Showing posts with label World News. Show all posts
Showing posts with label World News. Show all posts

Making Sense Of Fire And Flood Restoration

There are many different reasons why you might need a fire and flood restoration company, but the important thing to remember is that calling a company as soon as possible is the best possible way to get your home looking as good as new.
When it comes to fire and flood restoration, homeowners know exactly what they’re looking for. If they have recently found their home is devastated by flooding or fire, there’s only one thing they can do and that is to call on the professionals. With multiple fire and flood restoration companies available, it is easy to find the right people for the job. Let’s look at what fire and flood restoration means for you:

Fire Restoration

When your home has almost been destroyed by fire, there are some simple procedures you need to take. For a start, the home needs to be decontaminated and this means the professional restorers need to come in and clean the home top to toe to ensure there is no odour and fabrics and carpets look as good as new.

One of the main problems with a home when there has been a fire is that everything smells of smoke for months later. The smell of smoke is particularly hard to get rid of, but with a fire and flood restoration company, you can guarantee that the home will be restored much sooner.

Imagine your carpets reeking of smoke and your children crawling on the floor - it’s not a pleasant thought and it is worth calling the fire and flood restoration company out to your home as soon as the devastation happens.

Flood Restoration

Flooding is just as disastrous as a fire in the home, albeit of a different kind. With fire, it is the lingering smell of smoke and soot that is the problem, but with flooding, it’s all about the home having time to dry out. Your possessions will smell of damp for many months to come if you choose not to hire a fire and flood restoration company, so it is important that damp is not neglected or you will never get rid of it.

Flooding seeps through floors and walls and it requires highly skilled and professional cleaners to come and make the property as good as new again. Using the latest mobile extraction units, flooding may be a problem to start with but it won’t be problematic for long when you have a fire and flood restoration company on the case.

In the end, if your home has been subject to fire or flooding, remember that a fire and flood restoration company is the only number you need.

New antibiotic resistant superbugs spreading from South Asia


A new antibiotic resistant bug has emerged from medical cases in the United Kingdom, and the United States. This antibiotic resistant bug is thought to be a bigger concern than some other superbugs. The reason this particular bug is particularly notable is because it is immune to anti-biotics specifically used for antibiotic resitant superbugs. 

The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services says the bug contains a gene called NDM-1 or New Delhi Metallo-1, and is thought to have origins in India, Pakistan and Bangladesh.

2) New Delhi Television cites the Indian government as claiming the superbug's association with India is unverified, and makes "loaded" assumptions regarding the superbug's location of origin.(4)

Antibiotic resistant superbugs are bacterial infections that are believed to have developed immunity to common antibiotic treatments due to high levels of exposure to the drugs.(1) Infections caused by antibiotic resistant superbugs are reported to be on the rise by the Center for Disease Control Foundation. Health officials fear international travel and the superbug's inherent immunity to some antibiotics make the NDM-1 infection a considerable threat.

Since the new antibiotic resistant superbug is immune to more than just frequently prescribed antibiotics, this one poses a specific strength of immunity that could be dangerous to travelers, hospitals and areas where the bug can proliferate.(2) The L.A. Times and other sources have reported 37 cases of the NDM-1 superbug were identified in the United Kingdom as of mid August, 2010.(3)

The NDM-1 bug is not the first superbug with this quality however. The Los Angeles Times reports another superbug called the methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) has been in the U.S. for some time already.(3) Moreover, this other superbug is not resistant to all anti-biotics and drug companies are taking the initiative to find ways of combating new strains of antibotic resitant superbugs.(3) The NDM-1 superbug has been identified by medical researchers as being most prevalent in bacteria that cause urinary tract infections.(2)

Many superbugs are beginning to emerge according to the U.S. Department of Food and Drug Administration (FDA). Furthermore, according to the FDA, almost all antibiotics are beginning to develop resistance to antibiotics.(4) In effect, this makes many bacterial infections superbugs which presents a rather large potential health concern that health authorities have taken notice of.  Officials have yet to say the NDM-1 superbug is a major threat in the United States, but are monitoring it for any more developments.(2)


Sources: Date of record (August 16, 2010)

1) http://bit.ly/d9r7So (CDC Foundation)
2) http://bit.ly/8YQWun (Dept. Health and Human Services)
3) http://bit.ly/cEZePe (L.A. Times)
4) http://bit.ly/9KJ9kB (NDTV)
5) http://bit.ly/lDK9O (FDA)

US War on Terror Cost Crosses $1 Trillion

The conflicts in Iraq and Afghanistan has been costing the US dearly, both in terms of personnel and money. After adjustments for inflation, the war on terror cost has gone well over a trillion US dollars, making it second only to World War II. The Congressional Research Service's report - Cost of Major US Wars, has compared war costs right from the American Revolution till date. In this 2½ millennium period, the World War II  has been the most expensive at around $300 billion, and when converted into present dollar terms, amounts to over $4 trillion. The United States has now spent around $1.15 trillion on the war on terrorism, making it the second most expensive ever. The Vietnam War had cost the United States of America around $700 billion in today's terms.

However, the comparison is not so straightforward. World War II managed to eat up a whopping 36% of the United States GDP, while the war on terrorism has just taken around 1% of the US GDP. There are many other factors that differ with time, that make the comparison extremely difficult.

Even the CRS report suggests the same. The reports says, "One problem is how to separate costs of military operations from costs of forces in peacetime. In recent years, the DOD (Department of Defense) has tried to identify the additional 'incremental' expenses of engaging in military operations, over and above the costs of maintaining standing military forces. Figures are problematic, as well, because of difficulties in comparing prices from one vastly different era to another. Perhaps a more significant problem is that wars appear more expensive over time as the sophistication and cost of technology advances, both for military and for civilian activities."

Nevertheless, whether the conflicts are achieving their objective is another matter, but the Global War on Terror cost will go much higher in the near future. According to an estimate in the year 2007 made by the Congressional Budget Office, by 2017, the engagements in Iraq and Afghanistan could cost the United States up to $2.4 trillion.

Obama on Ground Zero Mosque: Rights for Muslims, Tough Luck for Americans

Only a few short months after snubbing the National Day of Prayer President Obama continued his war on American sensibilities at a meeting honoring the close of the religious observance of Ramadan.
Celebrating at a dinner in the White House on Friday August 13, Obama followed the meeting with a statement that Muslims had a right to build a mosque even in Lower Manhattan. Polls taken across the nation indicate that very few Americans are in agreement with his assertions.

On the evening of July 27, 2010, Helen Friedman, took to a podium in a New York community board meeting and declared that building the Mosque at Ground Zero was the equivalent of America receiving a Trojan Horse from the Muslims. Such sentiment reflects the feelings of most 9/11 families of victims lost to the deliberate destruction of the Trade Towers done by Muslim radicals.

Following that event Canadian author Farzana Hassan appeared on the O’Reilly Factor, Friday, August 13, and said that the mosque was indeed a Trojan Horse because there would be no way of knowing just what kind of things would be allowed to take place inside the environs of the proposed hall.

If the insult to 9/11 families was not severe enough following Mr. Obama’s statements it was learned that the Imam spearheading the move to build the mosque, Feisal Abdul Rauf, was being sent on his third trip to the United Arab Emirates to raise money and speak for the project. That being bad enough, now it is known, that the State Department is footing the bill for the Imam’s jaunt to the Middle East with U.S. Taxpayers money.

Where are the crowds of "separation of church and state" folks on this matter? Can the U.S. question the 501-C status of even one single Christian Church if they are going to fund efforts to raise money for a Muslim Mosque? Is this a hypocrisy that almost everyone is overlooking? More than that, is it legal or constitutional for the government to use taxpayer funds to promote any religion?

How many of the "separation of church and state" crowd would be coming out of the woodwork to assail the government if they learned the State Department was sending the Rev Franklin Graham to Europe or Evangelist Jesse Duplantis to Russia to raise money for their projects?

Since his initial remarks were made the President has been backtracking and using everything short of doublespeak to clarify his statement. The damage has already been done since it looks like an overall endorsement for the building of the mosque. No one has yet seriously questioned the President or the State Department on the legality of using tax dollars to pay for a religious leader’s trip to the Arab world.

In what can only be described as a day of insult in hypocrisy’s finest hour in America, on the same night Obama made his remarks about the proposed mosque, EA has announced the release of its latest game in which players can assume the role of Taliban fighters seeking out and destroying American Troops. Whether its families of 9/11 victims or America’s finest on the battlefield, it is a day for shame across the land.

Days after 9/11 former President Bush announced that the people who caused the destruction of the Trade Towers would "shortly hear from us." Just how far the tide can turn is now reflected in President Obama’s recent remarks that seem to be saying that it is time for us to hear from them, yet once again.

The sadness and pain caused to America by the events of 9/11 are not something that will be soothed or quickly forgotten but the idea of a Muslim mosque at the site of the attack is a low blow and the timing of it could not be worse. To wit;

"Thou shouldest not have entered into the gate of my people in the day of their calamity; yea, thou shouldest not have looked on their affliction in the day of their calamity, nor have laid hands on their substance in the day of their calamity; Neither shouldest thou have stood in the crossway, to cut off those of his that did escape; neither shouldest thou have delivered up those of his that did remain in the day of distress." (Ob 1: 13, 14)

What Does America See in 2010 and Beyond?

It is clear that a major shift has occurred in the American way of life in the last two years. For over 230 years we were involved in the question of how we could best make our mark in the world. Much more than mere foreign policy we had to "let our light" shine because the entire world was watching.
Few Americans in today’s political and moral climate have any doubt that our light has seriously dimmed. At no time in our history more than now does it appear that we have brought on an administration that seems to think that it has been given a mandate to make its mark on America. More than a "change" we can believe in, this has become a change we can hardly endure.

We have taken to reeling instead of standing as an example to the rest of the world. This administration is spending like a drunk out on the town all the while blaming the former administration for the deficits it is incurring. Liberal’s dimmest minds have conspired to advance their long awaited agenda on a citizenry that was always suspicious of it and of late has begun to cringe at its application.

Missouri has emphatically declared that being forced to buy insurance coverage from the fed under Obamacare is an idea whose time must not be allowed to come. Arizona remains defiant under the brave leadership of Jan Brewer even as that state is nearly under siege from a foreign power. Seven million people in California have been upstaged by one homosexual judge who thinks their carefully placed votes have no voice at all in the will of the people.

Attorney General Holder has decided that America has never faced up to its racism but it is apparent that he has never faced up to the fact that he missed basic colors in grade school. America is more concerned with green and red than with black and white at this juncture in our history. We know the green of our dollars is not a bottomless pit of wealth that cannot be exhausted. We also know that the red blood of many Americans shed throughout the world was to preserve individualism and free enterprise, not big government, socialism or ideologies not set forth by our founding fathers.

What is being done to America is as hard to believe as what is being proposed, as in placing a Muslim Mosque across the street from one of the most sacred sites in the entire United States known as "Ground Zero."

Now there’s the plan to spend 4.3 billion dollars to ensure kids have a more healthy lunches in our schools. Feeding them twisted history, Godless claptrap and socialistic philosophies can be overlooked for a few wholesome veggies on their plates.

We have a liberally biased media that has done everything but sign a contract in which they promise to tell us everything but the truth. Hollywood takes up the cause of socialisms twin, the moral decline, as it always has, to blast our children with fantasy, sleaze and violence all in the name of that high holy and sacred pastime we call, entertainment.

It is hard to impress the world with our moral stand if we are seen to be always staggering from the weight of the much touted "change we can believe in."

But wait, America it seems is about to make some changes that it can believe in, or at the least can live with. The one party system in the hand of this administration has been making its mark but it turns out to be more of a whipping. This unrestrained beating seems to be facing an angry citizenry that is now approaching close enough to the tormentor in the upcoming midterm elections to be able to snatch the whip right out of the hand of the administration. This would be a start but not a complete solution. There are many who are not sure we can survive the damages already done to our fiscal well being. The moral decline is another matter.

Preachers of the gospel who have not sold out to the apostasy of the hour are still proclaiming that one inalterable truth, that a nations well being is always inextricably linked to its morality. It may be hard to convince someone in Hollywood who spends 800 million dollars to produce a movie that by even the weakest moral codes may not be worth fifty cents. It is even harder to convince an administration that has laden trillions of dollars of future debt on our children that someday the bill will come due.

The day is finally here when those with a prophetic calling must admit that anyone, even politicians, newsmen or pundits that have opened their eyes and are proclaiming that the nation is turning the wrong way, are our compatriots in the noblest cause of all. One thing is sure in the business of prophetic warnings, seeing is step one in the process. Long before they were called prophets they were called "seers." (1 Sam 9:9) They were gifted with unrestrained, unbiased and accurate sight. Those who "see" are still the last best resort in times of deep trouble.

The only difference, according to the scriptures, between the average man and the prophet is that God allows some people to see, but he commands the prophet to see. The best example of this is seen in the eighth chapter of the book of the prophet Ezekiel.

Ezekiel was commanded to go and actually observe what the priests and civil authorities were engaged in and then prophesy to them in a stern call to repentance. Should they object to his prophecies he was armed with the eyewitness reports that God had arranged for him to have in hand.

Did they repent? Sadly, we must report that they did not and it resulted in the demise of their nation. That demise has lasted for centuries and not until the British mandate of 1948 has it seen a remedy. Only now that Israel is once again a free and independent nation has God begun again to deal with her in a favorable way.

Prophets of old were like the ancient mariner’s chart, compass and sextant. Today they can be likened to radar, sonar and GPS tracking systems that tell us where we want to go but more importantly they tell us, where we don’t want to go. It would seem that a nation willing to dismiss the scriptures, the constitution and its own history so readily would not pay much heed to a few vociferous prophets. This dismissal could result in our own demise and can only be done at our own peril.

What happens at the polls in 2010 may be the first sign of whether anyone is listening to her prophets or anyone else for that matter. It will only be a first step, but it will be a welcomed step for those who want to see America continue to make a mark in the world rather than being marked up with the bruises and gashes from an unwanted ideology that has left other countries in utter ruin.

Subjectivism and sensationalism is never allowed in the mindset of a real prophet otherwise they could not start any proclamation with the familiar "thus saith the Lord." The result of unheeded prophecy is known by all but it is never because the prophecies were not known. It was always because the prophecies went unheeded.

So what happened to Israel in Ezekiel’s day? It is not a pretty sight, even though it was completely avoidable. The warnings in Ezekiel eight capitulated to the judgments seen in chapter nine. Ezekiel exclaimed, "Then said he unto me, The iniquity of the house of Israel and Judah is exceeding great, and the land is full of blood, and the city full of perverseness: for they say, The Lord hath forsaken the earth, and the Lord seeth not. And as for me also, mine eye shall not spare, neither will I have pity, but I will recompense their way upon their head." (Eze 9: 9, 10)

Rather than "change we can believe in" we had better shift to "change we can’t afford not to make" in 2010 and 2012 respectively in order to avoid the same fate as our ancient counterpart and modern ally known as the nation of Israel. May God help us!

http://www.americanprophet.org has since 2005 featured the articles of columnist Rev Michael Bresciani along with news and reviews that have earned this site the title of The Website for Insight Millions have read his timely reports and articles in online journals and print publications across the nation and the globe.

China Surpasses Japan To Become Second Largest Economy

As per government figures released on Monday, China has become the world’s second-largest economy behind the United States, when it went past Japan for the first time ever.
China Surpasses Japan To Become Second Largest Economy
Japan's economy has been stagnating for most of this decade, and this quarter it grew at just 0.4 percent, while China continued to grow at an enormous rate. After surpassing the economies of countries like Great Britain, France and Germany, China finally went past Japan to take 2nd place in the world economy, thus stamping itself as a world economic and political power. As we speak, Japan's economy is valued at $1.28 trillion, and that of China has a value of $1.33 trillion. Also for the full year's figures, China will easily surpass Japan for the first time ever in history.

Though, a noticeable difference is that unlike Japan, China is far from being a developed nation. The standard of living in China is much below as compared to Japan. And even though China is as big as the United States in terms of land mass, it has almost a fifth of the world's population.

Nicholas R. Lardy, economist at the Peterson Institute for International Economics commented, "This has enormous significance. It reconfirms what’s been happening for the better part of a decade: China has been eclipsing Japan economically. For everyone in China’s region, they’re now the biggest trading partner rather than the U.S. or Japan." Eswar S. Prasad, Professor - Trade Policy - Cornell, said, "They’re exerting a lot of influence on the global economy and becoming dominant in Asia. A lot of other economies in the region are essentially riding on China’s coat tails, and this is remarkable for an economy with a low per capita income."

Japan has held the 2nd spot for the last 4 decades, according to the World Bank, and has always been an economic superpower. Around 3 decades back, the thought of Japan overtaking the United States someday seemed a real possibility. But now, it is predicted that with the current growth rate, China can surpass the United States economy as early as the year 2030, that is just 20 years away. This was something actually unimaginable a few years ago. Although, a point to note is that China's per capita income is just $3,600, and that of the US is $46,000.a

Employment Situation in U.S. Just Getting Worse

In a sign of the times that is the rough equivalent of employment market Armageddon, the U.S. military is cutting jobs  by closing a base. That ties in with the overall economic picture in the country, where unemployment claims rose recently to the highest level they have been in six months. And, lest the significance be lost on anyone, when the U.S. federal government starts cutting jobs, it is truly a sign of bad things, because every bureaucrat, politician and appointee fights tooth and nail to avoid any cuts anywhere and, generally speaking have the authority to override the will of the people merely by wanting it to be so.

First-time jobless claims rose by 2,000 during the most recent period, to a seasonally-adjusted 484,000, according to the U.S. Labor Department. Those claims have risen over three of the past four months and the aggregate number sites just below the yearly high of 490,000, which was reached in late January. New hiring, at 12,000 new jobs, was not nearly enough to make the unemployment rate nationwide budge, and it still sits at 9.5%. At present, the situation looks even more bleak given that companies appear to be poised to lay off workers rather than hire new ones.

There is quite a bit of conjecture regarding the reason for the dropoffs, with one theory being that state and local governments – just below the federal government in terms of offering job security – has reduced jobs by a whopping 48,000 in July. Others contend that small companies and laying off workers or not hiring new ones because of the terrible credit crunch that is making it nearly impossible for businesses to invest in capital and new employees. In short, until credit becomes more widely available, there is little to no chance that the employment situation is going to improve. Presumably, one of the millions of federal government employees at one of the countless agencies is going to figure this out (eventually) and something will be done.