Hotter Than ...

**** post addendum 6/27/06****

H - E -





By JOHN HEILPRIN,
Associated Press Writer
49 minutes ago
Study says Earth's temp at 400-year high

WASHINGTON - The Earth is the hottest it has been in at least 400 years, probably even longer. The National Academy of Sciences, reaching that conclusion in a broad review of scientific work requested by Congress, reported Thursday that the "recent warmth is unprecedented for at least the last 400 years and potentially the last several millennia."

Climate scientists Michael Mann, Raymond Bradley and Malcolm Hughes had concluded the Northern Hemisphere was the warmest it has been in 2,000 years. Their research was known as the "hockey-stick" graphic because it compared the sharp curve of the hockey blade to the recent uptick in temperatures and the stick's long shaft to centuries of previous climate stability

Stephen Hawking warns about global warming
By ALEXA OLESEN, Associated Press Writer
Wed Jun 21, 10:58 PM ET

BEIJING - Stephen Hawking expressed concern about global warming Wednesday even as he charmed and provoked a group of Chinese students. Asked about the environment, Hawking, who suffers from a degenerative disease, uses a wheelchair and speaks through a computerized voice synthesizer, said he was "very worried about global warming."

He said he was afraid that Earth "might end up like Venus, at 250 degrees centigrade and raining sulfuric acid."



Smithsonian Magazine
Fire in the Hole
Raging in mines from Pennsylvania to China, coal fires threaten towns, poison air and water, and add to global warming.

Across the globe, thousands of coal fires are burning. Nearly impossible to reach and extinguish once they get started, the underground blazes threaten towns and roads, poison the air and soil and, some say, worsen global warming.

The menace is growing: mines open coal beds to oxygen; human-induced fires or spontaneous combustion provides the spark. The United States, with the world’s largest coal reserves, harbors hundreds of blazes from Alaska to Alabama. Pennsylvania, the worst-afflicted state, has at least 38—an insignificant number compared with China (see sidebar, “Flaming Dragon,” p. 58) and India, where poverty, old unregulated mining practices and runaway development have created waves of Centralias. “It’s a worldwide catastrophe,” says geologist Anupma Prakash of the University of Alaska at Fairbanks.

According to the Urantia Book, heavily influenced by Biblical prophecy, we live in an upside down world. By some belief systems that would mean - hell. According to the current geopolitical and spiritual state of this particular nation (the U.S.) Annie can see why these beliefs would exist.

Maybe it is time to reflect on not only ancient prophecy and how it may or may not reflect now, but also on our spiritual health and our soul purpose. Do our souls and our states of mind reflect the condition of the Earth and Cosmic events? Vice-Versa? Hard to know, hard to say with certainty. But, something pulls and knits the Pearly Fabric that surrounds our collective.

Did you ever meet a person who seemed to be almost "angel-like?" Using that term loosely, for one who has a soul awareness of things that move and sway beneath this physical reality we wrap our limited brains around? Annie met a man who is an unusual, perceptive old soul, but yet still very much stuck in the matters of matter - as we all seem to be. He seemed to have knowledge and prophetic vision far beyond ordinary and far beyond my ability to put into words. Hugging him once as he prepared to board an airplane, knowing it would be a long time before we would again meet, I clung to him and felt very lost in that moment, wanting to cry "Don't Leave Us!" But, didn't want to make a goofy dramatic scene. All told, it was literally how I felt and those words came to mind. So, holding the depth of emotion all inside, I hugged harder. In that moment, my soul felt all at once ice and fire and for a very brief instant, his eyes went to small candle flames at the pupil. Disconcerting!

For a time after that experience, my mind would bounce that image around, pondering whether it was a Sacred experience or a two-step with the Devil. With time and reflection, it leans heavily toward Heavenly. No other way to describe it. Beliefs can be an eclectic collection of stuff or pure and simple like a singular snowflake floating into Earth. Annie happens to believe that there are spirits or souls who incarnate with intent. In other words, not in some random colliding fashion - but with intent and purpose.

The person I met doesn't have a conscious memory of knowing me prior to this physical meeting - on any kind of "soul" level - and doesn't necessarily believe himself to be part of my own life's destiny. And most times, this unusually perceptive man I know in the present stumbles around like all of us, wondering what it's all about. So, I don't really know what it means. But, in that one moment - one flash of eyes aflame - it seemed to be so. Time will have to tell the rest of the story. If there is one!

If not, then it was still a powerful experience on my part and has caused much inner growth and depth of understanding that sometimes - frequently even - we just have to let go and trust in higher forces moving the Universe along - and realize that sometimes we unintentionally interfere by forcing our human will upon those events. Of course, I've also had to ponder the possibility that somewhere along the way, my mind snapped and I'm completely nuts. lol

**** Annie adds this on 6/27/06: Some people shine with the Wisdom of Spirit in their words, in their works, in their very presence. Whether that Wisdom is considered of God, God's helpers, Angels, the Ages, whatever you want to call it ..... doesn't mean that person *IS* God, God's helper, an angel, the ages, whatever. It simply means that a Divine Spark of *something* shone through at a given moment. And it can be a powerful spark to teach another a lesson or lessons. That's all it was intended to express. There. Is that better now? The graphic pictured below is from Michael Colone's music album and simply, to me, shows that "Divine Spark" or "Fire" expressed through some people.

Whatever may be happening within our Universe - to our very souls - in the present time, Annie can't help but feel that it has something to do with this:


.... we can never know about the days to come .. but
we think about them anyway ...
C. Simon