On Retreat December 21st to 24th

Holiday Shoppers Murdered in Pakistan by Suicide Bomber

by Riaz Khan, AP

SHERPAO, Pakistan - A suicide attacker detonated a bomb packed with ball bearings and nails amid hundreds of holiday worshippers Friday at the residential compound of Pakistan's former interior minister, killing at least 50 people, authorities said.

It was the second suicide attack in eight months apparently targeting Aftab Khan Sherpao, who escaped injury. One of his sons was wounded.

Suspicion will likely focus on the pro-Taliban or al-Qaida militants active in the northwestern region of the country where the attack occurred.

Seacoast Church Special Guest: Jim Caveizel

Jim Caveizel, who played Jesus in the movie “The Passion of the Christ” will be our guest at Seacoast's Long Point Road Campus on the weekend of January 5th and 6th. I (Pastor Greg Surratt) will be interviewing him live at Long Point and it will be shown the same weekend at all of our campuses. Think about inviting someone who might not normally come to church with you.

Too Little, Too Late? Where Are the Fuel Efficient Cars?

The fuel-efficiency legislation Bush signed into law today increases the federal standard automakers must meet to an industry wide 35 mpg for passengers cars, SUVs and small trucks (by 2020). The standard for cars today is 27.5 mpg and for trucks and SUVs 22.2 mpg.

It requires refineries to increase the use of ethanol from about 6 billion gallons a year this year to 36 billion gallons by 2022 and mandates that by then at least 21 billion gallons are to come from feedstocks other than corn.

How pathetic! I drive a car presently that gets approximately 35 mpg to 37 mpg on average, and I think this is terrible! So the idea that Americans are going to be allowed to continue to drive SUVs and trucks that are humongous both in size and in gas-guzzling for another 13 years is literally horrifying. On top of that, I found out today that my 2006 Scion XA is the last of its kind. Seems Scion has replaced the smaller, more fuel efficient XA with a larger, more gas-eating XD. D as in "deviant." This is presumably to cater to the young, a customer base that Scion has yet to reach. Look around: Most people drving Scion XA and XB are 50-plus! Americans need to accept that we should be driving smaller, fuel efficient cars.

South Korea: Worst Oil Spill In Its History

South Korea experienced the worst oil spill in its history in an incident which saw 82,950 barrels, or 10,500 tonnes (11,571 tons), of crude oil leak from three punctured tanks of a very large crude carrier (VLCC), Hebei Spirit, on Dec. 7 into the waters off Taean County, South Chungcheong province. Oil from the damaged tanker and tar-like oil clumps have been floating to other coastal areas, threatening marine life and wild birds living there.
...
"Sandy or rocky beaches can usually be normalized in five years after an oil spill, but some mud flats and wetlands don't recover even after 20 years," said Lee Jae-hong, director of the natural preservation office at the Environment Ministry.

Some 200,000 volunteers across the country managed to curb the spread of the oil slick and clean up 70 per cent of the coastline near Cheonsuman Bay, a world renowned sanctuary for migratory birds, with the help of experts arriving from the U.SJapan, the European Union, and two U.N. agencies over the weekend. China reportedly sent 56 tonnes (62-tons) of dispersants while a private company from Singapore sent a helicopter to help with the clean-up operations.

Hebei Spirit was en route to the Daesan port to unload the crude cargo carried from the Middle East to Hyundai Oilbank's refinery on South Korea's west coast when the oil tanker was hit by a crane barge operated by Samsung Heavy Industries under rough weather conditions on Dec. 7. Samsung earlier promised to bear responsibility for the incident.

Hundreds of Government Staffers Evacuate Building as Fire Breaks Out

MSNBC reports:

WASHINGTON - A fire broke out near Vice President Dick Cheney's ceremonial office in a building overlooking the White House Wednesday, forcing hundreds of government staffers to evacuate.

Cheney was in the White House with President Bush receiving their morning intelligence briefings when the blaze began and people were evacuated from the executive office building safely, White House officials said.

Smoke billowed from the second floor of the Eisenhower Executive Office Building, a hulking granite structure that is part of the White House complex and faces the West Wing of the presidential mansion. Firefighters arrived and quickly brought the blaze under control within an hour.

The Karachi Express Derailment: Update

CNN reports: A Pakistani express train derailed early Wednesday morning, killing at least 41 people and injuring at least 135 others, police said.

The Karachi Express was traveling from Karachi to Lahore, carrying more than 1,000 people when it derailed at about 2:25 a.m. (4:25 p.m. ET Tuesday) near the town of Sialabad, about 250 miles (400 km) north of Karachi, railway officials said.

Journalist Aftab Borka reported from the scene that about 12 of the 17 cars in the train were off the tracks and overturned.

The History of Your Cells Via DNA Scanning

Jerad Kaliher writes:

For the first time in history a company will be able to scan your DNA and tell you the history of your cells, where you’ve been for the past billion years and where your genetic future is going. 23andMe, a silicon valley startup with links to Google offers you the chance to shell out $999 for a personal map of your genomic profile.

Why would anyone beyond scientists and researchers want to do this? The company says because the information could be as fun as tracing family food preferences, sleeping habits and seeing which grandparent passed down your athletic ability. On a more serious note it will also give you insight as to what diseases and conditions you’re predisposed to - all the way from glaucoma to cancer.

The challenge isn’t behind uncovering the data. It’s finding a way to present it to both the layperson and a researcher. That’s really where this service aims to shine. The massive amount of information will be linked to current and future research. Right after you read about a new disease study you can go online and look to see if you are predisposed to that ailment in real time. While the novice will have very minimalistic reports, anyone can scan deeper. Possibly even to become a genetic hobbyist, where you’ll realize that access to your detailed information is already at your fingertips.

Elaborate and Secret Detentions in Pakistan

International / Asia Pacific
Picture of Secret Detentions Emerges in Pakistan
By CARLOTTA GALL
Published: December 19, 2007
Pakistani intelligence agencies have released nearly 100 suspected terrorists in an apparent effort to avoid acknowledging an elaborate secret detention system.

Merry Christmas Message from Mike Huckabee

Korea Times Reports Seven Finless Porpoises Found Dead on Western Coast Beach

Seven finless porpoises have been found dead on a western coast beach hit by South Korea's worst oil spill early this month, officials said Tuesday.

A one-meter-long finless porpoise was first found dead on a beach in Taean, South Chungcheong Province, on Dec. 10, its body covered with black crude oil, wild animal rescuers of the Gum River Environmental Agency said, adding the death toll has risen to seven so far in the area.

It was not known if the deaths were related to water pollution caused by the oil spill.

The agency commissioned the National Institute of Biological Resources to conduct an autopsy to determine the cause of the deaths.

The finless porpoise is a sea animal that resembles a large grey fish. It lives in the shallow coastal waters of Asia, usually some five to six kilometers off the coast and is often spotted in South Korean waters.

Express Train Derails in Pakistan, Killing Fifty

Pakistan - An express train crowded with holiday travelers derailed in southern Pakistan early Wednesday, killing at least 50 people and injuring many more, officials said.

The passenger express was going from Karachi to Lahore when about 12 of its 16 carriages came off the rails near Mehrabpur, about 250 miles north of Karachi, the officials said.

On Tuesday, December 18th:

ISLAMABAD: A 5.1-magnitude earthquake jolted central Pakistan on Tuesday but there were no immediate reports of casualties or damage, officials said.

The epicentre of the quake was around 300 kilometres (200 miles) southwest of the city of Peshawar, a seismological department official said.

"The quake originated at 10:56am (0556 GMT) from the border area between Punjab and Baluchistan provinces," he said.

Home Energy Station and Honda's Upcoming Hydrogen Car

With "green" being an ongoing theme at the 2007 Los Angeles Auto Show, it was fitting that Honda would choose that venue to debut its all-new FCX Clarity. With styling very similar to the FCX concept car, the Clarity is a zero-emission electric vehicle powered by Honda's latest-generation hydrogen fuel-cell system...

One of the biggest hurdles to more widespread use of fuel-cell cars is the lack of infrastructure — there are very few places to fill a car with hydrogen. But Honda is working on a solution.

The fourth generation of the experimental Home Energy Station was on display at the LA show, and when it reaches production it will have the potential to change the way we live.

Hooked up to a home's natural gas line, the Home Energy Station would convert natural gas to hydrogen for filling a fuel-cell vehicle. The conversion process would also supply the home with heat and electricity, reducing energy costs both at home and on the road.

With the ability to create hydrogen anywhere there is a natural gas line, the question, "Where do I fill up my fuel-cell car?" will no longer be an issue. The future may be closer than we think.

A Boy By Any Other Name

By Philip Pullella Tue Dec 18

ROME (Reuters) - An Italian court has ruled that a couple could not name their son "Friday" and ordered that he instead be called Gregory after the saint whose feast day he was born on.

"I think it is ridiculous they even opened a case about it," the family's lawyer, Paola Rossi, told Reuters by telephone from the northern city of Genoa on Tuesday.

Friday/Gregory Germano was born in Genoa 15 months ago. The parents registered him as Friday in the city hall and a priest even baptised him as Friday -- unusual in Italy since many priests insist that first names be of Christian origin.

"We named him Friday because we like the sound of the name. Even if it would have been a girl, we would have named her Friday," the boy's mother, Mara Germano, told Reuters...
"I am livid about this," the boy's mother said. "A court should not waste its time with things like this when there is so much more to worry about."

"My son was born Friday, baptised Friday, will call himself Friday, we will call him Friday but when he gets older he will have to sign his name Gregory," she said.

Ayman al-Zawahri Calls on Iraqi Sunni to Purge Traitors

By LEE KEATH, Associated Press Writer

CAIRO, Egypt - Al-Qaida's No. 2 Ayman al-Zawahri warned of "traitors" among insurgents in Iraq and called on Iraqi Sunni Arab tribes to purge those who help the Americans in a new videotape posted Monday on the Web.

Al-Zawahri's comments were aimed at undermining so-called "awakening councils" — the groups of Iraqi Sunni tribesmen that the U.S. military has backed to help fight al-Qaida in Iraq and its allies.

Some Sunni insurgent groups have fought alongside American forces, and the U.S. military has touted the councils as a major factor in reducing violence in war-torn regions like Iraq's Anbar province

Prophets of Doom: Calvin & Hobbes

'Living My Life Faster' : Video Showing Aging Over 8 Years

Living My Life Faster - 8 years of JK's Daily Photo Project from c71123 on Vimeo.

Hillary vs. Barack

by Maureen Dowd

Carolyn Washburn, the phlegmatic editor of the paper (Des Moines Register), once more moderates.

WASHBURN: Senator Clinton, I’d like you to start us off by explaining why your campaign has been getting down and dirty with someone so clean and articulate?

CLINTON: I apologized to Senator Obama. I absolutely did not authorize or condone the remarks made by one of my co-chairs in New Hampshire about my distinguished colleague’s youthful indiscretions. If primary voters don’t care that he did “a little blow,” then my goodness, why should I? Even if he had packed a straw full of the white rabbit and had a snow bunny blow it in his ear, who would care, for Pete’s sake? I only wish I knew all that colorful chasing-the-dragon lingo. Senator Obama certainly has a lot of street cred, even if it isn’t Main Street. We owe it to the good people of Iowa to stick to critical issues like the economy, and how to get a fiscally responsible budget like we had in the ’90s, the ’90s, the ’90s —

WASHBURN: Snap out of it.

CLINTON: Sorry. Anyway, even if Senator Obama were still riding the snow train, I would not allow any revelations about it to sully this campaign. I’m not sure who that young man in a hoodie was that Barack was talking to outside tonight, before the debate. I’d seen the young man earlier, standing around in the shadows outside. But that’s neither here nor there. Even if I had been able to see whether any money was exchanged, or who was selling to whom, I would not allow anyone in my campaign, even that scamp Mark Penn, to use the word cocaine, cocaine, cocaine —

WASHBURN: Senator!

Farmed Seafood: Poisoned in China's Dirty Waters

Environmental problems plaguing seafood would appear to be a bad omen for the industry. But with fish stocks in the oceans steadily declining and global demand for seafood soaring, farmed seafood, or aquaculture, is the future. And no country does more of it than China, which produced about 115 billion pounds of seafood last year.

China produces about 70 percent of the farmed fish in the world, harvested at thousands of giant factory-style farms that extend along the entire eastern seaboard of the country. Farmers mass-produce seafood just offshore, but mostly on land, and in lakes, ponds, rivers and reservoirs, or in huge rectangular fish ponds dug into the earth.

Our Theology is Simple; We Believe in Christ

By ROBERT WELLER, Associated Press Writer

COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo. - The leader of a megachurch where a gunman opened fire a week earlier, killing two teenage sisters and wounding three other people, said Sunday that the congregation's trials of the past couple of years were nothing more than tests... Another test came a year ago, Boyd (present pastor) said, when founder the Rev. Ted Haggard was dismissed after a former male escort claimed Haggard paid him over three years for sex. Haggard publicly admitted committing unspecified "sexual immorality."

"This is not what this church will be known for," Boyd said.

"Our heart is to be a church that gives to people," he said. "We are a group that cares for people, any person."

That was written on the faces of members of a mostly smiling crowd who sang, clapped and waved as they watched the stage or several large-screen televisions simulcasting the service above them. Some cried. Dozens accepted a call to come to the front if they needed help to deal with the pain.

"All it has done is strengthen us," Boyd said at the service, attended by at least 4,000 adults.

Reacting to the shooting and the service, Josh Caldwell, 17, said: "It's definitely been really rough. But seeing the church continue to grow is an incredible experience. And seeing God move among us."

Boyd said the church's struggles could be compared to those faced by early Christians. "In times like this our theology is simple. ... We believe in Christ," he said.

Lowest Levels of Violence in Iraq During Last Six Months

By PATRICK QUINN, Associated Press

BAGHDAD - Violence in Iraq is at its lowest levels since the first year of the American invasion, finally opening a window for reconciliation among rival sects, the second-ranking U.S. general said Sunday as Iraqi forces formally took control of security across half the country.

Lt. Gen. Ray Odierno, the man responsible for the ground campaign in Iraq, said that the first six months of 2007 were probably the most violent period since the U.S.-led invasion in 2003. The past six months, however, had seen some of the lowest levels of violence since the conflict began, Odierno said, attributing the change to an increase in both American troops and better-trained Iraqi forces.

"I feel we are back in '03 and early '04. Frankly I was here then, and the environment is about the same in terms of security in my opinion," he said. "What is different from then is that the Iraqi security forces are significantly more mature."

Meanwhile, al-Qaida's No. 2 Ayman al-Zawahri said in a new video posted Monday that the United States is trying to hide its failures in Iraq and warned that the mujahedeen there are increasing in strength.

Lumps Of Tar Near Yeondo, South Korea: Oil Spill Clean-Up Continues

SEOUL, South Korea: Oil that spilled from a punctured supertanker off the South Korean coast has drifted in the form of tar to a distant island, as tens of thousands of people continued massive clean-up operations Saturday with the help of U.S. specialists.

Lumps of tar were spotted in waters near Yeondo, an island some 75 miles south of the site of South Korea's largest-ever oil spill that released about 66,000 barrels into the ocean on Dec. 7, the Coast Guard said in a statement.

Officials said such oil lumps pose much less threat to the environment and are easier to remove than oil in liquid form.

"It's something like asphalt, and the lumps that were found near Yeondo are very small in numbers," said Lee Won-yol, an official at the main Coast Guard office overseeing clean-up operations. "We believe they pose little contamination threat and can be easily removed."

Hybrid Cars: Toshiba Announces A Lithium-Ion Battery Recharging in 5 Minutes

A newcomer in rechargeable batteries, Toshiba said the lithium-ion battery could be used in hybrid and electric cars by 2010...

Battery innovations are expected to be key in making hybrid vehicles more widespread, because lighter and easier-to-recharge batteries will improve efficiency. They could also spark mass-produced plug-in hybrids and and even resurrect the idea of all-electric vehicles that use no fossil fuel.

John Tierney on Global Warming and Bali Conference

Contrarians v. Bali

By John Tierney

We always need contrarians to challenge orthrodoxy, so it’s good to see a few scientists raising questions about the established wisdom at the Bali conference on climate. But I’m such a contrarian myself that I have to quibble with them.

Jakarta Shook by 7.1 Magnitude Earthquake

JAKARTA, Indonesia (AP)- A strong earthquake shook eastern Indonesia on Saturday, sending panicked residents running out of their homes.

The tremor struck with a preliminary magnitude of 7.1 at a depth of about 60 miles in Maluku province, about 1,700 miles east of the capital, Jakarta, according to the Indonesian Meteorology and Geophysics Agency. The U.S. Geological Survey put the quake at a magnitude 6.3.

There were no immediate reports of damage or injuries and no tsunami alert was issued...

Indonesia, the world’s largest archipelago with 17,500 islands, is prone to seismic upheavals because of its location on the so-called Pacific “Ring of Fire,” an arc of volcanoes and fault lines encircling the Pacific Basin.

Imagine the overwhelming fear the people of Indonesia must have felt and perhaps are still feeling after this quake, given the devastation of several years ago when a similar deep ocean quake occurred killing a multitude of people.

Fresnel Lens Solar Powered Engine: Alternative Energy

Dan Osman: FREE CLIMBING

Colorful Five Dollar Bill

By MARTIN CRUTSINGER, Associated Press Economics Writer

WASHINGTON -... A new $5 bill, with splashes of color surrounding Abraham Lincoln will go into circulation March 13, the Bureau of Engraving and Printing and the Federal Reserve announced Thursday.

The new bill still will have a portrait of the 16th president on one side and the Lincoln Memorial on the other. But it also will feature purple and gray colors and other high-tech changes designed to make life more difficult for counterfeiters.

Officials said they hoped the vending machine industry will use the next three months to make the adjustments needed so that millions of machines will be able to accept the redesigned $5 bill. That denomination is used heavily in the machines.

"Any business that operates machines that accept $5 bills should contact the machines' manufacturers and ensure they get adjusted to accept the new design," said Dawn Haley, a spokesman for the bureau.

Bill Clinton At MUSC, Charleston, SC Dec 8th

Video of Bill Clinton visiting children at MUSC's Children's Hospital on Saturday, December 8th, 2007.

American Coast Guard and NOAA Assist South Korea in Oil Spill Clean-Up

SEOUL, South Korea (Associated Press) — A team of U.S. Coast Guard experts arrived in South Korea on Thursday to help with the country's worst oil spill, as hundreds of vessels struggled in bad weather to contain the disaster for a seventh day.

The three American Coast Guard officials have significant hands-on experience with oil-spill management and will help draw up containment measures jointly with Korean experts, the Korean Coast Guard said in a statement.

An expert from the U.S. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration also arrived earlier Thursday on the same mission.

"So Black, So White": Fiction by Toothdigger

So Black So White

Winter had arrived in South Carolina. The upstate was covered with four to six inches of snow depending upon the location. Trees were uprooted, broken in two by high winds. As a result, some towns had been without heat and light for weeks while power lines were repaired.

Pete, his wife Allie, and the kids drove into the mountains of western North Carolina to find a steep, snow-blanketed slope on which to ride the innertube. They located a great spot and started their fun. Their boy, Chris, yelled falling off the black rubber ring, arms flailing, body scraping snow into his slacks, white hair tossing here and there in the wind when Allie picked up a snowball to throw at Pete. She packed the snow loosely in her hands, so that the ball would not be too hard. She aimed and threw it low. When it hit, Pete glared at her.

"Don't try to hurt me," he yelled in her direction.

She gritted her teeth and walked away from the anger.

The anger was there between them now, it seemed to Allie, most of the time....(follow title link to read more)

Copyright 2001, All Rights Reserved

Breast Cancer: One in Seven Women

Breast cancer will affect an average of one in seven women during their lifetime. If breast cancer is found early, most patients can be cured. Remember, your health comes first! Be sure to call today to schedule your screening mammogram.

Source: MUSC

Political Baptism by Fire: Mike Huckabee No Longer A Dark Horse

With national polls showing him (Mike Huckabee) surging to the front of the GOP race, the candidate who promotes himself in television ads as a "Christian leader" is undergoing a political baptism by fire.

His better-funded, better-known rival, Mitt Romney, this week began airing campaign ads in Iowa attacking Mr. Huckabee's political record. He's facing scrutiny over his past attitudes toward gays and common-law couples. And, on Wednesday, Mr. Huckabee faced accusations he had deliberately disparaged rival Romney's Mormon religion.

"I'm going to be a lot more careful about everything I say, because I find that it gets amplified to a new level," Mr. Huckabee quipped during a Republican all-candidates debate in Des Moines.

Indeed. In just the last week, the media entourage following Mr. Huckabee has tripled amid his transformation from dark horse candidate to legitimate Republican contender.

The new interest comes on the heels of an ABC News-Washington Post survey this week which found support for GOP frontrunner Rudy Giuliani had slipped to 25% support nationally, with Mr. Huckabee jumping into second place with 19%. Mr. Romney sits third at 17%.

HARD CLIMBING: Chris Sharma

Logical Fallacy: Confusion of Association With Causation

Confusing association with causation is similar to the post-hoc fallacy. This fallacy is often used to give a statistical correlation a causal interpretation. A corollary to this is the invocation of this logical fallacy to argue that an association does not represent causation; rather it is more accurate to say that correlation does not necessarily mean causation, but it can.

Also, multiple independent correlations can point reliably to a causation, and is a reasonable line of argument.

Robert Hawkins: Troubled Child

From ‘Troubled’ to ‘Killer,’ Despite Many Efforts
By ERIC KONIGSBERG
Published: December 8, 2007
Robert A. Hawkins made a five-year journey through a maze of juvenile services before killing eight people and himself in a mall.

Robert A. Hawkins, as a ward of the State of Nebraska, received extensive care at Cooper — private psychotherapy, family therapy, drug counseling — from 2003 to 2005...
“I’ve just snapped,” Mr. Hawkins wrote in one of two suicide notes the police released on Friday.
But his actions did not come without warning signs; nor were these signals ignored. The rampage appears to be not so much a case of a young man slipping through the cracks, as a tragedy in which measured vigilance ended up not being enough.

National Intelligence Estimate: Iran's Nuclear Capabilities

The actual press release...

Asian Neighbors: Who China Likes and Dislikes

S.Korea is China's Least Favorite Neighbor - Survey

Chinese people like South Korea the least of all of their neighbors, according to the results of a survey released Monday. It is unusual for South Korea to rank ahead of Japan as China's most unpopular neighbor.

In the survey of 12,000 Chinese people over the past four months by the International Herald Leader, a newspaper published by China's official Xinhua News Agency, 40.1 percent of respondents said they dislike South Korea the most. Japan came in second place with 30.2 percent of the vote. The most-liked neighbor was Pakistan with 13.2 percent followed by Russia and Japan, the newspaper said.

In September, market researcher Millward Brown surveyed 1,000 Korean adults on their favorite neighboring country. The majority -- 60.8 percent -- said the U.S. China ranked second with 44.0 percent followed by Russia with 41.4 percent and Japan with 35.6 percent.

'Impossible Requests'

With God, nothing is impossible.

I have two spoken and unspoken prayers; in other words, I have prayed both silently and openly at different times over the last four years.

The first is that my husband would stop running away from his obligations and ultimately from himself and from God.
The second is that my son would be cured.

Both are 'impossible' requests. Neither are likely to occur, or at least not in ways that I can imagine.

The first request was asked fervently in the first years after my husband announced he had 'given up' on me (turned out he was and is having an affair.) Now, when I pray for him, I don't want God to answer my original prayer: "oh please God, save my marriage."

If I am completely honest, the idea of taking my husband back into my home seems ridiculous. He would have to have CHANGED so much. Yes, something 'impossible': right? Right.

Seeing my son cured; now, this I see happening every day. I see my son growing up, yet people I trust continue to indicate to me that he will have an extremely difficult life despite his intelligence and his good looks. And as I watch him interact with other people, I can not help but feel my son is one of the loneliest people I have ever known. And it hurts beyond words. (It also hurts to face it alone without my other half, my husband of 27 years. There is nothing quite like being abandoned.)

'Impossible' for my son to be normal. Right? Right.

Yet, with God, nothing is impossible.

South Korean Oil Spill: 'The Government Needs To Pay'

Thousands of residents helped with the clean-up, saying there was nothing else to do now that tourism has died in a region famed for its sandy beaches. Fisheries ground to a halt.

Kim Soo-ha, 63, wept at her oyster farm as she held dead shellfish coated in tar.

"I sent my kids to college by making money from this," she said. "I don't know how I'm going to live. They say they can't do anything about it for the next 10 years."

Environmental groups say oil in the Taean seabed and the loss of food for aquatic species will cause damage to the ecosystem that will last for years.

Hotels in the region are vacant and several restaurants that catered to tourists posted signs in their windows reading: "The government needs to pay".

South Korea has declared the region a disaster area but initially freed up only a little over $6 million in aid. It has yet to give an estimate for the damage.

A maritime ministry official said the country lacked enough clean-up equipment and was ill prepared, Yonhap news agency said.

Matthew Murray and YWAM and NEW LIFE CHURCH: Overview Article at TIME

At Youth With A Mission,

Matthew Murray had reportedly been trying to ask for a place to stay, but when Johnson tried to refer him elsewhere, he shot her...
Murray, whose last known address was with his parents in Colorado's Arapahoe County, had apparently brought several smoke bombs with him to New Life. The police bomb squad was reportedly called into his parents' home during a search. Indeed, the police had searched the home of Murray's parents before the New Life incident occurred.

There are several connections between New Life and YWAM (pronounced Why-wham): the missionary training group rents office space at New Life and some of its young trainees attend the church. Murray was reportedly associated with the YWAM Arvada center in 2002. The two murdered sisters were also said to have frequented the same center.

Might there have been some known threat that affected both organizations? At New Life, the security guard who killed Murray had been stationed in the church's central Rotunda as part of an evacuation-and-defense plan that the church's head of security implemented when news of the YWAM shooting broke. But rather than indicating a deeper connection between YWAM and New Life, Boyd said that the enhanced security was simply a precaution. "That's the reality of our world," he said on Monday. "I don't think any of us grew up in churches where that was the reality, but today it is."

Two Parts of the Milky Way Galaxy Rotate Differently

Huge Newfound Part of Milky Way Rotates Backward
By Robert Roy Britt
Senior Science Writer

Our Milky Way Galaxy has two distinct parts in its outer reaches that rotate in opposite directions, astronomers announced today.

The galaxy has a bulbous core where stars are tightly packed and orbiting rather furiously around the central black hole. Then there's the big flat disk with its spiral arms, also orbiting the galactic center somewhat in the manner of a hurricane's spiral bands. We live on one of those arms. Around it all is a halo of stars that don't all behave in such an orderly fashion. That much researchers knew.

Now they find the halo has two parts.

"By examining the motions and chemical makeup of the stars, we can see that the inner and outer halos are quite different beasts and they probably formed in different ways at different times," said Daniela Carollo, a researcher at Italy's Torino Observatory and the Australian National University.

The finding, detailed in the Dec. 12 issue of the journal Nature, is based on 20,000 stars observed as part of the Sloan Digital Sky Survey.

Fighting Over Girl Results in Critical Wounding of Teenagers in Las Vegas

By RYAN NAKASHIMA and KATHLEEN HENNESSEY
LAS VEGAS - Assailants shot six young people Tuesday at a school bus stop, wounding two critically, in a midday attack that followed a fight over a girl, authorities said.

School police arrested three teenagers in the fight that happened hours before the shooting, Sheriff Doug Gillespie said. Investigators were still seeking two gunmen, who were believed to have fled on foot from the scene of the shooting, a working class neighborhood of northeast Las Vegas.

An 18-year-old man was in critical condition and a 17-year-old boy was upgraded to serious condition, both with gunshots to the torso, said Cheryl Persinger, a University Medical Center spokeswoman.

Four people, including at least two boys and a girl who are under 18, were treated for gunshot injuries to their arms and legs and released, she said. All four are students at Mojave High School who had just stepped off the bus, which was coming from the school, police said.

Matthew Murray Shot Himself After Being Taken Down by Jeanne Assam

An autopsy determined that Murray killed himself with a bullet to the head after he was brought down by gunfire from a volunteer security guard at the church, authorities said.

A Different Hamlet: 'Not To Be!'

Six Students Shot in Las Vegas

LAS VEGAS - While getting off their school bus in northeast Las Vegas, six students were shot .

The Las Vegas Review-Journal reported on its Web site that five of the victims were believed to be boys and the sixth was a girl. Two were in their late teens and the others are juveniles, the newspaper said.

Two of the wounded are in critical condition, according to police. Two shooters appear to be involved in the incident.

Spot Comments on 'God Is My Sharpshooter,' Statement by Assam

"Spot" writes:

Jeanne (Assam)... is the armed security guard at Ted Haggard's old church who killed—or at least winged pretty good—the Christian zealot turned anti-Christian zealot, Matthew Murray on Sunday last. Murray was going to be a missionary, but apparently he washed out late in the program, and he has harbored a, well, grudge, ever since:

"It appears that the suspect had been kicked out of the [missionary] program [affiliated with the church] three years prior and during the past few weeks had sent different forms of hate mail to the program and/or its director," police said.

Murray shot up the missionary training center earlier in the day.

But let's get back to Jeanne:

JA: O lord! Let me shoot straight!

HS: A little to the left, Jeanne.

It does sound like it was a good thing that Jeanne was a good shot, but how many of you, boys and girls, think that the Holy Spirit did the aiming? Michele, Katie, anybody else? And if you do, how much work would it have been for God to have stationed Jeanne out in the parking lot where two people were killed, or at the missionary training center earlier that day, where several people were shot and two were killed?

God seems like an arbitrary Fella, steadying Jeanne's aim but not protecting all of the other people who got shot. Spot guesses that they just didn't have time to pray, or they didn't pray hard enough. Sad, really.

Spot touches on the age-old problem of pain and evil in the world. Why does God allow it? Why doesn't He stop it? Why does He appear to stop one evil event while allowing another (such as the deaths of those two teenagers from the same family)? Spot seems to think God is just arbitrary (or perhaps does not even exist); that God ignores some and protects others based on prayer.

Prayer is not to change God's mind; it is designed I believe to change our mind. The prayer of Jeanne Assam did not, in my opinion, change God; it changed her. Her prayer allowed her to be in the moment, to be unafraid and focused on a task for which she had been trained, prepared. If Christians believed that God always intervenes, then why even prepare for hate crimes, mass shootings, ridiculous evil.

Putin Would Be Named Premier By His Successor: One Hand Washes the Other

Putin’s Chosen Successor Would Name Him Premier
By CLIFFORD J. LEVY
Published: December 12, 2007
If the scenario outlined by Dmitri A. Medvedev plays out, President Vladimir V. Putin would still wield power.

Rantings of Matthew Murray

Matthew Murray reportedly ranted prior to his attacks in Colorado at Youth With A Mission in Denver and New Life Church in Colorado Springs:

"You Christians brought this on yourselves," Murray reportedly wrote on a website for people who have left Pentecostal and fundamentalist religious organisations, shortly before the second of his two attacks.

"I'm coming for EVERYONE soon and I WILL be armed to the @#%$ teeth and I WILL shoot to kill. ... God, I can't wait till I can kill you people. Feel no remorse, no sense of shame, I don't care if I live or die in the shoot-out.

"All I want to do is kill and injure as many of you ... as I can especially Christians who are to blame for most of the problems in the world."

Source: KUSA TV

Matthew Murray, in these writings, sounds like a terrorist to me, a person motivated by hatred of others' religious beliefs. Someone who has decided that he has a right, perhaps even a responsibility to set himself above others. He sounds like someone who has put himself in the place of God, deciding who has the right to live and who must die.

The New Science of Food

Guerilla News Network presents a film exposing mega-corporations genetically engineering our foods not to increase yield, but to increase profits.

Ice Storm: One Million Without Power in the Midwest

DES MOINES, Iowa - A thick glaze of ice brought down power lines and cut electricity to nearly a million homes and business, closed schools and canceled flights Tuesday as a major storm blasted the nation’s midsection.

Officials estimated that nearly 1 million people were without power across the Midwest.

Matthew Murray Shot Himself In the Head

Judith Kohler writes:

COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo. - The man who killed four people at a church and missionary training center shot himself in the head and died after being hit by shots from a church security officer, police said Tuesday.

Matthew Murray, 24, was struck multiple times by a security officer at New Life Church Sunday, but his death was ruled a suicide, the El Paso County Coroner's Office concluded after an autopsy.

Murray shot himself in the head, said police Sgt. Skip Arms.

Volunteer security guard Jeanne Assam shot Murray after he entered the church. Though investigators had earlier suggested he killed himself, they credited Assam's bravery with averting a greater tragedy.

Account of Jeanne Assam's Response to Matthew Murray

Early on Sunday morning, Matthew Murray, 24, the home-schooled son of devoutly Christian parents, had shot and killed two people at the Youth With a Mission training center in a Denver suburb. Twelve hours later, police say, he drove to Colorado Springs and started shooting in the parking lot of the New Life church before walking inside the church building as a service was letting out, shooting as he went.

He took two more lives at the church. He was in the building when Bourbannais (a member of New Life Church who is a Vietnam veteran) arrived.

“I ran and heard the gunfire and it was roaring like thunder,” Bourbannais told Meredith Vieira (TODAY co-host).

He saw a male security guard with his gun drawn, but the guard was not firing at the Murray.

“I said, ‘Gimme your handgun. I’ve been in combat. I’m going to take this guy out,’ ” he said, adding he repeated the request four or five times, but the guard would not hand him the weapon.

Bourbannais was behind a pillar at the time, deciding what to do next.

“The only thing I could think to do was walk out from the pillar so the gunman would see me,” he said. “He was a man in black, but he sure wasn’t Johnny Cash.

“So I yelled, ‘Coward!’ stood out, and our eyes met and he lifted his rifle, fired, and I took a few fragments – very minor – in my left forearm.”

Bourbannais stepped behind the pillar again and repeated his demand that the security guard give him a gun so he could take the shooter out. When he got no response, Bourbannais stepped out from behind the pillar to confront Murray again.

At that point, another security guard, 42-year-old Jeanne Assam, arrived with her gun drawn. Unlike the male guard, she was using hers.

“They were engaged in a firefight. He was firing. She was firing,” Bourbannais said. “And she was completely exposed. I was in Vietnam for 14 months in combat, and it’s the bravest thing I’ve ever witnessed. She kept yelling, ‘Surrender,’ and returned fire the complete time.”

Bourbannais walked parallel to her toward Murray as Assam shot him.

“As he slumped down and his head tilted, I said to her, ‘That’s the calmest, bravest thing I‘ve ever seen. How did you do it?’ “ he said. “She said ‘I was praying and asking the Holy Spirit the entire time to guide me.’ ”

Vieira asked Bourbannais if he realized that he could have been killed.

“I figured my chances were 30 percent,” he said, as calm as if he were describing a trip to the corner store.

“It’s the grace of God,” he said. “Like Jeanne, we’re both followers of Christ. I want to give God the glory, because I’m convinced He spared us that day.”

Huckabee: A Wild-Eyed Tax and Spend Liberal?

WWTD (What would Toomey do?)
Posted on December 8, 2007 by nuke

Pat Toomey of the Club for Growth made headlines yesterday (December 7th) by announcing a major political advertising campaign, specifically targeting Republican voters in Iowa and South Carolina. His stated purpose? To attack Mike Huckabee.

Pulling out an old video which has been on the web for several weeks now, Toomey uses an out of context theme to try and persuade Republican voters that there is no kind of tax that Huckabee doesn’t like, that in fact, Huckabee is a wild-eyed, tax and spend liberal.

Beyond Imagining: Family Loses Two Daughters in Colorado Springs' Shooting

COLORADO SPRINGS, CO -- A family is grieving Monday after their two teenage girls were killed in Sunday's shooting spree at the New Life Church.

"I'm asking Colorado Springs and the country to please pray for that family this morning because they're going through a very difficult time," said Reverend Brady Boyd, the senior pastor at New Life Church.

Authorities say 18-year-old Stephanie Works and 16-year-old Rachael Works died from their injuries after a gunman opened fire outside New Life Church on Sunday.

Jeanne Assam: Security Guard at New Life Church

Security Guard at New Life Church of Colorado Springs, Colorado who confronted and shot Matthew Murray, the 24 year old shooter. Note in the following report that Assam and other volunteer security guards at the church are trained and licensed. Assam acknowledges God's help and presence, but she is not a vigilante.

Bea Karnes writes:

Assam said that it felt as if it was just she, the gunman and God in the church. "I give the credit to God. I say that very humbly," said Assam. "Because of the fire power he had versus what I had, (it) was God. I did not run away, and I didn't think for even a minute to run away. I just knew that I was given the assignment to end this before it got too much worse....My hands weren't even shaking."

Assam acknowledged that it was loud and scary. She repeated "so loud" three times during the news conference.

Assam is part of a security detail at the church that's licensed, trained and equipped with firearms. They're all church members who worship at one service, while being assigned to provide security at a different service. Assam didn't hesitate to shoot the gunman. "I just knew that I wasn't going to wait for him to do further damage," she said.

Bonnie Erbe's Huckabee: Still A Mystery

Bonnie Erbe wants to know how 'values voters' can tolerate Mike Huckabee, given his record as governor of Arkansas.

Mike Huckabee: 'Secure Our Borders; Do It Now'

Crater of Diamonds State Park: Searching for Gems

MURFREESBORO, Ark. - Denis Tyrrell was walking past a hole he'd filled in while searching for gems at Crater of Diamonds State Park, when he saw a sparkle. The 3.48-carat diamond turned out to the biggest... diamond Tyrrell had found in regular digs that he began in March...

Crater of Diamonds State Park, which opened in 1972, is the world's only diamond-producing site open to the public. Visitors can keep the gems they unearth. The largest diamond found at the park was the 16.37-carat Amarillo Starlight, a white diamond found by a Texas visitor in 1975.

(Denis) Tyrrell said that when he found the diamond he first cleaned it, then put it in his mouth, "under my tongue." Then he headed for the visitors center.

"They always know when I'm coming with something," he said. "It was a very exciting day."

An Impossible Task: Oil Spill Clean-Up of South Korean Beaches

South Korean beaches declared a disaster area; despite many individuals working around the clock, the clean-up appears to be an impossible task.

Ice Storm in Missouri

Mike Gullett

Red pick-up truck under tree laden with ice. December 9, 2007 in Joplin, Missouri.

Another Young Murderer: Matthew Murray Identified As Colorado Killer

JUDITH KOHLER writes:

COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo. - The gunman believed to have killed four people at a megachurch and a missionary training school had been thrown out of the school a few years ago and had been sending it hate mail, police said in court papers Monday.

The gunman was identified as Matthew Murray, 24, who was home-schooled in what a friend said was a deeply religious Christian household. Murray's father is a neurologist and a leading multiple-sclerosis researcher.

Five people — including Murray — were killed, and five others wounded Sunday in the two eruptions of violence 12 hours and 65 miles apart.

Millionaires Have Simple Lifestyles

Janet Luhrs writes re: retirement:

Millionaires (are) not born wealthy, nor do most of them have high-level, exotic jobs. What they do have are simple lifestyles.

It's the simple lifestyles, not the big paychecks, that turned these people into millionaires...Their wealth is the result of hard work, perseverance, planning and most of all, self-discipline.

Area Map of South Korean Oil Spill

"The oil stuck to the shore or sank to the sea bottom, causing serious damage to the maritime biology and ecosystem in the region,” Mr. Kang said. “Even if some maritime organisms survive, they won’t be marketable for quite a while.”

Coast guard vessels hurried to establish floating oil fences, but high waves left them useless. Offshore, 105 coast guard, navy and private fishing boats were throwing absorbing cloth and spraying chemicals, as oil continued to zigzag toward the shore, where people wearing rubber gloves and masks spread out with mats to absorb oil.

“All day, people have been scrubbing boulders coated with oil and scooping up sand soaked with oil,” said Lee Hyun-jin, a resident in the village of Sowon in Taean. “But now they are retreating because the sea is in high tide again. We feel hopelessly outnumbered.”

NY TIMES

An Armed Guard Kills Colorado Gunman

COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo. - A hospital official said early Monday that a second victim of a gunman's shooting spree at New Life Church has died, bringing the death toll from both Colorado attacks to five.

Earlier, a gunman shot four staff members at a missionary training center near Denver, killing two, after being told he could not spend the night. About 12 hours later and 65 miles (105 kilometers) away, a gunman shot parishioners at a megachurch before a guard killed him, police said.

A guard killed the gunman; now this is the person who should be carrying a gun openly...

'Oh Obama, You Are So'...'Oh, Oprah, So Are You'

Funny stuff...

Speaking of Guns

Opposite Reactions: Pro Gun Carrying vs. Gun Control

An "Eye-Witness" of Robert Hawkins shooting in the shopping mall, writes:

This part of the story may be removed later, but I will have it here for now.

I do not have a Concealed Handgun Permit. I have completed the training class, but I keep putting off applying for the permit because I think it is useless. In the places I would need a gun most, I am not allowed to have it. I will not be a person living in fear and not go to Van Maur because they don’t allow guns.

My point that Open Carry needs to be easier in Omaha, and places like Westroads need to take down their “no guns” signs.

If I had my gun deeply concealed, I wouldn’t have been able to draw it very fast. However, If I had open carried, I could of drawn instantly.

Either way though, I could have drawn and taken a clean shot. However, in both cases, regardless of the laws, I am not allowed to carry a gun at all in Westroads Mall. If the laws did not oppress my rights, I would carry a gun most places (except work). I would certainly have had it in the mall as mall shootings have been on my mind since the incident at a mall involving a shotgun back in February.

My wife is somewhat cautious about guns as is my sister-in-law. After this event, both are now pro-guns. In addition, I will never again be caught without a gun.

Off the top of my head, this gentleman (who amazingly survived being within a fairly close distance of shooter, Robert Hawkins at the mall in Nebraska) makes me imagine the 'wild West' where everyone was armed openly everywhere... in the streets, in the saloons, in the hotels, perhaps even in the churches (?)!

I can't imagine that this sort of open gun carrying would make any of us safer. It seems to me that if we all carried guns, then any time we felt threatened, we would be faced with the awful decision: do I shoot this person or wait? If I shoot this person, will that fellow over there (who is also packing a gun openly) know why I took the shot? Or will that person draw his or her handgun and shoot me? Goodness, just about everyone around me at that particular moment might draw his or her gun and shoot me!

As for me, I think I lean towards gun control, not open gun toting.

The KEY question is: How did this 19 year old get an AK-47?

Huckabee on Iran

Mike Huckabee on Iran:

"We have to be as diplomatically aggressive as we have been militarily aggressive since 9/11. We need to intensify our diplomatic efforts with Europe, Russia, China, South Korea, and India to put more economic pressures on Iran. ... To show how seriously we take the Iranian threat here at home, we need to encourage the burgeoning movement of our states and private entities like the Teamsters, to divest their pension funds of Iranian-related assets. ... We haven't had diplomatic relationships with Iran in almost 30 years, most of my entire adult life, and a lot of good it's done. Putting this in human terms, all of us know that when we stop talking to a parent, or a sibling, or even a friend, it's impossible to resolve the differences to move that relationship forward. Well, the same is true for countries."

Logical Fallacy: Argument From Personal Incredulity

Argument from Personal Incredulity Since I cannot personally explain or understand, it cannot be true.

Obama: Oprah Says He Should Not 'Wait His Turn'

Katharine Q. Seelye writes:

The Double O Express — Oprah for Obama — drew what is easily the biggest crowd at a campaign event, for any candidate, so far this season. It may have helped that the day was unseasonably warm, above 70 degrees, and gorgeously sunny. But this size crowd is rare even for a general election in the fall. This event, which was moved to the University of South Carolina’s football stadium to accommodate everyone who wanted to come, drew mostly African-Americans and, it seemed, more women than men.

About half of the state’s Democratic primary voters are black, and more than half of them are women. So Oprah certainly seems to have reached the intended audience, one who will be pivotal to the primary.

And she knew her audience. From the moment she stepped on stage — to Aretha Franklin’s “Think” — she established a connection. Referring to her upbringing in Mississippi and Tennessee, she said: “I know something about growing up in the South and know about what it means to come from the South and be born in 1954.”

She did not spell out that 1954 was the year of the landmark Supreme Court decision in Brown vs. Board of Education that desegregated the public schools, but it is a year with resonance in American racial history.

Nor did she explicitly acknowledge that she was addressing a largely black audience about a black candidate... “It’s just amazing grace that I get to stand here on this South Carolina stage to talk about the man who’s going to be the next president of the United States,” she said. Mr. Obama, she said, “speaks to the potential inside every one of us.”

Oprah noted that some say Mr. Obama should “wait his turn.” But, she said, “I wouldn’t be where I am if I waited on the people who told me it couldn’t be.” The audience erupted with applause.

Remembering John Lennon: Freedom Eden

FREEDOM EDEN: IT WAS 27 YEARS AGO TODAY

Arrested Under Suspicion: Online Killing Rampage Threat

LOS ANGELES - Los Angeles police arrested a 21-year-old Loyola Marymount University student in connection with an online threat to shoot people on campus, officials said Saturday.

Police arrested Carlos Huerta, a senior at Loyola, for investigation of making criminal threats. Huerta was taken into custody on Saturday night near his apartment on campus.

Huerta is suspected of posting a message that he would shoot and kill as many people as possible on campus before being killed himself by police, authorities said.

Colorado Springs' Church Parking Lot Shootings

COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo. - A gunman opened fire in the parking lot of a Colorado Springs church on Sunday, striking four people, the church's pastor said.

The conditions of the people shot outside the New Life Church were not known, El Paso County Sheriff's Lt. Lari Sevene said.

Lance Coles, a pastor at New Life Church, told The Associated Press he received a report that a man was shooting at people in the church parking lot and that the gunman may have entered the church.

It was not immediately known whether the shootings were related to an earlier shooting about 70 miles away in the Denver suburb of Arvada. There, two people died and two were wounded early Sunday when a gunman opened fire in a dormitory at a missionary training center on the campus of Faith Bible Chapel.

'Small But Tough': Banned Volkswagen Commercial

'I Think We Are Finished': Oil Clean-Up in South Korea Virtually Impossible

By Sunday (today), it became clear to local residents that they were battling an environmental disaster. The tidal flats near the county of Taean, about 150 kilometers southwest of Seoul, are home to rich wildlife, oyster and fish farms, and a national park. Each year, millions of tourists flock there to bathe in the summer or watch winter migrating birds stopping to feed in the muddy flats teeming with clams.

“Everyone is out there fighting. There is so much oil we have to use buckets to scoop it up,” Moon Hong Chol, a resident in Wonbuk village in Taean, said by telephone. “The dark brown slime is all over our oyster and abalone and clam beds. Tourists are canceling resort reservations. I think we are finished.”

Two Dead in Denver by Unknown Gunman

Early Sunday (December 9th) a gunman entered Youth With A Mission center dormitory and opened fire, murdering two staff members: Tiffany Johnson, 26, and Philip Crouse, 23. The other two were wounded; one is in critical condition; the other stable.

The gunman was apparently a 20-year-old white male, wearing a jacket and cap, possibly sporting a beard and wearing eyeglasses. He has not been apprehended.

Mike Huckabee Denies Involvement in Release of Rapist

By MICHAEL LUO

As new polls highlight Mike Huckabee’s ascent in the Republican presidential field, he is drawing new scrutiny of his record in Arkansas, particularly his actions in the release of a convicted rapist who went on to murder a woman and his response to a questionnaire in which he said people with AIDS should be quarantined.

Former Gov. Mike Huckabee of Arkansas has denied having any involvement in the release of Wayne DuMond, a rapist. Two former parole board members in Arkansas said yesterday that as governor, Mr. Huckabee met with the board in 1996 to lobby them to release the convicted rapist, Wayne DuMond, whose case was championed by evangelical Christians.

“He expressed his concerns about DuMond’s guilt,” said Deborah Suttlar, a former parole board member. “He felt he deserved to be released.”

Mr. DuMond went on to murder a Missouri woman after his parole. He died in prison of natural causes in 2005.

Mr. Huckabee, a former Southern Baptist pastor, has denied that he had any involvement in Mr. DuMond’s release, pointing out that he had refused to commute the sentence and that the parole board freed him. But The Los Angeles Times reported yesterday that three of the seven members of the parole board said Mr. Huckabee had pressured them, echoing earlier reporting by The Arkansas Times and other local news media.

Bleak Speculation: Broke in Retirement in America

Scott Burns bleakly writes about retirement:

Several years ago a Dallas couple approaching retirement disappeared. Well-known on the charitable-event circuit, the couple were in Dallas one day and gone the next. Phone disconnected. No forwarding address. No working cell-phone number.

Eventually, word spread that they were somewhere in Mexico. They had sold whatever they owned, packed their car and headed for the border. They were, conflicting reports said, living in small towns, the kind of places seldom featured in travel magazines.

We can only speculate on what happened. I think they were broke, had little or nothing in savings and knew they had to make a major change to survive on their Social Security income and minimal savings. Like millions of other Americans, their ship never came in. They got older. Work became harder to find. Suddenly, they realized their life was entirely unsustainable. They were heading toward a cliff.

They had to do something radical. Like live in an RV. Or leave the country.

Scott Burns has a bleak view of Americans' future, i.e. retirement from the world of work. Bleak if you agree that having to change one's lifestyle is unacceptable. I think we forget how many people have to change lifestyles in order to survive. People change lifestyles to survive unexpected pregnancy, failure to graduate from high school, college, graduate school, unexpected loss of health or job, separation and divorce.

Should these people also leave the United States? I wonder if Scott Burns would agree.

Denver Shooting at Youth Missionary Training Center

DENVER - A gunman walked into a training center for young Christian missionaries in a Denver suburb early Sunday and opened fire, wounding at least four people.

The shooting happened at about 12:30 a.m. on Sunday at the Youth With a Mission center, Arvada Police spokeswoman Susan Medina said.

The extent of the injuries was not clear, and the gunman was still at large Sunday morning.

According to its Web site, Youth With a Mission has about 1,000 locations worldwide and trains people to become missionaries. About 50 people were inside the Arvada site when the gunman opened fire.

Another Logical Fallacy: Argument from Final Consequences

Argument from final consequences (teleological) - an argument based on a reversal of cause and effect: that something is caused by the ultimate effect that it has, or by the purpose it serves.

Mickey Wells: Stations of the Cross (Metal Statues of Jesus)

Oil Spill South of Seoul, South Korea Stinks

About 70 boats and six helicopters were sent...to help the clean-up as hundreds of soldiers, coast guards, police and local residents used buckets to remove dense crude oil from Mallipo, one of South Korea's best-known and most popular beaches.

Residents said the oil could be smelt more than half a mile inland, as the slick contaminated four miles of shoreline.

"This is an enormous accident … the smell is so strong that it causes a headache," said Lee Hee-yol, a village leader at Mallipo. "We've asked the government to declare this region as a disaster zone."

The area, about 95 miles south-west of the capital, Seoul, is also the site of farms that produce abalone, seaweed, clams and sea cucumbers and the spill is likely to affect at least 4,000 fishermen. It is also home to a national maritime park and is an important sanctuary for migrating birds, including snipe, mallards and great crested grebes.

Flash and Aftermath of Dropping the Atomic Bomb on Hiroshima

Tim Tebow Takes the Heisman

Associated Press
Tim Tebow is the first sophomore to win the Heisman Trophy.
Tebow this season became the first "20-20" player in Division I-A football history: He both ran and threw for at least 20 touchdowns. He finished the regular season with 3,132 passing yards and 29 touchdowns (against six interceptions), and he also ran for 838 yards and 22 touchdowns.

His 51 total touchdowns were more than 87 Division I-A teams.

Tebow received the most votes from a nationwide panel and is the first Southeastern Conference player to win the award since Florida quarterback Danny Wuerffel in 1996. Tebow also is the first player to win it whose team is not playing for the national title since USC quarterback Carson Palmer in 2002.

Dinosaur Demise

Digging Up a Dinosaur Graveyard

Memorial Fund for Victims of Shopping Mall Massacre

The Von Maur company, which operates stores across the Midwest, said it had established a memorial fund with the local United Way for the shooting victims and their families and invited public contributions. It also said it was helping families of the eight victims with funeral arrangements and grief counseling.

Police said Hawkins, 19, of nearby Bellevue, fired more than 30 rounds inside the crowded mall, striking 11 people. Six died where they fell, one died on the way to a hospital and another died despite 45 minutes of emergency treatment at another hospital.

Three other people were wounded, two seriously.

Medieval and Profoundly Catholic View of God and How the World Works

Ric Caric writes:

...Huckabee believes that God is putting his chips squarely on the Huckabee square.

But why?

Huckabee has a very medieval and profoundly Catholic concept of how the world works. He believes that "literally thousands of people are praying" on behalf of his campaign and that their intercession with God has resulted in God favoring his campaign and supporting him.

What about the other Republican candidates like Rudy Giuliani, Fred Thompson, Mitt Romney, John McCain, and Ron Paul?

It follows from Huckabee's views that God must not only be ignoring the candidacies of the other Republicans, God must actively be working against them. Perhaps Huckabee thinks that God hates most Republicans even though he favors Huckabee. There's nothing to object to in the first part of that statement. Given that the Christian god disdains wealth, insists that people love their enemies, and values the poor, depressed, and suffering over the happy and secure, it should be obvious that God hates the Republicans.

The only question is whether God is making an exception for Huckabee or not.

I don't think so myself. If God is doing anything, he's favoring Huckabee as the weakest and weirdest Republican candidate for the general election and thus ensuring that the Republican Party as a whole is going to lose.

In other words, Huckabee's rise is solid proof that God loves Hillary

Troubling Choice: Freedom or Security

(Associated Press) OMAHA, Neb. - An Amish schoolhouse. A college classroom building, bustling with students and professors. An upscale department store at a mall, decked with holiday trimmings.

In recent years, massacres have occurred in the most benign settings, confronting Americans with a troubling choice: move toward airport-style security in a wide range of public places or fatalistically accept the slim chance that tragedy could strike anywhere in a free society.

Massacres are unlikely events; and Americans must not give up freedoms in order to remain secure. Security is actually an illusion. Just as a lock on a front door will not keep a burglar from entering one's home, neither will security guards and gates keep us safe from random acts of violence in public places.

If we succumb to fear, then we will lose. And, the terrorists, the crazies will win.

'A Sea of Oil': 2.7 Million Gallons Threaten South Korea

By JAE-SOON CHANG, Associated Press Writer

MALLIPO BEACH, South Korea - Residents and emergency workers used buckets to remove dense crude oil from South Korea's western shore as the Coast Guard struggled in high waves and strong winds to contain the country's largest oil spill Saturday.

The oil was reaching scenic and ecologically sensitive areas. At Mallipo — one of South Korea's best-known beaches — tides of dark sea water crashed ashore, while the odor could be smelled a half-mile away. Hundreds of troops, police and residents were engaged in cleanup efforts there.

Oil was still trickling out of the tanker hit Friday, but Kim Woon-tae, a Coast Guard official, said the last of three holes would soon be sealed completely. The Coast Guard headquarters had said Friday that all three punctured containers on the tanker were plugged.

The region is popular for its scenic beaches and is also the site of fish farms, a national maritime park and is an important rest stop for migrating birds.

Mallipo, about 95 miles southwest of Seoul, is one of the hardest-hit areas in the oil spill, which occurred Friday when a barge carrying a crane slammed into the supertanker, causing it to release 2.7 million gallons of oil into the ocean.

The spill involved about twice as much oil as the country's previous largest in 1995.

The oil reached shore Saturday morning, contaminating about 4 miles of coastline, said Jung Se-hi, a spokesman at the Coast Guard headquarters in Incheon. Strong winds and prevailing currents spread the oil slick overnight to an area about 1 mile wide and 10 miles in length, he said.

Environmental activists expressed anguish over the situation.

"It's helpless," said Lee Pyong-gook, an activist with the Korean Federation for Environmental Movement. "It's a sea of oil."

Lee said the region is a major stopover for migratory snipe. "It was fortunate that those birds have yet to arrive," he said, adding however, that some seagulls had been tarred by oil.

The Coast Guard sent 67 vessels and six helicopters to the site Saturday in an effort to clean up the spill, said Kim Woon-tae, a Coast Guard official who is stationed in the region.

"We're doing our best to remove the contamination as quickly as possible, but it will take some time to clean up the shore because it needs to be done by hand," said Kim, who is stationed in the region. Kim also said it was difficult to predict how long it will take to remove oil from the sea.

The size of the leak reported by the authorities would be about one-fourth that of the 260,000 barrels, or 11 million gallons, of oil spilled into Alaska's Prince William Sound by the Exxon Valdez in 1989.

The tanker, the Hebei Spirit, and the other vessel, owned by South Korea's Samsung Corp., were in no danger of sinking, the Coast Guard said. There were no casualties in the accident.

The tanker was at anchor, around 7 miles from Mallipo, and carrying about 260,000 tons of crude oil — about 1.8 million barrels — to be loaded into boats from a nearby port when it was hit by the South Korean barge, said Kim Tae-ho, another Coast Guard official.

The barge, which was being towed from a construction site by a small tug boat, lost control after a wire linking it to the tug was cut due to high winds, waves and currents, he said.

Kim said the Coast Guard planned to question the barge's captain as to why he was sailing through the area despite the stormy weather.

__

Associated Press writer Jae-Soon Chang in Seoul contributed to this report.

Occupational Therapist's Idea: Use the Wii in Stroke Rehabilitation

Stroke victim uses Nintendo console to rehabilitate

By Reuters

LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - Franklin Perry used to spend hours performing video game feats with his thumbs but lately he has been using the Nintendo Wii, and the rest of his body, to regain his strength after suffering a stroke.

The 51-year-old, who had a stroke about three weeks ago, has been working hard to rebuild the muscles in his immobilized right side at Ohio State University Medical Center's Dodd Hall Rehabilitation Hospital in Columbus.

"I'm just now getting some movement back," said Perry, who before entering the center logged his game time at on a Sony PlayStation 2 home console or in shopping mall arcades.

Robbie Winget, an occupational therapist who oversees use of the Wii at Dodd Hall, said news that a rehab hospital in Alberta, Canada, was using the popular new video game system sparked the idea.

'I Just Want to Take A Few Pieces of (expletive) With Me"

OMAHA, Neb. - As police released surveillance images of a shaggy-haired, bespectacled Robert Hawkins taking aim at holiday shoppers, more details were revealed Friday about the teenager's suicide note, in which he wrote that he "just snapped."

“I know everyone will remember me as some sort of monster, but please understand that I just don’t want to be a burden on the ones that I care for my entire life,” he wrote. “I just want to take a few pieces of (expletive) with me.”

The 19-year-old gunman left the note at the suburban house where he lived Wednesday before going to Omaha’s Westroads Mall with an AK-47 and opening fire on the midday holiday shopping crowd, fatally shooting eight people at the Von Maur store before turning the gun on himself.

Associated Press

40,000 Christmas Lights Dancing in Florida

Huckabee Claims a Higher Power Drives His Rise

Amazing DNA: Animation of Chromosome Formation and Duplication

Argument from Authority: Another Logical Fallacy

Argument from authority Stating that a claim is true because a person or group of perceived authority says it is true (implied by the many years of experience.) But the truth of a claim should ultimately rest on logic and evidence, not the authority of the person promoting it.

Tyler Cowen's "The New Invisible Competitors"

In THE WILSON QUARTERLY, Autumn 2007 issue, Tyler Cowen writes of "The New Invisible Competitors." Cowen starts by giving us an example of 'romantic competition' as it existed in the 1930s, telling us that "most romantic competition occurred within small groups of people who knew one another." Because of this closeness, "romance was full of heartbreak and anxiety" but the upside was "you knew who your rivals were and who was beating you."

Now, however, "romantic competition has radically changed." Competitors are no longer the neighbors but remain "invisible, the rivals faceless." The romantic competitors are invisible because they are often rivals via internet dating services. And this sort of competition is now true in the marketplace as well as the bedroom.

The invisibility of the competitor makes us anxious, contends Cowen, and this anxiety "feeds the backlash against international trade" (despite economists assuring Americans that the "benefits of trade outweigh the costs.")

Cowen says, "Let's look at individuals." The most likely individual to gain "in this new world" of invisible competition is the person who is a planner "far in advance" and who is also a self-starter, not needing others to prod him or her into action. The planner's "underlying psychology" is not to "trounce the competition," but to order his or her "own reality."

"Early risers will also be favored." This is the person who is "first to use a new idea" and is often a "farsighted innovator."

"Nervous personality types...may also catch a break," writes Cowen. "As more and more people find themselves able to minimize personal contact by working via the Internet, the smart but anxious set will move to a more level playing field."

But, the person with imagination will gain the most in this new world of invisible competition. This person is "blessed with the ability to imagine a new way..."

Finally, the person who can reinvent him or herself due to understanding the "popular culture" of the time and how it is changing will do well in this new world of invisible competition.

Cowen states that "the rise of invisible competition has implications for nations," too. "The rest of the world often sees the United States as the deadliest source of invisible competition." This is due to Americans having a competitive spirit, a strong Protestant work-ethic, and a pioneering mindset.

Chris Buck (photo credit)

Solve Any Problem: Make a List of 100

The List of 100 is a powerful technique you can use to generate ideas, clarify your thoughts, uncover hidden problems or get solutions to any specific questions you’re interested in.

The technique is very simple in principle: state your issue or question in the top of a blank sheet of paper and come up with a list of one hundred answers or solutions about it.

Huckabee is 2nd in GOP Race

Alan Fram writes:

WASHINGTON - Mike Huckabee has vaulted from nowhere into second place in the Republican presidential race, riding a burst of support from evangelicals, Southerners and conservatives, a nationwide poll showed Friday.

The surge by the former Arkansas governor has come largely at the expense of Fred Thompson, according to the national survey by The Associated Press and Ipsos. Thompson has dropped after failing to galvanize the party's right-wing core as much as some had expected.

Rudy Giuliani remains the front-runner, yet while his support long has been steady it shows signs of fraying. Huckabee's growing strength in the South has come as the former New York mayor's support there has dropped, the poll found.

"Why not me?" Huckabee said in an interview Thursday. "I meet all the criteria. I'm conservative, but I think I appeal to a broader set of voters. And I think that people are also looking for someone with whom they can identify."

Suicide Bombings in Diyala Province, Iraq

Robert H. Reid of the Associated Press writes:

BAGHDAD - A woman with explosives strapped to her body attacked the office of a Sunni group that had turned against al-Qaida in Iraq — one of two suicide bombings in Diyala province northeast of Baghdad that left at least 22 people dead Friday.

An Iraqi official claimed the woman was seeking revenge for her two sons who were killed fighting for al-Qaida.

The two brazen attacks were the latest in a series of al-Qaida assaults against members of the new "awakening groups" — mostly Sunnis including former insurgents who have begun cooperating with the Americans to rid their communities of extremists.

Computer Crash via Cat

House with 40,000 Christmas Lights Dancing to Music

You may need to hunt this video down in WCCO's video library, but this video is worth a bit of hunting...

Enjoy!

"Whee" Say Seniors for Nintendo's Wii

Six seniors at the Sedgebrook retirement community gathered in the lounge after dinner last year as the holiday season was getting under way. The center's residents were an unlikely test audience for the season's hottest toys. The plan: determine which toys their grandchildren might like.

The assumption was that they'd give their grandchildren the toys they approved. But it didn't quite turn out that way. The Nintendo Wii was so popular that the residents clamored for their own.

Today, each of the Erickson chain's retirement communities, including Sedgebrook, outside Chicago, owns at least one Wii.

Other retirement communities and municipal senior centers in recent months have followed, many using wellness grants and public funds to pay for the video-game system. The Wii retails for about $250.

Proponents say the Wii offers a welcome reprieve from a sedentary lifestyle

Christian Science Monitor