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The beauty of the NC Mountains - Fall of 2009.

Full Title: "Nothing but a Loathsome Stench": Calvin’s Doctrine of the Spiritual Condition of Fallen ManIntroduction With the reality of the spiritual condition of fallen man, John Calvin begins Book II of the Institutes of the Christian Religion. The heading of Book II is “The Knowledge of God the Redeemer in Christ, First Disclosed to the Fathers Under the Law, and Then to Us in the Gospel.” Recalling the opening lines of the Institutes, concerning knowledge of God and knowledge of ourselves, Calvin declares that we cannot know God as redeemer, if we do not know ourselves as fallen and...

NEW YORK (CNNMoney.com) -- Stocks fell for the third straight session on Friday, ending lower for the week, after weaker-than-expected reports on durable goods orders and new home sales sparked concerns about the strength of any recovery.

Do we all remember when they left was saying that if Obama won the election, that things would get better with the Islamic world? Since he has taken office he has done nothing but cater to the Islamic world, yet the threat is as great as ever. Would anyone on the left care to answer why? Al-Qaida predicts Obama's fall by Muslim nation By PAUL SCHEMM and HADEEL AL-SHALCHI CAIRO – Al-Qaida on Tuesday released a new 106-minute long video predicting President Barack Obama's downfall at the hands of the Muslim world.

CAIRO – Al-Qaida on Tuesday released a new 106-minute long video predicting President Barack Obama's downfall at the hands of the Muslim world. The Arabic-language video, entitled "The West and the Dark Tunnel," is part of series of messages by the organization marking the eighth anniversary of the Sept. 11 attacks. Bin Laden released a short message of his own on Sept. 14. Like similar long messages on previous anniversaries, it featured testimony from several leading al-Qaida figures intercut with news footage from the past year. As in the past, al-Qaida attempted to conflate Obama with his predecessor, George W....

The weather pattern over the eastern U.S. the past week has been dominated by a cut-off low pressure system that has brought torrential rains to some in the South and Southeast. That system has now been lifted northward and has weekend and a second system is becoming the new player on the field

First, sorry for the delay in this post. What a couple of weeks I have had and that has kept me away from the computer and being able to complete things I promised. The last post showed graphically my Fall and Winter Outlook. Today, I provide you with some specifics for a few key cities in the eastern half of the U.S.

Last weekend a nice cool shot sank southward out of Canada and encompassed much of the eastern half of the nation. Looks like another and likely stronger surge of early autumn air will sink through the Eastern U.S. through much of the next 7-days.

STURGIS, S.D. — Aerosmith's Steven Tyler suffered head, neck and shoulder injuries in a tumble from the stage at a South Dakota show, a concert spokesman said Thursday, and the audience thought it was part of his hipshaking act until he didn't get up. Tyler, 61, fell while entertaining the crowd by dancing around as the sound crew replaced a fuse that blew during the song "Love in an Elevator," said Mike Sanborn, spokesman for the Buffalo Chip Campground, which hosted the Wednesday night concert. An amateur video showed him spinning around before falling off the stage.

Making forecasts about Iran is a foolish occupation. Few predicted the surge of support for Mir Hossein Mousavi before the June election, or the regime’s egregious rigging of the result, or the vast protests that followed. Even fewer would have predicted that six weeks later it would be the opposition rebounding and the regime in disarray. A Government that claims to be the champion of Islamic values has been hit by its own version of America’s Abu Ghraib scandal. It has been caught perpetrating some of the very horrors for which the Shah was overthrown.

WASHINGTON – Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton fractured her right elbow during a fall Wednesday, her chief of staff said. Clinton was on her way to the White House when she fell and injured her elbow, chief of staff Cheryl Mills said in a statement released late Wednesday.

The mutant strain of H1N1 flu continues to make its mark around the world. As of Monday, May 11 the World Health Organization (WHO) was reporting 4,694 laboratory confirmed cases in 30 countries, including the first in mainland China. However, as Dr. Gordon Dickinson, chief of infectious diseases at the University of Miami Miller School of Medicine and the Miami VA noted, for every confirmed case there are probably hundreds of unconfirmed cases. Based on a new analysis of confirmed H1N1 cases in Mexico and its international spread, WHO researchers estimate that by late April possibly up to 32,000 people...

China exports fall 22.6% in April China's exports fell 22.6 per cent in April from a year earlier, while imports fell 23 per cent, the official Xinhua news agency said today, quoting the General Administration of Customs. The resulting trade surplus for the month was $12.9 billion, compared with $18.56 billion in March and $4.84 billion in February, according to calculations based on the cumulative January-April surplus of $75.43 billion cited by Xinhua.

Housing values in nearly two-thirds of more than 2,000 Houston-area neighborhoods declined or stood still last year, according to an annual home price analysis commissioned by the Houston Chronicle. .... Overall, the median price per square foot of a single-family home fell 2 percent in 2008 to $72.71, marking the first time it has dropped into negative territory in 14 years. ....

In reality, evolution has done nothing to help real science, and has actually hindered it in many ways...

MOSCOW — For a decade, Russian academic Igor Panarin has been predicting the U.S. will fall apart in 2010. Now he's found an eager audience: Russian state media, who are interviewing him twice a day. A polite and cheerful man with a buzz cut, Professor Panarin insists he does not dislike Americans. But he warns that the outlook for them is dire. "There's a 55-45 percent chance right now that disintegration will occur," says Panarin. "One could rejoice in that process," he adds, poker-faced. "But if we're talking reasonably, it's not the best scenario — for Russia." Prof. Panarin, 50...

Experts on invertebrates have expressed "profound shock" over a government report showing a decline in zooplankton of more than 70% since the 1960s.The tiny animals are an important food for fish, mammals and crustaceans. Figures contained in the Department for Environment Food and Rural Affairs (Defra) document, Marine Programme Plan, suggested a fall in abundance. Charity Buglife said it could be a "biodiversity disaster of enormous proportions". They said it could have implications for creatures all the way up the food chain, from sand eels to the seabirds, such as puffin, which feed on the fish. Defra described the Marine...

ALLENTOWN, Pa. (AP) — A man survived a 500-foot fall into a strip mine Friday, astounding rescuers who spent hours on a risky descent into the abyss to bring him back out. Police said Nathan Bowman was trespassing on coal company property around 1 a.m. Friday when he slipped and fell into the Springdale Pit, an inactive mine about 700 feet deep, 3,000 feet long and 1,500 feet wide. Bowman tumbled down a jagged slope and then free-fell several hundred feet, his descent broken by a rock ledge not far from the bottom of the pit, said Coaldale Police Chief...

Doctors checking for broken bones after 90-year-old falls at homeWASHINGTON - Sen. Robert Byrd of West Virginia was hospitalized Tuesday at Walter Reed Army Medical Center after complaining of back pain after a fall at his home, his spokesman said. Byrd, 90, the Democratic chairman of the Senate Appropriations Committee and the nation’s longest-serving senator, was staying in the hospital overnight for observation, said spokesman Jesse Jacobs. It was not immediately clear whether he had suffered broken bones. Jacobs said Byrd fell at his Virginia home Monday night. He came to his office Tuesday and was on the Senate floor...

Most Asian markets retreat in volatile session By V. Phani Kumar, MarketWatch Last update: 11:06 p.m. EST Jan. 29, 2008 Print E-mail RSS Disable Live Quotes HONG KONG (MarketWatch) -- Asian markets turned volatile Wednesday, dragging benchmark indexes in Hong Kong, China, Australia, Singapore and South Korea down from early highs into negative territory. Japanese shares were unsettled after official data showed that industrial output expanded at a smaller pace than expected 1.4% in December from the previous month and was projected to decline in the next two months. The Nikkei 225 average dropped 0.5% to 13,409.99 in the afternoon...

Asian stocks slide as global market rally fades 2 hours, 34 minutes ago Asian stocks slumped into the red in early trade Monday as a global market rally fizzled out ahead of several key events that are set to test investor confidence in the ailing US economy, dealers said. They said major markets in the region were down by some two to three percent as investors took their cue from Wall Street where shares lost ground Friday, snapping a strong two-day rally. Sentiment remained fragile in the wake of last week's rollercoaster ride that saw global shares slump on fears...

South Korean Shares Fall 6.2 Percent Tuesday January 22, 1:49 am ET South Korea's Main Stock Index Extends Falls 6.2 Percent SEOUL, South Korea (AP) -- South Korean shares fell sharply Tuesday, extending losses amid worries in global financial markets about weakness in the U.S. economy. The Korea Composite Stock Price Index fell as much as 6.2 percent to 1,578.37 in afternoon trading, and later recovered slightly to 1587.19, down 5.7 percent. The Kospi fell 3.0 percent Monday. ADVERTISEMENT Stocks in Asia and Europe fell sharply Monday following declines on Wall Street last week amid investor pessimism over the U.S....

Asian Stock Markets Plunge Wednesday January 16, 1:52 am ET By Dikky Sinn, Associated Press Writer Asian Markets Plunge on Worries That US Is Sliding Into Recession; Hang Seng Down 4 Percent HONG KONG (AP) -- Asian stock markets plunged Wednesday on growing speculation the U.S. economy -- a vital export market -- is sliding into a recession that could lead to a global slowdown. Investors dumped stocks after an overnight sell-off in U.S. markets and on news that Citigroup Inc. had lost nearly $10 billion in the fourth quarter as it wrote down bad mortgage assets. Weak U.S. retail...

Why pregnant women don't fall over 18:00 12 December 2007 NewScientist.com news service Bob Holmes Image showing a pregnant australopithecine in bipedal posture with visible fetal load and maternal vertebrae. (Image: John Gurche) Women do not tip over during pregnancy because their spines are built differently from men's – and have been ever since our ancestors began walking upright. The difference allows a pregnant woman to lean backward to counterbalance the weight of her developing fetus. One problem with bipedalism is that the growing fetus sticks out to the front, shifting the mother's centre of mass forward of her hip...

The ethnic origins of General David Petraeus are apparently Dutch, which is a shame because there’s something sonorously classical about the family name of the commander of the US forces in Iraq. When you discover that his father was christened Sixtus, the fantasy really takes flight. Somewhere in the recesses of the brain, where memory mingles hazily with imagination, I fancy I can recall toiling through a schoolboy Latin textbook that documented the progress of one Petraeus Sixtus as he triumphantly extended the imperium romanum across some dusty plain in Asia Minor. The fantasy is not wholly inapt, of course....

The Once-born and the Twice-born CLASSIFICATION IS ONE OF THE MOST DIFFICULT of all tasks. Even in the realm of religion there are enough lights and shades to make it injudicious to draw too fine a line between men and men. If the religious world were composed of squares of solid black and solid white classification would be easy; but unfortunately it is not. It is a grave error for us evangelicals to assume that the children of God are all in our communion and that all who are not associated with us are ipso facto enemies of the Lord....

FTSE plummets below 6000 but Dow rallies late on The FTSE 100 index has closed at its lowest level since September 2006 as every stock finished the day down. The fall was heavier than last Friday's collapse and wiped nearly £60 billion from the UK's leading companies. Once more the FTSE took its cue from the US where more problems relating to the mortgage sector caused the Dow Jones to slump. Countrywide, America's biggest home loan lender, revealed it has borrowed £11.4 billion US dollars (£5.8bn) from a consortium of banks to see it through the current credit crisis. And...

Police said: "The 56-year-old man from Chorlton, who was arrested on suspicion of section 18 assault, has had his bail cancelled and no further action will be taken against him." A householder arrested after a suspected burglar died falling from the top floor window of his flat will have no further action taken against him, police confirmed today. Patrick Walsh, 56, awoke in the early hours of last Monday to find an intruder in his flat on Corkland Road in Chorlton-cum-Hardy, south Manchester. Police said "following an exchange of words", the 43-year-old suspect fell from the fourth floor window on...

7-16-07 Why Did Rome Fall? It's Time for New Answers By Peter HeatherMr. Heather is professor at Worcester College, University of Oxford, and the author of The Fall of the Roman Empire: A New History of Rome and the Barbarians (Oxford University Press). The Roman Empire stretched from Hadrian’s Wall to northern Iraq, and from the mouth of the Rhine to the Atlas Mountains of North Africa. It was the largest state that western Eurasia has ever seen. It was also extremely long-lived. Roman power prevailed over most of these domains for five hundred years -- and all this in...

Source: University Of British Columbia Date: April 25, 2007 Studying Early China, To Learn Why Civilizations Rise And Fall Science Daily — In the Yellow River valley of northern China, Zhichun Jing digs through the remains of long-ago cities to find insights for modern survival. Over the past 10 years, Jing has been excavating the cities of the late Shang Dynasty. Flourishing between 1,200 and 1,050 BC, the Shang was one of the first literate civilizations in China and East Asia. Its last capital city was Yinxu, where the present-day city of Anyang now stands. Zhichun Jing studies the dynamics...

Japan stocks plunge 3.34 percent 1 hour, 5 minutes ago Japanese stocks plunged 3.34 percent Monday, extending a slide for a fifth day that was sparked by last week's plunge in Chinese and U.S. stock markets. Exporters were hit hardest on the yen's recent rally. Other Asian markets also tumbled Monday, with stocks in Hong Kong, mainland China, the Philippines, Australia and India all declining sharply. The benchmark Nikkei 225 stock index fell 575.68 points, or 3.34 percent, to finish at 16,642.25 points on the Tokyo Stock Exchange. Since climbing to its highest in nearly seven years last Monday, the...

On the last, cold day of December in the dying year we count as 406, the river Rhine froze solid, providing the natural bridge that hundreds of thousands of hungry men, women, and children had been waiting for. They were the barbari— to the Romans an undistinguished, matted mass of Others, not terrifying, just troublemakers, annoyances, things one would rather not have to deal with— non-Romans... ...There are, no doubt, lessons here for the contemporary reader. The changing character of the native population, brought about through unremarked pressures on porous borders; the creation of an increasingly unwieldy and rigid bureaucracy,...

A Wisconsin man is out of the hospital just a week after surviving a 16-story fall from a downtown Minneapolis hotel. Bar owner Joshua Hanson, 29, of Blair, Wis., was discharged Saturday from Hennepin County Medical Center in Minneapolis, a hospital official said. Hanson was walking with the help of a wheeled walker, friends said. "I just think he wants to get back here and relax," said Andy Anderson, one of Hanson's two roommates in Blair. "He's gotten a lot of attention this past week, and I think he wants to see his daughter." Hanson was horsing around with friends...

Man Falls From 17th Floor at Minneapolis Hotel, Survives January 21, 2007 MINNEAPOLIS — A Wisconsin man in town for a dart tournament apparently was goofing around Saturday morning at the Minneapolis Hyatt Regency when he crashed through a window and fell 16 stories. The man, identified in a police report as 29-year-old Joshua S. Hanson, of Blair, Wis., landed on a roof overhang near the hotel's main entrance along Nicollet Mall. His most serious injury was a broken leg. The man must have "an angel on his shoulder or something," said Minneapolis police Lt. Dale Barsness. "He's a lucky...

A 29-year-old man who was apparently horsing around with some friends crashed through a window and fell 16 stories at the downtown Minneapolis Hyatt Regency early Saturday morning. His most severe injury? A broken leg. The man must have "an angel on his shoulder or something," said Minneapolis police Lt. Dale Barsness. "He's a lucky guy." The man, identified by a police report as Joshua S. Hanson, landed on a roof overhang near the hotel's main entrance along the Nicollet Mall, police said.

ECONOMIC REPORT Mortgage applications fall even as rates plunge Purchase loans sink to lowest in nearly three years By Rex Nutting, MarketWatch Sep 27, 2006 WASHINGTON (MarketWatch) -- Unmoved by a big drop in interest rates, the volume of applications for mortgages at major U.S. banks declined 4.9% last week, the Mortgage Bankers Association reported Wednesday. The seasonally adjusted number of applications for purchase loans fell 5.5% on a week-to-week basis, to the lowest level since November 2003. The number of refinancing applications decreased by 4.1%.

Two days ago I made the drive along Peak to Peak Hwy (Colorado state Hwy 72) from Boulder Country, into Larimer County, to Rocky Mountain National park and back home. Here are some of the photos from the high country, or as I know it 'my backyard'. This is from Peak to Peak Hwy near Allenspark in Boulder County. The 'highest peak' from this perspective is 13,900+ ft. Mt Meeker and just to the left 14,000+ ft. Longs Peak.--- Getting closer.--- More Apsens in full 'bloom'.--- Hillside from the Wild Basin recreation area just inside Rocky Mountain National Park. (Far...

LONDON (Reuters) - Stimulating a certain area of the brain can produce a creepy feeling that someone is watching you when no one is, scientists said Wednesday. Swiss researchers made the discovery while evaluating a young woman for surgery to treat epilepsy...When they electrically stimulated the left temporoparietal junction in her brain, which is linked to self-other distinction and self-processing, she thought someone was standing behind her. If they repeated the stimulus while she leaned forward and grabbed her knees she had an unpleasant sensation that the shadowy figure was embracing her..."Our findings may be a step toward understanding the...

Last weekend (Fri. Sept. 15th to Sunday Sept. 17th) we went to Steamboat Springs, Colorado for the first time to hike, run, play golf and have a look at local real estate. On the way we captured the changing of the Aspen trees on digital camera along with a couple of shots of Steamboat Springs ski resort after they had about 8 inches of snow on Storm Peak and Mt. Werner during the day on Saturday. Aspens from Poudre Canyon on Highway 14 in Larimer County WNW of Ft. Collins - --- A couple of pics of Steamboat Springs ski...

"Only little people pay taxes." Leona Helmsley said, didn't she? Well, that statement represents reality more than people realize. No, it's not just the taxes that are the issue. The overriding issue making so many people angry these days is the LACK of uniform justice in this country (and the world for that matter). Law after law is passed and who follows those laws? The honest people try. The little people have to. I personally know that in almost all workplaces, people are chafing under oppressive management which sets attendance rules, policy, etc. that the employees are expected to follow...

Evacuees in area schools being held back at high ratesOne in four Houston Independent School District students displaced by Hurricane Katrina failed to make enough academic progress to be promoted to the next grade this school year — a far higher rate than their classmates and an indicator of the massive challenges still facing area schools. About 700 of the 2,900 Katrina students returning to HISD this year were held back, including 41 percent of high school sophomores and 52 percent of juniors. That 24 percent retention rate was among the highest in the area, according to retention rates released...

My girlfriend's nephew, Justin, 15, was severely injured in a fall from over 30ft Saturday night in Ennis TX, near Dallas. I'm trying to find out more details, but I know he is in Dallas Parkland Hospital in ICU with substantial head trauma and other serious injuries. He is on a respirator and not conscious yet, but he has shown some leg and hand movement so he didn't suffer any serious spinal injuries. He also had a ruptured spleen; doctor's had to operate yesterday to stop the hemorrhaging, but the good thing is he won't lose it. Any prayers or...

Judge: Unseal Jefferson raid paperworkSaturday, June 03, 2006 From staff reports A federal appeals court judge has ruled that The Times-Picayune should have access to legal paperwork that led to the Aug. 3 raid by federal authorities on the New Orleans home of U.S. Rep. William Jefferson, along with his car and the office of his campaign treasurer, Jack Swetland. The Justice Department has already released similar paperwork laying out its justification for the recent raid of Jefferson's congressional office as part of the same federal inquiry. **SNIP** A similar case is pending in a Maryland court regarding materials filed...

WASHINGTON, April 11, 2006 – Three years after his brigade seized control of Baghdad's international airport from Iraqi forces' control, Army Col. William Grimsley said he believes that country is taking the critical first steps toward reclaiming its past greatness. Grimsley, commander of the 3rd Infantry Division's 1st Combat Brigade Team during the opening days of Operation Iraqi Freedom, said history - not current events - will tell the true story of Iraq's metamorphosis. And that story will show how Iraq ultimately emerged from almost 40 years of a regime that ignored the people's needs and undermined its potential, Grimsley,...

WASHINGTON, April 7, 2006 – Three years ago April 9, the world looked on, captivated by compelling television images of Iraqis ripping down a towering statue of Saddam Hussein in Baghdad, and burning images of the Iraqi dictator on the streets. The statue of Saddam Hussein topples in Baghdad's Firdos Square on April 9, 2003. Three years later, Iraqi forces increasingly are taking the lead in securing their country.   Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld lauded it as an important sign of things to come. "We're seeing history unfold and events that will shape the course of a country, the fate...

Typhoid May Have Caused Fall of Athens, Study Finds Nicholas Bakalar for National Geographic News February 27, 2006 An ancient medical mystery—the cause of a plague that wracked Athens from 426 to 430 B.C. and eventually led to the city's fall—has been solved by DNA analysis, researchers say. The ancient Athenians died from typhoid fever, according to a new study. Scientists from the University of Athens drew this conclusion after studying dental pulp extracted from the teeth of three people found in a mass grave in Athens' Kerameikos cemetery. The mass grave was first discovered in 1994 and was dated...

Rumsfeld: We're trying to figure out what to do if Iraq falls into civil war By James Langton in Washington (Filed: 19/03/2006) America has begun making plans to deal with a civil war in Iraq, three years after the invasion that toppled Saddam Hussein. As sectarian violence continues to claim lives every day, Donald Rumsfeld, the American defence secretary, has disclosed that United States military intelligence is holding war games to predict what might happen in such a situation. Donald Rumsfeld: War games Mr Rumsfeld's admission that "the intelligence community are thinking about this and analysing it" comes despite the...

TALLAHASSEE, Fla. -- A 13-year-old Orlando boy was hospitalized this weekend after falling from a roller coaster ride while acting on a dare from a friend, according to a statement from Cypress Gardens Sunday. Martin Llamas remained in intensive care at St. Joseph's Children's Hospital in Tampa, hospital officials said. He had been airlifted there Saturday after falling from the Triple Hurricane roller coaster at the Polk County theme park. Hospital officials did not comment on his injuries. According to a preliminary investigation, Llamas was facing the cars behind him as the ride approached a sharp right turn, said Carrie...

PITTSBURGH -- Officials are released more details about the death of a University of Pittsburgh student. The Tribune Review reported Leland Holly IV fell down a flight of steps Friday night, during a birthday party in Greenfield. He was put on a couch by his friends, who continued to celebrate. They did not realize he was dead until Saturday afternoon.The Allegheny County Medical Examiner's Office ruled the student died from blunt force trauma to the head. Toxicology tests are pending

A bit foggy on ideas this week, I decided to see what the first picture was if I Googled for images on the word "chasm". Though this is not the first picture that was found, it is the first place that was found, and it's called "The Chasm" in Milford Sound, New Zealand. Now here's a mini-challenge: where's your favorite chasm*? It has to actually be (officially) named "chasm" -- gorges, canyons, and gulches don't count. (I did a bit more Googling, and found a mind-blowing... well, have fun.) *and no chasmas from Mars, either