“Jesus said unto her, I am the resurrection, and the life: he that believeth in me, though he were dead, yet shall he live: And whosoever liveth and believeth in me shall never die. Believest thou this?”
(John 11:25-26)
I AM The RESURRECTION

***

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Click to View PDF online
or Right-click to Download PDF.

Who Is Jesus

***

WND

'BETRAYAL': JAMES DOBSON UNLOADS ON REPUBLICANS

'Christians should be outraged, once again' by $500 million for abortionists

Bob Unruh

March 28, 2018

Dr. James Dobson

Dr. James Dobson, who for decades has been the radio voice for Christians on children, family, life and marriage, first with Focus on the Family and now with Family Talk radio, says it’s an outrage that Congress has funded the abortionists at Planned Parenthood with another $500 million.

“While there are multiple reasons for which conservatives should take issue with such a bill, Christians specifically should be outraged by the inclusion, once again, of half a billion dollars in taxpayer funding for the country’s number one abortion provider, Planned Parenthood,” he said.

The omnibus spending bill, all $1.3 trillion of it, was passed with virtually no evaluation by Congress and signed Friday by President Trump, who said he would never sign such a bloated spending bill again.

The 2,200 pages of the bill were available to Congress for only a little over a day before the vote, virtually ensuring that no one could study what is in it.

Trump lamented that the narrow GOP majority in the Senate required the inclusion of many Democrat perks, including the Planned Parenthood funding.

“In passing the very immoral omnibus spending bill, the Republican establishment in both the House and the Senate has betrayed those who put them in office in the first place,” Dobson said Wednesday.

He said that while the Hyde Amendment “makes it technically illegal to use taxpayer dollars to fund abortions, we know full well that these resources will be used to promote and expand an organization that many Americans find abhorrent and incompatible with our Christian faith.”

“Along with millions of other evangelicals, I am beyond disappointed that even while conservatives hold the presidency and both houses of Congress, we were unable to secure much more in this bill,” Dobson said. “Let this betrayal be a reminder to all those who fight on the side of life, that the pro-abortion forces in this nation will never stop and therefore, we too must always remain vigilant.”

Dobson said he and his pro-life allies believe they are closer to achieving “our ultimate goal of overturning Roe v. Wade than at any other point in the last 45 years.”

“So close to the finish line, we must redouble our efforts to ensure that indeed, never again will the American people allow a bill like the omnibus disaster to pass through a government that is supposed to represent our interests. Please join me in the upcoming 2018 midterm elections, in voting for only those who vow to defund Planned Parenthood once and for all.”

Dobson, Christian leader, author and psychologist, has written dozens of books and has advised several presidents on family issues.

He wasn’t the only critic of the cash infusion for the abortion industry, which has been rocked in recent years by a series of undercover videos revealing abortionists lucrative trade in the body parts of unborn children.

One abortionist argued for higher pay because, “I want a Lamborghini.”

A writer at the libertarian Reason.com said the abortion funding means GOP lawmakers either don’t care or realize they can’t “run for re-election on promises to cut funding for Planned Parenthood if they actually cut funding for Planned Parenthood.”

“When the American people sent us to Congress,” Meadows said, “their message was loud and their mandate clear: Secure the border … defund Planned Parenthood; gut wasteful spending; drain the swamp and change the unsustainable way Washington, D.C., does business. This budget embraces the polar opposite of these principles.”

Sen. Rand Paul, R-Ky., turned sarcastic: “It’s a good thing we have Republican control of Congress or the Democrats might bust the budgets caps, fund planned parenthood and Obamacare, and sneak gun control without due process into an Omni … wait, what?”

The Hill reported conservatives in Congress kept trying to amend the bill up to the last minute.

Rep. Tom Garrett, R-Va., had proposed defunding Planned Parenthood, but the majority refused to go along.

Dobson, who only occasionally speaks out publicly on issues, instead choosing to work through his radio audience, his books and other media, spoke out when Iceland boasted it was eliminating Down syndrome through abortion.

The Daily Signal reported Down syndrome is virtually disappearing in Iceland.

“More accurately, people with Down syndrome are being eliminated in Iceland through abortion,” the report said. “As prenatal testing becomes more and more widespread across the world, the number of babies born with Down syndrome and other conditions has decreased because when parents opt for screening that reveals an abnormality, many opt to end the pregnancy.”

Dobson, who holds 18 honorary doctoral degrees, said at the time, “I have rarely seen a story that so closely resembles Nazi-era eugenics as a recent report about Iceland ‘eradicating’ nearly 100 percent of Down syndrome births through abortion.

“This is a trend closely followed by other Western nations including Denmark, France and even the United States. We should all be deeply sorrowful and outraged. This practice is as equally inhumane as the views of the racist bigots who disgraced our country in Charlottesville.”

He warned: “The Bible tells us that ‘we are all fearfully and wonderfully made.’ I know countless parents who would say the same of their own children with Down syndrome. A child born with a chromosome defect is a child made in God’s image, fully capable of living a happy, productive and healthy life.

“Each of them is blessed with a wide range of unique gifts and abilities, and they are as capable of giving and receiving love just as you and I are. They deserve a chance to live and those of us in the church must speak out on their behalf. May we place ourselves on the right side of history and fight for the cause of life for all of the unborn,” he said.

Fox News reported actress Patricia Heaton also was outraged.

“Iceland isn’t actually eliminating Down syndrome. They’re just killing everybody that has it. Big difference,” she wrote.

***

WND

REPORT: FBI QUESTIONS AUTHOR WHO EXPOSED GLOBAL ELITE

Ted Malloch accosted as he lands in Cleveland for speaking engagement

March 29, 2018

Ted Malloch

An author whose book, Davos Aspen & Yale: My Life Behind the Elite Curtain as a Global Sherpa,” was published by WND Books, was detained briefly, and then released, by the FBI.

Ted Malloch, who was discussed for a time as a possible Ambassador to the United Nations for President Donald Trump, reportedly was accosted by federal agents when he got off an airplane.

The sequence of events was described by Jim Hoft at Gateway Pundit,a privately held website.

His report said Malloch “was detained [Wednesday] by the FBI shortly after his plane arrived in Cleveland, Ohio,” and he reports “the FBI could have grabbed him for making ‘false statements’ to two U.S. banks previously reported by the Financial Times on March 2, 2017.”

A Pundit reader told the organization, Infowars, the site for whom Malloch acts as a contributor, reported the author was confronted when he arrived in Cleveland to give a speech.

“He called Dr. Jerome] Corsi [of Infowars] at 1 p.m. and hasn’t been heard from since,” the report said. “He and his wife’s phones have been shut off so they won’t receive calls. He is being interrogated about Russia and Julian Assange and has been given a subpoena to appear before Mueller’s grand jury…” the reader said.

However, the Pundit reported that a short time later, “Malloch was released but is badly shaken.”

Corsi, in a social media statement, said, “he is OK, badly shaken by FBI Mueller thug behavior.”

Malloch reportedly was in the United States from the United Kingdom to give a speech.

Reports said he was, in fact, interviewed by authorities about “false statements.”

In his book, the former Yale professor and senior business executive whose contact list includes the most powerful leaders in business, media and politics, talks about his life experiences.

He’s been a scholar-diplomat for the U.S. State Department, part of Davos meetings and more, and he shares his insights into enterprise, organization, dedication, skill, teamwork, diligence and planning.

He’s the CEO of the Roosevelt Group, a leading strategic advisory and thought leadership company.

WND reported only months ago when Malloch described the problem of “Luciferianism” among the highest levels in society.

“The E.U. is part, of course, of the globalist empire, the New World Order, and I think many of its origins are in fact quite evil,” Malloch explained. “And I think that we should talk about that.”

“Luciferianism is a belief system that venerates the essential characteristics that are affixed to Lucifer,” he explained. “That tradition has been informed by Gnosticism, by Satanism, and it usually refers to Lucifer not as ‘the devil’ per se but as some kind of liberator, some kind of guardian, some kind of guiding spirit. In fact, as the true god as opposed to Jehovah.”

Malloch identified many people in the E.U. hierarchy and in the Democrat Party as aligned with this belief. He explained how Lucifer is seen as a symbol of independence and of true human progress.

“Turning away from God and turning to Lucifer in order to enlighten yourself,” he summarized the creed.

***

CP

Joaquin Phoenix Talks Faith, Forgiveness, 'Mary Magdalene' Portraying Women in 'Positive Way'

By Stoyan Zaimov , Christian Post Reporter

March 19, 2018

Actor Joaquin Phoenix in "Mary Magdalene"

Actor Joaquin Phoenix, who portrays Jesus Christ in the newly released "Mary Magdalene" film, said he is excited about the positive portrayal of women in the film and its potential impact on young girls.

The biblical biopic, which stars Rooney Mara in the title role, attempts to shed new light on the story of Mary Magdalene and her journey with Jesus and the disciples.

Unlike what Catholic Pope Gregory claimed in 591 — that the "sinful" woman who anointed Jesus' feet, as described in Luke 7, was Mary Magdalene — the film does not seek to portray her as a prostitute.

"It's undeniable what an important figure she was in this movement," Phoenix told the Press Association.

"None of the male disciples were at His (Jesus) crucifixion, and she was at His resurrection — that says a lot, and also shows how courageous she was."

The actor pointed out that Mary Magdalene and Mary, the mother of Jesus, the virgin, are for many the two biggest female figures in the Bible.

"I couldn't help but think of young girls that are religious and have felt like their two examples of them in the Bible are either the virgin or the whore," Phoenix argued.

"And even if you're not conscious of that, subconsciously it has to affect you and the way that you navigate the world and navigate your faith," he added.

"It made me really excited, the prospect of young girls feeling like they're represented in a biblical context in such a positive way."

The film, which opened in the U.K. on Friday, and is set to be released in the U.S. on March 23, has also prompted questions about the actor's faith.

"My parents believed in God. I'm Jewish, my mom's Jewish, but she believes in Jesus, she felt a connection to that," Phoenix revealed.

"But they were never religious. I don't remember going to church, maybe a couple of times."

He revealed that he does not follow any specific religion, but said that one of his "core values" is the idea of forgiveness. And getting to play Jesus changed his perspective on what forgiveness means.

"I always thought forgiving somebody was like you were absolving them of their sins or their transgressions or whatever it is they did, and I started thinking it has more to do with the person forgiving than it is for the other person, it's such a difficult task," he shared.

"And it's how it changes you that is the power, right? Because obviously you can forgive somebody, but what is that doing? You can't absolve them of what they did," he added.

"But it changes how you feel about it, and I really liked that idea. It's something that really moved me."

Phoenix, who is known for major movies such as "Gladiator" and "Walk the Line," where he played Johnny Cash, said last year that he was seeking a "meaningful experience" in deciding to portray Jesus.

He told The New York Times in September that playing Christ was "just instinct, just a gut feeling."

''I thought: Finally, someone gets me," he said of being chosen for the role.

***

CATHOLIC HERALD

Spanish flags to fly at half-mast to mark death of Christ

The Ministry of Defence confirmed the flag will be lowered at all military establishments

The Spanish flag will fly at half-mast on all military buildings including the Ministry of Defence in Madrid to commemorate the death of Christ this Holy Week.

In a statement, the ministry said all units, bases, barracks will lower the flag from 2pm on Maundy Thursday to 12.01am on Easter Sunday “as is traditional”.

The ministry explained that the practice dates back several decades and “forms part of the secular tradition of the armed forces”.

The Spanish military will take part in 152 parades and celebrations to mark Holy Week in 80 cities across the country this year, including Seville, Granada, Madrid and the Canary Islands.

The Ministry of Defence highlighted the fact that freedom of religion for servicemen would be respected, and that participation by members of the armed forces at these events is voluntary.

***

INDEPENDENT

Israel: 15 Palestinians killed and '1,000 injured' in clashes on border of Gaza Strip on day of protest

Military personnel say they will not allow crowds to breach fence or damage army infrastructure

Fares Akram, Independent Staff

March 30, 2018

Palestinian officials say 15 people have now been killed in a day of protest on the Gaza border, with nine shot dead by Israeli army fire and a farmer killed in a separate incident involving pre-dawn tank fire.

In what was the deadliest day for the ongoing conflict since clashes in Gaza last autumn, the Palestinian health ministry said at least another 1,000 Palestinians were injured by a combination of tear gas, rubber-coated steel pellets and live rounds.

Ahead of the start of a day of protests called by the militant group Hamas, a Palestinian farmer was killed by an Israeli tank shell as he worked in a neighbouring field, the ministry said.

Israel had bolstered its security at the border ahead of the expected mass sit-ins, which mark the anniversary of the Palestinians’ “Land Day”, and the start of a month and a half of demonstrations over lost land in Gaza.

The Israeli military said Palestinians rolled burning tyres and threw stones at Israeli forces who then retaliated with tear gas and fire at “main instigators”.

Ahead of the protests, called for by Gaza’s militant Hamas rulers, Israel’s military said it doubled its standard troop level along the border, deploying snipers, special forces and paramilitary border police units, which specialise in riot control.

Hamas had said the activities would be peaceful and the chief Israeli military spokesman, Brigadier General Ronen Manelis, said Israel wanted to avoid violence.

The Israeli military said troops directed tank fire towards two suspects who approached the fence along the southern Gaza Strip and acted suspiciously. It said it would not not tolerate damage to the barrier and that it will hold Hamas responsible.

The sit-ins are seen as a new attempt by Hamas to break a crippling, decade-old Gaza border blockade by Israel and Egypt that has made it increasingly difficult for the Islamic militant group to govern.

Other tactics over the years, including cross-border wars with Israel and attempts to reconcile with political rivalMahmoud Abbas, the West Bank-based Palestinian president, have failed to end Gaza’s isolation.

In the planned protest, Palestinians are setting up tent camps along the border, the first of a series of actions planned in Gaza in the coming weeks.

The activities are to culminate on 15 May, the 70th anniversary of Israel’s creation, with a march through the border fence.

Palestinians commemorate the date as the anniversary of their mass displacement and uprooting during the 1948 war in the Middle East over Israel’s creation. The vast majority of Gaza residents are descendants of Palestinians who fled or were driven from communities in what is now Israel.

Eighty-year-old Mansi Nassar walked towards the border with the aid of his cane, ignoring calls to remain 700 metres (2,300 feet) from the barrier.

“I was born in Beit Darras inside Palestine and I will accept no less than returning to it,” he said, referring to his former home village just south of the modern Israeli city of Ashdod. The village no longer exists.

The farmer killed on Friday was identified as 27-year-old Amr Samour. The Palestinian health ministry said he was killed in the south-eastern corner of Gaza.

Yasser Samour, a relative and fellow farmer, said Mr Samour was harvesting parsley before dawn, in hopes of selling it fresh in the market later in the day.

“I was working on the next field,” Mr Samour said. “We heard shelling landing on the field where Amr works. We ran there and found him hit directly with a shell. We were more than a kilometre away from the border.”

Another farmer was wounded in the leg by shrapnel, Mr Samour said.

AP/Reuters

***

SLATE

Thinking Outside the Old Religious Box

Transhumanism is complicating the sometimes antagonistic relationship between faith and science.

By Albert R. Antosca

March 21, 2018

Future Tense is a partnership of Slate, New America, and Arizona State University that examines emerging technologies, public policy, and society.

With the passing of Stephen Hawking, the world mourns the loss of one of its greatest minds. His grand intellectual ambitions pushed the boundaries of human knowledge, tackling the most profound questions of existence that border on the spiritual. Although himself an atheist, Hawking once wrote in A Brief History of Time that finding a true theory of everything “would be the ultimate triumph of human reason—for then we would truly know the mind of God.”

Sometimes, religious language is necessary to express such a transcendent concept. But as our yearning for transcendence becomes increasingly religious, and as religion becomes conceptually divorced from God, the line between science and religion blurs. Transhumanism is disrupting the debate on science and religion by showing us a new way of framing the issue.

Transhumanism is the idea that technology should be used to extend beyond human limitations, like “aging, cognitive shortcomings, involuntary suffering, and our confinement to planet Earth.” This is no small order, but some go even further by including immortality on the transhumanist agenda. There are transhumanists who expect miraculous cures and artificial superintelligence to occur in their lifetime, while others see these innovations as visions of the distant future. But regardless of your beliefs about what lies ahead, many would say that our cyborg future is already here.

Hawking served on the scientific advisory board of the Future of Life Institute, a research organization studying catastrophic risks to the human species. At a recent panel discussionorganized by the FLI, fellow advisory board member Elon Musk reminded his audience that “we are, all of us, already cyborgs. You have a machine extension of yourself in the form of your phone, and your computer, and all of your applications. You are already superhuman.” Musk has a point. We have more access to information in our pocket-size phones than the president of the United States did just a few decades ago. Musk continues: “These are magical powers that didn’t exist not that long ago.” In religious language, technology is making the miraculous a reality. Whether you think eternal life is just around the corner or just like knowing a new iPhone will come out this year, we are all transhumanist now.

Millenials grew up under the technological halo of Moore’s law, enjoying booming exponential growth of computation power that ushered in the information age. It should come as no surprise that transhumanism has earned a degree of mainstream acceptance—from Hollywood movies to magazine covers and the latest sci-fi TV. Transhumanist beliefs will continue to permeate culture as long as the promise of technological progress holds its end of the bargain.

These transhumanist attitudes powerfully condition the way we think about science and technology, without us even noticing. Being immersed in a rapidly accelerating technoculture of software updates and constant exposure to progress teaches us to adapt to technological change like adjusting to the temperature of a swimming pool. The extent to which technology constructs our view of the world (and our place in it) is so all-encompassing that it goes beyond how we interact with our devices to include how we conceive of religion.

The relationship between science and religion has a long and complex history. Most recently, the New Atheist movement became the public-facing brand of the culture war between science and religion over the past decade. This exchange played out in numerous articles, books, and public debates as intellectuals such as the late Christopher Hitchens (a Slate contributor) became famous for arguments advancing the idea of an unbridgeable divide between reason and people of faith. However, transhumanism has blurred the line between science and religion. To understand how this works, it’s useful to reframe the debate by rethinking what counts as religious.

Historian Yuval Noah Harari recently wrote on how technology influences religion, and his analogies prove useful here. In his book Homo Deus, Harari talks about how “technology often defines the scope and limits of our religious visions, like a waiter that demarcates our appetites by handing us a menu. New Technologies kill old gods and give birth to new gods.” This is why our modern technoculture holds the potential of actually creating new forms of religious expression. In fact, this has already started to happen.

For instance, Silicon Valley engineer Anthony Levandowski—whom you may know from the Uber-Waymo lawsuit over self-driving car technology—recently launched the Way of the Future Church, a new religious organization based on developing godlike artificial intelligence. On its website, the Way of the Future states, “We believe the creation of ‘super intelligence’ is inevitable,” and according to IRS documents detailed by Wired, this new religion seeks “the realization, acceptance, and worship of a Godhead based on Artificial Intelligence (AI) developed through computer hardware and software.” This exuberance departs from the cautious stance toward A.I. taken by Hawking, Musk, and others who warn that artificial superintelligence could pose an existential threat. However, regardless of whether artificial superintelligence is seen as an angel or a demon, Hawking, Musk, and A.I. evangelists alike share the common belief that this technology should be taken seriously. For some transhumanists, this translates into religious expression. As transhumanist guru (and Google’s director of engineering) Ray Kurzweil has stated, the possibilities raised by these technologies imply how “we need a new religion.” (Emphasis added,)

Some may argue that the Way of the Future is really just a way of publicizing A.I.
research, but there is an increasing number of truly authentic transhumanist churches. Some of these other religious organizations include the Church of Perpetual Life, the Turing Church, Terasem, the Christian Transhumanist Association, and the Mormon Transhumanist Association. For these and other transhumanist faiths, such as the apocalyptic beliefs surrounding the technological singularity, technology becomes a way of cashing checks religion helped write. We can start to see how the New Atheist argument against supernaturalism doesn’t quite work here, because the speculations about technology underpinning these new religions rely on a strong commitment to science.

Because science and religion serve different functions, they are not actually inherently in conflict. This debate over science and religion needs to be elevated by thinking in new, post-theistic terms, moving religion beyond the theist-atheist paradigm altogether. Transhumanism helps ease our transition to such a discussion.

The question then becomes: What if we challenged our theistic notion of religion as being all about churches, gods, and the supernatural? Harari provides a helpful model of understanding religion in these post-theistic terms: “[R]eligion is anything that legitimises human norms and values by arguing that they reflect some superhuman order.”

In this sense, Harari shows how things like liberalism, humanism, and communism all fit this definition and share a common function with religion by providing structure to the lives of the people who believe in them. These beliefs themselves are not artifacts we can put under a microscope or true claims we can scientifically test—they are sacred value judgements that exist as fundamental commitments people share. This is not to say that all beliefs are created equal—there are always varying degrees of utility to any belief—but this is a useful way of understanding how religions function as ideological frameworks.

In this debate, an expanded post-theistic understanding of religion shows how science and religion aren’t necessarily opposed, but serve different functions. Transhumanism helps uncover this often-concealed distinction. Science can tell us about the objective world, but its mission is always conducted within a system of values constructed by the larger society. As transhumanism continues to infuse the ways our larger society thinks about science and technology, we should keep in mind the power technology has in shaping the very way we construct our world and, by extension, our religious beliefs.

***

CBN

Turkey Calls Evangelism an Act of 'Terrorism,' Charges American Pastor

Emily Jones
March 21, 2018

Andrew Brunson, an American pastor who's been locked up in a Turkish jail for more than 500 days, could spend the rest of his life in prison.

Until now, he's been held without charges, but last week, a Turkish court approved a 62-page indictment against him. The charges include membership in an armed terrorist organization and military espionage.

The American Center for Law and Justice, which is helping Brunson's Turkish attorney, says the charges effectively make sharing the gospel an act of terrorism.

"Turkey has literally taken the position that Christianization is terrorism," ACLJ Senior Counsel Cece Heil told CBN News. "They have no specific evidence that Pastor Brunson has committed any crime. The fact that he is a Christian, and specifically a Christian pastor, is what they are equating as terrorism."

"They use terms that he 'acted as an agent of unconventional warfare while under the mask of being in an evangelical church pastor.' Some of those activities that they claim are terrorist acts are humanitarian aid, education, and training," Heil added.

The attorney prosecuting Brunson is asking for a total of 35 years, which would effectively give the 50-year-old pastor a life sentence.

Brunson was one of many other Christians who was arrested or deported from the country following the 2016 failed coup that left at least 161 people dead.

"President Erdogan basically had a purge getting rid of anyone he deemed was not on his side, which of course would include Christians when it's an entirely Muslim country," Heil explained. "Pastor Brunson was one of the Christians that was snatched up in this purge. Most of the Christian pastors had been deported and Pastor Brunson was not."

Heil also believes Brunson is being used as a political pawn.

"President Erdogan himself came out at the end of last year and demanded a swap between Pastor Brunson and the cleric Fethullah Gulen, who is living in Pennsylvania," she said.

Gulen is a Muslim Imam who President Erdogan believes was responsible for the latest coup. The Turkish president has repeatedly called on the United States to arrest and deport him back to Turkey.

Meanwhile, the Trump Administration has been working aggressively to free Brunson.

"The administration has taken a very engaged position with this case. President Trump has brought this situation up multiple times with President Erdogan directly and Foreign Minister Cavuslogu. This is something that is really unprecedented in these types of cases that the president of the United States is bringing this situation up every time he speaks to the president of Turkey."

Heil asks that believers pray fervently for the pastor.

"Pray first just for peace and comfort...He's missed out on major life events with his family. He missed the wedding of his daughter. He's missed graduations, birthdays, things he can never get back," she said.

She also encourages people to take action by signing an ACLJ petition, "Free Pastor Andrew," which has more than 400,000 signatures so far.

***

THE EPOCH TIMES

The Theory of ‘Three Human Species’

By Leonardo Vintini, Epoch Times

December 14, 2007 7:00 am Last Updated: June 15, 2017 5:47 pm

The Old Testament tells a story in which a diminutive David defeats the giant Goliath. Using just a sling to slay his enormous foe, this unlikely victor became the second Hebrew monarch.

While many consider the tale to be merely a colorful allegory, a recent finding exhibiting the oldest known Philistine inscriptions suggests that Goliath may have actually existed. This artifact—a small clay shard—was found in Israel in 2005 by Tell es-Safi University archeologists.

It is inscribed with the words “Alwt and Wlt” which, according to Professor Aaron Demsky, coincide with the name Goliath. Alwt and Wlt are non-Semitic names which are etymologically similar to the name Goliath. Studies confirm that the carving was made around 950 B.C., which would put it within 70 years of when biblical scholars believe this historic fight occurred.

While the find may lend some new credibility to an ancient tale, it may also serve as a piece to another puzzle that’s even more intriguing. One might assume that, even if the epic battle really did take place, Goliath’s size was surely exaggerated for dramatic effect.

An illustration of David and Goliath’s battle. (Osmar Schindler/Wikimedia Commons)

However, evidence collected from around the globe over the last century suggests that the existence of a real giant may not have been that strange after all. In fact, these finds have led some to believe that the mankind of antiquity may have come in three distinct sizes: giants, humans, and hobbits.

In the fall of 2004, a group of investigators working in Indonesia found remains of a race of “hobbit” men measuring just over three feet. Researchers determined that these smaller humans had existed alongside man until about 13,000 years ago.

The research team—including Indonesian paleoanthropologist Professor T. Jacob—dubbed the small race Homo floresiensis, named after the Indonesian island of Flores where the skeletons were uncovered. Some say these hobbits still roam the jungle, prompting many visitors to the island in recent years in search of a myth incarnate.

The wealth of evidence for a race of giantsis even greater. Remains of giant humans have been found in practically every part of the globe: Tunisia; Pennsylvania; Glen Rose, Texas; Gargayan in the Philippines; Syria; Morocco; Australia; and throughout the Urbasa mountain range in Spain. Perhaps the most popular and scientifically recognized example is the “Giant of Java,” found just south of China.

Similar human remains that were found in nearby southern China reveal large humans who possessed six digits on each extremity. This polydactyl characteristic seems to have been a regular pattern in this race of men, as other examples have shown. In Soviet Georgia, skeletons were found of men between 9 and 10 feet tall that also possessed six digits on the hands and feet.

Among several biblical passages that mention the existence of giants, Samuel 21:20 also observes this extra-digit phenomenon: “In still another battle, which took place at Gath, there was a huge man with six fingers on each hand and six toes on each foot—twenty-four in all.”

Despite the vast amount of skeletal evidence—as well as the unearthed tools and teeth that would otherwise prove comically large by normal human standards—it seems that there are still not a great number of scientists dedicated to studying this phenomenon.

The modern world often regards mention of these different-sized human races in ancient texts and folklore as the product of a vivid imagination—though many different cultures record very similar accounts. However, in light of the various remains uncovered throughout the world, perhaps these “mythical” stories may have actually been accurate depictions of life at that time.

If these races of various size did exist, why three sizes, and where did the other two go? Did they have amicable or hostile social relations with our ancestry? Did they help each other? Ignore each other? What social structures did they have? For now we can only look to the stories of the distant past and wonder how many more myths are waiting to reveal themselves with concrete evidence.

(Lift up a standard on the mountain of the plain, exalt the voice to them, beckon with the hand, open the gates, ye rulers. 3 I give command, and I bring them: giants are coming to fulfil my wrath, rejoicing at the same time and insulting. Isaiah 13:2-3)

***

RT

WSJ issues embarrassing correction for claiming Moses struck ‘Iraq’ for water, not ‘a rock’

March 29, 2018

The Wall Street Journal issued what may be the best correction ever for a story, which quoted Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu as saying Moses brought water “from Iraq,” instead of from “a rock.”

The WSJ was trolled mercilessly on Twitter for the gaffe that had injected an unexpected geopolitical twist into the centuries-old Biblical tale, in which Moses struck a rock to extract water for the Israelites that were wandering the desert after the exodus from Egypt.

AMMC

MailOnline

Are we living in a HOLOGRAM? For the first time, scientists prove strange theory could be true in 'realistic models' of our universe

• Holographic principle suggests there is a 2D surface that we can't see

• This surface contains all the information needed to describe 3D objects

• Since 1997, equations used to show holographic principle could be true have been based on models that contradict theories about our universe

• Now scientists have shown how it works in universe that is largely flat

By ELLIE ZOLFAGHARIFARD FOR DAILYMAIL.COM

PUBLISHED: 19:57, 27 April 2015 | UPDATED: 01:42, 28 April 2015

We are living in a giant hologram, and everything we see around us is merely a projection of a two-dimensional surface.

This is the bizarre theory put forward in 1997 by physicist Juan Maldacena, who was able to prove its existence in equations that only partially explain our universe.

Now researchers in Austria have, for the first time, been able to show how this strange holographic principle can also work in a more realistic model of our cosmos.

We are living in a giant hologram, and everything we see around us is a projection of a 2D surface. This is the bizarre theory put forward in 1997 by Juan Maldacena. Now researchers in Austria have, for the first time, been able to show how this strange holographic principle can work in a realistic model of our cosmos

The holographic principle suggests that, like the security chip on your credit card, there is a two-dimensional surface that we can't see.

This surface contains all the information needed to describe a three-dimensional object - which in this case is our universe.

In essence, the principle claims that data containing a description of 3D object – such as the device you're reading this on - could be hidden in a region of this flattened, 'real' version of the universe.

Maldacena came to this conclusion when he discovered that mathematical descriptions of the universe actually require one fewer dimension than it seems.

But up until now, this principle has only been studied in something known as 'curved anti-de-sitter spaces' – or exotic spaces with negative curvature.

Scientists came up with these spaces as way to combine describing gravity in a three-dimensional setting while predicting quantum particles in two spatial dimensions.

Anti-de-sitter spaces are negatively curved, and any object thrown away on a straight line will eventually return.

The problem is they are very different from the spaces in our own universe.

Our universe is largely flat, and on astronomic distances, it has positive curvature.

The latest study by scientists at the Technology University of Vienna now suggests that the holographic principle holds in a flat space-time.

'Juan Maldacena proposed the idea that there is a correspondence between gravitational theories in curved anti-de-sitter spaces on the one hand and quantum field theories in spaces with one fewer dimension on the other', says Daniel Grumiller from the Technology University of Vienna.

To test the theory, scientists spent three years creating gravitational equations that do not require exotic spaces and, instead, live in a flat space.

'If quantum gravity in a flat space allows for a holographic description by a standard quantum theory, then there must by physical quantities, which can be calculated in both theories – and the results must agree', says Grumiller.

The holographic principle suggests that, like the security chip on your credit card, there is a two-dimensional surface that we can't see. This surface contains all the information needed to describe a three-dimensional object - which in this case is our universe

They said one key feature of quantum mechanics –quantum entanglement – had to appear in the more realistic model of our universe.

When quantum particles are entangled, they cannot be described individually.

They form a single quantum object, even if they are located far apart.

There is a measure for the amount of entanglement in a quantum system, called 'entropy of entanglement'.

The team showed that this entanglement takes the same value in both a flat quantum gravity model and in a low dimension quantum field theory.

'This calculation affirms our assumption that the holographic principle can also be realised in flat spaces,' said Max Riegler at the Technology University of Vienna.

'It is evidence for the validity of this correspondence in our universe', says Max Riegler (TU Wien).

'The fact that we can even talk about quantum information and entropy of entanglement in a theory of gravity is astounding in itself, and would hardly have been imaginable only a few years back,' added Grumiller.

'That we are now able to use this as a tool to test the validity of the holographic principle, and that this test works out, is quite remarkable.'

***

Zero Hedge

PetroYuan Futures Open - Over 10 BillIon Notional Trades In First Hour

by Tyler Durden

March 23, 2018

After all the preparation, all the expectation, cheerleading and doomsaying, China's Yuan-denominated crude oil futures contract began trading tonight and appears to be off a good start with well over 10 billion yuan notional traded within the first hour.

So far it has tracked WTI futures well, trading at around a $2 premium to WTI (when translated from yuan to USD)...

As we most recently noted, after numerous "false starts" over the last decade, the “petroyuan” is now real and China will set out to challenge the “petrodollar” for dominance. Adam Levinson, managing partner and chief investment officer at hedge fund manager Graticule Asset Management Asia (GAMA), already warned last year that China launching a yuan-denominated oil futures contract will shock those investors who have not been paying attention.

This could be a death blow for an already weakening U.S. dollar, and the rise of the yuan as the dominant world currency.

But this isn’t just some slow, news day “fad” that will fizzle in a few days.

A Warning for Investors Since 2015

Back in 2015, the first of a number of strikes against the petrodollar was dealt by China. Gazprom Neft, the third-largest oil producer in Russia, decided to move away from the dollar and towards the yuan and other Asian currencies.

Iran followed suit the same year, using the yuan with a host of other foreign currencies in trade, including Iranian oil.

Despite accounting for much of the world’s growth in demand in the 21st Century, China’s oil imports have been all over the map in recent months. In April, China imported 7.4 million barrels per day, a record high and enough to make it the world’s largest oil importer. But a month later, imports plummeted to just 5.5 million barrels per day.

That problem has since gone away, signaling China’s rise to oil dominance…

The Slippery Slope to the Petroyuan Begins Here

The petrodollar is backed by Treasuries, so it can help fuel U.S. deficit spending. Take that away, and the U.S. is in trouble.

It looks like that time has come…

A death blow that began in 2015 hit again in 2017 when China became the world’s largest consumer of imported crude…

Now that China is the world’s leading consumer of oil, Beijing can exert some real leverage over Saudi Arabia to pay for crude in yuan. It’s suspected that this is what’s motivating Chinese officials to make a full-fledged effort to renegotiate their trade deal.

So fast-forward to now, and the final blow to the petrodollar could happen starting today. We hinted at this possibility back in September 2017…

With major oil exporters finally having a viable way to circumvent the petrodollar system, the U.S. economy could soon encounter severely troubled waters.

First of all, the dollar’s value depends massively on its use as an oil trade vehicle. When that goes away, we will likely see a strong and steady decline in the dollar’s value.

Once the oil markets are upended, the yuan has an opportunity to become the dominant world currency overall. This will further weaken the dollar.

The Petrodollar’s Downfall Could be a Lift for Gold

Amongst all the trouble ahead for the dollar, there are some good news too. The U.S. might have ditched the gold standard in the 1970’s, but with gold making a return to world headlines… we could see a resurgence.

For the first time since our nation abandoned the gold standard decades ago, physical gold is being reintroduced to the global monetary system in a major way. That alone is incredibly good news for gold owners.

A reintroduction of gold to the global economy could result in a notable rise in gold prices. It’s safe to assume exporters are more likely to choose a gold-backed financial instrument over one created out of thin air any day of the week.

Soon after, we could see more and more nations jump on the bandwagon, resulting in a substantial rise in gold prices.

RT

‘Russia has lots of tentacles’: US says it needed no proof, only UK’s word to expel diplomats

March 28, 2018

Russia must confess to the Salisbury ‘chemical attack’ in order to mend relations with the US and NATO, said the US State Department, adding that the only evidence the US needs for Moscow’s culpability was the word of its UK ally.

“If Russia wants to improve relations, it needs to first acknowledge its responsibility for this attack and cease its recklessly aggressive behavior,” State Department spokeswoman Heather Nauert told reporters on Tuesday.

At one point, the newly promoted acting undersecretary for public diplomacy and public affairs channelled horror writer H.P. Lovecraft to describe Russia as a “beast from the deep sea.”

“Russia has long arms, Russia has lots of tentacles,” Nauert told reporters.

Her statements came after the US expelled 60 Russian diplomats, including 12 from Moscow’s mission to the UN. Nauert insisted those diplomats were really spies, “intelligence officers who were operating under diplomatic cover,” without giving any details of their activity.

Although Nauert said the decision was made by President Donald Trump following a “broad interagency process,”including the FBI and others, she admitted that the effort was started by the UK, following the alleged chemical attack on former British spy Sergei Skripal in Salisbury earlier this month.

“We certainly know that Russia is responsible for that attack. That is something that is not in question,” Nauert declared. Pressed for evidence, however, she said that the US stood by the word of its British allies.

“When the UK tells us they have proof, that they know Russia was responsible, we have every reason to believe them,”Nauert said.

On Tuesday, the Russian daily Kommersant published a five-page presentation about the Salisbury incident, which was put together by the UK government. The document, while still containing no evidence of Russia’s culpability, has switched from making indications of a high likelihood to making positive assertions that it had to be Russia and no one else.

“We are without doubt that Russia is responsible,” the presentation said. “There is no plausible alternative explanation.”

Having based its decision to launch the largest expulsion of diplomats since the Cold War on London’s word, the US is now treating the expulsion itself as evidence of Russia’s supposed perfidy.

Nauert described the willingness of Washington’s allies to follow orders as “testimony of how seriously the world takes Russia’s ongoing global campaign to undermine international peace and stability, to threaten the sovereignty and security of countries worldwide and to subvert and discredit Western institutions.”

Over two dozen US allies, including Canada, Australia, Ukraine and many NATO members, have expelled over 100 Russian diplomats. A number of NATO countries did not follow the lead of Washington and London, however, with Belgium, Bulgaria, Greece, Portugal, Slovenia and Slovakia among the prominent holdovers.

Moscow has promised to retaliate for the expulsions, though no measures have yet been announced as of Tuesday evening.

**

By Tyler Durden

Tue, 03/27/2018 – 22:55

Via The Saker,

Frankly, I am awed, amazed and even embarrassed. I was born in Switzerland, lived most of my life there, I also visited most of Europe, and I lived in the USA for over 20 years.

Yet in my worst nightmares I could not have imagined the West sinking as low as it does now. I mean, yes, I know about the false flags, the corruption, the colonial wars, the NATO lies, the abject subservience of East Europeans, etc. I wrote about all that many times. But imperfect as they were, and that is putting it mildly, I remember Helmut Schmidt, Maggie Thatcher, Reagan, Mitterrand, even Chirac! And I remember what the Canard Enchaîné used to be, or even the BBC. During the Cold War the West was hardly a knight in white shining armor, but still – rule of law did matter, as did at least some degree of critical thinking.

I am now deeply embarrassed for the West. And very, very afraid.

All I see today is a submissive herd lead by true, bona fide, psychopaths (in a clinical sense of the word)

And that is not the worst thing.

The worst thing is the deafening silence, the way everybody just looks away, pretends like “ain’t my business” or, worse, actually takes all this grotesque spectacle seriously. What the fuck is wrong with you people?! Have you all been turned into zombies?! WAKE UP!!!!!!!

Let me carefully measure my words here and tell you the blunt truth.

Since the Neocon coup against Trump the West is now on exactly the same course as Nazi Germany was in, roughly, the mid 1930s.

Oh sure, the ideology is different, the designated scapegoat also. But the mindset is *exactly the same.

Same causes produce the same effects. But this time around, there are weapons on both sides which make the Dresden Holocaust looks like a minor spark.

So now we have this touching display of “western solidarity” not with UK or the British people, but with the City of London. Now ain’t that touching?!

Let me ask you this: what has been the central feature of Britain’s policies towards Europe, oh, let’s say since the Middle-Ages?

That’s right: starting wars in Europe.

And this time around you think it’s different?

Does: “the best predictor of future behavior is past behavior” somehow not apply to the UK?!

Let me also tell you this: when Napoleon and Hitler attacked Russia she was undergoing deep crises and was objectively weak (really! research it for yourself!). In both cases Russian society was deeply torn by internal contradictions and the time for attack as ideal.

Not today.

So I ask this simple question: do you really want to go to war against a fully united nuclear Russia?

You think that this is hyperbole?

Think again.

The truth is that the situation today is infinitely worse than the Cuban missile crisis. First, during the Cuban missile crisis there were rational people on both side. Today there is NOT ONE SINGLE RATIONAL PERSON LEFT IN A POSITION OF POWER IN THE USA. Not ONE! Second, during the Cuban missile crisis all the new was reporting on was the crisis, the entire planet felt like we were standing at the edge of the abyss.

Today nobody seems to be aware that we are about to go to war, possibly a thermonuclear war, where casualties will be counted in the hundreds of millions.

All because of what?

Because the people of the West have accepted, or don’t even know, that they are ruled by an ugly gang of ignorant, arrogant psychopaths.

At the very least this situation shows this:

• Representative democracy does not work.

• The rule of law only applies to the weak and poor.

• Western values have now been reduced to a sad joke.

• Capitalism needs war and a world hegemony to survive.

The AngloZionist Empire is about to collapse, the only open question is how and at what cost.

Right now they are expelling Russian diplomats en masse and they are feeling very strong and manly. Polish and Ukrainian politicians are undergoing a truly historical surge in courage and self-confidence! (hiding, as they do, behind Anglo firepower)

The truth is that this is only the tip of a much bigger iceberg. In reality, crucial expert-level consultations, which are so vitally important between nuclear superpowers, have all but stopped a long time ago. We are down to top level telephone calls. That kind of stuff happens when two sides are about to go to war. For many months now Russia and NATO have made preparations for war in Europe. And Russia is ready. NATO sure ain’t! Oh, they have the numbers and they think they are strong. The truth is that these NATO midgets have no idea of what is about to hit them, when the Russians go to war these NATO statelets won’t even understand what is happening to them. Very rapidly the real action will be left to the USA and Russia. Thus any conflict will go nuclear very fast. And, for the first time in history, the USA will be hit very, very hard, not only in Europe, the Middle-East or Asia, but also on the continental US.

I was born in a Russian military family and I studied Russian and Soviet military affairs all my life. I can absolutely promise you this, please don’t doubt it for one second: Russia will not back down and, if cornered, she will wipe out your entire civilization. The Russians really don’t want war, they fear it (as they should!) and they will do everything to avoid it. But if attacked then expect a response of absolutely devastating violence. Don’t take it from me, take it from Putin who clearly said so himself and who, at least on that issue, is supported by about 95% of the population. From the Eastern Crusades to the Nazi invasion of the Soviet Union, enough is enough, and the Russians will not take one more western attack, especially not one backed by nuclear firepower. Again, please ponder Putin’s words very, very carefully: “what need would we have a world if there is no Russia?“

All that for what? The USA and Russia have NO objective reasons to do anything but to collaborate (the Russians are absolutely baffled the fact the leaders of the USA seem to be completely oblivious to this simple fact). Okay, the City of London does have a lot of reasons to want Russia gone and silent. As Gavin Williamson, the little soy-boy in charge of UK “defense”, so elegantly put it, Russia should “go away and shut up”. Right. Let me tell you – it ain’t happening! Britannia will be turned into a heap of radioactive ashes long before Russian goes away or shuts up. That is simply a fact.

What baffles me is this: do American leaders really want to lose their country in behalf of a small nasty clique of arrogant British pompous asses who think that they still are an Empire? Did you even take a look at Boris Johnson, Theresa May and Gavin Williamson? Are you really ready to die in defense of the interest of these degenerates?!

I don’t get it and nobody in Russia does.

Yeah, I know, all they did is expel some diplomats. And the Russians will do the same. So what? But that’s missing the point!

LOOK NOT WHERE WE ARE BUT WHERE WE ARE HEADING!!

You can get 200,000 anti–gun (sigh, rolleyes) protesters in DC but NOBODY AT ALL ABOUT NUCLEAR WAR?!

What is wrong with you people?!

What happened to the West where I was born in in 1963?

My God, is this really the end of it all?

Am I the only one who sees this slow-motion train-wreck taking us all over the precipice?

If you can, please give a reason to still hope.

Right now I don’t see many.

The Saker

PS: yes, I know. The rules of the blog prohibit CAPS as this is considered shouting. Okay, but this time around I AM TRYING TO SHOUT! So, for this one time only, feel free to use caps if you want. The world badly needs some shouting right now, even virtual shouting.

***

BREITBART

Ann Coulter: ‘In One Generation’ U.S. Will Be ‘South Africa,’ Trump ‘Betrayed’ Voters with ‘Paul Ryan Republicanism’

by JOHN BINDER24 Mar 2018New York City, NY

New York Times best-selling author and populist conservative columnist Ann Coulter says the United States will, “in one generation,” become South Africa after President Trump signed off on House Speaker Paul Ryan’s omnibus spending bill that does not include a single provision from the president’s 70-point list of pro-American immigration reforms.

In an interview with Fox News Radio’s Tom Shillue, Coulter slammed Trump, saying he has “betrayed” his base of supporters by signing the omnibus without it including any border wall funding, increasing the “Catch and Release” program, and not adding any new deportation agents to help deport illegal aliens living in the interior of the country.

“I can’t imagine how it could be any worse,” Coulter said. “There’s zero funding for the wall, and in fact, he’s prevented from putting up even one little inch from those prototypes. No, all he can do is build a little pedestrian fence. Nothing that he’s been looking at. None of the prototypes, totally banned.”

Coulter is referring to a provision in Ryan’s spending bill that specifically bans Trump from using any of the new border wall designs his administration has commissioned, only allowing instead for previously-used fencing barriers to be constructed.

Trump has previously noted how that fencing has not been effective in stopping illegal aliens from pouring across the southern border.

“No, the bill actually prohibits him using any of the prototypes,” Coulter continued. “It states what kind of ‘barrier’ can be used, i.e. one that we’re absolutely sure Mexicans can get across.”

“He can repaint some fences,” Coulter said. “There’s a fence down by the San Diego border and he can repaint that.”

Coulter said that unlike her previous pleas to voters to vote for Republicans over Democrats, when it comes to the 2018 midterm elections “there’s no point.” because GOP and Democrat lawmakers “seem to all agree: They want open borders, cheap labor for the Koch brothers, voters for the Democrats. I think we’ll all be in happy unison for the end of America.”

Trump’s signing of the omnibus that does not provide any reforms to the current legal and illegal immigration system — even though Republican voters say reducing immigration is their top priority — is “Paul Ryan Republicanism,” Coulter said.

“This is it. This is it. In one generation this country is going to be South Africa,” Coulter said. “We had this one chance to save it and we were betrayed.”

As Breitbart News has reported, South Africa has started the process of attempting to take land from the country’s white minority without compensation, a plan supported by radicals and black nationalists. Likewise, in 2017, South Africa saw a surging death toll of white farmers.

***

INDEPENDENT

Capture of former Catalan leader Carles Puigdemont sparks violent protests in Barcelona

Spain was plunged into its worst political crisis in four decades when Mr Puigdemont's government flouted a court ban

March 26, 2018

Catalonian riot police members and protesters clash during a protest against the detention of former Catalan leader Carles Puigdemont EPA

Five months after going on the run from Spanish authorities, Catalonia's former president was detained in Germany on an international warrant by highway police after the ardent separatist crossed the border with Denmark.

Carles Puigdemont's capture, aided by Spanish intelligence services, sparked protests of tens of thousands in Catalonia's main city of Barcelona and other towns in the wealthy northeastern corner of Spain. Some of the demonstrators clashed with riot police, leaving more than 50 civilians and police officers injured and leading to four arrests. Mr Puigdemont will appear before a German judge on Monday.

Spain was plunged into its worst political crisis in four decades when Mr Puigdemont's government flouted a court ban and held an ad-hoc referendum on independence for the northeastern region in October.

The Catalan parliament's subsequent declaration of independence received no international recognition and provoked a takeover of the regional government by Spanish authorities that they say won't be lifted until a new government that respects Spain's Constitution is in place.

Spain's state prosecutor office said it was in contact with its German counterparts to carry out its request to extradite Mr Puigdemont to Spain, where he faces charges including rebellion that could put him in prison for up to 30 years.

In Barcelona, riot police shoved and struck protesters with batons to keep an angry crowd from advancing on the office of the Spanish government's representative. Police vans showed stains of yellow paint reportedly thrown by protestors. Reinforcements were called in after several hours to clear the neighbouring streets, with protestors tossing street barriers and burning two garbage bins as they retreated.

Outside the city centre, groups of demonstrators cut off traffic on four different stretches of highways. Police also used batons to keep back a crowd of a few thousand who had gathered in front of the Spanish government's representative in the city of Lleida.

German highway police stopped Mr Puigdemont on Sunday morning near the A7 highway that leads into Germany from Denmark, police in the northern state of Schleswig-Holstein said.

German news agency dpa said that Mr Puigdemont was taken to a prison in the northern town of Neumuenster. Dpa photos showed a van with tinted windows believed to be carrying Mr Puigdemont as it arrived at the prison. Video footage also showed the same van leaving a police station in Schuby near the A7 highway.

State prosecutors in Schleswig said that Mr Puigdemont will appear in court Monday in the northern German town to confirm his identity. It said in a statement that "the question of whether MrPuigdemont has to be taken into extradition custody will then have to be determined by the higher regional court in Schleswig."

German state prosecutor Ralph Doepper told RTL Television that Mr Puigdemont has been "provisionally detained. He has not been arrested."

"We are now examining the further procedure, i.e. tomorrow we will decide whether we will file a provisional application for detention with the competent district court, which could lead to extradition detention later on," Mr Doepper said.

A Spanish police official told The Associated Press under customary condition of anonymity that Spain's National Centre for Intelligence and police agents from its international cooperation division helped German police to locate Mr Puigdemont.

A Spanish Supreme Court judge reactivated an international arrest warrant for Mr Puigdemont on Friday when he was visiting Finland. Spain has also issued five warrants for other separatist who fled the country.

Ines Arrimadas, the leader of the pro-Spain Citizens party which has the most seats in Catalonia's Parliament, said that the chaos on the streets was "of a society broken in two" by the secessionist movement.

Ms Arrimadas said: "Mr Puigdemont knew that fracturing Catalan society into two parts, spending public money on illegal activities, provoking a political and institutional crisis without precedents and confronting a 21st-century democracy of the European Union was going to have consequences."

But the Catalan parliament speaker, the highest-ranking elected official in the region until it forms a government, made a televised address on Catalan public television to call for a united "democratic front" of political parties, labor unions and civil society organizations to respond to what he called "the thirst for revenge of the powers of the state."

Speaker Roger Torrent accused Spain's central authorities of "attacking the heart of democracy making a general cause against its political adversaries."

Miquel Coca, a business owner in Barcelona, likewise vowed that the secession push wouldn't falter.

"All the negative inputs that we have received help us to unite the society even more," Coca said. "If we can't have this leader, well, then there will be another. This is a movement of the people, not of one person."

Polls show Catalonia's 7.5 million residents are equally divided over secession, although a majority support holding a legal referendum on the issue.

Mr Puigdemont, 55, is a former journalist and mayor of Girona who was thrust to the forefront of Catalonia's independence push when he was handpicked by predecessor Artur Mas to become regional president in 2016. He withstood intense political pressure from Spanish Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy and Spain's courts as he piloted the secession bid.

Spain had originally asked for Puigdemont's extradition from Belgium after he fled there in October, but later withdrew the request until Spanish Supreme Court judge Pablo Llarena concluded his investigation this week. Mr Llarena ruled that a total of 25 Catalan separatists would be tried for rebellion, embezzlement or disobedience.

In the meantime, Mr Puigdemont was free to make trips to Denmark, Switzerland and Finland, as part of his effort to gain international support for the secessionist movement.

Mr Puigdemont was also able to successfully run a campaign as the head of his "Together for Catalonia" bloc in a regional election in December in which separatist parties maintained their slim majority in Catalonia's regional parliament.

All told, Mr Puigdemont has become enemy number one of Mr Rajoy's conservative government and Spain's justice system.

He had wanted to be re-elected as Catalonia's regional president — albeit while remaining abroad to avoid arrest — but eventually was stopped by a Spanish court.

Separatists in Catalonia are currently trying to elect a leader for the regional government before a two-month time limit is up and new elections are called.

Spain's Constitution says the nation is "indivisible" and any changes to its top law must be made by its national parliament in Madrid.

Nine people who promote Catalan secession have been placed in pre-trial custody to prevent what Mr Llarena considered a flight risk or intention to continue with independence efforts.

Also, Spain's highest judicial authority condemned insults that appeared painted on the street near a house owned by Mr Llarena in the Catalan town of Das. They called the Supreme Court judge a "fascist" and wrote the message that he is "not welcome in Das or anywhere."

Scottish police said Sunday that the lawyer of Clara Ponsati, a former Catalan regional minister also being sought by Spain, had been in contact and is preparing to be handed over to authorities. She had moved to Scotland from Belgium earlier this month.

***

MailOnline

A lost world in the heart of the Amazon: Archaeologists discover 'deserted' rainforest was actually home to a MILLION people living in fortified villages as early as 1250 AD

• Experts found evidence of hundreds of villages in rainforest, where communities spoke variety of languages

• Researchers found 1,100-mile stretch in southern Amazonia that was continuously occupied from 1250-1500

• Huge parts of the Amazon are still unexplored, and its thought two-thirds of villages are yet to be discovered

• These thriving populations were then decimated by the arrival of European settlers and their diseases

By Phoebe Weston For Mailonline

PUBLISHED: 16:00, 27 March 2018 | UPDATED: 20:08, 27 March 2018

Article

FOX NEWS

New organ called 'interstitium' may explain how cancer spreads, study says

By Madeline Farber

March 28, 2018

A group of scientists recently discovered an organ you didn’t know you had.

While performing endoscopies -- a non-surgical procedure where a small camera attached to a tube is used to examine the gastrointestinal tract -- scientists came across what they now call the "interstitium." The organ is a “previously unappreciated fluid-filled interstitial space, draining to lymph nodes and supported by a complex network of thick collagen bundles,” according to the study’s authors.

In other words, scientists found “interconnected compartments filled with fluid,” Newsweek reported, which “act as shock absorbers,” Neil Theise, a pathologist at New York University School of Medicine, told New Scientist. The interstitium protects the body’s organs, muscles and more from “bumps and shocks,” according to Newsweek.

he interstitium may help scientists better understand how cancer spreads.

“These anatomic structures may be important in cancer metastasis, edema, fibrosis and mechanical functioning of many or all tissues and organs,” the study’s authors wrote.

Since the interstitium helps move fluid around the body, it may also be a way that cancer spreads and moves into a person’s lymphatic system.

“Once they get in, it’s like they’re on a water slide,” Theise said. “We have a new window on the mechanism of tumor spread.”

If the broader scientific community accepts their findings, the interstitium could become the body’s official 80th organ, according to Newsweek.

YAHOO!

The link between your gut health and autoimmune diseases

Hallie Lavine

March 21, 2018

One in five Americans — about 50 million people in the United States — have an autoimmune disease. These include conditions such as lupus, rheumatoid arthritis, and multiple sclerosis which occur when the immune system begins attacking the body’s own organs, tissues, and cells. Research suggests that these diseases are on the upswing, with reports showing that Type 1 diabetes, lupus, and celiac disease, for example, are being diagnosed more frequently.

Medical experts are still mystified about what exactly causes autoimmune diseases and why some people are more susceptible to them. But now, fascinating new research shows that your gut bacteria — yup, you read that right — may play an important role.

A 2017 study published in the Journal of Experimental Medicine found that mice carrying a mutated gene that made them more susceptible to autoimmune disorders also showed changes in gut bacteria at around the same time they began to develop autoimmune symptoms. But when researchers gave the mice a probiotic to “reset” their gut, the mice’s digestive systems returned to normal, and they had decreased inflammation and a longer lifespan.

“Eighty percent of your body’s immune system is located in your gut, so if you don’t have a healthy gut, you can’t have a healthy immune system,” Amy Myers, MD, an Austin, Texas, specialist in autoimmune diseases and author of The Autoimmune Solution, points out to Yahoo Lifestyle.

How your gut affects your health

Your gut does more than just digest your food. It’s home to trillions of bacteria, fungi, and viruses that make up your stomach’s microbiome. While some of these bugs are bad, some are also good, helping your gastrointestinal (GI) tract run smoothly by breaking down food, synthesizing vitamins and other nutrients, and helping fight against germs that can cause infections, Shajan Sugandha, MD, a GI specialist at the University of Alabama in Birmingham, tells Yahoo Lifestyle.

When your microbiome is in tiptop shape, your digestion works well. But if it’s thrown off — which can happen due to anything ranging from a poor diet to medications like antibiotics to stress or a bout of the stomach flu — then some undigested toxins and unfriendly bacteria can stray from your GI tract, causing inflammation throughout your body, explains Myers.

This may help explain why research is now increasingly linking the microbiome to conditions such as obesity, Parkinson’s disease, and depression. Another theory is that some people’s bodies respond by sending their immune system into overdrive, so that anytime you come into contact with these bad bugs, your immune system fires off a cascade of inflammatory chemicals that cause you to develop chronic inflammation, and in time, an autoimmune disease, notes Myers.

This may be particularly true when it comes to multiple sclerosis, a type of autoimmune condition in which the body begins to attack the central nervous system — the brain, spinal cord, and optic nerves. This disorder, which affects over two million people worldwide, can be devastating, causing symptoms like trouble walking, muscle weakness, and vision, bowel, and bladder problems. But a University of California, San Francisco study published in 2017 in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences sheds new light on the disease. When researchers analyzed the microbiomes of 71 people with MS versus 71 healthy controls, they found that patients with MS had four times the amount of two types of bacteria: Acinetobacter calcoaceticus and Akkermansiamuciniphila. In addition, they had one-quarter of another type of bacteria, Parabacteroides distasonis, compared to people without the disease.

Researchers then took the study one step further, injecting gut bacteria from the MS patients into mice and then inducing brain inflammation in mice that received gut bacteria from healthy individuals. Within three weeks, the MS-infused mice had developed much more severe brain inflammation than those given the normal gut bacteria.

In a second German study published in October 2017, also in PNAS, researchers examined 34 pairs of twins in which only one of each had MS. They then took samples of their gut microbes and injected them into mice already predisposed to develop a disease like MS. More of the rodents who got the MS microbiome ended up developing MS-like symptoms, such as brain inflammation, than those who got the healthy microbiome.

Most of this research has been done only in mice, and experts caution that it needs to be replicated in humans before coming to firm conclusions. But, “I think all of these studies lend credence to the belief now that keeping your microbiome healthy, with a diversity of bacteria, is important for overall health, especially if you have a genetic predilection or other risk factors for developing an autoimmune disease,” Daniel Freedberg, MD, a gastroenterologist and assistant professor of medicine at Columbia University Medical Center, tells Yahoo Lifestyle.

How to keep your gut in tiptop shape

The best way to keep your microbiome healthy is through a good diet, says Freedberg. The good bacteria in your gut thrive on high-fiber foods (think: lentils, green peas, and raspberries), as well as fermented foods, such as plain yogurt with active cultures, sauerkraut, miso, and pickled vegetables.

A 2016 study in the journal Science found that plentiful consumption of those foods — as well as, surprisingly, coffee, tea, and wine — helped keep gut bacteria healthy.

Foods high in sugar, on the other hand, such as whole milk and sodas, had the opposite effect. A 2013 Harvard study also found that an animal protein-rich diet filled with meat and cheese dramatically alters your microbiome, and not in a good way: It promotes the rise of certain types of bacteria linked to inflammation.

Certain drugs, such as antibiotics, can also harm your microbiome. These meds kill the good bacteria in your gut along with harmful ones, and your microbiome may not recover for months after a course of antibiotics. That’s one reason why you shouldn’t take those drugs unless you really need them, notes Sugandha. Other drugs that can impact your gut microbiome are medicines that kill off stomach acid, like antacids and protein pump inhibitors, and the diabetes drug metformin.

The research on probiotics is murky, according to Sugandha, and it’s not quite clear yet which strains are best for your microbiome and who might need them. That’s why most doctors recommend trying to get most of your probiotics through food. That said, if you’re on antibiotics or another drug that can kill off stomach bacteria, two types that have the most research behind them are Lactobacillus rhamnosus GG (aka LGG) and Saccharomyces boulardii. And although probiotics are considered safe for healthy people to take, it’s always best to check with your doctor first.

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