Brittany Maynard carries a prescription in her wallet. It was written by a doctor in Oregon, one of five states with legal protections for terminally ill patients who want to end their suffering. And in three weeks, she plans to use it to die.  MORE

The long-term shift in the public’s views about same-sex marriage is unambiguous. Polling conducted in 2003 found most Americans (58%) opposed to allowing gays and lesbians to marry legally, and just a third (33%) in favor. The new survey by the Pew Research Center, conducted March 13-17, 2013 among 1,501 adults nationwide, confirms that these figures have crossed, with 49% supporting same-sex marriage, and 44% opposed. MORE

UPDATE, Oct. 7, 3:40 p.m. ET: Super Typhoon Vongfong has intensified further, with maximum sustained winds of about 180 miles per hour and gusts higher than 200 miles per hour. This puts it among the strongest storms on record, based on a satellite estimate.

Super Typhoon Vongfong is now equivalent to a high-end Category 5 storm, MORE

Catholic Church should scrap phrase ‘living in sin’: cardinal

Jesus’ Miracles Documented In Newly Found Eyewitness Statement By Roman Historian Marcus Velleius Paterculus?

Beardless Jesus Discovered On Early Christian Artifact Unearthed In Spain…..NOT NEW

Wake up early Wednesday morning to see a total eclipse of the moon

Russia’s finance minister said on Tuesday the country could no longer afford a multi-billion-dollar revamp of the armed forces approved by President Vladimir Putin, stepping up a campaign to trim spending as sanctions over the Ukraine crisis bite. MORE

Among Christian religions, the Roman Catholics have done the most thinking about the possibility of life on other worlds, the astronomer discovered. In fact, they have had an on-again, off-again theological debate that has gone on for a thousand years. The crux of the matter is original sin. If intelligent aliens are not descended from Adam and Eve, do they suffer from original sin? Do they need to be saved? MORE

The Supreme Court turned away appeals Monday from five states seeking to prohibit same-sex marriages, paving the way for an immediate expansion of gay and lesbian unions.

The justices on Monday did not comment in rejecting appeals from Indiana, Oklahoma, Utah, Virginia and Wisconsin. No other state cases were currently pending with the high court, but the justices stopped short of resolving for now the question of same-sex marriage nationwide. MORE VIDEO: MORE

Louisiana, the most common way to visualize the state’s existential crisis is through the metaphor of football fields. The formulation, repeated in nearly every local newspaper article about the subject, goes like this: Each hour, Louisiana loses about a football field’s worth of land. Each day, the state loses nearly the accumulated acreage of every football stadium in the N.F.L. Were this rate of land loss applied to New York, Central Park would disappear in a month. MORE

Kim Jong Un may be removed from power or toppled in North Korea as Hwang Pyong So is now the number 2 man in the nation. His god like powers may have failed him and no longer can reconcile with his peers. Hopefully good news. MORE

Diabolical?

Microbially-unsafe water is still a major concern in most developing countries. Although many water-purification methods exist, these are expensive and beyond the reach of many people, especially in rural areas. Ayurveda recommends the use of copper for storing drinking-water MORE

This plant is a common vegetable from Asia called “bitter melon.” It is popular among the long-lived population of Okinawa, Japan.

Bitter melon juice diluted to just 5% in water showed remarkable potency in severely damaging all four pancreatic cancer cell lines researchers tested. The bitter melon reduced the viability of two cancer cell lines by 90%, while it knocked off the other two lines by a staggering 98%. And it did so after just 72 hours of treatment! MORE

The second total lunar lunar eclipse of 2014 and 2015 lunar-eclipse tetrad will occur on Wednesday, October 8, 2014, and will be visible from the Pacific Ocean and regions immediately bordering it. As the Moon passes completely through the Earth’s dark shadow, or umbra, it will gradually get darker and then take on a rusty or blood red color. MORE

A minor earthquake shook the ground just south of Sloan and was felt in parts of the valley early Sunday morning.

The 3.6 magnitude earthquake happened at 3:11 a.m. about 22 miles south of Las Vegas, according to the Las Vegas Fire Department. MORE

This should be good…

Something more is happening as bishops gather for the first major doctrinal and pastoral summit of the Francis papacy; something quieter, deeper, and less immediately obvious: a spiritual renewal that Pope Francis hopes to foster between church leaders and their people. MORE