CNN Headline News

[Raineyrocks]

http://www.cnn.com/2009/WORLD/europe/07/06/ancient.bible.online/index.html

Oldest known Bible goes online

    * Story Highlights
    * Handwritten Codex Sinaiticus is more than 1,600 years old
    * Includes two books not part of official New Testament
    * Discovered in a monastery in Sinai desert in Egypt more than 160 years ago
    * Scholar named Constantine Tischendorf recognized its significance in 1844

updated 12:28 p.m. EDT, Mon July 6, 2009   
By Richard Allen Greene
CNN


LONDON, England (CNN) -- The world's oldest known Christian Bible goes online Monday -- but the 1,600-year-old text doesn't match the one you'll find in churches today.
The British government bought most of the pages of the ancient manuscript in 1933.

The British government bought most of the pages of the ancient manuscript in 1933.

Discovered in a monastery in the Sinai desert in Egypt more than 160 years ago, the handwritten Codex Sinaiticus includes two books that are not part of the official New Testament and at least seven books that are not in the Old Testament.

The New Testament books are in a different order, and include numerous handwritten corrections -- some made as much as 800 years after the texts were written, according to scholars who worked on the project of putting the Bible online. The changes range from the alteration of a single letter to the insertion of whole sentences.

And some familiar -- very important -- passages are missing, including verses dealing with the resurrection of Jesus, they said.

Juan Garces, the British Library project curator, said it should be no surprise that the ancient text is not quite the same as the modern one, since the Bible has developed and changed over the years.

"The Bible as an inspirational text has a history," he told CNN.

"There are certainly theological questions linked to this," he said. "Everybody should be encouraged to investigate for themselves."

That is part of the reason for putting the Bible online, said Garces, who is both a Biblical scholar and a computer scientist.

"Scholars will want to look very closely at it, and some of the Web site functionality is specifically for them -- the ability to search the text, the ability to highlight a word, the degree of detail is particularly interesting for scholars interested in the text," he said.

But, he added, "It's for everyone, really a wide audience, because of curiosity, because they appreciate the value of it."

By the middle of the fourth century, when the Codex Sinaiticus was written, there was wide but not complete agreement on which books should be considered authoritative for Christian communities, according to the Web site where the Codex is posted.

The Bible comes from the Monastery of St. Catherine in the Sinai desert, where a scholar named Constantine Tischendorf recognized its significance in 1844 -- and promptly took part of it, Garces explained.

"Constantine Tischendorf was in search for ancient manuscripts, so he appreciated the age and value of it," Garces said.

He took a handful of pages to Germany to publish them, then returned in 1853 and in 1859 for more. On that last trip, he took 694 pages, which ended up in St. Petersburg, Russia.

The Soviet government decided to sell them in 1933 -- to raise money to buy tractors and other agricultural equipment.

The British government bought the pages for £100,000, raising half the money from the public. Garces called that event one of the first fundraising campaigns in British history.

Film footage from the time shows crowds of people turning out to see the manuscript, which was considered a national treasure, he said.

Though the Bible has been reassembled online, in the real world it remains scattered.

Most of it is in London. Eighty-six pages are held at the University Library in Leipzig, Germany, parts of 12 pages are held at the National Library of Russia in St. Petersburg, and 24 pages and 40 fragments remain at St. Catherine's Monastery, recovered by the monks from the northern wall of the structure in June 1975.

The manuscript contains the Christian Bible in Greek, including the oldest complete copy of the New Testament. (A copy held at the Vatican dates from about the same period.) Older copies of individual portions of the Christian Bible exist, but not as part of a complete text.

The Codex also includes much of the Old Testament that was adopted by early Greek-speaking Christians.

That portion includes books not found in the Hebrew Bible and regarded in the Protestant tradition as apocryphal, such as 2 Esdras, Tobit, Judith, 1 & 4 Maccabees, Wisdom and Sirach.

The New Testament portion includes the Epistle of Barnabas and The Shepherd of Hermas.

As it survives today, Codex Sinaiticus comprises just over 400 large leaves of parchment -- prepared animal skin -- each of which measures 15 inches by 13.6 inches (380 mm by 345 mm).

[Friday]

Don't f*** with nerds!!   

Johns Hopkins student kills apparent burglar with samurai sword

[dalebert]

Johns Hopkins student kills apparent burglar with samurai sword

The man "lunged" at the students, and the student with the sword defended himself, severing the man's left hand and cutting his upper body, Guglielmi said.

He was disarmed!

[Moebius Tripp]

"Unhand that man!"

[Friday]

Mackenzie Phillips: I had sex with musician dad John Phillips

I wonder if homegirl reads Heinlein? 

[KBCraig]

<squick>

[Friday]

<squick>

Good word; I didn't know that one.

I was speculating as to what would motivate MP to write a book about this now, after all these years.  Is she desperate for money?  Thinks people will feel sorry for her?  Advocating for the rights of people who willingly engage in incest?  Trying to scare kids off of drugs?

I heard a brief excerpt of her reading from her new book on the radio today, and she's definitely going to try to play herself off as a victim, despite the fact that she was an adult when she started boffing her own father, and kept on doing it for ten YEARS.  And of course, she waits until her dad is dead and can neither defend himself nor offer his side of the story to go public with this.  What a ... troubled person.   

[Lloyd Danforth]

Michelle was hot!  That would have been enough for me but, I'm not a pervert.

[Friday]

Lord knows I love zombies, but CNN has really jumped the shark this time... this is the HEADLINE STORY:

Zombies Prey on our Fears, Brains

[Pat K]

[Friday]

Gold hitting an all-time high yesterday was not considered newsworthy enough for CNN's homepage (although Letterman cheating on his wife was).  However, today they have thoughtfully posted a warning to the American public about the "gold bubble".   

Beware the gold bubble

[Moebius Tripp]

The purchasing power of gold has remained relatively stable over the years.  The price of gold doesn't go up, so much as FRNs lose their value.  Some of the analysts I read/watch think gold will adjust to $2k +.  Got Gold?

[Raineyrocks]

The purchasing power of gold has remained relatively stable over the years.  The price of gold doesn't go up, so much as FRNs lose their value.  Some of the analysts I read/watch think gold will adjust to $2k +.  Got Gold?

Nope, I wish I did. 

[Raineyrocks]

http://www.cnn.com/2009/TECH/space/10/09/probe.moon.crash/index.html
     
NASA crashes rocket, satellite into moon in search for water       
(CNN) -- NASA crashed a rocket and a satellite into the moon's surface on Friday morning, a $79 million mission that could determine if there is water on the moon.
An artist's rendering shows the LCROSS spacecraft, left, separating from its Centaur rocket.

An artist's rendering shows the LCROSS spacecraft, left, separating from its Centaur rocket.

NASA televised live images of the Lunar Crater Observation and Sensing Satellite, or LCROSS, as it crashed into a crater near the moon's south pole.

NASA officials said it appeared to be a "successful impact."

Minutes before its impact, the satellite guided a rocket into the Cabeus crater in an effort to kick up enough dust to help the LCROSS find whether there is any water in the moon's soil.

The Centaur upper-stage rocket impacted the moon shortly after 7:30 a.m. ET, and the satellite followed it four minutes later. Video Watch as NASA reacts to "successful" crash »

The LCROSS carried spectrometers, near-infrared cameras, a visible camera and a visible radiometer to help NASA scientists analyze the plume of dust -- more than 250 metric tons' worth -- for water vapor.

The orbiting Hubble Space Telescope and NASA's Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter watched and photographed the impacts. Meanwhile, hundreds of telescopes on Earth focused on the moon, hoping to catch a glimpse of two plumes.

The Cabeus crater lies in permanent shadow, making observations inside the crater difficult.

NASA Deputy Administrator Lori Garver, who watched the event at a public event at the Newseum in Washington, said there was a lot of interest in the NASA mission.

"We had families ... literally coming in off the street" to watch, she said on NASA TV. iReport: Did you watch?

NASA had encouraged amateur astronomers to join the watch parties.

"We expect the debris plumes to be visible through midsized backyard telescopes -- 10 inches and larger," said Brian Day at NASA's Ames Research Center at Moffett Field, California. Day is an amateur astronomer who is leading education and public outreach for the LCROSS mission.

Ames Research Center -- which led the mission -- hosted an all-night event, featuring music and food before broadcasting NASA's live transmission of the lunar impact.

Other science observatories and amateur astronomy clubs across the country hosted similar events. Video Watch CNN's Jeanne Moos ask if lunacy is behind the moon "bombing" »

"The initial explosions will probably be hidden behind crater walls, but the plumes will rise high enough above the crater's rim to be seen from Earth," Day said.
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Data from previous space missions have revealed trace amounts of water in lunar soil. The LCROSS mission seeks a definitive answer to the question of how much water is present. NASA has said it believes water on the moon could be a valuable resource in the agency's quest to explore the solar system.

LCROSS launched with the Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter aboard an Atlas V rocket from Cape Canaveral, Florida, on June 18.

[Raineyrocks]

Obama declares H1N1 emergency
October 25, 2009 10:00 a.m. EDT
Hundreds of residents line up for free H1N1 vaccinations Friday at a Los Angeles, California, area clinic.

http://www.cnn.com/2009/HEALTH/10/24/h1n1.obama/index.html

Washington (CNN) -- President Obama has declared a national emergency to deal with the "rapid increase in illness" from the H1N1 influenza virus.

"The 2009 H1N1 pandemic continues to evolve. The rates of illness continue to rise rapidly within many communities across the nation, and the potential exists for the pandemic to overburden health care resources in some localities," Obama said in a statement.

"Thus, in recognition of the continuing progression of the pandemic, and in further preparation as a nation, we are taking additional steps to facilitate our response."

The president signed the declaration late Friday and announced it Saturday.

Calling the emergency declaration "an important tool in our kit going forward," one administration official called Obama's action a "proactive measure that's not in response to any new development." Having trouble finding vaccine? Share your story

Another administration official said the move is "not tied to the current case count" and "gives the federal government more power to help states" by lifting bureaucratic requirements -- both in treating patients and moving equipment to where it's most needed.


The officials didn't want their names used because they were not authorized to speak on the record.

Obama's action allows Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius "to temporarily waive or modify certain requirements" to help health care facilities enact emergency plans to deal with the pandemic.

Those requirements are contained in Medicare, Medicaid and state Children's Health Insurance programs, and the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act privacy rule.

Since the H1N1 flu pandemic began in April, millions of people in the United States have been infected, at least 20,000 have been hospitalized and more than 1,000 have died, said Dr. Thomas Frieden, director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

Watch how to find out if you have H1N1

Frieden said that having 46 states reporting widespread flu transmission is traditionally the hallmark of the peak of flu season. To have the flu season peak at this time of the year is "extremely unusual."

The CDC said 16.1 million doses of H1N1, or swine flu, vaccine had been made by Friday -- 2 million more than two days earlier. About 11.3 million of those had been distributed throughout the United States, Frieden said.

"We are nowhere near where we thought we would be," Frieden said, acknowledging that manufacturing delays have contributed to less vaccine being available than expected. "As public health professionals, vaccination is our strongest tool. Not having enough is frustrating to all of us."

Frieden said that while the way vaccine is manufactured is "tried and true," it's not well-suited for ramping up production during a pandemic because it takes at least six months. The vaccine is produced by growing weakened virus in eggs.