The Romans 7 experience

1Know ye not, brethren, (for I speak to them that know the law,) how that the law hath dominion over a man as long as he liveth? 2For the woman which hath an husband is bound by the law to her husband so long as he liveth; but if the husband be dead, she is loosed from the law of her husband. 3So then if, while her husband liveth, she be married to another man, she shall be called an adulteress: but if her husband be dead, she is free from that law; so that she is no adulteress, though she be married to another man.

4Wherefore, my brethren, ye also are become dead to the law by the body of Christ; that ye should be married to another, even to him who is raised from the dead, that we should bring forth fruit unto God. 5For when we were in the flesh, the motions of sins, which were by the law, did work in our members to bring forth fruit unto death. 6But now we are delivered from the law, that being dead wherein we were held; that we should serve in newness of spirit, and not in the oldness of the letter.

God's Law is Holy

7What shall we say then? Is the law sin? God forbid. Nay, I had not known sin, but by the law: for I had not known lust, except the law had said, Thou shalt not covet. 8But sin, taking occasion by the commandment, wrought in me all manner of concupiscence. For without the law sin was dead. 9For I was alive without the law once: but when the commandment came, sin revived, and I died. 10And the commandment, which was ordained to life, I found to be unto death. 11For sin, taking occasion by the commandment, deceived me, and by it slew me. 12Wherefore the law is holy, and the commandment holy, and just, and good.

Struggling with Sin

13Was then that which is good made death unto me? God forbid. But sin, that it might appear sin, working death in me by that which is good; that sin by the commandment might become exceeding sinful.

14For we know that the law is spiritual: but I am carnal, sold under sin. 15For that which I do I allow not: for what I would, that do I not; but what I hate, that do I. 16If then I do that which I would not, I consent unto the law that it is good. 17Now then it is no more I that do it, but sin that dwelleth in me. 18For I know that in me (that is, in my flesh,) dwelleth no good thing: for to will is present with me; but how to perform that which is good I find not. 19For the good that I would I do not: but the evil which I would not, that I do. 20Now if I do that I would not, it is no more I that do it, but sin that dwelleth in me.

21I find then a law, that, when I would do good, evil is present with me. 22For I delight in the law of God after the inward man: 23But I see another law in my members, warring against the law of my mind, and bringing me into captivity to the law of sin which is in my members. 24O wretched man that I am! who shall deliver me from the body of this death? 25I thank God through Jesus Christ our Lord. So then with the mind I myself serve the law of God; but with the flesh the law of sin.                 Romans 7 KJV

Over a third of Europeans would be happy to abandon cash and rely on electronic payments if they could

26 Apr, 2017
Over a third of Europeans would be happy to abandon cash and rely on electronic payments if they could, according to a study by ING bank released on Wednesday.

The survey of almost 15,000 respondents showed that over half used less cash over the last year, with 78 percent wanting to use less cash in the next 12 month.

The study covered respondents from 13 European countries and revealed that in many places where cash is most used, people are among the keenest to get rid of it.

With the rapid development of cashless payment systems such as contactless cards and mobile-phone digital wallets as well as the expansion of digital currencies, the future of physical money has come under the spotlight. The increasing interest of central banks in new cashless schemes has promoted the trend.

“A cashless society is not only possible but could be accepted by at least part of the population in many European nations,” said the researchers led by senior economist Ian Bright as quoted by Bloomberg.

The economist stressed that there’s a “gulf” between those changing payment methods and those who are still sticking with cash.

According to the survey, 82 percent of respondents, who said that they did not use less cash over the previous year, also stated that they don’t plan to reduce usage in the next.     RT

Heroin epidemic so severe that many funeral homes can’t keep up with demand

By: Thomas Dishaw  March 11, 2017

Heroin has flourished in West Virginia over the past decade, especially since officials cracked down on prescription drugs. In 2015, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, West Virginia’s drug overdose death rate stood at 41.5 cases per 100,000 residents, the highest rate in the country and nearly three times the national average.

This epidemic is now causing a strain on funeral homes as well as a state funded program that provides burial assistance for impoverished families. West Virginia’s “Indigent Burial Program” has existed for decades, but with the increase of heroin-related deaths, their resources are being depleted at a faster rate. And as overdoses rise many funeral homes are finding that they cannot keep up with the demand for services.

The Indigent Burial Program is a unique program because a majority of states don’t provide such services at the state level, and most of the ones that do, limit them to recipients of Medicaid, SNAP or other social programs for the poor. Frederick Kitchen, president of the West Virginia Funeral Directors Association, said the state Department of Human Services earmarks almost $2 million a year to help cover the burial costs for destitute individuals. The state offers funeral homes $1,250 per person to cover expenses in cases where the deceased has no funds nor anyone willing or able to pay the funeral costs. (RELATED: Get all the news Google is trying to hide from you at Censored.news)

The program has paid for so many burials for citizens who have died from drug overdoses that in 2014 they were out of money by June. In 2015, the program’s budget was completely drained by March. For this current fiscal year set to end in June, 1,508 burials have already been submitted for payment through the Indigent Burial Program, according to Allison Adler, a spokesperson for state DHHR Secretary Bill Crouch.     Read More

Russia’s Supreme Court has banned the Jehovah’s Witnesses, declaring it an “extremist organization”

RT, 21 Apr, 2017

Russia’s Supreme Court has banned the Jehovah’s Witnesses, declaring it an “extremist organization” and ordering to hand over its property to the state. The Christian group says it is planning to appeal the decision.

Delivering the verdict on Thursday, Judge Yury Ivanenko ruled that all 395 branches of the religious group on Russian territory are subject to disbandment and the property is to be forfeited to the state.

In the run-up to the ruling on its liquidation, based on a lawsuit filed by the Russian Justice Ministry, the Jehovah’s Witnesses group has repeatedly found itself in trouble with Russia’s anti-extremism legislation. In October last year, a lower court notified the organization of a looming ban if it did not stop engaging in what it considered extremist activity. In January this year, the warning was upheld by the Moscow City Court.

Jehovah's Witnesses leaflets promoting information “posing a threat to health” were provided as evidence by the Ministry of Justice during the hearings, Svetlana Borisova, the ministry’s representative said, as cited by RIA Novosti. More than 90 printed booklets of the organization have been found to contain extremist materials.

One of Jehovah’s Witnesses strict beliefs – a complete ban on blood transfusions – can potentially endanger the life of a child, argued Borisova. She cited a case when devout followers of the group refused to give consent for the procedure needed by their child.

The present lawsuit was revolving around Jehovah’s Witnesses’ chief managing organization in Russia, based in St. Petersburg, which is in charge of all its outfits scattered on the Russian territory.    RT

Growing income inequality is turning the US into a dual economy

 

RT  22 Apr, 2017

Growing income inequality is turning the US into a dual economy, with one economy for the rich and another for the poor, according to an MIT professor, who warns that the middle class is vanishing.

In his new book, “The Vanishing Middle Class," Peter Temin, professor emeritus of economics at Massachusetts Institute of Technology, warns that the US is moving backward and becoming more like a developing nation, as the “the vanishing middle class has left behind a dual economy.”

“We are still one country, but the stretch of incomes is fraying the unity of the nation,” Temin wrote in the introduction of his book, according to a copy obtained by Barnard College.

The economist describes a dual economy, where the gap between the rich and the poor has grown wider.

Temin points to a study from the Pew Research Center, which, he said, “shows that the income share lost by the middle class has gone to people earning more than double the median income.”

“In short, the rich got richer. The poor did not disappear, and the middle class shrank sharply,” Temin wrote. “We are on our way to become a nation of the rich and the poor with only a few people in the middle.”      RT

U.S. Economy In 2017 Is In Far Worse Shape Than It Was In 2016

By Michael Snyder, on April 23rd, 2017 

There is much debate about where the U.S. economy is ultimately heading, but what everybody should be able to agree on is that economic conditions are significantly worse this year than they were last year.  It is being projected that U.S. economic growth for the first quarter will be close to zero, thousands of retail stores are closing, factory output is falling, and restaurants and automakers have both fallen on very hard times.  As economic activity has slowed down, commercial and consumer bankruptcies are both rising at rates that we have not seen since the last financial crisis.  Everywhere you look there are echoes of 2008, and yet most people still seem to be in denial about what is happening.  The following are 11 facts that prove that the U.S. economy in 2017 is in far worse shape than it was in 2016…

#1 It is being projected that there will be more than 8,000 retail store closings in the United States in 2017, and that will far surpass the former peak of 6,163 store closings that we witnessed in 2008.

#2 The number of retailers that have filed for bankruptcy so far in 2017 has already surpassed the total for the entire year of 2016.

#3 So far in 2017, an astounding 49 million square feet of retail space has closed down in the United States.  At this pace, approximately 147 million square feet will be shut down by the end of the year, and that would absolutely shatter the all-time record of 115 million square feet that was shut down in 2001.

#4 The Atlanta Fed’s GDP Now model is projecting that U.S. economic growth for the first quarter of 2017 will come in at just 0.5 percent.  If that pace continues for the rest of the year, it will be the worst year for U.S. economic growth since the last recession.

#5 Restaurants are experiencing their toughest stretch since the last recession, and in March things continued to get even worse…

Foot traffic at chain restaurants in March dropped 3.4% from a year ago. Menu prices couldn’t be increased enough to make up for it, and same-store sales fell 1.1%. The least bad region was the Western US, where sales inched up 1.2% year-over-year and traffic fell only 1.7%, according to TDn2K’s Restaurant Industry Snapshot. The worst was the NY-NJ Region, where sales plunged 4.6% and foot traffic 6.3%.
This comes after a dismal February, when foot traffic had dropped 5% year-over-year, and same-store sales 3.7%.

#6 In March, U.S. factory output declined at the fastest pace in more than two years.

#7 According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, not a single person is employed in nearly one out of every five U.S. families.

#8 U.S. government revenues just suffered their biggest drop since the last recession.

#9 Nearly all of the big automakers reported disappointing sales in March, and dealer inventories have now risen to the highest level that we have seen since the last recession.

#10 Used vehicle prices are absolutely crashing, and subprime auto loan losses have shot up to the highest level that we have seen since the last recession.

#11 At this point, most U.S. consumers are completely tapped out.  According to CNN, almost six out of every ten Americans do not have enough money saved to even cover a $500 emergency expense.      More

Mexico had more killings in the first quarter of 2017 than in the start of any year in at least two decades

Christopher Woody Apr. 22, 2017

In March, Mexico had more than 2,000 homicide cases in a month for the first time since summer 2011, when the country was mired in the throes of a bloody cartel war.

The country also had more killings in the first quarter of 2017 than in the start of any year in at least two decades, according to government data released Friday.

Unlike in 2011, when a bloody cartel fight in Ciudad Juarez pushed the national body count to new heights, the current violence has been spread over a number of states.

In January, 25 of the country's 32 states saw increases in homicides compared to the same month in 2016.

Throughout Mexico, there were 2,020 homicide cases in March, up roughly 11% from February. For January through March, there were 5,775 killings around the country, up 29% from the same period in 2016.

March also reached a new high in terms of homicide victims. (A single homicide case can contain multiple victims.) March's 2,256 homicide victims were the most so far this year and the highest number reported since the Mexican government started releasing those figures in 2014.

Every month in 2017 has exceeded 2,000 homicide victims, as did each of the last six months of 2016. No month prior to that for which there is data available surpassed that mark.     Read More

The social panic and media hysteria over fake news continues unabated

By Edward Morrissey    April 25, 2017

The social panic and media hysteria over fake news continues unabated. And once again, Facebook's reaction is all wrong.

The left's intense focus on false news stories exploded in the wake of what seemed like an inexplicable Republican victory in the 2016 election, with Donald Trump beating Hillary Clinton despite an avalanche of bad press directed at the former, especially in the final weeks of the campaign. The GOP also unexpectedly retained control of the Senate, winning surprise victories in Wisconsin and Indiana to confound the Democratic Party's advantage in incumbent seats and normal presidential-cycle turnout models.

Attention quickly focused on a BuzzFeed story about traffic generated by stories on Facebook, and how much more popular fake news was over real news. The analysis had significant flaws, however, beginning with the fact that there was no evidence of correlation between Facebook traffic and voting behavior, let alone causation. Furthermore, the top five "real news" articles in the analysis turned out to be four opinion essays opposing Trump and the New York Post's story on Melania Trump's suggestive modeling pictures from two decades earlier.

Nonetheless, much of the left and the mainstream media stuck with the fake news narrative to explain the election outcome, and have continued to pressure Facebook to take action against it.     Read More

Who pose the greater threat in Korea

24.04.2017 By James ONeill

The election of Donald Trump as US President has seen the ramping up of US rhetoric about North Korea. Trump recently demanded that China should use its influence with the North Koreans and if China did not intervene, then, according to an interview Trump gave to the UK Financial Times, the “US would act alone.”

US Vice President Mike Pence, currently on a visit to Australia where he will undoubtedly seek Australian support for the US position, said that his country’s

“era of strategic patience” with North Korea was over.

Trump also claimed to have dispatched “an armada”, by which he was presumably referring to the aircraft carrier the USS Vinson and its support vessels, to Korean waters. Perhaps typical of Trump’s loose association with the truth, the Vinson was at that very time steaming in the opposite direction.

Quite what is to be made of this fresh rhetorical belligerence is not clear. One thing however has been abundantly clear for nearly the whole of North Korea’s short existence and that is US antipathy and refusal to take meaningful steps to resolve what has become a festering problem for East Asia.

Korea was only divided into two parts following the defeat of the Japanese in 1945. The dividing line was the 38^thparallel of latitude, with the Soviet Union occupying the northern part and the US the southern portion.    Read More

The Lord is that Spirit

Israel’s Supreme Court ruled that some businesses and supermarkets may remain open on Shabbat.

April 19, 2017 3:00pm

JERUSALEM (JTA) — Israel’s Supreme Court ruled that some businesses and supermarkets may remain open on Shabbat.

The decision issued Wednesday dealt with the operation of businesses in entertainment complexes including the Tel Aviv and Jaffa harbors along with the old train station, as well as the opening of supermarkets in some parts of the city.

Tel Aviv-Jaffa Mayor Ron Huldai said in response to the ruling, according to Ynet, “As I said four years ago, the city of Tel Aviv-Jaffa was free and will remain free.”

Haredi Orthodox lawmakers, including Interior Minister Aryeh Deri, called the ruling a “severe blow” to the sanctity of the Jewish Sabbath.

Retail businesses in Israel are not permitted to open on the Jewish Sabbath, which begins at sundown Friday and ends after sunset Saturday. Businesses that ignore the ban are levied modest fines.

In 2013, the Supreme Court ordered the Tel Aviv-Jaffa municipality to enforce the ban. At the time, the municipality had been working to find a way to allow a percentage of the city’s grocery stores to stay open on Saturdays, using an amendment to the existing law. The stores would have been spread throughout the city, with fewer open in areas that are more religious and more in secular areas.

However, the interior minister at the time, Gideon Saar, did not approve the amendment.       JTA

Church Unity and False Revival Coming

How do WiFi frequencies look like and affect us?

Alanna KetlerApril 1, 2017

Do you ever wonder what the electromangetic fields (EMFs) that surround virtually every person carrying a mobile device with WiFi or data capability looks like? Well now, thanks to visual artist Luis Hernan, you can see this field — and it’s electrically terrifying!

Every single day over 3.2 billion people access the internet to connect with others around the world or to find information, listen to music, watch videos, read books — you name it, and it’s on the internet and everyone wants access to it. WiFi technology has certainly enhanced our lives in many ways, but has this access to instant information and connection come at a cost?
Because we can’t see the frequencies of our WiFi devices, it’s easy to overlook the potential harm they might be causing. If we could see them, would it make us think twice about how often we are using them? Using an Android app and long exposure photography designer, Luis Hernan was able to depict what this actually looks like.
Titled Digital Ethereal, his work offers an amazing glimpse into the movement of the WiFI signals that follow us around virtually everywhere we go.
The colourful movements remind the artist of ghosts, he wrote on his website:
I believe our interaction with this landscape of electromagnetic signals, described by Antony Dunne as Hertzian Space, can be characterised in the same terms as that with ghosts and spectra. They both are paradoxical entities, whose untypical substance allows them to be an invisible presence. In the same way, they undergo a process of gradual substantiation to become temporarily available to perception. Finally, they both haunt us. Ghosts, as Derrida would have it, with the secrets of past generations. Hertzian space, with the frustration of interference and slowness.

Have a look at these incredible images below.
  



How Do WiFi Frequencies Actually Affect Us?
Multiple studies have revealed that cell phone radiation can cause cancer. Did you know that the International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC) classified radio frequency fields (including those from cell phones) as a possible carcinogen in 2011?  The dangers of cell phone use gained a lot of mainstream credibility in 2011 when the World Health Organization (WHO) admitted that cell phone radiation may cause cancer. The statement was based off of a cumulative decision made by a team of 31 scientists from 14 different countries after careful review. You can read more about that here. It’s pretty startling news, especially given the fact that a child’s brain absorbs much more radiation than an adult’s.
Dr. Martin Blank, Ph.D., from the Department of Physiology and Cellular Biophysics at Colombia University, has joined a group of scientists from around the world who are making an international appeal to the United Nations regarding the dangers of various electromagnetic emitting devices, like cells phones and WiFi.
Hopefully the above images inspire you to take a break, disconnect, and unplug from your cellular and mobile devices. Give your body some freedom from the constant bombardment of these frequencies. Simply put, they haven’t been around long enough to determine the long term effects of constant exposure.                    Collective Evolution

A Son begotten in the express image of the Father's person

“A complete offering has been made; for ‘God so  loved  the world, that He gave his only-begotten Son’ -- not a son by creation, as were the angels, nor a son by adoption, as is the forgiven sinner, but a Son begotten in the express image of the Father's person, and in all the brightness of His majesty and glory, one equal with God in authority, dignity, and divine perfection. In Him dwelt all the fullness of the Godhead bodily.”  Signs of the Times. May 30, 1895.

The Son of God by birth

“The Word was ‘in the beginning’. The mind of man  cannot grasp the ages that are spanned in this phrase. It is not given to men to know when or how the Son was begotten; but we know that He was the Divine Word, not simply before He came to this earth to die, but even before the world was created… We know that Christ ‘proceeded forth and came from God’ (John 8:42), but it was so far back in the ages of eternity as to be far beyond the grasp of the mind of man.”     

“It is true that there are many sons of God; but Christ is the ‘only-begotten Son of God’, and therefore the Son of God in a sense in which no other being ever was, or ever can be. The angels are sons of God, as was Adam by creation; Christians are the sons of God by adoption, but Christ is the Son of God by birth.”  Christ and His Righteousness p. 16 & 19

Is Christ a created being?

Question: Will you please favor me with those Scriptures which plainly say that Christ is a created being?
 

Answer: You are mistaken in supposing that S. D. Adventists teach that Christ was ever created. They believe, on the  contrary, that he was ‘begotten’ of the Father, and that he can properly be called God and worshiped as such. They believe, also, that the worlds, and everything which is, was created by Christ  in  conjunction  with the Father.  They believe, however, that somewhere in the eternal ages of the past there was a point at  which  Christ  came   into  existence.  They  think  that  it  is necessary that God should have antedated Christ in his being, in order that Christ could have been begotten of him, and sustain to him the relation of son. They hold to the distinct personality of  the Father and Son, rejecting as absurd that feature of Trinitarianism which insists that God, and Christ, and the Holy Spirit are three persons, and yet but one person. S. D. Adventists hold that God and Christ are one in the sense that Christ prayed that his disciples might be one; i.e., one in spirit, purpose, and labor.    Review & Herald. Vol 60. No.16.  p. 250. 1883.

“In Christ is life, original, unborrowed, underived”

“In Christ is life, original, unborrowed, underived”. These seven words are not original in ‘The Desire of Ages’, but quoted from another passage where Sister White is speaking about the type of life Christ possessed. 

“In him was life; and the life was the light of men; It is not physical life that is here specified, but immortality, the life which is exclusively the property of God.
The Word, who was with God, and who was God, had this life. Physical life is something which each individual receives.   It is not eternal or immortal; for God, the Lifegiver, takes it again. Man has no control over his life.
But the life of Christ was unborrowed. No one can take this life from Him. ‘I lay it down of myself’ (John 10:18), He said. In Him was life, original, unborrowed, underived. This life is not  inherent in man. He can possess it only through Christ. He cannot earn it; it is given him as a free gift….”  1  Selected Messages p. 296 & 297. 1897

Trinitarians believe the words in ‘Desire of Ages’ prove that Christ is eternal and without beginning, which in turn shows Him to be the second Person of a three-in-one Godhead.
But, is this true?
If you and I receive this life as a gift, does that prove we have lived for eternity?   Of course not.

Many of our people do not realize how firmly the foundation of our faith has been laid

“Many of our people do not  realize  how firmly the foundation of our faith has been laid. My husband, Elder Joseph Bates, father Pierce, Elder (Hiram) Edson, and others who were keen, noble, and true, were among those who, after the passing of the time in 1844, searched for the truth as for hidden treasure. I met with them, and we  studied  and prayed earnestly. Often we remained together  until  late  at night, and sometimes through the entire night, praying for light and studying the Word…”

“During this whole time I could not understand the reasoning of the brethren, My mind was locked… I was in this condition of mind until all  the principal points of our faith were made clear to our minds, in harmony with the Word of God.” 

“When they came to a point in their study where they said, ‘We can do nothing more’, the Spirit of the Lord would come upon me, I would be taken off in vision, and a clear explanation of the passages we had been studying would be given me, with instruction as to how we were to labor and teach effectively.

"Thus light was given that helped us to understand  the Scriptures in regard to Christ, His mission, and His  priesthood…”   1 Selected Messages. p206.

Adventist beliefs changed over the years under the impact of ‘present truth'

“Adventist beliefs changed over the years under the impact of ‘present truth’. Most startling is the  teaching  regarding Jesus Christ, our Saviour and Lord. Many of the pioneers, including James White, J.N. Andrews, Uriah Smith, and J.H. Waggoner, held to an Arian or semi-Arian view… that is, the Son at some point in time before the Creation of our  world was generated by the Father… the Trinitarian understanding of God, now part of our fundamental beliefs, was not generally held by the early Adventists. Even today a few do not subscribe to it.”   William G. Johnsson, Adventist Review. Jan 6. 1994. p10.

U.S. Navy is funding the development of a new super-surveillance system which uses robots to snoop on humans

Jasper Hamill   11th April 2017

It has handed a $1.7 million (£1.4 million) grant to researchers from Cornell University, who are working to build a system which can “conduct surveillance as a single entity with many eyes”.

The cash was handed over by the U.S. Office of Naval Research, which is dedicated to developing new forms of military and civilian technology.

Last year, we exclusively revealed that the same department discussed plans to fit humans with microchips and track their every move.

Now it wants to develop a system which lets teams of surveillance robots gather and share intelligence “at the speed of light”.

“Once you have robots that cooperate you can do all sorts of things,” said Kilian Weinberger, associate professor of computer science.

The team suggested the new technology “might help when teams of robots relieve humans of dangerous jobs like disposing of landmines, cleaning up after a nuclear meltdown or surveying the damage after a flood or hurricane”

It could also be taught to spot people behaving suspiciously, such as someone who has placed a backpack on the floor and walked away.

The Navy is likely to want to fit the technology into drones.

Of course, one of the main things this sort of system could really do is is spy on people.

The Cornell team’s technology will ultimately allow multiple robots to “identify objects and track objects and people from place to place”.

This will draw on the team’s expertise in “computer vision”, the name for a discipline dedicated to teaching camera-fitted robots to observe the world and understand what’s going on in front of them.

Facebook’s artificial intelligence chief, Yann LeCun,  is one of the world’s leading expert in this field.    The Sun

Scientists Have Created a Device That Sucks Water Out of Thin Air

FIONA MACDONALD 13 APR 2017 

When it comes to future challenges, one of the biggest will be water scarcity - on a warming planet we're going to have plenty of seawater, but not enough fresh, clean water in the right places for everybody to drink.

And while a lot of research has focussed on desalination, a team of scientists have now come up with another possible solution - a device that pulls fresh water out of thin air, even in places with humidity as low as 20 percent. All it needs is sunlight.

It might sound too good to be true, but so far the research is solid. Called the 'solar-powered harvester', the device was created by teams from MIT and the University of California, Berkeley, using a special type of material known as a metal-organic framework (MOF).

To be clear, it's only in the prototype phase right now and has been tested in pretty limited situations, but the results so far have just been published in Science.

"This is a major breakthrough in the long-standing challenge of harvesting water from the air at low humidity," said one of the researchers, Omar Yaghi from UC Berkeley.

"There is no other way to do that right now, except by using extra energy. Your electric dehumidifier at home 'produces' very expensive water."

Two-thirds of the world's population is currently experiencing a shortage of clean water, but it's estimated that there's about 13,000 trillion litres of water worldwide present in the air all around us.

So far the prototype device has been tested under conditions of 20 to 30 percent humidity, and was able to pull 2.8 litres (3 quarts) of water from the air over a 12- hour period, using 1 kilogram (2.2 pounds) of MOF.

Successful tests have also been conducted on the rooftop at MIT, showing that it works in real-world conditions.

The team says that the device could easily be scaled up to provide a family with their freshwater needs for the day.        Read More

How oral cultures memorise so much information

Duane W. Hamacher 

Ancient Celtic bards were famous for the sheer quantity of information they could memorise. This included thousands of songs, stories, chants and poems that could take hours to recite in full.

Today we are pretty spoiled. Practically the whole of human knowledge is conveniently available at our fingertips. Why worry about memorising something when we can simply Google it?

The answer seems pretty evident when we go into a panic after losing our smartphones!

Long before the ancient Celts, Aboriginal Australians were recording vast scores of knowledge to memory and passing it to successive generations.

Aboriginal people demonstrate that their oral traditions are not only highly detailed and complex, but they can survive – accurately – for thousands, even tens of thousands, of years.

Yet I struggle to remember what I did last Tuesday. So how did they do it?

Researcher Lynne Kelly was drawn to this question while investigating Aboriginal knowledge about animals for her PhD.

It was evident to Kelly that Aboriginal people catalogued huge scores of information about animals – including species types, physical features, behaviour, links to food and plants – and wondered how they do it.   Read More

In A Cashless Economy, Your Money’s Never Idle Money

By Lauren Wright   April 13, 2017

The global financial crisis opened the world’s eyes on how dependent we were on the big banks. Today, we could be held as much hostage to the banking system as we were before, if not much more. As several countries push for a dematerialization of payment means, have we already forgotten the lessons learned after the crash?

Many of the major banks in the U.S or in Europe still haven’t recovered fully from the multiple crashes and the collapse that shattered the system worldwide. At the time, many citizens realized how fragile the banking system was and they lost their trust. After Lehman Brothers’ bankruptcy many swore that never again they would allow the banks to play with their money like they had in the past. At the time, masses of several countries rushed to their banks to withdraw their assets and keep it in the form that seemed safer to them: cash.

Today, however, the prophets of media and governments around the world have asked us to start saying goodbye to physical money. They want to go cash-free. The idea seems wonderful, no more heavy coins in our pockets and no more ‘cling cling’ sound from the laundry machine. Instead of it; cards, mobile wallets, e-payment systems. We would live in societies where all of our assets are kept in banks, but not physically.       Read More

Parents had their foster children removed from their home because they refused to say the Easter Bunny is real

RT, 15 Apr, 2017 10:23

Two Canadian foster parents had their foster children removed from their home because they refused to say the Easter Bunny is real. The Christian couple has taken court action, saying their rights have been violated.

Derek and Frances Baars filed court papers against Hamilton Children’s Aid Society after the agency said they must tell their foster children that the Easter Bunny is a “real entity.”

“We were committed to not lying to children,” Derek Baars said, adding “they could expect the truth from us and we expected the truth from them.”

The couple, who are devout Christians, told the agency that they “do not endorse Santa Claus or the Easter Bunny as they do not wish to lie to children.” They had noted that they don’t celebrate Halloween before they were approved as foster parents.          RT

It has become embarrassing to be an American

Paul Craig Roberts- April 15, 2017

It has become embarrassing to be an American. Our country has had four war criminal presidents in succession. Clinton twice launched military attacks on Serbia, ordering NATO to bomb the former Yugoslavia twice, both in 1995 and in 1999, so that gives Bill two war crimes. George W. Bush invaded Afghanistan and Iraq and attacked provinces of Pakistan and Yemen from the air. That comes to four war crimes for Bush. Obama used NATO to destroy Libya and sent mercenaries to destroy Syria, thereby commiting two war crimes. Trump attacked Syria with US forces, thereby becoming a war criminal early in his regime.

To the extent that the UN participated in these war crimes along with Washington’s European, Canadian and Australian vassals, all are guilty of war crimes. Perhaps the UN itself should be arraigned before the War Crimes Tribunal along with the EU, US, Australia and Canada.

Quite a record. Western Civilization, if civilization it is, is the greatest committer of war crimes in human history.

And there are other crimes—Somalia, and Obama’s coups against Honduras and Ukraine and Washington’s ongoing attempts to overthrow the governments of Venezuela, Ecuador, and Bolivia. Washington wants to overthrow Ecuador in order to grab and torture Julian Assange, the world’s leading democrat.

These war crimes committed by four US presidents caused millions of civilian deaths and injuries and dispossessed and dislocated millions of peoples, who have now arrived as refugees in Europe, UK, US, Canada, and Australia, bringing their problems with them, some of which become problerms for Europeans, such as gang rapes.

What is the reason for all the death and destruction and the flooding of the West with refugees from the West’s naked violence? We don’t know. We are told lies: Saddam Hussein’s “weapons of mass destruction,” which the US government knew for an absolute fact did not exist. “Assad’s use of chemical weapons,” an obvious, blatant lie. “Iranian nukes,” another blatant lie. The lies about Gaddafi in Libya are so absurd that it is pointless to repeat them.

What were the lies used to justify bombing tribesmen in Pakistan, to bomb a new government in Yemen? No American knows or cares. Why the US violence against Somalia? Again, no Americans knows or cares.
Or the morons saw a movie.

Violence for its own sake. That is what America has become.

Indeed, violence is what America is. There is nothing else there. Violence is the heart of America.

Consider not only the bombings and destruction of countries, but also the endless gratuitous, outrageous police violence against US citizens. If anyone should be disarmed, it is the US police. The police commit more “gun violence” than anyone else, and unlike drug gangs fighting one another for territory, police violence has no other reason than the love of committing violence against other humans. The American police even shoot down 12-year old American kids prior to asking any question, especially if they are black.

Violence is America. America is violence. The moronic liberals blame it on gun owners, but it is always the government that is the source of violence. That is the reason our Founding Fathers gave us the Second Amendment. It is not gun owners who have destroyed in whole or part eight countries. It is the armed-at-taxpayer-expense US government that commits the violence.

America’s lust for violence is now bringing the Washington morons up against people who can commit violence back: the Russians and Chinese, Iran and North Korea.

Beginning with the Clinton moron every US government has broken or withdrawn from agreements with Russia, agreements that were made in order to reduce tensions and the risk of thermo-nuclear war. Washington initially covered its aggressive steps toward Russia with lies, such as ABM missile sites on Russia’s border are there to protect Europe from (non-existent) Iranian nuclear ICBMs.

The Obama regime still told lies but escalated to false charges against Russia and Russia’s president in order to build tensions between nuclear powers, the antithesis of Ronald Reagan’s policy. Yet moronic liberals love Obama and hate Reagan.

Did you know that Russia is so powerful and the NSA and CIA so weak and helpless that Russia can determine the outcome of US elections? You must know this, because this is all you have heard from the utterly corrupt Democratic Party, the CIA, the FBI, the Amerian whore media, and the morons who listen to CNN, MSNBC, NPR or read the New York Times and Washington Post.

Surely you have heard at least one thousand times that Russia invaded Ukraine; yet Washington’s puppet still sits in Kiev. One doesn’t have to have an IQ above 90 to understand that if Russia invaded Ukraine, Ukraine would not still be there.

Did you know that the president of Russia, which world polls show is the most respected leader in the world, is, according to Hillary Clinton “the new Hitler”?

Did you know that the most respected leader in the world, Vladimir Putin, is a Mafia don, a thug, a tarantula at the center of a spy web, according to members of the US government who are so stupid that they cannot even spell their own names?

Did you know that Putin, who has refrained from responding aggressively to US provocations, not out of fear, but out of respect for human life, is said to be hellbent on reconstructing the Soviet Empire? Yet, when Putin sent a Russian force against the US and Israeli trained and supplied Georgian army that Washington sent to attack South Ossetia, the Russian Army conquered Georgia in five hours; yet withdrew after teaching the morons the lesson. If Putin wanted to reconstruct the Russian Empire, why didn’t he keep Georgia, a Russian province for 300 years prior to Washington’s breakup of the Russian Empire when the Soviet Union collapsed? Washington was powerless to do anything had Putin declared Georgia to be again part of Russia.

And now we have the embarrassment of Trump’s CIA director, Mike Pompeo, possibly the most stupid person in America. Here we have a moron of the lowest grade. I am not sure there is any IQ there at all. Possibly it reads zero.

This moron, if he qualifies to that level, which I doubt, has accused Julian Assange, the world’s Premier Journalist, the person who more than anyone represents the First Amendment of the US Constitution, of being a demon who sides with dictators and endangers the security of American hegemony with the help of Russia. All because Wilileaks publishes material from official sources revealing the criminal behavior of the US government. Wikileaks doesn’t steal the documents. The documents are leaked to Wikileaks by whistleblowers who cannot tolerate the immorality and lies of the US government.

Anyone who tells the truth is by definition against the United States of America. And the moron Pompeo intends to get them.

When I first read Pompeo’s accusation against Assange, I thought it had to be a joke. The CIA director wants to revoke the First Amendment. But the moron Pompeo actually said it. https://www.rt.com/usa/384667-cia-assange-wikileaks-critisize/

What are we to do, what is the world to do, when we have utter morons as Director of the Central Intelligence Agency, as President of the US, as National Security Adviser, as Secretary of Defense, as Secretary of State, as US Ambassador to the UN, as editors of the New York Times, Washington Post, CNN, NPR, MSNBC? How can there be any intelligence when only morons are in charge?

Stupid is as stupid does. The Chinese government has said that the moronic Americans could attack North Korea at any moment. A large US fleet is heading to North Korea. North Korea apparently now has nuclear weapons. One North Korean nuclear weapon can wipe out the entirety of the US fleet. Why is Washington inviting this outcome? The only possible answer is moronic stupidity.

North Korea is not bothering anyone. Why is Washington picking on North Korea? Does Washington want war with China? In which case, is Washinton kissing off the West Coast of the US? Why does the West Coast support policies that imply the demise of the West Coast of the US? Do the morons on the West Coast think that the US can initiate war with China, or North Korea, without any consequesnces to the West Coast? Are even Amerians this utterly stupid?

China or Russia individually can wipe out the US. Together they can make North America uninhabitalbe until the end of time. Why are the Washington morons provoking powerful nuclear powers? Do the Washington morons think Russia and China will submit to threats?

The answer is: Washington is a collection of morons, people stupid below the meaning of stupid. People so far outside of reality that they imagine that their hubris and arrogance elevates them above reality.

When the first Satan 2 hits Washington, the greatest collection of morons in the world will cease to exist.

The world will breathe a huge sigh of relief.

Bring it on! Come on morons, eliminate yourselves! The rest of us cannot wait.      Paul Roberts

Four more citizens have been killed in opposition-led street violence in Venezuela

Caracas, April 12, 2017 (venezuelanalysis.com) – Four more citizens have been killed in opposition-led street violence in Venezuela, bringing the death count to a total of six since the protests began nine days ago. 

The victims are: Bryan Principal, 13, Miguel Ángel Colmenares, 36, Oliver Villa Camargo, 29, and Antonio Gruseny Canelon, 32. 

Principal, Colmenarez, and Canelon were all killed in the western state of Lara, one of the focal points of the violence, while Camargo was shot dead in central Caracas. 

According to reports, Principal was killed by opposition protestors who opened fire on the Ali Primera government housing project in Barquisimeto during a black-out on Tuesday night. He later died from his injuries in the hospital. 

In statements released following the minor’s death, residents at Ali Primera explained that the housing project had been at the centre of an ongoing confrontation between pro-government supporters and opposition protesters throughout the day.         Read More

Microsoft received over 1,000 Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA) requests from the US government in the first half of 2016 alone – the highest number in the company’s recorded history

RT, 14 Apr, 2017 22:45

Microsoft received over 1,000 Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA) requests from the US government in the first half of 2016 alone – the highest number in the company’s recorded history.

This was more than double the number of requests in the preceding six-month period the company stated in a Transparency report published online Thursday.

Microsoft also published a redacted National Security Letter the company received from the FBI. The correspondence sought specific user information and also functioned as a temporary gag order, preventing the corporation from disclosing the request to the public.

In 2015, Congress included additional transparency measures in the USA Freedom Act, allowing tech companies (such as Yahoo, Google, Facebook and Twitter) to publish similar letters from the FBI in recent months, reports The Hill.

Following a number of widely publicized leaks involving the scope of US intelligence gathering both at home and abroad, such practices by US authorities have come under increased scrutiny in recent months.   Read More

Corruption on Capitol Hill is “worse than you think,” according to Colorado Rep. Ken Buck

Corruption on Capitol Hill is “worse than you think,” according to Colorado Rep. Ken Buck.

“When you first get here, you think that you are in some sort of fairy-tale novel,” Buck, a Republican, said. “They wine and dine you and they show you just exactly what it’s like if you play the game. It’s a wonderful life.”

Things quickly change, however, if “you don’t play the game.”

“If you don’t play the game  …  it becomes a much less conformable existence here,” Buck said.  

Buck, who has served Colorado’s 4th Congressional District since 2015, also previewed his new book, “Drain the Swamp: How Washington Corruption is Worse Than You Think,” which was published on Tuesday.  

Chapters in Buck’s book include “Why Washington is a Swamp,” “Play the Game–Or Else,” “Beating the Beltway Bullies,” and “What You Can Do To Drain the Swamp.”

Buck said his book addresses corruption present in government today that he was not prepared for after being elected to Congress in 2014.

“One of the things that I found startling when I got here is that you have to pay dues to be on a committee,” Buck said.

During the time he served on the House Judiciary Committee, Buck said he had to pay periodic dues of $200,000 to the National Republican Congressional Committee, the campaign committee of the House of Representatives.

Now, as a member of the House Rules Committee, Buck’s periodic dues are $450,000.       Read More