In the fall of 2008, with General Motors and Chrysler on the precipice of bankruptcy, executives at the car parts supplier Johnson Controls flew to Washington. The company’s president testified before a Senate panel and implored lawmakers to bail out the auto industry.

“Speaking for our company, and, I am sure for all auto parts suppliers, we respectfully urge the members of this committee, and the Congress as a whole, to provide the financial support the automakers need at this critical time,” Keith Wandell, then the president of Johnson Controls, said, warning that the failure of even one automobile company would “implode” the supply chain and lead to broad job losses. MORE

Think of the millions of devices with video feeds—maybe the baby monitor perched over your kid’s crib or a security camera looking out over your back porch. A new feature on the most popular search engine for the Internet of Things just made it a lot easier to find such feeds. And it’s even creepier than you can imagine. MORE

In 1950, physicist Enrico Fermi raised a very important question about the Universe and the existence of extra-terrestrial life. Given the size and age of the Universe, he stated, and the statistical probability of life emerging in other solar systems, why is it that humanity has not seen any indications of intelligence life in the cosmos? This query, known as the Fermi Paradox, continues to haunt us to this day. MORE

Vol 9 Issue 4 ~ Editor: Rev. Fr. Courtney Edward Krier
January 23, 2015 ~ St Emerantia

1. Baptism: Means of Salvation (52)
2. Septuagesima Sunday
3. Saint Timothy
4. Christ in the Home (27)
5. Articles and notices

Dear Reader:

As the public is entertained by the media by making sport of Donald Trump (who I would hope is not playing their tune—yet wonder why he allows it), the implementation on the various levels of government of depriving children protection from perverts and psychologically deranged sociopaths has been seen by demanding schools allow boys to use the little girls’ bathroom and, if there are any curious girls they can see what goes on in the boys’ bathroom. Continue reading →

RAMADI, Iraq (AP) — So complete was the destruction of Ramadi that a local reporter who had visited the city many times hardly recognized it.

“Honestly, this is the main street,” Amaj Hamid, a member of Iraq’s elite counterterrorism forces, told the TV crew as they entered from the southwest.  MORE

The most powerful storm of this winter season started last night in the nation’s capital and was morphing into a painful blizzard with gale-force winds pushing heavy snow and coastal flooding, as at least 10 people have been killed. MORE

Pastor who was freed by Iran rests with his family at Billy Graham retreat MORE

Evangelical leaders see Syrian refugees as opportunity MORE

Muslim leaders plan summit on protecting non-Muslims in their midst MORE

Every letter counts

British police are disputing the account of a Muslim family that says it was investigated over a spelling mistake made by a 10-year-old boy.

Last month, the boy had written in a school assignment that he lived in a “terrorist house” when he was trying to write “terraced house,” his family told the BBC.

Authorities questioned him at home the next day and examined a laptop, the family said. MORE

VATICAN CITY — Pope Francis is studying an invitation to visit the Grand Mosque of Rome — extended to him several days after his first visit to the city’s Great Synagogue.

If he accepts, Francis would be the first pope to visit the mosque. He received the invitation on Wednesday (Jan. 20) during a short audience he gave to Muslim community leaders at the Vatican. MORE

Pope Francis has changed church regulations to correspond to his rule-breaking celebration of the Easter Week ritual of washing the feet of men and women, Christians and not, in a sign of universal service.

Vatican rules for the Holy Thursday rite had long called for only men to participate, and popes past and many priests traditionally performed the ritual on 12 Catholic men, recalling Jesus’ 12 apostles.MORE

Sputnik reports, the Russian Academy of Sciences’ Institute for World Economy and International Relations published its annual foreign policy forecast, detailing US internal politics. And the winner is…Hillary Clinton. She, according to the Russian Academy of Sciences’ Institute for World Economy and International Relations’ (IMEMO) annual forecast is poised to defeat Republican Marco Rubio in November.

“We went out to the mine and the owners were two little guys that had been in the Second World War,” a California park service employee recalls at a retirement celebration for Mojave National Preserve Superintendent Mary Martin in 2005. MORE