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GODSCARE.net NEWS: updated
11/26/08........refresh regularly for updates [ right click
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*IBM
TO BUILD BRAIN-LIKE COMPUTERS
November 23, 2008
BBC News reports: “IBM has announced it will
lead a US government-funded collaboration to make electronic circuits
that mimic brains. Part of a field called ‘cognitive computing’, the
research will bring together neurobiologists, computer and materials
scientists and psychologists.
As a first step in its research the project has
been granted $4.9m (£3.27m) from US defense agency Darpa. The resulting
technology could be used for large-scale data analysis, decision making
or even image recognition.
‘The mind has an amazing ability to integrate
ambiguous information across the senses, and it can effortlessly create
the categories of time, space, object, and interrelationship from the
sensory data,’ says Dharmendra Modha, the IBM scientist who is heading
the collaboration.
‘There are no computers that can even remotely
approach the remarkable feats the mind performs,’ he said. ‘The key idea
of cognitive computing is to engineer mind-like intelligent machines by
reverse engineering the structure, dynamics, function and behavior of
the brain.’ IBM will join five US universities in an ambitious effort to
integrate what is known from real biological systems with the results of
supercomputer simulations of neurons. The team will then aim to produce
for the first time an electronic system that behaves as the simulations
do.
The longer-term goal is to create a system with
the level of complexity of a cat's brain. Prof Modha says that the time
is right for such a cross-disciplinary project because three disparate
pursuits are coming together in what he calls a ‘perfect storm’.
Neuroscientists working with simple animals
have learned much about the inner workings of neurons and the synapses
that connect them, resulting in ‘wiring diagrams’ for simple brains.
Supercomputing, in turn, can simulate brains up to the complexity of
small mammals, using the knowledge from the biological research. Modha
led a team that last year used the BlueGene supercomputer to simulate a
mouse's brain, comprising 55m neurons and some half a trillion synapses.
‘But the real challenge is then to manifest
what will be learned from future simulations into real electronic
devices - nanotechnology,’ Prof Modha said. Technology has only recently
reached a stage in which structures can be produced that match the
density of neurons and synapses from real brains - around 10 billion in
each square centimeter…”
*NORTH
KOREA ENRAGED BY LAUNCH OF GOSPEL GAS BALLOONS
November 21, 2008
WorldNetDaily.com reports: “North Korean
officials are infuriated by leaflets that have been floated over the
communist nation's secured borders and dropped from plastic bags
attached to gas-filled balloons, and one organization behind the effort
says there's good reason the atheists in power are upset – the pamphlets
are carrying a Gospel message directly to the people.
Hundreds of thousands of leaflets have
reportedly been distributed in just the past few months, and may have
been the reason the North recently announced it would shut its border
with the South. The North also has threatened to cut other
communications, such as telephone lines, over the issue.
The leaflets have been attributed to
‘political’ groups, but a spokesman for one organization sponsoring the
effort said there's nothing political about it, and the tracts carry a
message of hope directly to the North Korean people.
The spokesman and his organization, which
spreads the Gospel around the world, couldn't be identified because of
the potential for danger to affiliated activists who are dispatching the
balloons.
But he told WND those who have fled government
crackdowns on their faith inside North Korea are desperate to get the
message of hope to their family, friends and communities behind the wall
of communist information censorship.
‘Each balloon carried 10,000 Gospel tracts, in
three separate bags at the bottom that have a time release mechanism so
that they drop at different times to spread the leaflets over a wider
area,’ he described…”
*INDIA:
Christians Forced to Convert
Hindu extremist violence
against the Christian community in Orissa State,
India, which
started on 24 August, has been continuing unabated for two months now.
There have been numerous cases of forced conversions to Hinduism as
Hindu extremists try to turn Orissa into a Hindu state. Christians who
want to return to their homes are told by the Hindu extremists: "Come
back as Hindu or don't come back at all." In some cases the Hindu
extremists poured petrol over the Christians and then asked them to
convert; if they refused they were burnt. Ashish Digal, a Christian
leader, was told by the extremists that if he did not convert to
Hinduism, they would burn his house and kill him. A young Hindu woman
was gang-raped by her grandparents' neighbours because her uncle refused
to renounce his Christian faith. Jaspina, a 32-year-old Christian woman,
was warned by her neighbours, "If you go on being Christians, we will
burn your houses and your children in front of you, so make up your
minds quickly." She was forced to attend a conversion ceremony together
with her husband and three children, during which they had to eat cow
dung to "purify" themselves. Jaspina says: "I'm totally broken. I've
always been a Christian. Inside I'm still praying for Jesus to give me
peace and to take me out of this situation."
*Study
Claims Iraq's 'Excess' Death Toll Has
Reached 655,000
A team of
American and Iraqi epidemiologists
estimate that 655,000 people have
died in Iraq since coalition forces
arrived in March 2003 that would not
have died if the invasion had not
occurred.
The estimate,
produced by interviewing residents
during a random sampling of
households throughout the country,
is far higher than ones produced by
other groups, including Iraq's
government. It is more than 20 times
the estimate of 30,000 civilian
deaths that President Bush gave in a
speech in December. It is more than
10 times the estimate of roughly
50,000 civilian deaths made by the
British-based Iraq Body Count
research group.
The
surveyors said they found a steady
increase in mortality since the
invasion, with a steeper rise in the
last year that appears to reflect a
worsening of violence as reported by
the U.S. military, the news media
and civilian groups. In the year
ending in June, the team calculated
Iraq's mortality rate to be roughly
four times what it was the year
before the war.
Of the
total 655,000 estimated "excess
deaths," 601,000 resulted from
violence and the rest from disease
and other causes, according to the
study. This is about 500 unexpected
violent deaths per day throughout
the country. A Defense Department
spokesman did not comment directly
on the estimate.
"The
Department of Defense always regrets
the loss of any innocent life in
Iraq or anywhere else," said Lt.
Col. Mark Ballesteros. "The
coalition takes enormous precautions
to prevent civilian deaths and
injuries."
*INDIA:
Christians Attacked at Vacation Bible School
On 25 April, Pastor Mohan Babu
and two other believers were severely beaten by 35 Hindu extremists for
holding a Vacation Bible School (VBS) near Bangalore City, in Karnataka
State. According to contacts in India, the three-day VBS was organised
by Ragigudda Baptist Church. sources said, "Around 60 children from
different backgrounds were attending the VBS. As they were worshiping,
about 35 people belonging to a Hindu extremist group forcefully entered
the hut chanting slogans and demolished the hut. The extremists
mercilessly beat Mohan, Samuel and Krishna, alleging forceful
conversion. The perpetrators chased the children and tore the Bibles.
Mohan was severely injured on his lips and was profusely bleeding. The
believers are living in fear and did not lodge complaint with the
police."
China's Premier Wen
Jiabao Saturday gave
U.N. chief Ban Ki-moon
a dramatic look at
damage caused by the
massive quake that
hit Sichuan province
earlier this month
as the death toll
from the catastrophe
jumped past 60,000.
A strong aftershock
shook the town of
Yingxiu, a small
town near the
epicenter of May
12's 7.9 magnitude
quake, as Wen and
Ban toured the area.
"The world will not
forget," Ban told
Wen, who appealed
the U.N. chief to
help raise
international aid
for the region.
China's central
government announced
Saturday that the
death toll had risen
to 60,560 with
another 26,221
people missing and
353,290 injured.
Nearly every
building in Yingxiu
was destroyed and no
residents remain
there. About half of
the town's 18,000
residents are either
dead or missing and
most survivors left
on foot, leaving
behind a ghost town.
*Cyclone Death
toll over 133,000 in Myanmar
WASHINGTON — The top U.S.
diplomat in Burma says the death toll may reach 100,000
from a cyclone in YANGON,
Myanmar and its aftermath.
The country's military junta is "paranoid," about the
United States but is not blocking American aid.
"There is a
very real risk of disease outbreaks as long as this
continues," The death toll could hit or exceed 150,000
as humanitarian conditions worsen. Almost all the deaths
are in the delta area of Yangon, some 600-700 people are
missing and may have died.
Diplomats witnessed "huge"
devastation in the Irrawaddy
delta on Saturday and the toll
of dead and missing from the
cyclone rose above 133,000
people, making it one of the
most damaging to hit Asia.
With about 2.5 million people
clinging to survival in the
delta, and the military
government refusing to admit
large-scale outside relief,
disaster experts say the death
toll from Cyclone Nargis which
struck on May 2 could rise
dramatically.
Myanmar's
monumental task of feeding and
sheltering 1.5 million cyclone
survivors suffered another blow
Sunday when a boat laden with relief
supplies — one of the first
international shipments — sank on
its way to the disaster zone.
The death toll
jumped amid warnings that "malign
neglect" by the military rulers, who
have ruled the isolated nation with
an iron fist for more than five
decades, was creating a
"humanitarian catastrophe of
genuinely epic proportions."
*2005
Tsunami death toll passes 300,000
The number of
people believed killed in 2005's tsunami
disaster topped 300,000, as Indonesia again
increased its number of dead.
Indonesia was
hardest-hit by the December 26 quake and
tsunamis, with a total of 295,347 people
listed as dead or missing, the health
ministry said in its latest figures.
The ministry said
the number of people confirmed dead had
risen to 114,573 while the number of people
missing and almost certainly dead remained
at 127,774.
Thailand's toll
remained at 5,393 confirmed dead. A further
3,071 people were listed as missing, more
than 1,000 of them foreigners.
The toll in Sri
Lanka, which was second hardest hit by the
catastrophe, stood at 30,957, according to
the Centre for National Operations.
The number of
people listed as missing was 5,637, but many
were expected to be among those never
formally identified, hurriedly buried and
included in the confirmed death toll.
In neighbouring
India, the official death toll was 10,749
with 5,640 still reported missing and feared
dead.
*Fighting
soldier accidentally calls home.
OTIS, Ore., May 5 (UPI) -- An Oregon couple said
their son, a soldier serving in Afghanistan, accidentally called home
and left a three-minute recording on their machine during a battle. Jeff
and Sandie Petee, parents of Stephen Phillips, said the message
contained shooting, shouted profanity and calls for more ammunition,
KPTV in Portland, Ore., reported Monday. "His friend died a year ago
in Iraq and I'm thinking, 'Oh my God, this may be the last time I hear
my son's voice on the phone,'" Sandie Petee said.
"They were pinned down and apparently his
barrel was overheating," said Jeff Petee. "It's something a
parent really doesn't want to hear. It's a heck of a message to get from
your son in Afghanistan." The parents said they were eventually able
to make contact with their son, who told them his phone accidentally
redialed their number when it was pressed up against his Humvee during
the battle. Sandie Petee said Phillips, who is in the Army's military
police, is expected to come home at the end of his tour next month.
*Police: Mom
shot daughter on $1 bet
SHEBOYGAN, Wis., May 5 (UPI) -- Police in Sheboygan,
Wis., say an 8-year-old girl was shot in the leg by her BB gun-wielding
mother as part of a $1 bet the parent made with her boyfriend. Angelique
Vandeberg, 28, was charged with a felony count of intentional child
abuse after her daughter told her school councilor Vandeberg shot her in
the leg with a BB gun after her boyfriend bet her $1 she wouldn't do it,
the Sheboygan Press reported Monday.
The girl said both adults had been drinking
heavily before the incident. The school councilor said a circular bruise
that appeared to be consistent with a BB gun-inflicted injury remained
visible on the child's leg days after the alleged incident. "In my
time as a prosecutor I've seen alcohol influence people to do some
strange things," Sheboygan County District Attorney Joe DeCecco said
of the case. "When people are not in the state of mind to think
right, you get strange things happening." Vandeberg could face up to
three years in prison if convicted.
*IRAQ:
Persecution Strengthens Faith of Christians Archbishop Reveals.
Archbishop
Luis Sako of Kirkuk, in northern
Iraq,
has revealed that the persecution suffered by Iraqi Christians at the
hands of Muslim fundamentalists is strengthening rather than weakening
their faith. In an interview with
the SIR agency, Archbishop Sako said that the three Christian students
who were recently kidnapped in Kirkuk by Muslim fundamentalists
confronted their captors saying, “We are willing to die for our faith.”
The archbishop thanked God that the incident did not end in tragedy and
that the students were released unharmed.
According to the Catholic News
Agency, the kidnapping took place last week in Baghdad, when
fundamentalists kidnapped some 40 people, including the three students.
“The students were subjected to violent interrogation and were
threatened with torture and execution if they did not renounce their
faith,” said the CNA story.
Archbishop Sako stated that the
three young people reacted with heroism that apparently moved their
captors, who decided to let them go. “What happened with the three young
people means that despite so many difficulties, our faithful have not
lost faith and hope. On the contrary, they have been strengthened,” he
said. The story went on to say, “The archbishop noted that an
inter-religious committee for dialogue has been created in the city in
order to help Muslims better understand Christians and their role in
building the Iraq of the
future. “The initiative was presented to Iraqi President Jalal Al
Talibani during his recent visit to Kirkuk. The president offered his
support and encouragement for the committee.
*FTOTLD has a weekly Christian goth gathering in
Decatur Illinous. Meetings are on Sundays at 7pm
At Wake The
Dead Cafe 1210 E Eldorado St Decatur Il.
GODSCARE WEBSITE NEWS:
*People have been asking for a "play list" for the
juke box music. We have added a play list link located in a small bar
just below the juke box controls.
*Three months ago Godscare.net switched over from
our old contract with Christian Web Host to a new one that gives our
site a 5 gigabite memory. Our old server contract only gave us 200
megabites, and we topped out that memory space. The new server we are on
now is much faster, and with all the new memory space we are going to be
adding much more to the site in the years to come.
*ALL NEW MUSIC VIDEO SECTION ADDED! For a long time
we have wanted to add a music video section to the video area, but lack
of memory space has limited what we could do. Those limits are gone now,
and we have "just begun" to add
music videos
to Godscare.net.
*We are VERY SORRY our Goth Directory and merch
areas have not been working for over three months! Searching for the
cause we found out that when we switched over to the 5 gig space server,
the counters, directory form-mailer, and the merch pay-pal buttons
became disfuntional. The reason has something to do with the fact that
Christian Web Host [our server company] for some reason has to keep the
old 200 megabite server running, and the site being on two servers is
somehow confusing cable and internet company servers across the country.
We have called over and over and are trying very hard to get this
problem fixed. It will be solved soon or we will leave Christian Web
Host. We have been with them since 1999.
*Anne
Rice
has been
added to the Treasures From Darkness pages through the Interview with
the Vampire link.
*GODSCARE JUKEBOX NOW PLAYING! Our new music
player in the left margin is fully controllable. Just like a cd player,
you can skip songs, fast forward, rewind, pause or turn it off to watch
video's or listen to other media. All music in the player is
instrumental for the most part to not disturb reading pages. The
song list is
in a bar link below the player in the left margin.
*Our Video Download area is now updated regularly
with new video's monthly.
* The Godscare team feeds the homeless weekly in the
Los Angeles- Santa Monica area. Currently 150 + people a week are being fed every Saturday
morning in front of Santa Monica city hall and at Venice Beach Ca, at
9:30 am. Prayer and
ministry takes place before feeding, clothing and bible distribution.
*Please pray for us.
SOON TO COME:
*More video's to be added. With the rise of
"YouTube" and "GodTube" we want to localize and embed the most awesome
videos right here.
*Much more
music to be added to the juke box. Juke box play list link is located in
a small bar just below the controls.
*MORE SKEPTIC
DEATH PAGES being developed. If you have any cool idea's let us know.
*Heaven and
Hell tour revamped with new pages and flash areas. Always updating the
tour, and really we are in discussion about creating a whole new one
using flash.
*Merch
page will be having more shirts with new original art. Also other
things.
*The Palace is being turned into a maze of a
sort, with hidden rooms everywhere for people to hide stuff they give to
us; pics, links and whatever.. that's the idea. Also we will be putting
stuff in the Palace that we do not want the world [at least not everyone]
to see. Such as old taped rehearsals of songs we no longer play, personal
photo galleries and camcorder clips. If you can find your way to right
rooms in the Palace and find the secret links....
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