The Lessons of War From History

I think it is great that people remember the lessons of history. They remember the bad times when despots and dictators became too bold and invaded bordering countries in order to conquer their part of the world. An example within memory of most people today is when Saddam and his 'generals' invaded Kuwait, and later launched many missiles into Israel and Saudi Arabia. (Invasion started: 2 August 1990. ... http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gulf_War )
(See also: "Iraqi Missile Strikes" into Israel for six weeks: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gulf_War#Iraqi_missile_strikes_on_Israel_and_Saudi_Arabia )

Older people will remember the appeasement folly at the start of the Second World War.
The "flawed" (Munich Agreement) treaty signed by Neville Chamberlain in 1938 was called 'appeasement' -- meaning, the policy of acceding to the demands of a potentially hostile nation in the hope of maintaining peace. The golden rule is probably never trust the word of a despot or a dictator (or a common criminal for that matter). A dictator, in particular, doesn't usually care what other people say. In the end, dictators do exactly what they want to do (and they make their people do it) -- that's the definition of a dictator.

If the leaders of Great Britain, France and Poland had been blessed with enough foresight in 1938 they could have lined up their combined forces along the Polish border and rejected the advancing Nazi forces.
In the modern world it isn't hard to know when a hostile nation is moving their armed forces into battle-ready positions. There are lots of satellites that can help with that sort of intelligence. So having enough foresight, or making educated predictions isn't quite so important. The leaders can make decisions based on solid facts.

By the way, most people want a peaceful world, but realistic people know that occasionally the human race produces despots or tyrants, and countries must maintain credible *defense* forces, so that the potential invaders won't be quite so bold. ... Also, in the nuclear age (since the Second World War) there has been a concept known as "Mutually Assured Destruction" -- it would be M.A.D. for one nuclear capable country to attack another. The concept is responsible for maintaining relatively sane relations between the nuclear capable countries.
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Feather and Hammer Dropped on the Moon

"At the end of the last Apollo 15 moon walk, Commander David Scott performed a live demonstration for the television cameras. He held out a geologic hammer and a feather and dropped them at the same time. Because they were essentially in a vacuum, there was no air resistance and the feather fell at the same rate as the hammer, as Galileo had concluded hundreds of years before - all objects released together fall at the same rate regardless of mass."
"During the final minutes of the third extravehicular activity, a short demonstration experiment was conducted. A heavy object (a 1.32-kg aluminum geological hammer) and a light object (a 0.03-kg falcon feather) were released simultaneously from approximately the same height (approximately 1.6 m) and were allowed to fall to the surface. Within the accuracy of the simultaneous release, the objects were observed to undergo the same acceleration and strike the lunar surface simultaneously, which was a result predicted by well-established theory, but a result nonetheless reassuring considering both the number of viewers that witnessed the experiment..."
http://nssdc.gsfc.nasa.gov/planetary/lunar/apollo_15_feather_drop.html

Click on the links in the article to see 'Quicktime' videos of the demonstration.
Note that you may need Apple's Quicktime player installed on your PC.

In case you're wondering - yes, it is essentially a vacuum on the Moon because it doesn't have enough gravity to attract and retain an atmosphere. Moons and smaller objects in Space are not big enough to have a strong gravity.
The Earth captured the Moon because it is so much more massive than the Moon. The planets in the Solar System are a very long way from each other, and therefore they don't attract each other. The Sun retains its planets because it is so much more massive than the planets.

By the way, if the planets ever form a rough lineup on one side of the Sun *nothing* is going to happen!! -- and if some people tell you that the Earth and the Sun are going to lineup with some part of the Milky Way you can tell them that *absolutely**nothing* is going to happen!! The distance between our Solar System (on one of the outer rings) and the center of the Milky Way is about 30,000 light years. A light year is the distance that light travels, in Space, in one year. (wow!) So it is very safe to assume that those people don't know what they are talking about, and they are just trying to scare you, and make money from books, videos, and even survival kits!!
See the graphics of the Solar System and the Milky Way on this page :-
http://foresight-of-hindsight.blogspot.com/2008/08/our-solar-system-appears-to-be-unique.html
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First Amendment May Not Protect Church's Protest

[Note. (Jan. 12, 2011) - please page down to the end of the post for the latest news.]

by Mara Gray, AoL News, Dec. 10, 2010.
[extracts]
"The Westboro Baptist Church can say what it likes on its website, but that doesn't mean the group has a right to picket Elizabeth Edwards' funeral with its hate-filled message."

"That's according to legal experts, who say it's likely that the Kansas-based church won't be covered under the First Amendment on Saturday when it protests the funeral of John Edwards' estranged wife, who died Tuesday at the age of 61 after a six-year battle with breast cancer."

" 'First Amendment law makes it clear that the Westboro Church can indulge in vicious lunacy on its website. But the First Amendment does not confer the right to speak anywhere at any time,' Steven Shiffrin, a law professor at Cornell University and a First Amendment scholar, said in a statement to AOL News today."
_more here_

See also :-

Westboro Baptist Church Outnumbered At Elizabeth Edwards' Funeral
by Caitlin Tadlock, AllVoices, Dec. 13, 2010.
"It seems the attention grabbing religious group from Topeka, Kansas failed to cause a major stir at their latest protest, thankfully." ...
... "Former Senator John Edwards, her estranged husband, and their three children joined friends and family at the service."
_more here_ (includes 34 photographs).

Legal arguments :-
Snyder v. Phelps, First Amendment - Freedom of Speech. Oct. 6, 2010.
_click here_

"The Westboro Baptist Church is a fundamentalist Christian church that contends that God kills soldiers in Iraq and Afghanistan as punishment for America's tolerance of homosexuality and for the presence of gays in the U.S. military. The church operates a number of websites, including www.godhatesfags.com, on which it disseminates its rabidly anti-homosexual views. The church has gained notoriety for staging protests at the funerals of U.S. soldiers in order to draw attention to its message."
Source: _Citizen Media Law Project_

Video: "Westboro Baptist Church Protests" -- debate on Fox News :-

YouTube page :- http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6UMP3AK5jwo

NB. The Westboro 'Baptist' Church isn't associated with any mainstream Baptist organization.
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Arizona Legislature To Announce Anti-Westboro Law To Protect Shooting Victims
by Nick Wing, The Huffington Post, January 11, 2011.
[extract]
"Arizona's state legislature has announced a legislative effort to combat the infamous Westboro Baptist Church's plans to picket the funerals of the shooting victims in Tucson over the weekend."
" 'We're going to try to protect the families from undue harassment,' State Rep. Daniel Patterson (D), one of the leaders of a bipartisan group of legislators, told Talking Points Memo Monday."
_more here_
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The Language of Abusive Churches - Part 1 [repost]

Does your church (or did your old church) use these words and phrases to manipulate and control the members of the group?
(Compiled by Bill Newcomer and other contributors for the Battered Sheep Ministry.)
Please go here to see the explanations :- http://www.batteredsheep.com/church-speak.html

1 - A bitter spirit* - - - - - - - - Y / N
2 - A family matter - - - - - - -- Y / N
3 - A jezebel spirit - - - - - - - - Y / N
4 - A rebellious heart - - - - - -- Y / N
5 - A rebellious spirit - - - - - -- Y / N
6 - Accountable - - - - - - - - - Y / N
7 - Angry - - - - - - - - - - - - - Y / N
8 - Apostate - - - - - - - - - - - Y / N
9 - Backslider - - - - - - - - - - - Y / N
10 - Bad attitude - - - - - - - - -- Y / N
11 - Because I'm the pastor, that's why!** - Y / N
12 - Black sheep - - - - - - - - - - Y / N
13 - Congregationalism - - - - - -- Y / N
14 - Critical spirit - - - - - - - - -- Y / N
15 - Disfellowshipping - - - - - - -- Y / N
16 - Dissident - - - - - - - - - - -- Y / N
17 - Divisive - - - - - - - - - - - -- Y / N
18 - Don't be bitter* - - - - - - - - Y / N
19 - Don't be petty - - - - - - - - - Y / N
20 - Free will - - - - - - - - - - - -- Y / N
21 - Love gifts - - - - - - - - - - -- Y / N
22 - May I remind you I am the pastor!** - Y / N
23 - Oh, they just use the doctrine of men - Y / N
24 - Oversight - - - - - - - - - - --- Y / N
25 - Prodigal son/daughter - - - - -- Y / N
26 - Singleness - - - - - - - - - - -- Y / N
27 - Slander - - - - - - - - - - - --- Y / N
28 - Teachable - - - - - - - - - - -- Y / N
29 - The truth is here - - - - - - --- Y / N
30 - The "Work" - - - - - - - - - - -- Y / N
31 - The "World" - - - - - - - - - --- Y / N
32 - This is a safe church - - - - --- Y / N
33 - Troublemaker - - - - - - - - - -- Y / N
34 - Unsubmissive - - - - - - - - - -- Y / N
35 - Unteachable - - - - - - - - - --- Y / N
36 - Unwilling to reconcile - - - - - -- Y / N
37 - We are a "nondenominational" church - Y / N
38 - We don't do things that way - -- Y / N
39 - We don't want to overreact - --- Y / N
40 - We don't want to take sides - --- Y / N
41 - We don't want to throw the baby out with the bath water - Y / N
42 - You need to be open and transparent - Y / N

[This article was originally posted in this blog on December 5, 2008. You can see it, and some comments _here_ ]

See Part Two _here_
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How The Maya Calendar Works

Extracts from this website :-
http://www.chaacreek.com/how-the-maya-calendar-works/

"The Maya were remarkable mathematicians and astrologers, and certainly some of history's most proficient, accurate keepers of time. To appreciate the Maya concept of time, it is important to understand the different [ie. more than one] calendar systems they developed and how they were used." ...

"The 'Tzolk'in' or 'Sacred Round' calendar consists of a 260 day cycle." ...
"It is useful to think of the Tzolk’in as two intermeshing gears, one inside the other, with the 13 numerals marked at intervals around the smaller gear set inside a larger one that is marked with day names denoted by glyphs." ...

"The 'Haab' calendar is based on the cycle of the sun and was used for civil, agricultural, accounting and administrative purposes." ...

"To measure, record and predict events over longer periods of time, the Mesoamericans developed the 'Long Count'. Long Count dates are the ones usually recorded on monuments and stellae." ...

"It is widely accepted that the Long Count's "zero”, or creation date was August 11 3114BC, and that this marked the end of a previous world and the beginning of the current one, and it is further conjectured that the end of this current thirteenth b'ak'tun will fall on the Maya date 13.0.0.0.0, or December 21 2012." ...
"This event has been given much attention in recent times and unfortunately has been subject to gross misinterpretations of Maya history and cosmology. Sensational films, television shows, internet exposure and other media present the end of the 13th b'ak'tun as “proof” of an impending apocalypse and global destruction. In fact, most serious Maya scholars and contemporary Maya daykeepers and other accepted spiritual and village leaders consider it to be simply the end of one cycle of time and the beginning of another."
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Online Safety For Kids -- Info For Parents

YouTube page :- http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y2TqQSiWSes
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Global Temperature Anomaly

This experimental widget uses the UAH lower troposphere temperature data as well as the Mauna Loa CO2 data combined with NOAA SWPC solar information.

The largest temperature spike in the middle of the graph is for 1998.
Please note that the abbreviation 'ppm' is parts per million. So 390.58 is the equivalent of 0.039 percent of the atmosphere.

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Click on this image to get your own widget for your blog's sidebar.

... or just copy all of this html code :-

[a href="http://wattsupwiththat.com/widget/"][img alt="Click to get your own widget" src="http://cache4.intelliweather.net/wcw/world_climate_widget_sidebar.gif" title="Click to get your own widget" width="166" height="223" /]

(Change all of the bold brackets to angled brackets.)

You could increase the width to 332 and height to 446 to get an image that is twice as big -- but the resulting image is a bit fuzzy. As can be seen further down this page, in the right-hand sidebar.
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The GW theory primarily says that when you get increased levels of the minor atmospheric gas CO2 you should also get an increased average global temperature.
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Belize Maya Prepare For 2012 Celebrations

by Travel Video News, September, 2010.
[extracts]
"...Dr Awe, one of Belize’s foremost archaeologists, was speaking at a preliminary launch of a new Belizean website dedicated to the 2012 celebrations planned for this tiny Central American nation. Dr Awe also laughed off suggestions that the Maya feared 2012 would herald in the Apocalypse, as suggested by the popular film 2012 and numerous internet sites."

" 'Hollywood drama has very little to do with the reality of what the Maya Calendar and Long Count calculations are all about. This represents the ending of one cosmological cycle, and the beginning of another. It’s very much the way most people would look at the end of a millennia and the beginning of another, but over a very, very long period of time. It is an event that will mark the completion of a great cycle and a time for reflection, and for considering future direction,' he said."
_more here_
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Expert Rubbishes Solar Storm Claims

by Stuart Gary, ABC Science Online, August 27, 2010.
[extracts]

"Australia's leading body responsible for monitoring space weather has dismissed claims that a massive solar storm could wipe out the Earth's entire power grid.

"One report quotes an Australian astronomer as saying 'the storm is likely to come sooner rather than later'.

"But Dr Phil Wilkinson, the assistant director of the Bureau of Meteorology's Ionospheric Prediction Service, says claims that this coming solar maximum will be the most violent in 100 years are not factual.

" 'All this talk about gloom and doom has selling power, but I'm certain it's overstated,' he said."
_more here_
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