VIVIAN, SD – A small South Dakota town is being recognized for a big find after last Friday’s storms.

It was Friday afternoon when a line of thunderstorms fired up in central South Dakota. High winds, heavy rains and even a possible tornado rolled through the town of Vivian. But now days later, [...]]]>

VIVIAN, SD – A small South Dakota town is being recognized for a big find after last Friday’s storms.

It was Friday afternoon when a line of thunderstorms fired up in central South Dakota. High winds, heavy rains and even a possible tornado rolled through the town of Vivian. But now days later, a hailstone picked up just moments after the storm is getting worldwide attention.

The damage is proof that it wasn’t a typical South Dakota thunderstorm. Holes were punched through the top of buildings, and Les Scott will never forget what it sounded like.

“A guy throwing bricks at the house and many of them and it was scary,” Scott said.

Scott watched as massive hailstones pummeled the ground. Tuesday, the dents in the ground are still visible, some as large and deep as coffee cans. But when the hail stopped, a certain stone grabbed his attention.

“I just happened to see this one fall and the only reason I went out and got it is because it has all these fingers sticking out of it and I thought, ‘Oh, that’s weird.’ So I thought I’d go get that one,” Scott said.

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WARREN, Mich. (AP) – General Motors said Tuesday its Chevrolet Volt electric car could get 230 mpg in city driving, making it the first American vehicle to achieve triple-digit fuel economy if that figure is confirmed by federal regulators.

But when the four-door [...]]]> GM says new Volt could get 230 mpg in city driving

WARREN, Mich. (AP) – General Motors said Tuesday its Chevrolet Volt electric car could get 230 mpg in city driving, making it the first American vehicle to achieve triple-digit fuel economy if that figure is confirmed by federal regulators.

But when the four-door family sedan hits showrooms late next year, its efficiency will come with a steep sticker price: $40,000.

Still, the Volt’s fuel efficiency would be four times more than the popular Toyota Prius hybrid, the most efficient car now sold in the U.S.

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A decade or two ago, life was simpler for teens who didn’t like their looks. Girls pushed socks under their sweaters, and awkward, acne-faced boys hid behind shaggy bangs. And for better or worse, kids grew out of or adapted to their bodies. These days, [...]]]> Cosmetic surgeries: What children will do to look ‘normal’

A decade or two ago, life was simpler for teens who didn’t like their looks. Girls pushed socks under their sweaters, and awkward, acne-faced boys hid behind shaggy bangs. And for better or worse, kids grew out of or adapted to their bodies. These days, more youngsters are altering the body parts that give them angst by going under the knife or laser or lipo tube to get the look they want.

According to the American Society for Aesthetic Plastic Surgery, 160,283 children 18 and under had cosmetic interventions in 2008. The figure was even higher in 2007, tallying 205,119, but industry experts say a slowing economy probably forced the numbers down in 2008. In 2000, the number was just 145,094.

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by Seth Robson, Stars and Stripes

HILLAH, Iraq — The remains of what was once the greatest city in the world occupy a vast site on the bank of the Euphrates River.

Their roots go back 3,800 years to when the city [...]]]> U.S., Iraqi experts developing plan to preserve Babylon, build local tourism industry

by Seth Robson, Stars and Stripes

HILLAH, Iraq — The remains of what was once the greatest city in the world occupy a vast site on the bank of the Euphrates River.

Their roots go back 3,800 years to when the city of Babylon was the heart of a Mesopotamian empire, and the remnants include great slabs of stone that are said to be the remains of King Nebuchadnezzar’s castle. A giant stone lion guards one end of the fortifications, but the most stunning remnants were removed by European archaeologists in the early 20th century.

Now soldiers with the 172nd Infantry Brigade are exploring the ruins as part of a U.S.-Iraqi effort to preserve the ancient city and plan for the return of Western tourists.

Members of the brigade’s 2nd Battalion, 28th Infantry Regiment escorted a group of U.S. heritage tourism experts to the ruins last week for the first of several visits to develop a preservation and tourism plan for the area.

The State Department and the World Monuments Fund have committed $700,000 to the project, which will see U.S. and Iraqi experts develop a plan to preserve the site and develop a local tourism industry, said Diane Siebrandt, the U.S. embassy’s cultural heritage officer.

One of the 172nd soldiers who visited the ruins, 1st Lt. Bryan Kelso, 24, of Jacksonville, Fla., walked in wonder near the ancient stones.

“It’s amazing to be surrounded by this history. To think that we are standing where Alexander the Great has been,” he said, referring to the great Macedonian conqueror who died in Babylon. “Babylon is one of the oldest and first civilizations known to man. They created the wheel and the first calendars. Everybody coming here gets a sense of what this place really is and how it all traces back.”

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Alysa Stanton embarked on her own audacious journey. She spoke about breaking barriers, building bridges and providing, calling on people to focus on their similarities rather than differences.

Now that stage of her journey has reached its end, with Stanton attaining the [...]]]> Another first for a black American: the female rabbi breaking down barriers

Alysa Stanton embarked on her own audacious journey. She spoke about breaking barriers, building bridges and providing, calling on people to focus on their similarities rather than differences.

Now that stage of her journey has reached its end, with Stanton attaining the distinction of being the first black woman in America to become a mainstream Jewish rabbi. History was made last week at her ordination in the Plum Street temple in Cincinnati, one of the oldest synagogues in the US.

Parallels leap out between her journey and Obama’s. She is 45, he 47. They both straddled racial and communal lines. They both faced hurdles and brickbats along the way.

In her case, her decision to enter rabbinical school in 2001 broke multiple taboos. On top of the age-old tensions between Christian — the religion of her birth — and Jew, were the bubbling hostilities between African Americans and largely white American Jews.

Even at the ordination ceremony the tensions were on display. Her adopted daughter Shana was reduced to tears by a group of white Christian protesters outside the temple taunting her and making disparaging remarks.

Last week Stanton received a letter. Inside was a tract that read “Last rite” above a picture of a coffin. “There are some sick puppies out there,” Stanton said, speaking at the Hebrew Union College in Cincinnati where she took her rabbinical studies. “But my God is bigger. I will not be boxed in.”

She spent the first 11 years of her life in the midwestern state of Ohio, then moved to Colorado. Her parents were Pentecostal Christians but from the age of nine she can remember looking for something else. “I was a seeker, a different kind of kid. I knew it, my family knew it.”

She experimented with many religions — Catholicism, eastern practices, Messianic Christianity where congregants speak in tongues. Though she spent some of her childhood living in a white Jewish neighbourhood in Cleveland Heights, her discovery of the religion came later.

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Leading independent experts have issued this strong warning after investigating latest scientific evidence linking alcohol-containing mouthwashes to the deadly disease.

Their review, published in the Dental Journal of Australia, concludes there is now “sufficient evidence” that “alcohol-containing mouthwashes contribute [...]]]> AUSTRALIA’S top-selling mouthwashes can cause oral cancer and should be pulled from supermarket shelves immediately.

Leading independent experts have issued this strong warning after investigating latest scientific evidence linking alcohol-containing mouthwashes to the deadly disease.

Their review, published in the Dental Journal of Australia, concludes there is now “sufficient evidence” that “alcohol-containing mouthwashes contribute to the increased risk of development of oral cancer”.

The ethanol in mouthwash is thought to allow cancer-causing substances to permeate the lining of the mouth more easily and cause harm.

Acetaldehyde, a toxic by-product of alcohol that may accumulate in the oral cavity when swished around the mouth, is also believed to be carcinogenic.

Listerine, the nation’s biggest-selling mouthwash and a brand endorsed by the Australian Dental Association (ADA), contains as much as 26 per cent alcohol.

Mouthwash is one of the fastest-growing grocery products in Australia, with the category now worth more than $75 million, according to latest Nielsen market research.

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Gingrich Speech 

Well, I tried reading through this, but Gingrich’s “god-like” summary of each State in the Middle East is both vastly complicated and vastly simplistic (and vastly arrogant, I might add).  What does God have to do with the kingdoms of [...]]]> A Christian friend sent me this link and asked me for my thoughts:

Gingrich Speech 

Well, I tried reading through this, but Gingrich’s “god-like” summary of each State in the Middle East is both vastly complicated and vastly simplistic (and vastly arrogant, I might add).  What does God have to do with the kingdoms of men — the political scheming of overlords, etc?  The reason I am pro Ron Paul is simple:  He’s anti-globalist and anti-war — two principles clearly in line with the life of the Christian.  He’s also a strong Constitutionalist (the only real advocate of the Bill of Rights) who believes that war must be “just” (and authorized by Congress, not by “executive order”) in order to be engaged in with one’s conscience.   I have a hard time believing that a genuine Christian can be pro-war on any other terms. 

What does Athens have to do with Jerusalem, in the truth of the Holy Spirit?

Indeed.  As followers of the Messiah, how are we to engage in a culture that advocates war, that embraces the worldly propaganda of terrorism (used to further the globalist agenda and fund the war machine), etc. etc.?

A friend of mine in China wrote me today:

How can one love the enemy, love their enemy, if one kills them?  That is not possible.  If Christ did not love His enemy, He would never have died for us!  We die now, we live later. 

Tragically, it appears that American Evangelicalism has transposed this order.

If clockwise, then you use more of the right side of the brain and vice versa.

For more about this, see:http://www.wherecreativitygoestoschool.com/vancouver/left_right/rb_tes t.htm