Poetry

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My poetry reveals some concepts using a philosophical line belonging to existentialism. While extrapolating this relationship between the human being and nature, I've tried to underline the immanence of God. My work is influenced by the philosophy found in writings belonging to Plato, Kafka, Hegel, Kant, Kierkegaard, and others while pleading for a spiritual awakening. The verses are outspoken on issues of love sufferings, violence against women, natural disasters, deprivation of liberty, the human condition, and human regression.

This volume comprises my poetry work. It includes philosophical, religious and love poems as well as several poetic pieces about life, nature, sound, dance, color and death. It also contains Quatern, Rondeau, Ottava Rima, Ekphrastic, Pantoum, Kyrielle Sonnet, Villanelle, Alexandrine, Mirror Sestet, Quintain, Rondelet, Triolet, Alliteration, Tanka, Haiku, Senryu, Sextuple, Crystalline, Choka, Tetractys, Fable, Boketto, Palindrome, Acrostic, Fibonacci, Hexaverse, Triquatrain, Dadaist, Terza Rima, Spenserian Sonnet, Jintishi, Sestina, Complex, Oxymoron, Cinqku, Kimo and Monoku poems. I wanted to sense the essential human existence and to extrapolate it to infinity and to God. The poems themselves covered some symbolistic and antagonist ideas.

My poetry broke some old ideas for a new vision for life. They came into being in a new surrealistic world. I wanted to sense the essential human existence and to extrapolate it to infinity, or more exactly, to God. The poems themselves covered some symbolism and antagonist ideas such as those of lightness and darkness or goodness and badness.

My work revealed the tortured psyche of the human being in a fight with its own regression.

A Massive Earthquake in Pakistan Has Resulted in the Birth of a New Island

A New Island (Poem)

The southwestern Pakistan was stricken by a major earthquake,

Which killed people, and collapsed so many buildings and houses.

 The forming of a small island in the Arabian Sea was not a fake.

Men had to leave their homes together with their kids and spouses.

 The quake that hit Pakistan’s Baluchistan province had 7.8 magnitude.

On the coast of Gwadar, many houses collapsed on the poor people inside.

The new island, having a width around 100 feet and 20 to 40 feet altitude,

Is a rocky formation above the water rising to disappear like a sea tide.

Mud volcanoes have risen off the coast of Pakistan and disappeared again

Within a few months being washed away by the currents in the Arabian Sea.

The mystery of this volcano, which can meet the same fate, no one can explain.

The Vikings Edda and the Bible, in searching for the truth, for sure, form a key.

 The earthquake was centered at a strange triple junction in the Earth’s surface,

And the Arabian tectonic plate was pushing its way beneath the Eurasian plate.

The Indian plate rammed into both of them, the terrain was deformed to resurface.

This rare effect of a quake is more interesting than the changes in the atomic weight.

The tremors were even felt in northern part of India including New Delhi, its capital,

This earthquake being similar with that one moving parts of Chile 10 feet to the west.

The story about another island temporarily rising from the Arabian Sea is also real.

The ‘’ super typhoon’’ formed in the Pacific Ocean proves that the weather is stressed.

The Typhoon Usagi swept through the Luzon Strait separating the Philippines and Taiwan

 To bring heavy torrential rains and high winds to the island while weakening slightly.

Usagi made landfall in China's Guangdong Province in the city of Shanwei, near Kowloon.

The rain continued inland over China triggering flash flooding, the life changing sightly.

The Batanes Islands, in the extreme northern Philippines north of Luzon, took a direct hit.

Heavy rain has fallen in the northern Philippines, where the typhoon was named Odette.

Japan is damaged by the earthquake and the tsunami, because it’s time to start a split.

People of San Francisco wait for their turn thinking that the life isn't finished yet.

A major earthquake struck southwestern Pakistan earlier today killing about 100 people, injuring thousands, collapsing building and houses; and causing a small island to form in the sea off Pakistan’s coastline.

The U.S. Geological Survey mentioned that the quake that hit Pakistan’s Baluchistan province early Tuesday morning was a 7.8 magnitude. Officials recently declared that at more than 150 people died during this quake. That number is expected to rise while the Pakistani military are continuing to clean up the zone. Many one-level houses, in the region where the quake hit, collapsed on the people inside.

The power and force of the quake was underscored by the small, visible island that rose off the coast of Gwadar, near the port, in the Arabian Sea, off the southern coast of the country.  Pakistan’s Geo News declared that “the island’s altitude is 20 to 40 feet and width around 100 feet,” and that ''the island is roughly 350 feet off shore'', citing the deputy inspector general Moazzam Jah. Arif Mahmood, the head of Pakistan’s meteorological department. A rocky formation is now just above the water and it is visible from the coast. The rise of this new island is very interesting because most earthquakes rarely have such a drastic effect on the world surface. It’s not entirely clear what caused the new island to jut out of the sea. Earthquakes are definitely capable of causing dramatic shifts in the terrain.

According to the United States Geological Survey (USGS) the earthquake struck around 100 km southwest of the city of Khuzdar in Baluchistan province, at a depth of 23 km (15 miles). The tremors wear even felt in northern part of India including national capital, New Delhi. The earthquake caused considerable panicky among people and many ran out of houses and buildings. There were no reports of aftershocks.

In 2010 a magnitude 8.8 earthquake caused parts of Chile to move “at least 10 feet to the west.” The geoscientists on Twitter talked about the possibility that the new island may have been produced by what’s known as a “mud volcano.” Back in 2010, says NASA, a mud volcano caused a different island to temporarily rise from the Arabian Sea. If that’s the case, Pakistan’s new island may not be around for a long time.

Mud volcanoes have risen off the coast of Pakistan in the past and disappeared again within a few months, washed away by the waves and currents in the Arabian Sea. It is quite likely that this new volcano will meet the same fate.

The earthquake was centered at a strange triple junction in the Earth’s surface, declared the USGS. In Pakistan, near the site of today’s earthquake, ''the Arabian tectonic plate is pushing its way beneath the Eurasian plate while the Indian plate rams into both of them from the south.''

One of the strongest tropical cyclones in at least eight years has formed in the western Pacific Ocean moving toward Hong Kong. Categorized as a “super typhoon” at its peak on Thursday (September 19, 2013), Usagi swept through the Luzon Strait separating the Philippines and Taiwan on Saturday (September 21), bringing torrential rains and high winds to island communities. On Saturday morning, Usagi’s maximum sustained winds were at 139 mph with gusts exceeding 163 mph.  Usagi is weakening slightly.

Usagi is the strongest storm to have formed in 2013. The last time we saw a storm this strong was in 2005, when Major Hurricane Wilma formed as an extremely strong tropical cyclone in the Atlantic Ocean.

Super Typhoon Usagi is the strongest storm to have formed in the last 30 years speaking in terms of Usagi’s barometric pressure (the lower the pressure, the stronger the storm). The strongest storm since people have begun to measure and track storms was Super Typhoon Tip.  It formed in 1979 and had and its pressure was about 870 millibars (mb). At its peak on September 19, Usagi had an estimated barometric pressure of 882 mb. The last time we had a super typhoon as strong as Usagi in the western Pacific was back in 1984 when Super Typhoon Vanessa had a pressure of 880 mb. However, Super Typhoon Megi in 2010 came very close to this with a pressure of 885 mb. Usagi made landfall as a typhoon in China's Guangdong Province in the city of Shanwei, about 90 miles east-northeast of Kowloon, Hong Kong. Winds gusted to 119 mph at Shanwei around the time of landfall, and the barometric pressure plunged to about 940 millibars (27.8 inches of mercury). Chinese weather authorities said landfall occurred at 7:40 p.m. local time (7:40 a.m. EDT U.S. time) on Sunday.

According to the Japanese Meteorological Agency, as of early Monday morning (U.S. time), Usagi was centered over central Guangdong Province and had weakened to a tropical depression. While the winds from Usagi have subsided, locally heavy rain will continue inland over China, which could trigger flash flooding.

Prior to hitting China, Usagi was a super typhoon. A tropical cyclone is dubbed a "super typhoon" when maximum sustained winds reach at least 150 mph. Usagi underwent a period of rapid intensification from early Wednesday through midday Thursday (U.S. Eastern time), going from a 55-knot (65-mph) tropical storm to a 140-knot (160-mph) super typhoon in just 33 hours, or just under a 100 mph intensification, based on satellite estimates of intensity. Usagi killed more than 30 people

By Friday night, though, Usagi underwent an eye-wall replacement cycle, causing the storm to weaken slightly. In addition, the outer rain bands began to interact with Taiwan and Luzon, disrupting the storm's low-level inflow, further weakening the storm.

The center of Usagi passed north of the north coast of Luzon on Saturday, local time.

The Batanes Islands, in the extreme northern Philippines north of Luzon, took a direct hit. Basco Airport reported a sustained wind of 112 mph, and then went nearly calm as the eye passed overhead and the pressure dropped to 930 millibars.

Heavy rain has fallen in parts of the northern Philippines, where the typhoon was named Odette.

The Telegraph analyzed the damages of Japan, which are a consequence of the earthquake and the tsunami. They found 2,414 dead persons. Also, they found:

10,000 – Likely final death toll figure is set to reach beyond that mark.

15,000 – Number of people unaccounted for.

50 – Number of Britons missing, presumed dead.

550,000 – Evacuated from their homes since the quake struck on Friday.

Much of the media attention in the West now is being focused on the ongoing dramas of the nuclear reactors that have been affected by the quake and tsunami. Germany has ordered that its seven nuclear reactors placed into service before 1980 be taken offline and it’s unclear what their fate will be. There’s a certain level of panic setting in worldwide over nuclear power at the moment (particularly among elected officials). Even here in relatively tectonically stable Illinois there’s nervousness.

In Japan the concern may be well-founded. The amount of radiation that has been released is enough to be a concern for the years that come. Japan has been the home to some of the world’s most damaging earthquakes.

Plastic Water Bottles Causing Cancer?

The EWG says that "BPA is associated with a number of health problems and diseases that are on the rise in the U.S. population, including breast and prostate cancer and infertility. Given widespread human exposure to BPA and hundreds of studies showing its adverse effects, the FDA and EPA must act quickly to set safe levels for BPA exposure based on the latest science on the low-dose toxicity of the chemical."
BPA is an industrial chemical whose major use is in the production of polycarbonates and epoxy resins. Polycarbonates are used in various consumer products, including a number that come into contact with food, such as certain plastic beverage containers and baby bottles, plastic dinnerware, and plastic food storage containers. Epoxy resins are part of the protective linings used in food and beverage cans, and it is likely that canned food is the major source of human consumption of BPA (in addition to that from plastic baby bottles). The plastic beverage containers that use BPA in their manufacture are the hard colored plastic bottles with the number 7 on the bottom (as opposed to PET bottles that are clear, softer and have the number 1).
 We'll never forget when Sheryl Crow attributed her breast cancer to the BPA (Bisphenol A, a chemical used in plastics) in re-used water bottles.

 According to Shanaz H. Dairkee, Ph.D., a Senior Scientist of Cancer Research at the California Pacific Medical Center Research Institute and Consulting Professor at the Stanford University School of Medicine, BPA is all around us, everywhere. "We are swimming in it," she says. "In our homes, workplaces, schools, and recreation areas." She points out that it's used to line food cans and paper plates, in beverage bottles, and even in cash register receipts.

Beverly Rubin, Ph.D., Associate Professor of Anatomy & Cellular Biology at Tufts University, says BPA is also in the soil, ground water, and in the dust that collects both indoors and outdoors. And, it's not just around us: a whopping 93% of people in the U.S. have appreciable levels of BPA in their urine, according to Cheryl S. Watson, Ph.D, the editor-in-chief of Endocrine Disruptors (Landes Bioscience Journals) and professor of bio-chemistry and molecular biology at the University of Texas Medical Branch. Dr. Dairkee says that BPA has also been found in human blood, breast milk, and fetal liver - which indicates that BPA can cross the placenta.

 The danger of BPA in our bodies lies in its relationship to estrogen, Dr. Watson says. "BPA resembles (but is not exactly like) natural estrogens, and can mimic or disrupt the actions of the body's own estrogens, for both males and females." When a body has too much estrogen, Dr. Dairkee says, it can initiate cancer and precancerous lesions in estrogen-sensitive tissues. The effect has has been proven in animals, with results that repeat across species. Though this isn't technically direct evidence that BPA causes cancer in humans, humans are indeed animals, and the results of these tests should be taken seriously.
The human papillomavirus (aka HPV) is more or less everywhere, statistically speaking. It’s estimated that 75 to 80 percent of all sexually active adults will have some form of HPV in their lifetime. Some will develop genital warts, while in others, the virus will lead to a life-threatening disease: Nearly 12,000 new cases of HPV-related cervical cancers are diagnosed in the U.S. every year, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

“HPV is a skin-to-skin contact infection,” says Diane Harper, M.D., professor at the University of Missouri-Kansas City School of Medicine and a lead researcher of HPV and cervical cancer prevention and treatment.  Condoms can’t shield you from HPV because the virus could be lingering on skin outside of the condom. “There are over 100 types of HPV that invade the human skin, and 40 types invade the soft, wet, mucosa in the mouth, anal, and genital area,” says Harper.

It’s those 40 that have been linked to cervical cancer. “HPV-16 causes the greatest number of cancers,” says Harper. “About 90 percent of the time, HPV infections disappear within two years and never cause any ill effect. Five percent of the time, the HPV infections will turn into a cancer precursor, and about half of those cancer precursors will develop into cancer.”

 Schedule an annual ob/gyn exam to get a Pap test, which will screen for cellular changes that, left untreated, could lead to cervical cancer.

But, cautions Harper, know that a Pap is not a flawless method: “Pap screening programs are very effective but not perfect at early detection for early treatment,” she says. What’s even more frustrating is that once you have HPV (whatever the form) there’s no pill to pop or shot to get rid of it. “No anti-viral exists for it to date,” says Harper. “There is no treatment for HPV infections — the only treatment is for cells already infected with HPV that have changed into a cancer precursor or a cancer.” What that means: surgical removal to cut out the HPV-ridden growths either on the outside, or inside of your body.

 There are two vaccines, Gardasil and Cervarix, which pretty much ward off the most common strains. "Both vaccines protect against some types of HPV that cause cancer and some types that cause genital warts," says Harper, who helped develop both vaccines. "Cervarix provides better protection against cancer-causing types and Gardasil provides better protection against genital warts. But they both only protect against a limited number of HPV types, not all the types that cause cervical cancers.”

Though early detection through Pap smears has made cervical cancer relatively rare in the United States (with an annual death toll of about 4,000), lack of preventive screening and treatment results in the death of some 200,000 women in developing countries each year. In those areas, the manpower and testing laboratories often aren't available to facilitate regular check ups. However, Dr. Surendra Shastri, head of preventive oncology at Tata Memorial Hospital in Mumbai, may have come up with a solution.

Suspicious Pap smears are usually further investigated by dousing cervical cells in acetic acid, which is basically a sterile vinegar solution. This allows even less-trained healthcare workers to examine the cells under a microscope and determine if any cancerous cells are present. After conducting research comparing unscreened women to those screened with the vinegar process only for fifteen years, Dr. Shastri presented his findings yesterday to the American Society for Clinical Oncology — announcing an astounding 31% reduction in death from cervical cancer among the women regularly screened with his new method.

In India alone, implementing this process could save 22,000 women a year — and 73,000 worldwide. And, while Dr. Shastri's study benefited from the high level of organization and diligence of a controlled study, the process is simple and cheap enough that it could work miracles in areas with limited medical access. The issue lies mainly in the follow-up process; it may prove difficult to get women who test positive into hospitals for the necessary treatment. But, this is one case where knowing is quite literally half the battle; and coupled with other low-cost methods currently in development, it could mean major change in the health of women the world over.

As far as HPV leading to throat cancer, Dr. Haddard says the risk is relatively low. However, he explains, many patients with throat cancer are likely to have had HPV - it's present in two out of three cases, according to the American Cancer Society. He likens the phenomenon to smoking: "Not all smokers will develop lung cancer, but of patients who do have lung cancer, many of them are smokers." So, while having HPV does increase the risk of developing throat cancer, it's not an inevitable result. According to Dr. Haddard, smoking and drinking are much more closely linked to throat cancer.

 Additionally, as for the buzz about

 There are some preventative measures one can take. If you get the HPV vaccination, use protection when you have sex, make sure that you and/or your partner get regular Pap smears, and quit smoking.



.Of course, smoking doesn't just increase your own risk of getting cancer, it increases the risk for everyone around you. Secondhand smoke is a well-known carcinogen, but what about thirdhand smoke? Even after cigarette smoke has cleared, toxins can linger, says Dr. Jyothi Marbin, M.D., a pediatrician at Children's Hospital & Research Center Oakland.

 Some of Dr. Marbin's patients have reported that their asthma symptoms flare up in a room where someone has been smoking. ("Even long after the smoker is gone," she notes.) It's no coincidence: Thirdhand smoke contains at least 11 toxic substances, she says, "including arsenic, cyanide, and lead."

Dr. Marbin says that everyone should be concerned, but children are at a greater risk, as they spend more time indoors.

 Non-smoking adults are commonly exposed to thirdhand smoke when they stay in a hotel, ride in a car, or move into a home or a building where smoking is allowed.
It's very easy to detect thirdhand smoke - if you can smell it, it's there. But, Dr. Marbin says, it might be there even if you can't smell it. "Research studies found that even two months after a cigarette is smoked in a room, there are still measurable levels of thirdhand smoke," she says. Unfortunately, there's no publicly available test for it, and it's not easy to get rid of. Dr. Marbin suggests cleaning surfaces or fabrics with an acidic solution like vinegar, and washing walls with hot, soapy water.

 Dr. Marbin says taking a shower and washing your clothes can remove the residue.

throat cancer in straight men in particular, Dr. Haddard says that there's no evidence to indicate whether throat cancer from orally-contracted HPV is more or less likely than cervical cancer from vaginally-contracted HPV. Dr. Haddard says that oral sex is just one of many ways of contracting the virus, and advises taking safer sex precautions with all sexual activity. And, having a partner with HPV-related oral cancer does not mean that you will necessarily develop the virus or the cancer: In a recent study of partners of people with HPV-related throat cancer, the HPV subtype which can lead to throat cancer was present in 2% of female partners and actually none of the male partners.

Ambitious Cloning Projects

A Siberian expedition found a well-preserved woolly mammoth. When scientists investigated, blood came running out.
 The mammoth-rebuilding project is

improved by a recent discovery of the Russian scientists, who uncovered a fairly fresh new mammoth.
A paleontological expedition team from the Research Institute of Applied Ecology of the North, North-Eastern Federal University, and the Russian Geographical Society went  to the  Novosibirsk archipelago in Siberia. There, the researchers discovered a female mammoth in a remarkable  state of preservation.
"The fragments of muscle tissues, which we've found out of the body, have a natural red color of fresh meat," declared the expedition leader Semyon Grigoriev. "The reason for such preservation is that the lower part of the body was underlying in pure ice, and the upper part was found in the middle of tundra", he added.

The scientists gathered blood samples to get the first tests.  "The blood is very dark, it was found in ice cavities bellow the belly and when we broke these cavities with a poll pick, the blood came running out," Grigoriev declared.

Australian scientists broke new ground in embryonic cloning by reviving a dead frog species. They used eggs from a distant cousin.
The Rheobatrachus silus frogs have been extinct since 1983. This  Australian kind of creatures used to swallow  the own eggs and then to release the young from the mouth.
During five years , the Australian researchers have  conducted their experiments using somatic-cell nuclear transfer, a technique for creating a cloned embryo called the Lazarus Project. They took donor eggs from a related frog to replace those nuclei with dead nuclei from the extinct frog. Some of the eggs then started to grow.
. The embryos didn't make it past a few days, but they  gave the scientists a fresh cache of living cells for future cloning experiments.
"We are watching Lazarus arise from the dead, step by exciting step," declared the leader of the Lazarus Project team, Professor Mike Archer of the University of New South Wales in Sydney. The scientists from the University of Newcastle are  participating in this project, too.
The extinct frog's cell nuclei being gathered from tissues collected in the 1970s have been kept in a deep freeze until now.
 "We're increasingly confident that the hurdles ahead are technological and not biological and that we will succeed. Importantly, we've demonstrated already the great promise this technology has as a conservation tool when hundreds of the world's amphibian species are in catastrophic decline," Archer declared.

The scientists in New Zealand found that DNA decays far quicker than previously considered, making be impossible to salvage the usable genetic material belonging to the dead dinosaurs.

The DNA fact-finding project involved a team of palaeogeneticists. They tested 158 leg bones belonging to three species of the extinct giant moa birds ranging from 600 to 8,000 years old.
After running many comparisons between the age of the various bones and DNA degradation within each specimen, the scientists estimated that DNA's half-life works out to about 521 years after being kept in a swamp with an average temperature of 13.1 Celsius (55 Fahrenheit). Even a more ideal preservation temperature of minus 5 Celsius (23 Fahrenheit) would only result in readable DNA from specimens up to 1.5 million years old, meaning there is no possible way we can see a 65-million-year-old T-Rex waving its tiny arms about in this time frame.

DNA breaks down for a variety of reasons, including degradation from external influences such as temperature, water, soil chemistry, and so on. After half a millennium, the researchers assume that DNA continues to degrade as the nucleotide bonds within break in half. Each 521-year segment serves as another chapter of nucleotide structure breakdown and carries on until the bonds no longer exist. However, science has yet to determine the breakdown speed of DNA in environments that are more supportive of preservation, such as permafrost.
Morten Allentoft at the University of Copenhagen and Michael Bunce at Murdoch University in Perth, Australia, worked with a large team on the findings, which were published today in the Proceedings of the Royal Society B science journal.

The Big Asteroid That is Zipping by Earth This Week is not Alone ,Because It Has a Traveling Companion

The big asteroid -- 1.7 miles long -- that is zipping by Earth this week is not alone , because it has a traveling companion. NASA radar images  , which are just released, show the asteroid  called  "QE2 '' and its previously undiscovered moon orbiting it. They technically make a binary asteroid system. The small asteroid circling the big one is estimated to be about 2,000 feet wide.
NASA declared that about 16 percent of larger (over 655 feet) near-Earth asteroids are binary or triple systems.
The closest approach of the space rockin' duo will take place on Friday, May 31 at 1:59 p.m. PT, when the system will get  close to us almost 3.6 million miles  ( 15 times the distance between Earth and the moon). The end of May passing of 1998 QE2 will be its closest visit for the next 200 years.
"Asteroid 1998 QE2 will be an outstanding radar imaging target at Goldstone and Arecibo and we expect to obtain a series of high-resolution images that could reveal a wealth of surface features," declared radar astronomer Lance Benner from NASA's Jet Propulsion Lab.
Despite flying by nearly 4 million miles away, the  230-foot wide antenna (telescope), belonging to Goldstone Deep Space Communications Complex in California's Mojave Desert, can zoom in very closely to 1998 QE2 in order to detect details 12 feet across.
 "We will also use new radar measurements of the asteroid's distance and velocity to improve our calculation of its orbit and compute its motion farther into the future than we could otherwise", declared Benner.
  The Carlo Zapponi's visual graph is called Bolides , and it puts the meteor strikes in a chronological view to get a historical perspective on the number of dazzling space rocks having fallen through our skies in recent times.
Inspired by the Greek word bolis (missile), Bolides features data from a range of historical meteor records, ranging from MetBase to London's Natural History Museum catalog of meteorites, and displays the data in a special way to explore them.
 There are more than 34,842 recordings of meteorites from the year 861. Zapponi graph only shows the 1,045 meteorites that couldn't be discredited or doubted.
 1933 was the year of 16 confirmed meteor strikes on Earth, and 1947 was the year , when the mega Sikhote-Alin meteor struck Russia.
Immediately after a large meteor hit Russia on February, and injured about 1,000 people, President Obama's administration announced that the U.S. would work on the asteroid tracking technology to avoid other severe Earth collisions.
Charles  Bolden spoke at the Human to Mars Summit in Washington, D.C. on Monday, and declared that a robotic spacecraft mission currently being planned will "prepare efforts to prevent an asteroid from colliding with devastating force into our planet."( U.S. News & World Report).
 The U.S. space agency wants to lasso a small asteroid and to tow it close  to our planet to be visited by the astronauts. They  will be able to collect samples and to conduct research that could one day assist in a mission to Mars or save Earth from a catastrophic collision.

The Obama administration intends to put the U.S. Astronauts on a near-Earth asteroid by 2025, and perhaps, to follow up such missions with manned Mars flights in the following decade. Seventy-eight million dollars have officially been set aside in the next fiscal year budget for NASA to start the development of the asteroid capture plan.

 NASA's science mission directorate associate administrator John Grunsfeld  talked about the importance of the lasso mission of the Human to Mars Summit on Monday, as U.S. News & World Report declared.
Grunsfeld also said  that NASA has '' a pretty good theory that single-planet species don't survive ". "We don't want to test it, but we have some evidence of that happening 65 million years ago [when an asteroid killed much of Earth's life]. That will happen again someday ... we want to have the capability [to leave the planet] in case of the threat of large scale destruction on Earth",he added.

On Wednesday, the Origins-Spectral Interpretation Resource Identification Security Regolith Explorer (Osiris-Rex) passed a key confirmation review , approving the development phase of the spacecraft , according to NASA.

 NASA also has chosen and named the first asteroid it will visit and sample. The asteroid  known as Bennu was previously called 1999 RQ36, but it was renamed as part of a contest involving suggestions from thousands of school children.

NASA declared that Bennu could hold clues to the origin of the solar system. NASA hopes that the new spacecraft can rendezvous with Bennu at 2018 . Osiris Rex wants to collect a minimum of 2 ounces (60 grams) of surface material to be returned to Earth by 2023.
The space agency said the mission to Bennu can be a key part of a larger mission of capturing and relocating an entire asteroid for some further studies.

Judges Had Crowned Ontario's Denise Garrido, 26, the New Miss Universe Canada, but They Had Made a Mistake in Tabulating the Scores ....

 On Saturday night, the judges had crowned Ontario's Denise Garrido, 26, the new Miss Universe Canada out of 57 contestants, but on Sunday morning, they admitted that they had made a mistake in tabulating the scores . The new crowned beauty was Riza Santos, 26, of Calgary.

 The 2013 pageant was held at the St. Lawrence Centre for the Arts in Toronto.

 A follow-up post corrected the mistake, making a new list of the "final results" , and Riza became the queen.

Just 24 hours after being a winner, Garrido met Sunday with the pageant director Denis Davila, who stripped her of her sash, crown, trophy and the chance to represent the country at Miss Universe in the United States ,on December,this year.

Garrido said , “My heart sank,” declared the Star.

Davila told her that a “typo” occurred when transferring the judges’ handwritten scores into a computer program that helps to decide the winner.
 "During the validation of the computerized scoring results (which occurs the following day), a typo was discovered in the top 5 entries, which significantly impacted the final results of the competition. This is the first instance of this type of error in the 11 years that Beauties of Canada (BOC) have produced the Miss Universe Canada pageant."

After the validation of the computerized scoring results, Garrido heard that she had not finished the first but the fourth, being the third runner-up to  Santos, 26, of Calgary, Riza has to collect her crown in Toronto.

Organizers said that a typo had led to the wrong contestant being named the winner of the Miss Universe Canada pageant.

Usually, after judges score the contestants, someone inputs the results into a computer. Andrew Lopez, a spokesman for Miss Universe Canada, said that since 10 years, the lawyer Nick Macos of Black Sutherland LLP had been inputting the results, but he was not available this year. Thus, it was  left to an inexperienced pageant employee to transfer the scores; it was he who made the error.

“Every single person who does the calculation needs to be third party,” said Loza-Alvarado, a former production director and producer. “If not, it puts you in a very compromising situation.”

Davila,  the pageant director , could not be reached to explain  why another person not connected to Miss Universe Canada could not  calculate the scores.

A third-party audit demanded the list of the handwritten scores wanting to to compare it with the computer results. Lopez could not confirm who carried out the audit, but declared that the person inputting the scores the night of the pageant is not required to be independent. He also declined to comment on Loza-Alvarado’s dismissal.

Marwa Ishow, a contestant in the 2013 pageant, declared that Garrido deserved to win and the “typo” fiasco has left her and other competitors uneasy.

“How we do we know that everything else wasn’t wrong?” said Ishow, 22. “The whole pageant seems like it was staged.”


 "I've grown a lot from this experience," Garrido  told Yahoo! Shine in a phone interview. "It was a challenge at the time and was shocking to me...but it could be a great story for women everywhere.''


Last year's Miss Universe Canada pageant was also the center of controversy when transgendered contestant Jenna Talackova was barred from entering the final event. The reason was that she wasn't "born a woman." The decision was reversed some days later after public outcry.

This year, some fans, especially those from Garrido's hometown of Bradford, Ontario, couldn't accept the turnaround.

“I will always have the memory of being the 24-hour queen,” declared Garrido,. She is now too old to compete in this kind of competitions any longer.

Sandy Packs Punch as a Strong Category 2 Hurricane, Claims 2 Lives.

 The U.S. East Coast has a  chance of getting blasted by gale-force winds, flooding, heavy rain and maybe even snow at the beginning of the next week due to an unusual hybrid of hurricane and winter storm, federal and private forecasters declared.

Hurricane Sandy in the Caribbean, an early winter storm in the West and a blast of arctic air from the North can collide,   forecasters predict.

It is probably to hit during a full moon, when the tides are almost at their highest, increasing coastal flooding potential, NOAA forecasts  report. The trees are still leafy and there is a potential for snow and power outages, some meteorologists warn.

It is a combination of different storm types that could  generate a real whopper of weather problems, meteorologists  declared.

The  center's chief hurricane specialist, James Franklin,  declared the threat keeps increasing for "a major impact in the Northeast, New York area. In fact it would be such a big storm that it would affect all of the Northeast."

The biggest problem is the snow and that depends on where the remnants of Sandy turn inland. The computer model that has been leading the pack in predicting the hybrid storm has it hitting around Delaware or closer to Maine. If it hits Delaware, the chances of snow increase in that zone. If it hits farther north, chances for snow increase in the mid-Atlantic , Masters declared.

 Hurricane Sandy churned over eastern Cuba early Thursday having winds of 105 mph,the National Hurricane Center in Miami declared warning the residents living along the U.S. East Coast to be  careful this weekend. Sandy claimed a pair of lives before reaching Cuba. A woman in western Haiti's Camp-Perrin died Wednesday while she was  trying to cross a flooding river in the Ravine du Sud, Haitian news agency AHP reported .
 A man in Jamaica was killed ,according to CNN affiliate TV J.
 The wind has whipped the island  since Thursday morning. Some 70% of its residents are without power and almost 1,000 people are in shelters, TV J declared. Sandy has its sights set on the Bahamas ,too.
Hurricane warnings are in place for Jamaica, eastern Cuba,  the central and western Bahamas, along with Haiti and southeastern Florida.
Rainfall amounts could hit up to 12 inches . Sandy could make landfall somewhere between Maine and Virginia, bringing with it heavy rain, flooding, high winds and widespread power outages,Massachusetts Emergency Management reported.

Fort Lauderdale's Ocean Rescue told beach goers to stay out of the ocean.

 The storm can shadow the east coast of the US in the coming days and  can "potentially transition over the weekend into a powerful nor'easter",the National Hurricane Center reported.

 The effects of the tropical cyclone can span many hundreds of miles from the center, the area experiencing the hurricane force  because the wind speeds of at least 74 mph , while Sandy is moving between the northeast coast of Cuba and the central
Bahamas...

 The Hurricane Warning is in effect for Cuban provinces of Camaguey,Las Tunas,Granma,Santiago de Cuba,Holguin and Guantanamo,the Ragged Islands in the southeastern Bahamas,
the central and the northwestern Bahamas.Preparations to protect life and property should be rushed to completion.

The Tropical Storm Warning is in effect for Haiti,Florida East Coast from Ocean Reef to Flagler Beach,Lake Okeechobee
and the remainder of the southeastern Bahamas. The tropical storm conditions are expected somewhere within the warning area  within 24 to 36 hours.

At 800 am EDT...1200 UTC...the center of Hurricane Sandy was located by an Air Force Reserve hurricane hunter aircraft at latitude 21.6 north and longitude 75.5 west. Sandy is moving toward the north having18 mph-30 km/h-and this general motion is expected to continue today. A turn toward the north-northwest and a diminish in forward speed are expected tonight and Friday. The center of Sandy will move near or over the central Bahamas later today and tonight. It will move near or over the northwestern Bahamas on Friday.

Maximum sustained winds are almost 105 mph (165 km/h) with higher gusts. Sandy is a category two hurricane on the Saffir-Simpson hurricane wind scale, its gradual weakening  being forecast over the next 48 hours.  Probably ,Sandy remains a hurricane as it moves through the Bahamas.

Hurricane conditions can spread across the central and northwestern Bahamas later today through Friday,
while tropical storm is expected in the warning area along
the East Coast of Florida tonight and Friday.

Sandy is expected to produce total rainfall amounts of
6 to 12 inches across Haiti,the Dominican Republic and eastern
Cuba causing life-threatening flash floods and mud slides
especially in  zones of mountainous terrain.

The combination of a dangerous storm surge and the
tide will cause normally dry areas  along the coast to be flooded by rising waters.

The surge-related flooding depends on the relative timing of the surge and the tidal cycle.

The Most Recent Book, "Ike's Bluff: President Eisenhower's Secret Struggle to Save the World," by Evan Thomas and the Presidential Election

 The most important decision either President Obama or another President like Romney want to make in the next future is  to bomb Iran and its nuclear facilities.
  Dwight Eisenhower was the first president to ponder his pre-emptive strike against a rising nuclear power. Immediately after Eisenhower became president, the Soviets detonated their own crude H-bomb, code named Joe IV (after Stalin) . Nine months  before this, the United States had set off its own first H-bomb, code named Mike -- 500 times more powerful than those that devastated Hiroshima and Nagasaki in Japan. At a secret national security meeting on September 24, 1953, the president Eisenhower gathered his closest advisers and asked: ''Would it be morally wrong not to attack the Soviets before it was too late?''  In the end,Eisenhower and his advisers  concluded  not to strike first, disregarding the wishes of  the Strategic Air Command's Gen. Curtis LeMay. Eisenhower  wanted to use nuclear weapons to stop communist aggression. He used the threat of their use to get America out of Korea in 1953, and similarly threatened during crises in Vietnam in 1954, with Red China in the Formosa Straits in 1954-55 and again in 1958, during the Suez crisis in 1956 and in Berlin in 1958-59. Ike knew how to hold his cards, even if doing so hurt him politically.
In 1958, when he was under tremendous pressure to build more missiles to catch up the Russians, who had just launched the first satellite, Sputnik,  Ike seemed strangely passive. He knew that the CIA's spy plane, the U-2, had not found any Soviet ICBMs, but he wanted to keep the existence of the spy plane a secret.
 In the winter of 1958, Eisenhower was visited by the poet, Robert Frost, who gave him a book of his poems inscribed with the notation, "The strong are saying nothing until they see." These words became Ike 's  "favorite maxim."
Usually,Eisenhower was  carrying his great responsibility in
 the breast pocket. On D-Day, he carried this note , "The responsibility is mine alone," . On his first day as president in 1953, Ike wrote in his diary, "Plenty of worries and difficult problems. But such has been my portion for a long time."
 The most recent  book , "Ike's Bluff: President Eisenhower's Secret Struggle to Save the World," by Evan Thomas was published last month by Little, Brown and Company.
Now,  both Obama and Romney have said that containment is not an option when it comes to Iran getting the bomb.
Obama will no doubt try to reinforce foreign-policy campaign themes that his supporters feel are among his strongest credentials. But Mitt Romney will almost certainly try to lay out the narrative that Obama has weakened America and left it more vulnerable.
Republicans have  sought to present themselves as the party of foreign policy competence and national strength and  to portray Democrats as weak, anti-military and too inclined toward multilateralist mumbo jumbo.
The most resonant of the President Obama foreign policy achievements was the killing of Osama bin Laden ,this way dramatically weakening al Qaeda.  But Benghazi provided palpable evidence that terrorists targeting Americans  were still a reality .Combined with the continuing violence by the Taliban in Afghanistan and Pakistan and by the Iranian-backed Hezbollah, it is hard to make the case that the threat has been reduced .
Certainly the president  ended America's long and costly involvement in Iraq. He has America on track to exit Afghanistan by 2014. He not only got bin Laden, but the U.S. military and intelligence community under his leadership also got a broad array of top al Qaeda lieutenants, such as Anwar al-Awlaki, and Moammar Gadhafi.

 Obama's doctrine of fighting terror and enemies such as Iran through the use of covert means, cyberwarfare, special operations and unmanned drone operations seemed a more cost-effective.

Moses and God's Miracles

Exodus

‘’And the LORD said furthermore unto him, Put now thine hand into thy bosom. And he put his hand into his bosom: and when he took it out, behold, his hand was leprous as snow.’’ 4;6

‘’And it shall come to pass, if they will not believe also these two signs, neither hearken unto thy voice, that thou shalt take of the water of the river, and pour it upon the dry land: and the water which thou takest out of the river shall become blood upon the dry land.’’ 4:9

‘’ And Moses and Aaron went in unto Pharaoh, and they did so as the LORD had commanded: and Aaron cast down his rod before Pharaoh, and before his servants, and it became a serpent.’’7:10

‘’ And Moses and Aaron did so, as the LORD commanded; and he lifted up the rod, and smote the waters that were in the river, in the sight of Pharaoh, and in the sight of his servants; and all the waters that were in the river were turned to blood.’’7:20

‘’ And the fish that was in the river died; and the river stank, and the Egyptians could not drink of the water of the river; and there was blood throughout all the land of Egypt.’’7:21

‘’ And Aaron stretched out his hand over the waters of Egypt; and the frogs came up, and covered the land of Egypt.’’8:6

‘’ And the LORD did according to the word of Moses; and the frogs died out of the houses, out of the villages, and out of the fields.’’ 8:13

‘’ And they did so; for Aaron stretched out his hand with his rod, and smote the dust of the earth, and it became lice in man, and in beast; all the dust of the land became lice throughout all the land of Egypt.’’8:17

‘’ And the LORD did so; and there came a grievous swarm of flies into the house of Pharaoh, and into his servants' houses, and into all the land of Egypt: the land was corrupted by reason of the swarm of flies.’’8:24

‘’ And the LORD did that thing on the morrow, and all the cattle of Egypt died: but of the cattle of the children of Israel died not one.’’ 9:6

‘’ And they took ashes of the furnace, and stood before Pharaoh; and Moses sprinkled it up toward heaven; and it became a boil breaking forth with blains upon man, and upon beast.’’ 9:10

‘’ For now I will stretch out my hand, that I may smite thee and thy people with pestilence; and thou shalt be cut off from the earth.’’ 9:15

‘’ Behold, to morrow about this time I will cause it to rain a very grievous hail, such as hath not been in Egypt since the foundation thereof even until now.’’ 9:18

‘’ So there was hail, and fire mingled with the hail, very grievous, such as there was none like it in all the land of Egypt since it became a nation.’’ 9:24

 ‘’And the locusts went up over all the land of Egypt, and rested in all the coasts of Egypt: very grievous were they; before them there were no such locusts as they, neither after them shall be such.’’ 10:14

‘’ And Moses stretched forth his hand toward heaven; and there was a thick darkness in all the land of Egypt three days:

They saw not one another, neither rose any from his place for three days: but all the children of Israel had light in their dwellings.’’ 10:22-23

‘’ And Moses said, Thus saith the LORD, About midnight will I go out into the midst of Egypt:

And all the firstborn in the land of Egypt shall die, from the firstborn of Pharaoh that sitteth upon his throne, even unto the firstborn of the maidservant that is behind the mill; and all the firstborn of beasts.’’11:4-5

‘’ And Moses and Aaron did all these wonders before Pharaoh: and the LORD hardened Pharaoh's heart, so that he would not let the children of Israel go out of his land.’’11:10

‘’ And it came to pass, that at midnight the LORD smote all the firstborn in the land of Egypt, from the firstborn of Pharaoh that sat on his throne unto the firstborn of the captive that was in the dungeon; and all the firstborn of cattle.’’ 12-29

‘’ And Moses stretched out his hand over the sea; and the LORD caused the sea to go back by a strong east wind all that night, and made the sea dry land, and the waters were divided.

And the children of Israel went into the midst of the sea upon the dry ground: and the waters were a wall unto them on their right hand, and on their left.’’14:21-22

‘’ And Moses stretched forth his hand over the sea, and the sea returned to his strength when the morning appeared; and the Egyptians fled against it; and the LORD overthrew the Egyptians in the midst of the sea.

And the waters returned, and covered the chariots, and the horsemen, and all the host of Pharaoh that came into the sea after them; there remained not so much as one of them.

But the children of Israel walked upon dry land in the midst of the sea; and the waters were a wall unto them on their right hand, and on their left.’’ 14:27-29

 ‘’ I have heard the murmurings of the children of Israel: speak unto them, saying, At even ye shall eat flesh, and in the morning ye shall be filled with bread; and ye shall know that I am the LORD your God.

And it came to pass, that at even the quails came up, and covered the camp: and in the morning the dew lay round about the host.

And when the dew that lay was gone up, behold, upon the face of the wilderness there lay a small round thing, as small as the hoar frost on the ground.

And when the children of Israel saw it, they said one to another, It is manna: for they wist not what it was. And Moses said unto them, This is the bread which the LORD hath given you to eat.

This is the thing which the LORD hath commanded, Gather of it every man according to his eating, an omer for every man, according to the number of your persons; take ye every man for them which are in his tents.’’16:12-16

‘’ And the house of Israel called the name thereof Manna: and it was like coriander seed, white; and the taste of it was like wafers made with honey.

And Moses said, This is the thing which the LORD commandeth, Fill an omer of it to be kept for your generations; that they may see the bread wherewith I have fed you in the wilderness, when I brought you forth from the land of Egypt.’’16:31-32

‘’ And the LORD said unto Moses, Go on before the people, and take with thee of the elders of Israel; and thy rod, wherewith thou smotest the river, take in thine hand, and go.

Behold, I will stand before thee there upon the rock in Horeb; and thou shalt smite the rock, and there shall come water out of it, that the people may drink. And Moses did so in the sight of the elders of Israel.’’ 17:5-6

‘’ And mount Sinai was altogether on a smoke, because the LORD descended upon it in fire: and the smoke thereof ascended as the smoke of a furnace, and the whole mount quaked greatly.

And when the voice of the trumpet sounded long, and waxed louder and louder, Moses spake, and God answered him by a voice.

And the LORD came down upon mount Sinai, on the top of the mount: and the LORD called Moses up to the top of the mount; and Moses went up.

And the LORD said unto Moses, Go down, charge the people, lest they break through unto the LORD to gaze, and many of them perish.

And let the priests also, which come near to the LORD, sanctify themselves, lest the LORD break forth upon them.

And Moses said unto the LORD, The people cannot come up to mount Sinai: for thou chargedst us, saying, Set bounds about the mount, and sanctify it.’’ 19:18-23

‘’ And Moses went up into the mount, and a cloud covered the mount.

 And the glory of the LORD abode upon mount Sinai, and the cloud covered it six days: and the seventh day he called unto Moses out of the midst of the cloud.

And the sight of the glory of the LORD was like devouring fire on the top of the mount in the eyes of the children of Israel.

And Moses went into the midst of the cloud, and gat him up into the mount: and Moses was in the mount forty days and forty nights. ‘’ 24:15-18

‘’ Then a cloud covered the tent of the congregation, and the glory of the LORD filled the tabernacle.

And Moses was not able to enter into the tent of the congregation, because the cloud abode thereon, and the glory of the LORD filled the tabernacle.

 And when the cloud was taken up from over the tabernacle, the children of Israel went onward in all their journeys:

But if the cloud were not taken up, then they journeyed not till the day that it was taken up.

 For the cloud of the LORD was upon the tabernacle by day, and fire was on it by night, in the sight of all the house of Israel, throughout all their journeys.’’ 40:34-38

Numbers:

‘’ And Moses said, Hereby ye shall know that the LORD hath sent me to do all these works; for I have not done them of mine own mind.

If these men die the common death of all men, or if they be visited after the visitation of all men; then the LORD hath not sent me.

But if the LORD make a new thing, and the earth open her mouth, and swallow them up, with all that appertain unto them, and they go down quick into the pit; then ye shall understand that these men have provoked the LORD.

And it came to pass, as he had made an end of speaking all these words, that the ground clave asunder that was under them:

And the earth opened her mouth, and swallowed them up, and their houses, and all the men that appertained unto Korah, and all their goods.

They, and all that appertained to them, went down alive into the pit, and the earth closed upon them: and they perished from among the congregation.

And all Israel that were round about them fled at the cry of them: for they said, Lest the earth swallow us up also.

And there came out a fire from the LORD, and consumed the two hundred and fifty men that offered incense.’’  16:28- 35

‘’ And it came to pass, that on the morrow Moses went into the tabernacle of witness; and, behold, the rod of Aaron for the house of Levi was budded, and brought forth buds, and bloomed blossoms, and yielded almonds.’’ 17-8

‘’ And Moses lifted up his hand, and with his rod he smote the rock twice: and the water came out abundantly, and the congregation drank, and their beasts also.’’20:11

Joshua

‘’ And the sun stood still, and the moon stayed, until the people had avenged themselves upon their enemies. Is not this written in the book of Jasher? So the sun stood still in the midst of heaven, and hasted not to go down about a whole day.

 And there was no day like that before it or after it, that the LORD hearkened unto the voice of a man: for the LORD fought for Israel.’’10:13-14

Syrian airline FORCED EMERGENCY landing in TURKEY

Passengers on board the plane intercepted by Turkish jets declared that security forces were making the crew and passengers sign fraudulent papers suggesting that the plane made an emergency landing and no Turkish military were involved in the incident.
 Hours after Turkish authorities announced that the Syrian Airlines passenger plane intercepted by its F-16s was granted a departure clearance, the aircraft remained on the tarmac in darkness.

This Earth Is Cracking (Sweet Poem)

In USA,
There is a presidential election fight,
Well, everything seems to be alright,
It might be alright, everything seems tight ,
Sometimes,I dream of a red sky,
The earth is cracking,
I'm slowly dancing
On your sweet love floor.


Turkey
Sends bombs for free into Syria, on the other side,
Well, it seems that  nothing is more important than having pride,
When Syrians in Turkey need to hide,
I've never dreamt of a sky so red,
The earth is cracking,
I'm slowly dancing
On your sweet love floor.

The Greeks
Don't want to sell to Canadian consumers their gold,
Well,it seems that in Canada it is very cold,
Why is it so cold in Canada all the time and the gold isn't sold?
I really dreamed of a huge red sun,
The earth is cracking,
I'm slowly dancing
On your sweet love floor.


The world
Is waiting for a new shift of magnetic poles,
But,instead of this,earth makes gigantic craters called sinkholes,
Smart  money makers lose the remote controls,
I really had a multicolored dream,
The earth is cracking,
I'm slowly dancing
On your sweet love floor.


Much more protesters
Want to change their lives and their presidents.
To feed their kids, they work 12 hours per day for a few cents,
It's something to think about ,when life has no sense.
I dreamed of a world having a little pink,
The earth is cracking,
I'm slowly dancing
On your sweet love floor.