LeesburgFLAtheist (from YouTube):
I hate that, because now all the Christians will jump on the band wagon to say this proves God exist. No it doesn't. The robber just happen to have a guilty conscience and was not a regular criminal. He was desperate to get money to pay his rent, he had a little girl. He had been in the military, and had, prior to this been an honest working man. He was not a regular street thug. So there was NO MIRACLE prayer from God Being answered. [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FYCjiDLPZz0]
I agree with LeesburgFLAtheist's comment; it has nothing to do with creationism, faith nor religion; it is just a retrieval of the robber's guilty feeling.
Month: October 2009
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The Power Of Prayer?
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You may ask how to prevent Alzheimer’s Disease
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Alzheimer's disease is still destroying people's brains. The cause remains unknown. Around the world, there will be walks to raise money for medical research. Training courses and educational meetings also are planned.
An estimated thirty million people around the world have Alzheimer's disease. In the United States alone, more than five million people are said to suffer from this slowly increasing brain disorder.
Alzheimer's affects memory and personality -- those qualities that make a person an individual. There is no known cure. Victims slowly lose their abilities to deal with everyday life. At first, they forget simple things, like where they put something or a person's name. As time passes, they forget more and more. They forget the names of their husbands, wives or children. Then they forget who they are. Finally, they remember almost nothing. It is as if their brain dies before the other parts of the body. Victims of Alzheimer's do die from its effects or conditions linked to it. But death may not come for many years.
Alzheimer's disease is the most common disability or mental sickness called dementia. Dementia is the loss of thinking ability that is severe enough to interfere with daily activities. It is not a disease itself. Instead, dementia is a group of signs of some conditions and diseases.
Some kinds of dementia can be cured or corrected. This is especially true if they result from drugs, infection, sight or hearing problems, head injury, and heart or lung problems. Other kinds of dementia can be corrected by changing levels of hormones or vitamins in the body. However, brain cells of Alzheimer's victims die and are not replaced.
Victims can become angry and violent as the ability to think and remember decreases. They sometimes shout and move with no purpose or goal. Media reports tell about older adults found walking in places far from their homes. They do not know where they are or where they came from. These people often are suffering from Alzheimer's disease.
Alzheimer's generally develops differently in each person. Yet some early signs of the disease are common. The victims may not recognize changes in themselves. Others see the changes and struggle to hide them.
Probably the most common early sign is short-term memory loss. The victim cannot remember something that happened yesterday, for example. Also, victims of the disease have increasing difficulty learning and storing new information. Slowly, thinking becomes much more difficult. The victims cannot understand a joke, or cannot cook a meal, or perform simple work.
Another sign of the disease is difficulty solving simple problems. Alzheimer's patients might not know what to do if food on a stove is burning. Also, people have trouble following directions or finding their way to places they have known all their lives.
Yet another sign is struggling to find the right words to express thoughts or understand what is being discussed. Finally, people with Alzheimer's seem to change. Quiet people may become noisy and aggressive. They may easily become angry and lose their ability to trust others.
Alzheimer's disease normally affects people more than sixty-five years old. But rare cases have been discovered in people younger than fifty.
Alzheimer's is identified in only about two percent of people who are sixty-five. But the risk increases to about twenty percent by age eighty. By eighty five or ninety, half of all people are found to have some signs of the disease.
Alzheimer's affects people of all races equally. Yet women are more likely to develop the disease than men. This is partly because women generally live longer than men.
There is no one, simple test to show if someone has Alzheimer's disease. Social workers and mental health experts sometimes test for memory and judgment. Patients may be asked to identify smells like smoke, natural gas or fruits. Some scientists say a weakened ability to identify smells may be involved. They believe it might show possible development of Alzheimer's.
Doctors who suspect a patient has Alzheimer's must test the person for many other physical problems first. Alzheimer's is considered if the tests fail to show the existence of other problems. The only way to be sure a person has Alzheimer's is to examine the victim's brain after death.
People who care for Alzheimer's patients may become extremely tired physically and emotionally. Families often can get advice and emotional support from local groups. The Alzheimer's Disease Education and Referral Center and the Alzheimer's Association provide information and support. Patients cannot fully recover from the disease. But many can be helped by medicine. That is especially true if the disease is found early.
America's Food and Drug Administration has approved several drugs to treat symptoms of the disease. The drugs are of two kinds. A doctor must order these medicines for patients. Most are called cholinesterase inhibitors.
Cholinesterase inhibitors may work by protecting a chemical messenger needed for brain activities. They are meant to treat memory, thinking, language, judgment and other brain activity. They are used for mild to moderate cases of the disease.
The second kind of drug has a long name. It is represented by the drug memantine. This medicine seems to work by governing the activity of a chemical involved in information processing, storage and memory. It treats patients with moderate to severe Alzheimer's.
The British writer Iris Murdoch died of Alzheimer's disease. She said it was a dark and terrible place. The two thousand-seven film "Away From Her" tells what happens to one marriage when a partner suffers from the disease. Julie Christie was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Actress for playing the patient. Listen as she describes the pain of her mental condition.
It has been more than a century since a German doctor, Alois Alzheimer, told about a dementia patient whose brain was studied after death. Her brain had sticky structures and nerve cells that appeared to be mixed together. Later studies showed these nerves are made of a protein that changes so it sticks together in groups. The sticky structures were shown to be amyloid plaques.
Scientists are still not sure what causes Alzheimer's disease. The leading theory blames amyloid plaques. Still, a theory exists that amyloid plaques are an effect of the disease, not the cause.
Work continues on possible genetic causes. This month, two teams of European researchers said they identified new genetic markers linked to Alzheimer's disease. The teams worked separately. Their findings were reported in the journal Nature Genetics.
The newly-found genetic markers may affect a person's risk of developing Alzheimer's. Until now, only four genes had been linked with the disease. They provided a better understanding of the disease process, but no immediate treatment.
Many more studies are being done to find the causes and treatment of Alzheimer's.
You may ask how to prevent Alzheimer’s Disease or dementia. Here are some recent findings:
Dr. Robyn A. Honea at the University of Kansas found that patients with early Alzheimer's disease who exercised regularly had less deterioration in the areas of the brain which control memory. [1]
The researchers found that patients with early Alzheimer's had a "significant relationship" between the size of hippocampus, unlike healthy older adults. Those patients with better fitness ratings had less brain tissue atrophy and those with worse fitness had more brain damage. [1]
Dr Jeffrey Burns, from the University of Kansas School of Medicine, said, "People with early Alzheimer's disease may be able to preserve their brain function for a longer period of time by exercising regularly and potentially reducing the amount of brain volume lost. Evidence shows decreasing brain volume is tied to poorer cognitive performance, so preserving more brain volume may translate into better cognitive performance." [2]
Men and women living with a partner in mid-life are less likely to develop Alzheimer’s disease and other forms of age-related dementia. Previous studies have proven that an active lifestyle that includes a spouse or life partner is generally more socially and intellectually stimulating than a solitary lifestyle.
A study shows that people with a spouse or partner in mid-life are 50% less likely to develop age-related dementia than people alone in mid-life. Death of a spouse or partner before middle age seemed to have the most serious consequences where Alzheimer’s disease and dementia are concerned. [3]
Live Long and Prosper!
SOURCE: Barbara Klein Jerilyn Watson Brianna Blake Bob Doughty Alzheimer's Disease: Into the World's Most Common Form of Dementia Voice of America 14 September 2009 [1] Study: Exercise slows Alzheimer's brain atrophy AP July 28 2008- [2] Exercise 'slows down Alzheimer's' BBC 14 July 2008 [3] Life With a Partner Minimizes Alzheimer’s Risk By MedHeadlines • Aug 2nd, 2008 • Category: Alzheimer's Disease, Lifestyle, Medical Research, Neurology
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Festival on the Square
Festival on the Square takes place on Saturday, October 17, 2009, from 1-4pm at Portsmouth Square in Chinatown. Festival goers are encouraged to take public transportation or use Chinatown Park & Ride.
Stage Performances include:
[1] Leung’s White Crane Dragon and Lion Dance Association
Fueled by a lifelong passion in the ancient art form of lion dance and martial arts, three brothers — Kuen, Kwan, and Allen Leung — established a struggling school in Oakland in 1971.
[2] Youth Speaks
Founded in 1996, Youth Speaks is the leading nonprofit presenter of Spoken Word performance, education, and youth development programs in the country.
[3] De La Femme
The ladies of De La Femme represent the fierce, feminine side of the Funkanometry San Francisco Umbrella, aka the Funkbrella.
[4] Magic of Chin-Chin
Chin-Chin, a San Francisco native, has been performing magic since the age of 7, when he was entertained by a magician at the hospital after having surgery on a cleft palate. He soon became a prodigy magician and has become the most awarded magician in the Bay Area.
[5] Chinatown Alleyway Tours and Scavenger Hunt
Chinatown Alleyway Tours (CATs) will take you off the main streets to learn about the daily culture, rich history and modern day issues of San Francisco’s Chinatown.
If you are in the Bay Area, go and attend this activity!!!
Festival organizers are Chinese for Affirmative Action (CAA) and Chinatown Community Development Center (CCDC). For details, please, check this link: -
Stonehenge
British archeologists have found evidence of an ancient site related to the world-famous Stonehenge in southwest England. The discovery, called Blue Stonehenge, is located on the west bank of the River Avon, about 2.8 kilometers from Stonehenge. The discovery is called Blue Stonehenge, after the bluestones that once stood at the riverside site and now probably stand within the center of Stonehenge.
"We think we know everything about Stonehenge, it's been combed over by archeologists for centuries," said Mike Parker Pearson, professor at the University of Sheffield and director of the Stonehenge Riverside Project. "And yet something as significant as this has taken this long to discover."The site was undetected because it was deeply buried near the river.
Funeral Complex Theory
The Avon site apparently had a significant relationship to Stonehenge. "We've been developing a theory, a hunch if you like, that the river was absolutely central for Stonehenge, and the people who used Stonehenge," said Pearson. "We've been looking at the idea that in fact that Stonehenge was just one-half of a much larger complex, linked by the River Avon with a timber settlement upstream that in turn was linked to the river by an avenue that we found back in 2005."
Archeologists believe that Stonehenge could be part of a funeral complex. They speculate that bodies were transported on the river to the newly discovered site, Blue Stonehenge, cremated there, and then buried at Stonehenge.
Another interesting component is the bluestones themselves. "They are a very unusual type of rock, it's not just one particular type, it's a series of them, but the interesting factor is that they come from Wales," said Parker Pearson.
Scientists believe the stones were dragged to the site from Welsh mountains about 240 kilometers away, a vast distance at that time. "One of the theories is that these stones were used as legitimators for people moving into new areas, into the Stonehenge area at the beginning of farming in Britain, just after 4000 B.C.," said Parker Pearson. "And that's a theory that we're looking at as whether these were actually the symbols of ancestorhood and belonging to the land."
Further tests will be conducted through radiocarbon dating to determine a construction timeline.
http://www.voanews.com/english/2009-10-08-voa51.cfm
Stonehenge Extension Found Voice of America 08 October 2009
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Is it fair?
Some people are fighting to loss weight .. while...
Despite a goal set by world leaders nine years ago to cut the number of hungry people in half by 2015, the number of hungry people continues to rise. World Food Day celebrations are being held Friday to raise awareness to the plight of the world's hungry.
"World Food Weekend, World Food Day 2009, with their various activities, are serving as a milestone in the preparations leading to the World Summit on Food Security to be opened exactly one month from today," said Jacques Diouf, director general of the United Nations food agency based in Rome. Diouf welcomed participants to celebrations for World Food Day - the anniversary of the founding, back in 1945, of the Food and Agriculture Organization.
Each year FAO chooses a theme for World Food Day. This year it's: "Achieving Food Security In Times Of Crisis". Diouf said that at a time when the fallout from the global economic crisis still dominates the news, it is important to remind the international community that the crisis is stalking the small-scale farms and rural areas of the world, where 70 percent of the world's hungry live and work.
"For the first time in history, more than one billion people are undernourished worldwide," he said. "This is 105 million more than last year and it means that one in every six persons in the world suffers from hunger every day."
The world's most populous region, Asia and the Pacific, has the largest number of hungry people - 642 million - followed by sub-Saharan Africa with 265 million.
The FAO's director general said the recent increase in hunger is not the consequence of a poor global harvest. He said it is caused by the current world economic crisis, which has reduced incomes and employment opportunities of the poor and significantly lowered their access to food.
Diouf added that the current food crisis is historically unprecedented. It follows the global and sharp increase in staple food prices in 2007-2008. He said world leaders are starting to understand that investment in agriculture must be increased.
The director general also said that it is of utmost importance to resolve how aid is channeled and how it is made to reach small farmers effectively. The FAO has said that global food output will have to increase by 70 percent to feed a projected population of 9.1 billion in 2050. The report calls for greater investment in agriculture to tackle long and short-term hunger by making farmers productive and more resilient to crises.
The report calls for greater investment in agriculture to tackle long and short-term hunger by making farmers productive and more resilient to crises.http://www.voanews.com/english/2009-10-16-voa20.cfm
Hunger Casts Dark Cloud Over World Food Day Voice of America 16 October 2009
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Israel Condemns UN War Crimes Resolution
Israel comdemns the United Nations Human Rights Council's approval of the Goldstone Report which accuses Israel and the Palestinian militant group Hamas of war crimes during the Gaza conflict in January.
Israel says the resolution is biased and one-sided, and the charges of war crimes are outrageous.
"This diktat is phrased in very extreme terms that try to impose rules that will make it impossible for any country to defend themselves against terror," said Israeli spokesman Yigal Palmor.
Israel says its three-week assault on the Gaza Strip was an act of legitimate self-defense in response to years of Palestinian rocket attacks. [I learned from the news report that the Israel army shot kids in the streets! I don't believe these kids operated the rocket attacks]
The resolution also accuses Hamas of war crimes, something the Islamic militant group denies. But the international focus is on Israeli actions which killed at least 1,100 Palestinians.
The matter will now be referred to the United Nations Security Council which has the authority to involve the International Criminal Court in The Hague. But that poses a dilemma for the world powers which are trying to revive peace talks between Israel and the Palestinians.
Palmor says any punitive action will have negative consequences. "If this implies any practical steps taken against Israel, it will make it impossible for any Israeli government to take risks for the sake of peace and that will be detrimental for the peace process," he said.
Palestinian officials welcomed the resolution, but chief negotiator Saeb Erekat said the question is what happens next. "I think the most important thing now is the follow-up. The follow-up here is that we want to insure the non-reoccurrence of such massacres against the Palestinian people," he said.
The Palestinians fear that the United States, which voted against the resolution, will bury it in the Security Council.
SOURCE/CREDIT Voice of America Israel Condemns UN War Crimes Resolution
16 October 2009 -
Internet blockades
Voice of America's parent organization, the Broadcasting Board of Governors (BBG), is currently testing a new program in China and Iran that would be able to bypass these countries’ Internet blockades. FOE (Feed over E-mail) is a new kind of bypassing technology that uses e-mail to transmit information between the user and the server.
Sho Ho, who helped develop FOE, explained that "Traditionally, people in censored countries need to use proxy server or software to gain access to websites such as Voice of America, Radio Free Asia, and CNN. The main problem with these proxy servers is that the censors can block the IP addresses of the proxy servers, which will make them inaccessible. Internet users need to somehow obtain new IP addresses from the proxy providers, but keeping in touch with the users is not always easy."
FOE does just that, allowing its users to obtain news feeds as well as download files, receive new proxy addresses and obtain other types of data through e-mail accounts including those operated by Google Inc., Microsoft Corporation’s Hotmail, and Yahoo Inc. - all without the use of a proxy. Because of this, it is almost impossible for government censors to block the FOE network. Once it becomes available, FOE will even be accessible by phone through downloading and installing a mobile version.
As for as the danger of bypassing government Internet censorship, FOE users may have slightly less risk of detection than users of some other censorship tools. This is because the FOE data packets that travel through the censor's firewall are encrypted and the connection looks just like any other e-mail connection.
FOE is planned to be ready for implementation in early 2010.
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Then the governments of China and Iran just simply block the email or even phone networks. There must be a way to block the message. Not sure if Sho Ho understands this point.
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Heaven Meets Earth
Christians believe in Jesus, the son of God, and their religion is based on his life and teachings. Christians were persecuted for many years during the Roman Empire till AD 313. In that year, Emperor Constantine made the religion legal, maybe, he "nationalized" the religion. He then established a new Christian capital named Constantinople - now it is called Istanbul in Turkey. Later, The Empire split into east and west. The western empire collapsed and the eastern empire became the Byzantine Empire. Christianity developed there became Orthodox Christianity.
The story tells us that the popularity of Christianity depends on Constantine's "military and political power". I agree the notion of Da Vinci Code, if Constantine didn't promote Christianity or if he didn't have such power, I really doubt if Christianity could be popular.
The runaway fictional bestseller The Da Vinci Code has clearly struck a nerve. As I write, the book has sat atop the New York Times bestseller list for some 40 weeks; it’s number one on amazon.com’s sales list; countless online chat groups have formed to discuss the book; and even churches are finding themselves having to present seminars on the book’s views on Jesus, Mary Magdalene, the history of the canon, the early church, the Holy Grail and a plethora of other subjects.---Dan Brown
It is not a surprise that Christianity is fading, as people think and understand more on history and nature.[Source: Encyclopedia of Discovery, Science and History]
http://www.bib-arch.org/reviews/reviewdavinci.asp -
163 New Species Discovered.
Scientists discovered 163 new species,big-mouthed frog, tiger-striped pitviper, Cat Ba leopard gecko etc. in Southeast Asia's Greater Mekong region last year, but all are at risk of extinction due to climate change, the WWF has said.
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Evolution is on-going process while creation happened only in the first few days. Scientists discover new species from time to time, and they manipulate the genes to create new species!
聖經話 神在頭幾天創造萬物, 但科學家久不久就發現新品種 何解?"演变"是一個過程, 是延續未終斷的, 所以科學家久不久就發現新品種; 科學家更可改基因創造新品種!生物可進化, 退化和唔化 (不進 不退 )ｏ 同時, Evolution 不是理論, 而是一個'實實在在的過程' 所以 evolution 應繹作"演变過程" 而不是"進化論"
基督教聖經的Creation 是–假設; 是不能被証實的假設, 所以 Creation 應繹作 "神創假設"而非"神創論"
Photo and Information Credit: AFP/HO/Lee Grismer/ Yahoo News: 163 new species found in Mekong October 5, 2009. -
discovery of earliest prehuman skeleton
The oldest human skeleton has been discovered! It is a small-brained, 110-pound (50-kilogram) female of the species Ardipithecus ramidus, nicknamed "Ardi." [1]
Ardi lived in what is now Ethiopia 4.4 million years ago, which makes her over a million years older than the famous Lucy fossil, found in the same region 35 years ago.Like us, Ardi also walked on two legs on the ground, the species also clambered about on four legs in the trees. [1]
Ardi made her home in the woods, not on the open savannah grasslands long considered the main arena of human development. Yet her upright posture, distinctive pelvis and other toes suggest she walked easily enough. Most important, she showed no sign they walked on her knuckles, as contemporary chimps and apes do. [2]So why did her species become bipedal while it was still living partly in the trees, especially since walking on two legs is a much less efficient way of getting about? [1]
Owen Lovejoy, Kent State University, used apes as an example to explain. Sex is best done quickly—hence those penis bristles, which accelerate ejaculation—with the advantage to the male with big testicles carrying a heavy load of sperm. Among females, the winners are those who flaunt their fertility with swollen genitals or some other prominent display of ovulation. [1]
Ardi's fossilized remains were very fragile, sometimes disintegrating when they were touched -- and splintered into many pieces as if they had been trampled by a large animal, such as a rhinoceros. [3] This is a very important discovery that we might not evolve from things that look like modern apes.
[1] Ardi's Secret: Did Early Humans Start Walking for Sex? National Geographic magazine October 1, 2009. [2] Fossils shed New Light on Human Past, Wall Street Journal, October 2, 2009 [3] Scientists announce discovery of earliest prehuman skeleton, Boston.com,. October 1, 2009
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