No Blood, No Gore, Just Megatons of Steel

Written by Seth Schiesel | www.nytimes.com | Sept. 16th 2011

When I could have been doing something healthy recently, like going to the gym, I was probably sniping with a Panzer IV from the escarpments of a desert called El Halluf. When I should have been doing something responsible, like scrubbing the tub, I was probably barreling around a European town called Himmelsdorf in an “Easy Eight” Sherman. Even when I should have been playing some other game, I was probably playing World of Tanks, a concussively enjoyable, shrewdly designed armored-combat game.

After more than 1,500 online battles, I now find myself daydreaming about obscure military concepts with vaguely suggestive names like gun depression, defilade and enfilade. To put it in blunt, even howitzerian, terms: if you have any interest in military tactics and a speedy computer (the game runs only on fairly powerful Windows PCs), you should at least give it a try. If you’re a World War II buff, the game is a must. And if you’re tiring of elves, demons and aliens, you may find the experience of watching your enemies scatter or be blown to shards by the rumbling might of your Tiger tank just a bit more visceral.

World of Tanks is about, well, yeah, tanks, specifically those of the World War II era. There are no people here, alive or dead. There are no limbs to be severed. No decapitations. In fact there is no blood at all, just a lot of nice, clean tank explosions and buildings being ground to rubble. More important, there are amazing victories just waiting to be pulled from the maw of defeat through your mastery of strategy and aim.

You know a game is good when you start hearing about it through the online communities of other games. I first learned about World of Tanks about a year ago, when it was in beta testing. 

Suddenly my fellow pilots in Eve Online, the sprawling science-fiction universe, were debating whether the Soviet IS-4 could stand up against the German Ferdinand and whether the American Pattoncould deal with the game version of the Soviet T-54....

For the rest of the article, please click here.

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A fun game I play a bunch myself. ;-D 

- OnofakindKnight

Why is this "Unsafe" Food Banned When It's 35,000 Times SAFER Than Others?

Written by Dr.Mercola | mercola.com | Aug 31 2011
Excerpt compiled by Knight's Dilemma


Research by Dr. Ted Beals, MD, featured in the summer 2011 issue of Wise Traditions, the quarterly journal of the Weston A. Price Foundation, shows that you are about 35,000 times more likely to get sick from other foods than you are from raw milk!  Statistically, you're also more likely to get injured driving to the farm to pick up your raw milk than becoming ill from drinking it.

Dr. Beals' research shows that between 1999 and 2010, there was an average of 42 cases of illness per year attributed to raw milk, and that includes both "confirmed" and "presumed" cases.

The Weston A. Price Foundation writes:

"At last we have access to the numbers we need to determine the risk of consuming raw milk on a per-person basis"… The key figure that permits a calculation of raw milk illnesses on a per-person basis comes from a 2007 Centers for Disease Control (CDC) FoodNet survey, which found that 3.04 percent of the population consumes raw milk, or about 9.4 million people, based on the 2010 census. This number may in fact be larger in 2011 as raw milk is growing in popularity.  For example, sales of raw milk increased 25 percent in California in 2010, while sales of pasteurized milk declined 3 percent."

In his report, Dr. Beals writes:

"From the perspective of a national public health professional looking at an estimated total of 48 million foodborne illnesses each year [from all foods]… there is no rational justification to focus national attention on raw milk, which may be associated with an average of 42 illnesses maximum among the more than nine million people (about 0.0005 percent) who have chosen to drink milk in its fresh unprocessed form.

… Consumption of any food has some risk of illness or adverse reaction. And the consequence of basing public policy on horrific personal experiences is that all foods will ultimately be banned, and we will not be able to participate in any activity."

If this isn't food for thought, I don't know what is. These statistics are the smoking gun proving that the war on raw milk cannot be based on food safety or protecting your health from an even remotely real threat…

Go here for the rest of the article

'Making science-fiction a reality': Bulletproof human skin made from spider silk and goat milk developed by researchers

From dailymail.co.uk | August 16th 2011

Researchers genetically engineered goats to produce milk which is packed with the same protein as silk spiders.
Once this is milked out it can be spun out and weaved into a material that is ten times stronger than steel.
The fabric can then be blended with human skin to make what the scientists hope will be tough enough to stop even a bullet.

 

 

Read More Here (Note: Video is not in English)

Marco Polo Meets Dinosaurs?

Written by BibleScienceGuy.wordpress.com | August 12th, 2011

Marco Polo (1254–1324) was a merchant from Venice, Italy who is famous for his 24-year, 15,000-mile camping trip.
In 1271 at age 17, Marco Polo left Italy for Asia with his father and uncle. They returned in 1295 to find Venice at war with Genoa. The Venetians had long given up the Polo merchants for dead.
Polo was captured and thrown into a Genovan prison for 4 years where he entertained his cellmates with stories of his travels. Prison was a godsend for Polo, because one of his cellmates was a writer who offered to document Polo’s journey. Polo dictated a detailed account to Rustichello da Pisa to produce
The Travels of Marco Polo.

Over the next several centuries the book stimulated great geographical discoveries, including Christopher Columbus’ attempts to sail to China by going west around the world. Polo’s book with handwritten comments was found among Columbus’ belongings.
Travels was the only “encyclopedia” of the East, and gave Europeans their first look at Asia. It served as a guide for mapmakers for 200 years, especially since Polo brought back a nautical and world map from China.
Polo’s journey preceded construction of China’s Great Wall by two centuries. Polo reported seeing fountains of oil (mineral oil springs), black stones that people burned for heat (coal), and paper money.
In 1275 Polo met Kublai Khan, grandson of Genghis, in Beijing and served as Kublai’s emissary to Mongolia, India, and Sumatra.
One of his adventures involved a 2-year journey by sea accompanying a wedding party. Of the 600-person party, only 18 survived, including all three Polos.

Marco Polo Sees Dragons
One of the many unusual items in Travels is Polo’s account of ferocious beasts he encountered in southwest China in what is now Yunnan province bordering Burma, Laos, and Vietnam.......

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Earth Had Two Moons That Crashed to Form One, Study Suggests

By Charles Q. Choi | SPACE.com – August 3rd, 2011

A tiny second moon may once have orbited Earth before catastrophically slamming into the other one, a titanic clash that could explain why the two sides of the surviving lunar satellite are so different from each other, a new study suggests.

Read the Rest of the Article Here

California Leads in Perverting Education

theTrumpet.com | July 18th, 2011

On July 14, California Gov. Jerry Brown signed a bill into law requiring all public schools to incorporate into their social studies program the achievements and contributions to society of homosexuals, lesbians and transvestites.

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California’s public schools will be required to teach students about the contributions of homosexual Americans beginning on January 1, after Gov. Jerry Brown signed a landmark bill last Thursday requiring the material to be added to social studies textbooks and curricula.

The new law requires social studies courses to include lessons about the “role and contributions” of “lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender Americans.” The legislation also mandates that “instructional materials,” like textbooks, include sections about the history of homosexual people.

The law, called SB48, also prohibits instructional materials such as textbooks from “reflecting adversely” upon homosexuals, a stipulation sure to influence the way these books define marriage.

One especially shocking aspect of the legislation is its failure to set any grade limits on the new material. This means that homosexual history could and will be taught at the elementary level. The California Family Council sent an e-mail alert to its readers warning that “children as young as kindergarten age” could be taught the new material.

Students enrolled in these schools will not be permitted to opt out of classes teaching the homosexual-oriented material. The California Family Council said that since the material is not part of a “sexual education” class, parents will not have an opting-out option, and will not be told beforehand about classes teaching the new material.

Beyond the Golden State

Another significant aspect of SB48 is the anticipated impact on the other 49 states in the union.

In addition to being the first state to pass such legislation, California is one the Untied States’ top purchasers of textbooks. The state’s massive buying power prompts many publishers to tailor their books specifically to California’s standards. So the impact of the legislation will extend far beyond the Golden State. 

View both articles HERE and HERE

Children Start School Not Knowing Their Own Name

theTrumpet.com | August 1st, 2011

"The British government’s poverty tzar Frank Field made an almost unbelievable statement on bbc Radio 4 on June 23. More children need to arrive on their first day of school with the skills they need to learn, he said. “We’re talking about children knowing their own name … knowing that crayons are for drawing and not stabbing the person next to you, a range of very simple skills like that, which is lacking in a number of individuals."

Are children really arriving at school not knowing their own name? 

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