Monday, January 13, 2014
CONTACT ME AT: manessmorrison2@yahoo.com


News For The Day



John Kerry's gift to Russian counterpart? Two 'impressive' Idaho potatoes – NBC

By Alexander Smith, NBC News contributor


Secretary of State John Kerry drew a chuckle from Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov when he presented two large Idaho potatoes as a gift during a meeting in Paris on Monday.

Kerry said Lavrov had mentioned Idaho's most famous export the last time the pair met. Russia's foreign minister seemed to appreciate the gesture, smiling and remarking that the gifts were "impressive."

The delegations were in Paris along with Syrian opposition groups ahead of U.N.-led Geneva II peace talks in Switzerland next week.


When I lived in Washington DC a number of years ago, one of my apartments was directly across the street from a branch of the Russian Embassy, and I used to watch the Russians going in and out. I was pleased and amazed to see how very much like Americans they were – how they dressed and walked. Then as Glasnost came in and relations between the US and Russia warmed up I came to like the Russians. There was one telling incident while we weren't speaking to the Russians yet except by diplomatic interactions -- a Russian ship and an American fishing boat came alongside each other and the sailors on both sides spontaneously began throwing packs of cigarettes to each other. The desire for friendship was evident.

I remember Kruschev's visit to the US, which was very genial for the most part. He exuded power, but showed a bluff warmth and sense of humor. He was disappointed at not being allowed to visit Disneyland while he was there. He made the news in a UN session for taking off his shoe and pounding the table with it to express his disapproval. He was tough, but very much a quirky character, and very intelligent. This potato incident with a modern day Russian fits into the pattern. We are much more like the Russians than we are the North Korean leaders. I think, though, that we hardly know what the North Korean people are like. They are too repressed for us to get an image of what they like and feel.




Southwest flight touches down in Missouri — at the wrong airport – NBC

By Jay Blackman, Daniel Arkin and Tracy Connor


Federal officials are investigating why a Southwest Airlines flight that was supposed to land at Branson Airport in southwest Missouri, instead landed at another airport about seven miles away — the second such mixup in two months.
 
Southwest Flight 4013 flying from Midway Airport in Chicago was scheduled to touch down at Branson Airport on Sunday but instead it made a surprise landing at M. Graham Clark Downtown Airport, according to the airline. The downtown airport is primarily used by corporate, charter and personal aircraft.

The Boeing 737-700 carried 124 passengers and a crew of five, the company said.
Federal Aviation Administration spokesman Tony Molinaro says the agency is investigating the incident. The National Transportation Safety Board plans to interview both pilots by Tuesday and will analyze the black boxes.

No injuries were reported during the mix-up, but passengers said the landing was jarring.
"He braked very hard," Dallas estate attorney Scott Schieffer told NBC News. "We could smell burnt rubber from inside the cockpit."

"The flight came to a very abrupt end, almost like a crash," Diane Coplan told  told NBC affiliate KXAS. "It just dropped to the ground and all of our bodies were accelerating forward very fast. You're holding on to the seat in front of you, not knowing what was happening."

Five minutes later, the pilot announced on the public address system that they had landed at the wrong airport.
"He said they were close, but it's nine miles away," Schieffer said.
"It's not like they’re right next to each other. It was dark at that time, but I was like, 'How does this happen?"

Because the downtown airport was not equipped to handle the Southwest flight, passengers were kept on the plane for 90 minutes while buses were sent to the tarmac, Schieffer said.

When they deplaned, he said, he got his second shock of the night — the plane was less than 200 feet from a dropoff at the end of the runway.
"A local official said, 'Son, look 40 feet behind those buses. You would have gone off that cliff," Schieffer recalled.

It took an hour for the buses to bring everyone to the correct airport and another two hours to get them on a plane to Dallas.
"People were just exhausted," he said.

He said passengers were given a $200 flight voucher but no real explanation for the snafu.
"What I'd like to find out eventually is how to this happen," he said.

Related: Passengers recount bumpy landing
The incident was the second in two months in which a plane has arrived at the wrong destination. In November, a behemoth Boeing air freighter set down at a small airport in Wichita, eight miles from its intended destination at McConnell Air Force Base.



This was almost a disaster. The plane almost rolled over a cliff. Are pilots flying by computer to too great a degree? That's the only thing I can think of that would cause them to go so far off course. I quit flying about 15 years ago when a number of incidents hit the news of old aircraft losing parts of their structure in mid-flight. I remember one cargo door came loose and fell off. I haven't gone anywhere that I couldn't find an alternative means of travel in recent years. Amtrack is my favorite way to get around. Even if a train jumps the track, the impact to passengers is unlikely to be as hard as when a plane falls out of the sky.




Justin Bieber accused of egging neighbor's home – NBC
By Jeff Black


Detectives are investigating a report that pop star Justin Bieber egged a home in his gated community while his neighbor and his neighbor’s daughter watched from a balcony.
The teen sensation got his start when his proud mom uploaded his videos to YouTube. Now he’s poised to rule the pop world.

The 19-year-old singer is named in a misdemeanor vandalism and assault crime report taken by investigators, L.A. County Sheriff’s spokesman Steve Whitmore told The Associated Press.
Whitmore said neighbors videotaped the incident.

Lt. James Royal of the Malibu/Lost Hills sheriff’s station told NBC News on Sunday that officers went to Bieber’s home on Thursday but detectives were still investigating to determine what precisely transpired inside the affluent Calabasas neighborhood.

In October, a neighbor complained that Bieber drove recklessly through the neighborhood.
Bieber's representative, Melissa Victor, has not commented on the report.


It hasn't been long since Bieber was in the news for the reckless driving also mentioned in this article. In the article another neighbor said that he frequently drove at a high speed through the quiet and elegant neighborhood. I think this kind of neighborhood is not going to tolerate too much of that sort of thing. Bieber can get into a wealthy neighborhood because he has the money to buy a house there, but he will have to become a great deal more mature or he will go to jail.

He doesn't appeal to me at all. I heard him sing one time, and he sounds okay, but not “great.” The teenaged girls like him because he is cute, but he looks so young and baby-faced that I don't like to see him. I want a stronger and more sensible image. He is in his early twenties -- he shouldn't still look like a 16 year old. Too many famous young people are always into some sort of outrageous trouble. I don't watch those tv shows like Extra because they are full of the bad things people do, and don't showcase the really professional stars nearly as much.




Beef prices at record highs as cold weather hits cattle herds – NBC
Reuters

The price of choice-grade U.S. beef at wholesale has set a new record as already tight supplies were further squeezed by harsh weather that reduced the number of cattle coming to market in parts of the country.

The wholesale price, or cutout, for choice beef on Thursday hit $212.05 per hundredweight (cwt), eclipsing the record of $211.37 last May, according to the U.S. Department of Agriculture.

Retail beef prices in November climbed to $5.41 per pound, topping the $5.36 October record, according to monthly data compiled by USDA that will be updated on Jan. 16.
"Tight beef supplies is the underlying principal factor," said University of Missouri livestock economist Ron Plain.

Packers hiked the price of beef it sells to grocers and restaurants after last week paying up to $138 per cwt for slaughter-ready cattle in the Plains—also a record high, he said.

The U.S. herd, at a 61-year low after years of drought, forced processors to spend more for supplies. Additionally, ice and snow-packed roads snarled transportation of cattle to packing plants.

Accompanying temperatures at historic lows slowed down cattle weight gains, making them less available to major meat processors such as Cargill and Tyson Foods.
"The weights have been coming down and we started placing fewer cattle in feedlots last summer, so eventually we had to tighten supplies up," said Steve Meyer, president of Iowa-based Paragon Economics.

Economists said record-high beef cutout values should come as no surprise given the scare supply situation that could keep retail beef prices at or near record highs through 2014.

Analysts and economists said recent changes in the way USDA calculates the wholesale price for specific cuts of beef likely helped drive up the overall cutout value.
"The real story is we're not going to have as much beef this year as we had last year," said Meyer.



There was a story on the tv news recently about chicken becoming the new favorite meat for Americans. That makes sense, because it is more healthful and less expensive. The flavor of it is also better, to me. A good spit roasted chicken is hard to beat. If this represents a change in how much beef is produced into the future it will be to our advantage, because the digestive process of cows is one of the factors mentioned as causing more CO2 in the atmosphere. I doubt that beef farmers will go out of business, though, as many Americans still love their steaks.





Forget Indiana Jones: Ark of the Covenant's fate remains a mystery
Owen Jarus LiveScience
Jan. 9, 2014

A newly translated Hebrew text claims to reveal where treasures from King Solomon's temple were hidden and discusses the fate of the Ark of the Covenant itself.
But unlike the Indiana Jones movie "Raiders of the Lost Ark," the text leaves the exact location of the Ark unclear and states that it, and the other treasures, "shall not be revealed until the day of the coming of the Messiah son of David" putting it out of reach of any would-be treasure seeker.

King Solomon's Temple, also called the First Temple, was plundered and torched by the Babylonian King Nebuchadnezzar II in the sixth century B.C., according to the Hebrew Bible. The Ark of the Covenant is a chest that, when originally built, was said to have held tablets containing the 10 commandments. It was housed in Solomon's Temple, a place that contained many different treasures. [ Religious Mysteries: 8 Alleged Relics of Jesus ]

The newly translated text, called "Treatise of the Vessels" (Massekhet Kelim in Hebrew), says the "treasures were concealed by a number of Levites and prophets," writes James Davila, a professor at the University of St. Andrews, in an article in the book "Old Testament Pseudepigrapha More Noncanonical Scriptures Volume 1" (William B. Eerdmans Publishing Co., 2013).

"Some of these (treasures) were hidden in various locations in the Land of Israel and in Babylonia, while others were delivered into the hands of the angels Shamshiel, Michael, Gabriel and perhaps Sariel …" writes Davila in his article.

The treatise is similar in some ways to the metallic "Copper Scroll," one of the Dead Sea Scrolls found near the site of Qumran in the West Bank. The Copper Scroll also discusses the location of hidden treasure, although not from Solomon's Temple.
The treatise describes the treasures in an imaginative way. One part refers to "seventy-seven tables of gold, and their gold was from the walls of the Garden of Eden that was revealed to Solomon, and they radiated like the radiance of the sun and moon, which radiate at the height of the world."

The oldest confirmed example of the treatise, which survives to present day, is from a book published in Amsterdam in 1648 called "Emek Halachah." In 1876, a scholar named Adolph Jellinek published another copy of the text, which was virtually identical to the 1648 version. Davila is the first to translate the text fully into English.

A story of legends
The writer of the text likely was not trying to convey factual locations of the hidden treasures of Solomon's Temple, but rather was writing a work of fiction, based on different legends, Davila told LiveScience. [ In Photos: Amazing Ruins of the Ancient World ]

"The writer draws on traditional methods of scriptural exegesis [interpretation] to deduce where the treasures might have been hidden, but I think the writer was approaching the story as a piece of entertaining fiction, not any kind of real guide for finding the lost Temple treasures," he wrote in the email.

The structure of the story is confusing. In the prologue it states that Shimmur the Levite (he doesn't appear to be a biblical figure) and his companions hid the treasures, "but later on the text mentions the treasures being in the keeping of or hidden by Shamshiel and other angels," Davila said. "I suspect the author collected various legends without too much concern about making them consistent."

Similarities to the Copper Scroll
The Copper Scroll, which dates back around 1,900 years, and is made of copper, shows several "striking parallels" with the newly translated treatise, Davila said.
The treatise says that the treasures from Solomon's Temple were recorded "on a tablet of bronze," a metal like the Copper Scroll. Additionally, among other similarities, the Treatise of the Vessels and Copper Scroll both refer to "vessels" or "implements," including examples made of gold and silver.

These similarities could be a coincidence or part of a tradition of recording important information on metal.
"My guess is that whoever wrote the Treatise of Vessels came up with the same idea [of writing a treasure list on metal] coincidentally on their own, although it is not unthinkable that the writer knew of some ancient tradition or custom about inscribing important information on metal," wrote Davila in the email, noting that metal is a more durable material than parchment or papyrus.

An ongoing story
The study of the treatise is ongoing, and discoveries continue to be made. For instance, in the mid-20th century a copy of it (with some variations) was discovered and recorded in Beirut, Lebanon, at the end of a series of inscribed plates that record the Book of Ezekiel.

Those plates are now at the Yad Ben Zvi Institute in Israel, although the plates containing the treatise itself are now missing. Recent research has revealed, however, these plates were created in Syria at the turn of the 20th century, about 100 years ago, suggesting the treatise was being told in an elaborate way up until relatively modern times.



From the article above, “The newly translated text, called "Treatise of the Vessels" (Massekhet Kelim in Hebrew), says the "treasures were concealed by a number of Levites and prophets," according to this news article.... Davila, a professor at the University of St. Andrews, in an article in the book "Old Testament Pseudepigrapha More Noncanonical Scriptures Volume 1" (William B. Eerdmans Publishing Co., 2013).” This would probably be a very interesting book to read.

Biblical scholars, both Jewish and Christian, are always looking for scripture references which can be backed up by archaeological finds, thus proving the literal truth of the Bible. I don't take the Bible literally, and I particularly don't take it to be the one and only word of God, but I continue to be interested in any articles I find of this kind. I do believe that ancient writings, whether scriptural or not, contain elements of truth which are buried in the tales and can be teased out and proven in some cases.

Several vessels called “arks” have been found in the Holy Land, but none that contained copies of the Ten Commandments. Every new source that is found will have unending interest value to me and others who are interested in ancient times. I wish I could have started out in college studying archaeology and pursuing it as my career. Even if I were never to have made any spectacular finds, I would find it ever satisfying as a pursuit. As it is, I have to content myself with reading about it.




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Pope Calls Abortion Evidence Of 'The Throwaway Culture' – NPR
by Scott Neuman
­
Pope Francis, criticized by some conservative Catholics as not speaking out forcefully against abortion, said Monday that the practice is "horrific" and evidence of "the throwaway culture."

In an annual speech known as the pontiff's "State of the World" address, Francis told diplomats and journalists gathered at the Holy See that it "is horrific even to think that there are children, victims of abortion, who will never see the light of day."
Hunger, he said, was a threat to world peace, noting that food, like human life, was being discarded as unnecessary.

"We cannot be indifferent to those suffering from hunger, especially children, when we think of how much food is wasted every day in many parts of the world immersed in what I have often termed 'the throwaway culture,' " Francis said.

Some conservative Catholics were alarmed when Francis said in September that the church must end its "obsession" with teachings on abortion, contraception and homosexuality or risk falling "like a house of cards."

As Reuters notes:
"Since his election in March, the pope, while showing no signs of changing the Church's position against abortion, has not spoken out against it as sternly or as repeatedly as his predecessors Pope Benedict XVI and the late John Paul II."
"Both of those popes often delivered sermons against abortion, which the Church considers murder."



I am not a Catholic nor a “born again Christian,” and I do not consider abortion or euthanasia to be murder. However it is not surprising that Pope Francis is finally speaking out against it. I do think women, when they can, should use birth control rather than risking a pregnancy; and as for euthanasia, it will always be subject to the dangers of unethical medical personnel causing the death of a patient without their consent before it is truly inevitable, perhaps to provide organs for transplant or to cut short a long drawn out treatment of a coma patient. When a patient faces a life of helplessness or pain, or a terrible and horrendous death as some cancer or brain-injured patients do, I think it is not a sin for them to ask for their life to be mercifully ended, and should be a right.