Sunday, May 25, 2014

The search for Sodom and Gomorrah: Scientists drill beneath Dead Sea seeking priceless data



By Batsheva Sobelman












Rock samples underwater for eons are likely to be better preserved, researchers say. Expectations are high that the lowest place on Earth can answer questions --- on climate change and other key matters
JewishWorldReview.com |


dEAD SEA — (MCT) If you thought you couldn't get any lower than the Dead Sea, think again. You can go under it.

Scientists here are drilling 1,640 feet beneath the bottom of the Dead Sea, to a depth of more than 2,600 feet below sea level.

Rock samples that have been underwater for eons are likely to be better preserved, they say, than samples taken from under an exposed surface, which can be damaged by aridity and erosion.

As a result, the Dead Sea bore hole is expected to contain priceless information about the planet's past and to offer insight on its future. Expectations are high that the lowest place on Earth can answer questions on climate change, earthquake risk and untapped natural resources.

Since the region was mentioned in biblical contexts that include Sodom and Gomorrah, the ruins of which some scholars believe are submerged under the Dead Sea, the $2.5-million project might also crack an ancient mystery or two.

It's a massive undertaking. A unique rig was constructed and then towed more than 4 miles into the salty sea, where drilling will go on for 40 days and nights, perhaps appropriate for the region.

Forty scientists from six countries are taking part in the deep-drilling program, sponsored by the Israel Academy of Sciences and Humanities and the German-based International Continental Scientific Drilling Program, which conducts deep sea and lake drilling worldwide.

The samples are expected to provide a sort of tree-ring-style annual log that will enable experts to say, for example, that year X "was a very rainy year," says Zvi Ben-Avraham, head of the Minerva Dead Sea Research Center at Tel-Aviv University.

At a nearby laboratory, the rings are clearly visible through Plexiglas tubes containing the first samples. A pair of layers, brown and white, represent a normal year with a wet season and a dry one. Variations bear witness to drought, flood and trauma. "These are the pages of our history," says Amotz Agnon of the Hebrew University of Jerusalem.

The Dead Sea — a lake, really — is what has remained of the series of ancient bodies of water in the Jordan Valley. It fills one of Earth's deepest holes, located in a depression on the border between two tectonic plates forming part of the long Syro-African fault line. The plates are still moving. Small tremors are not infrequent, but Ben-Avraham says the region is relatively calm. The last big quake occurred in 1927.

Experts say the Dead Sea should provide invaluable historical data because the region served as a corridor through which humankind migrated from Africa.

Filled tubes are kept in a freezer outside an unassuming lab in Kibbutz Ein Gedi, in the hills above the water. Early batches have been passed through a scanner that buzzes and beeps while sending data to a computer.

More tubes lie on the floor of the lab, soon to be put through the machine. In one, a 4-inch stretch of mud reflects a century-long wet period around 400 years ago, in what is known as the Little Ice Age. Deeper samples should corroborate other documented events such as the volcanic eruption of Santorini about 3,500 years ago.

Data contained in these "archives," as Moti Stein of the Geological Survey of Israel puts it, are of global importance. The data of past relations between two climate belts, the Mediterranean and the desert, will help prepare climate models in times of global warming and desertification, Stein says.

The Dead Sea itself is as unusual as the drilling project.

Fresh water flowing into the sea is trapped; with no outflow, the only way out is up. High evaporation rates in this hot, arid zone result in extreme hyper-salinity.

The buoyancy draws tourists who come for a float. Others are attracted by the purported cosmetic and healing properties of the minerals, fabled since antiquity, or simply for the striking landscape.

But the Dead Sea is in trouble. Receding about 3 feet a year, the water, pessimists warn, could soon vanish. Stein says the lake has naturally recovered from catastrophic aridity before.

But humans are playing a role. "We're not helping," says Michael Lazar, the marine geophysicist from the University of Haifa who manages the project.

Tectonic plates aren't the only things grating against each other. There's regional politics too. The Dead Sea fills an area shared by Israel, Jordan and the Palestinians. The site's nomination for the Seven Wonders of the World competition was almost undone by conflicting political claims.

Though no Jordanian or Palestinian scientists were to be seen during a recent media tour of the site, organizers said the multinational project includes both. A project official said Arab scientists were keeping a low profile because of political sensitivities.

"The Dead Sea doesn't belong to Israel, Jordan or the Palestinians," Lazar said. "They're in, and we're happy to have them."


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Taken from: http://www.jewishworldreview.com/1210/dead_sea_drilling.php3

Wednesday, May 21, 2014

Pope Francis RFID Hoax: ‘Goes Public With Support Of RFID Micro Chip Implantation’ is Fake


By , Epoch Times | May 21, 2014
An article saying Pope Francis support RFID chip implantation isn’t real.

The fake report, published on “satire” website National Report, appears to be poking fun at the fear that a widespread microchip implantation is “the mark of the beast,” as described in the Bible.

“In a controversial move by the Catholic church, Pope Francis has come out in vocal support of RFID Chip technologies and the extraordinary potential they hold for mankind. The outrage stems from a belief held by many Evangelicals, Fundamentalists and Catholics, that RFID implants are the Mark Of The Beast, spoken about in their Holy Book’s chapter regarding the end of the world,” the article reads.
Pope Francis holding a tall, lit, white candle, enters a darkened St. Peter's Basilica to begin the Easter vigil service, at the Vatican, Saturday, April 19, 2014. (AP Photo/Alessandra Tarantino)
Pope Francis holding a tall, lit, white candle, enters a darkened St. Peter's Basilica to begin the Easter vigil service, at the Vatican, Saturday, April 19, 2014. (AP Photo/Alessandra Tarantino)

According to a disclaimer that has since been removed, National Report isn’t a real news source.

“National Report is a news and political satire web publication, which may or may not use real names, often in semi-real or mostly fictitious ways. All news articles contained within National Report are fiction, and presumably fake news. Any resemblance to the truth is purely coincidental,” it states, according to hoax-debunking website Waffles at Noon.

A quick search shows that Pope Francis has never made statements about RFID chips.

No legitimate local or national media reports have anything about it either.

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Monday, May 19, 2014

Big Bang just a mirage?

Well at least that explains what happened to your lost keys. Picture: Nature
Well at least that explains what happened to your lost keys. Picture: NatureSource: Supplied


WHAT if we told you the Big Bang was a myth?

That's right. Everything we know about the universe may be wrong.
Cosmologists have speculated that the universe was created after a star collapsed into a black hole - a theory that helps to explain why it seems to be expanding in all directions.
The Big Bang theory suggests that the universe was created from a single point in the universe but despite years of research, nobody yet knows what triggered the eruption.
It also fails to explain why the Universe has an "almost completely uniform temperature."

"There does not seem to have been enough time since the birth of the cosmos for it to have reached temperature equilibrium," researchers explain in the scientific journal, Nature.

Astrophysicists from the Perimeter Institute for Theoretical Physics in Waterloo, Canada have released a paper discussing a previous theory out of Germany that posited that the universe is a three-dimensional "membrane" floating through a four-dimensional "bulk universe".
A bulk universe is a very complicated concept out of string theory that puts forward the idea that space is a plane of infinite dimensions through which other planes of infinite dimensions float.
The team claimed that if the "bulk universe" contained four dimensional stars, some of them could collapse and cause black holes in the same way that stars in our universe do - they turn in supernovae, ejecting their outerlayers while their inner layers collapse into the black hole.
Black holes in our universe are spherical in shape and possess some kind of "membrane" that keep them that way. These "membranes" are known as "event horizons". Anything that passes through this event horizon is done for, because the gravitational pull is so great it makes escape impossible. In our universe only a two dimensional object is capable of becoming an event horizon within a black hole, Nature explained. Whereas in a bulk universe, the event horizon of a four dimensional black hole would have to be three dimensional, known as a "hypersphere".
Confused yet? We don't blame you.
In a nutshell this means that a star floating through a multidimensional plane got sucked into a black hole, half of it got swallowed up and the other half that survived spawned the creation of the universe.
The fact that our universe is expanding in all directions could be a sign simply of cosmic expansion, rather than as the origin of the universe itself, the researchers suggest.
"Astronomers measured that expansion and extrapolated back that the Universe must have begun with a Big Bang - but that is just a mirage," said team member Niayesh Afshordi.
However, the theory has some holes. (Get it, holes?)
So far it doesn't entirely answer how the expansion of the universe occurred.
The European Space Agency recorded slight fluctuations in the temperature of the universe and found that the cosmos contained imprints of radiation that matched predictions made in the Big Bang theory. Obviously this creates a discrepancy in the astrophysicists' research.
The scientists say they're going back to the drawing board to adjust their model.
Stay tuned. Everything we may know about the universe may be wrong.

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Saturday, May 10, 2014

Pope Francis’s envoy warns of ‘horrible consequences’ of Lord Falconer’s Assisted Dying Bill



Pope Francis will back you, Papal representative tells opponents of change in   law, warning it would be a ‘Pandora’s Box’



By , and Nick Squires
8:30PM BST 08 May 2014
 
Legalising assisted suicide in the UK would open a “Pandora’s box” with    “horrible consequences” for the frail, elderly and sick, Pope Francis’s   personal representative has insisted.
In a rare public intervention into a domestic political matter, the Apostolic   Nuncio to Great Britain, Archbishop Antonio Mennini, condemned moves led by   Lord Falconer, the former Lord Chancellor, to relax the euthanasia laws as   an attack on “human life as a gift from God”.
He urged opponents to expose what he called the “reality” of Lord Falconer’s    “nice, politically correct and compassionate” term “assisted dying” to mean   a form of euthanasia.
And he singled out the issue as a litmus test of whether Britain remains, in  the words of David Cameron, a “Christian country”.
His remarks, in a private address to the Roman Catholic bishops of England and   Wales, echo those of Pope Francis, who has attacked moves towards assisted   suicide as an attempt to “eliminate” sick and disabled people.

The Pope’s representative in Britain has urged Roman Catholic leaders to form a united front with their Muslim and Jewish counterparts to oppose gay marriage.
The new Nuncio with Archbishop Nichols



And he pointedly offered them the personal support of the Pope on the issue, setting the Church on course for another battle with politicians in the wake   of the bruising encounters over issues such as gay marriage.
Last night supporters of a change in the law claimed that the Pope’s   representative was “on the wrong side of British public opinion”.
Members of the House of Lords are preparing to debate proposals, tabled by   Lord Falconer, to allow doctors to prescribe a lethal dose of drugs to   terminally-ill patients in the next few months.
David Cameron and Nick Clegg, who both personally oppose the change, have   nevertheless promised MPs and peers a free vote and some ministers have   signalled their support.
Under the 1961 Suicide Act, it is a crime punishable by 14 years in jail, to   help someone to take their own life but prosecution guidelines now make   clear that many who do so will escape charges.
Supporters of Lord Falconer say a change in the law is urgently needed but   opponents claim that safeguards written into the bill could be swept away.
They point to the extension of assisted suicide in Belgium to children as   proof that it would be a “slippery slope”.
Archbishop Mennini spoke about the recent debate about whether the UK is a    “Christian country, arguing that although Britain had been “profoundly   formed by Christian values”, the influence of the faith had undoubtedly   declined.
“In this regard, I cannot fail to express concern about the Assisted Dying   Bill which will be discussed in the next few months in the House of Lords,”    he said.
“This is a very sensitive issue, which required a serious commitment from us   to protect and defend human life as a gift from God.”
Praising those who had highlighted “sense and nonsense” on the issue, he   added: “May I encourage … you to announce the gospel of life among our   people, as well as in society in general, presenting the reality which hides   behind the ‘nice’, ‘politically correct’ and ‘compassionate’ expression    ‘assisted dying’.”
He added: “Unfortunately we know from experience how easily public opinion can   be manipulated, especially using ‘emotional’ arguments that try to move   compassionate sentiments.
“But once we open this Pandora’s box we know as well the horrible consequences   that follow.”
“We have seen that even here, among us, regarding abortion, and the last news   about ‘selective abortion’.
“But also elsewhere, in other European countries which recently have made   change in their laws moving from a limited concept of euthanasia” to a wider   spectre, also including children, as in Belgium.”
He pointedly added: “Please be assured of our support, as well as that of the   Holy Father, regarding this important issue.”
Sarah Wootton, chief executive of the campaign group Dignity in Dying, which   supports Lord Falconer’s bill, said: “Everyone’s opinion on assisted dying   must be respected and if Archbishop Antonio Mennini does not want the choice   to control the manner of his death then that is his decision.
“However, it is not acceptable for the Archbishop to impose his views, based   on principle, on others who do not share them and by doing so cause   unnecessary suffering for the small but significant number of people who   want the option of an assisted death when palliative care is not enough.
“The Archbishop is on the wrong side of British public opinion not because it   has been manipulated but because people listen to those who are terminally   ill and their call for a right to choose when they die.”

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Taken from: http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/politics/10817765/Pope-Franciss-envoy-warns-of-horrible-consequences-of-Lord-Falconers-Assisted-Dying-Bill.html