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Reverses the spin of the media, the downward cultural spiral and seeks out wonders, the 'miraculous' and Spirit as it shows its fiery face.
'Eighty Thousand People Dead’; Cholera Cases Reported-5/9
U.N. Suspends Aid Shipments to Myanmar After Government Confiscates the Donations-5/9
Military junta wants foreign relief supplies but not foreign workers-5/9 I am reminded of the story on George Soros' Open Society Institute and how they like to go in under humanitarian conditions and then try to mold a country to their left-wing ideals. Editor
Hezbollah overruns west Beirut as Lebanon on brink-5/9
N. Korea gives U.S. nuclear papers dating back to 1990-5/9
China detains 32 monks in Chushul County-5/9
Situation extremely tense in Xiahe County, defiant monks in front of media tour disappears-5/9
Dutch report: Espionage activities by China and Russia have increased-5/8
China eyes overseas land in food push-5/8
Reports of death by starvation in rural N. Korea-5/9
Global free market for food and energy faces biggest threat in decades-5/8 Ambrose Evans-Pritchard
A Gulf in Giving: Oil-Rich States Starve the World Food Program-5/9
Oil price jumps above $126 for first time-5/9
The Ultimate Conservative Nightmare? McCain/Clinton ticket-5/9
Code Pink Protesters Try Witchcraft at Berkeley Anti-Marine Rallies-5/9
Nuclear missiles parade across Red Square-5/9 AFP, Nuclear missiles and tanks paraded Friday across Red Square for the first time since the Soviet era but new President Dmitry Medvedev warned other nations against "irresponsible ambitions" that he said could start wars. Marching bands and 8,000 troops goose-stepped across the square, followed by a huge display of heavy weapons including Topol-M ballistic missiles and T-90 tanks, and a fly-by of warplanes. ...
Amazon Under Threat From Cleaner Air-5/9 ScienceDaily, The Amazon rainforest, so crucial to the Earth's climate system, is coming under threat from cleaner air say prominent UK and Brazilian climate scientists in the journal Nature. ...
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Portraits of the Dalai Lama in Ngaba Kirti Monastery destroyed by Chinese authorities-5/9 TCHRD, Around 28 March 2008, a strong contingent of People's Armed Police and Public Security Bureau (PSB) officials stormed the Ngaba Kirti Monastery in Ngaba (Ch: Aba) County, Sichuan Province, to search for incriminating materials in the monastery. Earlier hard evidence in the form of photographs depicting the authorities brutal crack down on the protests which led to death of scores of Tibetans in the area have reached the outside world causing major embarrassment to the government of the People's Republic of China. During the raid the officials ransacked each and every room in the monastery thus insulting and harassing the monks. The pictures [above] depict portraits of the Dalai Lama on display at the monastery prayer wheel hut which were either pierced, torn, scrubbed or removed by the officials during the raid. end
Iran clerics rebuke Ahmadinejad over 'hidden imam'-5/9 AFP, Clerics have told President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad to stick to more worldly issues after he was quoted as saying the "hidden imam" of Shiite Islam was directing Iran. Ahmadinejad has always been a devotee of the Mahdi, the twelfth imam of Shiite Islam, who Shiites believe disappeared more than a thousand years ago and who will return one day to usher in a new era of peace and harmony. But in a speech to theology students broadcast by state television on Monday, Ahmadinejad went further than ever before in emphasising his belief that the Mahdi is playing a critical role in Iran's day-to-day politics. "The Imam Mahdi is in charge of the world and we see his hand directing all the affairs of the country," he said in the speech, which appears to date from last month but has only now been broadcast. "We must solve Iran's internal problems as quickly as possible. Time is lacking. A movement has started for us to occupy ourselves with our global responsibilities, which are arriving with great speed." Two leading clerics retorted that Ahmadinejad would be better off concentrating on Iran's social problems -- most notably its double-digit inflation -- than indulging in such mystical rhetoric. ...
Zimbabwe farm workers 'forced to flee'-5/9 Telegraph (UK), by Sebastian Berger-- Around 40,000 Zimbabwean farm workers have had to flee as a result of the violence inflicted by Robert Mugabe's mobs since the country's general election in March, a union leader has said. ... If they are not in the district where they are registered when the second round of the presidential election finally happens, they will be unable to vote against Mr Mugabe. ...
The Secret Internet Simulator-5/7 Strategy Page, DARPA, the U.S. Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency, has been ordered (by the president and Congress) to develop world-class offensive and defensive Cyber War capabilities. Initial emphasis will be on defensive measures. This is a big deal. DARPA hasn't been given this large a project since Russia launched the first space satellite in 1957. This alarmed the U.S. government more than it should have, and DARPA was ordered to catch up with the Soviet Union as quickly as possible. Money was no object. Time was of the essence. Unlike the space program boost of half a century ago, the current DARPA rush program will be highly secret. Cyber War is all about secrets. Who has what and what can they do with it. But a major problem with Cyber War is that it rarely makes the news, or at least in any really coherent way. It's not that Cyber War isn't important, it's just that all this geek stuff is hard to explain and just does not sound all that scary. In the competitive news business, Cyber War is not good news. But to the intel and security people, the U.S. has been under heavy assault for several years now. The losses of information have been huge, and it's not certain just how much, and what, has been stolen. All this will be big news in a decade or so when more details emerge about the extent of the losses. But for now, it's just one of those stories no one could wrap their heads around. Senior members of the U.S. government have become alarmed, though, which is why this new, top secret, "Manhattan Project" (as in the one that built the atomic bomb during World War II) for Cyber War underway. Cyber War is all about finding flaws in Internet software and using those flaws to infiltrate or take over other peoples computers. In addition to the usual software flaws (that serve as exploits), there is also a growing number "malware" type software. This stuff is best known as "adware" programs that users, often unknowingly, download onto their PCs. That results in more ads, or ads based on a careful examination of what the user does, say, when using their browser. There are hundreds of thousands of these little nasties out there, and Cyber War operators have found this stuff to have military and espionage use. In the middle of all this you have military users of exploits. These are the shadowy organizations, particularly in China and the United States, where exploits are stockpiled (and soon replaced as the exploit is rendered ineffective via a software patch) for use in wartime. China, and probably the United States, are already using their exploits arsenals for espionage, and counter-espionage. Many criminal gangs also do contract work, usually for espionage operations. Some corporations have been caught doing this as well. Only small players have been caught so far, with the possible exception of News Corp. Any large corporation going this way would put a premium on not getting caught. Chinese firms are particularly energetic in stealing technology, and producing their own versions. They are often quite blatant about it, especially if it's military technology (which means government protection from retribution.) The Russians are trying to force the Chinese government to crack down on this, without much success so far. The United States, and many other Western nations, are also going after China for the use of Internet based espionage. Again, so far, the Chinese are refusing to admit to it, much less slack off. Western Cyber War experts are urging some retaliation in kind. That could get interesting. ...
She [Hillary] has one thing in common with President Bush: Neither of them has an exit strategy. Letterman
It has been reported that Barack Obama has been negotiating for Hillary Clinton to go away. When he heard this, Bill Clinton said, “I’d love to know how that works.” Conan
John McCain’s wife was heard saying that they own eight or nine homes. McCain’s wife denies this and said, “What I said is, I tried to put him in a home eight or nine times.” Conan
Barack Obama picked up four more superdelegates this week. Those are the party big shots whose votes mean more than our votes for some reason. Even so, it’s nice to see a politician pick up something other than a prostitute every once in a while. Kimmel
The Democrats are in a tough spot: If the superdelegates nominate Clinton, they will alienate a lot of African-American voters. If Obama wins, there are going to be a lot of disappointed women voters, which is why I think more than ever we need a president Oprah. Kimmel
Taiwan F-16s-5/9 Wash. Times, Inside the Ring; By Bill Gertz-- The Bush administration is divided over plans to sell Taiwan advanced F-16 jets, with the State Department opposing the sale and the U.S. military favoring the transfers. Defense officials say the U.S. Pacific Command, which is in charge of U.S. forces in Asia and would lead any U.S. defense of Taiwan from Chinese attack, wants the White House to approve the sale and do so sooner rather than later because of the growing imbalance of military forces in the area. Taiwan's air force currently flies about 150 F-16A/B model jet fighters that were purchased in 1992. Taiwan in May 2006 told the U.S. government that it wants to buy 66 F-16C/D models to counter a growing Chinese missile and aircraft threat across the Taiwan Strait. China has some 1,000 missiles within range of Taiwan and also has Russian-made Su-27 jets armed with advanced missiles in the area. But State Department officials want the sale postponed in order to avoid upsetting China prior to the Olympic Games, saying that Beijing already is angry at the protests that have dogged the worldwide Olympic torch relay over its military crackdown on Tibet. These officials want to delay the F-16 sales until after the games or later. China considers Taiwan a renegade province and calls U.S. arms sales an interference in its internal affairs. The Pentagon's latest annual report to Congress on the Chinese military, made public in March, stated that China continues to deploy its most advanced weapons, including missiles and aircraft, opposite Taiwan. The report said the Chinese military expansion is shifting the cross-Strait military balance in Beijing's favor. Taiwan's legislature last year approved a long-awaited defense spending budget of $8.9 billion for 12 P-3 anti-submarine patrol craft, six Patriot anti-missile system upgrades and sea-launched surface-to-air missiles. However, the State Department is blocking or slowing Taiwanese plans to purchase eight submarines, Patriot missiles and Apache attack helicopters. ...
David Guttenfelder / APMarines ignore opium — Taliban's cash crop-5/8 AP/MSNBC, Marines fear locals would fight back if they destroyed the lucrative plants-- The Marines of Bravo Company's 1st Platoon sleep beside a grove of poppies. Troops in the 2nd Platoon playfully swat at the heavy opium bulbs while walking through the fields. Afghan laborers scraping the plant's gooey resin smile and wave. Last week, the 24th Marine Expeditionary Unit moved into southern Helmand province, the world's largest opium poppy-growing region, and now find themselves surrounded by green fields of the illegal plants that produce the main ingredient of heroin. The Taliban, whose fighters are exchanging daily fire with the Marines in Garmser, derives up to $100 million a year from the poppy harvest by taxing farmers and charging safe passage fees — money that will buy weapons for use against U.S., NATO and Afghan troops. Yet the Marines are not destroying the plants. In fact, they are reassuring villagers the poppies won't be touched. American commanders say the Marines would only alienate people and drive them to take up arms if they eliminated the impoverished Afghans' only source of income. Many Marines in the field are scratching their heads over the situation. "It's kind of weird. We're coming over here to fight the Taliban. We see this. We know it's bad. But at the same time we know it's the only way locals can make money," said 1st Lt. Adam Lynch, 27, of Barnstable, Mass. The Marines' battalion commander, Lt. Col. Anthony Henderson, said in an interview Tuesday that the poppy crop "will come and go" and that his troops can't focus on it when Taliban fighters around Garmser are "terrorizing the people." "I think by focusing on the Taliban, the poppies will go away," said Henderson, a 41-year-old from Washington, D.C. He said once the militant fighters are forced out, the Afghan government can move in and offer alternatives. An expert on Afghanistan's drug trade, Barnett Rubin, complained that the Marines are being put in such a situation by a "one-dimensional" military policy that fails to integrate political and economic considerations into long-range planning. "All we hear is, not enough troops, send more troops," said Rubin, a professor at New York University. "Then you send in troops with no capacity for assistance, no capacity for development, no capacity for aid, no capacity for governance." Most of the 33,000 U.S. troops in Afghanistan operate in the east, where the poppy problem is not as great. But the 2,400-strong 24th Marines, have taken the field in this southern growing region during harvest season. In the poppy fields 100 feet from the 2nd Platoon's headquarters, three Afghan brothers scraped opium resin over the weekend. The youngest, 23-year-old Sardar, said his family would earn little money from the harvest. "We receive money from the shopkeepers, then they will sell it," said Sardar, who was afraid to give his last name. "We don't have enough money to buy flour for our families. The smugglers make the money," added Sardar, who worked alongside his 11-year-old son just 20 yards from a Marine guard post, its guns pointed across the field. Afghanistan supplies some 93 percent of the world's opium used to make heroin, and the Taliban militants earn up to $100 million from the drug trade, the United Nations estimates. The export value of this harvest was $4 billion — more than a third of the country's combined gross domestic product. ...
Chávez Aided Colombia Rebels, Captured Computer Files Show-5/9 Wall Street Journal, by Jose de Cordoba and jay Solomon-- A cache of controversial computer files closely tying Venezuela's President Hugo Chávez to communist rebels seeking to topple Colombia's government appear to be authentic, U.S. intelligence officials say. The trove -- found on a dead guerrilla leader's laptops during a military raid in March -- is likely to ratchet up pressure for the U.S. to impose sanctions on one of its most important oil suppliers. ...
Wheat disease threatens supplies-5/9 Wash. Times, by David R. Sands-- A lethal variant on an ancient disease affecting wheat has spread from its base in Africa to Iran and now threatens vast fields in South Asia, the Middle East and Europe at a time of global food shortages, agricultural specialists warn. The new strain of wheat-stem rust, first identified in Uganda nine years ago, is threatening crops during a global crisis over rising food prices ... Wheat represents nearly a third of the world grain-crop production and a fifth of the world's caloric intake ...
Climate-change politics about power-5/7 Fort Worth Star-Telegram [TX], by Paul Driessen-- America faces severe housing, financial, energy, food, unemployment and recessionary shocks. But legislators, bureaucrats and presidential candidates are poised to make them worse by imposing onerous climate change taxes and further restricting fossil fuel use. ... Earth warmed a degree during the last quarter century as it emerged further from the Little Ice Age, and humans probably played a role. However, hundreds of scientists say there is no evidence of a looming climate catastrophe ...
Closer encounter: Nasa plans landing on 40m-wide asteroid travelling at 28,000mph-5/9 Guardian (UK), by Ian Sample-- It was once considered the most dangerous object in the universe, heading for Earth with the explosive power of 84 Hiroshimas. Now an asteroid called 2000SG344, a lump of rock barely the size of a large yacht, is in the spotlight again, this time as a contender for the next giant leap for mankind. Nasa engineers have identified the 1.1m tonne asteroid, which in 2000 was given a significant chance of slamming into Earth, as a potential landing site for astronauts, ahead of the Bush administration's plans to venture deeper into the solar system with a crewed voyage to Mars. The mission - the first to what officials call a Near Earth Object (NEO) - is being floated within the US space agency as a crucial stepping stone to future space exploration. A report seen by the Guardian notes that by sending astronauts on a three-month journey to the hurtling asteroid, scientists believe they would learn more about the psychological effects of long-term missions and the risks of working in deep space, and it would allow astronauts to test kits to convert subsurface ice into drinking water, breathable oxygen and even hydrogen to top up rocket fuel. All of which would be invaluable before embarking on a two-year expedition to Mars. Under the Bush administration, Nasa has been charged with sending astronauts back to the moon, beginning in 2020 and culminating in a permanent lunar outpost, itself a jumping off point for more distant Mars missions. With the agency's ageing fleet of space shuttles due to be retired soon after 2010, the agency has begun work on a replacement called Orion and a series of Ares rockets that will blast them into orbit. In a study due to be published next month, engineers at Nasa's Johnson Space Centre in Houston and Ames Research Centre in California flesh out plans to use Orion for a three to six month round-trip to the asteroid, with astronauts spending a week or two on the rock's surface. ...
Who says big ideas are rare?-5/9 New Yorker, by Malcolm Gladwell -- Nathan Myhrvold met Jack Horner on the set of the “Jurassic Park” sequel in 1996. Horner is an eminent paleontologist, and was a consultant on the movie. Myhrvold was there because he really likes dinosaurs. Between takes, the two men got to talking, and Horner asked Myhrvold if he was interested in funding dinosaur expeditions. Myhrvold is of Nordic extraction, and he looks every bit the bearded, fair-haired Viking—not so much the tall, ferocious kind who raped and pillaged as the impish, roly-poly kind who stayed home by the fjords trying to turn lead into gold. He is gregarious, enthusiastic, and nerdy on an epic scale. He graduated from high school at fourteen. He started Microsoft’s research division, leaving, in 1999, with hundreds of millions. He is obsessed with aperiodic tile patterns. (Imagine a floor tiled in a pattern that never repeats.) When Myhrvold built his own house, on the shores of Lake Washington, outside Seattle—a vast, silvery hypermodernist structure described by his wife as the place in the sci-fi movie where the aliens live—he embedded some sixty aperiodic patterns in the walls, floors, and ceilings. His front garden is planted entirely with vegetation from the Mesozoic era. (“If the ‘Jurassic Park’ thing happens,” he says, “this is where the dinosaurs will come to eat.”) One of the scholarly achievements he is proudest of is a paper he co-wrote proving that it was theoretically possible for sauropods—his favorite kind of dinosaur—to have snapped their tails back and forth faster than the speed of sound. How could he say no to the great Jack Horner? “What you do on a dinosaur expedition is you hike and look at the ground,” Myhrvold explains. “You find bones sticking out of the dirt and, once you see something, you dig.” In Montana, which is prime dinosaur country, people had been hiking around and looking for bones for at least a hundred years. But Horner wanted to keep trying. So he and Myhrvold put together a number of teams, totalling as many as fifty people. They crossed the Fort Peck reservoir in boats, and began to explore the Montana badlands in earnest. They went out for weeks at a time, several times a year. They flew equipment in on helicopters. They mapped the full dinosaur ecology—bringing in specialists from other disciplines. And they found dinosaur bones by the truckload. Once, a team member came across a bone sticking out from the bottom of a recently eroded cliff. It took Horner’s field crew three summers to dig it out, and when they broke the bone open a black, gooey substance trickled out—a discovery that led Myhrvold and his friend Lowell Wood on a twenty-minute digression at dinner one night about how, given enough goo and a sufficient number of chicken embryos, they could “make another one.” ...
Spain claims $500 million (silver coins) in sunken treasure-5/9 PhysOrg/AP, by Harold Heckle-- Officials demanded the return of the booty recovered last year by a U.S. deep-sea exploration firm, saying the 19th-century shipwreck at the heart of the dispute is the Nuestra Senora de las Mercedes - a Spanish warship sunk by the British navy southwest of Portugal in 1804 with more than 200 people on board. ...
Prophecy
- ♦Admiral Richard Byrd
- ♦Blessed Virgin
- ♦Buddhist Prophecy
- ♦Christian Mystics
- ♦Dannion Brinkley
- ♦Edgar Cayce
- ♦El Morya on Armageddon
- ♦El Morya on Prophecy, the New Era and the Age of Maitreya
- ♦The Four Horsemen
- ♦General Washington's Vision
- ♦George Washington & McClellan
- ♦Hindu Prophecy
- ♦Mitar Tarabich
- ♦Mother Shipton's Prophecy
- ♦Native American Prophetic Warning
- ♦Ned Dougherty
- ♦Nostradamus
- ♦Nostradamus and SARS
- ♦Other NDE's
- ♦NDE and the Future
- ♦Phylos the Thibetan
- ♦Progressive Revelation
- ♦Ron Paul
- ♦Solzhenitsyn: A World Split Apart
- ♦St. Malachy
- ♦Sean David Morton and the Bible Code
- ♦Screwtape: The Real Manchurian Candidate?
- ♦Vision of the New-Jerusalem
- Psychic prediction is based on man's free will and is sometimes more accurate but not necessarily God's Will. True prophecy comes from God as a warning for man to change his ways and pray for intercession. If mankind makes the course correction then calamities can be averted. Editor
Monks assemble for the Ananda Festival in Bagan, in January 2008. They will be feted with gifts and praise from people from miles around. Photo:RFA/Tyler Chapman
‘We Love Our Monks’-5/7 Radio Free Asia, Tyler Chapman-- Monks play a pivotal role in Burma, and never more so than in times of crisis. In his reporter's diary, veteran journalist Tyler Chapman describes what he observed of this unique relationship between monks and ordinary citizen when he attended the Ananda Festival in Bagan this year.-- Bagan — Let there be no doubt: The so-called ‘saffron revolution’ last September has only enhanced the Burmese people’s reverence for their Buddhist monks. "We love our monks," a café owner in Bagan told me during this year’s Ananda Festival in January. And not just in Bagan, with its spectacular landscape of 11th century pagodas and temples. All across the country during a month-long visit earlier this year, I saw an outpouring of support for monks and nuns, from children filling their alms bowls with food to people donating money for their monasteries and orphanages. Perhaps most impressive, however, was the annual Ananda Festival in Bagan, where thousands of monks and novices gathered to accept alms from people who had come from far and wide, many in ox carts. The people gave whatever they could afford—some a bowl of peanuts or a bunch of bananas, others pinwheels of cash—distributed one-by-one to the monks as they passed by a huge platform laden with gifts. As the monks emerged, several women were bowing, their palms together as a sign of reverence. One woman was handing out cash to each of the monks. ...
Hoax thrust area into slavery debate-5/7 Advocate Reporter, by By L.B. Whyde-- Trying to preserve the Union during a tumultuous time in history, several prominent local men conspired and manufactured artifacts to support an emerging anti-slavery theory. Known as Newark's Holy Stones, the artifacts later were proven to be fake. But two local men have done extensive research to discover the reasons behind the conspiracy. ...
The Baby Confucius is Presented to Lao TsuConfucianism and Its Rivals-5/6 New at Sacred Texts; by Herbert A. Giles, [1915]
China is home to two major world religions, Confiucianism and Taoism, and also played an important role in the historical development of a third, Northern Buddhism. Eventually, Confucianism became the state religion, and, purged of metaphysical aspects, the dominant Chinese religion until the 20th century. Other religions, including Christianity, Judaism, and Islam, have all had indigenous expressions as well. Giles covers the entire history of Chinese religion in this book, which was originally delivered as one of the Hibbert lectures in 1914. Herbert Allen Giles (b. Dec. 8, 1845, d. Feb. 13, 1935), was a British diplomat and an old China hand. He is best known for his role in developing the Wade-Giles system of transliterating Chinese. Giles was the father of Lionel Giles, who was also a distinguished orientalist, and translator of Sun Tzu's Art of War, among others.
Title Page
Preface
Contents
Lecture I. B.C. 3000-1200
Lecture II. B.C. 1200-500
Lecture III. B.C. 500-300
Lecture IV. B.C. 300-200
Lecture V. B.C. 200-A.D. 100
Lecture VI. A.D. 100-600
Lecture VII. A.D. 600-1000
Lecture VIII. A.D. 1000-1915
IndexThe Most Recent Articles
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• Milarepa: magician, murderer, saint: Movie Review
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Book Reviews
Codex 632: A Secret History of Christopher Columbus; Book Review: I was lured by the favorable reviews on the back of this hardbound. It was said to be like the DaVinci Code only better. Well, it started out like the DaVinci Code but it fell far short. It is not a thriller for one thing. Having said that, the book did hold my interest throughout. The author is adept at writing history in a suspenseful way. The subject was very interesting to say the least. Much about Cristobal Colon is not known. Turns out this was on purpose by the man himself. Many fascinating facts are revealed, nothing earthshaking. but interesting nevertheless. I recommend it as a paperback. It's not quite worth the full price I paid for it. Editor, Reverse Spins
Astrology
Reverse Spins' Astrology section including recommended astrologers.
Astrology in newspapers is incomplete. One needs to be aware of how transits and all the planets affect daily life. You can actually track personal and planetary karma, enabling you to make a prayer beforehand and act accordingly. Editor
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Roman Catholic Church recognizes 17th century apparitions of Virgin Mary to French shepherdess-5/5
The Story of Our Lady Of Laus-5/5 Catholic Tradition.org, Situated in Dauphiné, in southern France at the foot of the Alps, just southeast of Gap, is the vale of Laus. Its name means lake in the local dialect as there once was one at the bottom of the basin. In 1666 the hamlet held twenty households scattered in little huts. The inhabitants had built a chapel dedicated to the Annunciation, Notre-Dame de on Recontre [Our Lady of the Good Encounter, meaning Annunciation]. It was here that Our Lady chose to appear in another "Good Encounter", several times to to a humble, unschooled girl, Bl. Benoite Rencurel: "I asked my Son for Laus for the conversion of sinners, and He granted it to me," said the Blessed Virgin to the young shepherdess. Benoite had learned suffering early in life as she was born into extreme poverty which was made worse when her father died when she was only seven. Our seeress was born in 1647, in September, but two months before the birth of Saint Margaret Mary, future confidante of the Sacred Heart. Creditors were unrelenting to Benoite's widowed mother and so her children had to labor to maintain the family. Benoite was not only a help but a protection for her mother, who had faithfully taught her children the Our Father, Hail Mary, and the Creed. One day she saw some men heading for the house and she ran to warn her mother, fighting off one of them who dared to offer her money in exchange for her virtue. By the time Benoite was twelve the family was in even worse straits, so she took employment tending sheep for two masters at the same time. Thus, it was in the bosom of deprivation, sacrifice and prayer that the future Saint was preparing for her predestined mission. In May of 1664, she was seventeen, praying the Rosary, her favorite devotion, watching her flock, when suddenly an old and venerable man, clothed in the vestments of a bishop of the early Church, came up to her and said:
"My daughter, what are you doing here?"
"I'm watching my sheep, praying to God, and looking for water to drink."
"I'll get some for you," replied the elderly man. And he went to the edge of a well that Benoite had not seen.
"You're so beautiful!" she said. "Are you an Angel, or Jesus?"
"I am Maurice, to whom the nearby chapel [then it ruins] is dedicated . . . My daughter, do not come back to this place. It is part of a different territory, and the guards would take your flock if they found it here. Go to the valley above Saint-Étienne. That is where you will see the Mother of God."
"But Sir, She is in Heaven. How can I see Her there?"
"Yes, She is in Heaven, and on earth too when She wants."
Very early the next morning, Benoite hastily led her flock to the indicated spot, the Vallon des Fours (Valley of Kilns), so called because the hill above this valley contained gypsum, which the village inhabitants extracted and fired to make plaster for their buildings. Benoite had just arrived in front of a little grotto that was on the site when she saw a Lady of incomparable beauty holding a no less beautiful Child by the hand. She was ravished by the sight. Despite Saint Maurice's prediction, however, the naive shepherd girl could not imagine that she was in the presence of the Mother of God. Thinking that she was seeing a mere mortal, she said very innocently:
"Lovely Lady, what are You doing here? Did You come to buy some plaster?"
Then, without waiting for an answer, she added: "Would You be so kind as to give us this child? He would delight us all!"
The Lady smiled without answering. Charmed and won over, Benoite admired the beautiful Lady. At mealtime she took a piece of bread and said:
"Would You like to eat with me? I've got some good bread; we can dip it in the spring."
The Lady smiled again and continued letting her enjoy Her presence, going in and coming out of the cavity in the rock, approaching Benoite and moving away from her. Then, when evening came She took the Child in Her arms, entered the grotto and disappeared. The following day and for the next four months, Benoite contemplated on that site the Joy of the Angels and the Ornament of Heaven. The shepherd girl's face was transfigured right from the start; she shared her happiness with everyone in cheerful simplicity. Seeing the change in her, people began to wonder, "What if it should be the Blessed Virgin she is seeing?" Benoite did not know this herself, and she never dared to ask the Lady, who gave her all this joy, who She was. Before making Benoite Her friend and the dispenser of Her graces, the Blessed Virgin strongly attached the shepherd girl's soul to Herself with irresistible attraction. Then, after two months of silence, She made her Her pupil and began to speak in order to teach, test and encourage her. ... the Virgin Mary gave Benoite the exceptional privilege of reading into souls. ... Inspired by Heaven, Benoite urged sinners to set their conscience in order; she enlightened those who could not see and, if necessary, revealed forgotten or hidden sins. She could "see consciences the way we see in a mirror, all at once," she said. She revealed faults, grievous and lesser sins, hidden motives, hypocrisy, and errors often committed unconsciously. She required simplicity and purity of soul, humility and a firm will to improve. She would even take away from the Communion rail people who were not in the state of grace. Benoite often had to make painful observations and say things that were not easy to hear, but she was so kind and compassionate that people were generally very grateful to her. After speaking with her they were resolved to purify every aspect of their consciences in order to amend their lives. Her hardest task was to reprimand or warn certain souls at Our Lady's behest. When she would put of this duty, the Blessed Virgin would defer a visit. ... Powerful and touching story, you should read the rest. Mother Mary through Benoite, anchored the Light in Laus and France through the reigns of two Kings, most of Louis XIV reign and the beginning of Louis XV reign. (1664 - 1718). EditorBlood on the Dancefloor-5/9 Société Perillos, Bloodline has been at least three years in the making, and at one time was hoped to star as a real-life alternative to The Da Vinci Code, when that hit the movie theatres worldwide in the spring of 2006. After an embarrassing year of publicised yet missed deadlines, Bloodline has finally seen something of a release – in two theatres, one in New York, one in LA. It is billed as “BLOODLINE investigates the popular belief that Jesus married Mary Magdalene, who fled to southern France with their child. In an adventure worthy of ‘Indiana Jones’, filmmaker Bruce Burgess and team crack the shadowy secret society, known as the Priory of Sion. Their investigation follows clues linking the Knights Templar and the legend of Mary Magdalene with messages imbedded in the decor of the famed church at Rennes-le-Chateau in France, leading ultimately to stunning discoveries: a buried chest with artifacts dating to 1st century Jerusalem and a hidden tomb filled with treasure and a mummified corpse draped in a shroud bearing a distinctive red cross.” What might be a clever reference to Indiana Jones, of course, is time-wise an unfortunate misstep, for what is amongst the smallest releases of the year, goes up against Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull – the largest release Paramount has ever seen, and possibly the largest revenue earner in the history of cinema. Already, it underlines how far the Rennes-le-Château subject seems to have fallen since The Da Vinci Code hype three years ago, when Bloodline began its journey. ...
Flipping poles: Studies suggest that the Earth's magnetic field (pictured) is reducing, of concern because it protects us from the ravages of solar wind. Image: NASA
Earth's poles long overdue for reversal-5/7 Cosmos, by Claire Thomas-- A reversal of the Earth's magnetic poles could happen sooner than we think, according to Dutch scientists who report that the planet's magnetic field is becoming gradually less stable. A reversal could affect everything from navigation and communications equipment to the composition of the atmosphere, say experts. The report, published today in the U.K. journal Nature Geoscience, found that reversals have been far more common in the last 200 million years than they were deep in the planet's history. Researchers, led by Andrew Biggin of the University of Utrecht in the Netherlands, made the discovery by analysing rocks formed between 2.45 to 2.82 billion years ago. The story of the Earth's magnetic field is written in rocks over time. Because these rocks become 'magnetised' at the time of their formation, scientists can discover which direction the poles were facing and how strong the Earth's magnetic field was at that time. The magnetic poles wander around the vicinity of the geographic poles all the time – the north magnetic pole currently resides in the Canadian Arctic. However, at relatively regular intervals throughout the 4.5 billion year history of the planet, the magnetic poles have flipped completely. A few thousand years before a reversal, the magnetic field gradually gets weaker; something which could cause problems for inhabitants of the planet. "The Earth's magnetic field is important for shielding the atmosphere, and us, from damage caused by the solar wind," explained Biggin. "It's also used by us and other species for navigation". An increase in solar wind would disrupt communications equipment and power grids. Current records suggest that we are long overdue for our next reversal, he said. "On average, there is a reversal around every 400,000 years, but this varies a lot." The geological record suggests that the last reversal was around 800,000 years ago. Furthermore, there is already evidence to show that the field has been weakening over the last few centuries – some archaeological remains suggest that the field was far stronger in the time of the Roman Empire, some 2,000 years ago. ...
The Knights Templar? Vampires? Timur Bekmambetov? I'm In!-5/6 Variety/First Showing, by Alex Billington-- After bringing us both Night Watch and Day Watch and now debuting Wanted this June, Timur Bekmambetov will be producing a Middle Ages vampire horror flick next. Titled The Knights Templar, the film puts a horror spin on the famed organization of fighters from the Middle Ages, with the Knights Templar, fresh from the Crusades, forced to fend off an invading vampire army set on destroying the Holy Grail. ... I'm out. Editor
Malaysian court allows Muslim convert to go back to Buddhism-5/9
Water as Fuel Supplement-5/9 Coast to Coast Recap
St Edmund’s Masonic Church-5/9 Philip Coppens, Labelled by experts as a “temple to Freemasonry” and “a total concept as exotic as Roslin Chapel in Scotland”, St Edmund’s Church in Rochdale (Greater Manchester) is one of England’s hidden gems. So much so, that it is totally unknown.--
St. Edmund’s Church, off Falinge Road in Rochdale – now largely seen as a suburb of Manchester – might lay claim to being Britain’s greatest Masonic secret. Alas, unlike Rosslyn Chapel, it is unlikely to feature in Dan Brown’s The Solomon Key, where the bestselling author of The Da Vinci Code tackles Freemasonry, taking us no doubt from one “Masonic monument” to the next. Though Rosslyn Chapel, the star of The Da Vinci Code, is often seen as a Masonic church, in truth, only certain modifications from the late 19th century contain some references to the Craft. St Edmund’s, however, was built by Freemasons, and apparently for Masons, not so much as a church, but as a Temple of Solomon. Many Rochdale churches from the 19th century have Masonic symbolism, such as Christchurch in Healey, but none can compare to St Edmund’s. The church was designed by James Medland Taylor, with input from Albert Hudson Royds, sponsor and Freemason, and the fist incumbent, E.W. Gilbert, artist and Freemason. The church has been described as “probably James Medland Taylor’s finest work.” The foundation stone was laid in 1870, in the northeast corner of the building – as Masonic ritual stipulates. The lewis bolt with which the stone was suspended and the working tools with which it was proved, were subsequently handed over to St Chad’s Lodge, No. 1129, in Rochdale. The church was opened on May 7, 1873, with various Masonic ceremonies held. The cost of its construction is known to have been at least £28,000, whereas the cost of a “normal church” in those days was roughly £4000. No wonder therefore that Sir Nikolaus Pevsner catalogues the church as “Rochdale’s temple to Freemasonry, a total concept as exotic as Roslin Chapel in Scotland.” Pevsner added that “Almost every fitting and feature has reference to the Lore of masonry.” The Masonic design of this church begins with its placement within the landscape. It stands on a diamond-shaped churchyard, the focus of four streets, at the highest point of the town. Like King Solomon’s Temple on the top of Mount Moriah, so St Edmund’s dominates the skyline of Rochdale. But apart from Masonic planning, the church was also built with intervisibility between the church and Mount Falinge (the Royds family home nearby) in mind. Mount Falinge, of which only the windowless facade exists today, is now alas neglected. Alas, so is St Edmund’s. St Edmund’s Church is the brain and/or lovechild of Albert Hudson Royds, a most prominent and wealthy Mason. The earliest traces of the Royds family are to be found at Soyland, then a small town approximately five miles south-west of Halifax, and can be traced back to one John del Rode, who died in 1334. The Royds family remained in the Halifax area until approximately 1500, when they relocated to Rochdale, roughly twenty miles away from their home. Wool apparently made the family rich and in 1786, James Royds of Falinge purchased land at Brownhill and later, in the same area, built Mount Falinge, which was built in a commanding position on sloping land between Cronkeyshaw and Falinge Road. ...Buddha's Birthday-5/9 Wall Street Journal, by David A. Mason-- One of Buddhism's ancient legends holds that many people brought portable lanterns to illuminate one of Sakyamuni Buddha's evening sermons, most of them quite fancy ones donated by wealthy laymen. But then a strong wind blew out all of them except for a humble one donated by an impoverished old woman, and the Buddha proclaimed that her simple piety had proven to be the most virtuous. According to karma, she would surely be rewarded with enlightenment. On Monday, Sakyamuni's birthday -- known simply as "Buddha's Birthday" -- will be celebrated in South Korea to huge fanfare. Every temple in the nation will open its gates to visitors for the dawn celebrations; the pinnacle of a full three weeks of parades, music and dancing. Taken together, these events represent a powerful reminder that Buddhism is once again resurgent in Korea. Around a quarter of all South Koreans now call themselves Buddhists, up from less than 10% a century ago. It's a long-awaited comeback. Korea's celebrations of Buddha's Birthday date back to the fifth century during the Three Kingdoms Era, and became huge festivals during the Goryeo Dynasty (918-1392) in which Buddhism was the official national religion. For the next 500 years, however, Korean Buddhism steadily declined due to suppression by the ruling Neo-Confucianists, to the point where it was only celebrated in rural mountain areas. In the 1960s, modern-day South Korea established Buddha's Birthday as the nation's only Buddhist holiday -- not because it is the most religiously important Buddhist commemoration, but because Korean Christians, a fast-growing constituency, insisted on Christmas as a public holiday. Buddha's Birthday was adopted as the day to recognize and celebrate the country's other major faith, as a gesture of even-handed parallelism. Ironically, Buddhism's resurgence in Korea has been achieved partly through imitating many of the Christians' social-propagation techniques, such as running kindergartens, medical services and homes for the aged. But unlike their Christian counterparts who are divided into myriad rival Protestant sects, Korean Buddhists are exceptionally well-organized and unified. Around 85% of the temples, monks, nuns and lay believers belong to just one sect, the Jogye Order. Korean Buddhism has also amplified its resurgence by opening itself up to the outside world, reviving ancient Asian traditions of Buddhist missionary activities. Korean Buddhist groups now operate charitable programs in impoverished Asian regions and missionary-teaching centers in dozens of other countries in North America, Europe and the former Soviet Union. This kind of rapid globalization could hardly have been imagined when I first visited Korea in 1982, and found its Buddhism to be nearly completely insular, with information in English very hard to come by. And more people are getting exposed to the religion in Korea. Out of all the country's holidays, Buddha's Birthday has become the clear tourist favorite. Little wonder -- it's fun. The Lantern Parade held earlier this month in Seoul featured thousands of participants, most dressed in traditional Korean clothing, symbolic costumes or monastic robes, carrying glowing lanterns or accompanying floats of an amazing variety of designs, sizes and colors. The gigantic flowing spectacle, which started at sunset, ended in a joyful street celebration that ran until nearly midnight, with plenty of traditional rituals, music and dancing. On Monday, every temple in Korea opens its gates to any visitors, either Korean or foreign, who would like to watch or participate in the rituals that start at dawn. The clergy will ring giant bells, then line up to ladle flower-perfumed water on statues of Sakyamuni standing as a newborn, therefore symbolically "bathing the baby Buddha." It's a wonderful celebration of Buddhist culture, and one that Koreans -- and foreigners -- will see much more of in the years to come. Mr. Mason is a Professor of Korean Tourism at Kyung Hee University in Seoul. He is the author of "Spirit of the Mountains" (Hollym International, 1999). end
Conservation work being performed on the 13th century Cosmati pavement, constructed from medieval coloured tile and gemstone, at Westminster Abbey. Photograph: Graham Turner
Carpet of stone: medieval mosaic pavement revealed-5/5 The Guardian, by Maev Kennedy -- The wraps have come off one of Westminster Abbey's least known treasures, a medieval marble pavement foretelling the end of the world, while conservation experts consider how to preserve the ancient stones for the next 740 years. Few modern visitors have ever seen it, although since 1268 kings and princes, queens and cardinals have walked across a symbol laden mosaic as intricate as a piece of jewellery. It is made up of rare marbles and gemstones, including some recycled from monuments 1,000 years older, and pieces of coloured glass, set in complex allegorical patterns into a framework of Purbeck marble cut as intricately as a jigsaw puzzle. "When this floor was new it would have blazed with colour," Vanessa Simeoni, the abbey's head of conservation said. "The materials were chosen for their brilliance and shine, and the quality of the craftsmanship is actually shocking, the ultimate that could be achieved." The mosaics are known as Cosmati work, after the four generations of a Roman family of marble workers who perfected the technique. The Westminster one, regarded as the finest north of the Alps, uniquely has an inscription boasting of its makers - and a cryptic message about the end of the world. It was laid in the 1260s, when Henry III sent his new Abbot of Westminster, Richard de Ware, for talks with the Pope in Rome. The Englishman saw a newly installed pavement in the Pope's summer residence, knew it was just the thing for the cathedral which Henry was spectacularly rebuilding around the tomb of St Edward the Confessor, and arrived home with a ship load of marble, glass and Italian craftsmen. Ware's reward was his own tomb incorporated into the design. Henry's tomb, and the saint's shrine, were originally covered in similar work, but all the scraps of marble and glass were picked out as sacred relics by generations of pilgrims. Only a handful of brass letters remains of the original long inscription, but it was transcribed centuries ago. It names the king, the chief craftsman as Odoricus, gives the date in a tortuous riddle, and then mysteriously suggests that the world will last for 19,683 years, by adding together the life spans of different animals: "add dogs and horses and men, stags and ravens, eagles, enormous whales ...." ...
Eat like a caveman for a healthy heart-5/9 A “caveman diet” of berries, nuts, lean meat and fish could help reduce the risk of developing heart disease, a new study shows. ... And do lots of jogging as if you were running from a hungry dinosaur. Editor
Early Americans chomped on seaweed-5/9 Reuters, Chewed-up or burned seaweed discarded more than 14,000 years ago confirm that people were in Chile at least that long ago and sheds light on what their culture was like, researchers report. ...
Child cured of anencephaly through intercession of Virgin of Lujan completely normal-5/9
Little friend of a lifetime: The heartbreaking friendship between two tiny girls with cancer-5/6
12,000 children in China now have deadly virus-5/5 Most of those with hand, foot and mouth disease are under age 2
Breast-fed children found smarter-5/5
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