorable conditions in Florida, as utilities have in other states, to push back against the proliferation of rooftop solar.
In other states that effort has included attempts to make solar less economically feasible by reducing the amount the utility spends to reimburse customers for generating excess electricity to the grid through "net metering," imposing new fees on solar users and pre-empting local governments from opening the door to more solar competition.
Read more: http://www.tampabay.com/news/politics/stateroundup/florida-utilities-spend-35-million-to-make-case-to-limit-rooftop-solar/2300966?utm_source=TBT_email&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=Daystarter
Word of the Day: Comie
koh'•mee (slang)
A pal or buddy in possession of sensitive information who releases such information only when it benefits one's preferred presidential candidate but does not release any information about said candidate, even if such information suggests serious, fucked-up ties to Vladimir Fuckinov Putin.
Ex. "FBI Director Comey, you say you released vague information about the Clinton investigation because the election is coming up, and yet you haven't released anything about whether Russia has hacked US emails or has been working closely with Trump and his people for years to the point that Trump allegedly had a separate email server set up specifically for that purpose. Why not?"
"Comie don't play that."
http://www.thefingnews.com/
Onward, Christian Solder
At a Lutheran church in Sweden yesterday, Pope Francis kicked off a year of celebrations leading up to next year's 500th anniversary of the Protestant Reformation, calling for forgiveness and healing on both sides because that's what Jesus would do. Or at least what he thinks Jesus would do, which is exactly what starts everyone arguing again.
The historic event marked the most profound attempt yet to heal the half-millennium rift that has divided the world's largest group of role-play gamers. Catholics doctrinally ascribe theological authority to a single elected office known as "The Papacy," or by its Latin title, which translates roughly as "Dungeon Master." Protestants rebelled in 1517 when Martin Luther--a 12th level cleric with high charisma and a psionic Axe of Grinding--decided that players should be able to make up their own rules.
Martin Luther abruptly quit when the Dungeon Master at the time, who went by the street name Leo X, refused Luther's request to modify 95 rules, such as whether players can buy extra hit points.
Protestants, as they were called, went on to start their own game, which players won by accumulating the most money, requiring them to prove their worth by working always until they died, when they all lost. More recent variations changed the rules so that everyone wins when they die and until then can pretty much fuck the rules and vote for whoever they want.
http://www.thefingnews.com/
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2016/oct/31/catholics-lutherans-joint-declaration-pope-francis-christian-sweden?ct=t%28TFN+10-25-16%29&mc_cid=5a3142df91&mc_eid=%5BUNIQID%5D
OMG! The Media is ‘Driving Demonic Activity’
Leave it to the WorldNUTdaily to publish an article claiming that the media is “driving demonic activity.” It even quotes an “expert” on demonic activity, which is a lot like an expert on unicorn farts, a guy who has “been engaged in the spiritual fight against demons for many years.”
Huge spikes in reported demonic activity all over the world. Black masses and blasphemous rituals held in cities around the country. The rise of Satanism as devil worshipers openly organize in what was once a Christian country.
Suddenly, Halloween doesn’t seem so innocent anymore.
Karl Payne, the former chaplain of the NFL’s Seattle Seahawks and a pastor at Antioch Bible Church in Redmond, Washington, has been engaged in the spiritual fight against demons for many years…
“I believe there is a correlation between the media’s incessant and increasing promotion of these kinds of subjects and an increased workload for those of us who actually work with real demonization and deliverance,” the pastor told WND. “Why should that come as a surprise? The same media industry that restricts the promotion of tobacco products because of the destructive and addictive effects promoted by advertisements on naïve, gullible young minds chooses to bombard those same naïve, gullible young minds with other harmful imagery. Audio and visual presentations of demonic, occultic and Satanic inspired death, destruction, slashing, bashing, blood, gore, murder, rape, terror and mayhem on a nightly basis. And yet they defiantly declare it represents nothing more than harmless entertainment.
“They act like it is a video game, if you don’t like what you see or the score you get, you can just hit reset and try again. But the reality is that demonization is real, and there is not an easy reset button to push once a person is caught in the middle of demonic conflict and desperately wanting out.”
Hmmm. Preying on “naïve, gullible young minds” by bombarding them with images of demons and destruction? You mean like those “hell houses” that so many churches put up as alternatives to Halloween? Or the incessant fire and brimstone preaching telling “naive, gullible minds” about all the precise ways they’ll be tormented in a lake of fire by demons? I seem to recall something about logs and splinters in one’s eye.
http://www.patheos.com/blogs/dispatches/2016/11/01/omg-the-media-is-driving-demonic-activity/
ANYTHING in the name of religion
Indiana mom gets probation after claiming ‘religious freedom’ to beat children with coat hanger
An Indiana mother who claimed “religious freedom” to beat her son dozens of times with a coat hanger has been sentenced to probation after pleading guilty to battery.
Kin Park Thaing, a refugee from Burma, cited the state’s new religious freedom law as a defense after she was charged with felony battery and neglect of a dependent, reported the Washington Post.
Police launched an investigation after a teacher noticed dozens of deep-purple bruises on the 7-year-old boy’s body in March, but Thaing asked for the charges to be dismissed in July under the Religious Freedom Restoration Act, or RFRA.
Prosecutors said that was the first time the act, which was signed into law by Gov. Mike Pence, had been used as a defense for child abuse.
Thaing argued that she was acting out her Christian beliefs in punishing her child with the weapon, and she cited Proverbs 23:13-14 to claim a biblical directive to beat her children as punishment.
She told investigators that she had beat both her son and daughter with the coat hanger and then asked them to pray afterward for forgiveness.
A Marion County judge denied her request to dismiss the case, but she later pleaded guilty to a lesser charge.
Thaing was sentenced Friday to eight months of probation in the case, and she has taken parenting classes to learn more appropriate methods of discipline.
Florida Gov Rick Scott goes missing
TALLAHASSEE — Across the nation, governors who aren't even on the ballot are using their political muscle to drag fellow Republicans to victory in a year in which Donald Trump has created uncertainty at the top of the ticket.
In Maryland, first-term Gov. Larry Hogan is hitting the trail for key congressional races. In Wisconsin and Ohio, Scott Walker and John Kasich have done bus tours and are frequently with Republican senators battling for re-election.
But in Florida, where U.S. Sen. Marco Rubio and other Republicans are fighting for their political lives, Gov. Rick Scott is missing from the campaign trail.
When asked by the Times/Herald if he had any campaign stops planned, Scott replied: "There's none on the calendar."
Two years ago, Rubio and other congressional candidates joined Scott on a campaign bus tour when he battled Democrat Charlie Crist for re-election.
This year, however, not even Trump has been able to lure Scott onto the trail. Trump has made 19 campaign stops in Florida since the end of July. Scott didn't attend any of them.
Trump held a rally in Collier County on Sunday when Scott, who lives in nearby Naples, was in town. And then on Tuesday in Tallahassee, Scott was 8 miles from a nearby Trump rally. Scott said he had no time to meet with him before either stop. Scott said on Tuesday he had a dinner party with almost 50 people at the Governor's Mansion and could not leave them for Trump.
Scott said he still supports Trump. And he is running a political fundraising committee, Rebuilding America Now, that has raised more than $19 million to support him. Because super PACs like Scott's are prohibited from directly coordinating with campaigns, Scott's absence from Trump's rallies — while not legally required — helps avoid perceptions that they are working on campaign strategy together.
Outside of the PAC donations, Scott has not personally written any checks to Trump's campaign like he did in past presidential races. In 2008 and 2012, Scott donated more than $122,000 to John McCain, Mitt Romney and political committees that supported their campaigns.
"My first job is to represent the 20.6 million people who live in the state," said Scott, adding he's busy working on combating Zika and on hurricane recovery efforts.
"That's my primary focus right now," Scott said. "If there is the opportunity, I will do what I can to help people."
http://www.tampabay.com/news/politics/stateroundup/have-you-seen-this-man-on-campaign-trail-rick-scott-goes-missing/2300282
Judge fears 25,000 voters won't be eligible for Nov. 8 election
Source: Tampa Bay Times
TALLAHASSEE — A federal judge is demanding an explanation from state officials at a hearing today about a backlog in the number of newly registered voters who haven't been verified in time so they can vote in Florida's election.
U.S. District Judge Mark Walker has been tracking the number of unverified applicants, which on Thursday was nearly 25,000 out of 125,000 who registered during a weeklong extension the judge granted after Hurricane Matthew this month.
"It appears that the amount of voters being processed each day has slowed dramatically," Walker wrote in an order late Thursday. "As of now, almost 25,000 voters may or may not have their vote counted in the 2016 general election."
The judge ordered Gov. Rick Scott's top elections official, Secretary of State Ken Detzner, to have his elections division director, Maria Matthews, available to face questions.
Read more: http://www.tampabay.com/news/politics/elections/by-the-numbers-breaking-down-the-early-voting-and-mail-ballots-across/2300191
The GOP cannot govern
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Current location: Tampa, Florida
Member since: Wed Sep 7, 2016, 06:45 AM
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