Suzie Chicken has passed away this morning.

To all of my wonderful readers.

You have seen Suzie Chicken's picture in so many of my post over the years.

This morning she was in distress, not moving, and was having a very hard time breathing.

On a Sunday morning finding a vet that is open for emergency chicken care is not easy.

On the long drive from Costa Mesa to Fullerton Suzie was struggling with each breath.

Then suddenly she squawked loudly and struggled to get out of my arms and then her head went limp and she was gone.

The vet found that her lungs were filled with mucus.

Apparently when she could no longer get air she suffocated. What a painful way to pass away.

In the bird kingdom, birds never show when they are sick or in distress because healthy birds will attack them and kill them. So it is hard to see when they need us until it is too late.

Last night she was lethargic and my wife noticed. So we figured to take her to a vet in the morning.

I awoke this morning to my wife talking on the phone to a vet at 6 AM.

Diana was distraught because her baby was not opening her eyes and had labored breathing.

In my groggy not awake yet mind I knew that this might be "it."

All of us pet lovers know that we out live our pets and that the "day" will eventually come when we will suffer their loss from our lives.

Well actually if all goes well Tommy T Jones, the parrot. will out live us and have to live with my son's family one day.

Here is my Facebook tribute as it were to Suzie for the moment:

https://www.facebook.com/search/top/?q=David%20Sloane

Businesses Microsoft Co-founder Pledges $30 Million To House Seattle's Homeless (cnn.com)

Homeless to migrate to Seattle?

Paul Allen, a founder of Microsoft has pledged $30 million to house Seattle's homeless.

 From a report: 

Seattle Mayor Ed Murray said Wednesday the city was partnering with Paul G. Allen's family foundation to build a facility to house homeless families with children. Allen's foundation will provide $30 million toward the development of the facility, while the city of Seattle has pledged $5 million for its maintenance and operation. It will be owned and operated by Mercy Housing Northwest, a nonprofit housing organization. Seattle is in King County, which has 1,684 families that are homeless, according to the mayor's announcement. More than 3,000 homeless children were enrolled in Seattle's public schools during the 2015-2016 year, it said.

***
Now if more 1%ers were as kind we could end homelessness.

US Space Firms Tell Washington: China Will Take Over the Moon if You're Not Careful (yahoo.com)

The US space industry is prodding the US government into refreshing its outdated laws on commercial activity beyond earth: scare it with talk of Chinese galactic domination.

 A report adds: 

 At a Senate hearing on the space industry this week, companies that build rockets and space habitats and manufacture electronic goods in space spoke about a standard laundry list of complaints, from regulatory burdens to fears of subsidized competitors. But their message was wrapped in patriotic concerns about China's growing capacity for space action. These companies are eager for the US government to allow and invest in commercial activities in orbit and around the moon. Many think the laws governing action in space, and particularly the UN Space Treaty, need refreshing for an age when private companies are close to matching the space capacity of sovereign nations. The last major change was a law on asteroid mining passed in 2015.

Facebook Pledges To Crack Down on Government-led Misinformation Campaigns (theverge.com)

Facebook is pressing its enforcement against what it calls "information operations" -- bad actors who use the platform to spread fake news and false propaganda. 

From a report: 

The company, which published a report on the subject today, defines these operations as government-led campaigns -- or those from organized "non-state actors" -- to promote lies, sow confusion and chaos among opposing political groups, and destabilize movements in other countries.

 The goal of these operations, the report says, is to manipulate public opinion and serve geopolitical ends. The actions go beyond the posting of fake news stories.

 The 13-page report specifies that fake news can be motivated by a number of incentives, but that it becomes part of a larger information operation when its coupled with other tactics and end goals.

 Facebook says these include friend requests sent under false names to glean more information about the personal networks of spying targets and hacking targets, the boosting of false or misleading stories through mass "liking" campaigns, and the creation propaganda groups. 

 The company defines these actions as "targeted data collection," "false amplification," and "content creation." Facebook plans to target these accounts by monitoring for suspicious activity, like bursts of automated actions on the site, to enact mass banning of accounts.

Kill Net Neutrality and You'll Kill Us, Say 800 US Startups (google.com)

A group of more than 800 startups has sent a letter to the FCC chairman Ajit Pai saying they are "deeply concerned" about his decision to kill net neutrality -- reversing the Title II classification of internet service providers. 

The group, which includes Y Combinator, Etsy, Foursquare, GitHub, Imgur, Nextdoor, and Warby Parker, added that the decision could end up shutting their businesses.

They add, via an article on The Verge: 

 "The success of America's startup ecosystem depends on more than improved broadband speeds. We also depend on an open Internet -- including enforceable net neutrality rules that ensure big cable companies can't discriminate against people like us. We're deeply concerned with your intention to undo the existing legal framework. Without net neutrality, the incumbents who provide access to the Internet would be able to pick winners or losers in the market. They could impede traffic from our services in order to favor their own services or established competitors. Or they could impose new tolls on us, inhibiting consumer choice. [...] Our companies should be able to compete with incumbents on the quality of our products and services, not our capacity to pay tolls to Internet access providers."

Benny Under IRS Scrunity Once Again

http://www.wfaa.com/news/local/irs-raids-televangelist-benny-hinns-office-in-grapevine/434354116

http://www.patheos.com/blogs/warrenthrockmorton/2017/04/26/benny-hinns-office-visited-irs-postal-service-agents/?utm_campaign=shareaholic&utm_medium=twitter&utm_source=socialnetwork

Why Serious Gamers Do Not Live In Hawaii

Sometimes it's very important to know that the servers of the

Web services you're using are situated somewhere in your neighbourhood.

 And it's not just because of privacy concerns.

The Outline has a story this week in which it talks about gamers in Hawaii who're increasingly finding it difficult to compete in global tournaments because the games' servers are almost every time placed overseas.

From the article: [...] The game's server is in Chicago. That means if you live in the Midwest, your computer can communicate with it almost instantaneously.

 If you're in L.A., it can take roughly 60 milliseconds. But if you're in Hawaii, it can take 120 milliseconds, with some players reporting as long as 200 milliseconds. And at the highest echelons of competitive video gaming, milliseconds matter.

In League and other eSports games, playing on a high ping is a big disadvantage.

 The goal of the game is to set up defenses to protect your base while pushing forward to capture the enemy's base, and there are typically lightning bolts and fireballs and slime-spitting dragons shooting across the screen. 

Playing on a high ping means players may not see all of the action that happens in a game. 

Latency can really screw things up for a young eSports scene, said Zack Johnson, who runs gg Circuit, a global tournament provider for gaming centers like PC Gamerz. 

Players on the mainland sometimes say they don't want to compete against Hawaii players, he said, because the high ping throws things off.

After this last election cycle everyone wants to battle fake news

Cats Against Fake News 

Jimmy Wales, a founder of Wikipedia, is launching a new online publication which will aim to fight fake news by pairing professional journalists with an army of volunteer community contributors. 

The news site is called Wikitribune. From a report: "We want to make sure that you read fact-based articles that have a real impact in both local and global events," the publication's website states.

 The site will publish news stories written by professional journalists. 

But in a page borrowed from Wikipedia, internet users will be able to propose factual corrections and additions. 

The changes will be reviewed by volunteer fact checkers. Wikitribune says it will be transparent about its sources.

 It will post the full transcripts of interviews, as well as video and audio, "to the maximum extent possible." The language used will be "factual and neutral."
 

Google said today it is taking its first attempt to combat the circulation of "fake news" on its search engine. 

The company is offering new tools that will allow users to report misleading or offensive content, and it also pledged to improve results generated by its algorithm.

From a report: 

 While the algorithm tweaks should impact on general search results, the reporting tools have been designed for Google's Autocomplete predictions and Featured Snippets which have been problematic in recent months. 

Updated algorithms should help to ensure more authoritative pages receive greater prominence, while low-quality content is demoted. 

Vice president of engineering at Google Search, Ben Gomes, admits that people have been trying to "game" the system -- working against the spirit of the purpose of algorithms -- to push poor-quality content and fake news higher up search results.

 He says that the problem now is the "spread of blatantly misleading, low quality, offensive or downright false information."

 

 Facebook wants you to think about whether a headline is true and see other perspectives on the topic before you even read the article.

 In its next step against fake news, Facebook today begins testing a different version of its Related Articles widget that normally appears when you return to the News Feed after opening a link. 

Now Facebook will also show Related Articles including third-party fact checkers before you read an article about a topic that many people are discussing.

 If you saw a link saying "Chocolate cures cancer!" from a little-known blog, the Related Article box might appear before you click to show links from the New York Times or a medical journal noting that while chocolate has antioxidants that can lower your risk for cancer, it's not a cure. 

If an outside fact checker like Snopes had debunked the original post, that could appear in Related Articles too.

 Facebook says this is just a test, so it won't necessarily roll out to everyone unless it proves useful. 

 It notes that Facebook Pages should not see a significant change in the reach of their News Feed posts.

 There will be no ads surfaced in Related Articles.

Oregon Fines Man For Writing a Complaint Email Stating 'I Am An Engineer' (vice.com)

From the Oregon Sucks File.

In September 2014, Mats Jarlstrom, an electronics engineer living in Beaverton, Oregon, sent an email to the state's engineering board. 

The email claimed that yellow traffic lights don't last long enough, which "puts the public at risk." 

 "I would like to present these facts for your review and comments," he wrote.

 This email resulted not with a meeting, but with a threat from The Oregon State Board of Examiners for Engineering and Land Surveying [stating]: "ORS 672.020(1) prohibits the practice of engineering in Oregon without registration -- at a minimum, your use of the title 'electronics engineer' and the statement 'I'm an engineer' create violations."

 In January of this year, Jarlstrom was officially fined $500 by the state for the crime of "practicing engineering without being registered."

Since the engineering board in Oregon said Jarlstrom should not be free to publish or present his ideas about the fast-turning yellow traffic lights, due to his "practice of engineering in Oregon without registration," he and the Institute for Justice sued them in federal court for violating his First Amendment rights.

 "I'm not practicing engineering, I'm just using basic mathematics and physics, Newtonian laws of motion, to make calculations and talk about what I found," he said.

Sam Gedge, an attorney for the Institute for Justice, told Motherboard:

 "Mats has a clear First Amendment right to talk about anything from taxes to traffic lights. It's an instance of a licensing board trying to suppress speech."

An Artificial Womb Successfully Grew Baby Sheep -- and Humans Could Be Next (theverge.com)

 Door to engineered humans?

Inside what look like oversized ziplock bags strewn with tubes of blood and fluid, eight fetal lambs continued to develop -- much like they would have inside their mothers.  

Over four weeks, their lungs and brains grew, they sprouted wool, opened their eyes, wriggled around, and learned to swallow, according to a new study that takes the first step toward an artificial womb. 

One day, this device could help to bring premature human babies to term outside the uterus -- but right now, it has only been tested on sheep. 

The Biobag may not look much like a womb, but it contains the same key parts:

 a clear plastic bag that encloses the fetal lamb and protects it from the outside world, like the uterus would; an electrolyte solution that bathes the lamb similarly to the amniotic fluid in the uterus; and a way for the fetus to circulate its blood and exchange carbon dioxide for oxygen.

 Flake and his colleagues published their results today in the journal Nature Communications.

A Caterpillar May Lead To a 'Plastic Pollution' Solution (bbc.com)

Researchers at Cambridge University have discovered that the larvae of the moth, which eats wax in bee hives, can also degrade plastic.

 Experiments show the insect can break down the chemical bonds of plastic in a similar way to digesting beeswax. 

The plastic is used to make shopping bags and food packaging, among other things, but it can take hundreds of years to decompose completely. 

However, caterpillars of the moth (Galleria mellonella) can make holes in a plastic bag in under an hour. 

They think microbes in the caterpillar -- as well as the insect itself -- might play a role in breaking down plastic.

 If the chemical process can be identified, it could lead to a solution to managing plastic waste in the environment.

***
Actually this problem of plastic breakdown was solved a long time ago. Researchers have discovered that if cornstarch is added to plastic it facilitates the ability of microbes to eat and break down the plastic in landfills.

How Online Shopping Makes Suckers of Us All (theatlantic.com)

The Atlantic, describes how price discrimination is used in online shopping and how businesses like Amazon try to extract consumer surplus:  

Will you pay more for those shoes before 7 p.m.? 

Would the price tag be different if you lived in the suburbs?

 Standard prices and simple discounts are giving way to far more exotic strategies, designed to

extract every last dollar from the consumer. 

We live in the age of the variable airfare, the surge-priced ride, the pay-what-you-want Radiohead album, and other novel price developments. 

 But what was this? Some weird computer glitch?

 More like a deliberate glitch, it seems. "It's most likely a strategy to get more data and test the right price," Guru Hariharan explained, after I had sketched the pattern on a whiteboard. 

The right price -- the one that will extract the most profit from consumers' wallets -- has become the fixation of a large and growing number of quantitative types, many of them economists who have left academia for Silicon Valley.

 It's also the preoccupation of Boomerang Commerce, a five-year-old start-up founded by Hariharan, an Amazon alum.

 He says these sorts of price experiments have become a routine part of finding that right price -- and refinding it, because the right price can change by the day or even by the hour. (Amazon says its price changes are not attempts to gather data on customers' spending habits, but rather to give shoppers the lowest price out there.)

Intel Launches Optane Memory That Makes Standard Hard Drives Perform Like SSDs (hothardware.com)

"This is something many people thought was impossible," exclaimed Intel Senior Vice President Rob Crooke. 

 Rocket speeds......

During an invite-only press conference, Crooke along with Micron CEO Mark Durcan revealed a radically new class of storage and memory architecture called 3D XPoint (pronounced "Cross Point"). To say this is a game-changer would be the understatement of the year.

Get this: 3D XPoint is 1000 times faster than NAND, boasts 1000x the endurance of NAND, and is 10 times more dense than conventional memory.

 

 Consider that existing NAND flash storage is 1000 times faster than traditional mechanical hard drives. We’ll give you a minute to process that. This actually puts 3D XPoint memory about on par with DRAM speeds, only its non-volatile.

Intel has officially launched its Optane memory line of Solid State Drives today, lifting embargo on performance benchmark results as well. 

Optane Memory is designed to accelerate the storage subsystem on compatible machines, to improve transfer speeds, and reduce latency.

 It is among the first products to leverage 3D XPoint memory technology that was co-developed by Intel and Micron, offering many of the same properties as NAND flash memory, but with higher endurance and certain performance characteristics that are similar to DRAM.

 The SSD can be paired to the boot drive in a system, regardless of the capacity or drive type, though Optane Memory will most commonly be linked to slower hard drives.

 Optane Memory is used as a high-speed repository, as usage patterns on the hard drive are monitored and the most frequently accessed bits of data are copied from the boot drive to the Optane SSD. 

 Since the SSD is used as a cache, it is not presented to the end-user as a separate volume and works transparently in the background. 

Paired with an inexpensive SATA hard drive, general system performance is more in line with an NVMe SSD.

 In benchmark testing, Intel Optane Memory delivers a dramatic lift in overall system performance. 

Boot times, application load time, file searches, and overall system responsiveness are improved significantly. 

Setting up Intel Optane Memory is also quick and easy with "set it and forget it" type of solution. 

Optane Memory modules will hit retail this week in 16GB and 32GB capacities, at $44 and $77, respectively.

Bet Ya Never Seen A Monkey Swim Underwater Before Or Even Knew That Monkeys Swim

We're Running Out Of Cancer Doctors And It's Not What Your Thinking

Cancer doctors are overworked retire early, and attract fewer recruits than other specialties, leaving the rising cancer-patient population vulnerable. Here’s what must be done.

Van Life

In 1974 I bought a 1964 Ford Econoline van from Tony Meston

Tony tells me that he got the van from Lonnie Frisbee who I believe got the van from the contractor who built Calvary Chapel in Costa Mesa, James Diemer.

Tony had put wood paneling in it and installed two vents on the roof for fresh air.

I put a small mattress in the back and curtains for the back windows and curtains for the front just behind the driver and passenger seats.

In the rear, there was a small deck with an ice chest I could use for food on long trips.

Of course, having long hair and a beard flagged me as a hippy kid to be pulled over by police which happened frequently in Newport Beach and Costa Mesa Ca.

Each and every time was not for legitimate reasons. Phony tickets for speeding when I was driving the legal speed limits.

It wasn't until I shaved and got a haircut that the being targeted by police finally stopped.

I had a place to live in Laguna Beach CA where the police did not once pull me over.

I liked my van because I could go anywhere and have my home away from home with me where ever I traveled.

I could find a place to park and sleep there overnight.

I had, for that period of time, a decent sound system that got a lot of usages.

My cassette tape player was fun because I could play my mix tapes that I created of music that I liked.

I used Tony's Sony equipment to make my tapes because he always had the latest Vinyl records.

Life in a van was all good for me at that period of my life as a young single man.

Here is a good story of a couple that lives in a van.

An atheist professor of philosophy pauses before his class and then asks one of his new students to stand:

You’re a Christian, aren’t you, son?’
‘Yes sir,’ the student says.
‘So you believe in God?’
‘Absolutely. ’

‘Is God good?’
‘Sure! God’s good.’

‘Is God all-powerful? Can God do anything?’
‘Yes.’
‘Are you good or evil?’
‘The Bible says I’m evil.’

The professor grins knowingly. ‘Aha! The Bible! He considers for a moment. ‘Here’s one for you. Let’s say there’s a sick person over here and you can cure him. You can do it. Would you help him? Would you try?’

‘Yes sir, I would.’
‘So you’re good…!’
‘I wouldn’t say that.’

‘But why not say that? You’d help a sick and maimed person if you could. Most of us would if we could. But God doesn’t.’

The student does not answer, so the professor continues. ‘He doesn’t, does he? My brother was a Christian who died of cancer, even though he prayed to Jesus to heal him. How is this Jesus good? Can you answer that one?’

The student remains silent. ‘No, you can’t, can you?’ the professor says. He takes a sip of water from a glass on his desk to give the student time to relax ‘Let’s start again, young fella. Is God good?’
‘Er…yes,’ the student says.
‘Is Satan good?’

The student doesn’t hesitate on this one. ‘No.’
‘Then where does Satan come from?’
The student falters. ‘From God’

‘That’s right. God made Satan, didn’t he? Tell me, son. Is there evil in this world?’
‘Yes, sir…’
‘Evil’s everywhere, isn’t it? And God did make everything, correct?’
‘Yes.’

‘So who created evil?’ The professor continued, ‘If God created everything, then God created evil, since evil exists, and according to the principle that our works define who we are, then God is evil.’
Again, the student has no answer. ‘Is there sickness? Immorality? Hatred? Ugliness? All these terrible things, do they exist in this world?’

The student squirms on his feet. ‘Yes.’
‘So who created them?’

The student does not answer again, so the professor repeats his question. ‘Who created them?’ There is still no answer. Suddenly the lecturer breaks away to pace in front of the classroom. The class is mesmerized.

 ‘Tell me,’ he continues onto another student. ‘Do you believe in Jesus Christ, son?’
The student’s voice betrays him and cracks. ‘Yes, professor, I do.’
The old man stops pacing. ‘Science says you have five senses you use to identify and observe the world around you. Have you ever seen Jesus?
’
‘No sir. I’ve never seen Him.’
‘Then tell us if you’ve ever heard your Jesus?’
‘No, sir, I have not…’

‘Have you ever felt your Jesus, tasted your Jesus or smelt your Jesus? Have you ever had any sensory perception of Jesus Christ, or God for that matter?’
‘No, sir, I’m afraid I haven’t.’
‘Yet you still believe in him?’

‘Yes.’
‘According to the rules of empirical, testable, demonstrable protocol, science says your God doesn’t exist… What do you say to that, son?’
‘Nothing,’ the student replies… ‘I only have my faith.’

‘Yes, faith,’ the professor repeats. ‘And that is the problem science has with God. There is no evidence…only faith.’
The student stands quietly for a moment, before asking a question of His own. ‘Professor, is there such thing as heat? ’
‘Yes.’
‘And is there such a thing as cold?’
‘Yes, son, there’s cold too.’
‘No sir, there isn’t.’

The professor turns to face the student, obviously interested. The room suddenly becomes very quiet. The student begins to explain.

‘You can have lots of heat, even more heat, super-heat, mega-heat, unlimited heat, white heat, a little heat or no heat, but we don’t have anything called ‘cold’. We can hit d own to 458 degrees below zero, which is no heat, but we can’t go any further after that. There is no such thing as cold; otherwise we would be able to go colder than the lowest –458 degrees.

Every body or object is susceptible to study when it has or transmits energy, and heat is what makes a body or matter have or transmit energy. Absolute zero (-458 F) is the total absence of heat. You see, sir, ‘cold’ is only a word we use to describe the absence of heat. We cannot measure cold. Heat we can measure in thermal units because heat is energy. Cold is not the opposite of heat, sir, just the absence of it.’

Silence across the room. A pen drops somewhere in the classroom, sounding like a hammer.
‘What about darkness, professor. Is there such a thing as darkness?’

‘Yes,’ the professor replies without hesitation… ‘What is night if it isn’t darkness?’
‘You’re wrong again, sir. Darkness is not something; it is the absence of something. You can have low light, normal light, bright light, flashing light, but if you have no light constantly you have nothing and it’s called darkness, isn’t it?

That’s the meaning we use to define the word. In reality, darkness isn’t. If it were, you would be able to make darkness darker, wouldn’t you?’
 
The professor begins to smile at the student in front of him. This will be a good semester. ‘So what point are you making, young man?’

‘Yes, professor. My point is, your philosophical premise is flawed to start with, and so your conclusion must also be flawed.’

The professor’s face cannot hide his surprise this time. ‘Flawed? Can you explain how?’
‘You are working on the premise of duality,’ the student explains…

‘You argue that there is life and then there’s death; a good God and a bad God. You are viewing the concept of God as something finite, something we can measure.

Sir, science can’t even explain a thought. It uses electricity and magnetism, but it has never seen, much less fully understood either one. To view death as the opposite of life is to be ignorant of the fact that death cannot exist as a substantive thing. Death is not the opposite of life, just the absence of it.’

‘Now tell me, professor… Do you teach your students that they evolved from a monkey?’
‘If you are referring to the natural evolutionary process, young man, yes, of course I do.’
‘Have you ever observed evolution with your own eyes, sir?’

The professor begins to shake his head, still smiling, as he realizes where the argument is going. A very good semester, indeed.

‘Since no one has ever observed the process of evolution at work and cannot even prove that this process is an on-going endeavor, are you not teaching your opinion, sir? Are you now not a scientist, but a preacher?’
\
The class is in uproar. The student remains silent until the commotion has subsided. ‘To continue the point you were making earlier to the other student, let me give you an example of what I mean.’

The student looks around the room. ‘Is there anyone in the class who has ever seen the professor’s brain?’ The class breaks out into laughter. ‘Is there anyone here who has ever heard the professor’s brain, felt the professor’s brain, touched or smelt the professor’s brain?

No one appears to have done so. So, according to the established rules of empirical, stable, demonstrable protocol, science says that you have no brain, with all due respect, sir.’ ‘So if science says you have no brain, how can we trust your lectures, sir?’

Now the room is silent. The professor just stares at the student, his face unreadable. Finally, after what seems an eternity, the old man answers. ‘I guess you’ll have to take them on faith.’

‘Now, you accept that there is faith, and, in fact, faith exists with life,’ the student continues. ‘Now, sir, is there such a thing as evil?’

Now uncertain, the professor responds, ‘Of course, there is. We see it every day. It is in the daily example of man’s inhumanity to man. It is in the multitude of crime and violence everywhere in the world. These manifestations are nothing else but evil.’

To this the student replied, ‘Evil does not exist sir, or at least it does not exist unto itself. Evil is simply the absence of God. It is just like darkness and cold, a word that man has created to describe the absence of God.

God did not create evil Evil is the result of what happens when man does not have God’s love present in his heart. It’s like the cold that comes when there is no heat or the darkness that comes when there is no light.’

The professor sat down.

They say the student was Albert Einstein.

Life Of Jesus Christ

Risen

This is the most powerful Christian movie that I have ever seen and I have viewed them all.

It is out in BlueRay and can also be rented in YouTube.

The Great Japan Potato-Chip Crisis: Panic Buying, $12 Bags (bloomberg.com)

Demand for potato chips has surged in Japan this week, with products on offer for 6 times their retail price online after Japanese snack company Calbee halted the sale of some of its most popular chip brands. From a report:

Calbee's pizza-flavored chips were going for about 1,250 yen ($12) on Yahoo Japan Corp.'s auction website Friday. One bag usually sells for less than 200 yen.

 Photos of near-empty shelves at their local supermarkets were trending on Twitter. The crunch came after Calbee warned on Monday that it will temporarily halt the sale of 15 types of potato chips due to a bad crop in Hokkaido, a key potato-producing region. 

The northern island was hit by a record number of typhoons last year. Calbee, which has a market value of 507.9 billion yen and is 20 percent-owned by PepsiCo Inc., has a 73 percent market share of potato chips. 

 Potato chips are a big deal in Japan, a country also known for its senbei rice crackers and Pocky sticks. Calbee's potato-snack products were the most and second-most popular snacks in a TV Asahi poll of 10,000 people and 13 confectionery makers last year, and the subject of a primetime show that lasted more than two hours.

***

Weight Gain. Chips are typically high in fat and calories, which can raise the risk of weight gain and obesity. One ounce of plain potato chips, or about 15 to 20 chips, contains about 10 grams of fat and 154 calories. ... Being overweight or obese raises the risk of diabetes, heart disease and some forms of cancer.

BHT

Butylhydroxytoluene, commonly known as BHT, is frequently used by the food industry to prevent rancidity in packaged baked goods and snacks. This fat-soluble chemical is also used in petroleum products, pharmaceuticals and cosmetics. Eleanor Ross Whitney and Sharon Rady Rolfes explain in their textbook "Understanding Nutrition" that BHT can cause cancer when consumed in high amounts. The amounts of BHT needed to induce cancer would not be ingested under normal circumstances, but if you want to avoid any exposure to cancer-causing chemicals, choose one of the many varieties of chips that are preservative-free.

 “A lot of those preservatives and yellow dyes have been directly linked to different cancers, and they feed cancers,” says Dr. Scott Weiss, Co-Founder and Clinical Director of Bodhizone Physical Therapy and Wellness, who recommends baked or kettle-cooked potato chips.

Doughnuts, Soda, and Other Common Treats: The Five Absolute Worst Foods You Can Eat

Children As Young As 13 Attending 'Smartphone Rehab' As Concerns Grow Over Screen Time (independent.co.uk)

A report from The Independent:

 Children refusing to put down their phones is a common flashpoint in many homes, with a third of British children aged 12 to 15 admitting they do not have a good balance between screen time and other activities. 

But in the U.S., the problem has become so severe for some families that children as young as 13 are being treated for digital technology addiction. 

One "smartphone rehab" center near Seattle has started offering residential "intensive recovery programs" for teenagers who have trouble controlling their use of electronic devices. 

The Restart Life Center says parents have been asking it to offer courses of treatment to their children for more than eight years.

 Hilarie Cash, the Center's founder, told Sky News smartphones, tablets and other mobile devices can be so stimulating and entertaining that they "override all those natural instincts that children actually have for movement and exploration and social interaction."

***

"I've worked with hundreds of heroin addicts and crystal meth addicts, and what I can say is that it's easier to treat a heroin addict than a true screen addict," says Dr. Nicholas Kardaras, author of 'Glow Kids.'

 https://www.vice.com/en_us/article/how-screen-addiction-is-ruining-the-brains-of-children

Faith Synergy Working Together

 The original pastor of Shekinah Fellowship, Brant Baker, knew something about faith.

He would never appear out on the platform until he knew that the Holy Spirit had manifested His presence in the meeting.

Those who were there recall seeing Brant sitting in a chair back stage, with his head bowed in prayer.

Once the presence of Almighty God showed up in His magnificent Shekinah glory, Brant would get up and go out on stage declaring God's praises and leading the people of God into deeper worship of Jesus Christ.

If you were there in those meetings you will recall Brant crying out, "Worship Him. Give Him all your praise. He loves you. To God be the glory," as the congregation sang songs of praise.

Then Brant would lead everyone in singing the song "Hallelujah, hallelujah.

And also the song, "Then sings my soul, my Savior to thee..."

The atmosphere was contagious as every heart came into unity in worship and adoration of Jesus.

Just about everyone of Brant's meetings were like this.

How did he do it?

How come his meetings were so filled with such powerful manifestations of God present in them?



   Most of us Christians will at one time or another wonder about faith and how it operates.

Do we step out in faith or do we sit passively waiting for God to command us to action?

With this on my mind I once asked the evangelist Lonnie Frisbee if he heard God telling him to do stuff or did he just step out in faith and expect God to back him up.

His brother, Stan always tells me, "I don't do anything unless God tells me to do it."

Which always seems a bit off to me when I hear him say it, where is there room for faith in action or free moral agency initiative?

Lonnie's answer to my question was a story that he told me.

Lonnie was at a hippy gathering somewhere in Northern California.

There was a small canyon where all the hippys had gathered together, smoking pot and drinking wine etc.

Lonnie was above the canyon near a rope bridge that spanned the canyon.

A young man had asked Lonnie if what he does is in direct response to God commanding him to do it or is it his own step of faith initiative?

In answer, Lonnie walked out to the middle of the rope bridge, raised his hands up and waved them while shouting loudly to those below, "Hey, hey, come to God. He loves you. Jesus died for your sins!"

Several dozen people got up, under the conviction of the Holy Spirit, and came under the bridge and repented of their sins and gave their lives to God.

Lonnie then walked back over to the young man and said, "I just now stepped out in faith and you see the fruit of it."

Lonnie once told me, "The man of God dares to be wrong, he climbs out on a limb, expecting God not to cut it off behind him."

So who is right?

The man who rigidly only does stuff if he hears God command him to do stuff, or the man who takes the initiative to step out in faith believing God to back him up?

Today's lesson addresses this and more...

 ***

What is synergistic action?

It is the tremendous effect that takes place when one force, having little or no effect alone, is combined with another force.

Their combined energy is then multiplied in an outstanding way.


  The word "synergistic" comes from the Greek word sunergeo, which means "work together."

Two words make up sunergeo: sun, which means "together," and ergeo, means "work."

From sun we have the English prefix "syn," which we find in words such as synthesis, synergistic, and synchronize.

From ergeo comes the English word "erg," which is a scientific measurement of work.

Sunergeo means a combination of forces that are turned loose, one energy turned loose to work with other energies.


  Satan understands the principle of synergistic action.

That is why he and the demons, being spirits, seek to move through human channels.

 Dispossessed demons are rather helpless, but if they can add their force to human channels,
 they can turn loose something deadly in the earth.

That is also why God, with His omnipotence, is stepping up His power by choosing to turn loose His energy and to work with the energies of the believer in a synergistic action that multiplies activity without limit.

Synergistic action is the power of bringing different, distinct energies into one relationship.


  In the realm of science, two chemicals that have distinct, nonexplosive attributes individually may create an explosion when combined.

That is synergistic action.

Almost every explosive material is a combination of different chemicals that are brought together to create a very powerful explosion.

Dynamite in itself is rather harmless without a detonator.

Once the dynamite has a fuse , it can do great damage.

The combined action, the action together, is what is important.


  There must be a change in your thinking, like a shifting of gears, so that you realize that the Lord is with you.

His energy and your energy are to be combined.

Do not intercede as though you are expecting God to bring forth His will sovereignly.

Intercede as though you are lighting a fuse.

Believe that what you will and what you ask are going to spring forth.

What you set your heart to see happen, in faith believing, will come to pass because you ask in the will of God ( I John 5:14-15 ).

As God's heart and energy and your heart and energy are united, the explosive quality that results will be the difference between making it and not making it into the Kingdom.


 Whenever the disturbing lies of illusion and deception come against you, just put them aside and believe the Word of the Lord.

By faith dig a hole under the obstacles and plant the dynamite; then light the fuse.

Believe to move the world because you can.

  To help us understand the meaning of synergistic action in our relationship to the Lord, we will examine some of the Scriptures that originally used the Greek word sunergeo.

Jesus commissioned His disciples, saying, "All power in heaven and earth is given unto Me.

Go ye therefore" ( Matthew 28:18-19 ).

Mark 16:20 tells us, And they went out and preached everywhere, while the Lord worked with them ( they worked together- sunergeo; the feeble efforts of the disciples were combined with divine strength ), and confirmed the word by signs that followed.

This is the way the Church started out, and this is also the way the Church will reach its culmination point and see the Kingdom established.

As we speak the Word, the Lord is working together with us who believe, and He is confirming the Word by the signs that follow.

Another passage very similar to this is Romans 8:28.

And we know that God causes all things to work together for good to those who love God, to those who are called according to His purpose.

Here again in this Greek word sunergeo for "work together," indicating that everything has to work together in synergistic action.

This does not mean that something happens to you just so that by itself it can contribute to the will of God in your life.

It means that everything that happens to you- every force that is turned loose, every event in your life- all dovetails together to create a combination of forces that are multiplied beyond measure.

God has ordained that every energy and force, everything that works in your life, has to come together in the explosive drive to bring about the will of God in your life.

All things work together for good to those who love God, to those who are called according to his purpose.


  In Romans 16:21 we find another usage of the word sunergeo.

Timothy my fellow-worker greets you....

Paul used a form of the verb sunergeo, which by translation is best rendered "a fellow worker."

When two believers are fellow workers, they work together.

Together, their energies and God become an explosive force, and they are able to do things far beyond what either one of them could do separately.

This is synergistic action.

God is telling us, "I will combine all my energy with yours.

As you flow together and believe, I will turn loose whatever you ask in My name."

As we move into that position of unity and faith, we must be careful how we pray, because we will surely have answers on our hands.


  Paul used this same term "fellow workers" again in Colossians 4:11.

And also Jesus who is called Justus; these are the only fellow-workers for the Kingdom of God who are from the circumcision; and they have proved to be an encouragement to me.

Justus, and others who were named previously, were the only Jews who had really worked with Paul; therefore he called them fellow workers.

Their combined energies were very great.


  Sometimes people seem to work against each other.

If a husband is of one political party and his wife of another, they will cross each other out at the polls year after year.

That is not synergistic action.

There is no synergistic action unless there is an agreement.


  The prefix "sym," from the Greek sum, means "with," "along with," or "together."

This prefix relates to the Greek word sumphoneo, which is translated "agree" in the promise, "Whenever two of you agree on anything you ask, it will be done" ( Matthew 18:19 ).

It means that two or more are asking together.

The English word that comes directly from sumphoneo is "symphony."

In a symphony orchestra, a number of people all perform together in harmony.

Sumphoneo is a crying together of two or more in the symphony of prayer.

Intercession may not sound like a symphony; but God hears it, and to Him it sounds beautiful.


  This truth is very simple,but you will find a real key to your walk with God as you understand that you are linking yourself with God.

No longer let it be that you, as a person apart from God, merely ask God for something.

Determine that God is going to walk with you.

Take the initiative to move out and let God catch up with you.

This is the attitude that motivated the evangelist Lonnie Frisbee.

Someone once asked Smith Wigglesworth (an apostle of faith who lived a generation ago) if he waited for the Spirit to move him.

He said, "No, When I see a devil-possessed person, I start after him.

It is up to God to see that the anointing catches up with me."

God will see to it that the anointing is there at the right time, if you move out.

Do not wait for God to do anything anymore.

You take the initiative.

In his epistle, James wrote, "You see that faith was working with his works, and as a result of the works, faith was perfected" James 2:22.

This passage speaks of Abraham, telling us that faith was working with his works.

Here again is the Greek word sunergeo - a synergistic action of faith and works.

What you are doing cannot be only an expression of obedience.

It has to be an expression of faith too.

It has to be done with a faith that something will happen.

If God tells you to get a walking stick and throw it down, you can easily do that; but it does not necessarily mean that the stick will turn into a serpent, as it did for Moses.

You must have the faith to expect that something will happen when you throw it down.


  When Moses complained that he could not speak very well, God asked him, "What is in your hand?"

From that time on, through all the ten plagues in Egypt, God said many times, "Stretch out your hand over Egypt."

Each time Moses stretched out his hand, something happened.

This continued out in the wilderness.

When the Amalekites invaded and tried to destroy the Israelites, Moses stretched out his hands.

While he had his hands up, the Israelites prevailed; so Aaron and Hur held them up for him when he became tired ( Exodus 17:8-13 ).

Here is another instance of synergistic action.

Aaron and Hur held Moses' hands up for him, believing God was going to bless.

However, they still had to exercise their initiative.

The victory would not have been won if man had not cooperated with God in faith.

By faith, Moses believed God.

By faith, he raised his hands.

By faith, unspeakable miracles were performed that had never before happened in the history of the world.

All of this came about because one man raised his hands with faith.

Paul wrote to Timothy, "I want men everywhere to pray, lifting holy hands without wrath or doubting. ( I Timothy 2:8 ).

Raise your hands up to the Lord without any doubting, but with faith in your heart to believe.

God's power will be turned loose because you link your feebleness with His omnipotence and dare to believe for the explosive channeling of divine omnipotence into the world again.

Dare to believe that what you do is an expression of faith which God honors.

Believe that God is tied in with it.

Refuse to lift your hands on your own; insist that God lift His hands too.

This is the way God ordained it to work.


  The initiative of faith is required of us; then faith working with our works can create the explosion.

We have to light the fuse, because God has laid upon us the initiative of seeing His Kingdom come forth.

Again, Moses is an example for us.

But Moses said to the people, "Do not fear! 

Standby and see the salvation of the Lord which He will accomplish for you today; for the Egyptians whom you have seen today, you will never see them again forever.

The Lord will fight for you while you keep silent."

The problems, which are very evident today and seem to be closing in on us, will disappear suddenly, never to be seen again.

Then the Lord said to Moses, "Why are you crying out to Me?

Tell the sons of Israel to go forward.

And as for you, lift up your staff and stretch out your hand over the sea and divide it, and the sons of Israel shall go through the midst of the sea on dry land" Exodus 14:13-16.

In other words, God was saying , "You do it, Moses.

You go ahead and divide the sea."

There is a time for praying; then suddenly there is a time to move out actively in faith.


  First the Word of the Lord came, "Stand still and see the salvation of the Lord."

But shortly after that God said, "Why are you crying out to me?

Move!

Go forward."

You have to position yourself.

The moment comes when God will fulfill everything, and then you have to position yourself in it.

Many promises may seem to be hanging in abeyance, and you may not know the answer; but when God speaks to your heart to go forward, take a step of faith and move out.

Refuse to sit on the sidelines; instead, take a step into the mainstream of what God is doing.


  Take the initiative, and with authority loose the power of God.

Focus yourself with God on the will of God coming forth in the earth.

Refuse to be disassociated from God any longer.

Since you must take the initiative, there is no reason for you to blame God for anything.

You can either walk humbly with faith and see His will done, or blame yourself for walking apart from God.

Why not identify yourself as one with God and as one with one another to see the Kingdom come.

BREAKING NEWS OUT OF THE MIDDLE EAST!!

Crucified man had prior run-in with authorities.

Born (possibly out of wedlock?) in a stable, this jobless thirty-something of Middle Eastern origin had had previous run-ins with local authorities for disturbing the peace, and had become increasingly associated with the members of a fringe religious group.

He had had prior run-ins with local authorities — most notably, an incident of vandalism in a community center when he wrecked the tables of several licensed money-lenders and bird-sellers. He had used violent language, too, claiming that he could destroy a gathering place and rebuild it.

At the time of his arrest, he had not held a fixed residence for years. Instead, he led an itinerant lifestyle, staying at the homes of friends and advocating the redistribution of wealth.

He had come to the attention of the authorities more than once for his unauthorized distribution of food, disruptive public behavior, and participation in farcical aquatic ceremonies.

Some say that his brutal punishment at the hands of the state was out of proportion to and unrelated to any of these incidents in his record.

But after all, he was no angel.

He was the Son Of God!!!

A Big Problem With AI: Even Its Creators Can't Explain How It Works (technologyreview.com)

Last year an experimental vehicle, developed by researchers at the chip maker Nvidia was unlike anything demonstrated by Google, Tesla, or General Motors. 

The car didn't follow a single instruction provided by an engineer or programmer. Instead, it relied entirely on an algorithm that had taught itself to drive by watching a human do it.

Getting a car to drive this way was an impressive feat. But it's also a bit unsettling, since it isn't completely clear how the car makes its decisions, argues an article on MIT Technology Review.

 From the article: 

 The mysterious mind of this vehicle points to a looming issue with artificial intelligence. 

The car's underlying AI technology, known as deep learning, has proved very powerful at solving problems in recent years, and it has been widely deployed for tasks like image captioning, voice recognition, and language translation.

 There is now hope that the same techniques will be able to diagnose deadly diseases, make million-dollar trading decisions, and do countless other things to transform whole industries.

 But this won't happen -- or shouldn't happen -- unless we find ways of making techniques like deep learning more understandable to their creators and accountable to their users. 

Otherwise it will be hard to predict when failures might occur -- and it's inevitable they will. That's one reason Nvidia's car is still experimental.

  A report from TechCrunch:

 Self-driving still seems to be a ways off from active public use on regular roads, but once it arrives, it could ramp very quickly, according to a new study by the Boston Consulting Group.

 The study found that by 2030, up to a quarter of driving miles in the U.S. could be handled by self-driving electric vehicles operating in shared service fleets in cities, due mostly to considerable cost savings for urban drivers. 

The big change BCG sees is a result of the rise in interest in autonomous technologies, paired with the increased electrification of vehicles. 

 There's also more pressure on cities to come up with alternate transportation solutions that address increasing congestion. 

All of that added together could drive reduction in costs by up to 60 percent for drivers who opt into using shared self-driving services vs. owning and operating their own cars.

Words Backwards And Otherwise

http://surfer51.blogspot.com/2008/01/paomnnehal-pweor-of-hmuan-mnid.html

Authorities Silent On Pacific Ocean Radiation

Pacific Ocean Sea Stars Melting

Pacific Ocean Radiation Levels Spiked

Today's Featured Blog

http://blog.steventodd.org/

Attention Cord Cutters YouTube Launches 'YouTube TV' In Select Markets (phonedog.com)

In late February, YouTube unveiled its live TV service called YouTube TV, which offers live TV streaming over the internet for $35 per month with no long-term contract required.

 The company has officially launched the service today in five select markets:

New York, Los Angeles, San Francisco Bay Area, Chicago, and Philadelphia. YouTube says that more markets are coming soon, however, details on when/where are scarce.

PhoneDog reports: 

A membership to YouTube TV costs $35 per month and includes live streaming of channels like ABC, CBS, Fox, NBC, ESPN, and others. Subscribers also get an unlimited cloud DVR for recording shows that'll last up to nine months, and six accounts that each get their own recommendations and cloud DVRs. 

YouTube is offering a free one-month trial of YouTube TV so that everyone can give it a try. 

After your first paid month, YouTube will give you a Google Chromecast to thank you for sticking with the service.

  Source: YouTube Official Blog

Very Worried Cats

Jesus Tried

"Jerusalem, Jerusalem, you who kill the prophets and stone those sent to you, how often I have longed to gather your children together, as a hen gathers her chicks under her wings, and you were not willing. Matthew 23:37

Companies Start Implanting Microchips Into Workers' Bodies (latimes.com)

A Swedish start-up called Epicenter is offering to implant its employees and start-up members with microchips that function as swipe cards, allowing them to open doors, operate equipment or buy food and drinks with a wave of the hand.

While these microchips have been available for decades, the technology has never been implanted in humans on such a broad scale.

"Epicenter and a handful of other companies are the first to make chip implants broadly available," reports Associated Press.

From the report:

 [A]s with most new technologies, it raises security and privacy issues.

 Although the chips are biologically safe, the data they generate can show how often employees come to work or what they buy.

 Unlike company swipe cards or smartphones, which can generate the same data, people cannot easily separate themselves from the chips. 

Epicenter, which is home to more than 100 companies and roughly 2,000 workers, began implanting workers in January 2015. 

Now, about 150 workers have the chips. A company based in Belgium also offers its employees such implants, and there are isolated cases around the world in which tech enthusiasts have tried them out in recent years. 

The small implants use near-field communication technology, or NFC, the same as in contactless credit cards or mobile payments.

 When activated by a reader a few inches away, a small amount of data flows between the two devices via electromagnetic waves.

 The implants are "passive," meaning they contain information that other devices can read, but cannot read information themselves. 

Ben Libberton, a microbiologist at Stockholm's Karolinska Institute, says hackers could conceivably gain huge swaths of information from embedded microchips. 

The ethical dilemmas will become bigger the more sophisticated the microchips become. Epicenter workers stage monthly events where attendees can receive the implant. 

***
Sweden first cashless society.
 

Where Have You Laid Him?

Prophetic Gold Over America

I stood there in awe as the men of God began to prophesy. 

These were no ordinary men.

 Out under the hot desert sun they had patiently waited all day upon the Lord for the Word of the Lord to come to them.

 It was now evening and they were gathered together around the camp fire in a loose circle. The fire casting dancing shadows upon their faces as they stood there leaning upon their walking sticks.

The smoke of the fire rising and swirling with it's aroma that only desert wood can give to smoke. Scenting their clothing, marking them as men who had been recently near a desert camp fire.

These were men who were very accustomed to hearing the voice of God. Men who knew the Word of God.

They had 'primed the pump,' so to speak, this evening, by worship and praise of our God.

The Holy Spirit had manifested Himself during worship and there was this other world like atmosphere like no other I  had ever experienced any where else.

 A reverence and an attitude of holiness had descended upon the men. I became as one who dared not move as I listened and held the microphone of the cassette tape recorder towards them.

 I could hear the gentle whirring of the tape recorders motor in the silences between their powerful prophetic utterances.
(http://shekinahfellowship.blogspot.com/2010/08/sir-i-said-do-not-move-while-we-are-in.html)

There was no evidence of fleshly soulish activity present, only the moving of the Holy Spirit upon men of God. Prophets of God.

 Prophets who had taken their weekend to dedicate them selves to speaking the Word of the Lord out in the desert places over the land.

These men were trained, they knew Him, they knew His voice, they loved Him and served Him. Jesus Christ was lifted up among them as their Lord and Savior

I witnessed the out working of the Word that evening as the desert wind softly rustled the camp fire.

1. 1 Corinthians 14:27
   If any man speak in an unknown tongue, let it be by two, or at the most by three, and that by course; and let one interpret.
   1 Corinthians 14:26-28
2. 1 Peter 4:11
   If any man speak, let him speak as the oracles of God; if any man minister, let him do it as of the ability which God giveth: that God in all things may be glorified through Jesus Christ, to whom be praise and dominion for ever and ever. Amen.

The following are King James style excerpts from prophecies given by prophets of another time and place regarding the American national situation...

"For the Lord hath yet a purpose to perform within the remnant of His people. The Lord hath a thing that He shall bring to pass. 

Behold, the Lord would say unto thee that thou shalt not be passive in this matter, lest the purposes and the plans of God should be set aside many years, perhaps generations. But thou shalt believe, for there must be a performance of all that God hath begun within this generation.

Rise in faith to believe that God can take this house and bless this nation; that the prayers, faith and the ministries that God raised up can be like the jawbone of an ass in the hand of Samson to bring down the high and mighty who would lead the nation to destruction.

 Behold there are many who see the need but wander in confusion; for they know not what to do, and there are no weapons in their hands. But the Lord shall place within thy hands, O house of God, weapons of faith and prayer, that ye may turn the tide, if ye will believe to be the instrument in the hands of the Lord.

Thou shalt be mindful of the words of Jonathan, "The Lord is not limited to save by many or to save by few." Art thou willing to be that remnant in the land that shall contend for righteousness and see the Lord restore again the foundations? Can ye believe? 

Is thy heart so deceived that ye shall believe that this nation must surely fall under the hand of antichrists and Satan and be judged? Or will ye believe that this nation can be the salt that has not lost

its savor?

Oh, rise in the Spirit, ye saints of the Lord, for it is the day to make thy claim before the Lord that this house shall walk wholly in the Spirit. Regardless of what persecution shall come, they shall rise in faith, in one accord, to be the instruments in the hand of the Lord to turn multitudes to righteousness  and see the saving grace of the Lord visited upon a land that god hath brought forth.

Yea, thou shalt arise in the Spirit and thou shalt rebuke the horde of evil that should rise to bring revolution and destruction in the land.

 For hatred shall rage by devil power, but thou shalt believe the Lord and there shall be a flow of love, a love that shall cover and conquer.

 Thou shalt believe, and thy Lord shall minister to the needs of many.

Behold the insidious plots shall be discovered and shall be tripped, not because there are wise men at the helm, but because there are intercessors in the closet who love the Lord their God and do contend for righteousness.

 Thou shalt not look upon the vicious systems and say, "Behold they are corrupt and beyond redemption." Thou shalt look at the mighty hand of the Lord and say, "All things are possible to him that believeth."

Be thou glad and rejoice in this that the Lord hath chosen thee to do. And say not, "My hands are helpless," for in thy hands will the Lord place great grace. 

And in thy heart shall the Lord proclaim a word, and thou shalt be faithful to speak that word. Behold it shall produce a trembling in the hearts of men of evil, and it shall produce a leaping within the breast of those who look unto the Lord for deliverance.

Would you be willing to stand as a part of a company that God will use in this land? 

Oh this is a cause, this is something worth living for with all your heart. We will print it; we will speak it; we will send it out where ever we can through all media, we will minister it by the force of our hands. 

We will bind at the throne of God principalities and powers and see them broken. 

Lord, give a revival in the land of righteousness. Let us pledge ourselves to be instruments in the hand of the Lord.

It is a time that He shall demand a commitment and a dedication from thee such as thou hast not walked in heretofore. 

He shall call upon thee to spend hours before His face, crying unto Him one for another. Travail shall enter upon the soul of many, for the Lord bringeth forth a new thing on the earth, the like of which has not come forth before. 

He shall gird thee with His strength, and thou shalt continue to labor and to travail and to pray until thou hast seen the hand of the Lord establish a great and mighty thing in the earth.

 Rejoice in it, and if it should be thy life that ye should forfeit as a sacrifice for that which the Lord bringeth forth, count it a joyful thing, for few people have ever been permitted to walk before the face of the Lord and to know His greatness and know His power as the Body of Christ shall know it as they follow on to know the Lord.

The words that shall come to this house and to this land shall be very strong; for behold the wickedness and the iniquity of the people shall be proclaimed, and the treason in the land shall be uncovered

This which God is doing will not be a political movement or part of a party, but it will be a proclamation of the treason that is in the land. 

The unfaithfulness and the rebellion against the Lord shall be made known, that there might be a turning of the hearts of the people unto the Lord. 

God is raising up a people who will speak forth His word with such a boldness, but it will not be a political movement; it will be a spiritual force. 

The people who hear the Lord will take action in the parties. 

God wants His Church to speak His word and to be that force for righteousness!

 Be not dismayed, for the word of the Lord in the mouths of those with faith shall be as a chisel that shall chisel away at the walls of Babylon and bring them down.

When the Lord did bring down a nation, did he not raise up a prophet? And the word of the Lord came unto that prophet to prophesy against the country. He did prophesy against it; and though it seemed to be flourishing and strong, it surely came down according to that Word.


The Lord hath spoken unto thee and said, "Behold, thou shalt prophesy the word of the Lord."

 For the word of the Lord shall grow and be multiplied, and it shall bless thee. The Lord shall bring down every false, haughty thing that has exalted itself against the knowledge of the Lord. Thou shalt indeed be a blessed people, rejoice in it!

The Lord thy God hath settled upon this house a mantle like that which was given to the prophet Elisha by Elijah. This mantel has been given unto thee as a sign of God's presence in thee, even as it was prophesied in the word that God's judgment shall be with this house.

 And this mantel shall be a symbol that His judgment is with thee to be used against anything that shall rise against this house. It shall be used for that which comes against thee as a Body.

This judgment shall be used against anything that comes against this country, for it is for us to use. Take ye the judgment, and use it even as God has given it unto thee; for He has given thee the sign that this mantel has been settled upon this house, even as Elijah gave his mantle unto Elisha.

 The word of the Lord shall be in thy mouth as a sharp two-edged sword and it shall bring judgment upon the evildoers who have set themselves to bring destruction to this nation.

Let the prophets become creative. Let it become like a mighty machine of war. Ye shall prophesy, and there shall not be a stronghold of the enemy that will stand, for thou shalt be an instructed people that shall war by a word from the Lord.

Let there be a hearing ear to hear what the Lord hath proclaimed. 

For the word of the Lord shall be committed unto thee, and thou shalt speak it forth. Yes, thou shalt not cease to speak it forth. Day after day and week after week thou shalt not weary of it. Thou shalt not make thy prophecies according to the clouds upon the horizon or the wars or rumors of wars that shall attend the nations of the earth, nor shall they be of the distress of men's hearts being perplexed.

These things shall not invade thy thinking, but thou shalt be the people of the Lord who prophesy against Babylon and prophesy against the dragon that cometh forth; thou shalt speak the words that shall preserve a people in the midst of the earth.

For behold, the under regions are stirred, and they are disturbed because of the blessing that the Lord hath turned loose. 

Like an appointment of eternity, the calendar hath come to a certain day and hour, and they are aware that this is that day that they have dreaded. This is the hour that many of them shall be sent to the abyss and the judgments of the earth shall begin upon the earth.

 Yea, the wicked and ungodly and the devil powers shall be broken and be brought down, and it shall seem to be an hour of chaos until thou shalt behold the mighty hand of God that hath brought it forth; for the Lord shall have vengeance upon all who have rejected and mocked the ways of the Lord.

Behold, there shall be sincere men who shall seek thee out to find the prophet in thy midst. 

For in the midst of soothsayers and witchcraft, in the midst of evil, in the midst of devil-possessed men that shall harass the country, shall there not also be that which the Lord raiseth up that shall instruct men in the way of righteousness?

For behold the Lord saith, "Thou shalt be the salt of the earth, and thou shalt not lose thy savor; but thou shalt preserve in the midst of the land the workings of the Lord and that which the Lord bringeth forth."

We cry unto Babylon that she shall come down by the word of the Lord. Babylon, thou art to fall! There is to be no remainder of the people of the Lord who are held captive and a prey within thee!

For we cry unto the people of the Lord, where ever they be found; "Come out of her, come out of her, O people of the Lord! Be not a partaker of her sins, for the day has come! The day has come of thy liberation! Thy appointed judgments are completed, and now the Lord shall purge thee with hyssop. He shall search thee out until truth is found in thee."

O God, let the purposes of Satan to create an adverse image of every righteous and good man that standeth forth in the land be rebuked and exposed, and let integrity come forth. 

O God, we would see Thee place some of thy men in high places. Bring forth thy Jeremiahs and Thy Isaiahs in this hour for the glory of God, for Thou art not slack concerning Thy promises. Lord, start it even now.

O thou nation raised up by the Lord, we bless thee. We bless thee that the Spirit of the Lord shall bring conviction unto thee and that sin shall once more be sin unto thee, and righteousness shall be righteousness unto thee. 

Behold, the righteous man shall not be made evil in thy sight, nor shall the evil man seem to be righteous in thy sight.

But the day shall come that the Lord shall expose and bring down the refuge of lies in this

nation. He shall bring His glory and visitation upon it again.

Ye shall not break ranks, but ye shall march forth as the army of the Lord. And who shall stand against thy prayers, O house of the Lord, if ye be so united in the Lord.

 Oh, let there be a crying together again until the Lord shall move upon the land. We are not raised up to be blessed here. We are raised up that we shall be a voice that shall reach this nation.

O my God, wilt Thou not open up the wisdom of prophets in this place, that statesmen and politicians and men in high places may seek it out, that there shall be wise counsel again?

Someone has to plead our country's cause. Plead our country's cause every day. The leaders are not doing this, but we must.

God is requiring action of His people. there shall be a prophesying against the confusion in the land, a prophesying against the rebellion, a prophesying against the leaders who are playing into the hands of Satan to bring confusion to this land.

 The principality of perversion that turns the hearts of the people and the institutions to confusion is being broken.

Say not that the rulers and the courts of this land are right. They are not right. God raised this nation up, and He hath proclaimed it, and it is His!

They may rule Him out of the schools and say that men may not call upon His name; they may bring many things to pass. But the Lord will yet humble this nation, and it shall pray- in school and out of school.

The Lord will bring this nation unto a place where they must call upon the name of the Lord, but let it be that thou shalt cry unto the Lord that the judgment shall not be punitive, but that judgment shall instruct and that judgment shall correct; it shall be a corrective thing that shall come to the house of God and to the nation.

Let your heart rejoice, for this is the day that the word of the Lord shall come in creative power from the lips of the humblest saint. He shall prophesy and behold, there shall be the judgment and destruction of Babylon's walls.

Behold, in a day when the Caesars were living, in the days in which mighty conquerors were upon the earth and when there were men of valor, it was in those days that the Lord God did pick the tax collector, the fishermen, and men by the wayside, the one sitting under a fig tree, and said unto them, "follow Me."

And behold, upon them did rest the anointing of the Lord that did turn a century and did bring down empires and did change the course of time and caused men to make their calendars from those days, all without cell phones, ipads or computers on the internet.

So it shall be in this hour.

Behold, they who think to bring revolution and change to the earth in purges of blood, they shall be forgotten before the sons and daughters have come to maturity.

But remembered shall be that heritage of the Lord that hath come forth in the time of travail, that had been manifested in an hour in which the world was preparing for their coming.

They shall reap where they have not sown. They shall bring down by a Word, because it is prepared from of old that that Word should be spoken in the power of God.

Behold, thou art brought forth in the Lord to upset all the battles that Satan has worked in the kingdoms of this earth.

 Oh, that thy heart should look unto the Lord in this hour; for is it not devil power in government that hath brought about confusion and a state of anarchy within this land?

Behold, riots have filled the land because of devil possessed men who have moved into a place of rule.

 Thou shalt rise in the name of the Lord and know that this is indeed a word from God: there shall be that shall bind in the name of Jesus and bring down these things that have been a spoiling of the nation, and they shall bring an end to the slaughter and sacrifice of the innocent unto the gods of war.

prophets and there shall be companies of righteous ones

Thou shalt arise in the name of the Lord, and thou shalt bless and glorify the Lord of Hosts, for His is the power and the Kingdom and the glory forever

. Thou shalt replace the usurper. Thou shalt bind him and bring him down, for he hath not the right to rule nor dominate a nation that God hath raised up for a destiny.

Be filled with the words of the Lord, that ye shall speak them and echo them again and again (Fulfilled once again here in this place). For by the words of the Lord that shall come forth living and anointed in this hour shall the Lord do signs and wonders, shall He establish Zion, shall He bring utter confusion to Babylon and bring the counsels of the wicked to naught.

Even principalities and powers shall destroy one another in an amazing reaction to their purposes being frustrated by the hand of the Lord God. 

Thine eyes shall see the conclusion of many things that have been the conflict and the controversy of ages. Thou hast been raised up to see a completion of all of these things. Hath He anointed thee for a beginning? Behold, He shall perform it.

We take the faith that was in God's people as they stood at Jericho's walls, and we cry for the fortresses of the enemy to come down in the name of the Lord. Let them come down in the name of the Lord! And that which the Lord hath proclaimed, we claim it.

The word cometh from the Lord in this hour the like of which men have yearned to see and have not known. many shall stumble and draw back from it, but those who weigh it carefully and look to the Lord until it is confirmed and becomes a living, burning thing within their spirits, they shall walk in the miracle of the word of God in this hour.

Be concerned about preserving the liberties and the freedom in America long enough for God's remnant to be established in a true spiritual walk with God. 

If a remnant would be faithful to the Lord, there is no reason why the United States could not be preserved right into the Kingdom and be the instrument God wants it to be. Even though there has been a serious deterioration of morals in America, there is a remnant of New Testament believers coming up strong.

For the sake of the remnant, God can spare America.

 There is a strong , spiritual, prophetic voice in the land that God wants for the end time. God has always had His men.

 In the decline of Israel, He had Elijah come to protest and speak the word of the Lord. In the days of declension when judgment was about to come, He had Jeremiah weeping over His chosen.

The prophets always appear when God is ready to bring the end of one age and the beginning of another. The judgments upon the old age are proclaimed by the prophets.

But they have a two fold ministry. you cannot read the old prophets without seeing that they prophesy immediate destruction in judgment, but then they lift up their eyes and see what is out ahead of them- the mountain peaks of blessing and glory- and they prophesy that, too.

 Even though the Old Testament prophecies were primarily related to the immediate circumstances, yet every prophet has the vision that sees the peaks which would be invisible otherwise, and every prophet proclaims what is to come.

The message of the Kingdom must be preached; but at the same time, the Holy Spirit is leading His remnant to prophesy against that which Satan brings to destroy.

Do not be fooled; Satan is trying to destroy the whole human race. 

Jesus said it would be so. He said that unless these days be shortened, there would be no flesh saved alive (Matthew 24:22).

 God's remnant is in, as it were, a spiritual contest to hold back the powers of darkness until the children of God get through the Red Sea. Then God will let the waters go, and the judgments will come.

But this message must be established in the earth; His remnant must have the freedom to do it.

The Lord directs at times to prophesy against certain political candidates whose deceitfulness makes it evident that they are dangerous men.

 Believers should prophesy that God will bring down demonic political machinery. God has spoken that the principality of deception will be broken in these matters, but His believers must realize that the judgment of deception is up to them.

 God also spoke that when Satan makes his bid to take over the United States in an antichrist form of government, he will attempt it through a political party; and the Lord said, "Rise up and curse the influence of the demagogues."

The Body of Christ will do something besides bringing down some godless candidate. There will be many good people in the organization under such a man.

For the sake of the good in the political parties, keep praying for these people and for the remnant of real Americans who are found in them. Pray for God to establish them.

There have been great men in the parties of the past, and there are great ones in the parties today. These men are not the ones who are publicized, nor are they the ones who will do the damage. But for their sakes, for the sake of what they will be trying to do to hold back the tide of devil-possessed men who are infiltrating every party and every sort of office...

Prophesy against the satanic invasion that is coming into our government. It is coming in everywhere. This country faces a time of violence. People are being shot down in the streets. Gangsterism is everywhere and is more corrupt than people realize.

Cry out against these things; cry out before the Lord!

Prophesy against the corruption in high places of government. God help the few men who stand against the tide.

We need good Christian men in positions of influence. We need Daniels to stand in the midst of all of the corruption, praying three times a day before God; men like the Centurion who feared God, who gave alms to the people and served the Lord day and night. On them let the Spirit of the Lord descend.

Ye are the salt of the earth; but if the salt have lost its savor, wherewith shall it be salted? Matthew 5:13.

Believers do not have a responsibility to politicians or to a political party, but they must recognize that God has created them to be a spiritual force that can bring down the powers of darkness if they wield the authority of the name of Jesus.

If you walk with God, you will have to have faith in what God speaks to the men of God who lead you.

 Do not be naive- test the spirits if there is a question in your mind. But keep yourself open. You cannot be moved by any prejudice that you might have. Be less concerned about political ideas at this point and be dedicated only to the Kingdom.

 As a citizen of the Kingdom, rise and prophesy against that which the enemy would bring.

The enemy is coming in like a flood and the Spirit is lifting up a standard against him. The Body of Christ must rise in the name of the Lord and curse the trend that Satan brings.

God's people must be exhorted to not draw back from fervent prayer and intercession. They must stay

with it, for God is not going to do anything except through the intercession and prayers of the people.

Let us cry out to Thee against every evil thing, for hereunto You have called Your people.

The multitudes will reject what God is speaking. They may rise up in anger, saying, "This thing should be put out of the country, this should be banished, this isn't patriotic, this isn't American," because they are caught up in witchcraft and in deception.

The Lord prophesied that the time will come when people will kill you and think they are doing God a favor (John 16:2). So be it. the remnant of God does not stand alone; it stands with Him.

People by the hundreds will turn away from the truth which God's true believers will be speaking. Never the less, men of God have a responsibility to be what God raised them up to be and to do what God raised them up to do.

 The Lord Jesus will be their hiding place in the time of storm that is coming upon the earth.

Millions are going to be saved in this generation!

 Oh, how faithful we should be with the message of grace and deliverance, with all patience exhorting the people to save themselves from this generation.

How we should battle to bring everyone in, not to let them go, not to let them be victims of this great flood of inquity.

If the American people pray and seek the Lord and prophesy against the present trends. God can preserve their country, so that it can be the vehicle and instrument God raised it up to be before the whole world.

Satan has done everything he can to discredit America in the sight of other peoples, yet 90% of the missionaries and the support of those missionaries for the last hundred years has come from the United States of America.

When ever there are people in need, the American government, despite all its politics and

corruption, has sent relief into the area. America has done what she could.

People have torn down the American flag and burned it and spat upon it; they have mocked and threatened American statesmen. Those who love God still love the Stars and Stripes, because God Himself was behind the founding of this country, as certainly as He was in the raising up of Israel in the Old Testament.

According to Scriptures and to prophecy, God is going to bring down everything exalting itself against Jesus Christ.

We believe in America, even though we may be disillusioned with much that is happening, with the futility of our wars and various other efforts. Political corruption gets into these efforts until we wonder how much we are accomplishing.

 A serviceman may feel the same way. Although he is a part of the military, he may wonder sometimes, "What am I doing worthwhile?"

But if he seeks first the Kingdom and fulfills efforts. Political corruption gets into these efforts until we wonder how much we are accomplishing.

Although he is a part of the military, he may wonder sometimes, "What am I doing worthwhile?" But if he seeks first the Kingdom and fulfills his place, he may find that God has positioned him there. He is not there to defend the things that are wrong in the American way of life; but he can stand as one man to somehow hold back the tide to keep this country as free as he can while others are laboring to send out the message of the Kingdom. 

Such a man can consider that he is defending a remnant in America.
This is speaking of the true American who is dedicated to the America God first brought forth. 

This America includes the people who support ninety percent of the missionary effort around the world, who help the poor and the afflicted around the world. This is what a military man is defending, not a system of conspiracy that is wrong.

Any believer who is in the military can have this dedicated attitude: "Lord, help me as a Christian, so that every effort that I put forth will help God's remnant in what they do. Let me be a part."

They serve their country best who serve God first. They do not advocate its downfall. 

We cannot have things go on as they are. Something must change in America. The only hope for revival is that America suddenly faces the fact that it is in jeopardy and is going to go down.

Then perhaps it will listen when someone comes with a word from God...