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Thursday, August 25, 2011

43

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"There's Justice In The Universe"
One of the most effective ways 
to improve the quality of life 
of families around the world 
and ensure a more sustainable 
environmental future is to 
invest in voluntary family 
planning programs. Since the 
1960s, the United States has 
supported international health 
assistance programs that 
provide voluntary family planning 
services. Such programs enable 
individuals and couples to 
decide the number, spacing, 
and timing of their children 
and to have the information 
and means to do so, free from 
violence, coercion, and 
discrimination. These programs 
are also the most cost-effective 
intervention to avoid the 
transmission of HIV. Send a 
message to your decision-makers. 
Real investment in family planning 
will reap massive rewards for the 
whole planet. 

TAKE ACTION:
http://www.sierraclub.org/population/get_involved/
 


In understanding the Islamic world,
we need to remember that the Muslims
were the third major group to practice
monotheism.  The Hebrews first
successfully brought on the belief in
One God as related in the Old Testament. 
This led to Jesus bringing us into New
Testament Christian practices.  Since Arabs
did not follow Christ, it took Mohammed’s
Koran to lead them out of polytheism. 
They then fervently spread their belief
system from Spain to the Phillipines
and did not stop until 1683 when the
siege of Vienna failed.  Since then their
luster has dimmed while Christian and
Jewish interests in the Middle East have
increased.  It is this that their
fundamentalists are reacting to so
violently in such an Old Testament manner.

It takes 75,000+ years for light to travel from one side of our Milky Way galaxy to the other. Creationists believe that our planet is only about 6,000 years old. How do they reconcile that with the fact that we’re looking at stars (with planets) in our own galaxythat are far older than that? And this doesn’t even factor in the countless of other galaxies in our region of space that are millions and billions of light years distant.
If you’ve been following the international news relating to Zimbabwe and South Africa, then you may be interested in signing the petition at the end of the statement issued by Archbishop Emeritus Desmond Tutu to discourage China from shipping arms into Zimbabwe:
“Zimbabwe is staring into the abyss. Violence is growing and the people are suffering greatly as a result. It is now vital that we all do what we can to calm the situation.  In particular I join the worldwide calls to stop the supply of weapons to the country—by land, sea or air--until the political crisis is resolved. It is obvious that supplying large quantities of arms at this stage would risk escalating the violence, perhaps resulting in the large-scale loss of life. We should be proud of the African Trade Unions andgovernments who refused to let the most recent Chinese shipment off-load in their ports but China must now agree not to try and send these arms by air instead.   I join the South African church leaders in urging all governments to immediately start work at the UN level to agree a binding UN arms embargo as quickly as possible. In the meantime I hope that every country will agree to a moratorium on the supply of anyarms to the country.   If violence flares further in Zimbabwe, those supplying the weapons will be left with blood on their hands. It is up to every country in the region and beyond to take a stand.”
 To sign the petition calling on governments to stop the arms shipments for Zimbabwe
click here.
 
http://www.avaaz.org/en/no_arms_for_zimbabwe/
Toba was a supervolcano that erupted 73,500 
years ago. It is considered by geologists to have
 been the largest volcanic eruption within the
past 20 million years. The climatic aftermath 
of Toba effectively devastated the world's 
ecosystem from the bottom of the foodchain 
upwards as Earth was thrown into a

deeper period of glaciation.  This resulted 
in the decimation of most humanoids / 
Homosapiens' numbers were  reduced to 
less than 10,000 worldwide.  
Homoneanderthalensis numbers were only 
minimaly effected since they were cold adapted.

http://tobavolcano.googlepages.com/
http://www.ecotao.com/holism/hu_neand.htm
http://www.andaman.org/BOOK/originals/Weber-Toba/ch5_bottleneck/textr5.htm
Our Milky Way Galaxy is about
100,000 light years in diameter,
but only about 1000 light years 
thick.
http://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/apod/image/0603/m101_hst_f.jpg

Our neighboring Andromeda Galaxy 
(considerably larger than the Milky Way)
is on a collision course with us. 

It is 2 million light years distant
 / the collision will occur in about
2 billion years.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/science/nature/1422317.stm

'Galaxy mergers' are now known
to be more common than has 
previously thought. They were
even more common in the early 
universe than they are today.
The early universe was smaller,
so galaxies were closer together
and therefore more prone to 
smash-ups.  Our own Milky Way 
contains the debris of the
many smaller galaxies it has
brushed against and devoured
in the past. And it hasn't stopped
munching away at its neighbors: 
It is currently absorbing the 
Sagittarius dwarf elliptical galaxy. 
The Milky Way isn't the top predator 
though, as our giant neighbor, 
the Andromeda galaxy, is expected
to devour the Milky Way in about
two billion years. The future 
resulting elliptical galaxy has 
already been dubbed "Milkomeda."
http://www.space.com/scienceastronomy/080424-colliding-galaxies.html
http://burro.astr.case.edu/JavaLab/GalCrashWeb/mmerger.html

Photos of Galactic Collisions:
http://tinyurl.com/5w2lp3
http://www.space.com/php/multimedia/imagegallery/igviewer.php?gid=373

Read more:
http://tinyurl.com/65rr9e
As the Senate and House worked to create a unified
Energy Bill in a special conference committee, Texas
Congressman "Dirty Joe" Barton was working to oppose a
compromise that would have allowed for a "renewable
energy standard" to stay in the bill (the Senate
version included a 10% by 2020 renewable energy
standard).  The 10% standard would reduce carbon
dioxide emissions by 249 million metric tons and save
consumers $22.6 billion by 2025 ($4.7 billion to
Texans by 2020). Click below & send an email to Joe
Barton and let him know that you are disappointed in
his opposition to the renewable energy standard.
Take Action: 
 http://salsa.democracyinaction.org/o/642/campaign.jsp?campaign_KEY=24650
A colossal 100-million-solar mass black hole 
has been spotted exiting its home galaxy 
at a speed of 5,900,000 mph (2,650 kilometers
per second), kicked out after a huge cosmic 
merger took place.  The event, seen for the 
first time, was announced last week.  When two 
colliding galaxies finally merge, it is thought 
that the black holes at their cores may fuse
together... & the resulting energy releases 
sometimes propels the new black hole 
from its parent galaxy out into space.

http://tinyurl.com/47oj7j

A young 35 million year old star that's about 9 times more massive than our Sun is currently speeding away from the Milky Way and Large Magellanic Cloud into intergalactic space at 1.6 million miles per hour.  By analyzing its velocity, light intensity, and its tell-tale elemental composition, it's been determined that it came from our neighboring galaxy, the Large Magellanic Cloud. The result suggests that it was ejected from that galaxy by a 'yet-to-be-observed' massive black hole. The star, dubbed HE0437-5439, is one of ten so-called hypervelocity stars so far found speeding away from the Milky Way... the other escapees', however, are neutron stars that have been thrown into hyperfast trajectories by their violent death throes.

http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2008/01/080128113256.htm

http://www.ciw.edu/news/hyperfast_star_proven_be_alien


An invasive species of ants from the Caribbean has recently arrived in Houston (in 2000) via ship cargo.  Having no known predators, they are currently found in several Texas counties bordering Houston.   It should be noted that commercial ant poisons don't work on these little buggers (chemicals 'fipronil' and 'chlorfenapyr' do work to control their numbers though).  The Texas Department of Agriculture is working with A&M researchers and the EPA on how to stop the ants.

http://www.dailytech.com/New+Species+of+Ants+in+Houston+Attack+Computers+Electronics/article11793c.htm
http://www.metafilter.com/71725/The-Crazy-Raspberry-Ants-are-coming-The-Crazy-Raspberry-Ants-are-coming
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20080515/ap_on_re_us/texas_ants;_ylt=Amuuu3dPi58OpMzGIOMc2Kys0NUE