Ana Orsini's cause of death revealed after beloved CBS news anchor died suddenly at age 28

By JAMES GORDON FOR DAILYMAIL.COM

Published: 19:54 EST, 17 December 2024 | Updated: 20:00 EST, 17 December 2024

A beloved news anchor who passed away last week died from a brain aneurysm, it has been revealed.

Ana Orsini's death was announced on Monday night by CBS affiliate KOLD News13 co-anchors Tyler Butler and Carsyn Currier.

The 28-year-old was remembered for her 'funny', vibrant personality as Currier broke down in tears while sharing the tragic news.

'Our beloved friend and co-anchor Ana Orsini passed away unexpectedly last week,' Butler began.

'Ana had been here at 13 News since June of 2023', Currier added, struggling to hold back tears. 'We are devastated by this loss.'

The TV host was so overcome with emotion, Butler had to step in to continue reading the station's tribute to Orsini, while holding his co-anchor's hand.

'We had the opportunity to work with every day and we do want you to know that what you saw with her on-air, the funny, crazy person she was - she was just like that off camera and more so,' Butler recounted.

Currier was able to regain her composure in order to cue up a tribute prepared by the station.

'Of course, we're wearing pink just for her. And while there's no perfect way to remember the life Ana led, we do want to honor her by sharing our favorite Ana moments with you,' she said before a touching montage of clips featuring Orsini was broadcast.

Orsini began her journalism career in 2018 in Lubbock, Texas, as an anchor and reporter after earning her degree from Texas A&M University.

She later spent three years at NewsWatch 12 before joining KOLD News13 in Tucson, Arizona, in June 2023.

Following the emotional broadcast, both anchors took to social media to pay tribute to their cherished colleague.

'We have some truly sad news to share. Our beloved Ana Orsini passed away suddenly late last week. She was one of a kind,' Butler wrote on Facebook.

'Passionate about helping animals, fiercely dedicated to her family, and blessed with a sharp sense of humor — Ana was extraordinary.

'Please remember her today, recalling a moment she made you laugh or see the world differently. Though she left us too soon, her spirit will live on in our hearts. For years to come, we'll be repeating her mantra: "Let the women do the work!"'

Currier, in a moving Instagram post, described Orsini as the 'Bratz doll to her Barbie doll' and reflected on the joy and energy she brought to their newsroom.

'Ana was unlike anyone I've ever met — beautiful, talented, hilarious, and completely genuine,' Currier wrote.

'She made everyone feel special, heard, and understood. Waking up early for work was easier knowing she'd be there. She was an amazing friend, a devoted daughter and sister, and the best dog mom to her beloved Harley. I promise to keep living fully in her honor. Rest in peace, sister.'

KOLD Meteorologist Cory Kowitz also paid tribute, sharing a video of memorable on-air moments with Orsini in a heartfelt post on X.

'Last week, we lost a cherished member of our KOLD news family,' Kowitz wrote. 'Ana was not just our anchor but a leader, a trusted colleague, and a great friend.

'Though our time together was far too short, I'm grateful for the memories we created. Rest in peace, Ana.'

Ashe Hajek, a former NewsWatch 12 producer, remembered Orsini as a 'force to be reckoned with.'

'When I first met Ana, she was confidently dressed head-to-toe in pink,' Hajek recalled. '

She led with authenticity and never hesitated to push others to discover their true potential. Her compassionate heart and fearless spirit touched everyone she met. The lessons she taught me about strength, hope, and self-belief will stay with me forever.'

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-14203477/arizona-tv-anchor-breaks-tears-death-ana-orsini.html

Jacqueline Bouvier Kennedy was wearing a pink Chanel suit when her husband, U.S. President John F. Kennedy, was assassinated in Dallas, Texas on November 22, 1963.[1][2] She insisted on wearing the suit, stained with his blood, during the swearing-in of Lyndon B. Johnson that afternoon and for the flight back to Washington, D.C. Jacqueline Kennedy was a fashion icon, and the suit is the most referenced and revisited among her clothing items.[3][4]

Made of wool bouclé, the double-breasted raspberry pink and navy trim collared suit was matched with a trademark pink pillbox hat and white gloves.[5] A long-time question among fashion historians and experts, about whether the suit was made by Chanel in France or a quality copy purchased from New York's semiannual Chez Ninon collections, was resolved by Coco Chanel's biographer, Justine Picardie. She showed that the suit was a garment made by Chez Ninon using Chanel's approved "line for line" system with authorized Chanel patterns and materials.[6]

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pink_Chanel_suit_of_Jacqueline_Bouvier_Kennedy

"It will be lawful for an ecclesiastic, or one of the religious order jeg. a Jesuit, to kill a calumniator who threatens to spread atrocious accusations against himself or his religion," is the rule given by the Jesuit Francis Amicus. Clement XIV was in their eyes such a calumniator. Indeed, as we have read, the Jesuit oath states, "I will secretly use the poisoned cup, the strangulation cord, the steel of the poniard (a dagger) or the leaden bullet, regardless of the honor, rank. dignity, or authority of the person or persons...." That would include 'popicide'! Several historians have opined that the poison given to Pope Clement XIV was administered by one of his regular guests or a servant. And it is a fact that every week the pope met with his Jesuit confessor.

The Domus Sanctae Marthae (Latin for Saint Martha's House; Italian: Casa Santa Marta) is a building adjacent to St. Peter's Basilica in Vatican City. Completed in 1996, during the pontificate of Pope John Paul II, it is named after Martha of Bethany, who was a sibling to Mary and Lazarus of Bethany. The building functions as a guest house for clergy having business with the Holy See, and as the temporary residence of members of the College of Cardinals while participating in a papal conclave to elect a new pope.

Pope Francis has lived in a suite in the building since his election in March 2013, declining to use the papal apartments in the Apostolic Palace.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Domus_Sanctae_Marthae

Even to this day, of those who have access to the pope, the Jesuits are always the best positioned. The Jesuits know all the secrets of the popes and have the most intimate access to the Roman pontiffs. Indeed, some of the Pope's closest advisors are Jesuits. Further, it is a requirement that the pope's confessor must be a Jesuit. Jean Lacouture's work Jesuits: A Multibiography confirms that Pope Paul VI (Cardinal Montini) had as his confessor a Jesuit priest. And the Jesuit Cardinal Paolo Dezza, with whom the Pope is said to have had "almost daily meetings," tells us that the "White Pope" has private "monthly face-to- face meetings" with the "Black Pope."" This quote is verbatim.

Nor were these weekly meetings a peculiarity of Paul VT's papacy "The Pope's confessor, an ordinary priest, must be a Jesuit: he must

25 Charles Newdigate, Glimps of the Great Secret Society, op. cit., p. 40: and Wylie, History of Protestantism, op. cit.

26 R. W. Thompson, Footprints of the Jesuits, op. cit., pp. 224-227. 27 Francis Amicus, Cursus Theologici, Tomus v., Duaci, 1642, Disp. 36,

Sect. 5, n. 118.

28 Jean Lacouture, Jesuits: A Multibiography, op. cit., p. 463, para. 1. See also, p. 444 (Pope Pius XII also having Jesuit Father Robert Leiber. as his confessor). Only a Jesuit can be the Pope's confessor: p. 445.

252

Order out of Chaos: the Jesuits, Their rise, fall...Audacious Return the Vatican once a week at a fixed time, and he alone may absolve the Pope of his sins. In fact, Cardinal Dezza was confessor to two Popes- Paul VI and John Paul I-both of whom 'chose him as confessor.

The reader may be surprised to learn that there have been several such Papal assassinations, and attempts at assassinations. Malachi Martin, the former Jesuit professor and Vatican insider, says that the tensions between Paul VI and the Jesuit General was so high that the Pontill was thinking about "dissolving the Company a second time." He was not to live to execute any such plans. In 1970, Pope Paul VI was almost stabbed to death by Benjamin Mendoza y Amor Flores. Malachi Martin writes: "Had it not been for that still collar and the speed of Paul's private secretary, Monsignore Macchi, who caught Mendoza's arm and slowed its force, Paul VI would have been killed. As it was, he was wounded slightly on both sides of the neck." Then, on July 14, 1978, for no apparent reason, Paul VI fell into unconsciousness for four hours and died soon after of a massive heart attack. It would be remiss of me not to point out that almost every pope who has sought to dissolve the Jesuits has had an untimely and sudden demise.

14We ought to act on the principle that everyone who lives under obedience should let himself be carried and directed by Divine Providence through the agency of the superior 15as if he were a lifeless body, which allows itself to be carried to any place and treated in any way; or an old man s staff, which serves at any place and for any purpose in which the one holding it in his hand wishes to employ it. 16For in this way the obedient man ought joyfully to employ himself in any task in which the superior desires to employ him in aid of the whole body of the religious order; 17and he ought to hold it certain that by so doing he conforms himself with the divine will more than by anything else he could do while following his own will and different judgment.[3]"

page 221

The Constitutions of The Society of Jesus and Their Complimentary Norms

A Complete English Translation of the Official Latin Texts

THE INSTITUTE OF JESUIT SOURCES

SAINT LOUIS, 1996

https://web.archive.org/web/20200211182223/https://jesuitas.lat/uploads/the-constitutions-of-the-society-of-jesus-and-their-complementary-norms/Constitutions%20and%20Norms%20SJ%20ingls.pdf

Likewise, Paul VI's successor Pope John Paul I inherited a financial scandal involving the Jesuits, the Vatican Bank and its American director, Bishop Paul Marcinkus. John Paul I decided to act: he went to bed with a copy of his speech about his plans to either terminate or reorganize the Jesuits. He was found dead by his housekeeper the following morning." In an earlier age so untimely a death might have stirred deep suspicions. Time magazine, October 9, 1978, notes: "If this were the time of the Borgias," said a young teacher in Rome, "there'd be talk that John Paul was poisoned."

29 Nino Lo Bello, The Vatican Empire, (New York: Trident Press, a division of Simon and Schuster, 1968), p. 78. Nino Lo Bello was the author of ten books, including the New York Times bestsellers. The Vatican Empire, Vatican U.S.A., European Detours, The Vatican Papers, and Nino Lo Bello's Guide to the Vatican. For eight years, he was Italian correspondent for the New York Herald Tribune and served as special correspondent to the International Herald Tribune for more than a

quarter-century.

30 Malachi Martin, The Jesuits: The Society of Jesus and the Betrayal of the Roman Catholic Church. (New York: Simon & Schuster, 1989), p. 401; see also his comments on pp. 231-233 regarding the murder of

Pope Sixtus V in 1590.

Martin, The Jesuits, The Society of Jesus and the Betrayal of the

Roman Catholic Church, op. cit., p. 44.

253

CODEWORD BARBELON

Three years later, on May 13, 1981, the successor to John Paul I, "ope John Paul II, was struck by two bullets from the semiautomatic istol of hitman Mehmet Ali Agca. Three weeks prior to the ssassination attempt John Paul II had a meeting with six of the most owerful cardinals in the Vatican and was in deadlock talks with the esuit General. The topic? The forced resignation of the Jesuit General Pedro Arrupe!" John Paul had written a letter to Father General Arrupe, insisting on appointing the 80 year old Jesuit Cardinal Paolo Dezza as his personal delegate to the Jesuits, with power to govern the Society of Jesus. After the failed attempt on his life John Paul II withdrew his demands, and lived a long life-unlike Pope Clement XIV.

Not long thereafter the attempted assassination of John Paul II by Mehmet Ali, May 1981, the Jesuit General Pedro Arrupe" made this marvellous admission: "The Company is feared everywhere.... The people say, "These Jesuits are wily! And so powerful!****

Returning to the suppression. For all its "comprehensive" and bold declarations, Pope Clement's decree of 1773 proved only partially successful and palpably shortlived. After Clement's suspicious and untimely death, Cardinal Braschi was elected Pope Pius VI, on February 15, 1775. The successor to the unfortunate Clement XIV was no less in fear of the Jesuits. A former pupil of the Society of Jesus, he knew their wrath. Almost immediately he sought to secure the release of Fr. Ricci, the Jesuit General, and his assistants from the prison in Castel San Angelo. But Charles III. King of Spain, insisted on their detention. Moreover, the Jesuits were never suppressed in Russia or Germany. Pius VI, seeing the fate of his predecessors, colluded with Frederick II of Prussia to "saving the Jesuits." On March 12, 1783. Pius VI "approved" the maintenance of the Jesuits in Russia.

138

32 Malachi Martin, The Jesuits..., op, cit., pp. 79-80, 94.

33 Pedro Arrupe (1907-1991) "the 28th Superior General". For nearly 20

years, he was the central figure in the renewal of the Society after Vatican Council II. From the Basque country of Spain, he put his medical training on hold to join the Jesuits. He was expelled from Spain in 1932, along with all the Jesuits by the Spanish government. 34 Jean Lacouture, Jesuits: A Multibiography, op. cit., p. 472; Alain. Woodrow, Les Jesuits (Paris: Jean-Claude Lattés, 1984), p. 267. 35 Lacouture, Jesuits: A Multibiography, op. cit., p. 305.

36 Histoire religieuse, politique et litteraire de la Compagnie de Jesus, op

cit, p. 485.

254

"Order Out of Chaos: The Jesuits, Their Rise, Fall, And Audacious Return" Codeword Barbelon book One

by P.D. Stuart

https://www.facebook.com/billy.dunn.50767/posts/pfbid02fbtfkCQezZXRYQgVMyXWcurYudxodaRdzAGY1QqL7ZfbB9grFKAHvPVKhSXoS1M6l

The day John Paul II met with Reagan in Alaska

Cyprien Viet - published on 08/31/24

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In 1984, beginning an extensive tour of Pacific nations, John Paul II had a stopover in Alaska, the occasion of a meeting with then US President Ronald Reagan.

Asimple "refueling" at an Alaskan airport became the embodiment of the rapprochement between the Holy See and the United States. In 1984, a year marked by the belated establishment of full diplomatic relations between the world's leading power and the world's smallest state, John Paul II's stopover in Fairbanks was a symbol of the good understanding between President Ronald Reagan and the Polish pontiff, in the name of the fight against Communism.

A small city with a big role

It was around 10 a.m. on May 2, 1984, when the globe-trotting pope's plane landed at the airport of this town of 30,000 inhabitants north of the 64th parallel, where winter temperatures can plunge to 50 degrees below zero.

The Pope was on his way to visit Korea, Papua New Guinea, the Solomon Islands, and Thailand. Fairbanks had already become the second Alaskan city to receive a visit from John Paul II (after Anchorage) on February 26, 1981, that time on his way back from another extensive Asian tour which took him to Pakistan, the Philippines, Guam, and Japan.

Fairbanks, which has the advantage of being an isolated city and therefore easy to secure, would be the venue for an informal summit between the two most targeted men of the time. Both had survived assassination attempts in 1981 and had met for a long meeting the following year at the Vatican.

The video of the Fairbanks meeting posted on YouTube by the Reagan Foundation shows the two men side by side, despite the chilly temperatures, on a mini-stage set up on an aircraft gangway.

Meeting at the crossroads of the world

The American president, who was already 73 at the time, had just returned from a tour of China. He painted an enthusiastic picture of Pope John Paul II in his speech, describing him as "one of humanity's greatest moral and spiritual forces."

"In a violent world, Your Holiness, you have been a minister of peace and love. Your words, your prayers, your example have made you — for those who suffer oppression or the violence of war — a source of solace, inspiration, and hope," President Reagan then added.

Responding in English, John Paul II addressed the entire American population, who were watching his speech on television.

"I hold the people of Alaska and those of the whole of the United States close to me in my heart. I do not forget you, for we are linked together by bonds of friendship, of faith, and of love," he said, putting this remote location at the center of world geopolitics for a few moments. “In some ways, Alaska can be considered today as a crossroads of the world. President Reagan is returning from visiting the beloved people of China, even as I am making my way to a neighboring area in the Far East," recalls John Paul II.

Mutual understanding that would change world history

In the astonishing 1980s, between the former actor of Western movies and the former stage actor turned Catholic Church leader, a relationship of trust emerged which would lead to the collapse of Communism.

John Paul II would meet Ronald Reagan again three years later in Miami. The good relations between the two men and their joint support for the Solidarity trade union struggle in Poland would gradually contribute to the loss of influence of Communism, and its gradual collapse in Central Europe from 1989 onwards.

Among the personalities who made the link between the American President and the Pope were Polish-born political scientist Zbigniew Brzezinski — an anti-Communist intellectual who was one of the few experts to work successively for Presidents Carter and Reagan, before joining the service of Barack Obama — and General Vernon Walters, head of the CIA, who described the Catholic Church as "the best information network in the world."

Institutional and personal

This good relationship with the American administration of the time was also evident when Pope Francis granted an audience to the First Lady, Nancy Reagan, on May 4, 1985, in the context of her participation in a meeting on the fight against drugs. As a sign of a personal and not just institutional connection, it was to her, and not to then President George W. Bush, that Pope John Paul II addressed his message of condolence after Ronald Reagan's death on June 5, 2004.

The previous day, the memory of the two leaders' common fight against communism had led George W. Bush, visiting Rome for the 60th anniversary of the Liberation during World War II, to present the Polish pontiff with the highest American decoration, the Presidential Medal of Freedom.

In his speech, the Polish pontiff, himself very weak, spoke of the end of life of the former president, who was suffering from Alzheimer's disease. "I send my regards to President Reagan and to Mrs. Reagan, who is so attentive to him in his illness," John Paul II said.

But this visit in 2004, 20 years after the establishment of diplomatic relations between Rome and Washington, was also an opportunity for John Paul II to reiterate the Holy See's firm opposition to the American offensive launched a year earlier in Iraq, and to call for a "speedy return of Iraq’s sovereignty."

His closeness to the United States in the name of the defense of freedom in no way meant alignment with a political and military agenda whose impasses he had foreseen.

https://aleteia.org/2024/08/31/the-day-john-paul-ii-met-with-reagan-in-alaska

IImage of President Kennedy waving to the crowd at Love Field

Original 35mm black and white negative taken by a Dallas Times Herald staff photographer. This image shows President Kennedy waving to the crowd at Love Field on the morning of November 22, 1963. The images on this negative strip were taken by a Dallas Times Herald staff photographer. There were three photographers at Love Field that day: John Mazziotta, Bob Jackson and Eamon Kennedy. It is not known which of the three took the pictures on this strip.

https://www.jfk.org/collections-archive/image-30-from-negative-strip-8-love-field-of-president-kennedy-waving-to-the-crowd/

Wave is the fourth studio album by Patti Smith, and the third and final album where the Patti Smith Group is billed. It was released on May 17, 1979, by Arista Records. Produced by Todd Rundgren, the album continued the band's move towards more radio-friendly mainstream pop rock sound. Wave garnered a mixed reception from music critics and was less successful than its predecessor, Easter (1978). However, the songs "Frederick" and "Dancing Barefoot" both received commercial airplay. Following the album's release, the band disbanded, and frontwoman Patti Smith pursued a solo career nine years later with Dream of Life (1988).

The title track was a tribute to Pope John Paul I, whose brief papacy coincided with the recording sessions of Wave. The first single of the album was "Frederick", a love song for frontwoman Patti Smith's fiancé Fred "Sonic" Smith with a melody and structure bearing a resemblance to "Because the Night", the group's biggest hit.[2][3] Smith began writing the lyrics of second single "Dancing Barefoot" in late 1978 and recorded it in 1979.[4] The song was described as "a swirling, seductive love song" that uses "love-as-addiction" metaphors and wordplay with the words "heroine" and "heroin".[3] Smith stated she was told to replace the word "heroine" with a synonym because of issues with radio airplay, but she objected the decision since she actually intended the lyric to reference the female equivalent of hero. Rolling Stone ranked the song number 323 on their 2004 list of the "500 Greatest Songs of All Time".[5] Both songs received commercial airplay.[4] A cover of the Byrds' "So You Want to Be (A Rock 'n' Roll Star)" was released as the album's third and final single.[3]

After Wave was released, the band disbanded in fall 1979 when finishing their last concert in Florence, Italy. Patti married Fred on March 1, 1980 and spent many years in semi-retirement from music following the birth of their children, Jesse and Jackson, until her return as a solo singer with Dream of Life (1988).[2] The 1996 remaster of Wave includes Smith's original version of "Fire of Unknown Origin". Blue Öyster Cult's version was released on their album of the same name in 1981. The back cover of the original LP bore a quote from the Jean Genet poem "Le Condamné à mort".

Critical reception

In Christgau's Record Guide: Rock Albums of the Seventies (1981), Robert Christgau found the album "quirkier than the more generally satisfying Easter and praised "Dancing Barefoot" and the title track. However, he dismissed "Seven Ways of Going" and "Broken Flag" as "unlistenable [and less interesting than]" the band's 1976 album Radio Ethiopia.[6] Tom Carson of Rolling Stone also negatively likenened Wave to Radio Ethiopia, concluding that the record "is too confused and hermetically smug to be much more than an interesting failure."[3] The Globe and Mail determined that "Rundgren handles the production chores with remarkable restraint as he showcases Patti Smith the suicidal torch singer, admirably backed by her resident group of musicians."[10]

AllMusic's William Ruhlmann noted that Smith "achieves a sense of charm and sincerity on Wave that she hadn't even attempted on her earlier albums" but lamented that "the overall mediocre quality of the material makes this the slightest of Smith's efforts."[1] In a 2019 review for PopMatters, Matt McKinzie dubbed the album as the singer's "most unapologetically-pop effort" where she "reject[s] the idea that her genre capabilities begin and end with th[e] four-letter word [punk]."[11] Emma Johnston, a writer from Louder Sound, ranked Wave number 6 on a list of Patti Smith's best albums, writing that it was "Smith at her least filtered and most emotionally open, and remains something of an underrated treasure."[12]

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wave_(Patti_Smith_Group_album)

Vice President Kamala Harris

August 12 ·

It is my honor to travel our nation as Vice President and fight for the freedom of Americans to make decisions about their own body, to love who they love openly and with pride, to be safe from gun violence and hate, and to breathe clean air and drink clean water.

https://www.facebook.com/photo/?fbid=1084659100326245&set=a.287432416715588

Kamala Harris to skip Al Smith dinner, a traditional event for major presidential candidates

By JONATHAN J. COOPER

Updated 3:45 PM PDT, September 21, 2024

PHOENIX (AP) — Vice President Kamala Harris will skip this year’s Al Smith charity dinner in New York, breaking with presidential tradition so she can campaign instead in a battleground state less than three weeks before Election Day.

The dinner benefitting Catholic Charities traditionally has been used to promote collegiality and good humor, with presidential candidates from both parties appearing on the same night and trading barbs.

Harris’ team wants her to spend as much time as possible in the battleground states that will decide the election rather than heavily Democratic New York, a campaign official said Saturday, speaking on condition of anonymity to discuss campaign plans and confirming a decision first reported by CNN. Her team told organizers that she would be willing to attend as president if she’s elected, the official said.

Donald Trump’s campaign did not immediately respond to a question about whether he would attend the dinner. His 2016 appearance at the dinner invited boos when many in the audience felt he crossed a line when he called Democrat Hillary Clinton corrupt and claimed she hated Catholics.

This year’s white-tie gala is scheduled for Oct. 17.

Cardinal Timothy Dolan, who plays a prominent role in the dinner, has been highly critical of Democrats, writing a 2018 Wall Street Journal op-ed that carried the headline, “The Democrats Abandon Catholics.”

The Alfred E. Smith Memorial Foundation Dinner is named for the former New York governor, a Democrat and the first Roman Catholic to be nominated for president by a major party in 1928. He was handily defeated by Herbert Hoover. It raises millions of dollars for Catholic charities and has traditionally shown that those vying to lead the nation can get along, or pretend to, for one night.

The event has become a tradition for presidential candidates since Richard Nixon and John F. Kennedy appeared together in 1960. In 1996, the Archdiocese of New York decided not to invite then-President Bill Clinton and his Republican challenger, Bob Dole, reportedly because Clinton vetoed a late-term abortion ban.

https://apnews.com/article/kamala-harris-al-smith-dinner-109cbfcdb2693c960483b8d4843cd704

Patti Smith on singing at the Vatican: 'Anyone who would confine me to an old line is a fool'

Why is Patti Smith, who opened Horses with the line ‘Jesus died for someone’s sins, but not mine’, playing a gig at the Vatican? Our intrepid reporter asked her

News that rebel bard Patti Smith is to sing in a Christmas concert for the Vatican caused a small sensation. An Italian Catholic organisation decried her appearance as “blasphemous” and asked for it to be banned. Around Smith’s adopted hometown, New York, blogs burbled and water coolers bubbled about her surprising move. One TV producer friend – Jewish, as it goes – lamented to me, “And to think I believed her when she sang, ‘Jesus died for somebody’s sins, but not mine.’”

You don’t have to be Christian for those lyrics from Smith’s 1975 track, Gloria, to be a lifeline. Their defiance still beckons the alienated outsider kids who flock to New York hoping to fit in with all the other misfits, just like she did. So arty New Yorkers claim Smith’s playful and sombre artistry like their own Lady Liberty’s torch.

If punk is about controversy, then Smith had done it again. Yet interestingly, no such mini-scandal erupts when Smith sings for the Dalai Lama, as she frequently does. It’s not an exact comparison, as Buddhism is known as a belief system, not a religion; yet the Dalai Lama is a spiritual leader, just like Pope Francis. However, even aside from its current crises, Catholicism is always filed under “organised religion”, which Smith’s iconoclastic work is supposed to smash, not endorse. Clearly, for Smith, nothing is sacred – even her own work. But artistically, isn’t that her job description?

Smith’s landmark line has all the angst you’d expect from Catholics, Jews or members of any guilt-edged faith. Smith herself was raised as a Jehovah’s Witness, “an austere faith, culturally and artistically”, as she told the audience at a Museum of the Moving Image screening of Darren Aronofsky’s Noah; she co-wrote a lullaby, Mercy Is …, for the bold but wobbly epic. Wryly confiding that she had always fancied acting in a film, Smith said, “I always thought that life was like God’s movie. I wanted to be in a movie but it didn’t happen. But I got a good role in God’s movie!” (Smith-spotters, please note – she doesn’t count her quick appearance in Jean-Luc Godard’s Film Socialisme.)

Seizing the moment, your reporter asked Smith how she felt about unsettling her fans with her Vatican performance. Smith responded with customary fire. “I’m not playing to the Pope,” she snapped with classic ferocity. “He may not even be there! But I expect there’ll be a bunch of cardinals …” (Audience applause, laughter.) “It’s a Christmas concert for the people, and it’s being televised. I like Pope Francis and I’m happy to sing for him. Anyone who would confine me to a line from 20 years ago is a fool!” (Much applause.) “I had a strong religious upbringing, and the first word on my first LP is Jesus. I did a lot of thinking. I’m not against Jesus, but I was 20 and I wanted to make my own mistakes and I didn’t want anyone dying for me. I stand behind that 20-year-old girl, but I have evolved. I’ll sing to my enemy! I don’t like being pinned down and I’ll do what the fuck I want, especially at my age … oh, I hope there’s no small children here!” (Huge applause.)

So, braving criticism from hardcore Smith fans and Catholics, Patti Smith will rock the Vatican. Happily, Smith is essentially consistent. She really is New York’s Other Lady Liberty.

https://www.theguardian.com/music/musicblog/2014/nov/18/patti-smith-christmas-concert-vatican

Pope John Paul I (Latin: Ioannes Paulus I; Italian: Giovanni Paolo I; born Albino Luciani [alˈbiːno luˈtʃaːni]; 17 October 1912 – 28 September 1978) was head of the Catholic Church and sovereign of the Vatican City from 26 August 1978 until his death 33 days later. His reign is among the shortest in papal history, resulting in the most recent year of three popes and the first to occur since 1605. John Paul I remains the most recent Italian-born pope, the last in a succession of such popes that started with Clement VII in 1523.

Before the August 1978 papal conclave that elected him, he expressed his desire not to be elected, telling those close to him that he would decline the papacy if elected; upon the cardinals' electing him, he felt an obligation to say yes.[4] He was the first pontiff to have a double name, choosing "John Paul" in honour of his two immediate predecessors, John XXIII and Paul VI. He explained that he was indebted to John XXIII and to Paul VI for naming him a bishop and a cardinal, respectively. Furthermore, he was the first pope to add the regnal number "I", designating himself "the First".

His two immediate successors, John Paul II and Benedict XVI, later recalled the warm qualities of the late pontiff in several addresses. In Italy, he is remembered with the appellatives of Il Papa del Sorriso (transl. The Smiling Pope)[5] and Il Sorriso di Dio (transl. The Smile of God).[6] Time magazine and other publications referred to him as "The September Pope".[7] He is also known in Italy as "Papa Luciani". In his hometown of Canale d'Agordo a museum built and named in his honour is dedicated to his life and brief papacy.

He was declared a servant of God by his successor, John Paul II, on 23 November 2003, the first step on the road to sainthood. Pope Francis confirmed his heroic virtue on 8 November 2017 and named him as Venerable. Pope Francis presided over the beatification on 4 September 2022.[8][9]

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pope_John_Paul_I

Pedro Arrupe Gondra, SJ (14 November 1907 – 5 February 1991) was a Spanish Catholic priest who served as the 28th superior general of the Society of Jesus from 1965 to 1983.[3] He has been called a second founder of the Society, which he led in the implementation of the Second Vatican Council, especially with regard to faith that does justice and preferential option for the poor.[4][3]

Born in 1907 in Bilbao, Arrupe joined the Jesuits in 1927 and was ordained to the priesthood in 1936. While serving as a novice master outside Hiroshima in 1945, Arrupe used his medical background as a first responder to the atomic bombing of Hiroshima.[5]

In 1983, paralysis from a stroke caused Arrupe to resign from office. He lived on until 1991, when he died in the local Jesuit infirmary.[5] His cause for sainthood was opened by the Jesuits and the Diocese of Rome in 2018.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pedro_Arrupe

The CORONA [1] program was a series of American strategic reconnaissance satellites produced and operated by the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) Directorate of Science & Technology with substantial assistance from the U.S. Air Force. The CORONA satellites were used for photographic surveillance of the Soviet Union (USSR), China, and other areas beginning in June 1959 and ending in May 1972."

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/CORONA_(satellite)

Havana syndrome ’ and the mystery of the microwaves by Gordon Carera

"Doctors, scientists, intelligence agents and government officials have all been trying to find out what causes "Havana syndrome" - a mysterious illness that has struck American diplomats and spies. Some call it an act of war, others wonder if it is some new and secret form of surveillance - and some people believe it could even be all in the mind. So who or what is responsible? It often started with a sound, one that people struggled to describe. "Buzzing", "grinding metal", "piercing squeals", was the best they could manage. One woman described a low hum and intense pressure in her skull; another felt a pulse of pain. Those who did not hear a sound, felt heat or pressure. But for those who heard the sound, covering their ears made no difference. Some of the people who experienced the syndrome were left with dizziness and fatigue for months. Havana syndrome first emerged in Cuba in 2016. The first cases were CIA officers, which meant they were kept secret. But, eventually, word got out and anxiety spread. Twenty-six personnel and family members would report a wide variety of symptoms. There were whispers that some colleagues thought sufferers were crazy and it was "all in the mind". Five years on, reports now number in the hundreds and, the BBC has been told, span every continent, leaving a real impact on the US's ability to operate overseas. Uncovering the truth has now become a top US national security priority - one that an official has described as the most difficult intelligence challenge they have ever faced. Hard evidence has been elusive, making the syndrome a battleground for competing theories. Some see it as a psychological illness, others a secret weapon. But a growing trail of evidence has focused on microwaves as the most likely culprit. In 2015, diplomatic relations between the US and Cuba were restored after decades of hostility. But within two years, Havana syndrome almost shut the embassy down, as staff were withdrawn because of concerns for their welfare. Initially, there was speculation that the Cuban government - or a hard-line faction opposed to improving relations - might be responsible, having deployed some kind of sonic weapon. Cuba's security services, after all, had been nervous about an influx of US personnel and kept a tight grip on the capital. That theory would fade as cases spread around the world. But recently, another possibility has come into the frame - one whose roots lay in the darker recesses of the Cold War, and a place where science, medicine, espionage and geopolitics collide. When James Lin, a professor at the University of Illinois, read the first reports about the mysterious sounds in Havana, he immediately suspected that microwaves were responsible. His belief was based not just on theoretical research, but first-hand experience. Decades earlier, he had heard the sounds himself. Since its emergence around World War Two, there had been reports of people being able to hear something when a nearby radar was switched on and began sending microwaves into the sky. This was even though there was no external noise. In 1961, a paper by Dr Allen Frey argued the sounds were caused by microwaves interacting with the nervous system, leading to the term the "Frey Effect". But the exact causes - and implications - remained unclear. In the 1970s, Prof Lin set to work conducting his experiments at the University of Washington. He sat on a wooden chair in a small room lined with absorbent materials, an antenna aimed at the back of his head. In his hand he held a light switch. Outside, a colleague sent pulses of microwaves through the antenna at random intervals. If Prof Lin heard a sound, he pressed the switch. A single pulse sounded like a zip or a clicking finger. A series of pulses like a bird chirping. They were produced in his head rather than as sound waves coming from outside. Prof Lin believed the energy was absorbed by the soft brain tissue and converted to a pressure wave moving inside the head, which was interpreted by the brain as sound. This occurred when high-power microwaves were delivered as pulses rather than in the low-power continuous form you get from a modern microwave oven or other devices. Prof Lin recalls that he was careful not to dial it up too high. "I did not want to have my brain damaged," he told the BBC. In 1978, he found he was not alone in his interest, and received an unusual invitation to discuss his latest paper from a group of scientists who had been carrying out their own experiments. During the Cold War, science was the focus of intense super-power rivalry. Even areas like mind control were explored, amid fears of the other side getting an edge - and this included microwaves. Prof Lin was shown the Soviet approach at a centre of scientific research in the town of Pushchino, near Moscow. "They had a very elaborate, very well-equipped laboratory," Prof Lin recalls. But their experiment was cruder than his. The subject would sit in a drum of salty seawater with their head sticking out. Then microwaves would be fired at their brain. The scientists thought the microwaves interacted with the nervous system and wanted to question Prof Lin on his alternative view. Curiosity cut both ways, and US spies kept close track on Soviet research. A 1976 report by the US Defense Intelligence Agency, unearthed by the BBC, says it could find no proof of Communist-bloc microwave weapons, but says it had learnt of experiments where microwaves were pulsed at the throat of frogs until their hearts stopped. The report also reveals that the US was concerned Soviet microwaves could be used to impair brain function or induce sounds for psychological effect. "Their internal sound perception research has great potential for development into a system for disorienting or disrupting the behaviour patterns of military or diplomatic personnel." American interest was more than just defensive. James Lin would occasionally glimpse references to secret US work on weapons in the same field. And while Prof Lin was in Pushchino, another group of Americans not far away were worried that they were being zapped by microwaves - and that their own government had covered it up. For nearly a quarter of a century, the 10-storey US embassy in Moscow was bathed by a wide, invisible beam of low-level microwaves. It became known as "the Moscow signal". But for many years, most of those working inside knew nothing. The beam came from an antenna on the balcony of a nearby Soviet apartment and hit the upper floors of the embassy where the ambassador's office and more sensitive work was carried out. It had been first spotted in the 1950s and was later monitored from a room on the 10th floor. But its existence was a secret tightly held from all but a few working inside. "We were trying to figure out just what might be its purpose," explains Jack Matlock, number two at the embassy in the mid-70s. But a new ambassador, Walter Stoessel, arrived in 1974 and threatened to resign unless everyone was told. "That caused something like panic," recalls Mr Matlock. Embassy staff whose children were in a basement nursery were especially worried. But the State Department played down any risk. Then Ambassador Stoessel, himself, fell ill - with bleeding of the eyes as one of his symptoms. In a now declassified 1975 phone call to the Soviet ambassador to Washington, US Secretary of State Henry Kissinger linked Stoessel's illness to microwaves, admitting "we are trying to keep the thing quiet". Stoessel died of leukaemia at the age of 66. "He decided to play the good soldier", and not make a fuss, his daughter told the BBC. From 1976 screens were installed to protect people. But many diplomats were angry, believing the State Department had first kept quiet, and then resisted acknowledging any possible health impact. This was a claim echoed decades later with Havana syndrome. What was the Moscow signal for? "I'm pretty sure that the Soviets had intentions other than damaging us," says Matlock. They were ahead of the US in surveillance technology and one theory was that they bounced microwaves off windows to pick up conversations, another that they were activating their own listening devices hidden inside the building or capturing information through microwaves hitting US electronic devices (known as "peek and poke"). The Soviets at one point told Matlock that the purpose was actually to jam American equipment on the embassy roof used to intercept Soviet communications in Moscow. This is the world of surveillance and counter-surveillance, one so secret that even within embassies and governments only a few people know the full picture. One theory is that Havana involved a much more targeted method to carry out some kind of surveillance with higher-power, directed microwaves. One former UK intelligence official told the BBC that microwaves could be used to "illuminate" electronic devices to extract signals or identify and track them. Others speculate that a device (even perhaps an American one) might have been poorly engineered or malfunctioned and caused a physical reaction in some people. However, US officials tell the BBC no device has been identified or recovered. After a lull, cases began to spread beyond Cuba. In December 2017, Marc Polymeropolous woke suddenly in a Moscow hotel room. A senior CIA officer, he was in town to meet Russian counterparts. "My ears were ringing, my head was spinning. I felt like I was going to vomit. I couldn't stand up," he told the BBC. "It was terrifying." It was a year after the first Havana cases, but the CIA medical office told him his symptoms didn't match the Cuban cases. A long battle for medical treatment began. The severe headaches never went away and in the summer of 2019 he was forced to retire. Mr Polymreopolous originally thought he had been hit by some kind of technical surveillance tool that had been "turned up too much". But when more cases emerged at the CIA which were all, he says, linked to people working on Russia, he came to believe he had been targeted with a weapon. But then came China, including at the consulate in Guangzhou in early 2018. Some of those affected in China contacted Beatrice Golomb, a professor at the University of California, San Diego, who has long researched the health effects of microwaves, as well as other unexplained illnesses. She told the BBC that she wrote to the State Department's medical team in January 2018 with a detailed account of why she thought microwaves were responsible. "This makes for interesting reading," was the non-committal response. Prof Golomb says high levels of radiation were recorded by family members of personnel in Guangzhou using commercially available equipment. "The needle went off the top of the available readings." But she says the State Department told its own employees that the measurements they had taken off their own back were classified. A host of problems plagued early investigations. There was a failure to collect consistent data. The State Department and CIA failed to communicate with each other, and the scepticism of their internal medical teams caused tension. Only one out of the nine cases from China was initially determined by the State Department to match the criteria for the syndrome based on Havana cases. That left others who experienced symptoms angry, and feeling as if they were being accused of making it up. They began a battle for equal treatment, which is still going on today. As frustration grew, some of those affected turned to Mark Zaid, a lawyer who specialises in national security cases. He now acts for around two dozen government personnel, half from the intelligence community. "This is not Havana syndrome. It's a misnomer," argues Mr Zaid, whose clients were affected in many locations. "What's been going on has been known by the United States government probably, based on evidence that I have seen, since the late 1960s." Since 2013, Mr Zaid has represented one employee of the US National Security Agency who believed they were damaged in 1996 in a location which remains classified. Mr Zaid questions why the US government has been so unwilling to acknowledge a longer history. One possibility, he says, is because it might open a Pandora's Box of incidents that have been ignored over the years. Another is because the US, too, has developed and perhaps even deployed microwaves itself and wants to keep it secret. The country's interest in weaponising microwaves extended beyond the end of the Cold War. Reports say from the 1990s, the US Air Force had a project codenamed "Hello" to see if microwaves could create disturbing sounds in people's heads, one called "Goodbye" to test their use for crowd control, and one codenamed "Goodnight" to see if they could be used to kill people. Reports from a decade ago suggested these had not proved successful. But the study of the mind and what can be done to it has been receiving increased focus within the military and security world. "The brain is being seen as the 21st Century battle-scape," argues James Giordano, an adviser to the Pentagon and Professor in Neurology and Biochemistry at Georgetown University, who was asked to look at the initial Havana cases. "Brain sciences are global. It is not just the province of what used to be known as the West." Ways to both augment and damage brain function are being worked on, he told the BBC. But it is a field with little transparency or rules. He says China and Russia have been engaged in microwave research and raises the possibility that tools developed for industrial and commercial uses - for instance to test the impact of microwaves on materials - could have been repurposed. But he also wonders if disruption and spreading fear were also the aim. This kind of technology may have been around for a while - and even have been used selectively. But that would still mean something changed in Cuba to get it noticed. Bill Evanina was a senior intelligence official when the Havana cases emerged, and stepped down as the head of the National Counterintelligence and Security Center this year. He has little doubt about what happened in Havana. "Was it an offensive weapon? I believe it was," he told the BBC. He believes microwaves may have been deployed in recent military conflicts, but points to specific circumstances to explain a shift. Cuba, 90 miles off the Florida coast, has long been an ideal site to collect "signals intelligence" by intercepting communications. During the Cold War, it was home to a major Soviet listening station. When Vladimir Putin visited in 2014, reports suggested it was being re-opened. China also opened two sites in recent years, according to one source, while the Russians sent in 30 additional intelligence officers. But from 2015, the US was back in town. With its newly opened embassy and a beefed-up presence, the US was just beginning to establish its footing, collecting intelligence and pushing back against Russian and Chinese spies. "We were in a ground fight," one person recalls. Then the sounds began. "Who had the most to benefit from the closing of the embassy in Havana?" asks Mr Evanina. "If the Russian government was increasing and promulgating their intelligence collection in Cuba, it was probably not good for them to have the US in Cuba." Russia has repeatedly dismissed accusations it is involved, or has "directed microwave weapons". "Such provocative, baseless speculation and fanciful hypotheses can't really be considered a serious matter for comment," its foreign ministry has said. And there have been sceptics about the very existence of Havana syndrome. They argue that the unique situation in Cuba supports their case.

Contagious Stress

Robert W Baloh, a Professor of Neurology at UCLA, has long studied unexplained health symptoms. When he saw the Havana syndrome reports, he concluded they were a mass psychogenic condition. He compares this to the way people feel sick when they are told they have eaten tainted food even if there was nothing wrong with it - the reverse of the placebo effect. "When you see mass psychogenic illness, there's usually some stressful underlying situation," he says. "In the case of Cuba and the mass of the embassy employees - particularly the CIA agents who first were affected - they certainly were in a stressful situation." In his view, every-day symptoms like brain fog and dizziness are reframed - by sufferers, media and health professionals - as the syndrome. "The symptoms are as real as any other symptoms," he says, arguing that individuals became hyper-aware and fearful as reports spread, especially within a closed community. This, he believes, then became contagious among other US officials serving abroad.

There remain many unexplained elements. Why did Canadian diplomats report symptoms in Havana? Were they collateral damage from targeting nearby Americans? And why have no UK officials reported symptoms? "The Russians have literally tried to kill people on British soil in recent years with radioactive materials, yet why are there no reported cases?" asks Mark Zaid. "I would probably put on pause the statement that no-one in the UK has experienced any symptoms," responds Bill Evanina, who says the US is now sharing details with allies to spot cases. Some instances may be unrelated. "We had a bunch of military folk in the Middle East who claimed to have this attack - turned out they had food poisoning," says one former official. "We need to separate the wheat from the chaff," reckons Mark Zaid, who says members of the public, some with mental health issues, approach him claiming to suffer from microwave attacks. One former official reckons around half the cases reported by US officials are possibly linked to attacks by an adversary. Others say the real number could be even smaller. A December 2020 report by the US National Academies of Sciences was a pivotal moment. Experts took evidence from scientists and clinicians as well as eight victims. "It was quite dramatic," recalls Professor David Relman of Stanford, who chaired the panel. "Some of these people literally were in hiding, for fear of further actions against them by whomever. There were actually precautions we had to take to ensure their safety." The panel looked at psychological and other causes, but concluded that directed, high energy, pulsed microwaves were most likely responsible for some of the cases, similar to the view of James Lin, who gave evidence. But even though the State Department sponsored the study, it still considers the conclusion only a plausible hypothesis and officials say they have not found further evidence to support it. The Biden administration has signalled it is taking the issue seriously. CIA and State Department officials are given advice on how to respond to incidents (including 'getting off the X' - meaning physically moving from a spot if they feel they are getting hit). The State Department has set up a task force to support staff over what are now called "unexplained health incidents". Previous attempts to categorise cases as to whether they met specific criteria have been abandoned. But without a definition, it becomes harder to count. This year, a new wave of cases arrived - including Berlin and a larger group in Vienna. In August, a trip by US Vice-President Kamala Harris to Vietnam was delayed three hours because of a reported case at the embassy in Hanoi. Worried diplomats are now asking questions before taking foreign assignments with their families. "This is a major distraction for us if we think that the Russians are doing things to our intelligence officers who are travelling," says former CIA officer Polymreopolous, who finally received the medical treatment he wanted this year. "That's going to put a crimp in our operational footprint." The CIA has taken over the hunt for a cause, with a veteran of the hunt for Osama bin Laden placed in charge.

Markers In The Blood

An accusation that another state has been harming US officials is a consequential one. "That's an act of war," says Mr Polymeropolous. That makes it a high bar to reach. Policymakers will demand hard evidence, which so far, officials say, is still lacking. Five years on, some US officials say little more is known other than when Havana syndrome started. But others disagree. They say the evidence for microwaves is much stronger now, if not yet conclusive. The BBC has learnt that new evidence is arriving as data is collected and analysed more systematically for the first time. Some of the cases this year showed specific markers in the blood, indicating brain injury. These markers fall away after a few days and previously too much time had elapsed to spot them. But now that people are being tested much more quickly after reporting symptoms, they have been seen for the first time. The debate remains divisive and it is possible the answer is complex. There may be a core of real cases, while others have been folded into the syndrome. Officials raise the possibility that the technology and the intent might have changed over time, perhaps shifting to try and unsettle the US. Some even worry one state may have piggy-backed on another's activities. "We like a simple label diagnosis," argues Professor Relman. "But sometimes it is tough to achieve. And when we can't, we have to be very careful not to simply throw up our hands and walk away." The mystery of Havana syndrome could be its real power. The ambiguity and fear it spreads act as a multiplier, making more and more people wonder if they are suffering, and making it harder for spies and diplomats to operate overseas. Even if it began as a tightly defined incident, Havana syndrome may have developed a life of its own."

https://www.bbc.com/news/world-58396698

I want 5G, and even 6G, technology in the United States as soon as possible. It is far more powerful, faster, and smarter than the current standard. American companies must step up their efforts, or get left behind. There is no reason that we should be lagging behind on.........

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) February 21, 2019

Salvador Miranda (October 18, 1939 – June 1, 2024) was an American bibliographer, librarian and church historian.[1][2]

Biography

Miranda was born on October 18, 1939, in Havana, Cuba.[2] In 1958, he graduated from the Jesuit-run Colegio de Belén in Havana after which he attended the law school at the University of Havana.[2] After the Cuban Revolution in 1963, he moved to Puerto Rico to study humanities at the University of Puerto Rico.[2] As a young Cuban exile, he was a member of the Cuban-American expeditionary force in the failed Bay of Pigs invasion.[1] He then returned to school graduating with a B.A. in History and Philosophy from Biscayne College; an M.A. in Modern European History in 1974 from Villanova University; and an M.S. in Library and Information Science in 1976 from Florida State University.[2] After graduating from Florida State, he accepted a position as the Latin American and Caribbean Bibliographer at the University of Florida Libraries in Gainesville.[2] In 1986, he served as assistant director for Collection Management at Florida International University Libraries in Miami.[2] On June 30, 2001, he retired.[2]

The title of his 319-page master's thesis in history was The Sacred College of Cardinals in the Twentieth Century (1903-1973): Developments, Documents and Biographies[2] which he expanded to include earlier cardinals and then digitized, making it available as an online resource.[1] In appreciation of his research, Bishop Cipriano Calderón Polo, the founding director of the Spanish edition of the Vatican newspaper, L'Osservatore Romano and the vice president of the Pontifical Commission for Latin America, whom he corresponded with for years over the history of the episcopacy, invited him to present at the first continental meeting of bishops from Latin America in 1999.[1][3]

His research and expertise has been used as a resource by various publications including The New York Times,[4] The Cleveland Plain Dealer,[5] Religion News Service,[6] La Stampa,[7] and The Wall Street Journal.[8]

On 28 June 2023, Miranda posted on The Cardinals of the Holy Roman Church's main page that he had been hospitalized with cardiac issues.[9] He died on June 1, 2024, at the age of 84.[10][11]

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Salvador_Miranda_(historian)

REMOTE CONTROL HEART ATTACK WEAPONS

"The brain is on the verge of becoming the next battlefield with weapons currently being designed to hack directly into your nervous system.

"Controlled Personnel Effects"

(see image, right) is one of the Air Force’s ambitious long-term challenges. It starts with better and more accurate bombs, but moves on to discuss devices that "make selected adversaries think or act according to our needs… By studying and modeling the human brain and nervous system, the ability to mentally influence or confuse personnel is also possible."

The first stage is technology to “remotely create physical sensations.”

They give the example of the Active Denial System "people zapper" which uses a high-frequency radiation similar to microwaves as a non-lethal means of crowd control.

Other weapons can affect the nervous system directly. The Pulsed Energy Projectile fires a short intense pulse of laser energy. This vaporizes the outer layer of the target, creating a rapidly-expanding expanding ball of plasma. At different power levels, those expanding plasmas could deliver a harmless warning, stun the target, or disable them – all with pinpoint laser precision from a mile away.

Early reports on the effects of PEPs mentioned temporary paralysis, then thought to be related to ultrasonic shockwaves. It later became apparent that the electromagnetic pulse caused by the expanding plasma was triggering nerve cells

Details of this emerged in a heavily-censored document released to Ed Hammond of the Sunshine Project under the Freedom if Information Act. Called “Sensory consequence of electromagnetic pulsed emitted by laser induced plasmas,” it described research on activating the nerve cells responsible for sensing unpleasant stimuli: heat, damage, pressure, cold. By selectively stimulating a particular nociceptor, a finely tuned PEP might sensations of say, being burned, frozen or dipped in acid — all without doing the slightest actual harm.

The skin is the easiest target for such stimulation. But, in principle, any sensory nerves could be triggered. The Controlled Effects document suggests “it may be possible to create synthetic images…to confuse an individual’ s visual sense or, in a similar manner, confuse his senses of sound, taste, touch, or smell.”

In other words, it may be possible to use electromagnetic means to create overwhelming ‘sound’ or ‘light’, or indeed ‘intolerable smell’ which would exist only in the brain of the person perceiving them.

There is another side as well. The “sensory consequences” document also notes that the nervous system which controls muscles could be influenced to cause what they call “Taser-like motor effects.” The stun gun’s ability to shock the muscles into malfunction is relatively crude; we might now be looking at are much more targeted effects.

The American military may want to attack the nervous system, with pain rays and laser plasma pulses. But they’re not the only ones.

The Russians have long studied such systems, too — including one weapon that could, in theory, remotely trigger heart attacks.

In 2003, at the 2nd European Symposium on Non-Lethal Weapons, Anatoly Korolev and his colleagues from Moscow State University presented a paper with the snappy title "Bioelectrodynamic Criterion of the NLW Effectiveness Estimation and the Interaction mechanisms of the multilayer Skin Tissues with electromagnetic Radiation." This is a study of how radio-frequency weapons — like the American Active Denial System — affect the skin. After wading through a mass of technical data showing how complex the interactions are we reach the punch line:

The sensations modality (pricking, touch, pressure, gooseflesh, touch, burning pain etc) depends on the field parameters and individual concrete human being factors. As a matter of fact, we can really choose the non-lethal bioeffect.

The effects include sensations similar to those discussed previously, and more besides. The paper discusses effects on cell membranes and affecting the body’s normal function, including "information transfer to the organs of control."

At the same conference, V Makukhin of the Trymas Engineering Center in Moscow described "Electronic equipment for complex influence on biological objects." And when he says "biological objects," he means you and me.

His laboratory apparatus uses a modulated beam of radio waves to produce what he terms "disorder of autonomic nervous system," put forward as a possible non-lethal weapon. Makhunin notes that there is no general agreement on how EM waves disrupt nerves – he mentions ion channels similar to those in the plasma paper – but he certainly seems to be seeing the same effects as American researchers.

But it need not be a non-lethal weapon. Makhunin also mentions the effects of "change of electrocardiogram" and what he calls "function break of heart muscle."

The vulnerability of the heart to electrical stimulation (including that produced by EM waves) is well documented.

A lethal device would interfere with the electrical potentials that keep the chambers of the heart synchronized, producing fibrillation and rapid death. A death ray doesn’t need to be a truck-sized laser that

reduces the target to smoking heap; a small device that stops the heart will do the job.

Little has been openly published in this area in the public domain, but this may be the tip of the iceberg. We are likely to be hearing more in future – especially if the Russians manage to find funding.

I don’t think we need tinfoil hats just yet. But a layer of conducting mesh built into body armor might save a lot of heartache in years to come."

REMOTE CONTROL HEART ATTACK WEAPONS

https://www.impactlab.com/2006/02/15/remote-control-heart-attack-weapons/

The House of Orsini is an Italian noble family that was one of the most influential princely families in medieval Italy and Renaissance Rome. Members of the Orsini family include five popes:[1] Stephen II (752–757), Paul I (757–767), Celestine III (1191–1198), Nicholas III (1277–1280),[2] and Benedict XIII (1724–1730). The family also included 34 cardinals, numerous condottieri, and other significant political and religious figures.[3] The Orsini are part of the Black nobility who were Roman aristocratic families who supported the Popes in the governance of the Papal States.

Origins

According to their own family legend, the Orsini are descended from the Julio-Claudian dynasty of ancient Rome. The Orsini carried on a political feud with the Colonna family for centuries in Rome,[4] until it was stopped by Papal Bull in 1511. In 1571, the heads of both families married nieces of Pope Sixtus V as an act of reconciliation. Ironically the Colonna family also claims descent from the Julio-Claudian dynasty of ancient Rome.

The Orsini descend from Cajo Orso Orsini who lived c. 600 AD. Five popes are descended from him: Stephen II, Paul I, Celestine III, Nicholas III and Benedict XIII.[5] Some members used the surname of Bobone-Orsini. One member by the name Bobone, lived during the early 11th century, father of Pietro, who was in turn father of Giacinto Bobone (1110–1198), who in 1191 became pope as Celestine III. One of the first great nepotist popes, he made two of his nephews cardinals and allowed his cousin Giovanni Gaetano (Giangaetano, died 1232) to buy the fiefs of Vicovaro, Licenza, Roccagiovine and Nettuno, which formed the nucleus of the future territorial power of the family.

The Bobone surname was lost with his children, who were called de domo filiorum Ursi. Two of them, Napoleone and Matteo Rosso the Great (1178–1246), considerably increased the prestige of the family. The former was the founder of the first southern line, which died out with Camillo Pardo in 1553. He obtained the city of Manoppello, later a countship, and was gonfaloniere of the Papal States. Matteo Rosso, called the Great, was the effective lord of Rome from 1241, when he defeated the Imperial troops, until 1243, holding the title of Senator. Two of his sons, and Napoleone, were also Senators. Matteo ousted the family's traditional rivals, the Colonna family, from Rome and extended the Orsini territories southwards down to Avellino and northwards to Pitigliano. During his life, the family was firmly in the Guelph faction. He had some ten sons, who divided the fiefs after his deaths: Gentile (died 1246) originated the Pitigliano line and the second southern line, Rinaldo that of Monterotondo, Napoleone (died 1267) that of Bracciano, and another Matteo Rosso that of Montegiordano, from the name of the district in Rome housing the family's fortress. The most distinguished of his sons was Giovanni Gaetano (died 1280): elected pope as Nicholas III, he named his nephew Bertoldo (d. 1289) as count of Romagna, and had two nephews and a brother created cardinals.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Orsini_family

Lightning bolt hit Vatican not once but TWICE hours after Pope's shock resignation

The lightning touched the roof of St. Peter's Basilica, one of the holiest Catholic churches, hours after Benedict XVI's shock announcement

By Paul Cockerton Mirror Deputy Editor (Live)

12:58, 12 Feb 2013Updated00:56, 13 Feb 2013

Lightning struck the Vatican not once but TWICE - hours after Pope Benedict XVI's shock resignation.

The spooky moment, believed by some, to be a sign from God, was caught on camera by AFP photographer Filippo Monteforte.

Today he described how he took the incredible image which has been beamed all over the world.

He said: "I took the picture from St. Peter’s Square while sheltered by the columns. It was icy cold and raining sheets. When the storm started, I thought that lightning might strike the rod, so I decided it was worth seeing whether – if it DID strike – I could get the shot at exactly the right moment.”

Filippo, armed with a 50mm lens, waited for more than two hours and was rewarded for his patience with not one but two bolts.

He added: “The first bolt was huge and lit up the sky, but unfortunately I missed it. I had better luck the second time, and was able to snap a couple of images of the dome illuminated by the bolt.”

The lightning touched the dome of St. Peter's Basilica, one of the holiest Catholic churches, after the Pope's shock admission he lacks strength to do the job.

The Vatican stressed that no specific medical condition prompted Benedict's decision to quit - the first pontiff to do so in 600 years.

The move surprised even his closest aides, even though Benedict, 85, had made clear in the past he would step down if he became too old or infirm.

In recent years, the Pope has slowed down significantly, cutting back his foreign travel and limiting his audiences.

He now goes to and from the altar in St Peter's Basilica on a moving platform, to spare him the long walk down the aisle. Occasionally he uses a cane.

His 89-year-old brother, Georg Ratzinger, said doctors had recently advised the Pope not to take any more trans-Atlantic trips.

"His age is weighing on him," Mr Ratzinger said. "At this age my brother wants more rest."

Benedict announced his resignation in Latin during a meeting of Vatican cardinals, calling it "a decision of great importance for the life of the church."

He emphasised that carrying out the duties of being pope requires "both strength of mind and body."

He told the cardinals: "I have come to the certainty that my strengths due to an advanced age are no longer suited to an adequate exercise of the Petrine ministry."

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The Vatican will hold a conclave before Easter to elect a new pope, with Benedict holding great sway over who should succeed him to lead the world's one billion Catholics.

Benedict has already hand-picked the bulk of the College of Cardinals - the princes of the church who will elect the next pope - to guarantee an equally-conservative legacy.

There are no obvious front-runners to replace him - the same situation when Benedict was elected in 2005 after the death of Pope John Paul II.

Given half of the world's Catholics live in the global south, there will once again be arguments for a pope to come from the developing world.

When Benedict was elected aged 78, he was the oldest pope chosen in nearly 300 years.

He raised the possibility of resigning if he were too old or sick to continue, when he was interviewed in 2010 for the book "Light of the World."

"If a pope clearly realises that he is no longer physically, psychologically and spiritually capable of handling the duties of his office, then he has a right, and under some circumstances, also an obligation to resign," Benedict said.

The former Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger had an intimate view as Pope John Paul II, with whom he had worked closely for nearly a quarter-century, suffered through the debilitating end of his papacy.

The Vatican said immediately after his resignation that Benedict would go to Castel Gandolfo, a summer retreat south of Rome, and then would live in a cloistered monastery.

Benedict said he would serve the church for the remainder of his days "through a life dedicated to prayer."

https://www.mirror.co.uk/news/world-news/lightning-bolt-hit-vatican-not-1705156

Why did Jesus refer to James and John as the sons of thunder?

In Mark 3, Jesus calls twelve men to be His apostles. Among them are “James son of Zebedee and his brother John (to them he gave the name Boanerges, which means Sons of Thunder)” (Mark 3:17). This is the only place in Scripture that mentions the designation of the sons of Zebedee as the Sons of Thunder, and there is no stated explanation as to why Jesus named them this.

However, Jesus has a purpose for everything He does, so He must have had a good reason for dubbing James and John as “Sons of Thunder.” “Jesus . . . knew all men. He did not need man’s testimony about man, for he knew what was in a man” (John 2:24-25). In other words, Jesus knew the brothers’ nature when He first met them, and He chose “Boanerges” as a fitting nickname.

In one vivid incident, we see that James and John possessed some truly thunder-like qualities. Jesus and His disciples were traveling through Samaria on their way to Jerusalem when they ran into trouble. Jesus attempted to find accommodations for the night in one place but was met with opposition from the villagers, simply because His destination was Jerusalem—a result of Jew-Samaritan prejudice. “When the disciples James and John saw this, they asked, ‘Lord, do you want us to call fire down from heaven to destroy them?’” (Luke 9:54). Jesus rebuked the brothers, and they all went to another village. James and John’s response to the Samaritans reveals a fervency, impetuosity, and anger that could properly be called “thunderous”—and we can be sure that there were other times when James and John lived up to their nickname.

James and John were two of Jesus’ closest friends, being two of the “inner three” disciples (see Matthew 17:1). As the church age began, James was the first apostle to be killed (Acts 12:2), while John was the last to die, although of old age. John’s epistles, written late in his life, hint that he still possessed a fervency of spirit, especially in his denunciations of apostates and deceivers (1 John 2:22; 2 John 7; 3 John 10). However, it is a fervency tempered by love. In fact, in 1 John the word “love” and its relatives occur over 40 times. When he first met Jesus, John was one of the “Boanerges.” But after walking with Jesus for a lifetime, the “Son of Thunder” earned a new nickname: the “Apostle of Love.”

https://www.gotquestions.org/sons-of-thunder.html

Jack is a given name, a diminutive of John or Jackson; alternatively, it may be derived from Jacques, the French form of James or Jacob.[2] Since the late 20th century, Jack has become one of the most common names for boys in many English-speaking countries. Jack is also used to a lesser extent as a female given name, often as a shortened version of Jacqueline.[3]

The word "jack" is also commonly used in other contexts in English for many occupations, objects and actions, linked to the use of the word as a metaphor for a common man.

Origin

Jack is thought by some to have hailed from the earlier Jackin (from the name Jankin).[2][4] Alternatively, it may be derived from an anglicisation of Jacques, the French form of the name James or Jacob.[2] There is also a theory that it is Celtic in origin, meaning "healthy, strong, full of vital energy" (compare the Welsh word iach, "health"), from a putative Ancient British Yakkios.[5][unreliable source?] Both the name and the word "jack" were long used as a term to refer to any man, especially of the common classes.[6][7]

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jack_(given_name)

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pink_Chanel_suit_of_Jacqueline_Bouvier_Kennedy

A red herring is found in the first Sherlock Holmes story, A Study in Scarlet, where the murderer writes at the crime scene the word Rache ('revenge' in German), leading the police—and the reader—to mistakenly presume that a German was involved.

A red herring is often used in legal studies and exam problems to mislead and distract students from reaching a correct conclusion about a legal issue, intended as a device that tests students' comprehension of underlying law and their ability to properly discern material factual circumstances.[10] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Red_herring

"I began by attending Fordham University in the Bronx, mostly because I wanted to be close to home. I got along very well with the Jesuits who ran the school, but after two years, I decided that as long as I had to be in college, I might as well test myself against the best. I applied to the Wharton School of Finance at the University of Pennsylvania and I got in. At the time, if you were going to make a career in business, Wharton was the place to go. Harvard Business School may produce a lot of CEOs—guys who manage public companies— but the real entrepreneurs all seemed to go to Wharton: Saul Steinberg, Leonard Lauder, Ron Perelman—the list goes on and on."

Donald Trump The Art of the Deal

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1DLcbnLrl6moQT7nGj1JitG6AiQ6qgK0y/view?usp=sharing

University of Scranton welcomes President Biden

The university has illuminated its Class of 2020 Gateway in red and blue lights.

Author: WNEP Web Staff

Published: 10:52 PM EDT October 19, 2021

Updated: 10:52 PM EDT October 19, 2021

SCRANTON, Pa. — In preparation for President Joe Biden's visit, a university lit up their lights in his honor.

The University of Scranton has illuminated its Class of 2020 Gateway in blue and red with the number 46 prominently displayed to welcome the 46th president."

University of Scranton welcomes President Biden | wnep.com

https://www.wnep.com/article/news/local/lackawanna-county/university-of-scranton-welcomes-president-biden-gateway-lights/523-cdba68b1-822b-4747-94be-4cd7e4de9d67

"His son, Hunter Biden, 38, is a longtime federal lobbyist for the Jesuit university located in his father's hometown, Scranton PA. According to federal disclosures, Hunter Biden has been earning about $80,000 a year since 2006 to lobby for this university. Senator Biden himself has lectured at the Jesuit University of Scranton, and received an honorary degree from the same university, in 1976."

Codeword Barbelon by P.D. Stuart

Bill Clinton ‘Encouraged’ Trump to Run

SLICK WILLY

Updated Apr. 14, 2017 10:12AM EDT /

Published Aug. 05, 2015 3:33PM EDT

Bill Clinton called Donald Trump this spring and “encouraged Trump’s efforts to play a larger role in the Republican Party,” The Washington Post reported Wednesday, citing five people familiar with the exchange. Clinton’s personal office confirmed the call occurred. Trump aides claim their boss was “candid about his political ambitions and his potential interest in seeking the White House during the talk....” Clinton “analyzed Trump’s prospects and his desire to rouse the GOP base,” according to Trump allies.

https://www.thedailybeast.com/cheats/2015/08/05/bill-clinton-encouraged-trump

In 1966, the Harris family began moving around various locations in the MIDWEST, with both parents working at multiple universities in succession over a brief period.[20][21][22] Kamala, along with her mother and sister, moved back to California in 1970.[23][24][21] African-American intellectuals and rights advocates constituted Harris's formative surroundings.[25] Harris's parents divorced when she was seven. When she was twelve, Harris and her sister moved with their mother to Montreal, Quebec.[26][27] Harris graduated from Westmount High School[b] in 1981.[29]

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kamala_Harris

"It was while investigating the Little Rock integration incident in 1957 that I first learned of Pike’s rapid advance in Freemasonry, and knowing that Weishaupt, using Thomas Jefferson and Moses Holbrook, had infiltrated Illuminists into the Masonic Lodges of America, I decided I would find out if the fact that Pike’s mansion in Little Rock had thirteen rooms had any significance. “Thirteen’ figures prominently in Satanic, Luciferian and Cabalistic rituals, codes, and writings, etc. My investigations produced documentary evidence to show that, because of Pike’s exceptional mental ability, he came under the notice of professors in Harvard who were members of the Illuminati, who developed in his mind the ‘idea that a One World Government, a One World Religion and a One World financial and economic system was the ONLY solution to the world’s many and varied problems. I next discovered that his departure from Harvard was not due to lack of finances, or because of a misunderstanding with the faculty over tuition fees, but because of his ‘radical’ ideas and teachings. When he returned home determined that he would ‘fight’ his way to the top despite all opposition, he was in a suitable frame of mind to be recruited as a ‘Minerval’ or ‘apprentice’ into the lower degrees of the Illuminati."

Satan Prince of This World by William Guy Carr

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1Hw94yTrcRzvZjNQOo8T5_w-jqL8v5IMu/view?usp=sharing

Bill and Hillary Clinton National Airport, also known as Adams Field, is a joint civil-military airport on the east side of Little Rock, Arkansas. It is operated by the Little Rock Municipal Airport Commission.

The largest commercial airport in Arkansas, it served more than 2.1 million passengers in the year spanning from March 2009 through to February 2010.[6] While Clinton National Airport does not have direct international passenger flights, more than 50 flights arrive or depart at Little Rock each day, with nonstop service to 14 cities.[7] The airport is included in the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) National Plan of Integrated Airport Systems for 2019–2023, in which it is categorized as a small-hub primary commercial service facility.[8]

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Clinton_National_Airport

"The President William Jefferson Clinton Birthplace Home National Historic Site is located in HOPE, Arkansas.[2] Built in 1917 by Dr. H. S. Garrett, in this house the 42nd president of the United States, Bill Clinton, spent the first four years of his life, having been born on August 19, 1946, at Julia Chester Hospital in HOPE, Arkansas.[3][4] The house was owned by Clinton's maternal grandparents, Edith Grisham and James Eldridge Cassidy, and they cared for him when his mother, Virginia, was away working as an anesthetist in New Orleans.[5]"

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/President_William_Jefferson_Clinton_Birthplace_Home_National_Historic_Site

"Tragedy and HOPE: A History of the World in Our Time is a work of history written by former Georgetown University professor and historian Carroll Quigley. The book covers the period of roughly 1880 to 1963 and is multidisciplinary in nature though perhaps focusing on the economic problems brought about by the First World War and the impact these had on subsequent events. While global in scope, the book focuses on Western civilization."

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tragedy_and_Hope

"In his first year (1965) in the School of Foreign Service at Georgetown, Bill Clinton took Quigley's course, receiving a 'B' as his final grade in both semesters (an excellent grade in a course where nearly half the students received D or lower).[1]: 94, 96 In 1991, Clinton named Quigley as an important influence on his aspirations and political philosophy, when Clinton launched his presidential campaign in a speech at Georgetown.[1]: 96 He said he learned from Quigley that “The future can be better than the past, and that each of us has a personal, moral responsibility to make it so.” Bill Clinton told his audiences, “that is what the new choice is all about....We are not here to save the Democratic party. We are here to save the United States of America.” It was Clinton's most effective speech, and he repeated variations time and time again as the blueprint for his campaign message in winning the Democratic nomination and the general election for President of the United States in 1992.[21][22]"

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Carroll_Quigley

"Theorists also cite the inclusion of Bill Clinton at the meetings in 1991 before he was president and Tony Blair’s presence in 1993 before he became the British prime minister as examples of the group’s power. Past attendees have included former Secretary of State Henry Kissinger (who will also be attending this year), former Chase Manhattan chief executive David Rockefeller, and British Prime Minister David Cameron."

Bilderberg Group: What To Know About the Secretive Meetings

https://time.com/4362872/bilderberg-group-meetings-2016-conspiracy-theories/

"Alfred E. Smith Memorial Foundation Dinner October 20, 2016 Donald Trump Hillary Clinton Henry Kissinger Gayle King Cardinal Dolan Katie Couric Chuck Schumer Mayor Bill de Blasio"

https://www.facebook.com/MariaBartiromo/posts/alfred-e-smith-memorial-foundation-dinner-october-20-2016-donald-trump-hillary-c/1353937201283479/

"HOPE: all hope is to be placed in God, and with what degree of perfection [67]; eternal life alone is to be hoped for as a reward [82]; the extent to which this hope should be of assistance [288]; how hope should be shown by the dying | 595]; hope in the preservation and growth of the Society [812]. See also Faithfulness" The Constitutions of the Society of Jesus and Their Complimentary Norms pg. 464

https://jesuitas.lat/uploads/the-constitutions-of-the-society-of-jesus-and-their-complementary-norms/Constitutions%20and%20Norms%20SJ%20ingls.pdf

In 1990, Harris was hired as a deputy district attorney in Alameda County, California, where she was described as "an able prosecutor on the way up".[37] In 1994, Speaker of the California Assembly Willie Brown, who was then dating Harris, appointed her to the state Unemployment Insurance Appeals Board and later to the California Medical Assistance Commission.[37] In February 1998, San Francisco District Attorney Terence Hallinan recruited Harris as an assistant district attorney.[38] There, she became the chief of the Career Criminal Division, supervising five other attorneys, where she prosecuted homicide, burglary, robbery, and sexual assault cases—particularly three-strikes cases. In August 2000, Harris took a job at San Francisco City Hall, working for city attorney Louise Renne.[39] Harris ran the Family and Children's Services Division, representing child abuse and neglect cases. Renne endorsed Harris during her D.A. campaign.[40]

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kamala_Harris

Pope Francis (Latin: Franciscus; Italian: Francesco; Spanish: Francisco; born Jorge Mario Bergoglio;[b] 17 December 1936) is head of the Catholic Church and sovereign of the Vatican City State. He is the first pope to be a member of the Society of Jesus (the Jesuit Order), the first from the Americas and the Southern Hemisphere, and the first born or raised outside Europe since the 8th-century papacy of the Syrian pope Gregory III.

Born in Buenos Aires, Argentina, Bergoglio worked for a time as a bouncer and a janitor before training to be a chemist and working as a technician in a food science laboratory. After recovering from a severe case of pneumonia and cysts, he was inspired to join the Jesuits in 1958. He was ordained a Catholic priest in 1969, and from 1973 to 1979, was the Jesuit provincial superior in Argentina. He became the archbishop of Buenos Aires in 1998 and was created a cardinal in 2001 by Pope John Paul II. He led the Argentine Church during the December 2001 riots in Argentina. The administrations of Néstor Kirchner and Cristina Fernández de Kirchner considered him to be a political rival.

Following the resignation of Pope Benedict XVI on 28 February 2013, a papal conclave elected Bergoglio as his successor on 13 March. He chose Francis as his papal name in honour of Saint Francis of Assisi. Throughout his public life, Francis has been noted for his humility, emphasis on God's mercy, international visibility as pope, concern for the poor, and commitment to interreligious dialogue. He is known for having a less formal approach to the papacy than his predecessors, for instance choosing to reside in the Domus Sanctae Marthae guesthouse rather than in the papal apartments of the Apostolic Palace used by previous popes.[2]

Francis has made women full members of dicasteries in the Roman Curia.[3][4] He maintains that the Catholic Church should be more sympathetic toward members of the LGBT community, and has stated that while blessings of same-sex unions are not permitted, the individuals can be blessed, as long as the blessings are not given in a liturgical context.[5] Francis is a critic of unbridled capitalism, consumerism, and overdevelopment;[6] he has made action on climate change a leading focus of his papacy.[7] Widely interpreted as denouncing the death penalty as intrinsically evil,[8] he has termed it "an attack on the inviolability and dignity of the person", "inadmissible", and committed the Church to its abolition,[9] saying that there can be "no going back from this position".[10]

In international diplomacy, Francis has criticized the rise of right-wing populism, called for the decriminalization of homosexuality (though still considering same-sex acts as sinful),[11] called for the worldwide abolition of the death penalty, helped to restore full diplomatic relations between the United States and Cuba, negotiated a deal with China to define how much influence the Communist Party has in appointing Chinese bishops, and has supported the cause of refugees during the European and Central American migrant crises, calling on the Western World to significantly increase immigration levels.[12][13] In 2022, he apologized for the Church's role in the "cultural genocide" of the Canadian indigenous peoples.[14] On 4 October 2023, Francis convened the beginnings of the Synod on Synodality, described as the culmination of his papacy and the most important event in the Catholic Church since the Second Vatican Council.[4][15][16] In October 2024, it was revealed that Pope Francis would be the first sitting pope to publish a memoir, HOPE, which is set to be published in January 2025.[17]

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pope_Francis

His Holiness Pope Francis, President Clinton Discuss Climate Change, Importance of Collaboration, and the Work of the Bambino Gesù Hospital at CGI 2023

Today, His Holiness Pope Francis joined President Clinton at the Clinton Global Initiative (CGI) 2023 Meeting for a conversation via remote link.

During the conversation, His Holiness Pope Francis and President Clinton discussed the urgent need to act on climate change, our collective responsibility to come together in the face of difficulty, the work of the Bambino Gesù Children’s Hospital, and more.

Please find the full transcript of the conversation below.

President Clinton:

The Pope is with us today. Holy Father, we are so honored to have you join us at CGI this year. You’re speaking to a room full of people from all over the world, from all walks of life, who, each in their own way, are trying to follow the admonition of Isaiah, who told us we had to be repairers of the breach.

They know our world is broken in many ways, but also full of many possibilities, and they’re trying to make the most of their ability to make a difference. I thought it would be interesting given our wonderful meeting a few weeks ago, if you could say what you believe about the obligations of ordinary people to make a difference, to deal with these big challenges that are so big that no person, no matter how wealthy or powerful, no person can believe that he or she could do them alone. What are ordinary people supposed to do with their days that will make our societies better or our problems less severe?

Pope Francis:

Thank you, Mr. President, for inviting me to your meeting. Thank you very much. It is important to spread a culture of encounter, a culture of dialogue, a culture of listening and of understanding. It is necessary to share thoughts on how to contribute to the common good and how not to leave behind the most vulnerable people such as children, who through the foundation, the patrons of Bambino Gesù, are at the root of this meeting. We all know it. We are living through a changing epoch. Only together can we emerge from it better. Together. Only together can we heal the world from the globalization of indifference.

You, Mr. President, have listed the many challenges of our time: climate change, humanitarian crises affecting migrants and refugees and childcare and many others. I would add to this, the wind of war that blows around the world fueling with the spirit of war, what I have repeatedly called the Third World War, but peaceful. We are in need of a great and shared assumption of responsibility. No challenge is too great if we meet it, starting with personal conversion, the personal conversion of each of us, the personal contribution that each of us can make to solve it, and from an awareness of what it is that makes us part of one destiny.

No challenge can be overcome alone, not alone, moving together, sisters and brothers, children of God. This is why I always encourage, and I want to do so here as well, all women and men of goodwill not to give up in the face of difficulties. Difficulties are part of life and the best way to deal with them is to always seek the calming good, never alone, always together. Difficulties can bring out the best or the worst in us. Therein lies our challenge, fighting selfishness, narcissism, division with generosity and humility. Better unity than conflict. It is time to find the path of peace, the change for fraternity. It is time for weapons to cease and for us to return to dialogue. Let the designs of conquest and military aggression cease. That is why I repeat, no to war, no to war. It’s time to work together to stop the ecological catastrophe before it’s too late.

That’s why I’ve chosen to write a new document ten years after the publication of the encyclical Laudato si’. Let us stop while there is still time. Please, please let us stop while there is still time. It’s time to face migration emergencies. Remembering that we are not talking about numbers, but about people: men, women, and children. When we talk about migration, let’s think about the eyes of the children we’ve seen in refugee camps. It’s time to think about the youngest, the children, and of their education and to their care. As you know, Mr. President, this meeting of ours stems from a great small project that I care about very much. It is about children and their health. In Italy, in Rome, near the Vatican, there’s a very special hospital: the Bambino Gesù Children’s Hospital. In the world, it is known as the Pope hospital, but to me, that’s not why it is unique. It is evident that our great little hospital cannot solve the problems of all the children in the world. However, it seeks to be a sign, a testimony that it is possible through many struggles to bring together great scientific research geared toward caring for children and the gratuitous welcoming of people in need, science and hospitality. Rarely are these two things found together.

The hospital welcomes children here in the Vatican. Two or three times, a helicopter has arrived with children who need urgent help from different parts of the world. In these terrible months marked by war, the Bambino Gesù Hospital has treated more than two thousand small, young patients of Ukraine who escaped from their country with various relatives. The healthcare sector today, more than ever, the first and most concrete form of charity is science. The capacity to care, which however must be accessible to all. Bambino Gesù Hospital is a concrete sign of charity and mercy of the church. There are illnesses that cannot be cured, but there are no children who cannot be cared for. Let’s keep this in mind. There are illnesses that cannot be cured, but there are no children who cannot be cared for. This is the distinctive feature of the hospital. Thank you, Mr. President. Thank you all and I wish you all a nice day.

President Clinton:

Thank you so much. It’s wonderful to see you again and hear you in such great voice, and thank you for saying something that I hope will mean something to every person because one of the things that we try to do, which is difficult enough in any form of life, but especially in public life, is to convince every person that he or she has a role to play without regard to their age or their standing. And I think you make us all feel empowered. And perhaps that is your greatest power as the Pope that you make everybody, even people who aren’t members of the Roman Catholic Church, feel that they have power and therefore they have responsibility. It’s an extraordinary gift, and I thank you for that. I know you have a busy day, but I wonder if there’s anything else you want to say. I thank you for what you said about the children and what you said about climate change. Do you have any other message for us before you go, anything you want to make sure we take to heart?

Pope Francis:

Both things, children and climate change. Please on climate change, let us take action before it’s too late.

President Clinton:

Thank you very much.

https://www.clintonfoundation.org/press-and-news/clinton-global-initiative/his-holiness-pope-francis-president-clinton-discuss-climate-change-importance-of-collaboration-and-the-work-of-the-bambino-gesu-hospital-at-cgi-2023/

Donald Jasper Harris, OM (born August 23, 1938) is a Jamaican-American economist and professor emeritus at Stanford University, known for applying post-Keynesian ideas to development economics.[1]

He is the father of US Vice President and current Democrat presidential nominee Kamala Harris and lawyer Maya Harris.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Donald_J._Harris

Donald John Trump (born June 14, 1946) is an American politician, media personality, and businessman who served as the 45th president of the United States from 2017 to 2021.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Donald_Trump

Danney Lee Williams Jr. (born December 7, 1985) is a man from Little Rock, Arkansas who claims to be the biological son of Bill Clinton, the former President of the United States.[1] Blood tests ruled out Clinton as the father.[1][2]

Background

Williams was born in 1985 to Danney Williams Sr. and Bobbie Ann Williams.

The story came to notice in the late 1990s when reporting by Newsmax led by celebrity tabloid magazine Star to commission a paternity test prove whether Williams is actually Clinton's biological son.[3] Time magazine cited Star on July 18, 1999 to say that there was no match.[4]

The story was revived in 2016 before the 2016 presidential election and pushed by a number of media outlets including Newsmax, the Drudge Report,[3] as well as WorldNetDaily,[1] and the New York Daily News.[1]

Due to some uncertainties with the original test by Star, Snopes concluded that the claim was unproven.[3] The Washington Post stated that, while the test could not prove Clinton was the father, it did conclusively rule him out as the father.[1]

On October 19, 2016, Williams' lawyers announced their intentions to file a paternity suit to prove that Clinton's DNA matched Williams'.[5] Williams wrote to Monica Lewinsky asking for her dress in order to obtain a sample of Clinton's DNA. However, Lewinsky never replied to Williams.[6] A partial analysis of Clinton's blood, and thus his DNA, was already part of the public record because of the Lewinsky affair investigation.[1]

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Danney_Williams

Thomas Trace Beatie (born 1974[1]) is an American public speaker, author, and advocate of transgender rights and sexuality issues, with a focus on transgender fertility and reproductive rights.[2]

Beatie came out as a trans man in early 1997. Beatie had gender-affirming surgery in March 2002 and became known as "the pregnant man" after he became pregnant through artificial insemination in 2007.[3] Beatie chose to be pregnant, with donated sperm,[4][5] because his wife Nancy was sterile.

The couple filed for divorce in 2012. The Beatie case is the first of its kind on record, where a documented legal male gave birth within a marriage to a woman, and for the first time, a court challenged a marriage where the husband gave birth.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thomas_Beatie

Exoteric Masonry, which is only the husks of the Mystic Order formed by the Sons of Cain has in modern times attracted the masculine element with its positively polarized physical vehicles, and educated them in industry and statecraft, thus controlling the material development of the world. The sons of Seth, constituting themselves the Priestcraft have worked their spell over the positive vital bodies of the feminine element to dominate the spiritual development. And whereas, the sons of Cain working through Freemasonry and kindred movements, have openly fought for the temporal power, the Priestcraft has fought as strenuously and perhaps more effectively, by stealth, to retain their monopoly upon the spiritual development of the feminine element. To the casual onlooker it would seem as if there were no decided antagonism between these two movements at the present time, but though Freemasonry of today is but a shell of its true ancient mystic self, and though Catholicism has been terribly tarnished by the touch of time, in that one thing there is no difference, the war is as keen as ever, the efforts of the Church are not concentrated upon the masses however as much as upon those who are seeking to live the higher life, so that they may gain admission to the Mystery Temple and learn how to make the Philosophers’ Stone. As mankind advances in evolution, the vital body becomes more permanently positively polarized giving to both sexes a greater desire for spirituality, and though we change from the masculine to feminine in alternate embodiment, positive polarity of the vital body is becoming more pronounced regardless of sex, and this accounts for the growing tendency towards Altruism which is even being brought out by the suffering entailed by the great war we are now fighting, for all agree that they are seeking to obtain a lasting peace where the swords may be made into plowshares, and the spears into pruning hooks. In the past humanity has been claiming universal brotherhood as a great ideal, but we must come closer than that to be in full accord with the Christ. He said to his Disciples “ye are my friends.” Among brothers and sisters hate and enmity may exist, but friendship is the expression of love and cannot exist apart from that. This is therefore the magic word which will eventually level all distinctions, bring peace upon earth and goodwill among men. This is the great Ideal proclaimed by the Rosicrucian Fellowship, an Ideal which points the shortest way to the New Heaven and the New Earth, where the sons of Cain and the sons of Seth will eventually be united.

FREEMASONRY AND CATHOLICISM

by MAX HEINDEL

https://dn720206.ca.archive.org/0/items/freemasonryandca017137mbp/freemasonryandca017137mbp.pdf

Alamar Biosciences Announces Collaboration with The Michael J. Fox Foundation to Advance Parkinson's Research Through Development of Next Generation Biomarker Assays

By Alamar Biosciences, Inc. Nov 19, 2024 Updated Nov 19, 2024

FREMONT, Calif., Nov. 19, 2024 /PRNewswire/ -- Alamar Biosciences, a company powering precision proteomics to enable the earliest detection of disease, is pleased to announce a strategic collaboration with The Michael J. Fox Foundation for Parkinson's Research (MJFF) to accelerate biomarker discovery and improve our understanding of Parkinson's disease (PD). This collaboration aims to address the critical need for robust biological classification of PD and related neurodegenerative diseases. By leveraging Alamar's advanced proteomics platform, the team will develop novel protein assays tailored to identifying key biomarkers associated with neuronal synuclein disease.

In addition to partnering on efforts to expand the analytes in the NULISAseq™ CNS Disease Panel 120 to include additional PD-relevant targets, MJFF will also deploy the high-sensitivity NULISAseq™ CNS Disease Panel 120 and Inflammation Panel 250 to analyze roughly 5,000 samples from MJFF's flagship longitudinal study, the Parkinson's Progression Markers Initiative (PPMI). Launched in 2010, PPMI has built the most robust dataset and biosample library ever assembled in Parkinson's research.

"We are honored to join forces with The Michael J. Fox Foundation, a true leader in driving research toward a cure for Parkinson's disease," said Yuling Luo, Founder, Chairman & CEO of Alamar Biosciences. "The comprehensive analysis of the PPMI cohort using our NULISAseq™ technology provides a unique opportunity to uncover new insights into disease mechanisms and accelerate the development of targeted therapies."

The NULISASeq™ CNS Disease Panel 120 and Inflammation Panel 250 represent Alamar Bio's innovative approach to precision proteomics, enabling highly sensitive and multiplexed protein detection. By applying these panels to PPMI samples, the collaboration seeks to identify novel biomarkers that can improve early diagnosis, track disease progression, and aid in the development of next-generation treatments.

"Core to our mission, MJFF is committed to advancing research that addresses the critical, unmet needs of patients," said Nicole K. Polinski, PhD, Director of Research Resources at MJFF. "MJFF's collaboration with Alamar Biosciences aims to not only deepen our understanding of Parkinson's pathology but to support the development of urgently needed diagnostic and therapeutic tools."

The Michael J. Fox Foundation's landmark PPMI study, now in its second decade, has collected extensive clinical, imaging, and biosample data from PD patients, at-risk individuals, and healthy controls. These efforts have already paved the way for breakthroughs in understanding the underlying biology of PD, and the collaboration with Alamar Biosciences is expected to further accelerate progress.

By working together, Alamar Biosciences and The Michael J. Fox Foundation hope to make significant strides in addressing the unmet needs of the Parkinson's community, particularly in advancing biological classifications for neuronal synuclein disease.

About Alamar Biosciences, Inc.

Alamar Biosciences is a privately held life sciences company with a mission to power precision proteomics to enable the earliest detection of disease. The company's proprietary NULISA Platform along with the ARGO™ HT System work seamlessly with the latest advances in genomics to achieve single digit attomolar detection sensitivity, greatly surpassing the most sensitive protein detection technology on the market today. For more information, please visit alamarbio.com.

Logo - https://mma.prnewswire.com/media/1810182/Alamar_Logo_WhiteOutline_RGB_4x1_Logo_V1.jpg

Cision View original content:https://www.prnewswire.co.uk/news-releases/alamar-biosciences-announces-collaboration-with-the-michael-j-fox-foundation-to-advance-parkinsons-research-through-development-of-next-generation-biomarker-assays-302309848.html

Originally published on the BLOX Digital Content Exchange.

https://www.easternprogress.com/alamar-biosciences-announces-collaboration-with-the-michael-j-fox-foundation-to-advance-parkinsons-research-through/article_42ce56fa-10c6-59dc-a87e-78fd2d02b82b.html?=/&subcategory=3%7CComedy

Lisa is a diminutive of the Russian word lisa, which means "fox".

https://www.google.com/search?q=lisa+etymology&oq=lisa+etymology

Lisa Boudreau

Chief Development Officer

Lisa Boudreau Chief Development Officer

Lisa Boudreau joined The Michael J. Fox Foundation in July 2024 as its Chief Development Officer. She is an accomplished fundraising executive with a track record of building high-performing teams toward increased philanthropic revenue. She has spent her career raising critical funds to advance the mission and work of educational institutions, including more than 25 years of service at Harvard University.

Most recently, Lisa served as dean for alumni affairs and development at Harvard Medical School (HMS). In that role, she worked with university leaders to garner major philanthropy for biomedical research, the pursuit of health equity, and the discovery of preventions, treatments and cures for disease. Notably, Lisa contributed, from start to finish, to a highly successful campaign, The World Is Waiting: The Campaign for Harvard Medicine, which raised $789 million, and led the Harvard Medical School Office of Alumni Affairs and Development office to finalize the campaign in its last 18 months.

Lisa began her career as an annual fund professional at Connecticut College in New London. After nearly four years, she initiated a 10-year commitment to Harvard University’s Faculty of Arts and Sciences as associate director of the Harvard College Fund. Successively, she served as major gift officer, director of development and corporate relations for the Division of Engineering and Applied Sciences, and managing director of the Harvard College Fund. During a one-year hiatus from Harvard, Lisa lived in London and served as head of individual giving at the London School of Economics. Before joining HMS in 2008, she was a fundraising consultant at Jaques & Company for two years.

Lisa has a BA from Bucknell University.

https://www.michaeljfox.org/bio/lisa-boudreau

The surname Boudreau is of French origin and is derived from the personal name Boudier. Boudier comes from the ancient Germanic name Bodhari, which is made up of the words bod meaning "messenger" and hari meaning "army".

https://www.google.com/search?q=boudreau+etymology

Published: 10 October 1996

Russian documents Set out 'tectonic weapon' research

Carl Levitin

Moscow. The first official details have emerged in Moscow of ambitious research into 'tectonic warfare' carried out by the former Soviet Union and subsequently by the government of Russia, and involving atte mpts to stimulate 'artificial' earthquakes as weapons of destruction. According to documents obtained by the newspaper Moscow News, two research programmes, the first known as ' Mercury ' and the second as ' Volcano', were aimed at creating new earthquake epicentres by using underground nuclear explosions . Geophysicists are aware that impending earthquakes may be triggered by underground nuclear explosions . But Western geophysicists remain sceptical about tectonic warfare and have all but abandoned research after two unsuccessful phases of activity in the 1960s and 1980s, says Roger Clark, a lecturer in geophysics at the University of Leeds. Clark is not at all surprised that th e Russians tried to create earthquakes and control their location electromagnetically, however. "This sort of science is very much part of their heritage. We don't think it is impossible, or wrong , but past experience suggests it is very, very unlikely. "

The programme , which was secretly launched by the Communist rulers of the former Soviet Union in 1987, and has been unofficially known to Western geophysicists for several years, is now believed to have been abandoned. It would certainly contravene the terms of the Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty, which Russia signe d at the United Nations in Geneva last month . The Mercury project was launched in the former Soviet republic of Azerbaijan, but came to a halt when the republic became independent. It was superseded by the Volcano project. Three underground nuclear tests are believed to have taken place at sites in Kyrgyzstan.

According to the documents, the Mercury project was launched by a secret decree of the Central Committee of the Communist Party and the Council of Ministers of the Soviet Union. The objective was to "develop a methodology for remote operation on an earthquake epicentre by using weak seismic fields and research possibilities of transferring the seismic energy of an explosion ".

The documents say that the Mercury project involved 22 scientific and industrial organizations, including the Geological Institute of the Azerbaijan Academy of Sciences in Baku. The remit extended to developing the electronic equipment to be installed aboard space satellites that would control the tectonic weapon. The scientists were given three years to complete research, with testing planned for 1990.

During the research phase, Azerbaijani scientists grew increasingly confident and, according to the documents, were sure that " after [a] nuclear explosion, subterranean energy may accumulate at huge distances from the epicentre and reach massive capacity, after which the next directed explosion can release it all ".

Underground testing began at the town of Batken in Kyrgyzstan, and was directed by lkram Ke rimov , of the Azerbaijan Academy of Sciences. The documents say that scientists detonated an underground nuclear charge and tried to control the direction of seismic energy release d using British-built equipment known as 'system 9690 ' .

A report prepared by the Mozhaisky Military Engineering Institute concluded that the test had been a success. But progress slowed considerably following Azerbaijan's independence from the Soviet Union. At about this time , Russia embarked on a more comprehensive tectonic warfare programme known as the Volcano project. The Earth Physics Institute of the Russian Academy of Sciences (RAS) became the project headquarters .

Research was scheduled to be completed in 1992, with underground testing beginning the following year. The final test was carried out at a place code-named S36NZ-0Kh; Moscow News believes the letters 'NZ' refer to Novaya Zemlya, where Soviet nuclear testing began in the 1950s."

https://www.nature.com/articles/383471a0

9. Interprovincial Works and Houses in Rome

304 §1. In the spirit of our fourth vow, the Society confirms its commitment to the interprovincial Roman works entrusted to it by the Holy See: the Pontifical Gregorian University and its associated institutes, the Pontifical Biblical Institute and the Pontifical Oriental Institute, as well as the Pontifical Russicum College, the Vatican Radio, and the Vatican Observatory, all of which are common works of the whole Society, placed directly under the superior general. Recognizing the very valuable service that these institutions have offered and continue to offer today, it calls upon major superiors who share Father General s responsibility for them to continue their help through subsidies and especially by training and offering professors and other personnel to them.

§2. Also recommended to the care of all the provinces are those other works or houses in Rome that render a service to the entire Society, such as the Historical Institute of the Society of Jesus and the international colleges of the Society in Rome.[142]

The Constitutions of The Society of Jesus and Their Complimentary Norms

A Complete English Translation of the Official Latin Texts

THE INSTITUTE OF JESUIT SOURCES

SAINT LOUIS, 1996

https://web.archive.org/web/20200211182223/https://jesuitas.lat/uploads/the-constitutions-of-the-society-of-jesus-and-their-complementary-norms/Constitutions%20and%20Norms%20SJ%20ingls.pdf

Exposure to Ionizing Radiation and Risk of Dementia: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis

Tanvi Srivastava; Ekaterina Chirikova; Sapriya Birk; Fanxiu Xiong; Tarek Benzouak; Jane Y. Liu; Paul J. Villeneuve; Lydia B. Zablotska

Radiat Res (2023) 199 (5): 490–505.

https://doi.org/10.1667/RADE-22-00153.1

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The number of people living with dementia is rising globally as life expectancy increases. Dementia is a multifactorial disease. Due to the ubiquity of radiation exposure in medical and occupational settings, the potential association between radiation and dementia, and its subtypes (Alzheimer's and Parkinson's disease), is of particular importance. There has also been an increased interest in studying radiation induced dementia risks in connection with the long-term manned space travel proposed by The National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA). Our aim was to systematically review the literature on this topic, and use meta-analysis to generate a summary measure of association, assess publication bias and explore sources of heterogeneity across studies. We identified five types of exposed populations for this review: 1. survivors of atomic bombings in Japan; 2. patients treated with radiation therapy for cancer or other diseases; 3. occupationally exposed workers; 4. those exposed to environmental radiation; and 5. patients exposed to radiation from diagnostic radiation imaging procedures. We included studies that considered incident or mortality outcomes for dementia and its subtypes. Following PRISMA guidelines, we systematically searched the published literature indexed in PubMed between 2001 and 2022. We then abstracted the relevant articles, conducted a risk-of-bias assessment, and fit random effects models using the published risk estimates. After we applied our eligibility criteria, 18 studies were identified for review and retained for meta-analysis. For dementia (all subtypes), the summary relative risk was 1.11 (95% CI: 1.04, 1.18; P = 0.001) comparing individuals receiving 100 mSv of radiation to those with no exposure. The corresponding summary relative risk for Parkinson's disease incidence and mortality was 1.12 (95% CI 1.07, 1.17; P <0.001). Our results provide evidence that exposure to ionizing radiation increases the risk of dementia. However, our findings should be interpreted with caution due to the small number of included studies. Longitudinal studies with improved exposure characterization, incident outcomes, larger sample size, and the ability to adjust for effects of potential confounders are needed to better assess the possible causal link between ionizing radiation and dementia.

INTRODUCTION

An estimated ten million new dementia cases occur worldwide every year (1 ). In 2020, there were 55 million patients living with dementia globally, and this number is expected to more than triple by 2050 (2 ). Dementia is an incurable and debilitating condition (3 ) that can bring distress and isolation to patients (4 ), as well as high healthcare costs that burden patients' families and caregivers (5 ). The most common type of dementia is Alzheimer's disease (AD), which accounts for approximately two-thirds of all cases (6 ), followed by Parkinson's Disease (PD) (7 , 8 ). Dementia (unspecified), AD and PD share similarities in underlying biological mechanisms (9 , 10 ) and are frequently grouped together.

Age is the most important risk factor for dementia, followed by other determinants such as poor nutrition; low physical activity; and genetic, socioeconomic and environmental factors (11 ). Ionizing radiation can modify cognitive functions (12 –14 ) and affect neurological integrity (15 , 16 ), and has been linked with an increased risk of dementia (17 ). While radiation is one of the most studied carcinogens (18 ), more recent studies have suggested that exposure increases the risk of adverse non-cancer outcomes, particularly with cardiovascular diseases such as ischemic heart disease (19 , 20 ) and stroke (21 , 22 ).

Few epidemiological studies have examined the effects of radiation on dementia, primarily because the majority of studies has focused on cancer or cardiovascular outcomes using incidence or mortality data (18 ). Death certificates often do not include dementia as the underlying cause of death and the accompanying under-ascertainment of mortality can introduce bias, and reduce study power when investigating the effects of radiation on dementia (23 ). Despite these challenges, there have been more recent investigations on this topic including a recent meta-analysis by Lopes et al. (24 ). The Lopes et al. meta-analysis examined radiation risks for a broad grouping of nonmalignant diseases of the central nervous system that also included PD (24 ). There is a growing need for understanding the health effects from exposure to low dose radiation, including dementia, in view of NASA's long-term space travel plans (25 ). While space radiation is primarily composed of galactic cosmic rays (GCR) and solar particle radiation (26 , 27 ), which differ from radiation exposures on Earth, epidemiologic research on any form of radiation can inform NASA's risk mitigation strategy (25 , 28 , 29 ). A 2012 literature review suggested that there were few studies of radiation exposure and increased risk of dementia and related outcomes, and their findings were equivocal (17 ). Hence, we undertook this review to provide a current synthesis of published findings on this topic, and to explore drivers of differences in the strength of association reported across studies. Our study complements the recently published review by Lopes et al. (24 ) by assessing issues related to publication bias and heterogeneity, as well as presenting summary measures of association specific to dementia.

METHODS

Protocol and Registration

We conducted this systematic review in accordance with PRISMA guidelines (30 ). We registered the protocol for the review on PROSPERO [CRD42021260596], on September 17, 2021.

Exposure Definition

Radiation can be in the form of electromagnetic waves that include gamma rays and X rays, or particles such as alpha or beta particles (31 ). In this review, we examined the effects of both low (10 to 100 millisievert (mSv) and high (over 100 mSv) doses of external and internal radiation exposures to all forms of radiation at all dose-rates on dementia outcomes. We included both full-body and brain doses of radiation in the study but made no distinction when combining them in the meta-analysis.

Outcome Definition

The grouping “dementia” includes Alzheimer's Disease (AD), Parkinson's Disease (PD), Huntington's Disease (HD), Normal Pressure Hydrocephalus (NPH), vascular dementia, mixed dementia, dementia with Lewy bodies, frontotemporal dementia, and Creutzfeldt-Jakob Disease (32 )

https://meridian.allenpress.com/radiation-research/article/199/5/490/491672/Exposure-to-Ionizing-Radiation-and-Risk-of

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/CORONA_(satellite)

Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) is a contagious disease caused by the coronavirus SARS-CoV-2. The first known case was identified in Wuhan, China, in December 2019.[7] Most scientists believe the SARS-CoV-2 virus entered into human populations through natural zoonosis, similar to the SARS-CoV-1 and MERS-CoV outbreaks, and consistent with other pandemics in human history.[8][9] Social and environmental factors including climate change, natural ecosystem destruction and wildlife trade increased the likelihood of such zoonotic spillover.[10][11][12][13] The disease quickly spread worldwide, resulting in the COVID-19 pandemic.

The symptoms of COVID‑19 are variable but often include fever,[14] fatigue, cough, breathing difficulties, loss of smell, and loss of taste.[15][16][17] Symptoms may begin one to fourteen days after exposure to the virus. At least a third of people who are infected do not develop noticeable symptoms.[18][19] Of those who develop symptoms noticeable enough to be classified as patients, most (81%) develop mild to moderate symptoms (up to mild pneumonia), while 14% develop severe symptoms (dyspnea, hypoxia, or more than 50% lung involvement on imaging), and 5% develop critical symptoms (respiratory failure, shock, or multiorgan dysfunction).[20] Older people are at a higher risk of developing severe symptoms. Some complications result in death. Some people continue to experience a range of effects (long COVID) for months or years after infection, and damage to organs has been observed.[21] Multi-year studies are underway to further investigate the long-term effects of the disease.[22]

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/COVID-19

Havana syndrome ’ and the mystery of the microwaves by Gordon Carera

Contagious Stress

Markers In The Blood

https://www.bbc.com/news/world-58396698

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) February 21, 2019

The Georgia Guidestones is a highly controversial granite structure modeled loosely after Stonehenge, erected in northeast Georgia and shrouded in mystery. The monument proclaims ten commandments in eight different languages, the most contentious being the establishment of a global population of only 500-million, a reduction of over 6.5-billion people from current levels. Other commandments include the development of a global language and a worldwide government. While most of the commandments are written vaguely and appear benign, Common Sense Renewed details a totalitarian global government where every aspect of human life — including birth, death, marriage, childbearing, work, property ownership, travel, health care, education and the right to vote — are regulated by the state.

The extensive eugenic measures outlined in Common Sense Renewed may reflect the involvement of William Shockley, the Nobel Prize-winning physicist who co-invented the transistor. Shockley also became known for his claims that blacks are genetically inferior to whites. He espoused financial rewards to encourage voluntary sterilization for people having sub-100 IQs."

https://vanshardware.com/2015/09/part-1-iowa-white-supremacist-behind-the-georgia-guidestones/

PARTICULAR AND DAILY EXAMEN It contains in it three times, and two to examine oneself. The first time is in the morning, immediately on rising, when one ought to propose to guard himself with diligence against that particular sin or defect which he wants to correct and amend. The second time is after dinner, when one is to ask of God our Lord what one wants, namely, grace to remember how many times he has fallen into that particular sin or defect, and to amend himself in the future. Then let him make the first Examen, asking account of his soul of that particular thing proposed, which he wants to correct and amend. Let him go over hour by hour, or period by period, commencing at the hour he rose, and continuing up to the hour and instant of the present examen, and let him make in the first line of the G------- as many dots as were the times he has fallen into that particular sin or defect. Then let him resolve anew to amend himself up to the second Examen which he will make. The third time: After supper, the second Examen will be made, in the same way, hour by hour, commencing at the first Examen and continuing up to the present (second) one, and let him make in the second line of the same G------- as many dots as were the times he has fallen into that particular sin or defect. FOUR ADDITIONS FOLLOW TO RID ONESELF SOONER OF THAT PARTICULAR SIN OR DEFECT First Addition. The first Addition is that each time one falls into that particular sin or defect, let him put his hand on his breast, grieving for having fallen: which can be done even in the presence of many, without their perceiving what he is doing. Second Addition. The second: As the first line of the G------- means the first Examen, and the second line the second Examen, let him look at night if there is amendment from the first line to the second, that is, from the first Examen to the second. Third Addition. The third: To compare the second day with the first; that is, the two Examens of the present day with the other two Examens of the previous day, and see if he has amended himself from one day to the other. Fourth Addition. The fourth Addition: To compare one week with another, and see if he has amended himself in the present week over the week past. Note. It is to be noted that the first (large) G------- which follows means the Sunday: the second (smaller), the Monday: the third, the Tuesday, and so on.

GGGGGG

"The Spiritual Exercises of Ignatius of Loyola

TRANSLATED FROM

THE AUTOGRAPH

FATHER ELDER MULLAN, S.J.

I.H.S.

NEW YORK

P.J. KENEDY & SONS

PRINTERS TO THE HOLY APOSTOLIC SEE

https://ia800303.us.archive.org/.../a588350800loyouoft.pdf

The Michael J. Fox Foundation for Parkinson's Research is a US non-profit organization founded in 2000 by Canadian-American actor Michael J. Fox to find a cure for Parkinson's disease.

Business model

The organization funds grants directly to scientists it assesses as having the best chance of finding a cure.[4] It maintains closer control over and supervision of projects than is typical from other medical-research foundations.[4][5]

Fundraising

In 2006 it was the "largest private funder of research" into Parkinson's, according to The Guardian.[6] As of 2023, it had raised $2 billion for Parkinson's research projects.[7][4] According to Town and Country, in 2022 the organization funded more Parkinson's research than the US government.[4] According to Fox Business, it is the largest nonprofit funder of Parkinson's research in the world.[8]

Work

In 2023, a longitudinal study funded by the organization, the Parkinson's Progression Markers Initiative, released results in Lancet Neurology showing Parkinson's can be detected by the presence of a biomarker protein, abnormal alpha-synuclein.[4][9][10][11] The biomarker can be detected before the onset of symptoms.[12]

The organization hosts the Fox Trial Finder, a website for presenting clinical trials in Parkinson's disease research.[13]

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Michael_J._Fox_Foundation

The name Lisa [ lee-suh, -zuh ][1] is a female given name. It is a form of the name Elizabeth. Lisa is a popular name for girls that has been in use for centuries. It is a short and sweet name that is simple to pronounce and spell. The meaning of the name Lisa can vary depending on its origin. One of the most common meanings of the name Lisa is "God is my oath." This meaning comes from the Hebrew name Elisheba, which was the name of Aaron's wife in the Old Testament. Elisheba was later abbreviated to Elizabeth, and Lisa is a diminutive form of Elizabeth. Another meaning of the name Lisa is "consecrated to God." This meaning comes from the Latin name Lysa, which was a shortened version of Elizabeth. In ancient Rome, the name Lysa was given to girls who were devoted to the goddess Juno. In German, the name Lisa means "God's promise." This meaning comes from the German name Liese, which is a diminutive form of Elizabeth. In German culture, the name Liese was often bestowed upon girls who were born after a long period of waiting or difficulty.[2] This is a unique name (not in the top 1000 newborn names in the US in 2021).

Across the United Kingdom, Lisa was the fifth most popular female name. Around 1996, the name fell out of Top 100. In the United States, during the 1960s and 1970s, Lisa was among the most popular feminine names. However, by around the late 1970s, the name began to decline.

https://simple.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lisa_(given_name)

Juno (English: /ˈdʒuːnoʊ/ JOO-noh; Latin Iūnō [ˈjuːnoː]) was an ancient Roman goddess, the protector and special counsellor of the state. She was equated to Hera, queen of the gods in Greek mythology and a goddess of love and marriage. A daughter of Saturn and Ops, she was the sister and wife of Jupiter and the mother of Mars, Vulcan, Bellona, Lucina and Juventas. Like Hera, her sacred animal was the peacock.[1] Her Etruscan counterpart was Uni, and she was said to also watch over the women of Rome.[2] As the patron goddess of Rome and the Roman Empire, Juno was called Regina ("Queen") and was a member of the Capitoline Triad (Juno Capitolina), centered on the Capitoline Hill in Rome, and also including Jupiter, and Minerva, goddess of wisdom.

Juno's own warlike aspect among the Romans is apparent in her attire. She was often shown armed and wearing a goatskin cloak. The traditional depiction of this warlike aspect was assimilated from the Greek goddess Athena, who bore a goatskin, or a goatskin shield, called the Aegis. Juno was also shown wearing a diadem.

Etymology

The name Juno was once popularly thought to be connected to Iove (Jove), originally as Diuno and Diove from *Diovona.[3] Although this etymology still receives some support, a derivation was later proposed from iuven- (as in Latin iuvenis, "youth"), through a syncopated form iūn- (as in iūnix, "heifer", and iūnior, "younger"). This etymology became widely accepted after it was endorsed by Georg Wissowa.[4]

Iuuen- is related to Latin aevum and Greek aion (αἰών) through a common Indo-European root referring to a concept of vital energy or "fertile time".[5] The iuvenis is he who has the fullness of vital force.[6] In some inscriptions Jupiter himself is called Iuuntus, and one of the epithets of Jupiter is Ioviste, a superlative form of iuuen- meaning "the youngest".[7] Iuventas, "Youth", was one of two deities who "refused" to leave the Capitol when the building of the new Temple of Capitoline Jove required the exauguration of deities who already occupied the site.[8]

Ancient etymologies associated Juno's name with iuvare, "to aid, benefit", and iuvenescere, "rejuvenate", sometimes connecting it to the renewal of the new and waxing moon, perhaps implying the idea of a moon goddess.[9]

Role and epithets

Juno's theology is one of the most complex and disputed issues in Roman religion. Even more than other major Roman deities, Juno held a large number of significant and diverse epithets, names and titles representing various aspects and roles of the goddess. In accordance with her central role as a goddess of marriage, these included Pronuba and Cinxia ("she who looses the bride's girdle"). However, other epithets of Juno have wider implications and are less thematically linked.

While her connection with the idea of vital force, the fullness of vital energy, and eternal youthfulness is now generally acknowledged, the multiplicity and complexity of her personality have given rise to various and sometimes irreconcilable interpretations among modern scholars.

Juno is certainly the divine protectress of the community, who shows both a sovereign and a fertility character, often associated with a military one. She was present in many towns of ancient Italy: at Lanuvium as Sespeis Mater Regina, Laurentum, Tibur, Falerii, Veii as Regina, at Tibur and Falerii as Regina and Curitis, Tusculum and Norba as Lucina. She is also attested at Praeneste, Aricia, Ardea, Gabii. In five Latin towns a month was named after Juno (Aricia, Lanuvium, Laurentum, Praeneste, Tibur).[10] Outside Latium in Campania at Teanum she was Populona (she who increase the number of the people or, in K. Latte's understanding of the iuvenes, the army), in Umbria at Pisaurum Lucina, at Terventum in Samnium Regina, at Pisarum Regina Matrona, at Aesernia in Samnium Regina Populona. In Rome she was since the most ancient times named Lucina, Mater and Regina. It is debated whether she was also known as Curitis before the evocatio of the Juno of Falerii: this though seems probable.[11]

Other epithets of hers that were in use at Rome include Moneta and Caprotina, Tutula, Fluonia or Fluviona, Februalis, the last ones associated with the rites of purification and fertility of February.[12]

Her various epithets thus show a complex of mutually interrelated functions that in the view of Georges Dumézil and Vsevolod Basanoff (author of Les dieux Romains) can be traced back to the Indoeuropean trifunctional ideology: as Regina and Moneta she is a sovereign deity, as Sespeis, Curitis (spear holder) and Moneta (again) she is an armed protectress, as Mater and Curitis (again) she is a goddess of the fertility and wealth of the community in her association with the curiae.

The epithet Lucina[13] is particularly revealing since it reflects two interrelated aspects of the function of Juno: cyclical renewal of time in the waning and waxing of the moon and protection of delivery and birth (as she who brings to light the newborn as vigour, vital force). The ancient called her Covella in her function of helper in the labours of the new moon. The view that she was also a Moon goddess though is no longer accepted by scholars, as such a role belongs to Diana Lucifera: through her association with the moon she governed the feminine physiological functions, menstrual cycle and pregnancy: as a rule all lunar deities are deities of childbirth. These aspects of Juno mark the heavenly and worldly sides of her function. She is thus associated to all beginnings and hers are the kalendae of every month: at Laurentum she was known as Kalendaris Iuno (Juno of the Kalends).[14] At Rome on the Kalends of every month the pontifex minor invoked her, under the epithet Covella, when from the curia Calabra he announced the date of the nonae.[15] On the same day the regina sacrorum sacrificed to Juno a white sow or lamb in the Regia. She is closely associated with Janus, the god of passages and beginnings who after her is often named Iunonius.

Some scholars view this concentration of multiple functions as a typical and structural feature of the goddess, inherent to her being an expression of the nature of femininity.[16] Others though prefer to dismiss her aspects of femininity and fertility[17] and stress only her quality of being the spirit of youthfulness, liveliness and strength, regardless of sexual connexions, which would then change according to circumstances: thus in men she incarnates the iuvenes, a word often used to designate soldiers, hence resulting in a tutelary deity of the sovereignty of peoples; in women capable of bearing children, from puberty on she oversees childbirth and marriage.[18] Thence she would be a poliad goddess related to politics, power and war. Others think her military and poliadic qualities arise from her being a fertility goddess who through her function of increasing the numbers of the community became also associated to political and military functions.[19]

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Juno_(mythology)

The Engineer Corps of Hell, or Rome's Sappers and Miners: Containing the Tactics of the "Militia of the Pope," or the Secret Manual of the Jesuits, ... and Lovers of Civil and Religious Liber Paperback – August 24, 2018

by Edwin Allen Sherman (Author)

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Excerpt from The Engineer Corps of Hell, or Rome's Sappers and Miners

In presenting to our readers this translation from the Spanish Of the monita secreta (secret monitor) of the Jesuits, it is but due that a clear and truthful statement Of how the work came into our hands should be given. In the month Of August of 1870, the Secretariat Of all the bodies Of the Ancient and Accepted Scottish Rite of Freema sonry in the City Of San Francisco, California, had been placed in our hands, and we then occupied an Office, which had been assigned to us, in the Masonic Temple of this city. Scarcely had we then entered upon our duties, when one morning in the month of September, 1870, a rap was heard at our'door, and, on Opening it, a stranger, feeble in body, with a pallid face bearing the evidence of great suffering and of sickness, inquired if that was the office Of the Secretary of the Scottish Rite of Freemasonry, which we answered in the affirmative and invited him in and gave him a seat.

https://www.amazon.com/Engineer-Corps-Romes-Sappers-Miners/dp/1332416179

The name Monita has its roots in India and is derived from the Sanskrit word manita, which means 'honored' or 'respected.' This ancient name reflects the cultural traditions and values of Indian society, where respect and honor hold great significance. Monita has been prominent in Indian history since ancient times, often given to those who were esteemed for their noble character and high social standing. In historical texts and scriptures, the name Monita is often associated with individuals who were recognized for their wisdom, integrity, and leadership qualities.

In modern-day usage, the name Monita continues to evoke a sense of honor and respect. It is a popular name choice among families who value tradition and wish to bestow upon their child a name that reflects these virtues. Monita is often given to female children, symbolizing the strength and dignity they possess. In some cases, the name Monita is also used as a name, further emphasizing the family's heritage and the importance they place on respect and honor.

Overall, the name Monita has a rich history rooted in Indian culture and embodies the values of honor and respect. From ancient times to the present day, this name has stood as a testament to the qualities that society holds in high regard and continues to be cherished by families who wish to pass on these values to future generations.

https://www.ancestry.com/first-name-meaning/monita

Monita

A Latin word meaning "instructions":

Monita, work by Abbot Porcarius I of Lérins (c. 500)

Monita Secreta, an alleged code of instructions of the Jesuits

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Monita

Devī (/ˈdeɪvi/;[1] Sanskrit: देवी) is the Sanskrit word for 'goddess'; the masculine form is deva. Devi and deva mean 'heavenly, divine, anything of excellence', and are also gender-specific terms for a deity in Hinduism.

The concept and reverence for goddesses appears in the Vedas, which were composed around the 2nd millennium BCE. However, they did not play a vital role in that era.[2] Goddesses such as Durga, Kali, Lakshmi, Parvati, Radha, Saraswati and Sita have continued to be revered in the modern era.[2] The medieval era Puranas witness a major expansion in mythology and literature associated with Devi, with texts such as the Devi Mahatmya, wherein she manifests as the ultimate truth and supreme power. She has inspired the Shaktism tradition of Hinduism. Further, Devi is viewed as central in the Hindu traditions of Shaktism and Shaivism.[2][3]

Etymology

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vte

Devi and deva are Sanskrit terms found in Vedic literature around the 3rd millennium BCE. Deva is masculine, and the related feminine equivalent is devi.[4] Monier-Williams translates it as 'heavenly, divine, terrestrial things of high excellence, exalted, shining ones'.[5][6] Etymologically, a cognate of devi is Latin dea.[7] When capitalised, Devi maata refers to the mother goddess in Hinduism.[8] Deva is short for devatā and devi for devika.[5]

According to Douglas Harper, the etymological root dev- means "a shining one", from *div-, "to shine", it is an Indo-European cognate of the Greek dios, Gothic divine and Latin deus (Old Latin deivos); see also *Dyēus.[9]

A synonym for the word Devi in the Vedas is Bhagavati. Bhagavatī (Devanagari: भगवती, IAST: Bhagavatī), is an Indian epithet of Sanskrit origin, used as an honorific title for goddesses in Hinduism and Buddhism. In Hinduism, it is primarily used to address the goddesses Lakshmi and Durga. In Buddhism, it is used to refer to several Mahayana Buddhist female deities, like Cundā.[10]

History

The worship of Devi-like deities dates back to period of Indus Valley civilisation.[11][12]

The Devīsūkta of the Rigveda (10.125.1 to 10.125.8) is among the most studied hymns declaring that the ultimate reality is a goddess:[13][14]

I have created all worlds at my will without being urged by any higher Being, and dwell within them. I permeate the earth and heaven, and all created entities with my greatness and dwell in them as eternal and infinite consciousness.

— Devi Sukta, Rigveda 10.125.8, Translated by June McDaniel[15][16]

The Vedas name numerous cosmic goddesses such as Devi (power), Prithvi (earth), Aditi (cosmic moral order), Vāc (sound), Nirṛti (destruction), Ratri (night) and Aranyani (forest); bounty goddesses such as Dinsana, Raka, Puramdhi, Parendi, Bharati and Mahi are among others are mentioned in the Rigveda.[2]: 6–17, 55–64 However, the goddesses are not discussed as frequently as gods (devas).[2] Devi appears in late Vedic texts dated to be pre-Buddhist, but verses dedicated to her do not suggest that her characteristics were fully developed in the Vedic era.[2]: 18–19 All gods and goddesses are distinguished in Vedic times,[2]: 18 but in post-Vedic texts, particularly in the early medieval era literature, they are ultimately seen as aspects or manifestations of one Devi, the Supreme Power.[17]

Devi is the supreme being in the Shakta tradition of Hinduism; in the Smarta tradition, she is one of the five primary forms of Brahman that is revered.[18][19] In other Hindu traditions, Devi embodies the active energy and power of Deva, and they always appear together complementing each other. Examples of this are Parvati with Shiva in Shaivism, Saraswati with Brahma in Brahmanism and Lakshmi with Vishnu, Sita with Rama and Radha with Krishna in Vaishnavism.[20][21][22]

Devi-inspired philosophy is propounded in many Hindu texts such as the Devi Upanishad, which teaches that Shakti is essentially Brahman (ultimate metaphysical Reality) and that from her arises prakṛti (matter) and purusha (consciousness) and that she is bliss and non-bliss, the Vedas and what is different from it, the born and the unborn and all of the universe. Shakti is Parvati, Shiva’s wife. [23] She is also mentioned as the creative power of Shiva in Tripura Upanishad, Bahvricha Upanishad and Guhyakali Upanishad.[13]

Devi identifies herself in the Devi Upanishad as Brahman in her reply to the gods stating that she rules the world, blesses devotees with riches, that she is the supreme deity to whom all worship is to be offered and that she infuses Ātman in every soul.[23] Devi asserts that she is the creator of earth and heaven and resides there.[13] Her creation of the sky as father and the seas as the mother is reflected as the 'Inner Supreme Self'.[13] Her creations are not prompted by any higher being and she resides in all her creations. She is, states Devi, the eternal and infinite consciousness engulfing earth and heaven, and 'all forms of bliss and non-bliss, knowledge and ignorance, Brahman and Non-Brahman'. The tantric aspect in Devi Upanishad, says June McDaniel, is the usage of the terms yantra, bindu, bija, mantra, shakti and chakra.[13]

Among the major world religions, the concept of Goddess in Hinduism as the divine feminine has had the strongest presence since ancient times.[24]

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Devi

Kamala Devi Harris (English: /ˈkɑːmələ ˈdeɪvi/ ⓘ,[1] born October 20, 1964) is an American politician and attorney who has been the 49th and current vice president of the United States since 2021, serving under President Joe Biden. Harris is the Democratic presidential nominee in the 2024 United States presidential election. She is the first female vice president of the United States, making her the highest-ranking female official in U.S. history. She is also the first African American and first Asian American vice president. From 2017 to 2021, she represented California in the United States Senate. Before that, she was Attorney General of California from 2011 to 2017.

Born in Oakland, California, Harris graduated from Howard University and the University of California, Hastings College of the Law. She began her law career in the office of the district attorney of Alameda County. She was recruited to the San Francisco District Attorney's Office and later to the office of the city attorney of San Francisco. She was elected district attorney of San Francisco in 2003 and attorney general of California in 2010, and reelected as attorney general in 2014. As the San Francisco district attorney and the attorney general of California, Harris was the first woman, the first African American, and the first Asian American to hold each office.

Harris was the junior U.S. senator from California from 2017 to 2021. She won the 2016 Senate election, becoming the second Black woman and first South Asian American U.S. senator. As a senator, Harris advocated for stricter gun control laws, the DREAM Act, federal legalization of cannabis, and reforms to healthcare and taxation. She gained a national profile for her pointed questioning of Trump administration officials during Senate hearings, including Trump's second Supreme Court nominee, Brett Kavanaugh.

Harris sought the 2020 Democratic presidential nomination in 2019, but withdrew from the race before the primaries. Biden selected her as his running mate, and their ticket defeated the incumbent president and vice president, Donald Trump and Mike Pence, in the 2020 election. Presiding over an evenly split Senate upon entering office, Harris played a crucial role as president of the Senate. She cast more tie-breaking votes than any other vice president, which helped pass bills such as the American Rescue Plan Act of 2021 stimulus package and the Inflation Reduction Act of 2022. After Biden withdrew from the 2024 presidential election, Harris launched her campaign with Biden's endorsement and soon became the presumptive nominee. On August 6, 2024, she chose Tim Walz, the governor of Minnesota, as her running mate.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kamala_Harris

XLI

THE GODDESS OF FREEMASONRY-THE

WIDOW

PAGAN RELIGIONS OF ANCIENT TIMES HAD NO god without a goddess. If as we have seen Masonry is a modern 'caricature' of the ancient Barbêlônian and Eqyptian rites, then we should expect to find a goddess in Masonry.

Masons describe themselves in their literature as sons of the Widow'. Who is this Widow? And who is the Son?" The following question and answer explanation from Duane Washum, a Past

for the whole history of Manes rests on legends-, was born in The son of the Widow, a man called Manes, according to the legend- Babylonia about the year A.D. 216, and a slave who was redeemed from slavery by a rich Persian widow who freed and adopted him, thus making him the "son of the widow" a name which after him passed to the nich old woman the books of a Saracen named Scythianus (a all his followers and is still used in Masonic Lodges. He inherited from Combining the doctrines these books contained" [Nesta H. Webster, student of an Aristotle's teachings) on the wisdom of the Egyptians.

295

SHALL I BE A MASON?

concerning her, Isis is said to have conjured the invincible God of Eternities, Ra, to tell her his secret and sacred name, which he did. This name is equivalent to the Lost Word of Masonry." Thus Hall links Iss worship to Masonry. He intimates that Isis is the holder of the sacred name of Ra, the "ineffable name" of the god of Masonry (Abaddon, Apollyon, or Jahbulon).

Who as Isis? Isis was the Venus of Cyprus, the Minerva of Athens, the Cybele of the Phrygians, the Ceres of Eleusis, the Proserpine of Sicily, the Diana of Crete, the Bellona of the Romans, etc. And like the worhsippers of Isis, Freemasons in their ceremonies and initiations perform "the most abominable impurities," and those "initiated into them" are "obliged to take an oath of secrecy."

Secret Societies and Subversive Movements, p. 108.] Manicheism is the religion of the followers of Manes.

Edith Starr Miller Paget Queenborough (Baroness), Occult Theocrasy. Volumes 1-2. According to the Greek accounts, the immediate author of the new doctrines was not Manes, but Scythianus, a Saracen merchant, who in his distant journeys became acquainted with the Oriental and Greek philosophies. His heir and disciple was Terebinthus, who named himself Buddha, and boasted that he had been born of a virgin. The widow of Terebinthus appointed, as her heir, her slave Cubricus, acquainted with Christianity, he infused many ideas borrowed from it into his own system, that he might make it more acceptable to the Christians. These innovations in religion drew upon him a persecution in his native land, and he, therefore, retired to countries more to the east, to Hindostan, Turkestan, and Rhatai, the north of China. He returned to Persia; and he was executed by command of the schach, in 277: see, Johann Joseph Ignaz von Döllinger, A history of the church Volume 1 (London: Published By C. Dolman, 61, New Bond Street, And By T. Jones, 63, Paternoster Row. 1840), p. 155.

Nesta H. Webster, Secret Societies and Subversive Movements. (Boswell: Palmdale, Calif., 1824).

Duane Washum may be reached at the following address: In Search of Light Ministries, Box 28702 Las Vegas, Nevada 89126, USA

Lectures on Ancient Philosophy, Companion to The Secret Teachings All Ages (New York Tarcher/Penguin Group, 2005), originally published

1929

Only at the level, or degree of The Royal Arch is where the Masonic "true ineffable name of god-Jahbulon, is conveyed.

Encyclopaedia Perthesis, or, Universal dictionary of Knowledge (With Supp. nd edition (EDINBURGH: John Brown, Anchor Close, 1816), p

364

1. Ibid, p. 363.

296

The Goddess of Freemasonry-The Widow'

Be of Secrecy and Goddess Fides

"Masonry," writes Freemason Robert Freke Gould, "is... the direct scendant, or as a survival of the mysteries... of ISIS AND OSIRIS in Sp.... Hence in the Master Mason degree, the All-seeing Eye is a ost important symbolism, representing the false Egyptian trinity of sins, Isis and Horus.

And Albert Pike confirms: "Masonry still retains among its emblems e of a woman [Isis] weeping over a broken column, holding in her d a branch of acacia, myrtle, or tamarisk... We need not repeat the pid and trivial explanation... given, of THIS REPRESENTATION OF IS, weeping at Byblos, over the column torn from the palace of the that contained the body of Osiris...."

The conclusion of the matter? The goddess of Freemasonry is Isis. ovanously called by the ancient Romans: Minerva, Venus (or Al zza in Islam), Aurora (the goddess who rode on a car drawn by four s), Diana (Artemis), or Diana Lucifera-being the feminine of ader (a statue of her is still housed, to this day, in the Vatican"). In

Robert Freke Gould (Past Senior Grand Deacon of England, Master of tuor Coronati Lodge No. 2076), History of Freemasonry, Its etiquities, Symbols, Constitutions, Customs, Vol. 1 (New York: John C.

forston & Co., Publishers, 1884) p. 13.

Morals and Dogma, op. cit., p. 379.

ol 4, op. cit., p. 74,

3.0. Heck, Iconographic Encyclopaedia of Science, Literature, and Art, Camera di San Paolo (London: The Warburg Institute, Uni. of London, See, Erwin Panofsky, E. H. Gombrich, The Iconography of Correggio's 1961), H.H. Scullard, Festivals and Ceremonies of the Roman Republic London: Thames and Hudson, 1981), pp. 97, 107.

297

SHALL I BE A MASON?

other cultures this same goddess was called Astarte, Ashtoreth, Asherah, Ishtar, Venus, Artemis, Lilith, Minerva, ISIS, Kwan-yin, Demeter, Gaia, Luna, Hectate, Aphrodite, Shing Moo, HOLY MOTHER, Shakti, Hera, Innanna, Kali (Dark Mother), Juno, Sophia, Ceres, Cybele, Persephone, Our Lady, the Blessed Mother, THE QUEEN OF HEAVEN, and Mary-It is for this reason that in ancient Egypt, Isis (Virgo, the Queen of Heaven) was known as the "goddess of a thousand names," and the Initiator into the Sexual Mysteries.

But by whatever name she is termed, she is the same still: Diana Lucifera! A female demon!

The venerated historian Mosheim confirms that 'Mary,' is the same as the Masonic Isis: "they transferred to the Virgin Mary the worship and offerings they had been accustomed to pay to the "Queen of Heaven"-the... Mother of the Babylonian false Messiah, worshipped throughout the ancient heathen world under the various names of Venus, Astarte or Ashtoreth, Juno, Diana, Vesta, Ceres, Cybele, Rhea..." (Mosheim, Ecel. Hist., vol. i, p. 410, quoting Schlegel).

And Alexander Hislop's The Two Babylons adds these facts And Alexander Hislop's The Two Babylons adds these facts:

The Babylonians, in their popular religion, supremely worshipped a Goddess Mother and a Son.... Beltis, therefore, as the title of the female divinity, was equivalent to "Baalti," which, in English, is "My Lady," in Latin, "Mea Domina,"... in Italian... corrupted into the well-known "[Black, or Dark] Madonna.

13 A. Hislop, The Two Babylons, or The Papal Worship Proved to be the Worship of Nimrod and His Wife (London: Houlston & Wright, 1862 edn.), p. 29. You can download the book from our site: www.luxverb.org.uk/arch/e-books_on_romanism vs protestantism.htm

298

Reader, after all of the revelations found in this book, who but a.... or will be a Mason?

Shall I Be A Mason? Life or Death...

by P.D. Stuart

Genesis 3

1599 Geneva Bible

3 1 The woman seduced by the serpent, 6 enticeth her husband to sin. 8 They both flee from God. 14 They three are punished. 15 Christ is promised. 19 Man is dust. 22 Man is cast out of Paradise.

1 Now the serpent was more [a]subtle than any beast of the field, which the Lord God had made: and he [b]said to the woman, Yea, hath God indeed said, ye shall not eat of every tree of the garden?

2 And the woman said unto the serpent, We eat of the fruit of the trees of the garden.

3 But of the fruit of the tree which is in the midst of the garden, God hath said, Ye shall not eat of it, neither shall ye touch it, [c]lest ye die.

4 Then the serpent said to the woman, Ye shall not [d][e]die at all,

5 But God doth know that when ye shall eat thereof, your eyes shall be opened, and ye shall be as gods, [f]knowing good and evil.

6 So the woman (seeing that the tree was good for meat, and that it was pleasant to the eyes, and a tree to be desired, to get knowledge) took of the fruit thereof, and did eat, and gave also to her husband with her, and he [g]did eat.

7 Then the eyes of them both were opened, and they [h]knew that they were naked, and they sewed fig tree leaves together, and made themselves [i]breeches.

8 ¶ Afterward they heard the voice of the Lord God walking in the garden in the [j]cool of the day, and the man and his wife [k]hid themselves from the presence of the Lord God among the trees of the garden.

9 But the Lord God called to the man, and said unto him, Where art thou?

10 Who said, I heard thy voice in the garden and was afraid: because I was [l]naked, therefore I hid myself.

11 And he said, Who told thee that thou wast naked? Hast thou eaten of the tree whereof I commanded thee that thou shouldest not eat?

12 Then the man said, The woman which thou [m]gavest to be with me, she gave me of the tree, and I did eat.

13 And the Lord God said to the woman, Why hast thou done this? And the woman said, [n]The serpent beguiled me, and I did eat.

14 ¶ Then the Lord God said to the serpent, [o]Because thou hast done this, thou art cursed above all cattle, and above every beast of the field: upon thy belly shalt thou go, and [p]dust shalt thou eat all the days of thy life.

15 I will also put enmity between [q]thee and the woman, and between thy seed and her seed. He shall break thine [r]head, and thou shalt [s]bruise his heel.

16 ¶ Unto the woman he said, I will greatly increase thy [t]sorrows, and thy conceptions. In sorrow shalt thou bring forth children, and thy desire shall be subject to thine husband, and he shall rule over thee.

17 ¶ Also to Adam he said, Because thou hast obeyed the voice of thy wife, and hast eaten of the tree, (whereof I commanded thee, saying, Thou shalt not eat of it) [u]cursed is the earth for thy sake: in sorrow shalt thou eat of it all the days of thy life.

18 [v]Thorns also and thistles shall it bring forth to thee, and thou shalt eat the herb of the field.

19 In the sweat of thy face shalt thou eat bread till thou return to the earth: for out of it wast thou taken, because thou art dust, and to dust shalt thou return.

20 (And the man called his wife’s name Eve, because she was the mother of all living)

21 Unto Adam also and to his wife did the Lord God [w]make coats of skins, and clothed them.

22 ¶ And the Lord God said, [x]Behold, the man is become as one of us, to know good and evil. And now lest he put forth his hand, and [y]take also of the tree of life, and eat, and live forever,

23 Therefore the Lord God sent him forth from the garden of Eden, to till the earth, whence he was taken.

24 Thus he cast out the man, and at the East side of the garden of Eden he set the Cherubims, and the blade of a sword shaken, to keep the way of the tree of life.

Footnotes

Genesis 3:1 As Satan can change himself into an Angel of light, so did he abuse the wisdom of the serpent to deceive man.

Genesis 3:1 God suffered Satan to make the serpent his instrument and to speak in him.

Genesis 3:3 In doubting of God’s threatenings she yielded to Satan.

Genesis 3:4 This is Satan’s chiefest subtlety, to cause us not to fear God’s threatenings.

Genesis 3:4 Hebrew, die the death.

Genesis 3:5 As though he should say, God doth not forbid you to eat of the fruit, save that he knoweth that if ye should eat thereof, ye should be like to him.

Genesis 3:6 Not so much to please his wife, as moved by ambition at her persuasion.

Genesis 3:7 They began to feel their misery, but they sought not to God for remedy.

Genesis 3:7 Hebrew, things to gird about them to hide their privities.

Genesis 3:8 Or, wind.

Genesis 3:8 The sinful conscience fleeth God’s presence.

Genesis 3:10 His hypocrisy appeareth in that he hid the cause of his nakedness, which was the transgression of God’s commandment.

Genesis 3:12 His wickedness and lack of true repentance appeareth in this that he burdeneth God with his fault, because he had given him a wife.

Genesis 3:13 Instead of confessing her sin, she increaseth it by accusing the serpent.

Genesis 3:14 He asked the reason of Adam and his wife, because he would bring them to repentance, but he asketh not the serpent, because he would show him no mercy.

Genesis 3:14 As a vile and contemptible beast, Isa. 65:25.

Genesis 3:15 He chiefly meaneth Satan, by whose motion and craft the serpent deceived the woman.

Genesis 3:15 That is, the power of sin and death.

Genesis 3:15 Satan shall sting Christ and his members, but not overcome them.

Genesis 3:16 The Lord comforteth Adam by the promise of the blessed seed, and also punisheth the body for the sin which the soul should have been punished for; that the spirit having conceived hope of forgiveness, might live by faith.

Genesis 3:17 The transgression of God’s commandment was the cause that both mankind and all other creatures were subject to the curse.

Genesis 3:18 These are not the natural fruits of the earth, but proceed of the corruption of sin.

Genesis 3:21 Or, gave them knowledge to make themselves coats.

Genesis 3:22 By this derision he reproacheth Adam’s misery, whereinto he was fallen by ambition.

Genesis 3:22 Adam deprived of life, lost also the sign thereof.

https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Genesis%203&version=GNV

Obsidian (/əbˈsɪdi.ən, ɒb-/ əb-SID-ee-ən ob-)[5] is a naturally occurring volcanic glass formed when lava extruded from a volcano cools rapidly with minimal crystal growth. It is an igneous rock.[6]

Obsidian is produced from felsic lava, rich in the lighter elements such as silicon, oxygen, aluminum, sodium, and potassium. It is commonly found within the margins of rhyolitic lava flows known as obsidian flows. These flows have a high content of silica, giving them a high viscosity. The high viscosity inhibits diffusion of atoms through the lava, which inhibits the first step (nucleation) in the formation of mineral crystals. Together with rapid cooling, this results in a natural glass forming from the lava.[7]

Obsidian is hard, brittle, and amorphous; it therefore fractures with sharp edges. In the past, it was used to manufacture cutting and piercing tools, and it has been used experimentally as surgical scalpel blades.[8]

Origin and properties

The Natural History by the Roman writer Pliny the Elder includes a few sentences about a volcanic glass called obsidian (lapis obsidianus), discovered in Ethiopia by Obsidius, a Roman explorer.[9][10][11][12]

Obsidian is formed from quickly cooled lava, which is the parent material.[13][14][15] Extrusive formation of obsidian may occur when felsic lava cools rapidly at the edges of a felsic lava flow or volcanic dome, or when lava cools during sudden contact with water or air. Intrusive formation of obsidian may occur when felsic lava cools along the edges of a dike.[16][17]

Tektites were once thought by many to be obsidian produced by lunar volcanic eruptions,[18] though few scientists now adhere to this hypothesis.[19]

Obsidian is mineral-like, but not a true mineral because, as a glass, it is not crystalline; in addition, its composition is too variable to be classified as a mineral. It is sometimes classified as a mineraloid.[20] Though obsidian is usually dark in color, similar to mafic rocks such as basalt, the composition of obsidian is extremely felsic. Obsidian consists mainly of SiO2 (silicon dioxide), usually 70% by weight or more; the remainder consists of variable amounts of other oxides, mostly oxides of aluminum, iron, potassium, sodium and calcium.[21][22] Crystalline rocks with a similar composition include granite and rhyolite. Because obsidian is metastable at the Earth's surface (over time the glass devitrifies, becoming fine-grained mineral crystals), obsidian older than Miocene in age is rare. Exceptionally old obsidians include a Cretaceous welded tuff and a partially devitrified Ordovician perlite.[23] This transformation of obsidian is accelerated by the presence of water. Although newly formed obsidian has a low water content, typically less than 1% water by weight,[24] it becomes progressively hydrated when exposed to groundwater, forming perlite.

Pure obsidian is usually dark in appearance, though the color varies depending on the impurities present. Iron and other transition elements may give the obsidian a dark brown to black color. Most black obsidians contain nanoinclusions of magnetite, an iron oxide.[25] Very few samples of obsidian are nearly colorless. In some stones, the inclusion of small, white, radially clustered crystals (spherulites) of the mineral cristobalite in the black glass produce a blotchy or snowflake pattern (snowflake obsidian). Obsidian may contain patterns of gas bubbles remaining from the lava flow, aligned along layers created as the molten rock was flowing before being cooled. These bubbles can produce interesting effects such as a golden sheen (sheen obsidian). An iridescent, rainbow-like sheen (fire obsidian) is caused by inclusions of magnetite nanoparticles creating thin-film interference.[26] Colorful, striped obsidian (rainbow obsidian) from Mexico contains oriented nanorods of hedenbergite, which cause the rainbow striping effects by thin-film interference.[25]

Occurrence

Obsidian is found near volcanoes in locations which have undergone rhyolitic eruptions. It can be found in Argentina, Armenia, Azerbaijan, Australia,[27] Canada, Chile, Georgia, Ecuador, El Salvador, Greece, Guatemala, Hungary, Iceland, Indonesia, Italy, Japan, Kenya, Mexico, New Zealand, Papua New Guinea, Peru, Russia, Scotland, the Canary Islands, Turkey and the United States. Obsidian flows which are so large that they can be hiked on are found within the calderas of Newberry Volcano (Big Obsidian Flow,[28] 700 acres) and Medicine Lake Volcano in the Cascade Range of western North America, and at Inyo Craters east of the Sierra Nevada in California. Yellowstone National Park has a mountainside containing obsidian located between Mammoth Hot Springs and the Norris Geyser Basin, and deposits can be found in many other western U.S. states including Arizona, Colorado, New Mexico, Texas, Utah, and Washington,[29] Oregon[30] and Idaho.

There are only four major deposit areas in the central Mediterranean: Lipari, Pantelleria, Palmarola and Monte Arci (Sardinia).[31]

Ancient sources in the Aegean were Milos and Gyali.[32]

Acıgöl town and the Göllü Dağ volcano were the most important sources in central Anatolia, one of the more important source areas in the prehistoric Near East.[33][34][35]

Prehistoric and historical use

The first known archaeological evidence of usage was in Kariandusi (Kenya) and other sites of the Acheulian age (beginning 1.5 million years BP) dated 700,000 BC, although only very few objects have been found at these sites relative to the Neolithic.[36][37][38][39][40] Manufacture of obsidian bladelets at Lipari had reached a high level of sophistication by the late Neolithic, and was traded as far as Sicily, the southern Po river valley, and Croatia.[41] Obsidian bladelets were used in ritual circumcisions and cutting of umbilical cords of newborns.[42] Anatolian sources of obsidian are known to have been the material used in the Levant and modern-day Iraqi Kurdistan from a time beginning sometime about 12,500 BC.[43] Obsidian artifacts are common at Tell Brak, one of the earliest Mesopotamian urban centers, dating to the late fifth millennium BC.[44] Obsidian was valued in Stone Age cultures because, like flint, it could be fractured to produce sharp blades or arrowheads in a process called knapping. Like all glass and some other naturally occurring rocks, obsidian breaks with a characteristic conchoidal fracture. It was also polished to create early mirrors. Modern archaeologists have developed a relative dating system, obsidian hydration dating, to calculate the age of obsidian artifacts.

Europe

Obsidian artifacts first appeared in the European continent in Central Europe in the Middle Paleolithic and had become common by the Upper Paleolithic, although there are exceptions to this. Obsidian played an important role in the transmission of Neolithic knowledge and experiences. The material was mainly used for production of chipped tools which were very sharp due to its nature. Artifacts made of obsidian can be found in many Neolithic cultures across Europe. The source of obsidian for cultures inhabiting the territory of and around Greece was the island of Milos; the Starčevo–Körös–Criș culture obtained obsidian from sources in Hungary and Slovakia, while the Cardium-Impresso cultural complex acquired obsidian from the island outcrops of the central Mediterranean. Through trade, these artifacts ended up in lands thousands of kilometers away from the original source; this indicates that they were a highly valued commodity.[45] John Dee had a mirror, made of obsidian, which was brought from Mexico to Europe between 1527 and 1530 after Hernando Cortés's conquest of the region.[46]

Middle East and Asia

In the Ubaid in the 5th millennium BC, blades were manufactured from obsidian extracted from outcrops located in modern-day Turkey.[47] Ancient Egyptians used obsidian imported from the eastern Mediterranean and southern Red Sea regions. Obsidian scalpels older than 2100 BC have been found in a Bronze Age settlement in Turkey.[48] In the eastern Mediterranean area the material was used to make tools, mirrors and decorative objects.[49]

The use of obsidian tools was present in Japan near areas of volcanic activity.[50][51] Obsidian was mined during the Jōmon period.

Obsidian has also been found in Gilat, a site in the western Negev in Israel. Eight obsidian artifacts dating to the Chalcolithic Age found at this site were traced to obsidian sources in Anatolia. Neutron activation analysis (NAA) on the obsidian found at this site helped to reveal trade routes and exchange networks previously unknown.[52]

Americas

Lithic analysis helps to understand pre-Hispanic groups in Mesoamerica. A careful analysis of obsidian in a culture or place can be of considerable use to reconstruct commerce, production, and distribution, and thereby understand economic, social and political aspects of a civilization. This is the case in Yaxchilán, a Maya city where even warfare implications have been studied linked with obsidian use and its debris.[53] Another example is the archeological recovery at coastal Chumash sites in California, indicating considerable trade with the distant site of Casa Diablo Hot Springs in the Sierra Nevada.[54]

Pre-Columbian Mesoamericans' use of obsidian was extensive and sophisticated; including carved and worked obsidian for tools and decorative objects. Mesoamericans also made a type of sword with obsidian blades mounted in a wooden body. Called a macuahuitl, the weapon could inflict terrible injuries, combining the sharp cutting edge of an obsidian blade with the ragged cut of a serrated weapon. The polearm version of this weapon was called tepoztopilli.

Obsidian mirrors were used by some Aztec priests to conjure visions and make prophecies. They were connected with Tezcatlipoca, god of obsidian and sorcery, whose name can be translated from the Nahuatl language as 'Smoking Mirror'.[46]

Indigenous people traded obsidian throughout the Americas. Each volcano and in some cases each volcanic eruption produces a distinguishable type of obsidian allowing archaeologists to use methods such as non-destructive energy dispersive X-ray fluorescence to select minor element compositions from both the artifact and geological sample to trace the origins of a particular artifact.[55] Similar tracing techniques have also allowed obsidian in Greece to be identified as coming from Milos, Nisyros or Gyali, islands in the Aegean Sea. Obsidian cores and blades were traded great distances inland from the coast.[56]

In Chile obsidian tools from Chaitén Volcano have been found as far away as in Chan-Chan 400 km (250 mi) north of the volcano, and also in sites 400 km south of it.[57][58]

Oceania

The Lapita culture, active across a large area of the Pacific Ocean around 1000 BC, made widespread use of obsidian tools and engaged in long distance obsidian trading. The complexity of the production technique for these tools, and the care taken in their storage, may indicate that beyond their practical use they were associated with prestige or high status.[59]

Obsidian was also used on Rapa Nui (Easter Island) for edged tools such as Mataia and the pupils of the eyes of their Moai (statues), which were encircled by rings of bird bone.[60] Obsidian was used to inscribe the Rongorongo glyphs.

Current use

Obsidian can be used to make extremely sharp knives, and obsidian blades are a type of glass knife made using naturally occurring obsidian instead of manufactured glass. Obsidian is used by some surgeons for scalpel blades, although this is not approved by the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) for use on humans.[61] Well-crafted obsidian blades, like any glass knife, can have a cutting edge many times sharper than high-quality steel surgical scalpels: the cutting edge of the blade is only about three nanometers thick.[62] All metal knives have a jagged, irregular blade when viewed under a strong enough microscope; however, obsidian blades are still smooth, even when examined under an electron microscope.[63] One study found that obsidian incisions produced fewer inflammatory cells and less granulation tissue in a group of rats after seven days but the differences disappeared after twenty-one days.[64] Don Crabtree has produced surgical obsidian blades and written articles on the subject.[62] Obsidian scalpels may be purchased for surgical use on research animals.[65]

The major disadvantage of obsidian blades is their brittleness compared to those made of metal,[66] thus limiting the surgical applications for obsidian blades to a variety of specialized uses where this is not a concern.[62]

Obsidian is also used for ornamental purposes and as a gemstone.[67] It presents a different appearance depending on how it is cut: in one direction it is jet black, while in another it is glistening gray. "Apache tears" are small rounded obsidian nuggets often embedded within a grayish-white perlite matrix.

Plinths for audio turntables have been made of obsidian since the 1970s, such as the grayish-black SH-10B3 plinth by Technics.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Obsidian

The Black Stone (Arabic: ٱلْحَجَرُ ٱلْأَسْوَد, romanized: al-Ḥajar al-Aswad) is a rock set into the eastern corner of the Kaaba, the ancient building in the center of the Grand Mosque in Mecca, Saudi Arabia. It is revered by Muslims as an Islamic relic which, according to Muslim tradition, dates back to the time of Adam and Eve.

The stone was venerated at the Kaaba in pre-Islamic pagan times. According to Islamic tradition, it was set intact into the Kaaba's wall by the Islamic prophet Muhammad in 605 CE, five years before his first revelation. Since then, it has been broken into fragments and is now cemented into a silver frame in the side of the Kaaba. Its physical appearance is that of a fragmented dark rock, polished smooth by the hands of pilgrims. It has often been described as a meteorite.[1]

Muslim pilgrims circle the Kaaba as a part of the tawaf ritual during the hajj and many try to stop to kiss the Black Stone, emulating the kiss that Islamic tradition records that it received from Muhammad.[2][3] While the Black Stone is revered, Islamic theologians emphasize that it has no divine significance and that its importance is historical in nature.[4]

Physical description

The Black Stone was originally a single piece of rock but today consists of several pieces that have been cemented together. They are surrounded by a silver frame which is fastened by silver nails to the Kaaba's outer wall.[5] The fragments are themselves made up of smaller pieces which have been combined to form the seven or eight fragments visible today. The Stone's exposed face measures about 20 centimetres (7.9 in) by 16 centimetres (6.3 in). Its original size is unclear and the recorded dimensions have changed considerably over time, as the pieces have been rearranged in their cement matrix on several occasions.[1] In the 10th century, an observer described the Black Stone as being one cubit (46 cm or 18 in) long. By the early 17th century, it was recorded as measuring 140 by 122 cm (4 ft 7 in by 4 ft 0 in). According to Ali Bey in the 18th century, it was described as 110 cm (3 ft 7 in) high, and Muhammad Ali Pasha reported it as being 76 cm (2 ft 6 in) long by 46 cm (1 ft 6 in) wide.[1]

The Black Stone is attached to the east corner of the Kaaba, known as al-Rukn al-Aswad (the 'Corner of the Black Stone').[6] Another stone, known as the Hajar as-Sa’adah ('Stone of Felicity') is set into the Kaaba's opposite corner, al-Rukn al-Yamani (the 'Yemeni Corner'), at a somewhat lower height than the Black Stone.[7] The choice of the east corner may have had ritual significance; it faces the rain-bringing east wind (al-qabul) and the direction from which Canopus rises.[8]

The silver frame around the Black Stone and the black kiswah or cloth enveloping the Kaaba were for centuries maintained by the Ottoman Sultans in their role as Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques. The frames wore out over time due to the constant handling by pilgrims and were periodically replaced. Worn-out frames were brought back to Istanbul, where they are still kept as part of the sacred relics in the Topkapı Palace.[9]

Appearance of the Black Stone

The Black Stone was described by European travellers to Arabia in the 19th- and early-20th centuries, who visited the Kaaba disguised as pilgrims. Swiss traveller Johann Ludwig Burckhardt visited Mecca in 1814, and provided a detailed description in his 1829 book Travels in Arabia:

It is an irregular oval, about seven inches [18 cm] in diameter, with an undulated surface, composed of about a dozen smaller stones of different sizes and shapes, well joined together with a small quantity of cement, and perfectly well smoothed; it looks as if the whole had been broken into as many pieces by a violent blow, and then united again. It is very difficult to determine accurately the quality of this stone which has been worn to its present surface by the millions of touches and kisses it has received. It appeared to me like a lava, containing several small extraneous particles of a whitish and of a yellow substance. Its colour is now a deep reddish brown approaching to black. It is surrounded on all sides by a border composed of a substance which I took to be a close cement of pitch and gravel of a similar, but not quite the same, brownish colour. This border serves to support its detached pieces; it is two or three inches in breadth, and rises a little above the surface of the stone. Both the border and the stone itself are encircled by a silver band, broader below than above, and on the two sides, with a considerable swelling below, as if a part of the stone were hidden under it. The lower part of the border is studded with silver nails.[10]

Visiting the Kaaba in 1853, Richard Francis Burton noted that:

The colour appeared to me black and metallic, and the centre of the stone was sunk about two inches below the metallic circle. Round the sides was a reddish-brown cement, almost level with the metal, and sloping down to the middle of the stone. The band is now a massive arch of gold or silver gilt. I found the aperture in which the stone is, one span and three fingers broad.[11]

Ritter von Laurin, the Austrian consul-general in Egypt, was able to inspect a fragment of the Stone removed by Muhammad Ali in 1817 and reported that it had a pitch-black exterior and a silver-grey, fine-grained interior in which tiny cubes of a bottle-green material were embedded. There are reportedly a few white or yellow spots on the face of the Stone, and it is officially described as being white with the exception of the face.[1]

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Black_Stone

BlackRock, Inc. is an American multinational investment company. Founded in 1988, initially as an enterprise risk management and fixed income institutional asset manager, BlackRock is the world's largest asset manager, with US$11.5 trillion in assets under management as of December 31, 2023.[1] Headquartered in New York City, BlackRock has 70 offices in 30 countries, and clients in 100 countries.

BlackRock is the manager of the iShares group of exchange-traded funds, and along with The Vanguard Group and State Street, it is considered to be one of the Big Three index fund managers.[3][4] Its Aladdin software keeps track of investment portfolios for many major financial institutions and its BlackRock Solutions division provides financial risk management services. As of 2023, BlackRock was ranked 229th on the Fortune 500 list of the largest United States corporations by revenue.[5]

BlackRock has sought to position itself as an industry leader in environmental, social, and governance (ESG) considerations in investments.[6] The U.S. states of West Virginia,[7] Florida,[8] and Louisiana[9] have divested money away from or refuse to do business with the firm because of its ESG policies. BlackRock has been criticized for investing in companies that are involved in fossil fuels, the arms industry, the People's Liberation Army and human rights violations in China. The company has also faced criticism for its close ties with the Federal Reserve during the COVID-19 pandemic.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/BlackRock

Academi, formerly known as Blackwater and Blackwater Worldwide, is an American private military contractor founded on December 26, 1997,[2] by former Navy SEAL officer Erik Prince.[3][4] It was renamed Xe Services in 2009, and was again renamed to Academi in 2011, after it was acquired by a group of private investors.[5] In 2014, Academi merged with Triple Canopy to form Constellis Holdings.[6][7][8]

Constellis and its predecessors provide contract security services[9] to the United States federal government. Since 2003, it has provided services to the Central Intelligence Agency.

In 2007, Blackwater received widespread notoriety for the Nisour Square massacre in Baghdad, when a group of its employees killed 17 Iraqi civilians and injured 20. Four employees were convicted in the United States and later pardoned on December 22, 2020, by President Donald Trump.[10][11]

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blackwater_(company)

Black project is an informal term used to describe a highly classified, top-secret military or defense project that is not publicly acknowledged by government, military personnel, or contractors.

United States and black projects

In the United States, the formal term for a black project is an unacknowledged special access program (SAP). Black projects receive their funding from the black budget.

The US depends on private defense contractors to develop and build military equipment. The two most notable examples are Lockheed Martin and Northrop Grumman. The R&D department of Lockheed Martin is commonly referred to as Skunk Works; it is responsible for a number of aircraft designs, highly classified R&D programs, and exotic aircraft platforms.

Two well known sites for testing of black projects are the Nevada Test site and Area 51.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Black_project

A lava lamp is a decorative lamp, invented in 1963 by British entrepreneur Edward Craven Walker, the founder of the lighting company Mathmos.

It consists of a bolus of a special coloured wax mixture inside a glass vessel, the remainder of which contains clear or translucent liquid. The vessel is placed on a base containing an incandescent light bulb whose heat causes temporary reductions in the wax's density and the liquid's surface tension. As the warmed wax rises through the liquid, it cools, loses its buoyancy, and falls back to the bottom of the vessel in a cycle that is visually suggestive of pāhoehoe lava, hence the name. The lamps are designed in a variety of styles and colours.

Lava lamps can be associated with hippie and cannabis cultures.[1][2]

Operation

A classic lava lamp contains a standard incandescent or halogen lamp which heats a tall (often tapered) glass bottle. A formula from a 1968 US patent consisted of water and a transparent, translucent, or opaque mix of mineral oil, paraffin wax, and carbon tetrachloride.[3]p. 2, line 30 The clear water or mineral oil can optionally be coloured with translucent dyes.

Common wax has a density much lower than that of water and would float on top at any temperature. However, carbon tetrachloride is denser than water (also nonflammable and miscible with wax) and is added to the wax to make its density at room temperature slightly higher than that of the water. When heated, the wax mixture becomes less dense than the water, because it expands more than water when both are heated.[3]p. 1, lines 40 & 45 It also becomes fluid, causing blobs of it to ascend to the top of the lamp. There, they cool, increasing their density relative to that of the water, and descend.[3]p. 1, line 47 A metallic wire coil in the bottle's base breaks the cooled blobs' surface tension, allowing them to recombine.

Video of an orange lava lamp in operation

Since 1970, lava lamps made for the US market have not used carbon tetrachloride, the use of which was banned that year due to toxicity.[4] Haggerty, their current manufacturer, has stated that their current formulation is a trade secret.[5]

The underlying fluid mechanics phenomenon in lava lamps is a form of Rayleigh–Taylor instability.

The bulb is normally 25 to 40 watts. It generally takes 45–60 minutes for the wax to warm up enough to form freely rising blobs, when operating the lamp at standard room temperature, and as long as 2 to 3 hours if the room is cooler.

Once the wax is molten, the lamp should not be agitated, or the two fluids may emulsify, and the fluid surrounding the wax blobs will remain cloudy rather than clear. Some recombination will occur as part of the normal cycle of the wax in the container, but the only way to recombine all of the wax is to turn off the lamp and wait for a few hours. The wax then settles back to the bottom, forming one blob once again. Severe cases can require many heating-cooling cycles to clear. [6]

In 2015, a new design was introduced that uses ferrofluid in place of wax.[7]

History

British entrepreneur Edward Craven Walker had the idea for the lava lamp in 1963 after watching a homemade egg timer, made from a cocktail shaker filled with liquids, as it bubbled on a stovetop in a pub.[8] This precursor was designed and patented GB patent 703924 by Donald Dunnet.[9] Craven Walker hired British inventor David George Smith to develop the device and the chemical formula it required. Smith is credited as the inventor on the original U.S. patent 3,387,396 for a "Display Device" filed and assigned to Craven-Walker's company in 1965, and subsequently issued in 1968.[3] Craven Walker's company, Crestworth, was based in Poole, Dorset, United Kingdom. He named the lamp "Astro" and had variations such as the "Astro Mini" and the "Astro Coach" lantern.

In 1965, Adolph Wertheimer and Hy Spector were intrigued by Walker's product when they saw it at a German trade show. They bought the American rights and began the Lava Manufacturing Corporation in Chicago to sell what they called the Lava Lite Lamp. In the late 1970s, US rights were sold to Larry Haggerty, who created a subsidiary of his company, Haggerty Enterprises, called Lava World International, which produced American lava lamps for over 30 years.[10]

In 2003, American lava lamp maker Lava World International (formerly Lava-Simplex-Scribe Internationale) moved its production to China. In 2008, it was acquired by Talon Merchant Capital and its name was changed to Lava Lite LLC. As of 2016, lava lamps were being sold under Lifespan brands in North America.[11] In 2018, the "Lava Lamp" brand was acquired by toy and gift maker Schylling Inc. of North Andover, MA.[12] who continue to hold the US trademark rights to both the shape and name of LAVA lamp.[13]

When the American rights were sold, Craven Walker retained the rights for the rest of the world, and took on two business partners in the late 1980s, Cressida Granger and David Mulley. They eventually took over the company and changed its name to Mathmos in 1992. Edward Craven Walker remained a consultant to them until his death in 2000. Mathmos continues to make Lava Lamps and related products. They have won two Queens Awards for Export, and the Best Multi-Media prize at the Design Week awards.[14][15] Astro lava lamp was launched in 1963 and celebrated its 50th anniversary in 2013.[16] Mathmos lava lamps are still made in the original factory in Poole, Dorset.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lava_lamp

As the fertility goddess, Ishtar was often associated with eggs, which were seen as a symbol of new life and rebirth. In ancient times, people would decorate eggs in honour of Ishtar and give them as gifts to one another during the spring equinox, which marked the beginning of the agricultural season.

Over time, decorating eggs spread to other cultures and religions. In Europe, for example, people began decorating eggs during the Christian celebration of Lent, a period of fasting and repentance leading up to Easter. Eggs were seen as a symbol of the resurrection of Jesus Christ and the new life he brought to the world.

In many countries, people dye eggs in bright colours and decorate them with intricate designs and patterns. Some cultures even have special games and competitions centred around egg decorating and hunting.

https://www.sbs.com.au/language/assyrian/en/podcast-episode/what-is-the-connection-between-easter-and-ishtar/duroih1gj

The nuclear egg: challenging the dominant narratives of the atomic age

By Hebatalla Taha

August 15th 2022

While researching early Egyptian perspectives on nuclear weapons, I repeatedly came across the symbol of the egg. The atomic bomb, and atomic technology more broadly, was frequently imagined and drawn as an egg in the period after August 1945 in Egyptian magazines and popular science journals. Cartoonists, journalists, and even some scientists narrated the dawn of the atomic age through this recurring visual. The atomic bomb, some authors suggested incorrectly, was the size of an egg. The description of the atomic bomb as tiny likely emerged because of the association of atoms as miniscule, though others have offered more scientific explanations for the visual. Today, this visualization has largely faded, though it is still invoked in some jokes.

The image of the egg can be contrasted with other unrealistically small depictions, such as Albert Camus’s description of the bomb being the size of a football. However, it is notable that the mushroom cloud, considered to be the uncontested image of the nuclear age, barely featured in early Egyptian accounts of nuclearization. By going beyond this iconic image, which reflects the specific vantage point of the US, we can better understand the agency of actors typically seen as lying beyond the scope of nuclear politics. In a recent article published in a special section of International Affairs, dealing with Feminist Interrogations of Global Nuclear Politics, I discuss the implications of the visual of the egg, alongside several other images and metaphors that featured in Egyptian nuclear imaginations. In doing so, the article challenges the dominant narratives, histories, and aesthetics of the atomic age.

https://blog.oup.com/2022/08/the-nuclear-egg-challenging-the-dominant-narratives-of-the-atomic-age/

The Arab Spring (Arabic: الربيع العربي, romanized: ar-rabīʻ al-ʻarabī) or the First Arab Spring (to distinguish from the Second Arab Spring) was a series of anti-government protests, uprisings and armed rebellions that spread across much of the Arab world in the early 2010s. It began in Tunisia in response to corruption and economic stagnation.[1][2] From Tunisia, the protests then spread to five other countries: Libya, Egypt, Yemen, Syria and Bahrain. Rulers were deposed (Zine El Abidine Ben Ali of Tunisia in 2011, Muammar Gaddafi of Libya in 2011, Hosni Mubarak of Egypt in 2011, and Ali Abdullah Saleh of Yemen in 2012) or major uprisings and social violence occurred including riots, civil wars, or insurgencies. Sustained street demonstrations took place in Morocco, Iraq, Algeria, Lebanon, Jordan, Kuwait, Oman and Sudan. Minor protests took place in Djibouti, Mauritania, Palestine, Saudi Arabia and the Moroccan-occupied Western Sahara.[3] A major slogan of the demonstrators in the Arab world is ash-shaʻb yurīd isqāṭ an-niẓām! (Arabic: الشعب يريد إسقاط النظام, lit. 'the people want to bring down the regime').[4]

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arab_Spring

Hadrian's Tomb

The tomb of the Roman emperor Hadrian, also called Hadrian's mole,[1] was erected on the right bank (or northern edge) of the Tiber, between 134 and 139 CE.[2] Originally the mausoleum was a decorated cylinder, with a garden top and golden quadriga. Hadrian's ashes were placed here a year after his death in Baiae in 138, together with those of his wife Sabina, and his first adopted son, Lucius Aelius, who died in 138. Following this, the remains of succeeding emperors were also placed here, the last recorded deposition being Caracalla in 217. The urns containing these ashes were probably placed in what is now known as the Treasury Room, deep within the building. Hadrian also built the Pons Aelius facing straight onto the mausoleum – it still provides a scenic approach from the center of Rome and the left bank of the Tiber, and is renowned for the Baroque additions of statues of angels holding aloft instruments of the Passion of Christ.[citation needed]

Decline

Much of the tomb contents and decorations have been lost since the building's conversion to a military fortress in 401 and its subsequent inclusion in the Aurelian Walls by Flavius Honorius Augustus. The urns and ashes were scattered by Visigoth looters during Alaric's sacking of Rome in 410, and the original decorative bronze and stone statuary were thrown down upon the attacking Goths when they besieged Rome in 537, as recounted by Procopius. An unusual survivor, however, is the capstone of a funerary urn (probably that of Hadrian), which made its way to Saint Peter's Basilica, covered the tomb of Otto II and later was incorporated into a massive Renaissance baptistery.[3] The use of spolia from the tomb in the post-Roman period was noted in the 16th century – Giorgio Vasari writes:

...in order to build churches for the use of the Christians, not only were the most honoured temples of the idols [pagan Roman gods] destroyed, but in order to ennoble and decorate Saint Peter's with more ornaments than it then possessed, they took away the stone columns from the tomb of Hadrian, now the castle of Sant'Angelo, as well as many other things which we now see in ruins.[4]

Legend holds that the Archangel Michael appeared atop the mausoleum, sheathing his sword as a sign of the end of the plague of 590, thus lending the castle its present name. A less charitable yet more apt elaboration of the legend, given the militant disposition of this archangel, was heard by the 15th-century traveler who saw an angel statue on the castle roof. He recounts that during a prolonged season of the plague, Pope Gregory I heard that the populace, even Christians, had begun revering a pagan idol at the church of Santa Agata in Suburra. A vision urged the pope to lead a procession to the church. Upon arriving, the idol miraculously fell apart with a clap of thunder. Returning to St Peter's by the Aelian Bridge, the pope had another vision of an angel atop the castle, wiping the blood from his sword on his mantle, and then sheathing it. While the pope interpreted this as a sign that God was appeased, this did not prevent Gregory from destroying more sites of pagan worship in Rome.[5]

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Castel_Sant%27Angelo

The Al-Aqsa mosque compound, atop the site, is the second oldest mosque in Islam,[23] and one of the three Sacred Mosques, the holiest sites in Islam; it is revered as "the Noble Sanctuary".[24] Its courtyard (sahn)[25] can host more than 400,000 worshippers, making it one of the largest mosques in the world.[23] For Sunni and Shia Muslims alike, it ranks as the third holiest site in Islam. The plaza includes the location regarded as where the Islamic prophet Muhammad ascended to heaven,[26] and served as the first "qibla", the direction Muslims turn towards when praying. As in Judaism, Muslims also associate the site with Solomon and other prophets who are also venerated in Islam.[27] The site, and the term "al-Aqsa", in relation to the whole plaza, is also a central identity symbol for Palestinians, including Palestinian Christians.[28][29][30]

Since the Crusades, the Muslim community of Jerusalem has managed the site through the Jerusalem Islamic Waqf. The site, along with the whole of East Jerusalem (which includes the Old City), was controlled by Jordan from 1948 until 1967 and has been occupied by Israel since the Six-Day War of 1967. Shortly after capturing the site, Israel handed its administration back to the Waqf under the Jordanian Hashemite custodianship, while maintaining Israeli security control.[31] The Israeli government enforces a ban on prayer by non-Muslims as part of an arrangement usually referred to as the "status quo".[32][33][34] The site remains a major focal point of the Israeli–Palestinian conflict.[35]

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Temple_Mount

On 13 May 1981, in St. Peter's Square in Vatican City, Pope John Paul II was shot and wounded by Mehmet Ali Ağca while he was entering the square. The Pope was struck twice and suffered severe blood loss. Ağca was apprehended immediately and later sentenced to life in prison by an Italian court. The Pope forgave Ağca for the assassination attempt.[1] He was pardoned by Italian president Carlo Azeglio Ciampi at the Pope's request and was deported to Turkey in June 2000. Ağca converted to Roman Catholicism in 2007.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Attempted_assassination_of_Pope_John_Paul_II

Shanksville is a borough in Somerset County, Pennsylvania, United States. It has a population of 197 as of the 2020 U.S. census.[2] It is part of the Somerset, Pennsylvania Micropolitan Statistical Area and is located 78 miles (126 km) southeast of Pittsburgh and 226 miles (364 km) west of Philadelphia.

Shanksville garnered global attention during the September 11 attacks when United Airlines Flight 93, bound from Newark, New Jersey for San Francisco, crashed in adjacent Stonycreek Township after its passengers rebelled against the flight's al-Qaeda terrorist hijackers. It was the only one of the four hijacked planes that failed to reach the terrorists' intended target.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shanksville,_Pennsylvania

Pope John Paul II (Latin: Ioannes Paulus II; Italian: Giovanni Paolo II; Polish: Jan Paweł II; born Karol Józef Wojtyła [ˈkarɔl ˈjuzɛv vɔjˈtɨwa];[b] 18 May 1920 – 2 April 2005) was head of the Catholic Church and sovereign of the Vatican City State from 1978 until his death in 2005.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pope_John_Paul_II

As May 18 dawned, Mount St. Helens's activity did not show any change from the pattern of the preceding month. The rates of bulge movement and sulfur dioxide emission, and ground temperature readings did not reveal any changes indicating a catastrophic eruption. USGS volcanologist David A. Johnston was on duty at an observation post around 6 mi (10 km) north of the volcano: as of 6:00 am, Johnston's measurements did not indicate any unusual activity.[9]

At 8:32 am, a magnitude-5.1 earthquake centered directly below the north slope triggered that part of the volcano to slide,[31] approximately 7–20 seconds after the shock,[9] followed a few seconds later by the main volcanic blast. The landslide, the largest subaerial landslide in recorded history, traveled at 110 to 155 mph (177 to 249 km/h) and moved across Spirit Lake's west arm. Part of it hit a 1,150 ft-high (350 m) ridge about 6 mi (10 km) north.[9] Some of the slide spilled over the ridge, but most of it moved 13 mi (21 km) down the North Fork Toutle River, filling its valley up to 600 feet (180 m) deep with avalanche debris.[31] An area of about 24 sq mi (62 km2) was covered, and the total volume of the deposit was about 0.7 cu mi (2.9 km3).[9]

Scientists were able to reconstruct the motion of the landslide from a series of rapid photographs by Gary Rosenquist, who was camping 11 mi (18 km) away from the blast 46°18′49″N 122°02′12″W.[9] Rosenquist, his party, and his photographs survived because the blast was deflected by local topography 1 mi (1.6 km) short of his location.[32]

Sound of the eruption of Mount St. Helens, as heard from 140 miles away

Duration: 44 seconds.0:44

Amateur recording of a series of booms produced by the eruption, as heard from the town of Newport, Oregon (audio filtered and amplified).

Problems playing this file? See media help.

Most of St. Helens's former north side became a rubble deposit 17 mi (27 km) long, averaging 150 ft (46 m) thick; the slide was thickest at 1 mi (1.6 km) below Spirit Lake and thinnest at its western margin.[9] The landslide temporarily displaced the waters of Spirit Lake to the ridge north of the lake, in a giant wave about 600 ft (180 m) high.[33] This, in turn, created a 295 ft (90 m) avalanche of debris consisting of the returning waters and thousands of uprooted trees and stumps. Some of these remained intact with roots, but most had been sheared off at the stump seconds earlier by the blast of superheated volcanic gas and ash that had immediately followed and overtaken the initial landslide. The debris was transported along with the water as it returned to its basin, raising the surface level of Spirit Lake by about 200 ft (61 m).[9]

Four decades after the eruption, floating log mats persist on Spirit Lake and nearby St. Helens Lake, changing position with the wind. The rest of the trees, especially those that were not completely detached from their roots, were turned upright by their own weight and became waterlogged, sinking into the muddy sediments at the bottom where they are in the process of becoming petrified in the anaerobic and mineral-rich waters. This provides insight into other sites with a similar fossil record.[34]

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1980_eruption_of_Mount_St._Helens

Updated May 18, 2023 Defense Primer: Directed-Energy Weapons Both the 2022 National Defense Strategy and the House Armed Services Committee’s bipartisan Future of Defense Task Force Report have identified directed energy as a technology that could have a significant impact on U.S. national security in the years to come. As the Department of Defense (DOD) continues to invest in directed-energy (DE) weapons, Congress may consider implications for defense authorizations, appropriations, and oversight. Overview DOD defines DE weapons as those using concentrated electromagnetic energy, rather than kinetic energy, to “incapacitate, damage, disable, or destroy enemy equipment, facilities, and/or personnel.” DE weapons include high-energy lasers (HEL) and high-powered microwave (HPM) weapons; other DE weapons, such as particle beam weapons, are outside the scope of this In Focus. HELs might be used by ground forces in short-range air defense (SHORAD), counter-unmanned aircraft systems (C-UAS), or counter-rocket, artillery, and mortar (C-RAM) missions. The weapons might be used to “dazzle” (i.e., temporarily disable) or damage satellites and sensors. This could in turn interfere with intelligence-gathering operations; military cmmunications; and positioning, navigation, and timing systems used for weapons targeting. In addition, HELs could theoretically provide options for boost-phase missile intercept, given their speed-of-light travel time; however, experts disagree on the affordability, technological feasibility, and utility of this application. In general, HELs might offer lower costs per shot and— assuming access to a sufficient power supply—deeper magazines compared with traditional munitions. (Although a number of different types of HELs exist, many of the United States’ current programs are solid state lasers, which are fueled by electrical power. As a result, the cost per shot is equivalent to the cost of the electrical power required to fire the shot.) This could in turn produce a favorable costexchange ratio for the defender, whose marginal costs would be significantly lower than those of the aggressor.

Similarly, HPM weapons could provide a nonkinetic means of disabling adversary electronics and communications systems. These weapons could potentially generate effects over wider areas than HELs, which emit a narrower beam of energy. As a result, some analysts have noted that HPM weapons might provide more effective area defense against missile salvos and swarms of drones. HPM weapons have also been considered for use as nonlethal “heat ray” systems for crowd control. Directed-Energy Weapons Programs A number of countries are investing in directed-energy weapons programs. This In Focus discusses a selection of unclassified DE weapons programs in three leading military powers: the United States, China, and Russia. United States DOD requested approximately $1 billion for unclassified DE programs in FY2024. (For additional information about specific U.S. DE weapons programs, see CRS Report R44175, Navy Lasers, Railgun, and Gun-Launched Guided Projectile: Background and Issues for Congress, by Ronald O'Rourke, and CRS Report R45098, U.S. Army WeaponsRelated Directed Energy (DE) Programs: Background and Potential Issues for Congress, by Andrew Feickert.) DOD does not currently have any DE programs of record. DOD directed energy programs are coordinated by the Principal Director for Directed Energy within the Office of the Under Secretary of Defense for Research and Engineering (OUSD[R&E]). The Principal Director for Directed Energy is additionally responsible for development and oversight of the Directed Energy Roadmap. According to OUSD(R&E), DOD’s current DE roadmap outlines DOD’s plan to increase power levels of DE weapons from around 150 kilowatts (kW—a unit of power), as is currently feasible, to 300 kW by FY2023, “with goal milestones to achieve 500 kW class with reduced size and weight by FY2025 and to further reduce size and weight and increase power to MW [megawatt] levels by FY2026.” For reference, although there is no consensus regarding the precise power level that would be needed to neutralize different target sets, some analysts believe that lasers of around 100 kW could engage unmanned aircraft systems, small boats, rockets, artillery, and mortars, whereas lasers of around 300 kW could additionally engage cruise missiles flying in certain profiles (i.e., flying across—rather than at—the laser). Lasers of 1 MW could potentially neutralize ballistic missiles and hypersonic weapons. In addition to the DE roadmap, OUSD(R&E) manages the High Energy Laser Scaling Initiative (HELSI), which former Principal Director for Directed Energy Dr. Jim Trebes notes is “to demonstrate laser output power scaling while maintaining or improving beam quality and efficiency.” HELSI is intended to strengthen the defense industrial base for potential future directed energy weapons by providing near-term prototyping opportunities for industry partners. Dr. Trebes additionally notes that OUSD(R&E) has completed a DOD-wide Laser Lethality Analysis Process Review to identify future needs for the Department and best practices for DE development and use. According to OUSD(R&E), DOD is also testing a Directed Defense Primer: Directed-Energy Weapons https://crsreports.congress.gov Energy Lethality Database that is to serve as a searchable repository for the department’s DE analyses. China According to the U.S.-China Economic and Security Review Commission, China has been developing DE weapons since at least the 1980s and has made steady progress in developing HPM and increasingly powerful HELs. China has reportedly developed a 30-kilowatt roadmobile HEL, LW-30, designed to engage unmanned aircraft systems and precision-guided weapons. Reports indicate that China is also developing an airborne HEL pod. According to the Defense Intelligence Agency, China is additionally pursuing DE weapons to disrupt, degrade, or damage satellites and their sensors and possibly already has a limited capability to employ laser systems against satellite sensors. China [has likely fielded] a ground-based laser weapon that can counter low-orbit spacebased sensors ... and by the mid-to-late 2020s, it may field higher power systems that extend the threat to the structures of non-optical satellites. Russia Russia has been conducting DE weapons research since the 1960s, with a particular emphasis on HELs. Russia has reportedly deployed the Peresvet ground-based HEL with several mobile intercontinental ballistic missile units. Although little is publicly known about Peresvet, including its power level, some analysts assert it is to dazzle satellites and provide point defense against unmanned aircraft systems. Russia’s deputy defense minister Alexei Krivoruchko has stated that efforts are underway to increase Peresvet’s power level and to deploy it on military aircraft. Reports suggest that Russia may also be developing HPMs as well as additional HELs capable of performing antisatellite missions. Potential Issues and Questions for Congress Technological Maturity Directed-energy weapons programs continue to face questions about their technological maturity, including the ability to improve beam quality and control to militarily useful levels and the ability to meet size, weight, and power (SWaP) and cooling requirements for integration into current platforms. Some DE systems are small enough to fit on military vehicles, but many require larger and/or fixed platforms that could potentially limit deployment options and operational utility. In what ways, if any, are DOD technology maturation efforts reducing the SWaP and cooling requirements of DE systems? Weapons Characteristics Although HELs may offer a lower cost per shot than traditional weapons such as missiles, they are also subject to a number of limitations. For example, atmospheric conditions (e.g., rain, fog, obscurants) and SWaP and cooling requirements can limit the range and beam quality of HELs, in turn reducing their effectiveness. Traditional weapons, in contrast, are not affected by these factors. How, if at all, might HEL limitations be mitigated by technological developments, concepts of operation, or other methods? What impact might a failure to mitigate these limitations have on future military operations? Mission Utility Given the strengths and weaknesses of DE weapons, DOD is continuing to examine their role within the military. DOD is additionally conducting multiple utility studies to analyze potential concepts of operation for DE weapons and to assess the scenarios in which they might be militarily useful. How might Congress draw upon the conclusions of these analyses as it conducts oversight of DE weapons programs? What is the appropriate balance between DE weapons and traditional munitions within the military’s portfolio of capabilities? Defense Industrial Base Some analysts have expressed concerns that, in the past, DOD did not provide stable funding for DE weapons programs or sufficient opportunities for the DE workforce. According to OUSD(R&E), HELSI is intended to address these concerns by providing industry with assured prototyping opportunities. In what ways, if any, has HELSI strengthened the defense industrial base for DE weapons? What, if any, challenges does the base continue to face and how might they be mitigated?

Intelligence Requirements

Some analysts have questioned whether DOD has sufficient knowledge of adversary DE weapons systems and materials to develop its weapons requirements. DOD is currently attempting to further define its DE collection requirements for the intelligence community (IC) through the Directed Energy Lethality Intelligence initiative. To what extent, if at all, is this initiative improving connectivity between DOD’s DE community and the IC? What collection requirements, if any, remain? Coordination within DOD Pursuant to Section 219 of the FY2017 National Defense Authorization Act (P.L. 114-328), OUSD(R&E)’s Principal Director for Directed Energy is tasked with coordinating DE efforts across DOD and with developing DOD’s Directed Energy Roadmap, which is to guide development efforts. To what extent are the military departments and defense agencies adhering to this roadmap? What, if any, additional authorities or structural changes would be required to ensure proper coordination throughout DOD? Related CRS Products CRS Report R46925, Department of Defense Directed Energy Weapons: Background and Issues for Congress, coordinated by Kelley M. Sayler. This report was originally co-authored by John Hoehn. Kelley M. Sayler, Analyst in Advanced Technology and Global Security IF11882 Defense Primer: Directed-Energy Weapons https://crsreports.congress.gov | IF11882 · VERSION 8 · UPDATED Disclaimer This document was prepared by the Congressional Research Service (CRS). CRS serves as nonpartisan shared staff to congressional committees and Members of Congress. It operates solely at the behest of and under the direction of Congress. Information in a CRS Report should not be relied upon for purposes other than public understanding of information that has been provided by CRS to Members of Congress in connection with CRS’s institutional role. CRS Reports, as a work of the United States Government, are not subject to copyright protection in the United States. Any CRS Report may be reproduced and distributed in its entirety without permission from CRS. However, as a CRS Report may include copyrighted images or material from a third party, you may need to obtain the permission of the copyright holder if you wish to copy or otherwise use copyrighted material"

https://crsreports.congress.gov/product/pdf/IF/IF11882

It's hard to see how the fishing industry will pick itself up again. Takeshi is moving away from the coast as is his neighbor and fellow fisherman. His wife has refused to return here since the tsunami hit. At the age of 77, he is unlikely to be able to start from scratch. But he picks up any remnants of his fishing gear he can find, just in case. What is left intact barely fills one small basket. His neighbor finds his clock. It has stopped at 3:22pm -- the exact moment his life changed and countless others ended." Misplaced trust: 30-foot tsunami wall didn't save Japanese village by Paul Hancocks

http://www.cnn.com/2011/WORLD/asiapcf/03/31/japan.tsunami.village/index.html

Skull and Bones, The Order, Order 322 or The Brotherhood of Death is an undergraduate senior secret student society at Yale University in New Haven, Connecticut."

"There is a secret that binds the two men who would be the next leader of the free world. President George W Bush and Senator John Kerry both spent a portion of their youth laying bare their sex lives in Gothic rituals presided over by a human skull and the skeletal remains of various other animal species in a windowless building known as the Tomb. They also formed an unusual attachment to the number 322, which holds a special resonance for the club's members." Skeletons in the closet

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2004/may/20/usa.internationaleducationnews

"It is perhaps worth noting, in light of George W.'s controversial episode at Bob Jones University and the specter of anti-Catholicism, that at one point in the proceedings every initiate kisses the slippered toe of the "Pope." At last the initiate is formally dubbed a Knight of Eulogia. Amid more raucous ritual he is cast from the room into the waiting arms of the patriarchs."

https://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2000/05/george-w-knight-of-eulogia/304686/

"A major landslide occurred 4 miles (6.4 km) east of Oso, Washington, United States, on March 22, 2014 (3/22/2014), at 10:37 a.m. local time. A portion of an unstable hill collapsed, sending mud and debris to the south across the North Fork of the Stillaguamish River, engulfing a rural neighborhood, and covering an area of approximately 1 square mile (2.6 km2). Forty-three people were killed and 49 homes and other structures destroyed."

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2014_Oso_mudslide

Published: 10 October 1996

Russian documents Set out 'tectonic weapon' research

Carl Levitin

https://www.nature.com/articles/383471a0

Extrusive (Volcanic) Rock Classification

Volcanic rocks are classified based on their chemical composition as determined by analytical techniques that identify the proportion of major elements found in them. Unlike for plutonic rocks, it is not possible to classify volcanic rocks based on the minerals found in them.

Some volcanic rocks contain some crystals (phenocrysts) that grew in the magma chamber prior to eruption, but others contain no crystals at all or are volcanic glass (obsidian).

In addition to the mafic (low silica) basalt, and the silicic rhyolite, several subdivisions exist between the two compositional end members.

https://www.nps.gov/subjects/geology/igneous.htm

THE CONCLAVE OR CELESTIAL CITY

Containing an epitome of the twelve degrees of the Philosophic Chamber of the Ancient and Accepted Rite.

The twelve degrees preceding the Rose Croix are as we have shown, associated with the twelve signs of the Zodiac.

From these fixed signs, the Rite passes to the Sun, Moon and the Planets.

From these the Rite looks to the four elements or four components of man, etc., and from these it considers the spirit and matter, or infinite and finite of the Universe and of man.

In the Rose Croix Degree, we have seen the son of masonry and heard the promise of universal peace and joy. Now let us proceed to seek the methods of realization, and learn how to restore the lost Eden and reedify the Celestial City."

Scotch Rite Masonry Illustrated

THE COMPLETE RITUAL OF THE

Ancient AND Accepted Scottish Rite,

PROFUSELY ILLUSTRATED.

Volume 2

https://dn790006.ca.archive.org/0/items/scotchritemasonr02blan/scotchritemasonr02blan.pdf

Ballistics is the field of mechanics concerned with the launching, flight behaviour and impact effects of projectiles, especially weapon munitions such as bullets, unguided bombs, rockets and the like; the science or art of designing and accelerating projectiles so as to achieve a desired performance.

A ballistic body is a free-moving body with momentum, which can be subject to forces such as those exerted by pressurized gases from a gun barrel or a propelling nozzle, normal force by rifling, and gravity and air drag during flight.

A ballistic missile is a missile that is guided only during the relatively brief initial phase of powered flight, with the trajectory subsequently governed by the laws of classical mechanics, in contrast to (for example) a cruise missile, which is aerodynamically guided in powered flight like a fixed-wing aircraft.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ballistics

MGM agrees to pay victims of Las Vegas shooting up to $800 million

Nation Oct 3, 2019 11:50 AM EST

FILE PHOTO: People stand behind police barrier tape outside the Luxor hotel Obelisk and the Mandalay Bay Resort and Casino, following a mass shooting at the Route 91 Festival in Las Vegas, Nevada, U.S., October 2, 2017. Photo by Mike Blake/Reuters

SAN DIEGO (AP) — Attorneys for thousands of victims of the deadliest mass shooting in modern U.S. history said Thursday that they reached a settlement expected to pay between $735 million and $800 million to those who sued over the Las Vegas massacre.

The amount of the settlement with MGM Resorts International depends on the number of plaintiffs who take part, according to a statement from Las Vegas law firm Eglet Adams, which represents nearly 2,500 victims and made the announcement just days after the second anniversary of the massacre.

Hundreds of lawsuits have been filed against the owner of the Mandalay Bay resort where the gunman opened fire into an outdoor concert on Oct. 1, 2017. The casino giant also owns the venue where 58 people died and hundreds were injured.

“Our goal has always been to resolve these matters so our community and the victims and their families can move forward in the healing process,” said Jim Murren, chairman and CEO of MGM Resorts. “This agreement with the plaintiffs’ counsel is a major step, and one that we hoped for a long time would be possible.”

An independent administrator will be appointed by a court to dole out money from the settlement fund, attorneys and MGM said. They expect to wrap up the process by late next year.

MGM’s insurers will fund a minimum of $735 million. Depending on the number of victims who participate, the company will contribute more, up to $800 million, according to the victims’ attorneys.

“Today’s agreement marks a milestone in the recovery process for the victims of the horrifying events of 1 October,” Robert Eglet, a lead plaintiffs’ counsel, said in the statement. “While nothing will be able to bring back the lives lost or undo the horrors so many suffered on that day, this settlement will provide fair compensation for thousands of victims and their families.”

He said the deal “represents good corporate citizenship” by MGM Resorts.

The statement comes as another attorney for victims planned a news conference on “extremely important developments” Thursday in San Diego.

https://www.pbs.org/newshour/nation/mgm-agrees-to-pay-victims-of-las-vegas-shooting-up-to-800-million

In Canaanite mythology there were twin mountains, Targhizizi and Tharumagi, which hold the firmament up above the earth-circling ocean, thereby bounding the earth. W. F. Albright, for example, says that El Shaddai is a derivation of a Semitic stem that appears in the Akkadian shadû ('mountain') and shaddā'û or shaddû'a ('mountain-dweller'), one of the names of Amurru. Philo of Byblos states that Atlas was one of the elohim, which would clearly fit into the story of El Shaddai as "God of the Mountain(s)". Harriet Lutzky has presented evidence that Shaddai was an attribute of a Semitic goddess, linking the epithet with Hebrew šad, 'breast', as "the one of the breast". The idea of two mountains being associated here as the breasts of the Earth, fits into the Canaanite mythology quite well. The ideas of pairs of mountains seem to be quite common in Canaanite mythology. The late period of this cosmology makes it difficult to tell what influences (Roman, Greek, or Hebrew) may have informed Philo's writings.

Mythology

In the Baal Cycle, Ba'al Hadad is challenged by and defeats Yam using two magical weapons (called "Driver" and "Chaser") made for him by Kothar-wa-Khasis. Afterward, with the help of Athirat and Anat, Ba'al persuades El to allow him a palace. El approves, and the palace is built by Kothar-wa-Khasis. After the palace is constructed, Ba'al gives forth a thunderous roar out of the palace window and challenges Mot. Mot enters through the window and swallows Ba'al, sending him to the underworld. With no one to give rain, there is a terrible drought in Ba'al's absence. The other deities, especially El and Anat, are distraught that Ba'al had been taken to the underworld. Anat goes to the underworld, attacks Mot with a knife, grinds him up into pieces, and scatters him far and wide. With Mot defeated, Ba'al is able to return and refresh the Earth with rain.[3]

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Canaanite_religion

Beelzebub or Baʿal Zebub (/biːˈɛlzəbʌb, ˈbiːl-/[1] bee-EL-zə-bub, BEEL-; Hebrew: בַּעַל־זְבוּב‎ Baʿal-zəḇūḇ), also spelled Beelzebul or Belzebuth, and occasionally known as the Lord of the Flies, is a name derived from a Philistine god, formerly worshipped in Ekron. In some Abrahamic religions he is described as a major demon. The name Beelzebub is associated with the Canaanite god Baal.

In theological sources, predominantly Christian, Beelzebub is another name for Satan. He is known in demonology as one of the seven deadly demons or seven princes of Hell, Beelzebub representing gluttony and envy. The Dictionnaire Infernal describes Beelzebub as a being capable of flying, known as the "Lord of the Flyers", or the "Lord of the Flies".

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Beelzebub

8 Again, the devil taketh him up into an exceeding high mountain, and sheweth him all the kingdoms of the world, and the glory of them;

9 And saith unto him, All these things will I give thee, if thou wilt fall down and worship me.

10 Then saith Jesus unto him, Get thee hence, Satan: for it is written, Thou shalt worship the Lord thy God, and him only shalt thou serve.

11 Then the devil leaveth him, and, behold, angels came and ministered unto him.

Matthew 4:8-11

Rabbinic tradition equates Baʿal Berith with Beelzebub, "the lord of flies," the god of Philistine Ekron (2 Kings 1:2).[12] He was worshipped in the shape of a fly; and Jewish tradition states that so addicted were the Jews to his cult that they would carry an image of him in their pockets, producing it, and kissing it from time to time. Baʿal Zebub was called Baʿal Berith because such Jews might be said to make a covenant of devotion with the idol, being unwilling to part with it for a single moment.[13] According to another conception, Baʿal Berith was an obscene article of idolatrous worship, possibly a simulacrum priapi.[14] This is evidently based on the later use of the word "berit" to refer to circumcision.[12]

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Baal_Berith

Smith's Bible Dictionary - Baal

Baal, [N] [B] [E] [H]

the supreme male divinity of the Phoenician and Canaanitish nations, as Ashtoreth was their supreme female divinity. Some suppose Baal to correspond to the sun and Ashtoreth to the moon; others that Baal was Jupiter and Ashtoreth Venus. There can be no doubt of the very high antiquity of the worship of Baal. It prevailed in the time of Moses among the Moabites and Midianites, ( Numbers 22:41 ) and through them spread to the Israelites. ( Numbers 25:3-18 ; 4:3 ) In the times of the kings it became the religion of the court and people of the ten tribes, ( 1 Kings 16:31-33 ; 1 Kings 18:19 1 Kings 18:22 ) and appears never to have been permanently abolished among them. ( 2 Kings 17:16 ) Temples were erected to Baal in Judah, ( 1 Kings 16:32 ) and he was worshipped with much ceremony. ( 1 Kings 18:19 1 Kings 18:26-28 ; 2 Kings 10:22 ) The attractiveness of this worship to the Jews undoubtedly grew out of its licentious character. We find this worship also in Phoenician colonies. The religion of the ancient British islands much resembled this ancient worship of Baal, and may have been derived from it. Nor need we hesitate to regard the Babylonian Bel, ( Isaiah 46:1 ) or Beaus, as essentially identical with Baal, though perhaps under some modified form. The plural, BAALIM, is found frequently, showing that he was probably worshipped under different compounds, among which appear--

BAAL-BERITH (the covenant Baal ), ( Judges 8:33 ; 9:4 ) the god who comes into covenant with the worshippers.

BAAL-ZEBUB (lord of the fly ), and worshipped at Ekron. ( 2 Kings 1:2 2 Kings 1:3 2 Kings 1:16 )

BAAL-HANAN. a. The name of one of the early kings of Edom. ( Genesis 36:38 Genesis 36:39 ; 1 Chronicles 1:49 1 Chronicles 1:50 ) b. The name of one of Davids officers, who had the superintendence of his olive and sycamore plantations. ( 1 Chronicles 27:28 )

BAAL-PEOR (lord of the opening , i.e. for others to join in the worship). We have already referred to the worship of this god. The narrative (Numb 25) seems clearly to show that this form of Baal-worship was connected with licentious rites.

[N] indicates this entry was also found in Nave's Topical Bible

[B] indicates this entry was also found in Baker's Evangelical Dictionary

[E] indicates this entry was also found in Easton's Bible Dictionary

[H] indicates this entry was also found in Hitchcock's Bible Names

Bibliography Information

Smith, William, Dr. "Entry for 'Baal,'". "Smith's Bible Dictionary". . 1901.

Smith's Bible Dictionary - Baal

Baal, [N] [B] [E] [H]

geographical. This word occurs as the prefix or suffix to the names of several places in Palestine, some of which are as follows:

BAAL a town of Simeon, named only in ( 1 Chronicles 4:33 ) which from the parallel list in ( Joshua 19:8 ) seems to have been identical with BAALATH-BEER.

BAALAH (mistress ). a. Another name for KIRJATH-JEARIM, or KIRJATH BAAL, the well-known town now Kuriet el Enab . ( Joshua 15:9 Joshua 15:10 ; 1 Chronicles 13:6 ) b. A town in the south of Judah, ( Joshua 15:29 ) which in Josh 19:3 is called BALAH, and in the parallel list, ( 1 Chronicles 4:29 ) BILHAH.

BAALATH (mistress ), a town of Dan named with Gibbethon, Gath-rim-mon and other Philistine places. ( Joshua 19:44 )

BAALATH-BEER (lord of the well ). BAAL 1, a town among those in the south part of Judah, given to Simeon, which also bore the name of RAMATH-NEGEB, or "the height of the south." ( Joshua 19:8 )

BAAL-GAD (lord of fortune ), used to denote the most northern, ( Joshua 11:17 ; 12:7 ) or perhaps northwestern, ( Joshua 13:5 ) point to which Joshuas victories extended. It was in all probability a Phoenician or Canaanite sanctuary of Baal under the aspect of Gad or Fortune.

BAAL-HAMON (lord of a multitude ), a place at which Solomon had a vineyard, evidently of great extent. ( Solomon 8:11 )

BAAL-HAZOR (village of Baal ), a place where Absalom appears to have had a sheep-farm, and where Amnon was murdered. ( 2 Samuel 13:23 )

MOUNT MOUNT BAAL-HERMON (Lord of Hermon ), ( Judges 3:3 ) and simply Baal-hermon. ( 1 Chronicles 5:23 ) This is usually considered as a distinct place from Mount Hermon; but we know that this mountain had at least three names ( 3:9 ) and Baal-hermon may have been a fourth in use among the Phoenician worshippers.

BAAL-MEON (lord of the house ), one of the towns which were built by the Reubenites. ( Numbers 32:38 ) It also occurs in ( 1 Chronicles 5:8 ) and on each occasion with Nebo. In the time of Ezekiel it was Moabite, one of the cities which were the "glory of the country." ( Ezekiel 25:9 )

BAAL-PERAZIM (lord of divisions ), the scene of a victory of David over the Philistines, and of a great destruction of their images. ( 2 Samuel 5:20 ; 1 Chronicles 14:11 ) See ( Isaiah 28:21 ) where it is called MOUNT MOUNT PERAZIM.

BAAL-SHALISHA (lord of Shalisha ), a place named only in ( 2 Kings 4:42 ) apparently not far from Gilgal; comp. ( 2 Kings 4:38 )

BAAL-TAMAR (lord of the palm tree ), a place named only in ( Judges 20:33 ) as near Gibeah of Benjamin. The palm tree (tamar ) of Deborah, ( Judges 4:5 ) was situated somewhere in the locality, and is possibly alluded to.

BAAL-ZEPHON (lord of the north ), a place in Egypt near where the Israelites crossed the Red Sea. ( Numbers 33:7 ; Ezekiel 14:2 Ezekiel 14:9 ) We place Baal-zephon on the western shore of the Gulf of Suez, a little below its head, which at that time was about 30 or 40 miles northward of the Present head.

https://www.biblestudytools.com/dictionary/baal/

Throughout Zoroastrian history, shrines and temples have been the focus of worship and pilgrimage for adherents of the religion. Early Zoroastrians were recorded as worshiping in the 5th century BCE on mounds and hills where fires were lit below the open skies.[58] In the wake of Achaemenid expansion, shrines were constructed throughout the empire and particularly influenced the role of Mithra, Aredvi Sura Anahita, Verethragna and Tishtrya, alongside other traditional Yazata who all have hymns within the Avesta and also local deities and culture-heroes. Today, enclosed and covered fire temples tend to be the focus of community worship where fires of varying grades are maintained by the clergy assigned to the temples.[59]

The incorporation of cultural and local rituals is quite common and traditions have been passed down in historically Zoroastrian communities such as herbal healing practices, wedding ceremonies, and the like.[60][61][31] Traditionally, Zoroastrian rituals have also included shamanic elements involving mystical methods such as spirit travel to the invisible realm and involving the consumption of fortified wine, Haoma, mang, and other ritual aids.[62][33][63][64][65]

In Zoroastrianism, water (aban) and fire (atar) are agents of ritual purity, and the associated purification ceremonies are considered the basis of ritual life. In Zoroastrian cosmogony, water and fire are respectively the second and last primordial elements to have been created, and scripture considers fire to have its origin in the waters (re. which conception see Apam Napat). Both water and fire are considered life-sustaining, and both water and fire are represented within the precinct of a fire temple. Zoroastrians usually pray in the presence of some form of fire (which can be considered evident in any source of light), and the culminating rite of the principal act of worship constitutes a "strengthening of the waters". Fire is considered a medium through which spiritual insight and wisdom are gained, and water is considered the source of that wisdom. Both fire and water are also hypostasized as the Yazatas Atar and Anahita, with worship hymns and litanies dedicated to them.[citation needed]

A corpse is considered a host for decay, i.e., of druj. Consequently, scripture enjoins the safe disposal of the dead in a manner such that a corpse does not pollute the good creation. These injunctions are the doctrinal basis of the fast-fading traditional practice of ritual exposure, most commonly identified with the so-called Towers of Silence for which there is no standard technical term in either scripture or tradition. Ritual exposure is currently mainly practiced by Zoroastrian communities of the Indian subcontinent, in locations where it is not illegal and diclofenac poisoning has not led to the virtual extinction of scavenger birds. Other Zoroastrian communities either cremate their dead, or bury them in graves that are cased with lime mortar.[citation needed]

The central ritual of Zoroastrianism is the Yasna, which is a recitation of the eponymous book of the Avesta and sacrificial ritual ceremony involving Haoma.[67] Extensions to the Yasna ritual are possible through use of the Visperad and Vendidad, but such an extended ritual is rare in modern Zoroastrianism.[68][69] The Yasna itself descended from Indo-Iranian sacrificial ceremonies and animal sacrifice of varying degrees are mentioned in the Avesta and are still practiced in Zoroastrianism albeit through reduced forms such as the sacrifice of fat before meals.[70] High rituals such as the Yasna are considered to be the purview of the Mobads with a corpus of individual and communal rituals and prayers included in the Khordeh Avesta.[67][71]

A Zoroastrian is welcomed into the faith through the Navjote/Sedreh Pushi ceremony, which is traditionally conducted during the later childhood or pre-teen years of the aspirant, though there is no defined age limit for the ritual.[31][72] After the ceremony, Zoroastrians are encouraged to wear their sedreh (ritual shirt) and kusti (ritual girdle) daily as a spiritual reminder and for mystical protection, though reformist Zoroastrians tend to only wear them during festivals, ceremonies, and prayers.[73][31][72]

Historically, Zoroastrians are encouraged to pray the five daily Gāhs and to maintain and celebrate the various holy festivals of the Zoroastrian calendar, which can differ from community to community.[74][75] Zoroastrian prayers, called manthras, are conducted usually with hands outstretched in imitation of Zoroaster's prayer style described in the Gathas and are of a reflectionary and supplicant nature believed to be endowed with the ability to banish evil.[76][77][52] Devout Zoroastrians are known to cover their heads during prayer, either with traditional topi, scarves, other headwear, or even just their hands. However, full coverage and veiling which is traditional in Islamic practice is not a part of Zoroastrianism and Zoroastrian women in Iran wear their head coverings displaying hair and their faces to defy mandates by the Islamic Republic of Iran.[78]

Late antiquity

As late as the Parthian period, a form of Zoroastrianism was without a doubt the dominant religion in the Armenian lands.[115] The Sassanids aggressively promoted the Zurvanite form of Zoroastrianism, often building fire temples in captured territories to promote the religion. During the period of their centuries-long suzerainty over the Caucasus, the Sassanids made attempts to promote Zoroastrianism there with considerable successes, and it was prominent in the pre-Christian Caucasus (especially modern-day Azerbaijan).[citation needed]

Due to its ties to the Christian Roman Empire, Persia's arch-rival since Parthian times, the Sassanids were suspicious of Roman Christianity, and after the reign of Constantine the Great, sometimes persecuted it.[116] In 451 CE, The Sassanid authority clashed with their Armenian subjects in the Battle of Avarayr, making them officially break with the Roman Church. But the Sassanids tolerated or even sometimes favored the Christianity of the Church of the East. The acceptance of Christianity in Georgia (Caucasian Iberia) saw the Zoroastrian religion there slowly but surely decline,[117] but as late the 5th century CE, it was still widely practised as something like a second established religion.[118][119]

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zoroastrianism

Thirteenth Rule. To be right in everything, we ought always to hold that the white which I see, is black, if the Hierarchical Church so decides it, believing that between Christ our Lord, the Bridegroom, and the Church, His Bride, there is the same Spirit which governs and directs us for the salvation of our souls. Because by the same Spirit and our Lord Who gave the ten Commandments, our holy Mother the Church is directed and governed."

The Spiritual Exercises of Ignatius of Loyola

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1YC_luOfFWl0Bm0BWkbANKZGC1kkmdHQf/view?usp=sharing

page 221

The Constitutions of The Society of Jesus and Their Complimentary Norms

A Complete English Translation of the Official Latin Texts

THE INSTITUTE OF JESUIT SOURCES

SAINT LOUIS, 1996

https://web.archive.org/web/20200211182223/https://jesuitas.lat/uploads/the-constitutions-of-the-society-of-jesus-and-their-complementary-norms/Constitutions%20and%20Norms%20SJ%20ingls.pdf

India and Persia were to be overcome by force of arms, he announced. To that end, many more were to be enrolled into the ranks of the Illuminated. Enthusiastic scenes throughout Afghanistan resulted from the proclamation, which was carried far and wide, to the accompaniment of kettle-drums, wild sword-dances. [And] when he was ready Bayezid attended by his halka, or circle of dervishes, led the campaign into the lush land of India. Intercepted by the Moshin Khan whom he had earlier escaped, he was wounded, put to flight, and [he] eventually died as a result of this encounter. "His son, Omar Ansari, proclaimed himself leader, and immediately ordered an attack upon the Pathan tribe of the Yusufzai who had allied themselves with the Moghul. He was killed by the hillmen, and his own son, 'The Servant of the One', took over the leadership. [And] by the middle of the seventeenth century this youth had been killed defending his castle against a Moghul expeditionary force. His infant son escaped with some of his followers, into Afghanistan proper, where the cult was restarted. The descendants of this Abdul-Qadir (Servant of the Powerful) continued to rule the fanatics, and to send their teachers far and wide. The creed eventually split into two divisions: the military and the religious, and nowadays it is only the followers of the latter [WAY] who survived, still a secret cult, which might, given the right conditions, have touched off a movement as important as that of the Assassins. "[Now,] forty years after the last religio-military leader of the Afghan Illuminated Ones died, a society of the same name (the Illuminati) came into being in Germany, formed, it is said, by Adam Weishaupt, the [young Jesuit priest, a] professor of Canon Law at [the Jesuit] Ingolstadt University. Coincidences of date and beliefs connect these Bavarian Illuminati with the Afghan ones, and also with the other cults which called themselves 'Illuminated'. [William Cooper: In actual fact, they are all the same.] [In] the beginning of the seventeenth century saw the foundation of the Illuminated Ones of Spain -- the Alumbrados, condemned in an edict of the Grand Inquisition of 1623."

[William Cooper]: Out of which the condemned Ignatius Loyola emerged as a man, as a man immune to prosecution, arrest, or accusation from any king, prince, or prelate, as the head of one of the most powerful secret societies ever organized, the Society of Jesus, now known as the Jesuits. Ignatius Loyola had been the leader of the Alumbrados in Spain. And it was his sect, the illuminated ones, or the Alumbrados, which became the Society of Jesus.

Hour 15: The Roshaniya (aired March 9th, 1993)

https://viefag.files.wordpress.com/2011/08/transcripts-of-william-cooper-s-mystery-babylon-series.pdf

Thus, contrary to accepted opinion the Illuminati did not begin with Adam Weishaupt, but had always been a major influence in Jesuitism, from the time the Society of Jesus was founded by Loyola. In fact, Leopold Engel says that Weishaupt was the head of the revived Order of the Illuminati. Indeed, Weishaupt himself originally claimed that the Illuminati originated from the Zoroastrian religion of the last King of Persia, Yadzegerd III (632-651 B.C.).

Catholic priest Fr. John Hogan is even more conclusive. He writes: "The Jesuits are well-known... [as] ... reforms of older orders..." And the Jesuit priest Malachi Martin said the same thing. We quote again the observation of Schuster: "It is a strange phenomenon in the history of the Roman church, [that] every time there is a crisis of extraordinary value, new Masonic Orders are called forth and that is how the Jesuit came into being.

If we look at the Illuminati we will see a direct semblance between Jesuitism and Illuminism. No marvel, for as we saw, Weishaupt based his Order on the Constitutions of the Jesuits! Thus it is impossible to resist the conviction that Weishaupt simply disavowed and distanced himself from the Jesuits after 1773 to keep his professorship, while remaining a Jesuit, and so he was able to more effectively work for the revival of his Order." [Emphasis supplied]"

page 265

"Ruling Through the Bavarian Illuminati"

Codeword Barbelon book One

by P.D. Stuart

What does it mean to be double-minded?

The term double-minded comes from the Greek word dipsuchos, meaning “a person with two minds or souls.” It’s interesting that this word appears only in the book of James (James 1:8; 4:8). Bible scholars conclude that James might have coined this word. To grasp the full meaning of this word, it is best to understand how it is used within its context.

James writes of the doubting person that he is “like a wave of the sea, blown and tossed by the wind. That man should not think he will receive anything from the Lord; he is a double-minded man, unstable in all he does” (James 1:6–8). A doubter is a double-minded person. Jesus had in mind such a person when He spoke of the one who tries to serve two masters (Matthew 6:24). As such, he is “unstable,” which comes from a Greek word meaning “unsteady, wavering, in both his character and feelings.”

A double-minded person is restless and confused in his thoughts, his actions, and his behavior. Such a person is always in conflict with himself. One torn by such inner conflict can never lean with confidence on God and His gracious promises. Correspondingly, the term unstable is analogous to a drunken man unable to walk a straight line, swaying one way, then another. He has no defined direction and as a result doesn’t get anywhere. Such a person is “unstable in all he does.”

Those who are double-minded do not have the faith spoken of in Hebrews 11:1, 3: “Now faith is being sure of what we hope for and certain of what we do not see. . . . By faith we understand that the universe was formed at God’s command, so that what is seen was not made out of what was visible.” We cannot be both “certain” and doubting, as is the double-minded person. One part of his mind is sure of something, while the other part doubts. It brings to mind the “pushmi-pullyu” of the Dr. Doolittle stories, an animal with a head at either end of its body and which was constantly trying to walk in two directions at once. Such is the double-minded man.

Jesus declared, “No one can serve two masters. Either he will hate the one and love the other, or he will be devoted to the one and despise the other” (Matthew 6:24). God and the things of this world are of such opposite natures that it is impossible to love either one completely without hating the other. Those who try to love both will become unstable in all their ways. If someone struggles with being double-minded, he or she should read, study, and memorize the Word, for it is the Word of God that produces faith (Romans 10:17). And he or she should pray for faith. God freely gives what is good to those who ask Him (Luke 11:9–12), and it’s good to ask for an increase of faith (Luke 17:5; Mark 9:24).

https://www.gotquestions.org/double-minded.html

James 1

1599 Geneva Bible

The [a]General Epistle of James

1 4 He entreateth of patience, 6 of faith, 10 and of lowliness of mind in rich men. 13 That tentations come not of God for our evil, 17 because he is the author of all goodness. 21 In what manner the word of life must be received.

1 James a servant of God, and of the Lord Jesus Christ, to the twelve Tribes, which are [b]scattered abroad, salutation.

2 [c]My brethren, [d]count it exceeding joy, [e]when ye fall into divers tentations,

3 [f]Knowing that the [g]trying of your faith bringeth forth patience,

4 [h]And let patience have her perfect work, that ye may be perfect and entire, lacking nothing.

5 [i]If any of you lack [j]wisdom, let him ask of God, which giveth to all men liberally, and reproacheth no man, and it shall be given him.

6 But let him ask in faith, and [k]waver not: [l]for he that wavereth, is like a wave of the sea, tossed of the wind, and carried away.

7 Neither let that man think that he shall receive anything of the Lord.

8 A double minded man is unstable in [m]all his ways.

9 [n]Let the brother of [o]low degree rejoice in that he is exalted:

10 [p]Again, he that is [q]rich, in that he is made low: [r]for as the flower of the grass, shall he vanish away.

11 For as when the sun riseth with heat, then the grass withereth, and his flower falleth away, and the goodly shape of it perisheth: even so shall the rich man wither away in all his [s]ways.

12 [t]Blessed is the man, that endureth [u]tentation: for when he is tried, he shall receive the crown of life, which the Lord hath promised to them that love him.

13 [v]Let no man say when he is [w]tempted, I am tempted of God: [x]for God cannot be tempted with evil, neither tempteth he any man.

14 But every man is tempted, when he is drawn away by his own concupiscence, and is enticed.

15 Then when lust hath conceived, it bringeth forth [y]sin, and sin when it is finished, bringeth forth death.

16 [z]Err not my dear brethren.

17 Every good giving and every perfect gift is from above, and cometh down from the [aa]Father of lights, with whom is no variableness, neither [ab]shadow of turning.

18 [ac]Of his own [ad]will begat he us with the word of truth, that we should be as the [ae]firstfruits of his creatures.

19 Wherefore my dear brethren, let every man be swift to hear, slow to speak, and slow to wrath.

20 For the wrath of man doth not accomplish the [af]righteousness of God.

21 Wherefore lay apart all filthiness, and superfluity of maliciousness, and receive with [ag]meekness the word that is grafted in you, which is able to save your souls.

22 [ah]And be ye doers of the word, and not hearers only, [ai]deceiving your own selves.

23 [aj]For if any hear the word, and do it not, he is like unto a man, that beholdeth his [ak]natural face in a glass.

24 For when he hath considered himself, he goeth his way, and forgetteth immediately what manner of one he was.

25 But who so looketh in the perfect law of liberty, and continueth therein, he not being a forgetful hearer, but a doer of the work, shall be blessed in his [al]deed.

26 [am]If any man among you seem religious, and refraineth not his tongue, but deceiveth his [an]own heart, this man’s religion is vain.

27 [ao]Pure religion and undefiled before God, even the Father, is this, to [ap]visit the fatherless, and widows in their adversity, and to keep himself unspotted of the world.

Footnotes

James 1:1 That is, written to no one man, city or country, but to all the Jews generally, being now dispersed.

James 1:1 To all the believing Jews, of what Tribe soever they be, and are dispersed through the whole world.

James 1:2 The first place or part touching comfort in afflictions, wherein we ought not be cast down and be fainthearted, but rather rejoice and be glad.

James 1:2 Seeing their condition was miserable in that scattering abroad, he doth well to begin as he doth.

James 1:2 The first argument, because our faith is tried through afflictions: which ought to be most pure, for so it is behoovable for us.

James 1:3 The second, Because patience, far passing and most excellent virtue, is by this means engendered in us.

James 1:3 That wherewith your faith is tried, to wit, those manifold temptations.

James 1:4 The third argument propounded in manner of an exhortation, that true and continual patience may be discerned from fained and for a time. The cross is as it were the instrument wherewith God doth polish and [re]fine us. Therefore the work and effect of afflictions, is the perfecting of us in Christ.

James 1:5 An answer to a privy objection: It is easily said, but it is not so easily done. He answereth that we need in this case a far other manner of wisdom, than the wisdom of man, to judge those things best for us, which are most contrary to the flesh: but yet we shall easily obtain this gift of wisdom, if we ask it rightly, that is, with a sure confidence of God, who is most bountiful and liberal.

James 1:5 By wisdom he meaneth the knowledge of that doctrine whereof mention was made before, to wit, wherefore we are afflicted of God, and what fruit we have to reap of affliction.

James 1:6 Why then what need other Mediator?

James 1:6 A digression or going aside from his matter, against prayers which are conceived with a doubting mind, whereas we have a certain promise of God, and this is that second part of the Epistle.

James 1:8 In all his thoughts and his deeds.

James 1:9 He returneth to his purpose, repeating the proposition, which is, that we must rejoice in the cross, for it doth not press us down, but exalt us.lia

James 1:9 Who is afflicted with poverty, or contempt, or with any kind of calamity.

James 1:10 Before he concludeth, he giveth a doctrine contrary to the former: to wit, how we ought to use prosperity, which is plenty of all things: to wit, so that no man therefore please himself, but be so much the more void of pride.

James 1:10 Who hath all things at his will.

James 1:10 An argument taken of the very nature of the things themselves, for that they are most vain and uncertain.

James 1:11 Whatsoever he either purposeth in his mind, or doeth.

James 1:12 The conclusion: Therefore we must patiently bear the cross: and he addeth a fourth argument, which comprehendeth the sum of all the former, to wit, because we come by this way to the crown of life, but yet of grace according to the promise.

James 1:12 Affliction whereby the Lord trieth him.

James 1:13 The third part of this Epistle, wherein he descendeth from outward tentations, that is, from afflictions, whereby God trieth us, to inward, that is, to those lusts whereby we are stirred up to do evil. The sum is this: Every man is the author of these temptations to himself, and not God: for we bear about in our bosoms that wicked corruption, which taketh occasions by what means soever, to stir up evil motions in us, whence out at length proceed wicked doing, and in conclusion followeth death the just reward of them.

James 1:13 When he is provoked to do evil.

James 1:13 Here is a reason showed, why God cannot be the author of evil doing in us, because he desireth not evil.

James 1:15 By sin is meant in this place actual sin.

James 1:16 Another reason taken of contraries: God is the author of all goodness, and so, that he is always like himself; how then can he be thought to be author of evil?

James 1:17 From him who is the fountain and author of all goodness.

James 1:17 He goeth on in the metaphor: for the sun by his manifold and sundry kinds of turning, maketh hours, days, months, years, light and darkness.

James 1:18 The fourth part concerning the excellency and fruit of the word of God. The sum is this: we must hear the word of God most carefully and diligently, seeing it is the seed, wherewith God of his free favor and love hath begotten us unto himself, picking us out of the number of his creatures. And the Apostle condemneth two faults, which do greatly trouble us in this matter, to wit, for that we so please ourselves, that we had rather speak ourselves than hear God speaking: yea, we snuff and are angry when we are reprehended: against which faults, he setteth a peaceable and quiet mind, and such an one as is desirous of purity.

James 1:18 This is it which Paul calleth gracious favor, and good will, which is the fountain of our salvation.

James 1:18 As it were an holy kind of offering, taken out of the residue of man.

James 1:20 That which God appointeth.

James 1:21 By meekness, he meaneth modesty, and whatsoever is contrary to an haughty and proud stomach.

James 1:22 Another admonition. Therefore is God’s word heard, that we may frame our lives according to the prescript thereof.

James 1:22 He addeth reasons, and those most weighty: first, because they that do otherwise, do very much hurt themselves.

James 1:23 Secondly, because they lose the chiefest use of God’s word, which correct not by it the faults that they know.

James 1:23 He alludeth to that natural spot, to which is contrary that purity whereunto we are born again, the lively image whereof we behold in the Law.

James 1:25 Behaving himself so: for works do show faith.

James 1:26 The third admonition: The word of God prescribeth a rule not only to do well, but also to speak well.

James 1:26 The fountain of all brabbling, and cursed speaking, and sauciness, is this, that men know not themselves.

James 1:27 The fourth: the true service of God standeth in charity toward our neighbors (especially such as need others’ help, as the fatherless and widows), and purity of life.

James 1:27 To have a care of them, and to help them as much as we can.

https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=James%201&version=GNV

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