By: Melody Crombie                                            May 29, 2014
The story of Queen Esther can be viewed on a much broader scale when we transpose God and all of humanity in place of the king and queen, and Haman for Satan. When Esther was warned of the evil plot Haman had devised to destroy all the Jews, she asked that all her people fast and pray with her before she courageously sought an audience with the king.

Queen Esther was completely aware that she had replaced her predecessor (the deposed Queen Vashti) because of disobedience. Yet Esther chose to defy a potential death sentence, knowing she was not authorized to talk to King Xerxes unless she was personally summoned.

Similarly, we will never be granted permission to come boldly before the throne of God to plead for forgiveness from our wrongdoing and the ultimate death sentence that accompanies it, without first acknowledging (and accepting) the work of Jesus on the cross. Because of Jesus' propitiation for our sinful life, God freely extends His scepter of grace to all who ask, enthusiastically welcoming us into His presence. The Bible makes it clear that we cannot come into God's presence alone. We need the atoning work of Jesus Christ to be able to stand before a Holy God, in order to gain access to His mercy.

Baby Steps
By:  Melody Crombie                                                                                May 26, 2014
Our washing machine decided to take a spin for the worse right before a major holiday, so I found myself in the laundromat on Memorial Day waiting for my clothes to finish washing.  A young couple with two small children came in, walked around the tall wall of washers and started their laundry. Their children came past a couple of times; the boy walking behind his sister, holding both her hands as she toddled around. Later on, the smiling, laughing baby girl walked past with her arms out, unassisted on her own. I sat smiling and the laundromat attendant was telling her what a great job she was doing. She was obviously very pleased with herself.

It reminded me of the baby steps God allows us to take in life. Like the big brother, the Holy Spirit is with us, helping us when we strike out on our own. When we first start, we may feel abandoned by God and our loved ones. It's important to remember God said he would, “Never leave us or forsake us.” Just like the baby in the laundromat who had a rapt audience, God often places the seen (mature, loving people all around us) and the unseen (angels) to help encourage and lift us up on our journey.

By:  Ryan Lawler                                                                                                                                                             May 25, 2014
Here’s an idea crazy enough that it just might work: Pave the streets with solar-powered panels that have their own built-in heat and LED lights. That’s what Scott and Julie Brusaw hope to accomplish with their ongoing Solar Roadways project, which they just funded through a hugely popular crowdfunding campaign.

The husband-and-wife team has spent the better part of the last decade developing solar-powered modular panels that could be installed in roadways and parking lots, and would be able to collect power from the sun. Those panels could also keep streets clear of snow and ice, while illuminating them with LEDs.

16 Steps to Generating Advanced Life
By Dr. Hugh Ross                                                         May 15, 2014
Sixteen steps punctuate the history of life on Earth. Each of these steps is critical for making possible the entry of advanced life. The likelihood of all these steps occurring from a naturalistic perspective is essentially zero. This zero probability does not take into account either life’s origin or the origin of the mind and the human spirit.

Why does the history of life appear the way it does? Naturalists, materialists, deists, and most theistic evolutionists would answer that the chemicals on early Earth spontaneously self-assembled into a simple cell that was able to reproduce. From there, the cell's daughters evolved to produce all the life-forms that have ever existed throughout the past 3.8 billion years. Such a history requires that life make at least 16 transitional steps in order to generate advanced life-forms.

1. Cells containing only a few hundred gene products must transition to cells containing several thousand gene products.
2. Respiration systems must transition from anaerobic to aerobic.
3. Cells must develop nuclei.
4. Cells must develop mitochondria.
5. Cells must transition from free-floating to colony life.
6. Single-celled organisms must transition into multicellular organisms.
7. Asexual organisms must transition into sexual organisms.
8. Organisms must develop eyes or eye precursors.
9. Organisms must evolve differentiated organs and appendages.
10. Organisms with ectoskeletons must evolve into organisms with endoskeletons.
11. Very-small-bodied organisms must become large-bodied organisms
12. Non-animal life must transition into animal life
13. Non-vascular plants must transition into vascular plants
14. Non-chordate animals must evolve into chordate animals
15. Animals must develop a mind, free will, and emotions.
16. Advanced animals must develop a spirit, symbolic cognition, and symbolic relational capability—in other words, they must become human.

Salvation Described in Computer Terms       
By: Melody Crombie                                                     May 22, 2014

The 'fruit' that Adam and Eve ate in the Garden of Eden is comparable to an evil computer virus/malware download that infected all of humanity; physically, mentally and spiritually. While some of us seem more infected than others, no one is immune. Everyone has felt the bite of evil in our own hearts and lives; and in the people around us.

Jesus offers a free virus/malware removal tool to anyone who is willing to download and install it in their heart (the CPU of the body). Revelation 3:20 tells us how to install the tool, it is so easy a child can do it. The Bible tells us that Jesus is the only one who is completely effective against Satan's attacks.

P.S. Remember to engage the malicious software removal tool, aka Jesus Christ, by daily following Him, obeying Him and reading your Bible. Jesus will help protect you as He scans, actively seeks out, destroys and overcomes any hidden malicious code.

Boffins to convert PURE LIGHT into MATTER by 2015 New collider could answer questions about gamma-ray bursts, young Universe                 By Brid-Aine Parnell, 19 May 2014

Three theoretical physicists say scientists will be able to make matter out of pure light* within the next year – using today's technology.

The idea of making matter out of light sounds far-fetched, but it’s an important prediction from the theory of quantum electrodynamics, and it's the same process that was in play during the first hundred seconds of the Universe.

In 1934, two US scientists – Gregory Breit and John Wheeler – described a theoretical way of how simply smashing together two photons would create an electron and a positron, although they wrote at the time that they thought it unlikely it would be achieved in a lab.

The pair of physicists reckoned this would be the very simplest method to turn light into matter. The maths worked out, but the technology just didn’t exist to attempt an experimental proof.

Now boffins from Imperial College London, and one from Germany's Max Planck Institute for Nuclear Physics who was visiting the UK, claim to have come up with a way to do it in just one day “over several cups of coffee”.

They were working on fusion energy, but realised that their work could be applied to the Breit-Wheeler theory. They propose a new kind of high-energy physics experiment – a photon-photon collider. First, scientists would use an extremely powerful high-intensity laser to speed electrons up to just below the speed of light. Firing these electrons into a slab of gold would create a beam of photons a billion times more energetic than visible light.

Artificial brains learn to adapt
May 16, 2014
For every thought or behavior, the brain erupts in a riot of activity, as thousands of cells communicate via electrical and chemical signals. Each nerve cell influences others within an intricate, interconnected neural network. And connections between brain cells change over time in response to our environment.

Despite supercomputer advances, the human brain remains the most flexible, efficient information processing device in the world. Its exceptional performance inspires researchers to study and imitate it as an ideal of computing power.

Artificial neural networks

Computer models built to replicate how the brain processes, memorizes and/or retrieves information are called artificial neural networks. For decades, engineers and computer scientists have used artificial neural networks as an effective tool in many real-world problems involving tasks such as classification, estimation and control.

However, artificial neural networks do not take into consideration some of the basic characteristics of the human brain such as signal transmission delays between neurons, membrane potentials and synaptic currents.

A new generation of neural network models—called spiking neural networks—are designed to better model the dynamics of the brain, where neurons initiate signals to other neurons in their networks with a rapid spike in cell voltage. In modeling biological neurons, spiking neural networks may have the potential to mimic brain activities in simulations, enabling researchers to investigate neural networks in a biological context.


Universe evolution recreated in lab
By Pallab Ghosh Science correspondent, BBC News                              7 May 2014

An international team of researchers has created the most complete visual simulation of how the Universe evolved. 
The computer model shows how the first galaxies formed around clumps of a mysterious, invisible substance called dark matter.

It is the first time that the Universe has been modelled so extensively and to such great resolution.

The research has been published in the journal Nature.

Continue reading the main story “Start Quote Now we can get to grips with how stars and galaxies form and relate it to dark matter”

Prof Richard Ellis Caltech The simulation will provide a test bed for emerging theories of what the Universe is made of and what makes it tick.

One of the world's leading authorities on galaxy formation, Professor Richard Ellis of the California Institute of Technology (Caltech) in Pasadena, described the simulation as "fabulous".

The computer model draws on the theories of Professor Carlos Frenk of Durham University, UK, who said he was "pleased" that a computer model should come up with such a good result assuming that it began with dark matter.

"You can make stars and galaxies that look like the real thing. But it is the dark matter that is calling the shots".