To: bpr-list@philologos.org (BPR Mailing List)
Subject: News: Aurora Behaving Oddly
From: bpr-list@philologos.org(BPR)
Date: Sun, 31 May 1998 20:58:03 -0500
---------------------------------------------------------------
Bible Prophecy Research and Study List
Study Subject: Revelation 12
---------------------------------------------------------------
From: owner-bpr@philologos.org
(2 Pet 1:19 GWT) "So we regard the words of the prophets as confirmed
beyond all doubt. You're doing well by paying attention to their words.
Continue to pay attention as you would to a light that shines in a dark
place as you wait for day to come and the morning star to rise in your
hearts."
I enjoy a good space story and NASA has been putting a bunch of them
out lately -- earthquakes on the sun; discovery of new planets; witnessing
the birth and death of stars; a comet crash into a planet; large unexplained
explosions in space and light doing weird things...
Scientists are wondering what's going on?
May 31, 1998 - The BBC and Florida Today Space Online reported on
Friday about an event that has scientists puzzled. At the spring meeting of
American Geophysical Union, it was reported that the aurora is behaving
oddly in the region of the North Pole.
It was during a geomagnetic storm on January 10-11, 1997 when the
auroral arc crossed rather than circled the North Pole.
The aurora can take many forms, curtains, arcs, bands, and rays of
shimmering red and blue light. But what its doing now is apparently new
-- to us anyway.
"'It's an interesting problem that I came upon last year,' explained Dr.
James Spann, a solar-terrestrial physicist at NASA's Marshall Space Flight
Center. Spann is also a co-investigator on the Ultraviolet Imager, a special
camera aboard the Polar spacecraft. With UVI, scientists can observe the
aurora borealis on the day and night side while the spacecraft is over the
northern hemisphere."
"'We observed polar arcs form from both the dusk and dawn sides and co-
exist in the polar cap at the same time,' Spann said. 'The models we have
of the magnetosphere don't explain all the features that we observed.'"
In the event that Spann saw, the aurora had two weak crossbars -- one
spanned the polar region, while the other extended into it but failed to
make a clear connection on the other side. The first such event was
dubbed the Theta aurora, named for the Greek letter it resembled.
Spann noted something else interesting. "...on one of these features we
see energy propagating towards the dayside along the arc...It's not clear
that we've seen that before."
References: BBC News, Florida Today Space Online
========
To: bpr-list@philologos.org (BPR Mailing List)
Subject: News: Mary Co-Redemptrix May 31st?
From: bpr-list@philologos.org(BPR)
Date: Mon, 01 Jun 1998 07:19:51 -0400
---------------------------------------------------------------
Bible Prophecy Research and Study List
Study Subject: Revelation 12
---------------------------------------------------------------
From: Jon Loose <medman@gte.net>
Well, it's June 1st what happened?
BPR wrote:
> ---------------------------------------------------------------
> Bible Prophecy Research and Study List
> Study Subject: Revelation 12
> ---------------------------------------------------------------
>
> From: owner-bpr@annoDomini.net
>
> Pope to declare Mary Co-Redemptrix on May 31st!!!?
>
> By Cheryl Marie
> Source: Weekend Discussion Groups
>
> Tue May 26 , 1998 -- There is mounting evidence that Pope John Paul
> II may declare Mary the Co-Redemptrix, Mediatrix and Advocate of
> humanity as the fifth official Catholic Marian dogma (article of faith) on
> Pentecost of 1998! According to Dr. Mark I. Miravalle of the Franciscan
> University of Steubenville, organizer of the "Vox Populi Mariae
> Mediatrici" movement, the date for the promulgation of the dogma has
> definately been set for May 31, 1998, which was formerly the liturgical
> feast of Mediatrix of All Graces, which was established by Pope Benedict
> XV. See the article at the NATIONAL CATHOLIC REPORTER.
>
> (http://www.natcath.com/archives/071897/071897a.htm)....
>
> Catholic lay representatives from all over the world have been called to
> Rome for the World Congress of Ecclesial Movements, meeting May 27
> to 29, immediately prior to the Pentecost festival, and Catholic
> anticipation is running high that Pope John Paul II may indeed announce
> Mary to be the Coredemptrix of all humanity to this assembly in St.
> Peter's Square, perhaps as early as Saturday, the 30th of May. Some
> 150,000 people are expected to attend, representing 56 Catholic lay
> movements.
--- BPR
BPR Web Site - http://philologos.org/bpr
========
To: bpr-list@philologos.org (BPR Mailing List)
Subject: Re: News: Mary Co-Redemptrix May 31st?
From: bpr-list@philologos.org(BPR)
Date: Mon, 1 Jun 1998 08:09:32 -0500
---------------------------------------------------------------
Bible Prophecy Research and Study List
Study Subject: Revelation 12
---------------------------------------------------------------
From: <owner-bpr@philologos.org>
Hi Jon..
>Well, it's June 1st what happened?
Nothing apparently. From what I can tell Mary wasn't named co-redeemer.
None of the catholic papers have said anything about it. Actually that
particular news item referenced an article that was a year old with
nothing being reported recently as far as I know.
(BTW, the rapture didn't occur either, but perhaps you already knew that. <g>)
========
To: bpr-list@philologos.org (BPR Mailing List)
Subject: The Expected Consequences of an India-Pakistan Nuclear War
From: bpr-list@philologos.org(BPR)
Date: Mon, 1 Jun 1998 12:51:38 -0500
---------------------------------------------------------------
Bible Prophecy Research and Study List
Study Subject: Revelation 12
---------------------------------------------------------------
From: <owner-bpr@philologos.org>
The length of this article is somewhat long and I apologize for that, but it's a very interesting albeit,
disturbing look at what the aftermath of just a localized nuclear war would
do.
To Editors: Permission granted to reprint with proper credit. These
broadcasts are a public service of the Freeman Center.
FREEMAN CENTER BROADCAST -- JUNE 1, 1998
=========================================================
THE EXPECTED CONSEQUENCES OF AN INDIA-PAKISTAN NUCLEAR
WAR By Louis Rene Beres Professor Department of Political Science
Purdue University E-MAIL: BERES@POLSCI.PURDUE.EDU
In the aftermath of Indian and Pakistani nuclear tests in May 1998, South
Asian security is threatened by the expanded prospect of regional nuclear
war. Although a variety of political and diplomatic measures will surely be
taken to control this increasingly menacing arms race, an escalatory
competition that might even come to involve China, it is important that all
pertinent decision-makers now fully understand the stakes. Should India
and Pakistan actually engage in nuclear exchanges, either by calculation
or by inadvertence, the survivors would envy the dead.
Indian and Pakistani leaders should begin by considering an authoritative
1975 study of nuclear war consequences titled: LONG TERM
WORLDWIDE EFFECTS OF MULTIPLE NUCLEAR WEAPONS
DETONATIONS. Prepared in the United States by a special committee of
the National Research Council, National Academy of Sciences, its point of
departure was nothing less than "...a horrendous calamity; a hypothetical
exchange involving the detonation of many nuclear weapons. In the worst
case considered, about half of all nuclear weapons in current strategic
arsenals, viz, 500 to 1000 weapons of yield 10 to 20 megatons each, and
4000 to 5000 lesser (sic) weapons with yields of 1 or 2 megatons each,
i.e., a total of 10,000,000,000 tons of TNT equivalent are exchanged
among the participants. No report can portray the enormity, the utter horror
which must befall the targeted areas and adjoining territories."
Of course, the scale of this Report's assumptions is vastly greater than
that which concerns us here, namely a plausible nuclear war scenario for
India and Pakistan in South Asia. Nevertheless, the likely kinds of physical
and biological effects are still germane to our present inquiry. Some of
these effects concern temperature changes; contamination of foods by
radionuclides; disease epidemics in crops and in domesticated animals due
to ionizing radiation; shortening of growing seasons; irreversible injuries to
aquatic species; long-term carcinogenesis due to inhalation of plutonium
particles; radiation-induced developmental anomalies in persons in utero at
the time of detonations; increase in skin cancers; and increased incidence
of genetic disease that would not be limited to the offspring of the exposed
generation, but would extend over many generations.
Significantly, in assessing the likely effects of a nuclear war involving India
and Pakistan, it will be important to look beyond individual effects in
isolation. This means that the interactions between individual effects could
produce calamitous and still unforseen consequences. Recognizing this
some years ago, a publication of the U.S. Arms Control and Disarmament
Agency, WORLDWIDE EFFECTS OF NUCLEAR WAR....SOME
PERSPECTIVES, concluded as follows:
In attempting to project the after-effects of a major nuclear war, we have
considered separately the various kinds of damage that could occur. It is
also quite possible, however, that interactions might take place among
these effects, so that one type of damage would couple with another to
produce new and unexpected hazards. For example, we can assess
individually the consequences of heavy worldwide radiation fallout and
increased solar ultraviolet, but we do not know whether the two acting
together might significantly increase human, animal or plant susceptibility to
disease. We can conclude that massive dust injection into the
stratosphere, even greater in scale than Krakatoa (the volcanic eruption) is
unlikely by itself to produce significant climactic and environmental
change, but we cannot rule out interactions with other phenomena, such
as ozone depletion, which might produce utterly unexpected results. We
have come to realize that nuclear weapons can be as unpredictable as
they are deadly in their effects.
But what, specifically, would be the likely effects of a "limited" nuclear
war, a "small" war of the sort that should concern both Indian and
Pakistani planners? To answer this question, we must first subdivide this
category into at least three possibilities: (1) exclusively counterforce
attacks against hard targets; (2) exclusively countervalue attacks against
civilian populations; and (3) mixed counterforce/countervalue attacks.
Moreover, in comparing the plausibility of these three possible nuclear
attacks, it will first be necessary to (a) differentiate between objectives and
capabilities of India and Pakistan; and (b) prepare a comprehensive
"strategic dialectic" in which each India and Pakistan anticipate the
other's reactions to its own relevant nuclear strategies and deployments.
How shall this dialectic be prepared? In essence, analysts - placed in the
shoes of Indian and Pakistani planners - should approach the problem as
an interrelated series of thoughts, where each thought or idea about
enemy capabilities/enemy intentions presents a complication that moves
inquiry onward to the next thought or idea. Contained in this strategic
dialectic is an obligation to continue thinking, an obligation that can never
be fulfilled entirely (because of what the philosophers call an "infinite
regress problem"), but that must still be attempted as fully and as
competently as possible. Without such a dialectic, those who work on
pertinent security matters will focus only upon discrete moments in time, on
static phenomena (e.g., numbers of weapons; types of weapons;
leadership personalities, etc.), rather than upon appropriately dynamic and
generic interactions (synergies).
The advantages of a strategic dialectic will depend, in part, upon the
coherence of the overall predictive enterprise. India and Pakistan do not
face a random set of discrete and wholly separate military threats. Rather,
there is a general threat environment within which discrete threat
components fit. The task for analysts and strategists here is not to figure
out in advance each and every specific threat component, but to identify a
strategy that will likely accomodate the understanding of a broad variety of
posible threats for each country.
In fashioning such a strategy, it will be important to understand the
extraordinary importance of perceptions. Should India or Pakistan seek to
reduce the vulnerability of its nuclear forces by some intentionally
detectable combination of multiplication/dispersion/hardening, each state
could come to believe, erroneously, that the other was preparing for
aggression. Such erroneous beliefs would be even more likely if one state
or the other should seek simultaneously further reduced nuclear force
vulnerabilities via apt forms of active and passive defenses. Ironically, in
seeking to stabilize nuclear deterrence by signalling the enemy that its own
nuclear forces were not vulnerable to disarming first-strikes - i.e., that these
are exclusively second-strike forces with an "assured destruction"
capability - India or Pakistan could create the impression that it was
planning to strike first. Here, each state's attempts to convince the other
that it was not preparing for preemption could backfire, offering new
incentives to India or Pakistan to preempt itself.
The alternative for each state would be to deliberately disguise efforts at
nuclear force protection from the other, but such subterfuge could carry
additional and substantial risks. Should India calculate that Pakistan's
nuclear forces were vulnerable to first-strike attacks, or Pakistan that
India's nuclear forces were so vulnerable, each enemy state could want to
exploit the other's current but potentially transient weakness. Moreover,
because too great a force vulnerability could encourage the other state to
strike first, and because both India and Pakistan would understand this
calculation, each side would have compelling reasons to launch prompt
preemptive attacks.
Returning to our more specific discussion of nuclear war outcomes,
analysts now need to identify in broad outline certain of the expected
consequences that would be more or less common to each pertinent
scenario. Medically, the most widespread and potentially problematic type
of injury in any nuclear attack would be burns. On this injury, one should
consider that in the United States, at the Massachusetts General Hospital -
one of the very best in the country - only fifteen beds are available at any
one time for the acute care of burn victims. Just to keep one such patient
alive taxes this exceptional facility to the limit. No amount of advanced
preparation could provide the human and material resources required for
the care of even a few such pateints hospitalized simultaneously in any city
of the United States. Yet we must assume that at least tens of thousands
of such casualties would result in every Indian and Pakistani city hit by a
nuclear weapon, possibly even hundreds of thousands.
There can be no meaningful medical response to the overwhelming health
problems that would follow a nuclear attack upon India and/or Pakistan.
These problems would extend far beyond the uncontrollable
consequences of prompt burn injuries. A burden of cancer and genetic
defects would afflict survivors and future generations. Radioactivity would
make blast areas uninhabitable for at least many months. Most area water
supplies, sanitation resources, transportation capacities and industrial
production (which in many cases were not much to begin with) would be
destroyed. And where would the survivors, in their pitiful state, go?
The Hiroshima bomb, a relatively small weapon with explosive power in
the range of 20,000 tons of TNT, killed approximately 100,000 people out
of a total population of 245,000. Twenty-five percent were directly burned
by the bomb, fifty per cent died of other injuries, and twenty percent from
radiation effects. The bomb also destroyed two-thirds of the 90,000
buildings within city limits.
But statistics don't tell the whole story. In his book, HIROSHIMA, John
Hersey offers a more graphic picture:
There were about 20 men....all in exactly the same nightmarish state: their
faces were wholly burned, their eye sockets were hollow, the fluid from
their melted eyes had run down their cheeks....their mouths were swollen,
pus-covered wounds, which they could not bear to stretch enough to
admit the spout of a teapot....
From what we already know about Hiroshima, it is evident that even the
most limited nuclear exchange between India and Pakistan would spell
utter catastrophe. The immediate effects of the explosions - thermal
radiation, nuclear radiation and blast damage - would cause wide swaths
of death and destruction. Victims would suffer flash and flame burns.
Retinal burns could occur in the eyes of persons at distances as great as a
hundred miles from the explosion. People would be crushed by collapsing
buildings and torn to shreds by flying glass. Others would fall victim to
raging firestorms and conflagrations. Fallout injuries would include whole-
body radiation injury, produced by penetrating, hard gamma radiation;
superficial radiation burns produced by soft radiations; and injuries
produced by deposits of radioactive substances within the body.
In the aftermath, those few medical facilties that might (miraculously) still
exist would be taxed beyond endurance. Water supplies would become
unusable as a result of fallout contamination. Housing and shelter would
become unavailable for hundreds of thousands, perhaps millions, of
survivors. Transportation and communication would break down to the
most rudimentary levels. Severe food shortages would be inevitable.
India's and Pakistan's networks of interlocking and interdependent
exchange systems would be shattered. Virtually everyone would be
deprived of the basic means of livelihood. Emergency police and fire
services would be decimated and stressed to wholly ineffectual levels. All
systems dependent upon electrical power would cease to function. Severe
trauma would occasion widespread disorientation and psychological
disorders for which there would be no therapeutic services.
At the time of their initial suffering, the survivors of Hiroshima and
Nagasaki reacted to the otherworldly grotesqueness of their condition with
what psychiatrist Robert J. Lifton has called "death in life." Witnessing the
appearance of long lines of severely burned, literally melting, ghosts, the
survivors found themselves, in Bruno Bettelheim's words, an "anonymous
mass," or in the Japanese term, muga-muchu, "without self, without a
center." Such a total disruption of individual and social order, of one's
customary personal and community supports, produced consequences
that went far beyond immediate physical and emotional suffering. This
understanding is incorporated in the Japanese term for atomic bomb
survivors, hibakusha, which delimits four categories of victims. According
to Dr. Lifton, these categories include:
those who at the time of the bomb were within the city limits of Hiroshima
as then defined...those who came into the city within fourteen days and
entered a designated area extending to about two thousand meters from
the hypocenter; those who came into physical contact with bomb victims,
through various forms of aid or disposal of bodies; and those who were in
utero at the time, and whose mothers fit into any of the first three groups.
The effects of Hiroshima, therefore, were not confined to the immediate or
even long-term experiences of those who bore witness, but extended as
well to their rescuers, to their progeny, and even to the progeny of their
rescuers. Perhaps it would not be unreasonable to expand the category of
hibakusha to include even the children of Japanese mothers who do not fit
into one of the three above-mentioned groups, as well as several post-War
generations of Americans, who - willingly or unwillingly -share the historic
burden. Perhaps it would not even be unreasonable to include humankind
as a whole, as the legacy of Hiroshima is that of a terrible interloper that
can never be fully excluded from our collective memory.
But let us return to immediate effects of a nuclear war between India and
Pakistan. Normal society would cease to function. The pestilence of
unrestrained murder and banditry would augment the pestilence of plague
and epidemics. With the passage of time, many of the survivors would
expect an increased incidence of degenerative diseases and various kinds
of cancer. They would also expect premature death, impairment of vision,
and increased sterility. Among the survivors of Hiroshima, for example, an
increased incidence of leukemia and cancer of the lung, stomach, breast,
ovary and uterine cervix has been widely documented.
Many of the most delicately balanced relationships in nature would be
upset by the extensive fallout. In this connection, Indians and Pakistanis
who would survive the nuclear exchange would likely have to deal with
enlarged and voracious insect populations. According to biologist Tom
Stonier:
Mushrooming insect populations are likely to spread from the radiation-
damaged areas in which they arose, and, like the locusts of biblical times,
wreak havoc in previously undamaged areas. Accompanying the insect
plagues would be the plant diseases transmitted by insects, particularly
those diseases which attack plants that have been injured or weakened
by insect or radiation damage. The combined assault of radiation, insects,
disease and fire could temporarily strip off the plant cover of vast areas. If
the attack is sufficently widespread, it is conceivable that a few years later
almost all the forests would have been destroyed, and most of the
countryside would have become converted into marginal grasslands, if not
actually stripped, leaving a naked earth to be ravaged by the ever-present
forces of erosion.
Herbert Abrams and William E. Von Kaenel, in the November 1981 issue
of THE NEW ENGLAND JOURNAL OF MEDICINE, also present an
assessment of burgeoning insect populations that is stark and sobering:
Insects are generally more resistant to radiation than are human beings.
This fact, along with the prevalence of corpses, waste and untreated
sewage, the depletion of birds, and the destruction of insecticide stocks
and production, will engender a huge increase in insect growth.
Mosquitoes would multiply rapidly after an attack....The fly population
would explode....Most domestic animals and wild creatures would be killed.
Trillions of flies would breed in the dead bodies. Uncontrolled growth in the
insect population...may sharply limit the capacity to control such diseases
as typhus, malaria, dengue fever and encephalitis.
Certain of the biological and ecological effects of a nuclear war would be
felt by other states in the region. Radioactive fallout does not respect
political boundaries. Because of the manner in which nuclear explosions
behave in the atmosphere, the altitude reached by the mushroom-shaped
cloud would depend upon the force of the explosion. For yields in the low-
kiloton range, the cloud would remain in the lower atmosphere, and its
effects would likely remain local. That is, these effects would not extend
beyond the boundaries of the combatant states. But for yields exceeding
30 kilotons, parts of the clouds of radioactive debris would "punch" into
the stratosphere, affecting non-combatant states as well.
Throughout the South Asian region affected by nuclear exchanges, an
enormous health threat would be created by tens of thousands of rotting,
unburied corpses. In many areas radiation levels would be so high that
corpses could remain untouched for weeks or even months. With
transportation destroyed, survivors weakened and myriad post-war
reconstruction tasks to be performed, corpse disposal would be difficult, if
not impossible. And in order to bury the dead, areas even larger than
India's and Pakistan's now destroyed cities could be required for the
cemetery.
Fear and reality go together naturally. Unless both Indian and Pakistani
decision-makers come to acknowledge the mutually intolerable
consequences of a nuclear war in South Asia, they may begin to think of
nuclear weapons not as instruments of deterrence, but as "ordinary"
implements of warfighting. With such an erroneous view, they might even
begin to take steps toward the atomic brink from which retreat would no
longer be possible.
On the Indian subcontinent, nuclear war would inevitably be an incurable
disease. The only hope for such a terminal illness lies in prevention. For
both India and Pakistan, there can be absolutely no meaningful idea of
"victory" associated with nuclear war. The adequacy of their respective
military establishments can now be demonstrated only by their ability to
preserve the peace.
LOUIS RENE BERES was educated at Princeton (Ph.D., 1971) and is the
author of many publications dealing with nuclear strategy and nuclear war.
Among his many books dealing with these subjects are APOCALYPSE:
NUCLEAR CATASTROPHE IN WORLD POLITICS (1980); MIMICKING
SISYPHUS: AMERICA'S COUNTERVAILING NUCLEAR STRATEGY
(1983); REASON AND REALPOLITIK: U.S. FOREIGN POLICY AND
WORLD ORDER (1984); and SECURITY OR ARMAGEDDON: ISRAEL'S
NUCLEAR STRATEGY (1986). Professor Beres has been associated with
the U.S. Defense Nuclear Agency, U.S. Arms Control and Disarmament
Agency, John F, Kennedy Special Warfare Center, and various military and
political institutions in Israel. His guest columns appear often in such
newspapers as THE NEW YORK TIMES, WASHINGTON POST, LOS
ANGELES TIMES, CHRISTIAN SCIENCE MONITOR, THE JERUSALEM
POST, etc.
========
To: bpr-list@philologos.org (BPR Mailing List)
Subject: Intelligence Report: Nuclear Buildup and Financial Meltdown
From: bpr-list@philologos.org(BPR)
Date: Mon, 1 Jun 1998 20:18:38 -0500
---------------------------------------------------------------
Bible Prophecy Research and Study List
Study Subject: Revelation 12
---------------------------------------------------------------
From: <owner-bpr@philologos.org>
The writers of this article are less concerned with the Pakistani-Indian
situation, than they are with Russia's sudden financial crisis which thus far
has not received too much press.
---------------------
Global Intelligence Update
Red Alert
June 1, 1998
Nuclear Buildup and Financial Meltdown: India, Pakistan and Russia
The past week had two major foci. The first was the decision by Pakistan
to demonstrate its ability to conduct underground nuclear tests. The
second was the sudden and fairly unexpected crisis in Russian financial
markets. The international community was transfixed by events on the
Indian subcontinent, while seeming to take the Russian crisis in stride.
From our point of view, the order of priority should be dramatically
reversed. The Russian events constitute a decisive, definitive event, even
in the history of a former superpower. The Indo-Pakistani events, while
appearing more dramatic, are actually a minor evolution rather than a
decisive break with the past.
It must be remembered that no one has doubted that both India and
Pakistan are capable of detonating nuclear devices. The fact that they
have detonated the devices has certainly attracted attention, but is merely
a statement of the obvious, this time with an exclamation point. The threat
of nuclear war on the subcontinent neither increased nor decreased
because of these tests. The threat of conflict did increase when a new,
nationalist government was installed in India and played off against an
already established, nationalist government in Pakistan. But the mere
explosion of nuclear devices simply confirmed what everyone knew, which
was that both India and Pakistan had the ability to test weapons.
It is, of course, unclear that either country, especially Pakistan, has the
ability to deliver nuclear weapons. Even the availability of delivery
systems, such as aircraft and missiles, does not mean that either country
has the ability to marry their nuclear devices to the delivery system.
Creating a device that can explode in a cavern and creating a device that
can fit on a delivery system and be detonated over a target are two
different matters. Therefore, it is important to recall that we have seen
a demonstration of the ability to detonate nuclear weapons and not a
demonstration of the ability to deliver them as weapons of war.
But let's assume the probable, which is that both India and Pakistan have
the ability to deliver nuclear strikes at each other. This leaves us in
the same position we were in a month ago. At that time it appeared
probable that both India and Pakistan could deliver nuclear strikes against
each other if they wished. Today it appears probable that both India and
Pakistan can deliver nuclear strikes against each other if they wish. We
end this cycle of tests in the same position as we began it.
Indeed, what changes have occurred tend to argue against armed conflict
rather than for it. The Indo-Pakistani conflict, which is now a half-
century old, entered a new phase with the installation of the new Indian
government. The confrontation along the entire border, and in Kashmir in
particular, increased markedly. The probability of armed conflict
increased to some extent. However, even this was limited by military
realities. Pakistan's ability to engage and defeat the Indian army is
doubtful. Therefore, a full-scale assault on Kashmir is not in the cards.
The Indian army's ability to conduct extensive offensive operations also
has some limits. Moreover, India holds Kashmir and really doesn't covet
Pakistani territory. Since it is not clear that the dismemberment of
Pakistan is in India's long-term interest, the willingness of India to
launch a general offensive, were they to judge themselves able to carry it
out, has always been doubtful.
Therefore, while border skirmishes remain possible and even likely, all-out
war makes little strategic sense for either side. With the public
demonstration that nuclear weapons are a probable factor, the likelihood of
all-out war decreases rather than increases. The one strategic
possibility, an Indian invasion of Pakistan designed to secure India's
western frontiers permanently, ceases to be possible if Pakistan has
nuclear weapons. To be precise, the presence of nuclear weapons does
not abolish conventional conflict. However, it tends to decrease the
willingness of combatants to challenge the very existence of a nuclear
state, as that is the only rational circumstance under which the use of
nuclear weapons makes sense.
If the history of the nuclear era has taught us anything, it is that
nuclear powers tend to become more, rather than less, circumspect in their
use of warfare. Neither the Soviet Union nor the United States threatened
the very existence of the other, therefore, both sides refrained from using
nuclear weapons. Indeed, the circumstance when the use of nuclear
weapons seemed a real possibility was in Israel in 1973, when it appeared
that Israel's very existence was threatened by Syrian forces on the Golan
Heights. Once the limited capabilities and intentions of the Syrians
became clear, the nuclear threat passed. Other nuclear powers, including
the United States and the Soviet Union, endured substantial politico-
military defeats without resorting to nuclear weapons because neither had
its very existence at stake.
The real significance of nuclear weapons is diplomatic and psychological.
They are a tool for appearing to increase the stakes without increasing the
risks. The very fact that India and Pakistan have focused the world's
attention on their subcontinent by doing fairly little, demonstrates the
utility of nuclear weapons in this regard. Not only is the United States
suddenly interested, but the apparent failure of the CIA to provide warning
of the blasts means that there will likely be a major shake-up in the
intelligence, defense, and diplomatic strata responsible for India and
Pakistan. This gives both countries added visibility in the U.S. analysis
and policy-making communities and marvelous opportunities for
manipulation as the bureaucratic struggle mounts in the coming months.
They have gotten the attention of the only country that counts. The real
issue is what they will each try to do with it. In the meantime, skirmishes
will continue, each side will practice brinkmanship and each side will court
favor in Washington.
The one danger is that the Indo-Pakistani conflict will be dragged into the
general Middle Eastern conflict. Iran has not had good relations with
Pakistan because of differences over Afghanistan. The Iranian Foreign
Minister will arrive in Pakistan on Monday to discuss these differences.
Pakistan now has something Iran badly wants. The entire dynamics of
these discussions could shift. The real issue is: is this a Pakistani bomb or
an Islamic bomb? The Iranians will be far more interested in the answer to
that question than in Pakistani relations with India. And so should we.
In the meantime, the collapse of the Russian financial markets was noticed,
but not sufficiently. This was not a transitory hit by foreign speculators, but
a massive vote of no confidence in Russian economic policy. Foreign
capital, which had stopped arriving in Russia, now is withdrawing. The
Russian Central Bank said that foreigners withdrew between $500 million
and $700 million from the government bond market during the past two
weeks. It said that foreigners held about one third of the bank's
outstanding instruments, about $20 billion. The total market is valued at
$60 billion. This would mean that the stampede out of the markets was led
by Russians, since we find it difficult to believe that a withdrawal of about 1
percent ($500million-$700million) of the total market could cause the
market to crack.
In actuality, we suspect that the Russian Central Bank has no real idea as
to what happened over the past week, since its ability to track who holds
government bonds is limited. This also means that the RCB's brave
declarations that the ruble is in no danger because foreigners are staying
in the market, should comfort no one. There is no way that the Russian
markets crumbled as they did without major foreign liquidation. That means
there are a great many rubles in foreign hands still waiting to be converted,
and that the RCB's declarations that the ruble is in no danger of
devaluation is unsupported. Particularly given the weakness in the
energy-related markets, Russia's hard currency reserves must be dwindling.
The pressure to bring the ruble to more realistic levels is irresistible.
Without a currency crisis, the only alternative is a general financial
crisis. Given the Russian track record, we will probably see both.
The problem is that no one really knows the extent of the situation. As in
much of Asia, corruption and inefficiency beyond imagination have
rendered Russian financial statements meaningless. The state is spending
money it doesn't have, and its ability to raise money in foreign markets has
become doubtful. The crisis: what will the Russian state do for money?
The Russians have focused on tax collection, firing the old head of the
service and promising a complete overhaul, going after the largest
companies first, since they are also the largest deadbeats. The problem is
twofold. First, the entire economy has been built on tax evasion. Second,
we suspect that most of these enterprises couldn't pay their taxes, even if
they wanted to. After seven years of failing to deal with fundamental
problems in the economy, the Russians have hit the same brick wall as the
Asians. This is, of course, only phase one. The next sixty days will bring
other calamities galore.
As in Asia, we are brought to the social and political consequences. The
Russian economic problem, like the Asian economic problem, has become
insoluble. As the tax situation shows, even obvious reforms can't be
implemented. The question remaining is, how will Russian society respond?
We continue to feel that the massive failure of liberalization for all but
a narrow stratum of Russian society will lead to the return of traditional
Russian authoritarianism, both to contain unrest and to respond to it. We
expect the regime, with or without Yeltsin, to crack down on unrest while
focusing that unrest on the only group that can be dispensed with: foreign
bankers and their Russian allies. They can be dispensed with because
they are dispensing of themselves. No sane foreigner will invest in Russia
today. Their dilemma is how to get out in one piece. Blaming them for the
crisis is safe and well within the Russian tradition for coping with policy
failures. The real losers, of course, will be the Russian bankers who made
their living peddling their connections to Western banks. The lucky ones
already have their money in the United States. The rest will be driving
cabs in New York, if they are lucky enough to get out.
With repression, comes more traditional Russian foreign policy. Indeed,
one of the more interesting aspects of the Indo-Pakistani crisis is how the
Russians, traditional allies of India, will respond. As with the recent
Iraqi crisis, we expect Russia to place itself in a more familiar role than
it has in recent years: a thorn in the side of the United States. Next
week, the focus should still be on Russia and the subcontinent. We
expect it to be in a more rational ratio than this past week.
___________________________________________________
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--- BPR
BPR Web Site - http://philologos.org/bpr
========
To: bpr-list@philologos.org (BPR Mailing List)
Subject: The Dragon and Pagan Rome
From: bpr-list@philologos.org(BPR)
Date: Tue, 2 Jun 1998 08:50:47 -0500
---------------------------------------------------------------
Bible Prophecy Research and Study List
Study Subject: Revelation 12
---------------------------------------------------------------
From: <owner-bpr@philologos.org>
The Dragon and Pagan Rome
"In 312 A.D. Emperor Constantine was about to enter into battle with his
rival emperor Maxentius. Greatly outnumbered by his opponents army,
Constantine on the day before the impending battle saw a vision in the sky
of a cross with the words "In Hoc Signo Crucis Vinces" emblazoned about
it, which means "In This Sign (the Cross) You Shall Conquer". Constantine
immediately adopted the cross as his emblem and had it put on troops and
banners. The following day Constantine defeated Maxentius in the battle of
Milvian Bridge. Constantine went on to declare Christianity the state religion
of Rome and was himself later baptized a Christian."
"A fresco in the Vatican, (The Sala di Constantino, Palazzi Vaticani, Rome)
painted by RAFFAELLO (1509-10 A.D.) depicts the moment that Emperor
Constantine saw the cross in the sky."
[A picture of this fresco may be viewed at the Catholic site - Christus Rex,
http://www.christusrex.org/www1/stanzas/Cd-Cross.jpg]
"In the fresco, note what is in the upper right-hand corner. There
you will see a winged serpent, or dragon. Raffaello was depicting a pivotal
moment in the conversion of Pagan Rome to Christianity, the dragon he
painted being symbolic of ancient Pagan Rome."
One of the more important events of Constantine's reign included the
issuance of the Edict of Milan, which ended the persecution of Christians
and made their worship legal. Constantine increased the role of the
Catholic Church in Roman government by placing bishops in high political
positions. So we see that his role in history was a major pivotal point in
providing the Roman Catholic Church a power structure from which to
build. The Roman Empire was slowly giving its power to the Roman
Catholic Church. Pagan Rome was becoming Papacy Rome. By the 6th
century the Papacy was firmly established with the Bishop of Rome
declared to be the head of the entire church.
Remembering that the dragon in Raffaelo's fresco symbolized Pagan
Rome, it's curious to note that Pope Gregory XIII (1572-1585) adopted the
winged serpent or dragon as his symbol on his heraldic shield. Pope
Gregory is known for initiating the calendar reform, the Gregorian calendar.
In the Vatican gardens there is a fountain called the Fountain of Towers
which bears the heraldic shield of Pope Paolo V (1605-1621), which
pictured a winged dragon along with an eagle. The central figure of this
fountain is a winged dragon flanked on either side by fortress like towers
topped by sculptures of other winged dragons. The fountain also
resembles an altar and thus is sometimes referred to as the Fountain of the
Sacrament. A spray of water shoots from the mouth of the central dragon
and is said to symbolize the rays of a sunburst monstrance.
(Source: http://www.aloha.net/~mikesch/dragon.htm)
========
To: bpr-list@philologos.org (BPR Mailing List)
Subject: Herod the Great
From: bpr-list@philologos.org(BPR)
Date: Tue, 2 Jun 1998 08:50:47 -0500
---------------------------------------------------------------
Bible Prophecy Research and Study List
Study Subject: Revelation 12
---------------------------------------------------------------
From: <owner-bpr@philologos.org>
Herod the Great, an Agent of the Dragon
(Rev 12:3-4 KJV) "And there appeared another wonder in heaven; and
behold a great red dragon, having seven heads and ten horns, and seven
crowns upon his heads. And his tail drew the third part of the stars of
heaven, and did cast them to the earth: and the dragon stood before the
woman which was ready to be delivered, for to devour her child as soon as
it was born."
(Mat 2:13 KJV) "And when they were departed, behold, the angel of the
Lord appeareth to Joseph in a dream, saying, Arise, and take the young
child and his mother, and flee into Egypt, and be thou there until I bring
thee word: for Herod will seek the young child to destroy him."
---------------
The family of Herod the Great was of Idumean blood which were in turn of
Edomite stock, i.e. descendants of Esau. This group of people populated
an area of land south of Bethlehem and Jerusalem. The Herod family ruled
Idumea at the time that the Maccabean (Hasmonean) dynasty ruled
Palestine. Through a series of family misfortunes, jealousy and deceit, the
Hasmoneans became vulnerable to a Roman takeover. The Herodians
took advantage of the weakness and confusion within the Maccabean
family and eventually, with the aid of Rome, conquered the Hasmoneans.
Antipater, Herod the Great's father was made governor of Judea, while
Herod became governor of Galilee. After Antipater's death, Mark Antony,
who ruled the eastern provinces of the Roman Empire, made Herod a
tetrarch (i.e. he ruled one-fourth) of Judea.
In 40 b.c., the Hasmonean leader Antigonus regained control and ousted
Herod from power, claiming himself to be king of the Jews. Herod sought
Mark Antony for help. Mark Antony, along with Octavian, convinced the
Roman senate to instead appoint Herod as king of the Jews. This
declaration was in name only, as it still took Herod three more years of
fighting to fully reclaim Jerusalem in 37 B.C.
Herod was one of the greatest builders of the ancient world. His extensive
building program included "the Temple platform in Jerusalem, the harbor
city of Caesarea, the strong fortress of Masada, the striking ruins of
Samaria, and the Herodium, the fortress palace where Herod was buried."
The 35-acre platform on which he built his temple still stands in Jerusalem.
Inscription stones warning the Gentiles not to proceed into the court of
Israel have also been found.
The Idumaeans practiced the Jewish religion, nevertheless the Jews
regarded them with suspicion and prejudice, calling them half-Jews. So
partly, one of Herod's reasons for remodeling the temple (in 19 B.C.) was to
try and regain the Jews' favor. "It was frequently said that if one had not
seen Herod's Temple, he had never seen a truly beautiful building."
"Herod was not only an Idumaean in race and a Jew in religion, but he
was a heathen in practice and a monster in character." He put to death
his favorite wife (one of ten), "whom he deeply and passionately loved."
He had her two sons strangled to death. Just five days before his own
death, Herod had his own son Antipater slain. While on his deathbed, he
ordered that all the "principal men of the entire Jewish nation" be brought
to his chambers. Once there, he shut them up in the hippodrome and
surrounded it with soldiers. He ordered that immediately upon his death,
which he expected soon, that these men were to be slain. The purpose
behind this act was to insure "the honor of a memorable mourning at his
funeral." The order apparently was not carried out.
(Rev 12:17 KJV) "And the dragon was wroth with the woman, and went to
make war with the remnant of her seed, which keep the commandments of
God, and have the testimony of Jesus Christ."
(Mat 2:16 KJV) "Then Herod, when he saw that he was mocked of the
wise men, was exceeding wroth, and sent forth, and slew all the children
that were in Bethlehem, and in all the coasts thereof, from two years old
and under, according to the time which he had diligently inquired of the
wise men."
We note that Herod received his office and authority from the Roman
Empire. He "was successful in ingratiating himself to the Romans. By sheer
force of personality and lack of hesitancy in executing even the close
members of his own family, he strengthened his position as undisputed ruler
of Palestine under the permission of Roman authority." As king of Judea,
under Roman rule, he carried out his plans to murder the Christ child by
having all male children two years and under slain.
(References: Holman's Bible Dictionary; The New Unger's Bible Dictionary;
Illustrated Encyclopedia of Bible Facts)
========
To: bpr-list@philologos.org (BPR Mailing List)
Subject: Dragons
From: bpr-list@philologos.org(BPR)
---------------------------------------------------------------
Bible Prophecy Research and Study List
Study Subject: Revelation 12
---------------------------------------------------------------
From: research-bpr <research-bpr@philologos.org>
**With an ancient history and countless varieties, dragons are the most
widespread and enduring of all legendary beasts. And yet, dragons remain
a puzzle. Despite their prehistoric origins, cave art shows no signs of
dragons. When did they emerge in human history? The answer is elusive.
In the West, dragons may have first appeared in ancient Babylon some 4,000
years ago with a myth that attributes the formation of the very universe to a
dragon. Before the earth was created, according to Babylonian legend,
a ferocious she-dragon called Tiamat thrashed across the void. All the gods
of Babylon scattered before Tiamat's reign of terror...In her fury, Tiamat
destroyed all who challenged her. All that is, except the Babylonian sun
god, Marduk. In a cosmic battle, Marduk slew Tiamat. Then, from her
dismembered body, he fashioned the heavens and the earth. From dragon blood,
Marduk created man.
**For thousands of years Chinese dragons have been sacred symbols of change,
able to make themselves as small as silkworms or large enough to fill the
space between heaven and earth. Even more remarkably, dragons were thought
to govern the essential rhythms of Chinese society. Ancient tradition says that
dragons water the rice fields providing the cornerstone of Chinese
civilization...Yet Chinese dragons have a destructive side, too. They are also
thought to deliver the devastating storms that regularly batter China's
shores...Peasants tell stories of dragon kings, noble animals that live in
aquatic palaces on the ocean floor. In the spring, dragons ascend to the
heavens. In the autumn, they return to their undersea homes. These seasonal
passages are said to stir up China's destructive storms...Far from the
tempests of everyday life stands China's Forbidden City, the
emperor's exclusive palace. It is adorned with dragons...Curiously, the
emperor's dragon was always depicted with five claws. This creature became
so wedded to the imperial identity that before long every feature of the
Chinese court was described in terms of dragons. The emperor was called
the "true dragon"; he sat on the "dragon throne" and wrapped himself in
"dragon robes." So jealously did the royal household guard its five-clawed
dragon that anyone who displayed the symbol without approval was punished
by death.
**Uther Pendragon, father of the legendary king Arthur, adopted the symbol
of a dragon after dreaming of a great dragon flaming in the sky. It has been
the battle standard of English kings ever since.
**The constellation of Draco has been identified with dragons for 6,000
years. Greek mythology claimed that in the battle of the Titans, the goddess
Athena hurled a Titanic dragon into the sky where it tangled among the stars.
Dragons
In Search of History
The History Channel
========
To: bpr-list@philologos.org (BPR Mailing List)
Subject: Tail of the Dragon
From: bpr-list@philologos.org(BPR)
---------------------------------------------------------------
Bible Prophecy Research and Study List
Study Subject: Revelation 12
---------------------------------------------------------------
From: research-bpr <research-bpr@philologos.org>
And there appeared another wonder in heaven; and behold a great red
dragon, having seven heads and ten horns, and seven crowns upon his
heads. And his tail drew the third part of the stars of heaven, and
did cast them to the earth...And there was war in heaven: Michael
and his angels fought against the dragon; and the dragon fought and
his angels, And prevailed not; neither was their place found any
more in heaven.--Rev 12:3,4,7,8
====================
Hydra
The parents of the Hydra were Typhon and Echidna.
[Like father, like son?]
====================
A terrible comet was seen by the people of Ethiopia and Egypt, to
which Typhon, the king of that period, gave his name; it had a
fiery appearance and was twisted like a coil, and it was very grim
to behold: it was not really a star so much as what might be called
a ball of fire.
Natural History, Pliny
====================
[Typhon] out-topped all the mountains, and his head often brushed
the stars. One of his hands reached out to the west and the other
to the east, and from them projected a hundred dragons' heads.
From the thighs downward he had huge coils of vipers which...
emitted a long hissing...His body was all winged...and fire
flashed from his eyes. Such and so great was Typhon when, hurling
kindled rocks, he made for the very heaven with hissing and
shouts, spouting a great jet of fire from his mouth.
Apollodorus
====================
According to [Immanuel] Velikovsky, the planet Venus sprang
originally from the gas giant Jupiter, its elliptical orbit
around the Sun intersecting the orbit of the Earth. Velikovsky
called the protoplanet Venus a comet because, as it circled the
Sun, it carried with it a tail of gas and debris. The largest
portion of Velikovsky's "Worlds in Collision" is devoted to
aspects of his thesis concerning Venus, a planet he says nearly
collided with the Earth twice first around 1500 BC and then again
some 52 years later. The axis of the Earth was disturbed, and fire,
gas, dust and stone descended on the Earth, accompanied by
earthquakes and wind, decimating whole populations around the
world.
[And I beheld when he had opened the sixth seal, and, lo, there
was a great earthquake; and the sun became black as sackcloth of
hair, and the moon became as blood; And the stars of heaven fell
unto the earth, even as a fig tree casteth her untimely figs,
when she is shaken of a mighty wind. And the heaven departed as
a scroll when it is rolled together; and every mountain and
island were moved out of their places.--Rev 6:12-14
And the angel took the censer, and filled it with fire of the
altar, and cast it into the earth: and there were voices, and
thunderings, and lightnings, and an earthquake.--Rev 8:5
The first angel sounded, and there followed hail and fire mingled
with blood, and they were cast upon the earth: and the third part
of the trees was burnt up, and all green grass was burnt up. And
the second angel sounded, and as it were a great mountain burning
with fire was cast into the sea: and the third part of the sea
became blood;...And the third angel sounded, and there fell a
great star from heaven, burning as it were a lamp, and it fell
upon the third part of the rivers, and upon the fountains of
waters...And the fourth angel sounded, and the third part of the
sun was smitten, and the third part of the moon, and the third
part of the stars; so as the third part of them was darkened,
and the day shone not for a third part of it, and the night
likewise.--Rev 8:7-12
And the temple of God was opened in heaven, and there was seen
in his temple the ark of his testament: and there were
lightnings, and voices, and thunderings, and an earthquake,
and great hail.--Rev 11:19
And there were voices, and thunders, and lightnings; and there
was a great earthquake, such as was not since men were upon the
earth, so mighty an earthquake, and so great...And every island
fled away, and the mountains were not found. And there fell upon
men a great hail out of heaven, every stone about the weight of a
talent: and men blasphemed God because of the plague of the hail;
for the plague thereof was exceeding great.--Rev 16:18,20,21]
----------
...one of the repeated themes in the myth of the prototypical comet is
that it appears as a divine weapon hurled against rebelling powers.
----------
One conclusion is inescapable, even if interpretations will differ:
the Mesoamerican symbolism of the planet Venus in that planet's guise
as serpent-dragon or chaos-monster is a compendium of
globally-recognized comet symbols, representing in one mythical form
all five of the most frequently employed cometary [hiero] glyphs!
[N]o comet admitted by modern science has ever justified...the Aztec
image of a comet-like weapon in the form of a fiery dragon. But our
appreciation for the symbolism changes dramatically once we entertain
a new possibility that in earlier times mankind experienced a far more
spectacular and devastating comet than ever experienced in more recent
times, a cometary archetype that could fully account for the later
symbols. It was said of the great fire serpent Xiuhcoatl that it
spewed forth comets. That is exactly the language we should expect if
Xiuhcoatl was not just a comet, but the parent of comets, the concrete
source of a mythical archetype, from which arose the entire reservoir
of comet images. Every cometary apparition, taking its symbolism from
the cosmic original, would then be considered a child of the primeval,
flaming serpent or dragon remembered in the myths.
----------
In earlier times the extent of comet fear was deadly. On the arrival
of the comet of 1528, the famous French surgeon Ambroise Par described
the public reaction: This comet was so horrible and so frightful and
it produced such great terror in the vulgar that some died of fear and
others fell sick.
[And there shall be signs in the sun, and in the moon, and in the
stars; and upon the earth distress of nations, with perplexity;
the sea and the waves roaring; Men's hearts failing them for fear,
and for looking after those things which are coming on the earth:
for the powers of heaven shall be shaken. And then shall they see
the Son of man coming in a cloud with power and great glory. And
when these things begin to come to pass, then look up, and lift
up your heads; for your redemption draweth nigh.--Luke 21:25-28]
----------
Among the Polynesian Islanders...a comet did not just signify the
death of a king, a comet meant the flight of the soul. Similarly, the
eminent student of comparative myth and religion, James Frazer,
produced extensive proof that a widespread superstition associates
meteors or falling stars with the souls of the dead. Often they are
believed to be the spirits of the departed on their way to the other
world.
[...he was cast out into the earth, and his angels were cast out
with him.--Rev 12:9]
----------
Nor will the ease with which the stargazers found a catastrophe to
associate with a comet's arrival explain the deeper theme of the
world ending apocalypse. If one looks at comet lore more closely, it
will be realized that what the stargazers feared most was no local
disaster. Ancient Chinese comet astrology held that Comets are vile
stars. Every time they appear in the south, something happens to wipe
out the old and establish the new. In the language of myth that means
the end of the world. Both the Sibylline Oracles and a Dead Sea Scroll
(War of the Sons of Light and Darkness) present the comet as a sign of
the Last Days all of which sounds very much like the Aztec's comet-like
plumed serpent presiding over the end of one world age and beginning
of another.
----------
Together with the available information on disaster portents, these
mythically-rooted themes provide a great reservoir of evidence as to
the character of the remembered catastrophe. The repeated patterns
speak of a world falling into darkness; the death of the creator-king,
whose heart-soul was torn from him; the end of the kingdom (world);
a sky filled with celestial dust and (comet-like) debris or overrun by
chaos-hordes; the gathering of great armies in the heavens to wage
celestial combat; and overwhelming commotion: reverberating shouts
and cries, the earthshaking moans of the great goddess, the shrieks
of whistles, trumpets blaring, the beating of drums, and in the very
midst of this world-ending havoc a smoking star (archetypal comet,
planet Venus) announcing the disaster in the most literal, causative
sense and presiding over the recovery of order, as if sweeping clear
the darkened and cluttered heavens.
----------
Archaeoastronomers have come to call the bloody wars sanctioned by
Venus the Star War events, a fitting title, since the Venus-dragon
was the great weapon by which the chaos powers were defeated. Citing
studies by leading Mayan experts, Carlson notes that the Maya
conducted certain battles, raids or martial contests timed for
significant stations in the Venus cycle, such as first appearances
as Morning Star and Evening Star. Thus the Star War events were Venus
regulated.
----------
A goddess who appears when war is waged has a now-familiar sound. That
is precisely the mythical role of the comet, and precisely the role
of Venus in Mesoamerican astrology. It seems as if the commentators
have failed to notice that a broom or whisk, be it constituted from
straw or feathers, is a cometary symbol...A bundle of straw is an old
European symbol of the comet. As we will discover also in our
discussion of the world-destroying hag, the famous flying broom of the
European witch stands beside the witch's disheveled, flaming hair and
her serpent-dragon apotheosis as a cometary image. And most
interestingly, in China comets were above all else remembered as brooms
sweeping away one kingdom (world age) and introducing a new
order the very function of the broom in the ritual re-enactments of the
cosmic night in Mesoamerica.
[And his tail drew the third part of the stars of heaven, and did
cast them to the earth...--Rev 12:4]
The Great Comet Venus
David Talbott
Aeon - A Journal of Myth and Science
http://www.ames.net/aeon/article/talbot3.htm (187k)
====================
DEPARTMENT OF PHYSICS AND ASTRONOMY
THE UNIVERSITY OF WESTERN ONTARIO
Monday, March 3, 1997 1:00 p.m.
DR. PAUL W. CHODAS
Jet Propulsion Laboratory
California Institute of Technology, Pasadena
"Estimating Earth Impact Probabilities for Long Period Comets"
ABSTRACT
The recent close Earth approach of comet Hyakutake and the upcoming
close passage of comet Hale-Bopp near the Earth's orbit on May 6
reminds us of the collision hazard posed by long period comets.
Although catastrophic comet impacts probably occur on the order of
only about once every million years, on average, smaller impacts occur
more often, and near misses more often still. It is prudent to
consider the limitations on our ability to predict whether a
threatening comet will impact the Earth. Since long-period comets are
typically discovered only a few months to a year before passage by the
Earth's orbit, and they encounter the Earth at high relative
velocities, the impact warning time would be short. If comets
Hyakutake and Hale-Bopp had been on Earth impact trajectories, the
warning times would have been about 30 and 50 days, respectively.
Methods for increasing this warning time will be discussed.
====================
See also:
...hail and fire mixed with blood...
http://www.philologos.org/bpr/files/h-001-01.htm
...and his kingdom was full of darkness...
http://www.philologos.org/bpr/files/k-001-01.htm
Morning Star
http://www.philologos.org/bpr/files/m-004-01.htm
Wormwood
http://www.philologos.org/bpr/files/w-005-01.htm
Hail, Hale-Bopp!
http://www.philologos.org/bpr/files/Sky_Signs/ss-003.htm
Worlds in Collision, Immanuel Velikovsky (highly recommended)
[book may be out of print. Check local used book stores,
yard sales, etc. I have seen the book on the net with prices
ranging from $1.95 (paperback) to over $200 (hard cover, first
edition).]
========
To: bpr-list@philologos.org (BPR Mailing List)
Subject: 6/2/98 TV Programs
From: bpr-list@philologos.org(BPR)
---------------------------------------------------------------
Bible Prophecy Research and Study List
Study Subject: Revelation 12
---------------------------------------------------------------
From: research-bpr <research-bpr@philologos.org>
9:00 PM Eastern
PBS - FRONTLINE - "Fooling With Nature" - The
ecological dangers of man-made chemicals.(CC)
TLC - PUZZLES OF THE PAST - "Holy Relics" -
Historians and theologians investigate holy relics to
determine authenticity.(CC)(TVG)
10:00 PM
************************************************************************
[BPR would like everyone to please be aware that von Daniken's theories
are a little more "out there" than mainstream cable TV. We like to point
people to programs with some informational content regarding the Bible,
but this name raises a red flag in our minds.]
************************************************************************
TLC - MYSTERIOUS WORLD - "Mysteries of the Bible" - Erich
von Daniken postulates theories about biblical passages and
events.(CC)(TVG)
========
To: bpr-list@philologos.org (BPR Mailing List)
Subject: News: 9 Arab Foreign Ministers to Meet
From: bpr-list@philologos.org(BPR)
---------------------------------------------------------------
Bible Prophecy Research and Study List
Study Subject: Revelation 12
---------------------------------------------------------------
From: research-bpr <research-bpr@philologos.org>
9 Arab Foreign Ministers To Meet in Beirut 31 May
Beirut al-Safir (Internet version) in Arabic 22 May 98 p 2
"Two Sessions for the Mediterranean Arab Foreign Ministers"
The Foreign Ministry has chosen the Vendome Hotel as the venue
for hosting the meetings of the Foreign Ministers of the Arab
countries bordering the Mediterranean Sea. The Ministers will meet
from 31 May until 2 June. One of the hotel's halls will be the venue
for two sessions, the first at 1700 [1400 GMT], Monday, 1 June, and
the second on Tuesday morning. The Foreign Ministers will then meet
President Ilyas al-Hirawi, who will host a dinner banquet in their
honor before they leave Beirut for Palermo.
The Foreign Ministry received affirmative replies from all those
invited. It remains to know whether Moroccan Foreign Minister
Abdellatif Filali will come in person or deputize someone else.
The Ministers who will participate in the meetings are Faruq al-
Shar' (Syria), Jawad al-'Anani (Jordan), Faruq Qaddumi (Palestine),
'Amr Musa (Egypt), Jum'ah Mahdi al-Fazzani (Libya), Said Ben Mustapha
(Tunisia), Ahmed Attaf (Algeria), Abdellatif Filali (Morocco), and
Mohamed Hasan Ould Abah (Mauritania), in addition to Arab League
Secretary General Dr. 'Ismat 'Abd-al-Majid.
Explaining the purpose of the meetings, Foreign Minister Faris
Buwayz said yesterday We are invited to Palermo for a European-
Mediterranean dialogue in which eight Arab countries--Egypt, Syria,
Jordan, Morocco, Tunisia, Mauritania, Libya, Palestine, Algeria, and
Lebanon--will participate. As was the case in Barcelona and then in
Malta, this meeting will be a comprehensive dialogue, that is, a
political, economic, legal, and social one. Hence, we believe that
Israel, which gains much from Europe, cannot go to this conference and
ask for more economic gains while turning its back on political
obligations. We tell the Europeans that we support the European
position and proposals issued in Florence, Luxembourg, and Dublin.
They have to set a ceiling and make Israel at least comply, though
this is not the Arab position but rather falls far short of it.
They have to propound this position and Israel must comply with
it, otherwise they should not agree to Israeli gains at the expense of
political stands. Europe cannot just play the role of a milk cow, that
is, let [Israel] turn to it economically but reject its political
proposals. We hope the European countries will have the courage to
show Israel how negative it is and not shirk from linking politics to
economy.
Israeli & Global News
June 1, 1998
http: www.cmep.com
========
To: bpr-list@philologos.org (BPR Mailing List)
Subject: News: US report finds neutral nations aided Nazi Germany
From: bpr-list@philologos.org(BPR)
---------------------------------------------------------------
Bible Prophecy Research and Study List
Study Subject: Revelation 12
---------------------------------------------------------------
From: research-bpr <research-bpr@philologos.org>
U.S. report says finds neutral nations aided Nazi Germany
Copyright 1998 The Associated Press
WASHINGTON (June 2, 1998 11:56 a.m.) -- Neutral nations kept Nazi Germany's
war machine running with hundreds of millions of dollars of trade in key
materials, a U.S. government report concludes.
Much of it was paid for by gold that Adolf Hitler's troops looted from
banks and by valuables taken from Holocaust victims, says the report,
released Tuesday.
The report concluded that although Switzerland was Nazi Germany's banker,
other neutral nations -- Sweden, Portugal, Spain, Turkey and Argentina --
provided the special goods and tools to keep the war going.
"The cumulative trade of the World War II European neutral countries helped
to sustain the Nazi war effort by supplying key materials to Germany
essential to their conduct of the war," said Stuart Eizenstat,
undersecretary of state for economics, who released the report.
In many cases, the neutral nations, which also traded with the Allies and
said they feared a Nazi invasion if they cut off German supplies, continued
helping the Nazis until near the end of the war -- "in many cases well past
the point where, from the Allied perspective at the time, there was a
genuine threat of German attack," Eizenstat added.
Despite the record of economic Nazi succor, the U.S. report said, the
neutral nations at the same time helped refugees escape almost certain
death in concentration camps where 6 million Jews were exterminated.
Spain helped 30,000-40,000 refugees; Portugal allowed 5,000 to pass through
to America; Sweden saved 7,000 Danish Jews and 20,000-30,000 in Hungary;
Turkey helped 100,000 flee; and Argentina accepted 25,000-45,000 Jews, the
most of any Western nation during the war.
In contrast, the United States accepted only 21,000 Jewish refugees during
the war, without significantly raising or even filling quotas.
"America's response to the early stages of the slaughter of European Jews
was largely one of indifference," said Eizenstat, who heads the U.S.
government's latter-day reassessment of wartime actions.
According to the report, Sweden, one of Germany's largest World War II
trading partners, supplied iron ore and ball bearings. Portugal and Spain
provided nearly
all of Germany's tungsten used to produce weapon-grade steel. In some
years, Turkey provided 100 percent of Germany's chromite, used to harden
steel to make
armor. Argentina also did business in wartime goods, but was most helpful
as a Nazi sympathizer.
In all, those five neutral countries handled $500 million in assets for the
German government and its citizens during the war and dealt in $300 million
in looted gold,
the report said. That would be $7 billion in today's dollars. Assets could
include those from war trade or from private individuals and companies that
held foreign
bank accounts.
Switzerland held from $250 million to $750 million in German private and
government assets, according to the report. A U.S. government report
released in May
1997 indicated Swiss banks dealt in $400 million of Nazi gold, some $300
million of it looted from European banks.
In Madrid, Foreign Minister Abel Matutes said Spain acted correctly in its
business dealings with Nazi Germany. He cited a government report in April
that absolved the Franco regime for purchasing gold, saying it did so out
of economic necessity after the Spanish Civil War.
Other findings in the new report:
-- U.S. researchers increased to $4.6 million, from a previous $2 million
estimate, the amount of victims' gold the Nazis held in a Reichsbank
account after it was taken from Jews, Gypsies and other concentration camp
victims and resmelted into bars.
-- Gold and valuables stolen from wartime victims of Croatia's Nazi puppet
Ustasha regime seems to have helped finance the postwar escape of Croatian
and other war criminals to South America, possibly with Vatican knowledge.
An estimated $80 million Ustasha treasury was apparently transferred to
Switzerland while its leaders fled to Rome, where they found sanctuary at
the pontifical College of San Girolamo.
"Although no evidence has been found to directly implicate the pope or his
advisers in the postwar activities of the Ustashi in Italy, it seems
unlikely that they were entirely unaware of what was going on," the report
said. Vatican officials say they have no Ustasha records.
The neutral countries' trade with Germany between 1939 and the end of the
war in 1945 has never been a secret, but the new report detailed the
commerce the United States was unable to halt with a wartime blockade.
"This is nothing new," said Nina Ersman, a spokeswoman for the Swedish
Embassy, refusing to comment on specifics in the report.
Ersman noted that after the war, Sweden fully cooperated with the United
States in returning looted gold and wartime assets. The other neutral
countries negotiated lower settlements or refused to pay.
Switzerland made restitution for $58 million in looted Nazi gold. Sweden
returned $15 million. Portugal gave back $7.2 million. Spain, Turkey and
Argentina didn't return any looted Nazi gold.
========
To: bpr-list@philologos.org (BPR Mailing List)
Subject: News: Israel A Germ on the Injured Body of Islam
From: bpr-list@philologos.org(BPR)
---------------------------------------------------------------
Bible Prophecy Research and Study List
Study Subject: Revelation 12
---------------------------------------------------------------
From: research-bpr <research-bpr@philologos.org>
Conference for Middle East Peace
Israeli & Global News
The most widely seen Mideast WEB site: http://www.cmep.com
Serving the public with the most in depth news available,
with professional translations from over 20 languages
[News-Speeches-Interviews-Intelligence-Reports-Polls-Jihad-Editorials]
Note: All releases are copyrighted and cannot be used without permission
************************************************************************
Iranian Paper: Israel Must Be 'Removed'
"Israel: A Germ on the Injured Body of the World of Islam"--
Today, Thursday, 24 Ordibehesht [14 May], coincides with the 50th
anniversary of the occupation of Palestine and the honorable al-Quds
[Jerusalem]. Those who, 50 years ago, built up the pillars of their rule
by usurpation of the Palestine territory and through terror, massacres and
driving the true owners of the land of Palestine from their homes, were
over the said period consistently supported by financial, military and
political assistance of the countries which created it. These were America
and Britain as well as some others.
Huge capital resources of wealthy Zionists in America and Europe were
at the disposal of those who created Israel. Meanwhile, the United
Nations, by partitioning Palestine into two zones and giving the lion's
share to the Jews, became an accomplice in this criminal act which can
never be forgotten.
Yet, despite all such assistance, and after 50 years, Israel has not
yet been able to guarantee its political sovereignty and attain national
and territorial stability and security. So, the question to be asked is:
why the Zionists and their American and European supporters have been
unable to create the required security for Israel?
The reply to that question must be found in the fact that Israel is
not native to the region [it does not belong where it is]. The Middle East
is the center of the world of Islam. Within this area no contradictory
alien force can achieve security and guarantees for its survival. Israel
is an alien entity which is at odds with the religion, aspirations, ways of
life, culture and national and religious tastes of the peoples of the said
region.
There is a terribly obvious difference between the Muslims and Israel
-- differences in their political, military, social, economic and ethical
worlds. Because of that difference, the two shall never be able to
co-exist peacefully under any condition. These two are contradictory.
Their coming together is a phenomenon which is impossible both in theory
and in application. The fundamental conflict between the two is such that
one's survival is tantamount to the other's demise.
The simplest example which can underline the said point is the way the
mutually sought peace between the Arab governments and the Zionist regime
has come to meet with total deadlock after five to six years since efforts
for peace began. This is proof of the failure of any political solution.
When the representatives of the Arab governments took part in their
first joint meeting with the Zionists in Madrid, they were under the
illusion that the golden era of peaceful coexistence between the two had
arrived. They imagined that the Middle East was about to experience peace,
stability and tranquility. They were under the impression that an end is
to be put to two decades [as written] of cold war between Israel and the
Arab regimes of the Middle East.
Some simple-minded Arab government authorities went even farther and
entertained the idea of a regional union with Israel in the Middle East.
Of course, at that time, well calculated American propaganda and the
repeated trips by the officials of that country to the Middle East were the
principal sources of nourishment for these illusions.
But, as we have said before, all these hopes were nothing more than
illusions. The Arabs set foot on the valley of peace with a world of hope.
But the Zionists were, from the very beginning, knowingly entering peace
talks with a pre-planned agenda -- preparing themselves to exact one
concession after another and frustrate the Arabs step by step.
Israel and its American backers never regarded the principle of
"equality" as a necessary concept in the peace agreement. They had adopted
the principle of imposition, domination and conquest in confronting the
Arabs.
Now the result is that after 15 rounds of face to face negotiations
and following six years of efforts for so to speak peace, today the Arabs
are where they used to be prior to the Madrid conference. In addition to
that, the Zionists now have transformed the Palestine Liberation
Organization (PLO) from a liberation seeking and anti-Zionist establishment
into their own paid and surrogate agent. They have also sown seeds of
discord among the Arab governments dividing them into two camps -- those in
favor of having relations with Israel and those opposed to it.
Meanwhile, the Zionists have declared the honorable al-Quds as their
capital and here they are being shamelessly helped by America who has
constantly vetoed all protests by the Islamic countries. They have also
intensified the trend of terrorism and physical elimination of their
opponents -- they have martyred, among others, Fathi al-Shaqaqi, Yahya
Ayyash, and other prominant faces of Palestinian resistance.
The Zionists have also opened up embassies and consular offices in a
number of Arab countries including Jordan, Qatar, and Oman and raised their
flags there. Indeed, they have succeeded to remove the feeling of shame
which the Arabs used to feel when there was talk of peace with their
historic enemy. In one word, the peace brought a thousand concessions to
Israel and the same number of shame and humiliation to the Arabs.
The "Middle East Peace" strategy was, from the very beginning, a
political trap set for the Arab governments. Its objective was on the one
hand to humiliate the Arab governments and bring about disunity among them
and on the other it was aiming at political and military strengthening of
Israel. This trend has gone on until now with added momentum, so much so
that, now the deadlocked peace has brought all those, who yesterday were
eager for peace with Israel, face to face with the futility of their wrong
choice. It has also turned them into frustrated souls.
Today all the regimes in the region, including those which were in
favor of dealing with the Zionist occupiers, have come to realize that the
very existence of the usurper Israeli regime is in itself the source of
turmoil, tension, insecurity and discord among the region's Arab countries.
It does not matter whether they openly admit to such facts or, in an
effort to maintain their illusory pride, they try to hide it.
Israel's main objective in the last decade of the 20th century was to
bring about discord among the governments of the Middle East region to such
an extent which any kind of new unity among the governments of the region
against Zionism would become impossible.
But that policy has never been successful when the Zionists have tried
to use it against the nations [as against the governments] of the region.
So, 'Arafat's surrender could not dent the power of the intifadah in the
occupied Palestine; nor could the ploy to deceive Arab governments
dissipate anti-Zionist thought among the peoples of the Middle East.
Israel has often been able to defeat the governments of its Arab
neighbours but it always remained defeated and powerless against the will
of the [region's] nations. The developments of the recent past six years
on the turbulent Middle East region has proved the above fact.
The fact is that so long as there is tyranny, campaign against tyranny
would also be a part of life, because it is in human nature to resist
injustice. The will of the Muslim nations will be the main element in
shaping and determining the fate of the region. The said will cannot be,
in any way, suppressed. The more it is subjected to suppression the
stronger it will bounce back to change the political equations. Israel is
an infectious overgrowth [on the body of the region] which must be
surgically removed if health of the south Asia is to be restored.
Today, the Arab governments of the Middle East, who are responsible
for the present situation, have lost face among their nations; they have
nothing to say for themselves. The only people who have emerged from this
trial with their credibility intact are those who never abandoned the logic
of struggle -- those who continued to confront the usurper Israel with any
means possible. They are those who used their fists and threw stones to
continue the campaign, those who demonstrated and those who closed down
their shops and businesses to continue the struggle. They are those who
remained steadfast in their belief that Israel, as a cancerous phenomenon
full of microbes, must be removed and burned from the injured body of the
Middle East.
========
To: bpr-list@philologos.org (BPR Mailing List)
Subject: News: Ten States Selected To Receive First Regional RAE Crisis Teams
From: bpr-list@philologos.org(BPR)
Date: Wed, 3 Jun 1998 12:05:08 -0500
---------------------------------------------------------------
Bible Prophecy Research and Study List
Study Subject: Revelation 12
---------------------------------------------------------------
From: <owner-bpr@philologos.org>
Forwarded from: "Koenig's Watch (http://watch.org)
<begin>
Editors Note: This is Rick Woodcock's report from our "Intelligence
section" at http://watch.org
Rick has also included other very interesting "Intelligence Reports" on
"hot spots" around the world.
********
Ten States Selected To Receive First Regional RAE Crisis Teams
06/02/98
WASHINGTON - The Department of Defense (DOD) has selected 10
states to receive the first regional Rapid Assessment Element (RAE) teams.
The National Guard teams will help local, state and federal officials cope
with terrorist use of weapons of mass destruction.
California, Colorado, Georgia, Illinois, Massachuetts, Missouri, New York,
Pennsylvania, Texas and Washington will field the RAE teams. There is a
team in each of the Federal Emergency Management Agency's (FEMA) 10
national regions. The teams will be available to help officials in other states,
as well.
Senior military officials based initial selections on demographics, threat
assessment, high-value targets and the availability of National Guard airlift.
They said each team will consist of 22 full-time Guardsmen. All 10 teams
will stand up in fiscal 1999 and be fully mission-ready in fiscal 2000. The
military officials stressed the teams will play a support role - local authorities
will take the lead in any terrorist crisis.
The mission of the Rapid Assessment Teams is to respond quickly to a
terrorist-related crisis. Upon arriving at the (crisis) site, the team must assess
the situation and advise the incident commander on what steps should be
taken. The team members will advise police and fire officials who respond
to an incident and then relay requests for assistance to the appropriate
DOD offices.
Each team will have a reconnaissance element to guage the extent of the
incident and a medical element to advise local officials about treatment.
The teams will also have air liason, security, logistics and communications
elements.
A total of 64 decontamination and 28 reconnaissance reserve component
units will support the RAE teams when the teams stand up next fiscal year.
This number will grow to 127 decontamination units and 55
reconnaissance units by the end of fiscal 2000.
Defense Press Service News, Fedcast, American Forces Press Service
-------------------
To subscribe to the list send mail to watch-news-request@watch.org with
no subject and a single body line: subscribe
========
To: bpr-list@philologos.org (BPR Mailing List)
Subject: News: Arafat Severely Depressed
From: bpr-list@philologos.org(BPR)
Date: Thu, 4 Jun 1998 08:09:24 -0500
---------------------------------------------------------------
Bible Prophecy Research and Study List
Study Subject: Revelation 12
---------------------------------------------------------------
From: <owner-bpr@philologos.org>
Arafat severely depressed, aide says
Weekend News Today
Source: Jerusalem Post
Wed Jun 3 , 1998 -- Palestinian Authority Chairman Yasser Arafat has
"sunk into a black cloud of depression and lost hope," according to one of
his closest aides, who says he is now "barely functioning." The aide, who
was not named by the London-based newsletter Foreign Report, denied
that Arafat, 69, is suffering from Parkinson's disease, causing his hands
and lips to tremble, but said he might be suffering from a severe nervous
disorder, noting: "It's a combination of age and deep depression."
Arafat is no longer a workaholic, going to bed at midnight at the insistence
of his doctors at the Mayo Clinic in Minnesota, and he has slowed down
his once-frenetic pace. He does not consult with his close aides as he
once did and often seems to be in a bad mood. Arafat, according to the
newsletter, which will be published today, has also cooled to the idea of
being succeeded by his deputy, Mahmoud Abbas (Abu Mazen), who
spent most of his life abroad. He is now said to favor a Palestinian who
stayed on in the territories serving as a leader of Fatah.
--- BPR
BPR Web Site - http://philologos.org/bpr
========
To: bpr-list@philologos.org (BPR Mailing List)
Subject: News: Two Comets Plunge into the Sun
From: bpr-list@philologos.org(BPR)
Date: Thu, 4 Jun 1998 09:16:29 -0500
---------------------------------------------------------------
Bible Prophecy Research and Study List
Study Subject: Revelation 12
---------------------------------------------------------------
From: <owner-bpr@philologos.org>
2 comets plunge into Sun - NASA
Two comets plunged into the Sun this week and hours after the second
one hit the Sun spewed out a mass of solar gas, NASA said Wednesday.
The comet strikes and the gas ejection are probably unrelated, but
seeing two comets enter the Sun's atmosphere in such quick succession
is rare, the NASA said. The first comet entered the Sun's atmosphere
June 1 and the second June 2. The gas eruption also occurred June 2.
The eruption of solar gas was directed away from Earth and does not
pose a hazard to Earth or orbiting astronauts. Selected images and an
image sequence of the new observations can be found at NASA SOHO
Website http://umbra.nascom.nasa.gov/comets/SOHO_sungrazers.html
(REUTERS)
========
To: bpr-list@philologos.org (BPR Mailing List)
Subject: BPR News
From: bpr-list@philologos.org(BPR)
Date: Fri, 05 Jun 1998 09:48:22 -0500
---------------------------------------------------------------
Bible Prophecy Research and Study List
Study Subject: Revelation 12
---------------------------------------------------------------
From: owner-bpr@philologos.org
Hi guys...
Just wanted to update everyone on a couple of things.
1. We have started receiving news articles from the Morrock News
Service
which we post to the BPR site at http://philologos.org/bpr/news.htm.
Morrock is a daily newspaper, however the BPR site will only keep up
with
it weekly. That is, each week we will only post those news articles
that
seem revelant to bible prophecy or perhaps are just plain interesting.
You may want to stop by Morrock (http://morrock.com) and visit their
site.
They aren't graphic oriented, so you get the news and editorials
downloaded quick. To me, they have a small hometown flavor which is
kinda
nice. You get to know them, and they get to know you.
2. Also on the BPR news page, we have been given permission to post
and archive the Disease Updates put out on Usenet by Peter P. If
you're interested in disease and infections, this will keep you
updated. They arrive twice weekly.
3. Although we are not finished with our personal studies of
Revelation 12, if you would like the list to focus on a particular
chapter or passage
in the bible for future studies then please drop us a line and let us
know your interests.
As always, if you have questions, comments, or suggestions you may
contact me at owner-bpr@philologos.org.
Thanks for your time...
--- BPR
BPR Web Site - http://philologos.org/bpr
========
To: bpr-list@philologos.org (BPR Mailing List)
Subject: News: Destroying asteroids may be harder than it looks in the movies
From: bpr-list@philologos.org(BPR)
Date: Fri, 5 Jun 1998 12:22:40 -0500
---------------------------------------------------------------
Bible Prophecy Research and Study List
Study Subject: Revelation 12
---------------------------------------------------------------
From: <owner-bpr@philologos.org>
6/3/98 -- 3:00 PM EDT
Destroying asteroids may be harder than it looks in the movies
LOS ANGELES (AP) - Nudging an Earth-bound asteroid off course or
blasting it to bits with a nuclear-tipped missile could be more
complicated than scientists - or Hollywood - ever imagined.
In a study published in Thursday's issue of the journal Nature,
scientists created computer simulations of what would happen if an
asteroid were hit by an object with a force equivalent to a 17-kiloton
bomb.
Their conclusion, according to Eric Asphaug, an astronomer at the
University of California at Santa Cruz: "It's a lot more difficult to
nudge these asteroids around than we thought. More work needs to be
done before we can decide whether nuclear warheads provide a viable
deterrent."
At a minimum, scientists would have to have good knowledge about the
particular asteroid's size, shape and structure to make a difference, he
said.
NASA spends $3 million a year for researchers to identify asteroids that
are approaching Earth. It expects to spend $1 billion over the next
decade to send spacecraft to asteroids to determine their composition.
That, in turn, could help the Pentagon and the Energy Department design
weapons to deflect or destroy threatening asteroids.
The nuclear approach calls to mind two summer movies, "Deep Impact"
and "Armageddon." In both, astronauts set out to avert cosmic collisions by
detonating explosions.
Asphaug and colleagues at four other institutions devised three
scenarios in which a real asteroid - the mile-wide, peanut-shaped
asteroid Castalia discovered in 1989 - is hit by a 50-foot-wide asteroid
approaching at 11,000 mph.
In the scenario where they assumed Castalia was solid rock, the impact
shattered it, but the pieces stayed largely together. Only about 10
percent was blown clear.
In a second scenario, in which the scientists assumed Castalia was a
pair of rocks separated by rubble, the rock that took the direct hit was
blown to smithereens. The fragments settled onto the other, nearly
unscathed rock.
In the third scenario, they assumed Castalia was a conglomeration of
large boulders bound by gravity. The impact transferred almost all of
its energy to the first boulder it struck, creating an explosion that
barely disturbed the rest of the asteroid.
In all three cases, the rock would still be a threat to Earth unless the
explosion took place a decade before the asteroid was to hit the planet,
Asphaug said. An object that is far from Earth need only be knocked off
course slightly to remove the danger, because the farther an object
travels, the farther off course it goes.
Alan W. Harris of NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena said in
an accompanying commentary that the simulations may change current
thinking about using nuclear blasts against asteroids. Asphaug's
findings suggest it might be a bigger task than scientists realized, he
said.
"The new work may mean that deflecting an asteroid from a collision
course would be more like clearing a landslide off the road than pushing
a boulder aside," Harris said.
Asteroids hitting Earth are not just the stuff of Hollywood. A giant
asteroid is thought to have slammed into Mexico's Yucatan Peninsula 65
million years ago, wiping out the dinosaurs and most species. In 1908,
an asteroid exploded over Siberia, flattening nearly 1,000 square miles
of forest.
Still, Asphaug sees no reason to panic.
"We're not in any emergency. We have plenty of time to devise a
strategy," he said. "The odds are we have another 10,000 years before
another big one hits."
========
To: bpr-list@philologos.org (BPR Mailing List)
Subject: News: Disaster Local Preparedness Urged
From: bpr-list@philologos.org(BPR)
Date: Fri, 5 Jun 1998 12:22:40 -0500
---------------------------------------------------------------
Bible Prophecy Research and Study List
Study Subject: Revelation 12
---------------------------------------------------------------
From: <owner-bpr@philologos.org>
Disaster Local Preparedness Urged
June 3, 1998; 2:59 p.m. EDT
WASHINGTON (AP) -- As earthquakes, hurricanes, fires and floods take
increasing tolls in lives, jobs, property and tax dollars, the
government opened a national effort Wednesday to encourage
communities to master disaster before it strikes.
The Federal Emergency Management Agency invited dozens of cities,
towns and counties across the country to form partnerships among local
business and civic leaders to plan how best to make their towns
resistant to disaster.
FEMA director James Lee Witt said the proposal is a classic case of an
ounce of prevention actually equaling a pound of cure.
"I have seen too much devastation in the last five years; I have seen
too many lives lost and too many dreams destroyed," Witt told a news
conference.
"We would like to change the way we deal with disaster," he said, "We
must put an end to the repetitive cycle of damage and repair, damage and
repair. We cannot continue to do the same things over and over again."
Witt said the disaster preparedness proposal, dubbed Project Impact,
"will change the way we do emergency management in this country." He
said $30 million in seed money is earmarked for the effort this year,
with $50 million requested for the fiscal year starting next October.
Since Witt has run FEMA, the agency has largely restored a public image
battered by years of criticism that its handling of disasters was badly
managed and inept. Calls in Congress that it be abolished have ceased.
But Witt said natural disasters are becoming more severe, more damaging
and more costly.
He said the government paid out $2.8 billion from 1978 to 1998 to deal
with recurring flood losses alone. In the same 20-year period, FEMA has
spent $20 billion overall on disaster recovery efforts, much of it
toward the end of the period. Witt said natural disasters have killed
181 people this year alone, including six this week when a tornado all
but wiped out tiny Spencer, S.D.
For disaster preparedness, Witt said, local governments should form
partnerships of local leaders, businesses and civic and volunteer groups
to survey community risks for natural disasters, assess vulnerability
and target resources and needed actions.
FEMA said the efforts could be as basic as removing rubbish from
culverts to allow flood waters to drain quickly or cutting brush near
schools and hospitals in wildfire areas.
Other possible steps, he said, include elevating electric power stations
to protect the power supply from floods and preventing construction in
flood plains or high-risk coastal areas.
========
To: bpr-list@philologos.org (BPR Mailing List)
Subject: News: UAE says solves its millennium bug problem
From: bpr-list@philologos.org(BPR)
Date: Fri, 5 Jun 1998 12:24:32 -0500
---------------------------------------------------------------
Bible Prophecy Research and Study List
Study Subject: Revelation 12
---------------------------------------------------------------
From: <owner-bpr@philologos.org>
UAE says solves its millennium bug problem
The United Arab Emirates (UAE) said it had succeeded in solving the
millennium bug problem at all state offices which it had feared would
disrupt older computer programs by the end of the century. "The (UAE)
cabinet had been informed of the success which was achieved on May
18," Minister of Finance and Industry Mohammad Khalfan bin Kharbash
said in remarks carried by local newspapers Wednesday. Kharbash said
the solution would solve the millennium bug for all UAE ministries
and federal establishments. He gave no further details.
(Reuters)
========
To: bpr-list@philologos.org (BPR Mailing List)
Subject: News: Israel's transsexual counted as a man in worship
From: bpr-list@philologos.org(BPR)
Date: Sat, 6 Jun 1998 08:02:03 -0500
---------------------------------------------------------------
Bible Prophecy Research and Study List
Study Subject: Revelation 12
---------------------------------------------------------------
From: <owner-bpr@philologos.org>
Israel's transsexual counted as a man in
worship
Weekend News Today
Source: Boston Globe
Fri Jun 5 , 1998 -- The head of a rabbinical court ruled that Dana
International, Israel's celebrated transsexual singer, could be counted in a
minyan, the group of 10 men required for Jewish prayer services, AP
reported. Whoever is born male remains so his entire life, Friday's Maariv
daily quoted Rabbi Eliyahu Abergal as saying. The sultry winner of this
year's Eurovision contest would have to become religiously observant
before qualifying for prayer group, however, the rabbi said. Dana
International, who had a sex change operation five years ago, has become
a symbol for the increasingly bitter rift between Israel's secular majority
and its ultra-religious minority. The country's Orthodox establishment has
denounced her as an abomination while secular Israelis embrace her in a
sign of increasing mainstream acceptance of the country's gay community.
--- BPR
BPR Web Site - http://philologos.org/bpr
========
To: bpr-list@philologos.org (BPR Mailing List)
Subject: News: Missile/Kurds/Jihad
From: bpr-list@philologos.org(BPR)
---------------------------------------------------------------
Bible Prophecy Research and Study List
Study Subject: Revelation 12
---------------------------------------------------------------
From: research-bpr <research-bpr@philologos.org>
Defense Sources Fear Iranian Ability To Hit Israel in 1999
Israel Television Channel 1 Network in Hebrew 1700 GMT 25 May 98
Army affairs correspondent Alon Ben-David video report
The defense establishment believes that in another year, Iran will
have a missile capable of hitting any location in Israel. The Knesset
will host a conference tomorrow on the missile threat facing Israel,
and one of the invited experts claims that the Arrow missile will be
incapable of providing defense against the Iranian missiles. Our army
affairs correspondent Alon Ben-David reports:
[Begin Ben-David recording] Iran has presented its Shihab-2 missile:
a surface-to-surface missile, similar to the Scud, which does not yet
threaten Israel. The Shihab-2 was presented at a military parade
yesterday during a visit by Iranian spiritual leader 'Ali Khamene'i to
Iran's military industries.
The Iranian missile project is gathering momentum with Russia's
help, and the threat is closing in on Israel. The IDF [Israel Defense
Forces] believes that if Russian aid does not cease, the Iranians will
test their new Shihab-3 missile within one year. The view in the West
is that the Shihab-3 will have a range of some 1,300 km and will
threaten all of Israel. [passage omitted with remarks by Boston
University missile expert]
The Arrow missile is meant to be Israel's answer to that threat. The
system is still in the development stage and will achieve some
operational capability only next year. The Arrow planners did not
expect the Iranian missile threat to develop so quickly, and the
defense establishment now says that we will try to match the
development of the Arrow to the progress of the Iranian missile
project as much as possible. The question, however is: Will the Arrow
in its present form be capable of defending us against missiles
launched from Iran? [passage omitted with expert's remarks]
The defense establishment says that the Arrow is being built as an
answer to long-range missiles. Changes are already being introduced
into the Arrow to enable the interception of high-speed missiles, but
the IDF is far from pleased. With a missile capable of reaching Israel
and as a future nuclear power, Iran is a threat that can change the
face of the Middle East. [end recording]
Iraq: 'Confirmation' of Israeli Role in Kurdish Areas Claimed
London Al-Wasat in Arabic 25-31 May 98 p 9
"Israeli Moves in Northern Iraq!"
Cairo, Al-Wasat -- Informed Egyptian sources have told Al-Wasat that
the Egyptian authorities have received confirmation from Kurdish
leaderships that there are Israeli moves in northern Iraq near the
areas under the control of the Kurdistan Democratic Party and the
Patriotic Union of Kurdistan. The Kurdish leaderships said that there
are Israeli elements among the Turkish military formations and that
these might be within the framework of the cooperation between the two
sides and in cooperation with the United States.
The sources did not rule out that Israel's objective might be to
gather information about the Kurdish forces and their deployment and
to plant listening devices in addition to conducting a topographical
survey of the region and its access routes.
Information in this context was received some time ago and was
followed up by Cairo, which held contacts with the parties concerned
until it received confirmation that this information was accurate.
Bin-Ladin Declares Jihad Against U.S. Troops
London Al-Quds al-'Arabi in Arabic 28 May 98 p 1
Report by Muhammad Dalbah: "United States Admits that Keeping Its
Troops in the Gulf Is Causing Dissatisfaction; Bin-Ladin Threatens To
Launch Attack Soon"
Washington, Al-Quds al-'Arabi -- [passage omitted on statement by
Defense Department spokesman Kenneth Bacon on the Pentagon's decision
to reduce troops in the Gulf]
Meanwhile, Saudi oppositionist Usamah Bin-Ladin, who lives in
Afghanistan, has declared a holy war against the U.S. troops in the
Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, and said that the outcome will be known
within a few weeks.
Speaking at a press conference on Tuesday [26 May] at his base in
Khost in eastern Afghanistan, Bin-Ladin said: "All Muslims must
declare jihad against them (the U.S. troops) and expel them from the
holy land."
Reports of the press conference, which was attended by
correspondents from nearby Pakistan, were received only yesterday,
Wednesday. Bin-Ladin, flanked by several Arab dissidents, said that
"the jihad fatwa has indeed been issued."
He added that "the Prophet Muhammad (Peace Be Upon Him) ordered that
Muslims devote themselves to expelling atheist troops," meaning the
U.S. troops stationed in Saudi Arabia since the 1991 Gulf war.
Bin-Ladin, wearing white clothes and a white turban and holding a
Kalashnikov rifle, was welcomed by Arab fighters with a burst of
gunfire and huge explosions, the echoes of which reverberated along
the Wadi Khost, which was surrounded by tight security.
Bin-Ladin was stripped of his Saudi citizenship for carrying out
activities against the [Saudi] ruling family, and the United States
sees him him as a major suspect in two bombings in the Kingdom of
Saudi Arabia which caused the death of 24 U.S. soldiers in 1995 and
1996. He told newsmen yesterday: "We face a very, very big problem
today. A tragic problem.
"Arab land has either been occupied or there is a conspiracy to
occupy it. For the first time since the Prophet's death atheists are
occupying Mecca, Medina, and al-Aqsa Mosques.
"This is the most important issue at present. The land where the
Holy Koran was revealed is now occupied by Jewish and Christian
forces."
Israeli & Global News
June 2, 1998
http://www.cmep.com
--- BPR
BPR Web Site - http://philologos.org/bpr
========
To: bpr-list@philologos.org (BPR Mailing List)
Subject: News: Iran-Germany Relations
From: bpr-list@philologos.org(BPR)
---------------------------------------------------------------
Bible Prophecy Research and Study List
Study Subject: Revelation 12
---------------------------------------------------------------
From: research-bpr <research-bpr@philologos.org>
Tehran Iran News in English 13 May 98 pp 2, 15
"Iran-Germany Relations"
The first official German delegation has arrived in Iran to study
bilateral relations in a bid to enhance the ties. Actually, Iran-
Germany relations have become tense and critical over the past two
years. The future of Iran-Germany ties is a very important issue that
should be addressed. Initially, a glance at and review of the past is
imperative.
The two Germanys were reunited on 3 October 1990. The first Iranian
ambassador arrived in Bonn a few days after the German unification.
Musavian, a prominent diplomat, was highly trusted by the president.
Definitely this choice reflected Iran's intention to promote ties with
Bonn. Iran, after the revolution and liberation from US domination and
after the end of the 8-year-war, and Germany, after gaining
independence and unity, made a fresh test to establish close relations
and revive historical and traditional ties.
The years 1990 to 1995 should be called the golden age of Iran-
Germany ties. Over this period, bilateral cultural relations were
enhanced through setting up three joint commissions and signing three
cultural Memoranda of Understanding (MoU).
The formation of the first joint economic commission and after the
revolution and lifting of limitations on Hermes made economic
relations worth some 9 billion marks.
In a matter of two or three years, Germany's Hermes insurance
company provided 14 billion marks as Germany's exports credits, making
Iran Germany's third largest partner in terms of Hermes insurance
credits following Russia and Brazil.
Parliamentary relations were totally restructured following the
visits of head of Foreign Policy Commissions and formation of the
Parliamentary Group.
The two countries' security ties were established with the exchange
visits by Schmidt Bauer and Fallahian.
The mutual political relations were further expanded through the
constant contacts of the two countries' presidents and directors of
security services.
The two sides' Foreign Ministers had the largest number of exchange
visits, such that in a matter of five years, six foreign ministerial
visits were made.
Iran assisted in the freedom of German hostages in Lebanon and
pardoned Shimkos, the German citizen condemned to death, while the
large exchange of POWs between Israel and Lebanon took place with the
assistance of Iran and mediation of Germany, and the first German
military plane landed In Tel Aviv for the first time after World War
II.
This served as a very important chapter in German history. It also
made Germany involved for the first time ever in the Middle East's
political equations.
During the first reconstruction plan, Germany furnished around 30
per cent of the total credits to Iran, took the lead in liquidating
Iran's debts, resisted US demands in the G-7 meetings, and played a
pivotal role in Iran's ties with Europe.
In fact, Germany was the only European country to have the highest
level of political cultural, economic and parliamentary exchanges with
Iran. There are many other instances that have been unprecedented in
the history of Iran-Germany relations in the post W.W.II era.
Tel Aviv, Washington, and London were especially concerned over this
trend of relations. Historically speaking, these three countries
principally opposed strategic Iran-Germany ties.
Summoning the German ambassadors in London, Washington and Tel- Aviv
to protest to Fallahian's visit to Germany was the start of practical
efforts by the trio to sever Iran-Germany relations.
The Berlin court was chosen as the best tool to pull down the
towering Tehran-Bonn ties. The bill of indictment of the German
prosecutor in 1996 and the final verdict of the Berlin court in 1997
accusing the most prominent political and religious Iranian
dignitaries - including the Leader and the president - of involvement
in terrorism allowed the trio to successfully carry out their plan.
This was a brief account of past ties, following the German
reunification. Let us now turn to the future prospect of ties. A
major issue should be placed at the centrepiece in regards to the
future of the relationsIran might choose (to have relations with)
Germany for the sake of traditional and historical relations, and also
because Iranians and Germans are of the Aryan race. Germany, too,
might wish to do so but might lack the power to make such a choice,
for its foreign policy is based on three pillarsthe US, France and
Israel.
All other pivotal points, international issues, and countries stand
in a secondary and even minor position.
As regards the said three pivotal pillars, the Middle East and the
Persian gulf are actually of secondary and even minor importance for
German foreign policy. This is an inevitable fact and is not related
to Iran. But in relation to Iran in particular, it should be noted
that two of the major pillars and pivots of German foreign policy -
namely the US and Israel - are largely anti-Iranian.
It should, therefore, be accepted that when choosing between the US
and Israel on the one hand and Iran on the other, Germany will surely
adhere to the pivotal pillars of its foreign policy and will choose
the US and Israel. Admittedly, the greatest political efforts in the
history of diplomatic relations between Iran and Germany and Europe
took place after the German unification in 1990. The relations reached
a zenith but dropped to the nadir due to the said two pivotal pillars.
This was a fact beyond the control of the two countries' politicians
and diplomats, since the behind-the-scene truth was that in its
especial relations with Iran, Germany had to stand face-to- face with
the pillars of its foreign policy, namely the US and Israel. Even if
the Berlin court and its verdict did not exist, these would have
ravaged the relations by recourse to other means.
Bonn is ashamed of officially mentioning this fact. But Tehran
should understand it and plan its future relations with Bonn on the
basis of understanding this truth.
As a result, Germany cannot serve as an international political
power in the Middle East and the Persian Gulf. It is verily a
political midget and will remain so for many years.
As an important power in the Persian Gulf and the Middle East, Iran
cannot link the affairs of its region with a political midget. Germany
is definitely a political and economic power in Europe, NATO, the West
and even Russia, where it is known as a political giant. But in the
Middle East and the Persian Gulf, it is a midget and has to adhere to
the policies of Washington and Tel Aviv.
As a result, Iran should not especially count on relations with
Germany, for Iran's foreign policy is based on having important
economic ties with countries that have the power to act in the
political and economic areas.
Iran, consequently, cannot regard Germany as a prime economic
partner. Iran-Germany economic relations are doomed to reduction, such
that within the next five years, Germany, formerly Iran's first
economic partner, will drop to the fifth.
Countries such as Russia, China, India, France and Italy will
naturally outpace Germany in establishment of relations with Iran.
Germany will then be deprived of strategic relations with its only
natural regional ally, namely Iran.
After the German reunification, Iran wholeheartedly offered such a
chance and alternative to Germany. But today bilateral relations are
such that in 1997, Germany exports were slashed by some 500m dollars.
While Italy dispatches delegations headed by its foreign minister or
Parliament speaker and while France earmarks 2bn dollars to energy
cooperation with Iran, Germany can send delegations headed by
directors of departments, an act that is severely criticized by
Iranian public opinion.
Also Iran has rejected the 90m-dollar credit of the German WLB Bank
for oil projects.
With a four month delay, Iran new ambassador to Germany, Azizi, will
depart for Bonn in two weeks.
This is while Iran's former ambassador to Bonn, after a seven year
tenure, has replaced Azizi as the secretary of the Foreign Policy
Committee of the High Council of National Security of Iran.
Over the past seven years, Azizi, in his capacity as the said
Committee's secretary, directly monitored the conditions of ties with
Germany. Azizi is, moreover, a prominent and seasoned diplomat who has
served as the acting minister of foreign affairs.
The appointment of Azizi as Tehran's new ambassador should prove to
Bonn that Tehran still counts on ties with Germany and does not wish
to see the 1990-1995 golden years fall into oblivion, rather, it
wishes to revive them.
Now, one should wait and see whether Bonn, after the experiences of
the past 8 years, would be able to once again become Iran's most
important economic and political partner or will it be categorized
with countries such as Belgium and Switzerland in terms of relations
with Iran.
For Iran it is clear that so long as the Berlin court verdict is not
amended in the appeal court, a return to the golden period will b
impossible, since Iran cannot have bilateral relations with a country
that has accused its leader, president, foreign minister and
information minister of terrorism.
Director of the Middle East Department of the German Foreign
Ministry, Peter Diengenz, should return to Bonn possessed of knowledge
of this fact and discuss with Bonn the practical ways of promoting
relations with Iran.
Even though he has been appointed Bonn's ambassador to Cairo and
will soon leave Germany, he will have enough time to analyse and
survey in Bonn the experience of his recent visit to Iran. endall
Israel & Global News
June 2, 1998
http://www.cmep.com
========
To: bpr-list@philologos.org (BPR Mailing List)
Subject: 6/4/98 TV Programs
From: bpr-list@philologos.org(BPR)
---------------------------------------------------------------
Bible Prophecy Research and Study List
Study Subject: Revelation 12
---------------------------------------------------------------
From: research-bpr <research-bpr@philologos.org>
8:00 PM Eastern
DISC - WILD DISCOVERY - "Beyond the Naked Eye" -
Micro-organisms, crucial to the survival of life on earth,
help people with basic needs.(CC)(TVG)
9:00 PM
A&E - THE NEW EXPLORERS - "Crisis Planet Earth; Into
the Depths" - Global warming; pollutants in Lake
Superior.(CC)(TVG)
TLC - PUZZLES OF THE PAST - "The Origins of Mankind"
- More-recent anthropological data suggests errors in
Darwin's theories of the evolution of
man.(CC)(TVG)
10:00 PM
PBS - INNOVATION - "The Man-Made Man" - Medical engineering
technologies let the body survive after extreme damage;
narrator Martin Sheen.(CC)(TVPG)
TLC - ANCIENT PROPHECIES IV - Secret manuscript of Jules
Verne; H.G. Wells predicts computers, birth control, chemical
warfare.(CC)(TVPG)
========
To: bpr-list@philologos.org (BPR Mailing List)
Subject: Crown
From: bpr-list@philologos.org(BPR)
---------------------------------------------------------------
Bible Prophecy Research and Study List
Study Subject: Revelation 12
---------------------------------------------------------------
From: research-bpr <research-bpr@philologos.org>
"Monarchs who claimed authority over more than one country wore more than
one crown. The kings of Egypt were crowned with the psheni, or united crowns
of Upper and Lower Egypt. When Ptolemy Philometer entered Antioch as a
conqueror he wore a triple crown, two for Egypt, and the third for Asia.
"John saw him who was 'King of kings and Lord of lords,' and 'on his head
were many crowns.' Thus, in a beautiful figure, the universal dominion of
our blessed Lord is set forth."
Manners & Customs of the Bible, James M. Freeman
====================
"It is a common saying with the Jews: 'that there is no eating and drinking
in the world to come, but the righteous are "sitting," "and their crowns
upon their heads."'"
"...the Jews say: when the holy blessed God ascends the glorious 'throne of
judgment,' the whole family above tremble; and when they see the holy
blessed God 'they take their crowns from off their heads'--and pray and seek
mercy for Israel; and immediately he ascends the 'throne of mercy.'
And such like actions have been done by kings and princes to one another, in
token of subjection. Thus Tigranes, King of Armenia, fell down at the feet
of Pompey, and cast the crown from his head, which Pompey replaced; and
having commanded him certain things, ordered him to enjoy his kingdoms: so
Herod meeting Augustus Caesar at Rhode, when he entered the city took off
his crown, and after a speech made to him, with which Caesar was pleased, he
set it on him again."
The New John Gill's Exposition of the Entire Bible
====================
Part of the humiliation process [testing] of the sota [adulteress] was to
uncover her hair, which, for a married woman is normally forbidden to do in
public. This was done to make the point: you failed to honor your status as
a married woman by becoming an adulteress, or even by putting yourself in a
position to be suspected of being an adulteress.
Part of being a nazir [Nazirite=separated, devoted] is to let one's hair grow
without being cared for. Hair sits on top of the head like a crown, and the
word "nazir" is often used as the word "crown." Therefore, hair itself is
symbolic of that which glorifies the human being; in the case of the married
woman by being constrained and covered, and in the case of the nazir, by
growing without care. In each case, it alludes to devotion to the service of
G-d, the real "crown" that "lifts" the spirit of the human being to a more
elevated spiritual status.
Pinchas Winston
Perceptions
Parashas Naso
http://www.torah.org
====================
crowning [L. corona, wreath]. Stage in delivery when fetal head presents at
the vulva. Crowning occurs when the largest diameter of the infant's head
comes through the vulvular opening.
Taber's Cyclopedic Medical Dictionary
========
To: bpr-list@philologos.org (BPR Mailing List)
Subject: Closed-Circuit Cameras in Old City
From: bpr-list@philologos.org(BPR)
---------------------------------------------------------------
Bible Prophecy Research and Study List
Study Subject: Revelation 12
---------------------------------------------------------------
From: research-bpr <research-bpr@philologos.org>
The information below is translated and prepared by:
Israel Government Press Office
<gponews@netvision.net.il>
June 4, 1998
HEADLINES FROM THE HEBREW PRESS
HA'ARETZ
* POLICE TO PLACE CLOSED-CIRCUIT CAMERAS IN OLD CITY TO PREVENT
CRIME AND DISTURBANCES. Project is based on successful experience in
Britain.
[And when they shall have finished their testimony (2 witnesses), the
beast that ascendeth out of the bottomless pit shall make war against
them, and shall overcome them, and kill them. And their dead bodies
shall lie in the street of the great city, which spiritually is
called Sodom and Egypt, where also our Lord was crucified. And they of
the people and kindreds and tongues and nations shall see their dead
bodies three days and an half, and shall not suffer their dead bodies
to be put in graves.--Rev 11:7-9 ???]
========
To: bpr-list@philologos.org (BPR Mailing List)
Subject: News: Exorcism on the Capitol Steps
From: bpr-list@philologos.org(BPR)
---------------------------------------------------------------
Bible Prophecy Research and Study List
Study Subject: Revelation 12
---------------------------------------------------------------
From: research-bpr <research-bpr@philologos.org>
Ordained exorcist Baron Deacon tried to drive the demons out of Congress on
Monday, but reported the ritual was a failure. With a Bible in one hand and
a large silver cross in the other, Deacon stood on the Capitol steps and
attempted to get the "dragons and serpents within" to leave. He was mostly
ignored by everyone, although security kept a watchful eye on him. Deacon
was accompanied by a member of Citizens Justice Programs who was there
trying to draw attention to corruption in the government.
(paraphrase of "Exorcist Attempts to Drive Bad Spirits out of the Capitol"
AP article of June 1, 1998)
========
To: bpr-list@philologos.org (BPR Mailing List)
Subject: News: UN Environmental Body Broader Powers
From: bpr-list@philologos.org(BPR)
---------------------------------------------------------------
Bible Prophecy Research and Study List
Study Subject: Revelation 12
---------------------------------------------------------------
From: research-bpr <research-bpr@philologos.org>
06/04/98 (Reuters)
U.N. environment body says it needs broader powers
By Nick Edwards
SINGAPORE, June 4 (Reuters) - The United Nations Environment
Programme (UNEP) needs broader powers if it is to tackle major
environmental issues, like Indonesian forest fires, the
organisation's managing director said on Thursday.
``I can't really jump the gun because there is a task force
that is looking at the reformation of UNEP, but I can say there
are a number of governments that do feel, given the gravity of
environmental problems, that we do need to have a stronger
authority than what UNEP currently has,'' Jorge Illueca said.
``What many governments are looking at is the evolution of
UNEP into a World Environment Organisation (WEO),'' Illueca told
reporters after speaking to the Singapore Environment Council.
Illueca said turning UNEP into a WEO would give it broad
powers like its trade counterpart, the World Trade Organisation,
although it was just one option being considered by a United
Nations reform task force.
Other alternatives included creating another special agency,
but Illueca favoured the WTO model ``because it can resolve
conflict.''
-----edit-----
[UNEP executive director Klaus Toepfer]
Toepfer has already suggested creating a ``Green helmet
brigade'' that would fight environmental emergencies like the
traditional blue-helmeted U.N. peace keeping troops.
-----edit-----
========
To: bpr-list@philologos.org (BPR Mailing List)
Subject: 6/5/98 TV Programs
From: bpr-list@philologos.org(BPR)
---------------------------------------------------------------
Bible Prophecy Research and Study List
Study Subject: Revelation 12
---------------------------------------------------------------
From: research-bpr <research-bpr@philologos.org>
8:00 PM Eastern
DISC - WILD DISCOVERY - "Subtle as a Serpent" -
Snakes.(CC)(TVG)
HIST - IN SEARCH OF HISTORY - "Mystic Ruins" -
Stonehenge; Easter Island; Machu Picchu; Chaco Canyon;
Jerusalem; Egypt.(CC)(TVG)
9:00 PM
DISC - DISCOVERY NEWS - (CC)
10:00 PM
TLC - ANCIENT PROPHECIES IV - Earthquakes; prophetic
warnings of the Virgin Mary and Maria Esperanza tell of
atomic war, new disease.(CC)(TVPG)
========
To: bpr-list@philologos.org (BPR Mailing List)
Subject: News: Earthquakes/Fish Kill
From: bpr-list@philologos.org(BPR)
---------------------------------------------------------------
Bible Prophecy Research and Study List
Study Subject: Revelation 12
---------------------------------------------------------------
From: research-bpr <research-bpr@philologos.org>
*** Weather blocks Afghan quake effort, more aid offer
Bad weather thwarted the emergency relief operation Friday for
thousands of survivors of Afghanistan's devastating earthquake, aid
officials said. They said three helicopters used for ferrying aid to
remote villages hit by last Saturday's quake, which killed thousands
of people, could not leave Dushanbe, capital of neighboring
Tajikistan, because of bad weather there. The United Nations sent an
Antonov-12 cargo plane to the northern Afghan town of Faizabad with
3.5 tons of tents on board but it was unable to land because of bad
weather, a U.N. statement in Islamabad said. See
http://www.infobeat.com/stories/cgi/story.cgi?id=2554490687-d87
*** Strongest quake in 30 yrs. shakes Icelandic capital
An earthquake measuring 5.3 on the Richter scale rocked southwest
Iceland Thursday night but caused negligible damage and no
casualties. It was the most powerful earthquake to be felt in
Iceland's capital for 30 years. The epicenter was in the old volcanic
Hengill area some 20 miles east of Reykjavik. Buildings shook noisily
in the capital but the main impact was felt in Hveragerdi. A seismic
cycle began in the Hengill area in 1994 and is caused by magma, or
molten lava, shifting under the earth's crust rather than by tectonic
plate movements. See
http://www.infobeat.com/stories/cgi/story.cgi?id=2554485921-99f
*** No injuries in minor N.C. earthquake
A minor earthquake shook North Carolina overnight but there were no
injuries and no damage reported, emergency officials said Friday. The
earthquake, which measured 3.2 on the Richter scale, was centered
near Davidson, N.C., about 20 miles north of Charlotte, Iredell
County emergency director Larry Dickerson said. "There was some
shaking of the earth, rattling of some windows and some people who
were all shook up, but we have no reports of damages, no reports of
injuries," he said. (Reuters)
*** Kan. investigating massive fish kill
Kansas wildlife officials are baffled by a massive fish kill that is
affecting white bass in the main source for drinking water for the
city of Wichita, Kansas. "Our estimate is about 70,000 white bass
(have been) killed, but it's only the white bass, none of the other
fish populations have been affected," said Steve Sorensin, regional
supervisor of the Kansas fisheries and wildlife division. Dead fish
began appearing Monday in the Cheney Reservoir, on the North Fork
Ninnescah river 25 miles west of Wichita, in what is now the largest
sport fish kill in Kansas history. See
http://www.infobeat.com/stories/cgi/story.cgi?id=2554490246-719
Infobeat
June 5, 1998
========
To: bpr-list@philologos.org (BPR Mailing List)
Subject: News: Salvation Army in San Francisco
From: bpr-list@philologos.org(BPR)
---------------------------------------------------------------
Bible Prophecy Research and Study List
Study Subject: Revelation 12
---------------------------------------------------------------
From: research-bpr <research-bpr@philologos.org>
Distributed by CNV News Service; an outreach of Messengers of Christ
Ministries. These articles may be used in any manner to the glory of God,
and as an aid in the discernment of the times .
June 6, 1998 [Andy Neckar, CNV News Service]
Taxpayer Funds Hold No Status With Salvation Army
(Excerpted from the Ft. Worth Star Telegram 6/5/98)
SAN FRANCISCO -- The Salvation Army has decided to end its contracts with
San Francisco and shrink programs serving the homeless, drug addicts and the
aged because of a dispute over the city's domestic partners law.
Lt. Col. Richard Love, a spokesman for the Salvation Army, said after 11
months of negotiation, the organization had told city officials Wednesday it
could not comply with the ordinance. It is giving up $3.5 million in city
contracts to serve the needy.
"We will not be applying for those funds," Love said, "but we're not leaving
the city of San Francisco. We've provided a quality service here without
discrimination for 118 years and we'll continue to do that."
The domestic-partners ordinance, which took effect June 1, 1997, requires
companies that do business with the city to provide the same benefits to
their workers with unmarried partners as they do to married couples.
Three Salvation Army programs, including meals for 1,700 senior citizens,
receive taxpayer dollars and will be reduced, though the programs will not
be closed.
The Salvation Army objects to the domestic partners law on religious grounds.
"The Army's belief system, grounded in traditional interpretation of
Scripture, does not perceive domestic partnership arrangements as similar to
the sanctity granted marriage partners," read an editorial in New Frontier,
a Salvation Army publication.
But the editorial goes on to say that the group provides services to
individuals regardless of race, religion, sexual orientation or marital status.
[Editor} Some ministries will NOT compromise for funds--taxpayer or
donations. GOD BLESS THE SALVATION ARMY
_____________________________________________________________
Christian News & Re-Views
Helping Believers Exercise discernment
An Outreach of Messengers of Christ Ministries
Editor: Andy Neckar
http://cnview.com e-mail: andy@cnview.com
PO Box J, Hico, TX 76457
________________________________________________________________________
Please be advised that this domain (Philologos.org) does not endorse 100 per cent any link contained herein. This forum is for the dissemination of pertinent information on an end-times biblical theme which includes many disturbing, unethical, immoral, etc. topics and should be viewed with a mature, discerning eye.