Jesus, the Alpha & the Omega
What is the definition of death—and who gets to make the call? For decades, physicians have had the authority to declare a person brain-dead—defined in the U.S. as the irreversible cessation of all brain function, including the brainstem—even if heart and lung activity can be maintained with machines. The medical
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More than 120 pregnant whales were killed during Japan’s annual “research” hunt in the Southern Ocean last summer, a new report has revealed. Of the 333 minke whales caught during the controversial 12-week expedition, 181 were female – including 53 immature ones. Figures show that of the 128 mature female
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We all have a stake in stopping cybercrime, which also enables so many other crimes, from human trafficking and migrant smuggling to trafficking in drugs, illicit firearms and wildlife, and money laundering,” said Yury Fedotov, the director general at the United Nation’s Office on Drugs and Crime, this week. States are
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It was a letter of unity and solidarity. “Our forest, our rivers, our land are sacred to us,” wrote the Ka’apor tribe, from Maranhão in north-eastern Brazil to the Munduruku, who live hundreds of miles away on the Tapajós river deep in the Amazon rainforest. Both tribes are under threat from
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Reactive attachment disorder (RAD) is a condition found in children who may have received grossly negligent care and do not form a healthy emotional attachment with their primary caregivers — usually their mothers — before age 5. Attachment develops when a child is repeatedly soothed, comforted, and cared for, and
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Long attached to visions of clear skies and calm seas, the colour blue historically could not be more welcome, refreshing and natural. Because of the proliferation of blue-emitting LEDs in our artificially lit lives, blue light has come to represent bleary eyes, sleeplessness and the poor health associated with disruption
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The Volga is the longest river in Europe. It is also Europe’s largest river regarding discharge and watershed. The river flows through central Russia and into the Caspian Sea and is widely regarded as the national river of Russia. Eleven of the twenty largest cities of Russia, including the capital, Moscow, are located in the Volga’s watershed. Some of the largest reservoirs in the world can
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Betrayed by her own family, isolated from the outside world and raped daily by her violent husband, one desperate teenager turned to a confidential helpline. The 17-year-old from the north of England first met her abusive partner the day before she was forced to marry the middle-aged man in Britain.
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The Llŷn Peninsula extends 30 miles (50 km) into the Irish Sea from north west Wales, south west of the Isle of Anglesey. It is part of the modern county and historic region of Gwynedd. Much of the eastern part of the peninsula, around Criccieth, may be regarded as part of Eifionydd rather than Llŷn, although the boundary is somewhat
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The FBI warned on Friday that Russian computer hackers had compromised hundreds of thousands of home and office routers and could collect user information or shut down network traffic. The US law enforcement agency urged the owners of many brands of routers to turn them off and on again and download updates
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Billy Graham kept the focus on God at all times. How did he do it? Future historians will find more than enough material from Billy Graham’s life and work to keep them occupied. But one of the main questions they will want to answer is: What was the secret of
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Beijing is slowly shedding its image as the world’s most polluted city. In 2013, it ranked as the 40th worst city for the particulate PM2.5 in the World Health Organisation global database. Four years on, thanks in part to a crackdown on polluters, it stands in 187th place. Air pollution in the 62
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Credits: EPR, The Guardian, National Geographic Society.
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With its red-hot rivers of lava and clouds of ash, Hawaii’s Kilauea volcano has captured the world’s attention. But how dangerous are such eruptions? Every year about 60 volcanoes erupt. Some take us by surprise, but others are regular offenders. Kilauea is one of the world’s most active – its
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Vladimir Putin is often portrayed in the press as a wily manipulator who always gets his way, but lately, the Kremlin’s schemes are backfiring. His meddling in the 2016 U.S. election has created a bipartisan American backlash, and the March attack with a nerve agent in Salisbury, England, is now
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A few years ago, Roland Rösch’s job involved grabbing scalding-hot auto parts from an oven and inspecting them for signs they had failed a safety test. These days he still inspects, but the grabbing is being done by Fritz, a robot that auto-parts manufacturer Robert Bosch GmbH installed three years
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Philippians 4: 10 – 13. Contentment is a highly elusive trait, as our acquisitive propensity in a consumer society militates against it, time and again. It is no different in the days of the Apostle Paul, as his own experience alluded to it in the midst of his diverse missionary
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A film-maker asked by the Indian government to conduct a study of male survivors of child sexual abuse has said there is a culture of indifference in the country about “what happens to men as boys.” Insia Dariwala is investigating links between unresolved male trauma and its impact in later
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It’s the day before National Day, and people across Norway are working hard to make the whole country look clean and tidy ahead of the celebrations on May 17. In a school playground in the small town of Sogndal, lots of parents have turned up to get the area ready. Six
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This year marks a century since some women got the vote; a century since the end of the first world war; 50 years since the 1968 revolts; 70 since the founding of Israel and the NHS. All have been well marked. So it is striking that the centenary of one of the most devastating events in
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In the early 20th Century, Arctic explorer Vilhjalmur Stefansson spent a collective five years eating just meat. This meant that his diet consisted of around 80% fat and 20% protein. Twenty years later, he did the same as part of a year-long experiment at the New York City’s Bellevue Hospital in
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An international team of investigators says that detailed analysis of video images has established that the Buk missile that brought down Malaysia Airlines Flight 17 nearly four years ago came from a Russia-based military unit. Wilbert Paulissen of the Dutch National Police said Thursday that the missile was from the
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Investigations into the 1Malaysia Development Bhd.scandal have thus far focused on the alleged involvement of former Prime Minister Najib Razak. But Malaysia’s new government faces an awkward problem: How far should it pursue the companies that played a supporting role in one of the world’s largest-ever financial swindles? Since Mr Najib was forced out
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It’s no secret that visitor overcrowding and the effects of mass tourism have led to an outcry that popular destinations are losing their authenticity and the much-needed support of locals. Longstanding grievances at ‘invasions’ of visitors escalated this summer across popular European cities into angry protests, searing public graffiti, and
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Equuleus is one of the 48 constellations listed by the 2nd-century astronomer Ptolemy and remains one of the 88 modern constellations. Its name is Latin for ‘little horse,’ a foal. It was It is the second smallest of the modern constellations (after Crux), spanning only 72 square degrees. It is also very faint, having no
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Plastic bags have been blamed for the deaths of sperm whales in the Mediterranean. The Athens-based Pelagos Cetacean Research Institute found that more than a third of the sperm whales found dead in Greek waters had stomachs blocked by plastic waste. But this comes as no surprise to whale watchers. In
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Walmart may reign as the number one on the Fortune 500, but it’s iPhones and social media that are atop investors’ minds. In a sign a how much investors believe tech giants will supplant traditional sectors in consumers’ lives in coming years, the five most valuable Fortune 500 companies have become tech firms. iPhone-maker Apple dominates once
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Psychological manipulation is any action that’s designed to help someone accomplish their agenda through deceptive or otherwise shady tactics. It usually involves creating a power imbalance within the relationship or interaction – and isn’t all that uncommon. “Most of us have to deal with it on a regular basis, from untrustworthy relationships
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Bible Verse for Today
It is during our darkest moments that we must focus to see the light. Aristotle (384 - 322 BC).
Quechua people may refer to any or all speakers of the Quechua languages, which originated among the indigenous peoples of South America. Most Quechua speakers live in Peru, Ecuador, Bolivia, Chile, Colombia and Argentina. The most common Quechua dialect is Southern Quechua. The Kichwa people of Ecuador speak the Kichwa dialect; in Colombia, the Inga people speak Inga Kichwa. Traditionally, Quechua identity is locally oriented and inseparably linked in each case with the established economic system. It is based on agriculture in the lower altitude regions, and on pastoral farming in the higher regions of the Puna. The typical Andean community extends over several altitude ranges and thus includes the cultivation of a variety of arable crops and livestock. The land is usually owned by the local community and is either cultivated jointly or redistributed annually.
CDC Travellers’ Health Notices 
There are two sides to the human brain. Each side of the brain interacts with the opposite side of the body. The left side of the brain interacts with the right side of the body, and vice versa. The reason behind this way of interaction is still not understood.
Relief Web 
The Tarantula Nebula.
Image Credit & Copyright: Peter Ward (Barden Ridge Observatory). The Tarantula Nebula, also known as 30 Doradus, is more than a thousand light-years in diameter, a giant star-forming region within nearby satellite galaxy the Large Magellanic Cloud. About 180 thousand light-years away, it's the largest, most violent star-forming region known in the whole Local Group of galaxies. The cosmic image across this view, composed with narrowband filter data centred on emission from ionized hydrogen atoms. Within the Tarantula (NGC 2070), intense radiation, stellar winds and supernova shocks from the central young cluster of massive stars, catalogued as R136, energize the nebular glow and shape the spidery filaments. Around the Tarantula are other star-forming regions with young star clusters, filaments, and blown-out bubble-shaped clouds. In fact, the frame includes the site of the closest supernova in modern times, SN 1987A, left of centre. The rich field of view spans about 1 degree or 2 full moons, in the southern constellation Dorado.
NASA Mars Exploration Programme
Conservation International 
The flag of the Netherlands is a horizontal tricolour of red, white, and blue. The tricolour flag is almost identical to that of Luxembourg, except that it is shorter and its red and blue stripes are a darker shade. It originates as a variant of the older orange-white-blue Prinsenvlag (Prince's Flag), introduced in the 17th century as the Statenvlag (States Flag), the naval flag of the States-General of the Dutch Republic. Its official status as the national flag of the Kingdom of the Netherlands was formalized in 1937.
The U.S. Department of State Travel Warnings
The UK Foreign Service Travel Advice 
The Last Judgment is a fresco by the Italian Renaissance painter Michelangelo, covering the whole altar wall of the Sistine Chapel in Vatican City. It is a depiction of the Second Coming of Christ and the final and eternal judgment by God of all humanity. There are over 300 figures, with nearly all the males and angels originally shown as nudes; many were later partly covered up by painted draperies. The work took over four years, between 1536 and 1541. Michelangelo began working on it twenty-five years after he finished the Sistine Chapel ceiling, and was nearly 67 at its completion. It was commissioned by Pope Clement VII but was completed under Pope Paul III.
Idiom of the Day
