Doctrines Of Demons Growing Rapidly

The new millennium marks for many teens and young adults a renewed interest in spirituality. What type of spirituality? Christian? No. Islamic? No. How about an Eastern spirituality like Taoism? Wrong again. Try Satanism. That’s right. The occult movement of Satanism ranks number one among teens and young adults as their preferred spirituality.... The entertainment industry cleverly hammers the notion of white magic in inattentive minds. Take for example, CBS popular TV program, “Ghost Whisperer.” The show tells the story of an attractive young woman that chats with the dead. She uses her occult powers to help the dead finish pending matters with family and friends in this life before helping them cross over to the other side. Viewers can’t help but think this a wonderful way to help others. But is it really? Another very popular CBS TV program called “Moonlight” throws a positive spin on the occult. In this program, a tall imposing vampire works as a private detective to make amends for past crimes he committed as a vampire. He no longer sucks blood from the necks of the innocent. He now keeps a stock of fresh blood in his fridge to quench his thirst. How consoling. On the literary front, we find an entire plethora of books, magazines and columns that speak highly of the occult.

Plastic Trash Fouling Pacific Ocean

At the start of the Academy Award-winning movie "American Beauty," a character videotapes a plastic grocery bag as it drifts into the air, an event he casts as a symbol of life's unpredictable currents, and declares the romantic moment as a "most beautiful thing." To the eyes of an oceanographer, the image is pure catastrophe. In reality, the rogue bag would float into a sewer, follow the storm drain to the ocean, then make its way to the so-called Great Pacific Garbage Patch - a heap of debris floating in the Pacific that's twice the size of Texas, according to marine biologists.

Christians Losing Foster child

They are devoted foster parents with an unblemished record of caring for almost 30 vulnerable children. But Vincent and Pauline Matherick will this week have their latest foster son taken away because they have refused to sign new sexual equality regulations. To do so, they claim, would force them to promote homosexuality and go against their Christian faith. The 11-year-old boy, who has been in their care for two years, will be placed in a council hostel this week and the Mathericks will no longer be given children to look after. The devastated couple, who have three grown up children of their own, became foster parents in 2001 and have since cared for 28 children at their home in Chard, Somerset. Earlier this year, Somerset County Council's social services department asked them to sign a contract to implement Labour's new Sexual Orientation Regulations, part of the Equality Act 2006, which make discrimination on the grounds of sexuality illegal. Officials told the couple that under the regulations they would be required to discuss same-sex relationships with children as young as 11 and tell them that gay partnerships were just as acceptable as heterosexual marriages. They could also be required to take teenagers to gay association meetings. When the Mathericks objected, they were told they would be taken off the register of foster parents. The Mathericks have decided to resign rather than face the humiliation of being expelled. Mr Matherick, a 65-year-old retired travel agent and a primary school governor, said: "I simply could not agree to do it because it is against my central beliefs. "We have never discriminated against anybody but I cannot preach the benefits of homosexuality when I believe it is against the word of God." Mrs Matherick, 61, said they had asked if they could continue looking after their foster son until he is found a permanent home, but officials refused and he will be placed in a council hostel on October 26. She said: "He was very upset to begin with. We are all very close, but he's a mature young man and he's dealing with it." The couple, who have six grandchildren and one greatgrandchild, are both ministers at the nonconformist South Chard Christian Church.

Rare Asteroid To Collide With Earth?

By analyzing sunlight reflected from its surface, scientists say the asteroid Apophis -- which has a slight chance of colliding with Earth -- is a good match for a rare type of stony meteorite known as type LL chondrite. Meteorites with this mineral composition represent just 7 percent of the known space rocks that plunge to Earth. The finding, presented last week at an annual meeting of the Division for Planetary Sciences of the American Astronomical Society, could be useful in planning future missions to explore Apophis or in protecting Earth from a future impact.

Rabbi Revealed Name Of Messiah

A few months before Kaduri died at the age of 108, he surprised his followers when he told them that he met the Messiah. Kaduri gave a message in his synagogue on Yom Kippur, the Day of Atonement, teaching how to recognize the Messiah. He also mentioned that the Messiah would appear to Israel after Ariel Sharon’s death. (The former prime minister is still in a coma after suffering a massive stroke more than a year ago.) Other rabbis predict the same, including Rabbi Haim Cohen, kabbalist Nir Ben Artzi and the wife of Rabbi Haim Kneiveskzy. Kaduri’s grandson, Rabbi Yosef Kaduri, said his grandfather spoke many times during his last days about the coming of the Messiah and redemption through the Messiah. As one of Israel's most prominent rabbis, shortly before he died, he wrote the name of the Messiah on a small note which he requested would remain sealed until now. When the note was opened, it revealed that Yehoshua, or Yeshua (Jesus), is the Messiah, who will appear at any time.

Scientists Make Powerful Antimatter Ray

Researchers at North Carolina State University have produced the world's most powerful antimatter beam. ‘There is a reactor in Munich, Germany, that has been generating those types of radiation beams for some time now, and our analysis of the data shows that we have exceeded what they have reported,’ Dr. Ayman Hawari, director of the Nuclear Reactor Program at North Carolina State, told the university's Web site. The beam, consisting of an intense burst of positrons, was generated at the school's PULSTAR campus nuclear reactor, which first went online in 1972. A positron is the ‘mirror image’ of an electron — it has the same weight and properties of the most basic atomic particle, but is positively rather than negatively charged.

China: U.S. missile shield threatens All

The placement of U.S. missile defenses in Europe will not ease global security concerns but will undermine the global strategic balance, the Chinese foreign minister said recently. Washington insists that the deployment of a radar in the Czech Republic and a missile interceptor base in Poland will protect the U.S. and its NATO allies from potential missile attacks coming from Iran or North Korea, despite Russia's objections. Speaking at a news conference after a meeting between foreign ministers of China, Russia and India, Yang Jiechi expressed hope that a new concept of global security, characterized by mutual trust and equal rights, could be established in the future. The Harbin meeting is the third stand-alone meeting of the foreign ministers from the three countries. New Delhi hosted the previous two meetings, which some experts and media said could be aimed at setting up a military-political alliance to counter the influence of the United States in the region. Russia's Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said at the news conference in Harbin that Russia has no plans to form a military union with India and China. He said Moscow is developing dialogue with the two Asian countries through bilateral as well as trilateral formats, within the framework of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization and other structures. "We are striving to jointly resolve key issues of security through multilateral dialogue, primarily by political and diplomatic means," Lavrov said. "There is no alternative to a multi-polar and equal-rights cooperation in the world if we want to respond effectively to the existing threats," he said.

Greenland's ice sheet melts

From the air, Greenland's ice sheet, the second largest on Earth, appears to be perfectly still. But below the surface, the ice sheet is in constant motion, as ice built up in the interior pushes toward the coast in the form of massive glaciers. During warmer months, ice from these glaciers melts into the ocean. It's an age-old process that scientists say has speeded up in recent decades because of global warming. The fear is that melting ice from Greenland and other Arctic areas could cause sea levels to rise enough to flood low-lying cities, such as Shanghai, China, and New York City, displacing millions of people in the process. A recent report from the U.N.'s Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, made up of scientists from around the world, estimates the sea level rise by 2100 could be as much as 1½ feet. "That sea level rise is only based on melt from ice sheets, and does not include a new fast flow of ice we have detected in Greenland that is generating additional icebergs," said Dr. Konrad Steffen, a climate scientist with the University of Colorado, Boulder. Steffen estimates sea levels could rise three feet over the next century, a stark prediction that could wreak havoc around the world if it comes to pass. Greenland holds enough ice to cause sea levels to rise 23 feet if the entire ice sheet melted, a development few scientists expect to happen anytime soon. But global sea levels have been rising at the rate of three millimeters per year since 1993. For each of the past 17 years, Steffen has spent one month at a remote research site called Swiss Camp, located 300 miles north of the Arctic Circle in Greenland. He monitors the changing ice sheet through a network of global positioning systems and weather stations, which have recorded a dramatic rise in temperatures since the mid-1990s. "When we came here in 1990, the first two, three years were actually colder than normal. Then in 1994, 1995, it started to warm steadily and since then, we've had a temperature increase during the winter months of 4.5 degrees centigrade, 8.1 degrees Fahrenheit, which is very large, the largest temperature increase on earth," he said.

SB 777 - Here Come the Language Police

We have only to look at recent legislation in California to see what happens when the popular notion of “tolerance” crosses into the realm of law. In California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger signed a bill in October 2007 that disallows the use of the words, Mom, Dad, husband and wife in California schools. The new language laws in California are an example of tolerance becoming militantly intolerant. But now gays and transsexuals are protected from any offence imagined or real. This is accomplished at the expense of offending over 95 percent of the heterosexuals and their families who reflect the make up of California schools. Is this tolerant?

US "Will Not" Let Iran Go Nuclear

The United States and other nations will not allow Iran to obtain a nuclear weapon, Vice President Dick Cheney said Sunday. "Our country, and the entire international community, cannot stand by as a terror-supporting state fulfills its grandest ambitions," Cheney said in a speech to the Washington Institute for Near East Studies. He said Iran's efforts to pursue technology that would allow them to build a nuclear weapon are obvious and that "the regime continues to practice delay and deceit in an obvious effort to buy time." If Iran continues on its current course, Cheney said the U.S. and other nations are "prepared to impose serious consequences." The vice president made no specific reference to military action. "We will not allow Iran to have a nuclear weapon," he said. Cheney's words seemed to only escalate the U.S. rhetoric against Iran over the past several days, including President Bush's warning that a nuclear Iran could lead to "World War III."

Microchips In Students School Uniforms

Students at a secondary school in South Yorkshire are being tracked by microchips sewn in their uniforms as part of a trial.The radio frequency identification system monitors pupils' movements, and automatically logs their attendance on the teacher's computer. It can also alert teachers if a student is likely to misbehave. The trial involves 10 students in whose uniforms this chip was embedded about eight months ago. Being used at Hungerhill School in Doncaster presently, the chip connects with teachers' computers to show a photograph of the students, data about their academic performance, and whether they are in the correct classroom. It can also restrict access to areas of the school. However, the new approach of tracking students' movement has drawn criticism from human rights campaigners. "Tagging is what we do to criminals we let out of prison early. It is appalling," Timesonline quoted David Cleater from Leave Them Kids Alone, which campaigns against the finger-printing of pupils, as saying. On the other hand, the school's head teacher, Graham Wakeling, has denied that they were adapting a "Big Brother" mentality. "The system is not intrusive to the pupil in the slightest. The benefit is that it provides the immediate registration of the pupil as they enter the classroom. This supports staff as they are getting to know pupils. All the information it provides is already stored on the school information management system," he said. He claimed that the children in the trial were the volunteers who are participating in it as a science project. A spokesman for the Department for Children, Schools and Families said it intended electronic registration to log attendance on a schools database, not "logging every detail of every pupil via covert means".

Quantum Warfare of the Future

Spookytechnology encompasses all functional devices, systems, and materials whose utility relies in whole or in part on higher order quantum properties of matter and energy that have no counterpart in the classical world. These purely quantum traits may include superposition, entanglement, decoherence (along with the quantum aspects of measurement and error correction) or new behavior that emerges in engineered quantum many-body systems.

Will Beast Technology Will Be Safe

You may not know what RFID stands for, but you're probably using the technology on a daily basis. RFID (that is, radio frequency identification) is in passports, in electronic toll-collection tags, in credit cards, metrocards, library books and car keys. Like conventional bar codes, RFID chips store and relay information, and allow for the identification of commercial products — and, now, of house pets and people too. Human "tagging" was approved by the Food and Drug Administration to facilitate retrieval of private medical records, but the procedure has had few takers. It's still purely voluntary and last week, California Gov. Schwarzenegger sought to keep it that way, signing a bill that makes it illegal for employers to force workers to have RFID devices implanted as a means for receiving paychecks or government benefits.

Military To Use Killer Robots

Among the many changes in U.S. policy after 9/11 was one that went unnoticed by everyone except a few geeks: The military quietly reversed its longstanding position on the role of robots in battlefields, and now embraces the idea of autonomous killing machines. There was no outcry from the academics who study robotics—indeed, with few exceptions they lined up to help, developing new technologies for intelligent navigation, locomotion, and coordination. At my own institute, an enormous space is being out-fitted to coordinate robotic flying, swimming, and marching units in preparation for some future Normandy.

Creating Life In The Laboratory

And rumours abound that closest to the finish line in constructing a lifeform in the laboratory is US genome-entrepreneur Craig Venter's research team. The plan is to re-synthesise these DNA sequences from simple chemicals, stitch them together and create an artificial organism. Some believe the team may be on the cusp of doing just that. Dr Venter's work on synthetic life is described by some as "top-down", meaning that he is taking an existing organism and changing it to create something new.

EU To Launch 'Wise Men Committee'

The European Union is getting ready to resume work on establishing a Committee of Wise Men that will discuss the future frontiers of the 27-nation bloc —a proposal initially put forth by French President Nicolas Sarkozy targeting Turkey's membership— as EU leaders have reached an agreement on the main principles in Lisbon recently, and will stamp the mandate of the Committee at a European Summit in December.

Tony Blair: Permanent EU President ?

Tony Blair has been placed in the frame to become the first permanent President of the EU after France launched a campaign to install him in the powerful new Brussels job. Nicolas Sarkozy, the French President, touted the former Prime Minister as his preferred candidate after Gordon Brown and fellow leaders agreed the EU Reform Treaty, which establishes the new post from January 2009.

Future with Genetically Enhanced Humans

The new Nobel laureate, like his former mentor Watson, has spoken enthusiastically of using the genetic science he's helped advance to engineer biologically enhanced children. The prospect of a renewed, high-tech eugenics is extraordinarily controversial, but it is not just a fantasy. It is coming ever closer to technical plausibility, and for a disturbing number of influential scientists and eccentric futurists, it is an agenda.... The conferees were quite explicit. Watson -- hardly known for his shyness or tact -- proclaimed to the audience of nearly a thousand, "If we could make better human beings by knowing how to add genes, why shouldn't we do it?" (As for the "better human beings" he has in mind, he told a British film maker in 2003 that he considers ten percent of children "stupid," and would like to see them genetically modified. "If you really are stupid, I would call that a disease," Watson said. He went on to argue for using genetic techniques to prevent the births of "ugly girls." "People say it would be terrible if we made all girls pretty," he explained. "I think it would be great.") Another conference attendee, Princeton mouse biologist turned futurist Lee Silver, has elaborated on this frankly eugenic vision. In Remaking Eden: Cloning and Beyond in a Brave New World (William Morrow: 1997), Silver eagerly imagines a future in which the appearance, personality, cognitive abilities, and sensory capacities of children become products of genetic modification. Silver acknowledges that the costs of such procedures would limit their widespread adoption, and predicts that over time society would segregate into castes that he dubs the "GenRich" and the "Naturals."

Canadians Can't Escape Big Brother

Canadians are hurtling toward a "wholesale surveillance society" where no phone conversation, e-mail exchange or instant messaging dialogue will ever disappear, thanks to new technology combined with corporate and governmental interests, warn leading privacy experts at an international privacy conference. "The notion that we could have conversations that disappear is, in fact, disappearing," said Bruce Schneier, author and chief technology officer of U.S.-based security firm BT Counterpane. "Everything we do today creates a transaction where it didn't before."

Iran To Fire '11,000 Rockets In Minute'

Iran warned recently that it would fire off 11,000 rockets at enemy bases within the space of a minute if the United States launched military action against the Islamic republic. "In the first minute of an invasion by the enemy, 11,000 rockets and cannons would be fired at enemy bases," said a brigadier general in the elite Revolutionary Guards, Mahmoud Chaharbaghi. "This volume and speed of firing would continue," added Chaharbaghi, who is commander of artillery and missiles of the Guards' ground forces, according to the semi-official Fars news agency.

WW III: Biblical War of Gog and Magog

US President George W. Bush said a nuclear Iran would mean World War III. Israeli newscasts featured Gog & Magog maps of the likely alignment of nations in that potential conflict. Channel 2 and Channel 10 TV showed the world map, sketching the basic alignment of the two opposing axes in a coming world war, in a manner evoking associations of the Gog and Magog prophecy for many viewers. The prophecy of Gog and Magog refers to a great world war centered on the Holy Land and Jerusalem and first appears in the book of Yechezkel (Ezekiel). On one side were Israel, the United States, Britain, France and Germany. On the other were Iran, Russia, China, Syria and North Korea. US President Bush said recently during a press conference that Iran attaining nuclear weapons raises the risk of "World War III." "If Iran had a nuclear weapon, it'd be a dangerous threat to world peace," Bush said. "So I told people that if you're interested in avoiding World War III, it seems like you ought to be interested [in preventing a nuclear Iran]…I take the threat of Iran with a nuclear weapon very seriously.” Russian President Vladimir Putin visited Iran on October 16 and slammed the US’s refusal to rule out the use of force against Iran’s nuclear project. "Not only should we reject the use of force, but also the mention of force as a possibility," he said. Russia has blocked tougher UN sanctions in the UN Security Council, where it has veto power.

Russian Plan To Dupe America Is Working

Russia cannot threaten the United States. She is poor. She is weak. She is starving. She is in chaos. Think again, says Stanislav Lunev. Col. Lunev is the highest ranking military intelligence officer ever to have defected from Russia. He did so in 1992 after the Soviet Union dissolved and Boris Yeltsin had come to power. At the time of his defection Lunev was living in Washington with his wife, working a cover job as a journalist for TASS, the Russian news agency, while doing his real job: spying on America.

No Christmas at Seattle airport

After unceremoniously removing all of its Christmas trees in the middle of the night last year, the Seattle-Tacoma International Airport this season will dispense with any religious symbols and just celebrate "winter." A panel that formed after the Port of Seattle Commission removed the airport's 17 red-ribboned trees, decided the new decorations will feature a grove of birches in Dacron snow, hung with crystals and mirrors to reflect low-energy lights, the Seattle Post-Intelligencer reported. The port drew international attention last year when its five elected commissioners reacted to a lawsuit threat by a rabbi who wanted to erect a menorah alongside the largest of Christmas trees. Rabbi Elazar Bogomilsky said, contrary to widespread news reports, that he never intended to have the trees removed. The Jewish leader said he was horrified by the decision, which spurred anti-Semitism and angry accusations. The port returned the trees about a week later after Bogomilsky told officials his organization, the Northwest Friends of Chabad-Lubavitch, a Hasidic Orthodox group, was not going to sue. This year, however, the port is taking no chances. "What I was hoping for was something that was cheerful and evocative of the holiday spirit, and as much to do with nature and evergreen trees as they could," Commissioner Pat Davis told the Seattle paper "We wanted to move forward without something that would get us back into any sort of controversy, and I think it is very creative. I hope the public likes it – it will take a while to get used to." The $300,000 airport display – now being assembled in a warehouse – will include foam migrating birds above the birch trees, which will be dusted periodically with non-toxic snowfall to the sound of wind chimes. The port said it rejected the menorah last year because it didn't want other religious groups pressing to have their own symbols' included.

Pandemics from Outer Space Possible?

Europe's Intelligencia Discuss The Future of Humans in Space The benefits of creating such a cross-disciplinary forum is that it was able to give guiding insight into how humankind will face possible issues, issues that can be best addressed in the light of modern understanding of historical events, including the philosophical and theological consequences of contacting alien intelligences, the marketing of space exploration, and the legal frameworks that will be needed if space-faring nations are to cooperate peacefully. Among the fascinating questions will be the possible impact of vastly superior forms of extraterrestrial intelligence on the world's religions.

Latest UFO Evidence Is Overwhelming

They are here, the government knows it and the proof is overwhelming. That's the sentiment to be presented by UFO researcher Robert Hastings at Clark University's Sackler Center on Wednesday, Oct. 24 at 8 p.m. Hastings's interest in UFOs stretches back to 1967, when he was at an air traffic control tower at Malmstrom Air Force Base in Montana. "Five UFOs were tracked on radar for several minutes and jets were launched to intercept them," Hastings says. "I later learned from Air Force sources that as the jets closed in, the UFOs performed a vertical ascent and left the area at enormous speed — far beyond the capability of any aircraft." True, it sounds like your typical UFO story and perhaps something from "The X-Files," but according to Hastings, evidence released by the government over the past few decades makes an overwhelming case that UFOs are not a matter of science fiction, but of documented fact. Offering declassified government documents, eyewitness accounts, photo evidence and testimony from former and retired military personnel, Hastings says many people, although familiar with UFO lore, are not aware of the breadth of information now available.

Self-Improving Chips with Speed Warping

A new, patent-pending technology developed over the last five years by UCR’s Frank Vahid, Professor of Computer Science and Engineering, called "Warp processing" gives a computer chip the ability to improve its performance over time. The benefits of Warp processing are just being discovered by the computing industry. A range of companies including IBM, Intel and Motorola’s Freescale have already pursued licenses for the technology through UCR’s funding source, the Semiconductor Research Corporation. Here’s how Warp processing works: When a program first runs on a microprocessor chip (such as a Pentium), the chip monitors the program to detect its most frequently-executed parts. The microprocessor then automatically tries to move those parts to a special kind of chip called a field-programmable gate array, or FPGA. “An FPGA can execute some (but not all) programs much faster than a microprocessor – 10 times, 100 times, even 1,000 times faster,” explains Vahid. “If the microprocessor finds that the FPGA is faster for the program part, it automatically moves that part to the FPGA, causing the program execution to ‘warp.’” By performing optimizations at runtime, Warp processors also eliminate tool flow restrictions, as well as the extra designer effort associated with traditional compile-time optimizations.

Superbugs: Where Are the Wonder Drugs?

The latest threat to America's health is a drug-resistant strain of bacteria, Streptococcus pneumoniae, that causes ear infections in children as well as pneumonia and meningitis in adults. It was first spotted in Czechoslovakia 20 years ago and wended its way across Europe, growing steadily resistant to more and more antibiotics. The latest and scariest sighting: Nine children in Rochester, N.Y., came down with a strain that shrugs off all 18 antibiotics approved for kids. The Rochester doctors who found the bug beat it into submission with Johnson & Johnson's (JNJ ) Levaquin, a drug for adults, but only after it left one child with permanent hearing loss.

Pandemics from Outer Space Possible?

Europe's Intelligencia Discuss The Future of Humans in Space The benefits of creating such a cross-disciplinary forum is that it was able to give guiding insight into how humankind will face possible issues, issues that can be best addressed in the light of modern understanding of historical events, including the philosophical and theological consequences of contacting alien intelligences, the marketing of space exploration, and the legal frameworks that will be needed if space-faring nations are to cooperate peacefully. Among the fascinating questions will be the possible impact of vastly superior forms of extraterrestrial intelligence on the world's religions.

His Mission Is To Hasten Armageddon

Muslims do believe an apocalypse will occur at the end times, which will be a time of total world chaos. At that time, a savior will appear, known as the Mahdi (also called the Hidden Imam or the Twelfth Imam). The Mahdi will usher in an era of peace and justice, as well as cause Islam to be the only religion on Earth. The Mahdi will rule for seven years and judge the world after that, according to Shiite belief. Ahmadinejad has publicly declared that one of his missions is to hasten and prepare for the return of the Mahdi. In a speech in Tehran on Nov. 16, 2005, Ahmadinejad said the primary goal of his regime was to "pave a path for the glorious reappearance of the Imam Mahdi." How? By the "creation of chaos on Earth." The way to hasten Mahdi's return, Ahmadinejad believes, is to hasten Armageddon.

Is The U.S. Ready For China?

Though our leaders are loath to admit it, the United States is almost two decades into what is likely to prove a protracted geopolitical rivalry with the People's Republic of China. The PRC is fast acquiring military capabilities that will allow it to contest America's long-standing preponderance in the Western Pacific. In Asia and beyond, Beijing is working assiduously to enhance its own influence while at the same time seeking quietly to weaken that of the United States. Meanwhile, China continues to run huge trade surpluses with the United States, accumulating vast dollar holdings and advancing rapidly up the technological ladder into ever more sophisticated industries.

Prescribe 'the pill' at middle school?

Students who have parental permission to be treated at King Middle School's health center would be able to get birth control prescriptions under a proposal that the Portland School Committee will soon consider. The proposal would build on the King Student Health Center's practice of providing condoms as part of its reproductive health program since it opened in 2000, said Lisa Belanger, a nurse practitioner who oversees the city's student health centers. If the committee approves the King proposal, it would be the first middle school in Maine to make a full range of contraception available to some students in grades 6 to 8, said Nancy Birkhimer, director of teen health programs for the Maine Department of Health and Human Services. Most middle schoolers are ages 11-13. Although students must have written parental permission to be treated at Portland's school-based health centers, state law allows them to seek confidential health care and to decide whether to inform their parents about the services they receive, Belanger said. Proponents say a small number of King students are sexually active, but those who are need better access to birth control. Of 134 students who visited King's health center during the 2006-07 school year, five students, or 4 percent, reported having sexual intercourse, said Amanda Rowe, lead nurse in Portland's school health centers. "This is a service that is totally needed," Rowe said. "It's about very few kids, but they are kids who don't have the same opportunities and access as other students." The percentage of middle school students in Maine who reported having sexual intercourse dropped from 23 percent in 1997 to 13 percent in 2005, according to the Maine Youth Risk Behavior Survey. "Thirteen percent is still more than one in 10 students," Birkhimer said.

Staph Germs Toll Is Higher Than Thought

A dangerous germ that has been spreading around the country causes more life-threatening infections than public health authorities had thought and is killing more people in the United States each year than the AIDS virus, federal health officials reported recently. The microbe, a strain of a once innocuous staph bacterium that has become invulnerable to first-line antibiotics, is responsible for more than 94,000 serious infections and nearly 19,000 deaths each year, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention calculated. Although mounting evidence shows that the infection is becoming more common, the estimate published today in the Journal of the American Medical Association is the first national assessment of the toll from the insidious pathogen, officials said. "This is a significant public health problem. We should be very worried," said Scott K. Fridkin, a medical epidemiologist at the CDC.

Terror Of The Superbug Explosion

Official figures show that in the first three months of 2007 more than 15,500 patients caught stomach bug Clostridium difficile. According to the Health Protection Agency, that was a rise of almost a quarter on the previous three months. And there are fears that by the end of the year the number of patients infected could pass 60,000, a dramatic increase on the 44,000 cases in 2004. Just a day after it emerged that 90 patients had died from the bug in one hospital trust alone, the full extent of the danger became clear. A damning report by the Healthcare Commission revealed that shoddy care, dirty wards and a lack of nursing staff had speeded the death of more than 300 patients at Maidstone and Tunbridge Wells NHS Trust. Last night, air ambulance staff were refusing to land patients at Maidstone, one of the trust’s three hospitals, over safety fears. Kent Air Ambulance said it had written to the trust “to obtain guarantees and assurances that the infection problem is under control”. Even health officials admit the bug is “endemic” across the NHS and could prove tough to stamp out.

Preparedness Key, Even If Aliens Attack

Presidential hopeful Rudy Giuliani on Sunday said preparedness will be key for all crises, even an attack from outer space. During a town hall meeting in Exeter, a young questioner asked the former New York mayor about his plan to protect Earth. "If (there's) something living on another planet and it's bad and it comes over here, what would you do?" the boy asked. "Of all the things that can happen in this world, we'll be prepared for that, yes we will. We'll be prepared for anything that happens," said Giuliani.

Police Can Disable New Cars on Demand

General Motors plans to equip 1.7 million of its 2009 models with a system that allows OnStar operators to cut engine power in the car if the police request it. The system was demonstrated in Washington, D.C. today. GM's OnStar system already contains built-in GPS tracking that would allow police to find any OnStar-equipped vehicle. With the new technology, if the police request it, an OnStar operator will inform the occupants of the vehicle and then cut power. The engine will be slowed to idle speed, to allow the driver to move to the side of the road. Brakes and other electrical functions of the vehicle will still work.

'Metamaterial' May Be Cloaking Device

The new substance is a "metamaterial" that negatively refracts light. Metamaterials with this property raise the theoretical possibility that light could bend completely around an object, making it effectively invisible. Scientists are awed by the implications of metamaterials. "These materials would comprise a complete -- almost magical -- mastery over light," said David Schurig, an assistant professor of electrical and computer engineering at North Carolina State University, who did not participate in the new research. "They would enable not just invisibility cloaking, but arbitrary control over the richest information channel humans employ. One thing I know for sure, it will happen sometime between now and the technological singularity." Previous studies have led to mathematical models for cloaking devices, but much of the work remains on theoretical physicists' drawing boards because of manufacturing constraints. Schurig designed the first conceptual invisibility cloak. The new material, developed by a Princeton-based research team, is the next step in putting those models to work in the part of the spectrum we can see. The material operates in the infrared spectrum, which is between the lower frequency rays that cook hot dogs in your microwave and the higher frequency rays that allow you to see your food. Higher frequencies -- the ones we can see -- mean smaller wavelengths, and that means researchers have to miniaturize their already microscopic designs, a process at the bleeding edge of current technology. "An optical cloak could eventually be built that would work through the full range of frequencies," said Willie Padilla, a Boston College physics professor.

A Plan For Eternal Life, New Technique

Sandberg and his fellow transhumanists plan to bypass death by using technologies such as artificial intelligence (AI), genetic engineering and nanotechnology to radically accelerate human evolution, eventually merging people with machines to make us immortal. This may not be possible yet, the transhumanists reason, but as long as they live long enough - a few decades perhaps - the technology will surely catch up.

Program To Fund Human Cloning

A pro-life law firm that was behind the lawsuit against California's stem cell research agency for allegedly violating various state laws says the program is now backing human cloning. The Life Legal Defense Foundation (LLDF) says the California Institute for Regenerative Medicine (CIRM) is going further than just funding stem cells. California voters created CIRM after approving Proposition 71, which authorized $3 billion in state bond revenue for stem cell research programs. The law firm is speaking out because CIRM has announced it will begin selling the bonds to finance more research and the firm wants Californians to know where there money will go. CIRM created a furor when it initially supported only embryonic stem cell studies, which involve the destruction of human life. LLDF told LifeNews.com that California residents now have another reason to be upset at the state panel. “What most people may not be aware of is the fact that researchers in California have actually been given the 'green light' to clone living human embryos for the purpose of harvesting their embryonic stem cells,” the group's director Dana Cody said.

"Biotech Bugs" Stop Spread of Diseases

Scientists are researching ways that genetically modified (GM) insects could be used to stop the spread of diseases that affect livestock and crops, reduce pesticide use and create pharmaceutical proteins, said speakers at a "Biotech Bugs" conference held recently in Washington. However, speakers said, more regulations need to be developed, and must be clear and coordinated among government agencies to ensure that the development of improved insects includes adequate risk assessments. "U.S. regulatory policies will be an important building block in the development of international policies regarding GM insects," according to a report called "Bugs in the System?" from the Pew Initiative on Food and Biotechnology, which sponsored the meeting. Researchers are particularly looking into ways that genetically modified insects could be used to control pests, saving millions of dollars in pest control costs and crop losses, and dramatically reducing the amount of pesticides applied to fields, according to a Pew report. Scientists are hoping to improve insects by increasing their ability to feed on weeds and pest insects through longer life spans, better toleration of climatic differences and greater resistance to disease and pesticides, according to the report. The report summarizes other science-based insect modification efforts. For instance, scientists want to improve a genetic program currently being used in California to control pink bollworms, a threat to cotton fields. They want to engineer the pest able to carry a gene that would prevent pest's offspring from maturing.

Survey 'Entire Human Instruction Book'

The National Human Genome Research Institute (NHGRI), part of the National Institutes of Health (NIH), just announced grants totaling more than $80 million over the next four years to expand the ENCyclopedia Of DNA Elements (ENCODE) project, which in its pilot phase yielded provocative new insights into the organization and function of the human genome. "Based on ENCODE's early success, we are moving forward with a full-scale initiative to build a parts list of biologically functional elements in the human genome," said NHGRI Director Francis S. Collins, M.D., Ph.D. "The ENCODE pilot, which looked at just 1 percent of the human genetic blueprint, produced findings that are reshaping many long-held views about our genome. ENCODE's effort to survey the entire genome will uncover even more exciting surprises, providing us with a more complete picture of the biological roots of human health and disease." While the sequencing of the human genome was a major scientific achievement, it was just the first step toward the ultimate goal of using genomic information to diagnose, treat and prevent disease. In recent years, researchers have made major strides in using DNA sequence data to help find genes, which are the parts of the genome that code for proteins.

Trees With Rabbit Genes Speed Cleaning

Genetically modified plants that can break down pollutants may be an effective way to clean soil contaminated by industrial chemicals and explosives used by the military, according to scientists. Tests on six-inch tall GM poplar cuttings which had a gene from a rabbit inserted into them showed that they could remove up to 91% of a chemical called trichloroethylene from the water used in their feed. This chemical, used as an industrial degreaser and one of the most common contaminants of ground water, was broken down by the plants into harmless byproducts more than 100 times faster than by unaltered plants.

The Island of Dr. Moreau For Real

Fact, it has been said, is stranger than fiction. And fiction can be pretty strange. Take, for instance, an 1896 novel by famous English thinker, H.G. Wells, "The Island of Dr. Moreau." As one can see from the date of its publication, the book was written on the threshold of a new century, and Wells, famous as a "futuristic" thinker, was trying to look ahead. The premise of the novel is that a scientist, on a secluded island, undertakes experiments to combine humans and animals. One might call this simply a wild and crazy idea, but a harmless one for a novel, an idea producing plenty of chills and thrills for readers and for moviegoers. After all, it would never happen in real life. Well, hold onto your hats. It is about to happen. Not here (at least, not yet), but in England. On Sept. 5, a government agency (called the Human Fertilization and Embryology Agency or HFEA) decided to let scientists, mad or otherwise, create human/animal hybrids. Let me repeat: Science fiction will become science fact very soon; and man and beast will be combined into one.

Orwells 1984 In 2007

In "1984," the novel that most baby boomers read in high school, George Orwell creates a theoretical modern-day government with absolute power - a state in which government, called the Party, monitors and controls every aspect of human life to the extent that even having a disloyal thought is against the law. On Sept. 26, a federal judge in Eugene ruled that crucial parts of the USA Patriot Act are unconstitutional because they allow federal surveillance and searches of American citizens without demonstrating probable cause.... In "1984," the Party barrages citizens with psychological stimuli designed to overwhelm the mind. The giant telescreen in every room monitors behavior. People are continuously reminded of government's surveillance, especially by omnipresent signs reading, "BIG BROTHER IS WATCHING YOU." Individuals are encouraged to spy on each other, even children on their parents, and report any instance of disloyalty to the Party - i.e., government. "1984" is happening in 2007.

A New Search For Alien Signals

The first radio telescope dedicated to the search for extraterrestrial intelligence (SETI) has formally started operations. The first phase of the Allen Telescope Array, which is being built near Hat Creek, California, US, has begun functioning with 42 radio antennas. When complete, the ATA will have 350 dishes, each about 6 metres wide. Until now, the SETI project has relied on time borrowed from instruments like the Arecibo radio telescope in Puerto Rico, and has had little control over the extent and nature of the observations. The Allen Telescope Array, however, named for Microsoft co-founder Paul Allen, who donated seed money for the project, will allow SETI astronomers to survey the skies for signs of alien intelligence 24 hours a day, seven days a week. "This will be the first time that we can actually have a telescope [with] the characteristics we can determine," says Jill Tarter, director of the Center for SETI Research in Mountain View, California.

France to strengthen video surveillance

France will triple its number of video surveillance cameras by 2009 as part of the fight against terrorism and street crime, Interior Minister Michele Alliot-Marie said recently. Alliot-Marie told Le Monde newspaper video surveillance was relatively undeveloped in France. "The latest attacks in London were prevented thanks to their video surveillance system, (which is) 10 times more developed than ours," she told Le Monde. An official report put the number of authorized cameras in France at about 340,000, Le Monde said. Alliot-Marie said the Paris public transport network would expand its surveillance network to 6,500 cameras, while systems operating in provincial cities would be progressively linked to police control rooms. France stepped up security measures after the 2005 attacks in London's transport system that killed 52 people. French authorities have said gang violence is a growing problem in Paris, which has seen repeated clashes between rival gangs in recent months. Alliot-Marie last month announced the creation of a special police unit on youth violence and said information collected by video surveillance should be shared among different services. French police hope a mini spy-in-the-sky drone the size of a toy glider will help them track rioters and fight crime.

Sinclair Reveals Holy Grail Location

Why build a chapel so close to a church, he asked. There’s no reason, unless …. “Rosslyn Chapel was not built as a place of worship. It was built as a repository for secrets,” Sinclair said. Evidence that the chapel is actually a reconstruction of the Temple of Herod only fuels the mystery. “All the pillars are laid out to a precise plan according to ancient history,” according to Sinclair, and “the ritual references carved into the stone have been created as a clue for the individual who will one day unlock the mysteries of Rosslyn.” If there are indeed mysteries to be unlocked, unlocking them may lead to some of the most earth-shattering archaeological discoveries in history. Sinclair is hopeful that, in due time, those mysteries will be unlocked, he said. He makes no claims as to what the Holy Grail actually is, but he believes he knows where to find it. “The Holy Grail is down below in the vaults,” Sinclair assured. “Believe me, the Holy Grail is down below.”

'God' censored from Disney ad

The producer of an upcoming animated Hollywood feature starring the creator of the universe, "The Ten Commandments," claims Radio Disney censored the words "chosen by God" from a radio ad for the film. Promenade Pictures founder and CEO Frank Yablans – a former partner of Walt Disney himself – told WND he had no choice but to go ahead with Radio Disney's version of his ad after paying for the spot. "I could go to jail for what I would like to do to them," the studio pioneer said. "It's just outrageous that in the United States of America they won't allow the name of God." The line "Chosen by God" was replaced in the 30-second spot with the line "From Promenade Pictures." The non-profit Christian legal group Liberty Counsel announced today it has launched a petition drive to ask Radio Disney to "stop its ridiculous censorship of the word 'God.'