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Premier McGuinty Is The Next To Be Fired In Fall Elections!
Glacier Turning Into a Lake...Global Warming
Global warming has melted one of Mount Everest's most-visited glaciers into a vast and growing lake that now poses a threat to villagers and trekking tourists, scientists have warned.
A study of glacial melting in the high Himalaya found that the Imja glacier has melted from solid ice in the mid-1950s to a one and a half mile long lake today.
Scientists from Nepal's International Centre for Integrated Mountain Development (ICIMOD) said the lake is growing by just under 50 metres per year and is in danger of bursting its banks - a 31 metre-high dam of rocks and stones - and flooding nearby villages and trekking routes.
They predicted that more than 7,500 people would be affected by the floods, including tourists hiking along the popular Everest Base Camp route.
The study compared photographs taken from the 1956 Swiss Everest expedition, which showed no evidence of a lake on the glacier, to later pictures that revealed the creation of a large lake.
"Photographs taken in the 1950s demonstrate that, except for several small melt ponds, no lake existed at that time. By 1984 a lake of approximately 0.4 square kilometres had formed," the report said.
One of the authors, Pradeep Mool, a leading Himalayan glacier expert, said the study had been aimed at establishing which of the region's "potentially dangerous" glacial lakes could burst in the future.
Global warming was the cause of the glacier's rapid meltdown and transformation into a lake.
"Without the warming the ice will not melt. The rate of melt has increased because of exposure to atmospheric warming in the last few decades. It's a very beautiful lake but it is one of the lakes in potential danger of an outburst [of water]," he said.
The research, including scientific photography and the use of remote sensors, was conducted in one of the most dangerous parts of the high Himalaya and one of the researchers was killed in an accident while collecting the data.
© Copyright (c) The Daily Telegraph
End of the world postponed to oct 21 2011...
Harold Camping speaks during a taping of his show 'Open Forum' in Oakland, Calif., Monday, May 23, 2011. (AP / Marcio Jose Sanchez)
 In this photo, members of the Calvary Bible Church of Milpitas appear at the closed Family Radio station offices of Harold Camping in Oakland, Calif., to offer support to victims of the radio evangelist, who claimed that the ascension into heaven of the Christian faithful would happen on Saturday, May 21, 2011. (AP / Dino Vournas, File) |
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View larger imageUpdated: Mon May. 23 2011 19:56:48
CTV.ca News Staff
Oops, he did it again.
A Christian radio host who predicted the apocalypse would come last Saturday, now says he made a mistake and it will occur on October 21.
California preacher Harold Camping said the Rapture will come five months to the day after May 21, his original prophecy.
The 89-year-old said he felt so bad his prediction didn't come true on Saturday, he sought refuge in a motel with his wife.
Camping made the statement to the press at the Oakland headquarters of his media empire, Family Radio International.
He also predicted the apocalypse would happen in 1994, but blamed the world's survival then on a mathematical error.
Camping had stated there was no way the Rapture would not start on Saturday at 6.p.m, and told the San Francisco Chronicle he was "flabbergasted" his doomsday prophecy didn't come about.
Camping preached some 200 million Christians would be saved and those left behind would die in a series of plagues until Earth was destroyed in a fireball on Oct. 21.
While his latest prediction was mostly met with online ridicule, some believers took it quite seriously. One man in New York spent his life savings on advertisements warning of the coming doom.
Camping's media empire has assets of more than $100 million and had $18 million in donations in 2009.
Be Careful With Email Electronic Payment Thru NACHA
Not-for-profit financial organization NACHA, which oversees an electronic payment system called the Automated Clearing House (ACH) Network, has issued an immediate release today in response to a surge in spam e-mails part of a phishing attack.
The release, posted to the official NACHA Web site, reads:
Random individuals and/or companies may have received a falsified e-mail with the subject title "Rejected ACH Transaction." This e-mail appears to be from NACHA - The Electronic Payments Association telling them that there is a problem with an ACH transaction they have originated. The e-mail includes a link which redirects the individual to a fake web page which appears like the NACHA website and contains a link which is almost certainly executable virus with malware.
NACHA urges consumers to ignore these e-mails and not to click the link, which it says is likely associated with a virus.
A Short Warranty Story That May Help Someone
I purchased the flatscreen in July 2008 from Costco. It has seen limited use over the last 2 years and 10 months, because it has hung on the wall of my vacation property. So I was shocked that it appeared dead.
After researching the internet I determined that this was a manufacturer defect.
I called Samsung and they listened to my story, and after they put me on hold a couple of times, they returned to the phone an said the unit is not in warranty, the warranty is only 12 months.
Samsung 32 LCD Model LN32A330J1DXZC would not switch on.
The red light would be on (standby mode) but tv will not turn on. No picture No sound.
BUT...fax us the proof of purchase along with model numbers etc. and we will authorize a 1 time inspection to see if the problem is the $1.77 capacitor. I was authorized to take it to a dealer for the inspection. And so I did.
And what did they find?
It was the capacitor and the repair was completed and didn't cost me .01.
Kudo's to Samsung Canada!
As mentioned I read on the internet that lots of other people have had this problem and that it was
defective electrolytic capacitor in the power supply and that was the internet was best tool to allow me to get a solution outside of warranty.
And so I have posted this blog today in the hope that others may benefit from the experience.
Samsung is right-most of the time the issue you have is caused by a defective electrolytic capacitor in the power supply.The capacitor location is CM861.this is a 2200uF/10V electrolytic filter capacitor,located on the upper side of the power supply board,close the the cable that connects the main board.
If you have minimum electronic repair and soldering experience you will be able to replace it yourself.Just take off the back cover,then remove the power board,several screws around the board.Then unsolder the CM861,and replace it with same value and voltage rating.I hope this helps,
See below please: http://www.mcmelectronics.com/
Happy Guys Finish Last In This Research
We've heard it before: nice guys finish last. And when it comes to sexual attraction, it appears the rule holds.
A new study finds that women are more attracted to the brooding, "bad boy" rather than happy-go-lucky guys.
Now before you go asking, "They needed a study to tell us that?!", hear us out. The University of British Columbia researchers who worked on the study say there's an inherent contradiction in this finding.
They note that in almost every social interaction -- including those involving sexual attraction -- smiling is actually considered essential. But when it comes to first impressions, women seem to prefer men who look either sullen or boastful.
The study from UBC's Deptartment of Psychology involved more than 1,000 men and women who were asked to rate how sexually attractive they found hundreds of pictures of people of the opposite sex.
The pictures showed men and women engaged in standard displays of happiness (broad smiles), pride (raised heads, puffed-up chests) or shame (lowered heads, averted eyes).
When they asked the women which images they found sexiest, the women tended to be least interested in the smiling, happy men. They instead preferred either those who looked proud and powerful, or moody and ashamed.
In contrast, men were most sexually attracted to women who looked happy, and least attracted to women who appeared proud and confident.
Alec Beall, a UBC psychology graduate student and one of the study's co-authors says it's important to remember that the study was meant to explore first impressions of sexual attraction.
"We were not asking participants if they thought these targets would make a good boyfriend or wife – we wanted their gut reactions on carnal, sexual attraction," he explained in a news release.
He notes that previous studies have found nice personalities and positive emotions are highly desirable in relationship partners. But when it comes to sexual attraction, women seem to like their men "complicated."
Why would women like men who looked ashamed? Prof. Jessica Tracy of UBC's Deptartment of Psychology, who also worked on the study, has a theory.
She says displays of shame suggest the men are aware of social norms and appeasement behaviors, which suggests they are trustworthy, a trait that is valued by both sexes.
As for why the women preferred the men who raised their arms in pride, that one was a bit easier to explain.
First off, the pride expression accentuated the men's physical features, such as upper body size and muscularity, which may have helped to make the men more sexually attractive.
As well, evolutionary theories suggest females are often attracted to male displays of pride because they imply status and competence. Smiling, on the other hand, is often linked with a lack of dominance.
Men may have preferred the smiling women because happiness is considered a particularly feminine-appearing expression.
And like it or not, traditional gender norms call for men to be dominant and strong, and women to be submissive and vulnerable.
"Generally, the results appear to reflect some very traditional gender norms and cultural values that have emerged, developed and been reinforced through history, at least in Western cultures," Tracy said in the news release.
"These include norms and values that many would consider old-fashioned and perhaps hoped that we've moved beyond."
The study appears in the online edition of the American Psychological Association journal Emotion.
False Profit Camping Wrong in prediction of end of the world
“If what a prophet proclaims in the name of the Lord does not take place or come true, that is a message the Lord has not spoken. That prophet has spoken presumptuously. Do not be afraid of him” (Deut. 18:22).
Jesus declares in Matthew 24 concerning His return: “But of that day and hour no one knows, not even the angels of heaven, but My Father only.” (NKJV)
False prophets have time and again pronounced the imminent doom of the world, with little apparent concern for the track record of all those who came before them. From Y2K to the tragic mass suicide of the Heaven’s Gate cult and countless other fads and false alarms over the years, leaders arise proclaiming the end of the world is at hand, and usually there is a group that will follow them. Sometimes, not even the failure of their false prophecy can shake their followers: The Jehovah Witnesses allegedly have been wrong over and over again, and yet the sect continues to find adherents.
False Profit Camping Wrong in prediction of end of the world
Instead of a series of earthquakes hitting successive countries at 6pm local time and heralding The Rapture – in which millions of the Faithful would ascend to heaven before the Second Coming of Christ – planet Earth simply carried on and, mostly, kept calm.
Middle East peace remained unresolved, political turmoil hit a few countries and bypassed many others. But by and large the world's toiling billions, as usual, just got on with their lives.
The non-event was a great disappointment to hundreds of followers of a hitherto obscure California-based religious group called Family Radio, which had lavished millions of dollars on a worldwide advertising campaign proclaiming yesterday as Judgment Day.
The group is centred on the teachings and broadcasts of prophet Harold Camping, an 89-year-old self-styled expert in the scriptures who told his followers that his interpretations of the Bible had uncovered the true date of the end of the world. Camping, who lives in the northern California town of Alameda, has previous form on this. He got the date wrong in 1994 when he said the world would end that year, and later explained its continued existence by saying he had made a mathematical error.
But what made this prediction different was the lavish spending that accompanied it. Camping and his followers spent more than $100m worldwide on billboards and posters, financed by the sale and swap of radio stations. Advertising popped up across America and the globe from Iraq to Lebanon to Israel to Jordan, the Philippines to Vietnam, where thousands of the Hmong ethnic hill tribe gathered together on the Thai border in anticipation of the event. The campaign was backed up by Camping's radio show, which can be heard worldwide, and a website that featured, naturally, a countdown clock. Yesterday that clock was at zero underneath the banner headline: "Judgment Day: the Bible guarantees it."
Camping's followers became a familiar sight in cities such as New York, wearing T-shirts proclaiming their beliefs and handing out leaflets in subway stations. On Friday they were at Manhattan's Union Square station, attracting a throng of fascinated gawpers who posed for pictures with them. They handed out their Judgment Day booklets and chatted amiably enough, given their conviction that the End Times were about to arrive.
But as yesterday approached many told reporters they would spend the time huddled in their homes with their families. They planned to pray for their loved ones and hope to be among the lucky few taken up into heaven and spared the global calamity the rest of us would have to put up with for the (much shortened) rest of our lives. Camping himself, who wound down his radio operations ahead of time, said he would watch events unfold at home on television.
Unfortunately for them, nothing happened; a fact that caused much hilarity on Twitter and elsewhere as the 6pm deadline passed in New Zealand, then Australia, Europe and finally America.
"Harold Camping Doomsday prediction fails; No earthquake in New Zealand," read one posting on Twitter. "If this whole end-of-the-world thingy is still going on... it's already past 6.00 in New Zealand and the world hasn't ended," said another. The jokes were global. "Through Croydon; devastation, pestilence, drawn, emaciated faces of the walking dead. No sign of the Rapture though," cracked someone evidently not a fan of the south London town. Another Twitter user suggested people scatter empty pairs of shoes and discarded clothes on their lawns to simulate those lucky few now living with God.
Perhaps not surprisingly, atheists and other non-believers used the opportunity as a way to mock the religious. Various parties were planned across the US. In Fayetteville, North Carolina, the local chapter of the American Humanist Association held a party last night to celebrate the Earth's survival and planned a music concert. The American Atheists held "rapture parties" in places such as Wichita, Kansas, Fort Lauderdale in Florida and even just a few miles from Family Radio itself at a conference centre in Oakland. New York's mayor Michael Bloomberg used a press conference to assure citizens that post-Rapture his administration would not pursue parking tickets or late library books.
But other non-believers and cynics saw an opportunity to make money rather than jokes. There has been a mini-boom in firms and individuals offering to look after the pets of those who believed they were about to be raptured. Eternal Earth-Bound Pets, set up by New Hampshire atheist Bart Centre, has about 250 clients who paid $135 (£83) for insurance policies that guarantee Centre and others will care for their animals when they ascend. Others paid out to sign up with websites that would send out farewell letters to friends and relations left behind.
But there is a serious side. Camping seemed entirely genuine in his beliefs, enough to spend a small fortune promoting them. While others may be making money out of believing in Doomsday, Camping is not one of them. Many experts have worried about the psychological impact on his followers who are suddenly confronted with the collapse of their belief system. Some Christian pastors planned to gather outside Family Radio to counsel any distraught members who showed up wondering why they – and the world – were still there.
Camping himself admitted he had pretty much staked everything on his fervently held belief. "There is no plan B," he told Reuters late last week. Which is a shame. As the day progressed in California last night with no global mega-quake in sight, he and his followers needed one.
The End Of Daze...Camping wrong yet again
 | Chez Pazienza |
| CEO, DXM Media/Managing Editor, Deus Ex Malcontent, LLC |
The End of Daze
Posted 21-05-2011 05:49 PM EDT
So the Rapture turned out to be a bit of a bust.
There are no monster earthquakes, no oceans turning to steam, no fire shooting up out of the ground and, most sadly, no heathen dead rising from the grave to walk to earth in search of brains while Christians ascend skyward on beams of light. It would be easy at this point to do a traditional post-mortem point-and-laugh because that's always what this thing was deserving of -- but there's still something overwhelmingly sad about the fact that there are those out there who sold everything they owned, jettisoned their childrens' futures and wound their lives down to this singular point in time not only because they truly believed that earthly concerns wouldn't matter anymore after today but because nothaving absolute faith in that notion would damn them for all eternity. These people are now, for lack of a more diplomatic descriptor, thoroughly screwed.
But there's no sense in letting something like that eat you alive from the inside out; there have always been suckers out there and there always will be, gullible souls so desperate for a cure to a life that simply offers too much incomprehensible mystery that they're willing to swallow any form of snake oil peddled in their direction. You can't save everyone, nor should you try -- an ironic statement, certainly, given the topic.
Still, there's something really worth pointing out in the wake of the non-Rapture. While it was easy for most of us to handily dismiss the lunatic predictions of Pastor Harold Camping and his merry band of messianic misfits, what shouldn't be forgotten is just how unremarkable their basic belief-system is. Sure, even a lot of hardcore Evangelicals ridiculed Camping's assertion that Jesus was going to appear out of the sky today, but make no mistake: Whether they choose to say it loudly and publicly right now, as far as they're concerned the only thing Camping got wrong was the exact date. There are millions of people still going about their business today convinced that at any moment they can be beamed up to heaven while the rest of the Earth falls into a period of tribulation that ends in its ultimate destruction. And by the way, these people aren't considered crazy -- they're just called faithful, and deserving of having that faith respected and lent credence by the rest of us. It's fascinating that, really, the only thing that puts Pastor Harold Camping and his followers one step over the line into the world of the insane outlier is that they thought they had figured out the time of Jesus's return, not that they believed absolutely in the notion of a divine entity called Jesus -- or that he would magically appear to us -- in the first place.
If you need it put in more reductionist terms it can be summed up like this: Believing in Jesus Christ as the resurrected son of the creator of the universe who will eventually return to Earth equals not-crazy; believing that you know when Jesus Christ will make that triumphant return equals crazy. See how, well, crazy that is?
When you look at it in those terms it's kind of astonishing how one belief is considered legitimate in our society and worthy of respect -- and one is considered outlandish and worthy of ridicule.
No, the Rapture didn't happen today. But that doesn't mean a whole lot of people won't go on believing that it will happen eventually, that the Bible really does "guarantee it." And that belief is deserving of no less dismissal than the one for which we've all had such a good time mocking Pastor Harold Camping over the past couple of weeks.
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