God's Story

Unity Amongst Dispair

dbwriter4 — Thu, 02 Sep 2010 00:02:21 -0600

Chile finds sense of unity in drama of trapped men

(Story excerpt & photo courtesy of AP) SAN JOSE MINE, Chile - Just six months ago, one of the largest earthquakes in a century tore Chile apart, physically ripping the ground, triggering a deadly tsunami and leaving in the wreckage a divided society and a government trying to decide whom to blame. Now, with Chile confronting a new disaster - 33 men trapped in a mine below the Atacama Desert since Aug. 5 - the nation is unified by the drama playing out in slow motion. Sitting alone on a hill above the mine where his brother, Juan, is buried alive, Oscar Illanes, 51, quietly fidgets with pebbles and contemplates how his personal disaster has also become that of his countrymen.

"This accident has crossed all borders. Everyone in Chile, rich or poor, a mining family or not, is sending a positive force that sustains us," he said. "The will to survive started with the 33 miners alone under the ground. It soon became 150 as the families arrived here. Now it is an entire nation, all working with the same spirit to free the men."

There has been some finger-pointing since the miners were trapped -- and it will certainly increase if they are not rescued. The San Esteban mining company has taken the brunt of the criticism for lacking safety standards that could have prevented the event or allowed the miners to escape. But a positive energy floods the town of Copiapo near the mine. "Those 33 men are the focus of every Chilean's attention. We cannot fail to bring them out, that would be unthinkable," said Luis Arancilia, 68, who sat in the main plaza reading the latest news of the accident. "All efforts, all energy must be focused on bringing them up."

It Only Takes a Spark

dbwriter2 — Wed, 01 Sep 2010 00:01:42 -0600

A golfer in Irvine, CA never could have expected what would happen next after mistakingly hitting a golf ball into the rough at Shady Canyon Golf Course, last Saturday. According to the Associated Press, when he attempted to hit the ball back onto the green, " . . . his club snagged a rock, causing a spark that lit the rough ablaze and eventually attracted 150 firefighters to the scene. Fire officials say the fire burned through the rough, into vegetation next to the course and over two dry, brushy hillsides. No charges were filed against the golfer, whose name was withheld."

(Story courtesy of www.limaohio.com, Image courtesy of Google Images)

Everywhere a Sign

dbwriter3 — Tue, 31 Aug 2010 01:00:23 -0600

Britain being overrun by signs

(Reuters) - The British government has declared war on the profusion of unnecessary road traffic signs, railings and advertising boards, saying they blight towns' English character. Communities Secretary Eric Pickles and Transport Secretary Philip Hammond has written to local council leaders in England, calling on them to cut the number of unsightly signs and other "street clutter." Even traffic lights are in the firing line.

Ministers want the public to inform local authorities of particularly bad examples of excess signage, to clean up the national landscape. "Our streets are losing their English character," Pickles said. "We are being overrun by scruffy signs, bossy bollards, patchwork paving and railed-off roads -- wasting taxpayers' money that could be better spent on fixing potholes or keeping council (local) tax down."

The government says that in some cases traffic signs are installed by councils in the mistaken belief they are legally required, when they are not. Hammond said the abundance of so-called street furniture often makes towns resemble "scrapyards," confusing motorists and obstructing pedestrians. For signs to be most effective, ministers say, they should be kept to a minimum.

Enduring Hardships

dbwriter5 — Mon, 30 Aug 2010 00:01:39 -0600

5 years after Katrina: Can it happen again?

In the five years since Hurricane Katrina devastated New Orleans, the city has recovered better than many predicted. To paraphrase the great Southern writer William Faulkner, it has not only endured but prevailed.

Katrina cost the city more than half its population; today, it is nearly 80% of its former size. One in 10 residents is a newcomer, including a cadre of well-educated young people. Blight is declining; the middle and upper classes are growing. What was one of the nation's worst school systems is re-inventing itself. This year's Super Bowl victory by the once-awful Saints seemed to cap the comeback.

But if a storm like Katrina hit New Orleans today, some of that hard-won progress would be under water. Not the roof-high waters that drowned the city in 2005, but perhaps several feet — enough to do serious damage.

A city sitting in a bowl, with water lapping at its lip, can never be without risk. Nonetheless, as New Orleans residents like to point out, Katrina was as much a man-made disaster as a natural one. Water washed away the foundations of levees poorly designed and constructed by the Army Corps of Engineers. It was those breaches that caused so much death and destruction.

The new flood-control system is clearly stronger, but a failure of federal and local leadership at crucial moments has left New Orleans more vulnerable than it should be.

An influential panel of engineers and National Research Council scholars has warned repeatedly that the level of protection Congress ordered is inadequate for a densely populated metropolis. Engineer Robert Bea, who helped investigate why the old levees failed, believes that a storm less intense than Katrina would still cause repeated breaches, as the water found "weak links" in a system composed of new and old pieces.

"Is the city more protected in an honest way than before Katrina? Yes," says Tulane University environmental expert Mark Davis. "Is it protected as it needs to be? No."

For full story, click here Read More >>

Story and Photo courtesy of www.usatoday.com.

"Freedom for the Prisoners"

dbwriter5 — Fri, 27 Aug 2010 06:00:20 -0600

NKorea releases American imprisoned since January

SEOUL, South Korea – A smile flickered across Aijalon Gomes' face as he hugged former U.S. President Jimmy Carter and boarded a plane for Boston on Friday, seven months after his arrest in North Korea.

Carter flew to the North Korean capital, Pyongyang, this week on a private mission to secure a pardon for the 31-year-old American.

North Korean leader Kim Jong Il granted Carter's request to "leniently forgive" Gomes, the official Korean Central News Agency reported, and Carter and Gomes were due back in Boston later Friday for a reunion with his mother, Carter's spokeswoman Deanna Congileo said in Atlanta. Read More >>

Story and Image found at http://news.yahoo.com.

Should Parents "Friend" Their Kids on Facebook?

dbwriter4 — Thu, 26 Aug 2010 02:08:36 -0600

Three quarters of parents questioned in a Nielsen survey said they are friends with their children on the popular social networking website which boasts 500 million active users. But a third admitted they are worried they are not seeing everything their children are doing on the web.

Perhaps with good reason, as nearly 30 percent of teens said if given the choice they would unfriend their parents.

"The No. 1 parenting issue, as least with my discussion with parents, is living on Facebook," said Regina Lewis, a consumer adviser with online services company AOL, which jointly developed the survey.

"It is part of the modern-day parenting reality."

The average number of friends on Facebook is 130 but for teenagers it can be much higher, according to Lewis.

"I thought the percentage of parents who were friends with their kids was strikingly high. It is more than 70 percent," she said, adding that children were twice as likely to want to unfriend their mother than their father.

For some children friending a parent is not always an option. In 41 percent of households there was a rule that children who use Facebook have to be friends with their parents.

"For some parents that became a non-starter," said Lewis.

The friending issue is a delicate balancing act between children thriving for more independence and their parents' desire to see what is going on to make sure their children are safe.

In nearly half of cases, children said they would prefer to be friends with their parents privately on the web without their parents having the ability to post comments.

Nielsen questioned 1,024 parents and 500 children aged 13 to 17 for the online poll. More than half of the youngsters admitted they do not personally know all of their Facebook friends, and 41 percent of parents said they knew half or less of their children's Facebook friends.

"Friending friends is certainly a way to populate your list quickly," said Lewis.

"That is why the number of mutual friends is one of those really important factors in figuring out who may be a outlier," she added, referring to someone who shouldn't be there.

Twenty percent of parents admitted they had told their children to unfriend someone.

Whether they are friends or not, Lewis said that to be responsible parents need to keep an eye on what their children are doing online.

Story taken from: http://www.reuters.com; Photo taken from: http://www.thesystempredicts.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/10/facebbook.jpg

Million Dollar Throne

dbwriter2 — Wed, 25 Aug 2010 00:01:12 -0600

(not actual toilet for sale)

'Author JD Salinger's toilet' put on sale for $1m

A toilet described as once having belonged to US author JD Salinger has been put on sale on the online auction site eBay for $1m (£644,000).

The vendor says he obtained the "used toilet commode" from a couple who now own the former home of the Catcher in the Rye author.

It comes "uncleaned and in its original condition", the ad for it states.

"Who knows how many of [his] stories were thought up and written while Salinger sat on this throne!", it adds.

There have been a number of bids on the item.

. . . Salinger died in January, aged 91.

His most famous work, The Catcher in the Rye, has sold tens of millions of copies.

The tale of adolescent alienation has become one of the most influential American novels of the modern era since it was first published in 1951.

He became disillusioned with the publishing industry and moved to Cornish where he withdrew from society.

He continued to write, however, and is believed to have completed 15 manuscripts. It is these that the vendor suggests may have been dreamed up while sitting on the toilet.

(picture courtesty of google images, story courtesy of the BBC - see full story at http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-11044329)