Travel: Terlingua. King Tut. March of Dimes. Alaska.

For "Travel Tuesday":

Just outside the Big Bend area is Terlingua, TX

The Road to Terlingua.

"Terlingua (Ghost Town) is a mining district in southwestern Brewster County, Texas, United States. It is located near the Rio Grande and the Texas villages of Lajitas and Study Butte, Texas, as well as the Mexican village of Santa Elena. The discovery of cinnabar, from which the metal mercury is extracted, in the mid-1880s brought miners to the area, creating a city of 2,000 people. The only remnants of the mining days are a ghost town of the Howard Perry-owned Chisos Mining Company and several nearby capped and abandoned mines, most notably the California Hill, the Rainbow, the 248 and the Study Butte mines. The mineral terlinguaite was first found in the vicinity of California Hill.

Terlingua, Texas - a panoramic view from TX Park Road 170

 

 

Terlingua, Texas - another panoramic view

 

 

Terlingua in 1936.

"Due to its proximity to Big Bend National Park, today Terlingua is mostly a tourist destination. Rafting on the Rio Grande, mountain biking, camping, hiking, and motorcycling are some of the outdoor activities favored by tourists." From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.

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Tales From Terlingua

"On the western edge of one of Texas’ greatest natural treasures, Big Bend National Park, lies the true Texas ghost town of Terlingua. The eerie ruins of a once prolific mining town are sure to satisfy the interests of those looking for a haunting adventure during the Halloween and Dia de los Muertos season.

The Perry Mansion.

In 1903, Chicago industrialist Howard E. Perry established the Chisos Mining Company at Terlingua to capitalize on the rich cinnabar deposits, the ore processed to produce quicksilver, or mercury. The Chisos Mining Company soon became the most successful mine in the region and eventually one of the nation’s leading producers of quicksilver. Perry was notoriously secretive and many historical accounts suggest his less-than-ideal working conditions and sly business practices prompted his evasiveness. “For Perry, secrecy was an occupational necessity—a tenet by which one lived and survived—and in Terlingua, secrecy was synonymous with mystery and distrust,” wrote Texas historian Kenneth Baxter Ragsdale.

In 1906, after returning from a visit to the quicksilver mines of Almaden, Spain, Perry constructed a mansion overlooking Terlingua, inspired by the Moorish architecture he had seen in Spain. Though he rarely visited the mine town, Perry’s mansion, which he eventually expanded to include two stories and nine bedrooms, was said to serve as a constant reminder to Terlingua inhabitants that Perry—and Perry alone—held the keys to the city.

By 1913, the prosperity of the mine allowed for many modern comforts, such as a reliable water supply, mail delivery three times weekly, a school, telephone service, a company-owned hotel, and a general store that drew customers from as far as 100 miles away. Though details of Perry’s operation and life are obscure, reports indicate that by 1934, the Chisos Mining Company had earned more than $12 million in quicksilver production over three decades.

With the ending of World War I, the demand for mercury began a sharp decline. On October 1, 1942, the Chisos Mining Company filed for bankruptcy. The mine’s closure as well as an influenza outbreak caused the majority of Terlingua residents to flee the town, leaving behind their homes and businesses.

Today, the ruins of several adobe dwellings and mine shafts enhance Terlingua’s ghost-town appeal. The Terlingua Cemetery also harkens back to the early 1900s with many simple, weathered wooden crosses still standing at the gravesites of miners and their family members.

Two of the original businesses remain in use today: the general store and movie theater. Sitting side by side, the Terlingua Trading Co., now a gift store, and the Starlight Theatre, now a live music venue and restaurant, are Terlingua’s main attractions. The front porch of the general store is somewhat of a historical marker, where tourists and locals alike gather to drink beer, watch the sunset over the Chisos Mountains and share legends and tall tales of the colorful mining town.

Though Terlingua maintains several hundred residents today and a steady beat of tourists throughout the year, the town truly comes to life every November, on the first Saturday of the month, when thousands of “chiliheads” travel to Terlingua for two famous annual chili cookoffs: the Chili Appreciation Society International and the International Frank X. Tolbert - Wick Fowler Championship Chili Cookoff.

Whatever the reason for your travels to Terlingua, this unique West Texas town is sure to live up to its unofficial motto:  “expect the unexpected.” "

Sources: Exploring the Big Bend Country; Historic Texas from the Air; Ghost Towns of Texas; Quicksilver: Terlingua and the Chisos Mining Company; Texas State Historical Association; The Best American Travel Writing;  West Texas Weekly

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Big Bend and Terlingua Hot Chili

"Big Bend National Park in West Texas is one of the least visited national parks, but is well-worth the long drive to get there. And if you visit at the right time of year, you can sample the fixings’ at the Terlingua International Chili Championship held a few miles away.

A Texan we chatted with on the way to Big Bend told us “where you’re going isn’t the end of the earth, but if you stand on the roof of your camper, you’ll be able to see it.”

This area is a desert with mountains, beautiful and grand in its own way, but very different than the national parks in the Rockies and the northwest. The 800,000 acre park is located on the Rio Grande, a stone’s throw from Mexico. Terlingua is the closest town to the park, and it is mostly a ghost town. There are a couple of small stores and gas stations, a bank, a post office, a campground, and a couple of cafes in Terlinqua. Each year on the Wednesday before the first Saturday of November the four day chili celebration begins, culminating on Saturday with the Terlingua International Chili Championship which is said to be a cross between Woodstock, Burning Man, and a big tailgate party.

A strange site in Terlinqua is what I think is a private home (a trailer with some unusual yard decorations -- a sailing ship, a full-size submarine conning tower rising from the sand, and the Statue of Liberty), and a sign that says “Passing Wind.” Once I learned of the chili cooking contest, the sign became more understandable.

Big Bend National Park has three park-operated campgrounds as well as a full-hookup concession RV Park. Be sure to check in advance that your rig will be able to negotiate some of the tight roads in the park. There are several off-site campgrounds within a few miles of the park as well. The Lajitas Golf Resort and Spa is a few miles west of Terlinqua and boasts a surprisingly nice RV park, restaurant and equestrian center."
From: http://www.rvshortstops.com/2011/04/big-bend-and-hot-chili.html

Photos: Lew Pinsker Map courtesy National Park Service.

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On This Day:

King Tut's sarcophagus uncovered, Jan 3, 1924:

"Two years after British archaeologist Howard Carter and his workmen discovered the tomb of the Pharaoh Tutankhamen near Luxor, Egypt, they uncover the greatest treasure of the tomb--a stone sarcophagus containing a solid gold coffin that holds the mummy of Tutankhamen.

When Carter first arrived in Egypt in 1891, most of the ancient Egyptian tombs had been discovered, although the little-known Pharaoh Tutankhamen, who had died when he was a teen, was still unaccounted for. After World War I, Carter began an intensive search for "King Tut's Tomb," finally finding steps to the burial room hidden in the debris near the entrance of the nearby tomb of King Ramses VI in the Valley of the Kings. On November 26, 1922, Carter and fellow archaeologist Lord Carnarvon entered the tomb, finding it miraculously intact.

Thus began a monumental excavation process in which Carter carefully explored the four-room tomb over four years, uncovering an incredible collection of several thousand objects. The most splendid architectural find was a stone sarcophagus containing three coffins nested within each other. Inside the final coffin, made out of solid gold, was the mummy of the boy-king Tutankhamen, preserved for more than 3,000 years."

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Franklin Roosevelt founds March of Dimes, Jan 3, 1938:

"Franklin Delano Roosevelt, an adult victim of polio, founds the National Foundation for Infantile Paralysis, which he later renamed the March of Dimes Foundation, on this day in 1938. A predominantly childhood disease in the early 20th century, polio wreaked havoc among American children every summer. The virus, which affects the central nervous system, flourished in contaminated food and water and was easily transmitted. Those who survived the disease usually suffered from debilitating paralysis into their adult lives. In 1921, at the relatively advanced age of 39, Roosevelt contracted polio and lost the use of his legs. With the help of the media, his Secret Service and careful event planning, Roosevelt managed to keep his disease out of the public eye, yet his personal experience inspired in him an empathy with the handicapped and prompted him to the found the March of Dimes.

In 1926, Roosevelt started the non-profit Georgia Warm Springs Foundation on the site of the springs he visited to partake of the waters' therapeutic effects. Twelve years later, he reinvented the charity as the National Foundation for Infantile Paralysis (NFIP). The NFIP was a non-partisan association of health scientists and volunteers that helped fund research for a polio vaccine and assisted victims on the long path through physical rehabilitation. Funded originally through the generosity of wealthy celebrities at yearly President's Birthday Balls, the foundation could not raise money fast enough to keep pace with polio's continued toll on America's children and, during the Depression, the polio epidemic worsened. In 1938, Roosevelt decided to appeal to the general public for help. At one fundraiser, celebrity singer Eddie Cantor jokingly urged the public to send dimes to the president, coining the term March of Dimes. The public took his appeal seriously, flooding the White House with 2,680,000 dimes and thousands of dollars in donations.

In subsequent years, the March of Dimes continued to lead lucrative fundraising campaigns that set the model for other health-related foundations. In 1941, the foundation provided funding for the development of an improved iron lung, which helped polio patients to breathe when muscle control of the lungs was lost. The March of Dimes appointed Dr. Jonas Salk to lead research for a polio vaccine in 1949. Roosevelt, who died in 1945, did not live to see Salk develop and test the first successful polio vaccine in 1955."

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Alaska admitted into Union, Jan 3, 1959:

"On January 3, 1959, President Eisenhower signs a special proclamation admitting the territory of Alaska into the Union as the 49th and largest state.

The European discovery of Alaska came in 1741, when a Russian expedition led by Danish navigator Vitus Bering sighted the Alaskan mainland. Russian hunters were soon making incursions into Alaska, and the native Aleut population suffered greatly after being exposed to foreign diseases. In 1784, Grigory Shelikhov established the first permanent Russian colony in Alaska on Kodiak Island. In the early 19th century, Russian settlements spread down the west coast of North America, with the southernmost fort located near Bodega Bay in California.

Russian activity in the New World declined in the 1820s, and the British and Americans were granted trading rights in Alaska after a few minor diplomatic conflicts. In the 1860s, a nearly bankrupt Russia decided to offer Alaska for sale to the United States, which earlier had expressed interest in such a purchase. On March 30, 1867, Secretary of State William H. Seward signed a treaty with Russia for the purchase of Alaska for $7.2 million. Despite the bargain price of roughly two cents an acre, the Alaskan purchase was ridiculed in Congress and in the press as "Seward's folly," "Seward's icebox," and President Andrew Johnson's "polar bear garden." Nevertheless, the Senate ratified purchase of the tremendous landmass, one-fifth the size of the rest of the United States.

Despite a slow start in settlement by Americans from the continental United States, the discovery of gold in 1898 brought a rapid influx of people to the territory. Alaska, rich in natural resources, has been contributing to American prosperity ever since."

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Yesterday:

Misty and I went down to get Jay.  During her walk-about, she was more intent on her seeking, sniffing, and marking than the last couple of days.  So she seems to be a lot better.

On new year's day while I was at their dinner, there was a Moving Sale going on nearby.  Jay had bought a computer and monitor for $20.  He doesn't know what operating system it has, if any, and didn't get the cords.  He was mostly distracted by the young lady relative who was helping with the sale. They had a short date that night, and now he can't stop thinking about her.  He re-activated his old pre-paid 30-day cell phone, and I am pretty sure he is going to give it to her.  He re-activates it here, as it is my computer and credit card which is on the account, then he gives me the money.

When Jay gets his mind off on a tangent, he cannot concentrate on what he is doing, so all we did was move some cabinets around in my computer area. Then I took him home.

It is really cold outside, and I am supposed to groom Sam's poodle, Mikey, today.

Elk Town. Elk Ram. Gentle Elk. Elk Fight. Baby Elk. Icy Elk. Spain. Georgia. Bugatti. Misty.

For "Mammal Monday":

"Every summer the town of Estes, Colorado is terrorized by rutting male elk so fired up they invade the streets and charge at the tourists."

More about this programme: http://www.bbc.co.uk/humanplanet

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The Elk that Likes To Ram Cars, (and Motorhomes)

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Rocky Mountain National Park, Colorado

 

 

 

 

 

"If you want to feel like you're on top of the world, Rocky Mountain National Park is the place to go. At 7,500 feet above sea level, the park offers dramatic peaks and valleys, with 60 mountains over 12,000 feet high, and the tallest, Longs Peak, reaching a staggering 14,259 feet. With meadows, lakes, streams, waterfalls, forests, alpine tundra, and even glaciers, the park is home to astounding ecological diversity. Visitors can hike 359 miles of trails, camp in more than 200 backcountry campsites, and see a wide variety of plant and animal life.
If you go, Rocky Mountain is home to bats, bighorn sheep, marmots, moose, pikas, and some 280 documented bird species—but as autumn approaches, the area is best known for its 3,000-plus elk as they get ready to mate. Learn more about elk romance, or "rutting," in the slideshow above. "

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Gentle Elk.

"Zookeepers at Pocatello Zoo, Idaho, were worried when they noticed Shooter, a four-year-old elk, acting strangely at his water trough.

'Shooter is such a huge animal - he stands at six feet tall without his antlers - which are another four feet, and he's pretty scary.

Baffled, they watched as the animal - who is so massive some keepers are afraid to even enter his enclosure - tried to dip his hooves into his drinking trough, before attempting to dunk his whole head in the water.

But they were amazed as 10ft tall Shooter lifted his head from the trough clutching a tiny marmot - a kind of large squirrel - between his jaws.

Mammoth: Shooter the elk stands 10ft tall from his hooves to the tip of his antlers.

 

 

To the rescue! Shooter pulls the hapless marmot from his water trough.

Down you go: Shooter gently lowers the tiny rodent to the ground

The gentle giant placed the hapless rodent down and nudged it with his hoof, as if checking it for signs of life, before calmly watching it scamper off into the bushes.

Safe, but soaked and somewhat shell shocked, the lucky marmot seems happy to be back on dry land.

'Some of the staff don't like going in his enclosure with him - he's punctured car tires with his antlers before, so to see him being so gentle with a little animal was heart-warming.

'We all know he's a real character, but I think he must have a soft side we didn't know about.  He was trying to dunk his head in the water, but his antlers kept getting in the way.  Nobody could figure out why he was trying to get his head in, and then he started dipping his feet in.  We were all completely confused, until we saw the marmot in his mouth.  I think he had nudged the animal away from the edge of the bucket with his antlers and hooves so he could reach it with his mouth without his antlers getting in the way.   'It was very sweet.'

Zoo staff caught the entire rescue on camera. 'It really was amazing,' said Kate O'Conner, Pocatello's education coordinator.  Zoo keeper Dr Joy Fox added: 'We think Shooter sensed that the animal was in distress and decided to help.

'However, he could have just decided he didn't like having something in his way.  He spent quite a bit of time planning how to grab it.'

The zoo plans to auction off Shooter's incredible antlers when they are shed later in the year."

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Elk Fight.

"Bull Elk battle in the middle of the Madison river in Yellowstone National Park."

This video excerpt is from our dvd, "The Wildlife of Yellowstone" available at www.yellowstonenationalpark.com

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Elk gives birth by ranger station in Yellowstone

"Superb photos of a cow elk giving birth to her calf right next to the Administration building at Yellowstone National Park headquarters in Mammoth Hot Springs!  You can see how wildlife and people can live together harmoniously.  And I figure it is one of the few places in the Yellowstone area where a cow elk can safely have her calf without it being eaten immediately by a grizzly or a wolf!"

Enjoy these great photos!  Tim Reid, Chief Ranger, Yellowstone National Park

"When I see nature in action like this, several things immediately go through my mind...I know animals have feelings and love just like humans....and I know there has to be a God to have created us all.... things like this just didn't evolve out of the oceans, folks...there had to be an Architect, A Head Engineer...it's too complicated....this is absolutely the emotions of love and maternal instincts at the finest."  From:  http://justonemorepet.wordpress.com/2010/11/07/elk-born-in-yellowstone-amazing-photos/

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Icy Elk.

"Hunters in Wyoming rescue a cow elk stranded in a icy hole in a stream. After she nearly tramples the hunters, she confounds them with her actions that follow."

Video courtesy Elk Foundation Life Member Ron Niziolek.

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On This Day:

Reconquest of Spain, Jan 2, 1492:

"The kingdom of Granada falls to the Christian forces of King Ferdinand V and Queen Isabella I, and the Moors lose their last foothold in Spain.

Located at the confluence of the Darro and Genil rivers in southern Spain, the city of Granada was a Moorish fortress that rose to prominence during the reign of Sultan Almoravid in the 11th century. In 1238, the Christian Reconquest forced Spanish Muslims south, and the kingdom of Granada was established as the last refuge of the Moorish civilization.

Granada flourished culturally and economically for the next 200 years, but in the late 15th century internal feuds and a strengthened Spanish monarchy under Ferdinand and Isabella signaled the end of Moorish civilization in Spain. On January 2, 1492, King Boabdil surrendered Granada to the Spanish forces, and in 1502 the Spanish crown ordered all Muslims forcibly converted to Christianity. The next century saw a number of persecutions, and in 1609 the last Moors still adhering to Islam were expelled from Spain."

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Georgia enters the Union, Jan 2, 1788:

"Georgia votes to ratify the U.S. Constitution, becoming the fourth state in the modern United States. Named after King George II, Georgia was first settled by Europeans in 1733, when a group of British debtors led by English philanthropist James E. Oglethorpe traveled up the Savannah River and established Georgia's first permanent settlement--the town of Savannah. In 1742, as part of a larger conflict between Spain and Great Britain, Oglethorpe defeated the Spanish on St. Simons Island in Georgia, effectively ending Spanish claims to the territory of Georgia.

Georgia, rich in export potential, was one of the most prosperous British colonies in America and was thus slower than the other colonies to resent the oppressive acts of the Parliament and King George III. However, by the outbreak of the Revolutionary War, Georgian Patriots had organized, and delegates were sent to the Second Continental Congress. During the war, Georgia was heavily divided between Loyalists and Patriots, and the British soon held most of the state. Savannah served as a key British base for their southern war operations, and the grim four-year British occupation won many Georgians over to the Patriot cause. In 1788, Georgia became the first southern state to ratify the U.S. Constitution."

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Jan 2, 2009:

Rare Bugatti found in British garage

"On this day in 2009, media outlets report that a rare unrestored 1937 Bugatti Type 57S Atalante Coupe has been found in the garage of a British doctor. A month later, on February 7, the car sold at a Paris auction for some $4.4 million.

The black two-seater, one of just 17 57S Atalante Coupes ever made by Bugatti, had been owned by English orthopedic surgeon Harold Carr since 1955. Carr, who died in 2007, reportedly had kept the rare vehicle parked in his garage since the early 1960s and hadn't driven it in five decades. The car was built in May 1937 and originally owned by Francis Richard Henry Penn Curzon, the 5th Earl Howe. Curzon was also the first president of the British Racing Drivers' Club and a winner of the 24 Hour Le Mans race.

When it was built, the 57S Atalante Coupe was capable of reaching speeds of more than 120 miles per hour at a time when the average car couldn't do more than 50 miles per hour. It was also notable for its low-slung frame and V-shaped radiator and featured pig-skin upholstery. At the time of the auction, Carr's car was said to be in good condition and had 26,284 miles on its odometer.

The Bugatti car company was founded in 1909 by Italian-born Ettore Bugatti (1881-1947) in present-day Molsheim, France, and became known for producing expensive, cutting-edge sports cars and racing cars. From the time of its founding until the 1940s, the company built fewer than 8,000 cars. Following the death of Ettore Bugatti in 1947, the company went into decline and changed hands several times. In 1998, Volkswagen bought the rights to build cars under the Bugatti name. In 2009, the company introduced the Bugatti Veyron 16.4 Grand Sport, a sports car convertible which was capable of speeds of some 253 miles per hour and carried a price tag of more than $2 million. The Veyron could reach 60 mph is under 2.5 seconds."

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Yesterday:

Misty slowly started to recover from whatever it was that ailed her the day before.  She walked more steadily, and ate some food, though not as heartily as usual.  It is still a mystery, she had no tummy upsets, didn't seem to be in pain, just didn't feel right.  Thank you for your get well wishes. 

Misty and I went to pick up Jay, so Jay and I took her for a little walk with Maddie, Jay's dog.  It was windy, but not cold enough for the dogs to wear their coats.

Back here, Jay and I put together the tops for my L-shaped computer area, and temporarily installed it so that I could at least use this old computer.  Still more work to be done to it, but I had to take Jay home to help his mother with their little dinner party.

Later, Misty and I went down there, as I was invited to eat some of the tender baby back ribs, black-eyed peas, cabbage, carrots, squash, and pineapple upside down cake.  There were just the four of us, including their neighbor, Muffie's "Dad".

As Misty was feeling better and I was full, it was a great new year's day.

Resolutions. Be Happy. Economic Crisis. Gold. End Of World. Google. Calendar. Emancipation. Kingdom of God. Misty.

Have a safe and happy new year.

 

"Life-changing resolutions take thought, planning and action to accomplish."

"The Apostle Peter made a spur of the moment resolution when he resolved to Jesus Christ, "Even if I have to die with you, I will not deny you"(Matthew:26:35Peter said unto him, Though I should die with thee, yet will I not deny thee. Likewise also said all the disciples.).  Later that evening, Peter denied His Master three times!  He could not keep that resolution for one day as Christ predicted he wouldn't.

The great leader Joshua made a resolution found in Joshua:24:15And if it seem evil unto you to serve the LORD, choose you this day whom ye will serve; whether the gods which your fathers served that were on the other side of the flood, or the gods of the Amorites, in whose land ye dwell: but as for me and my house, we will serve the LORD.,

"But as for me and my house, we will serve the LORD."  Now that's a general resolution we all need to make and keep—to serve the LORD our God."

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Everything Else is Profit

"One of the secrets to happiness is first be willing to see the good in life and then be thankful for what you have, instead of being unhappy with what you don't have."

Transcript: "Ever feel like everybody else has a better life and nothing ever goes your way?

There is an old story about an immigrant who arrived at Ellis Island with nothing more than the shirt on his back.  He worked hard and eventually owned a small business, a nice house and lived in relative comfort.  He even managed to help his son graduate from college.

When the son returned from college, he looked at his father's books and decided that the old man was unsophisticated and needed business education. The son complained, "How do you even know what is your profit?"

The father replied, "I first take out the cost of the shirt I had on my back when I arrived in this country.  Everything else is profit."  

One of the secrets to happiness is first be willing to see the good in life and then be thankful for what you have, instead of being unhappy with what you don't have.  For GN Magazine, I'm Gary Petty."

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"The economic crisis in Europe and the United States has dominated financial headlines for the past 12 months. What do you need to understand?"

 

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Fiat Promises With a Gold Standard

"In an economics class I took in high school, my teacher said something that surprised me. He said, “Money has value only because we believe it does.” He went on to further explain that the current monetary system that we use in the United States refers to our currency as “fiat money.”

Fiat money is a medium of exchange that gives currency value only because the government says so by its authority. The word “fiat” is a Latin word that means, “Let it be done.” The type of currency the U.S. was under previous to this was called the gold standard, which was replaced in 1971 under president Richard Nixon. The gold standard meant that the printed dollars people used day to day had a fixed value compared to gold, which the government kept in reserves to back up that money.

Often in times of economic uncertainty, people turn to gold as a sort of insurance against a financial collapse of our fiat monetary system. Have you noticed lately all the places advertising “WE BUY GOLD”?

We know that ultimately, we can’t put our faith in the value of gold or fiat money (Ezekiel:7:19They shall cast their silver in the streets, and their gold shall be removed: their silver and their gold shall not be able to deliver them in the day of the wrath of the LORD: they shall not satisfy their souls, neither fill their bowels: because it is the stumblingblock of their iniquity.).

However, there is an important lesson we can learn from these two monetary systems.

In a prayer to God after building the temple in Jerusalem, Solomon said, “You have kept what You promised Your servant David my father; You have both spoken with Your mouth and fulfilled it with Your hand” (1 Kings:8:24Who hast kept with thy servant David my father that thou promisedst him: thou spakest also with thy mouth, and hast fulfilled it with thine hand, as it is this day., NKJV).   He realized that God had the power to say, “Let it be done,” and the perfect character to back and fulfill those promises with action.

I believe this is the true value of a promise.

God’s promises are “unchangeable because it is impossible for God to lie. Therefore, we who have fled to him for refuge can have great confidence as we hold to the hope that lies before us” (Hebrews:6:18That by two immutable things, in which it was impossible for God to lie, we might have a strong consolation, who have fled for refuge to lay hold upon the hope set before us:, NLT).

We can put our faith in our loving God of truth, because He makes fiat promises with a gold standard to back them up.'

From: http://www.ucg.org/blog/fiat-promises-gold-standard/

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"Don't worry about the world ending tomorrow. It's already tomorrow in Australia!" - Charles M. Schulz

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World News and Trends: 2012 - End of the world?

"It is claimed that an ancient Mayan calendar mysteriously ends at the winter solstice in the year 2012. Will that mark the end of human history? TV, magazines, major movie studios, booksellers and dozens of Web sites are fanning the 2012 craze. Does Bible prophecy reveal what's really coming?"

The end of the world will not come in 2012.

The Bible makes this inarguably clear. Yet human beings from time immemorial have set dates for the end.

A USA Today article reports on some of the current hype: "With humanity coming up fast on 2012, publishers are helping readers gear up and count down to this mysterious—some even call it apocalyptic—date that ancient Mayan societies were anticipating thousands of years ago . . . Authors disagree about what humankind should expect on Dec. 21, 2012, when the Maya's 'Long Count' calendar marks the end of a 5,126-year era" (Jeffrey MacDonald, "Does Maya Calendar Predict 2012 Apocalypse?" March 27, 2007).

Again, one who reads and believes God's writings on the subject of the end of the age should be able to see that it's impossible for the world to end in 2012.

For one thing, while the world's system and this age of human misrule will come to an end when Jesus Christ returns, the natural realm and the human race will continue on—with Jesus and His glorified followers ruling the nations on earth for 1,000 years and more  (Revelation 5, 20). After that, the earth and sky will be transformed into a new earth and heaven, which will persist forever (Revelation 21-22).

For another, the timing does not fit world conditions. Concerning the end of the world's system, Jesus specified major catastrophic events that would precede His coming, all leading to a period called the Great Tribulation. But this period will commence a full 3 1⁄2 years before Jesus returns. Since we're not in that great conflagration yet, the world certainly won't end in the next year. And, of course, nowhere does the Bible speak of commissioning the ancient Mayans to predict the end of the age!

This does not mean there will be no calamitous events in 2012 or even before. For calamitous events are on the rise as the return of Christ draws closer. Yet when the world goes on at the end of 2012, many will no doubt be sorely disillusioned with any pronouncements of coming doom, Scripture included

(2 Peter:2:3-4[3]And through covetousness shall they with feigned words make merchandise of you: whose judgment now of a long time lingereth not, and their damnation slumbereth not.[4]For if God spared not the angels that sinned, but cast them down to hell, and delivered them into chains of darkness, to be reserved unto judgment;).

Don't be fooled. No matter what happens or doesn't happen in 2012, the end of the age will still be soon ahead." (Source: USA Today.)  From: http://www.ucg.org/news-and-prophecy/world-news-and-trends-2012-end-world/  Article by Jerold Aust, John Ross Schroeder

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Is 2012 the End of the World?

"An ancient Mayan calendar mysteriously ends at the winter solstice in the year 2012. Is this a sign that the Mayans knew that December 2012 is the end of human history? The History Channel, Newsweek magazine, major movie studios, booksellers and dozens of Web sites are fanning the 2012 craze. Should you be building a shelter and stowing away food for the coming disaster?"   Rest of article: Is 2012 the End of the World? - (Article)

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Top Searches on Google: What are the top searches people make on the Internet?

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Changing time: Proposed calendar would stay same, year after year

"Two professors at Johns Hopkins University want the world to drop time zones and use a "Universal Time" to line up dates and times and aid international business transactions.

If you've ever wondered what day your birthday will fall on in, say, 2018 or even 2051, the two professors,  the astrophysicist and the economist are proposing an unchanging, permanent calendar where each year is just like the one that went before it.

The variety would come every five or six years, when a weeklong "mini month" the professors call Xtr would be tacked on the calendar at the end of December to keep the seasons in sync, according to a website the two have created to promote their proposal. Xtr would occur in 2015, 2020, 2026, 2032, 2037, 2043, 2048, 2054, 2060, 2065, 2071, 2076, 2082, 2088, 2093, 2099, 2105 ....

Leap Year would be no more, Halloween would always fall on Monday, Oct. 30, and Christmas would forever be on a Sunday. Forget the childhood rhyme though. Thirty days hath not September on what's being called the Hanke-Henry Permanent Calendar. March, June, September and December would have 31 days. The rest would have 30. And a child born on a future Monday, "fair of face," would celebrate her birthday on Monday for life. More at: http://www.deseretnews.com/article/700211196/Changing-time-Proposed-calendar-would-stay-same-year-after-year.html

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The calendar has been changed before:

On This Day:

New Year's Day, Jan 1, 45 B.C.:

"In 45 B.C., New Year's Day is celebrated on January 1 for the first time in history as the Julian calendar takes effect.

Soon after becoming Roman dictator, Julius Caesar decided that the traditional Roman calendar was in dire need of reform. Introduced around the seventh century B.C., the Roman calendar attempted to follow the lunar cycle but frequently fell out of phase with the seasons and had to be corrected. In addition, the pontifices, the Roman body charged with overseeing the calendar, often abused its authority by adding days to extend political terms or interfere with elections.

In designing his new calendar, Caesar enlisted the aid of Sosigenes, an Alexandrian astronomer, who advised him to do away with the lunar cycle entirely and follow the solar year, as did the Egyptians. The year was calculated to be 365 and 1/4 days, and Caesar added 67 days to 45 B.C., making 46 B.C. begin on January 1, rather than in March. He also decreed that every four years a day be added to February, thus theoretically keeping his calendar from falling out of step. Shortly before his assassination in 44 B.C., he changed the name of the month Quintilis to Julius (July) after himself. Later, the month of Sextilis was renamed Augustus (August) after his successor.

Celebration of New Year's Day in January fell out of practice during the Middle Ages, and even those who strictly adhered to the Julian calendar did not observe the New Year exactly on January 1. The reason for the latter was that Caesar and Sosigenes failed to calculate the correct value for the solar year as 365.242199 days, not 365.25 days. Thus, an 11-minute-a-year error added seven days by the year 1000, and 10 days by the mid-15th century.

The Roman church became aware of this problem, and in the 1570s Pope Gregory XIII commissioned Jesuit astronomer Christopher Clavius to come up with a new calendar. In 1582, the Gregorian calendar was implemented, omitting 10 days for that year and establishing the new rule that only one of every four centennial years should be a leap year. Since then, people around the world have gathered en masse on January 1 to celebrate the precise arrival of the New Year."

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Jan 1, 1863:

The Emancipation Proclamation takes effect

"On this day in 1863, President Abraham Lincoln signs the final Emancipation Proclamation, which ends slavery in the rebelling states. A preliminary proclamation was issued in September 1862, following the Union victory at the Battle of Antietam in Maryland. The act signaled an important shift in the Union's Civil War aims, expanding the goal of the war from reunification to include the eradication of slavery.

The proclamation freed all slaves in states that were still in rebellion on January 1, 1863. Lincoln used vacated Congressional seats to determine the areas still in rebellion, as some parts of the South had already been recaptured and representatives returned to Congress under Union supervision. As the proclamation freed slaves only in rebellious areas it actually freed no one, since these were areas not yet under Union control. The measure was still one of the most important acts in American history, however, as it meant slavery would end when those areas were recaptured. Most crucially, this measure effectively sabotaged Confederate attempts to secure recognition by foreign governments, especially Great Britain. When reunification was the sole goal of the North, the Confederates could be viewed by foreigners as freedom fighters being held against their will by the Union. But after the Emancipation Proclamation, the Southern cause was now the defense of slavery. The proclamation was a shrewd maneuver by Lincoln to brand the Confederate States as a slave nation and render foreign aid impossible.

The measure was met by a good deal of opposition, as many Northerners were unwilling to fight for the freedom of blacks; however, the proclamation signaled the death knell for slavery and had the effect on British opinion that Lincoln desired. Britain, which was ideologically opposed to slavery, could no longer recognize the Confederacy, and goodwill towards the Union forces swelled in Britain. With this measure, Lincoln effectively isolated the Confederacy and killed the institution that was at the root of sectional differences.

On New Year's Day 1863, the president greeted a large group of diplomats at a White House reception. Shortly after noon, he slipped upstairs to his office and signed the proclamation. "I never felt more certain," he commented, "that I was doing right, than I do in signing this paper." 

Although he waffled on the subject of slavery in the early years of his presidency, he would thereafter be remembered as "The Great Emancipator." To Confederate sympathizers, however, Lincoln's signing of the Emancipation Proclamation reinforced their image of him as a hated despot and ultimately inspired his assassination by John Wilkes Booth on April 14, 1865."

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The program on TV today is:

"Knowledge of this coming divine government provides real hope beyond the dismal news and traumas of our present day."

Watch this program at http://www.ucg.org/beyond-today-program/doctrinal-beliefs/what-kingdom-god

Watch Beyond Today on WGN America on Sundays at 8:30 AM EST. (Find a station in your area - http://www.beyondtoday.tv/stations )

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Yesterday:

Misty wasn't feeling well when she first got up to go outside.  She didn't trot to the door with her tail a-waggin', she moseyed along with her tail down.  She didn't eat her breakfast, very unusual.  Then instead of going to her big bed, she curled up in Prime's (my foster cat) bed, in my bedroom. It would have disturbed her if I had opened the sliding door to my closet, so I put on some work clothes.

When I took her outside at noon, I ran my hands all over her to see if she hurt and winced, but she didn't.  After unexpectedly losing my beloved Levi to canine spleen cancer, I was trying to make sure that wasn't her problem.  She walked slowly but a little more gaily down the walkway back to the front door, and curled up in Prime's other bed in the living room.   Then she went back to Prime's bed in my bedroom.  I checked her big bed thinking there might be some reason she didn't want to go back to it, but it looked normal.   I changed her blankie anyway.  Why do these things happen when the vets are closed?  Maybe I am being over-protective, but I am keeping a close eye on her. 

The rest of the day I took it easy looking for a suitable subject for this Sunday journal, so I read a lot of Bible verses, and came up with these varied subjects. 

Also I measured and tried to figure out the best way to rearrange this computer corner.

Paco used to act like he wasn't hungry once in a while, but Misty has never refused food, except the day she came down with pyometra, and had to have emergency surgery.   http://pennys-tuppence.blogspot.com/2011/01/pyometra-will-affect-almost-all.html   

It is a worry, but I suppose a healthy 15+ year old dog can have some 'off' days.  She hasn't got up yet, so I don't know how she feels today.