Maps Of War

Who controlled what in the 5000 year history of the territory of Israel ?
Take a look at this incredible map. It is from the "Maps of War" web site.
Thanks Dean for pulling my chain on this. Thanks to the Mayor of Mitchieville blog for this hat tip.

Eye Candy Number Five

OK, here's one I think you will like. It is the setting sun and a sliver of the moon taken from the polar regions. What do you think of this one? Notice even the moon reflects on the water.

Are "Palestinians" Going To Move To Jordan ?

The land area of the country of Jordan was identifed as Edom in the Old Testament. There is a plan being presented by a member of Israel's Knesset named Benny Elon that he is calling "The Right Road To Peace" plan.

In this plan, Israel annexes the West Bank and Jordan allows the "Palestinians" to move into Jordan.

Hmmm? In the bible, in the last days, Edom is totally destroyed...... ??

Computers To Make Airplanes Terrorist Proof

Israel is developing systems to take control of an aircraft that proves by radar to be on a collision course into an building. If this system senses an object in its path, it takes over control and requires the aircraft to make avoidance adjustments. It cannot be easily overridden. This seems to be a simple solution to terrorists using aircraft as weapons.

Another part of this same system will be monitoring the passengers for any terrorist type of activities in the passenger area. If its computers see something suspicious happening it is programmed to trigger defensive systems on the entire aircraft.

This is a four year $45.7 million dollar project called SAFEE (Security of Aircraft in the Future European Environment)

You can read more here.

New Video Projector Smaller Than A Sugar Cube

Scientists have developed a new video projector that is smaller than a penny.
You need to read about this one.

Eye Candy Number Four

The Tiny Speck Is Earth Viewed From Saturn !

Explanation: What's that pale blue dot in this image taken from Saturn? Earth. The robotic Cassini spacecraft looked back toward its old home world earlier this month as it orbited Saturn. Using Saturn itself to block the bright Sun, Cassini imaged a faint dot on the right of the above photograph. That dot is expanded on the image inset, where a slight elongation in the direction of Earth's Moon is visible. Vast water oceans make Earth's reflection of sunlight somewhat blue. Earth is home to over six billion humans and over 100 octillion Prochlorococcus.

Turks And Iran Preparing To Invade Kurdistan

The Kurds are an Islamic tribe that lives in the combined area of Northern Iraq, Eastern Turkey, and Western Iran. They have always wanted autonomy and independence and have been persecuted for decades. Now they are about to face their greatest challenge.

Iran and Turkey are about to launch a coordinated attack against the Kurds. It is said that Turkish troops are already over 5 miles inside of Iraq. Troops and munitions are amassing as I type this. It looks like a lifetime of horror is about to get worse. The Kurds have been literally fighting for their lives on three fronts now for years. There is nowhere for them to go. They have no country.

They do have control of a modest amount of oil in Northern Iraq and have made great gains since the US has taken the pressure off of them by eliminating Saddam's regime. It looks like Turkey and Iran have decided to take the oil away from them and to repay them for loyalty to the US during the Iraq occupation.

How will the US respond? We do not have the ability to open a new front in Northern Iraq to defend the Kurds. We do not have enough "boots on the ground." Yet these are the same people that Saddam killed by the thousands by gassing their villages with the (non-existent?) weapons of mass destruction that he had at his disposal.

On this sunny Monday in Minnesota, it looks like things are about to get a lot hotter on the world scene. I predict that the UN will not be able to get their stuff together and will be totally unwilling to help. I predict that the NATO will not respond. It will be left to the US to deal with this. I predict that we will only supply weapons, expertise, and a little bombing support. Kurds by the thousands might die.

Please pray for this. More here.

Britain Separated From France By Huge Flood

The history of Britain is being rewritten. The English channel was formed in 24 hours by a huge flood, according to the latest scientific research. The chalk ridge that connected Britain to the continent was scoured away by water from a huge lake that finally broke through the soft chalk barrier.

Large scour marks lie on the floor of the English channel and huge piles of rocks are also found in that area. Rocks too huge to be put there by any other method than a huge flood of water. There is even a channel sharply cut at the bottom of the English channel. All of these things identify water and a huge flood as the vehicle of this geological formation.

It is thought that the water was accumulated in a huge lake as the glaciers melted. The oceans of water were lower then due to the capture of water in the form of the ice in the glaciers. Finally the water overtopped the cliffs of Dover and a cataclysmic break developed as the water tore through the landscape with great force and power and emptied into the (lower) Atlantic ocean.

Of course this sort of thing never happened in the Grand Canyon. It was formed by a little bitty river over eons of time. Right?

Read more here.

Eye Candy Number Three

At our family time today some of my family noticed the wallpaper I was using for my desktop.
I thought I would give everyone a look. It is simply another beautiful view of the universe from the space telescope. Enjoy.

Zoomable Universe

Here is a link to a Hubble view of the deepest part of the Universe.
What is really cool about this picture is that you can zoom into it in fine detail.
Try it, you'll like it.
hubblesite.org/newscenter/newsdesk/archive/releases/2004/07/image/a+zoom

Eye Candy Number Two

Here is an amazing shot from a telescope looking (through a filter) at the space station and shuttle as they pass across the face of the Sun. Nice !

New Series Of Blogs "Eye Candy" Number One

I am going to start a new series of blogs. I collect in my computer pictures that I find on the internet. These are just some amazing shots that I enjoy looking at. I will post them in the large format.
The first one is a time exposure of the night sky as the stars rotate around the North star. Cool.
Notice the meteor streak going across the circular lines of the stars.

Germany Sends 8 Warships To Lebanon

In addition to the armada of warships already gathered off the coast of Lebanon (see my post on Sept. 4th) Germany is now adding it's own force of 8 (!) warships. It makes a man wonder what is really going on. When you add this to the present two aircraft carriers and 15 other warships in the same area, and then stop and remember that this entire area is about half the size of Minnesota, you end up scratching your head and wonder why? That is enough firepower to eliminate everything in Minnesota in a couple of days using only conventional weapons.

I think it is simply a way of intimidating Israel to not even think of attacking Iran to stop its development of nuclear weapons. It is focused on Israel, not Lebanon.

Read more here.

The Pope Is Right

If I was wondering if Islam was a violent religion (and that is a ludicrous thought in light of what is going on world wide) I can be sure of it when I see the over-the-top reaction of Islamic people to the Pope talking about his religion to an academic semi-private meeting. He was clearly making the point that Christian conversion cannot be forced.

The Pope quoted a 14th century Byzantine emperor in saying,

"Whoever would lead someone to faith needs the ability to speak well and to reason properly, without violence and threats... To convince a reasonable soul, one does not need a strong arm, or weapons of any kind, or any other means of threatening a person with death."

And in context he also mentioned emperor Palaeologus opinion of,

"Show me just what Mohammed brought that was new, and there you will find things only evil and inhuman, such as his command to spread by the sword the faith he preached."

Let's see... did Mohammed actually teach to use the sword to spread the faith of Islam? Let's check their holy book.

"Fight and slay the pagans (infidels) wherever ye find them, and seize them, beleaguer them, and lie in wait for them in every stratagem of war." - Sura 9:5

"Prophet, make war on unbelievers and hypocrites, and deal rigorously with them." - Sura 9:73

"Let not the unbelievers think they will ever get away. They have not the power to do so. Muster against them all the men and cavalry at your command, so that you may strike terror into the enemy of God and your enemy... Prophet, (Muhammed) rouse the faithful to arms! If they (the non-Muslims) incline to peace (accept Islam) make peace with them." - Sura 8:59

"If they reject your judgment, know that it is Allah's wish to scourge them for their sins." - Sura 5:49

"Believers (Muslims), take neither Jews nor Christians to be your friends: they are friends with one another. Whoever of you seeks their friendship shall become one of their number, and God does not guide (those Jewish and Christian) wrong-doers." - Sura 5:51

This seems to settle it for me. Jesus never taught any such thing like this. You cannot make a man believe in your faith by violence. He who lives by the sword, dies by the sword. If Mohammad brings a deeper revelation and is supposed to be the last prophet then I just don't get it. This is a step backwards, not forwards.

The Pope, as well as all who do not believe in Mohammed, do not need to apologize for using reason. We are free to think things through and accept or reject. Does Islam mean to take this freedom to think and speak my thoughts away from me?

BTW. This particular emperor had great reationships with the Ottoman empire. Go figure.

I have not been posting much lately. But this got me to finally say something once again. Maybe I will continue for a season.

Wallflower Christians Beware

A "Faith" megachurch in the Winston-Salem area is asking many of the folks that attend to leave. They are on a "church drive." The goal is to drive out the "freeloaders" in the church.
They have sent out a letter saying, in essence, "participate or get out."

It seems that the programs and facilities of the church are being exhausted by people who neither tithe or volunteer at the church. The claim is that this energy and resource drag is limiting the church in its ability to reach the lost and truly needy.

Hmmm? Is it truly a matter of too many non-paying members of the country club? Or a real desire to reach the lost and hurting vs. being a blessing to the capable and lazy? Survey says...?

Read more here

Actually this is from a satire web site. It is not real. But I wish it was.
Here's the real web site.

Weapons Systems Gather For Future Confrontation

The amount of strike force capability gathering around Lebanon's shores is massive overkill to the problems facing them. There are no current problems in the area demanding this sort of power. They must be there for some sort of action or conflict in the future.

The gathered naval forces are greater than any armada since World War II . There are two aircraft carriers, 15 war ships and thousands of troops. The country of Lebanon has been evacuated of expatriate's so these forces are not there for that purpose.

The French carrier alone can handle over 2000 targets at one moment. The French have 7 warships in the armada. Why are they there at such a level?

Probably because of the potential of war by Israel (and the US) against Syria and Iran. They are "pre-positioned" to trump any future decisions. Maybe also to keep Russian and US projections of power out of the area. The area is simply too crowded to allow any addition to this massing of force.

If the US and Israel attack Iran, the world will not just see it as an attempt to stop the proliferation of nuclear weapons. They will see it as a further attempt to control middle-eastern oil. Things are warming up. Read more here.