April 23 - Scientists plan to resurrect a range of extinct animals using DNA and cloning
 Article: Cloning And Genetic Engineering

WOOLLY mammoths stomp through the Siberian tundra as the giant moa strides the forest floor of New Zealand and Tasmania's dog-like "tigers" stalk their prey under the cover of night. This is not a snapshot of times past, nor next year's sequel to Steven Spielberg's Jurassic Park.

Instead, it's a scenario that some biogeneticists see as plausible in our own lifetimes: the resurrection of species driven to extinction, sometimes thousands of years ago.

Today, some experts believe that by harnessing this breakthrough knowledge, the first extinct species could be revived within years.

They could be cloned from genetic material teased from preserved tissues, with the reprogrammed egg implanted in a cousin species. Farther down the road, other species could live again through artificially-reconstituted sequences of their DNA, goes the argument.

Read Full Article.... 

 April 25 - Hawthorne Schools Speed Up Lunch Line With Palm Scanners
 Article: Technology For Global Monetary Systerm

Two schools in Hawthorne are introducing palm scanners in hopes of speeding up the cafeteria lunch line.

In a trial program at Hawthorne Middle and Ramona Elementary schools, students are being asked to use their palm prints to register for their mid-day meals.

With the old system, students entered a five-digit code into a keypad. That allowed cafeteria staff to process about 150 students in 15 minutes. That's still not fast enough, according to Hawthorne School District Food Service Director Anna Apoian.

"Right now, we are serving about 65 percent of the students and we would like to see that go up to 80 percent," Apoian told CBS2′s Kristine Lazar. The district's aim is to make sure no student goes hungry.

Read Full Article.... 

 April 29 - Deadly earthquakes strike around the world
 Article: Signs Of The Last Times

A series of deadly earthquakes have struck many countries around the world, including China, Mexico, and Iran, in the last few weeks resulting in hundreds of injuries and deaths.

China is the most recent country to experience an earthquake and also suffered the most damage and deaths of any country. A 6.6 magnitude earthquake struck China at 8:02 a.m. on April 20, 2013 in a remote mountainous region of China's Sichuan province. The quake killed at least 192 people, injured over 11,000 and destroyed many buildings in the area, according to officials. The Xinhua news agency reported that 6,000 troops were in the area to assist with rescue efforts. The Chinese Red Cross also sent personnel to the area with water, food, medicine and rescue equipment. While the government and Red Cross are assisting rescue efforts by removing bodies and searching for those trapped, locals affected by the disaster say little has been done to distribute aid.

Read Full Article.... 

 April 30 - A Hopeful Path Towards Theological Dialogue
 Article: Bridges To Rome

The newly appointed head of the Coptic Catholic Eparchy in Minya in Egypt stated that the upcoming meeting between Pope Francis and Coptic Orthodox Patriarch Tawadros II in May "could have important and positive results."

In an interview with Fides News Agency, Coptic Catholic Bishop Botros Fahim Awad Hanna also express is hope that a theological dialogue to begin the path towards full communion would resume. The meeting between the Holy Father and the Coptic Patriarch is set for May 11th, 2013

The last meeting that occurred between a Coptic Patriarch and a Pope took place nearly 40 years ago when Shenouda III met with Pope Paul VI in Rome. Due to that historical meeting, an agreement between the two Churches signed in 1988 put an end to centuries of misunderstanding and mistrust.

"In the Common Christological Declaration, the Catholic Church and the Coptic Orthodox confess to share the same faith in "Our Lord, God and Savior Jesus Christ, the Incarnate Word" that "is perfect in its Divinity and perfect in its Humanity. Since then, though, that common Christological Declaration has not had practical effects," Bishop Fahim Hann said.

Read Full Article.... 

 Rosary recalls life, love of Mary, says Archbishop Gomez
 Article: Roman Catholic Church And The Last Days

At a youth rosary rally recognizing May as the month dedicated to Mary, Archbishop José H. Gomez of Los Angeles said that by praying the rosary, "we're repeating little words of love for our Mother."

"This is what Jesus wanted for us. He wanted his Mother to be our Mother," he told a group of some 2,000 young people at Cantwell Sacred Heart of Mary High School in Montebello, Los Angeles County, on May 1.

"The goal of our life is to follow Jesus and become more like him. So just like Jesus did, we need to learn from our Mother Mary what it means to be a child of God."

"As we pray with our lips, our minds are contemplating the mysteries of Jesus' life. The mysteries of his life - as they are seen through his Mother's eyes." He exhorted the youths attending to pray the rosary and to "stay close to Mary."

Read Full Article.... 

 May 2 - Vatican invites Buddhists to help build culture of life
 Article: Ecumenical Movement - Roman Catholic Church Uniting With Other Religions

The Vatican's top official for interreligious dialogue, Cardinal Jean-Louis Tauran, sent a message to all Buddhists urging a joint commitment to "unmask the threats to human life."

In his annual letter for the feast of Vesakh, Cardinal Tauran highlighted the two faiths' "noble teachings on the sanctity of human life" but lamented that "evil in different forms contributes to the dehumanization of the person" in society, "by mitigating the sense of humanity in individuals and communities."

"This tragic situation calls upon us, Buddhists and Christians, to join hands to unmask the threats to human life and to awaken the ethical consciousness of our respective followers to generate a spiritual and moral rebirth of individuals and societies," he wrote in his May 2 letter.

Read Full Article.... 

 May 3 - Weather radicalization worsening, global food supply at increased risk of regional failures
 Article: Signs Of The Last Times

If you live in the USA, you're probably experiencing some of the effects of a cold weather front and multi-state blizzard that's sweeping across much of North America. While the weather felt like summer just a few days ago, suddenly much of the upper Midwest is blanketed in snow and reeling from freezing temperatures.

Welcome to the weird world of weather radicalization. We're all watching it unfold right before our very eyes: extreme droughts, 500-year floods, fires and blizzards are all getting worse than anyone can remember. It's not just that we have more technology to detect and report on these storms today; the storms are actually getting worse and more frequent.

Simply put, when nature deviates from its normal cycles, it throws food production into chaos. A one-night drop below freezing, for example, can wipe out the entire citrus crop in Florida. A Midwest drought recently collapsed corn production there, and almost two years ago, a severe drought in Texas caused a collapse in grazing grasses, resulting in a mass slaughter of starving cows that could no longer be fed. The upshot of that was plummeting beef prices, followed by a spike the next year as herds had been thinned out far beyond normal.

Read Full Article.... 

 May 2 - Proclaiming Christ Called a Necessary Part of Interreligious Dialogue
 Article: Ecumenical Movement - Roman Catholic Church Uniting With Other Religions

In true interreligious dialogue, Christian participants will desire to make Jesus more and more known and loved, but "the proclamation of Jesus Christ must be made in the gospel spirit of dialogue."

This was a reflection offered Monday at the opening address of the third meeting of bishops and delegates from Europe's Bishops' Conferences responsible for relations with Muslims. They are meeting in London until Friday morning to discuss the relationship between dialogue and proclamation.

The introductory address was given by Don Andrea Pacini, secretary of the Commission for Ecumenism and Interreligious Dialogue of the Piemonte-Valle d'Aosta regional episcopal conference. Don Pacini noted there are various forms of interreligious dialogue: the "dialogue of daily life," that of "works" through which there is collaboration with a view to the integral development of the human person, that of theological exchange, and finally the dialogue of religious experience "in which people rooted in their own religious experience share their spiritual riches."

Read Full Article....