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<p>MOUNT PLEASANT, Mich. (AP) — Some Central Michigan University students are getting schooled in the undead this semester, thanks to a religion course that's exploring apocalyptic themes in biblical texts, literature and pop culture.</p> <p>Philosophy and religion faculty member Kelly Murphy says she always wanted to teach a course on apocalyptic literature, and she is a fan of AMC's TV show "The Walking Dead." The result is Murphy's class, which is called "From Revelation to 'The Walking Dead.'"</p>

... According to the November 14, 2013 report, Iran's stockpile of 20 percent enriched material increased slightly to 196 kilograms. This keeps Iran well below the required amount which, when further enriched is enough for one nuclear weapon. Key Highlights From the Report: Iran's stockpile of 20% enriched Uranium is at 196 Kilograms, an increase of only about 10 kilograms since August 2013 [link at URL], because Iran is continuing to convert 20% Unranium Hexaflouride gas into powder. The stockpile remains below the estimatwed 240-250 kilograms which, when further enriched to weapons grade, would be enough for one nuclear weapon....

Four Horsemen of Apocalypse, by Viktor Vasnetsov. Painted in 1887 As I said in my last article in the previous year, I live in two worlds.  I am an Evangelical convert to the Catholic Church through Anglicanism.  I am fully orthodox as a Catholic and fully submit to the teaching authority of the Catholic Church.  At the same time however, I was once an Evangelical Protestant, and I come from a family that his been Protestant for literally 500 years.  I cannot deny my roots or pretend they don't exist.  If I lived in a Catholic country, or in...

Since November, financial advisor David Marotta has been publishing a series of blog posts on how to manage your money in the event of a financial apocalypse—as in a world of hyperinflation, governmental collapse, and anarachic mobs. You know, the standard stuff of a doomsday prepper's fever dreams. While Marotta admits he has some fears about the direction of the country (the man's not an Obamacare fan, to say the least) most of it seems to be fairly tongue-in-cheek material aimed at talking potential clients down from investing in some of the crazy, survivalist scams advertised on conservative talk radio....

Government Shutdown? 36 Facts Which Prove That Almost Everything Is Still Running By Michael Snyder, on October 2nd, 2013 All of this whining and crying about a "government shutdown" is a total joke. You see, there really is very little reason why this "government shutdown" cannot continue indefinitely because almost everything is still running. 63 percent of all federal workers are still working, and 85 percent of all government activities are still being funded during this "shutdown". Yes, the Obama administration has been making a big show of taking down government websites and blocking off the World War II Memorial,...

When the inevitable zombie apocalypse begins and brain-devouring hordes of the living dead start destroying civilization, Orlando will be prepared. Tucked away in strip mall off Sand Lake Road near International Drive is one of the country’s only shops dedicated to killing the undead: the Zombie Survival store. “ Zombies get people excited”, said owner Kurt Josephs, who also owns Josephs Liquor & Fine Wines located next door. “It’s a craze right now.” Stocked with surplus supplies from the U.S. Army and Navy, the Zombie Survival store has almost everything to combat flesh-eating zombies, including gas masks, boots, camouflage shirts,...

Survive the apocalypse in style: Home that boasts a luxury bunker 26 feet underground with fake grass and simulated night and day • House constructed in 1970s underground with three bedrooms and a 'fake' outdoors • 'Outside' landscaping consists of trees, grass, rocks, a pool and even scenery with rolling hills and meadows in the distance • House for sale for $1.7 million after it fell into forclosure From the street, number 3970 Spencer St. near Flamingo Road looks like any other American home. It's what lies beneath that would pique your interest. During the Cold War, there was a...

Zombie Pigeons Invade Moscow MOSCOW–This summer, zombie birds have come to Russia’s capital. In what some might compare to a horror film–or even a sign of the apocalypse–the streets of Moscow have been littered with dead and sick pigeons in the past week. Videos posted on the Internet show pigeons twisting their necks, walking backward in circles or standing completely still with their heads on the ground. Muscovites are calling them “zombie pigeons.” Corpses of those that don’t survive have been spotted across the city. Russia’s chief sanitary official, Gennady Onishchenko, said Friday that veterinarians had concluded the pigeons were...

Surviving a Zombie Apocalypse: Just Do the Math This equation could spell your doom: (bN)(S/N)Z = bSZ. That is, if you ever found yourself in the midst of a zombie pandemic. That's because the calculation describes the rate of zombie transmission, from one walking dead individual to many, according to its creators, Robert J. Smith?, a mathematics professor at the University of Ottawa who spells his name with a "?" at the end, and his students. Smith's work has inspired other researchers to create zombie mathematical models, which will be published with Smith's work in the upcoming book, "Mathematical Modeling...

Real Doomsday: Earth Dead in 2.8 Billion Years The Rolling Stones’ Mick Jaggar crooned “Time Is On My Side” in the 1964 classic rock hit of the same title. Sadly, that’s not the case for habitable planets orbiting sun-like stars according to a recent computer simulation by astrobiologist Jack O’Malley-James of the University of St Andrews in the United Kingdom. “A combination of slow and rapid environmental changes will result in the extinction of all species on Earth, with the last inhabitants disappearing within 2.8 billion years from now,” O’Malley-James predicts. He says that we’ve got about 2 billion years...

Israeli wall in 'World War Z' sparks questions NEW YORK — Brad Pitt's "World War Z" imagines a world overrun by a zombie pandemic, leading to an unlikely new global power structure. Two of the few countries that have kept the zombies at bay are Israel, which shelters Israelis and Palestinians behind a wall, and North Korea, which has removed the teeth of its citizens to prevent zombie biting. It's a curious portrait of geopolitics that's left some moviegoers scratching their heads. Is a wall of unity for both Jews and Muslims in Jerusalem an ironic commentary on the West...

A Scriptural Reflection on the Readings for Sunday, April 21st, the Fourth Sunday of Easter | Carl E. OlsonReadings:• Acts 13:14, 43-52• Ps 100:1-2, 3, 5• Rev 7:9, 14b-17• Jn 10:27-30Pop quiz: which book of the Bible describes black helicopters, high-tech warfare involving Russia and China, and computer chips embedded in human flesh? Hopefully you answered, “None.” But you may know that some Christians believe the Book of Revelation, or The Apocalypse, describes soon-to-transpire, end of the world events in harrowing detail. And most people—even many Catholics—believe that the final book of the Bible is an unremitting work of doom,...

Rectum? It Darn Near Killed Him! A man in China's southeastern Guangdong province admitted himself to a local hospital after he reportedly got a live eel stuck inside him. Artist Rendition Not gonna say why or how, let's say it wasn't an accident.  The report does not indicate whether it was consensual or if the eel was electric.══ 2 ══ Gates of Hell Prevail? So the gates of hell have prevailed all these years. Scientists have discovered the legendary gates of hell in Turkey. When they find the actual gates of Hell, I am left with two questions. Why would...

Oregon school cancels zombie survival classes, ensures students will be eaten Armand Larive Middle School had what is perhaps the greatest junior high social studies class ever: Zombie Survival Skills. But the killjoy parents and administrators put the kibosh on the post-apocalyptic class, feeling that undead studies were not appropriate for growing minds. The East Oregonian reported on Rich Harshberger's zombie survival classes at Armand Larive earlier this week, a class that focused largely on real-world survival skills and also had a reading and writing component. Apparently, parents were a bit surprised to learn the school was teaching a class...

Imagine if suddenly, and completely without warning, the world experienced a total blackout – no electricity, no mobile phones, no banks, no internet, no TV, no emergency services. Nothing. Highways quickly become jammed with cars that have ground to a halt; an aeroplane falls from the sky; a satellite view of the planet shows it rapidly plunging into darkness. As it becomes apparent that the lights are never coming back on, nations are plunged into chaos, mass riots break out in major cities and, without electricity, governments are toppled. Into the vacuum step ad-hoc militias, armed and ready to enforce...

Ahmadinejad: Chavez Will Return With Jesus and 12th Imam A day after his death, Hugo Chavez is already being touted as a martyr and a messiah by Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, who equated the now deceased Venezuelan leader to Jesus and Shiite Islam’s 12th imam Wednesday, saying, “I have no doubt that he will return, along with the righteous Jesus and the perfect human.” Ahmadinejad also reiterated claims made by Venezuelan Vice President Nicolas Maduro that Chavez died of a “suspect illness” but didn’t go as far as Maduro had in equating Chavez’s death to that of late Palestinian Liberation...

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Iran has begun installing advanced centrifuges at its main uranium enrichment plant, the U.N. nuclear watchdog said on Thursday, a defiant step that will worry Western powers ahead of a resumption of talks with Tehran next week. In a confidential report, the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) said 180 so-called IR-2m centrifuges and empty centrifuge casings had been put in place at the facility near the central town of Natanz. They were not yet operating. If launched successfully, such machines could enable Iran to speed up significantly its accumulation of material that the West fears could be used to devise...

Resigning Pope Brings Doomsday Prophecy Is the world only a Pope away from the End? Yes, if you believe a chilling 12th-century prophecy. Attributed to St. Malachy, an Irish archbishop canonized in 1190, the Prophecy of the Popes would date to 1139. The document predicted that there would be only 112 more popes before the Last Judgment — and Benedict XVI is 111. The list of popes originated from a vision Malachy said he received from God when he was in Rome, reporting on his diocese to Pope Innocent II. The story goes that St. Malachy gave the apocalyptic list...

Superstitious Russians Spent 30 Billion On Preparing For Apocalypse Politics / RussiaDec 27, 2012 - 11:52 AM By: Pravda The Russians, who shared the horror of impending apocalypse with the rest of the world, spent 30 billion rubles on the eve of December 21st. The calculations were made by FBK analysts, who examined the data on the structure of trade turnover and services purchased in December. The end of the world did not come, but many people have to deal with its consequences now - the shortage of money. The hype around the "end of the world" still goes on....