God Will Be Televised

Hon-Ming Chen founded this new religious movement - a mix of Buddhism, Taoism, and UFOlogy - and brought it to the US in the early 90s, registering the group under the name God's Salvation Church. 160 members strong, the group set up shop in Garland, Texas in 1997, and predicted that at 12:01 am on March 31, 1998, God would show himself on a single TV channel across North America and save his followers from the doomed planet Earth. When the predicted appearance didn't happen, the group quickly became confused. Chen reportedly offered himself to be stoned or crucified as a concession but no one obliged him. The group fell apart soon afterward with many of the members returning to Taiwan.

The World Will Cease to Exist

Known as "The Amazing Criswell," Charles Criswell King was a flamboyant radio and TV broadcaster who decided to become a psychic. In March 1963, he correctly announced that John F Kennedy wouldn't run for re-election in 1964 because "something was going to happen to him." According to Criswell in 1968, the world would to cease to exist from August 18, 1999. But here we are. Go figure.

The Rapture Cometh - in the 80's

Former NASA engineer and bible student Edgar C Whisenant predicted that the Rapture, the return of Christ and the end of the world, would occur in 1988. He went on to sell four and a half million copies of his book, "88 Reasons Why The Rapture Could Be In 1988". Televangelists were so taken by Whisenant that many started airing tips on how to prepare for the Rapture as they neared 1988. After 1988 passed without incident, Whisenant went on to recalculate his prediction to1989, 1993, and even 1994, writing books for each year. Sales were weak.

The UFO Will Save Us

Heaven's Gate was an UFO-centered cult based in San Diego, led by Marshall Applewhite and Bonnie Nettles. The group believed that the Earth was about to be "recycled," and the only chance for human survival was to escape on a UFO trailing the Haley-Bopp Comet. On March 26, 1997, in a period when Hale-Bopp was at its brightest, the bodies of 39 members of the group were discovered by police, after committing suicide. At this point, the Earth has yet to be "recycled."

Computer Bugs Will Doom Us

The year 2000 was perfect symbolic fodder for would-be prophets - but one prediction of millennial disaster was rooted not in mysticism but rather a confounding computer bug. The Y2K problem resulted from the practice of abbreviating four-digit years to two digits meaning that when the "...97, 98, 99, 00..." ascending numbers suddenly became invalid, worldwide computer failures would ensue. Very little actually happened, but whether this was the result of preparation or because the problem was less severe than predicted may never be known.

The End Is Near - Just Not in 1844

William Miller was a prosperous Baptist farmer who became infatuated with prophetic symbolism eventually leading him to boldly predict the second coming of Christ - and the beginning of the end. Initially ambiguous over the exact date, he started to focus on 1844 and soon gained a large following of believers known as Millerites. What occurred instead in 1844 was known as the "Great Disappointment." With no appearance from Christ, Millerites were left disenchanted and confused.

The Sun Will Explode - Not

In 1919, meteorologist Albert Porta predicted that the alignment of six planets would generate such a significant magnetic current that the sun would explode and subsequently engulf the Earth on December 17 of that year. Miraculously, mankind avoided this doomsday destiny.

Did He See the End?

Legendary French seer Nostradamus was noted for allegedly predicting such events as the rise of Hitler, the Great Fire of London, the death of Princess Diana and even the terrorist attacks of 9/11. Nostradamus also wrote that in "1999 and seven months... from the sky will come the great king of terror." Perhaps it rained that day. But the end didn't come as predicted.

...But Maybe THIS One Is Right

Adored by conspiracy theorists, the Mayan calendar abruptly ends December 2012, at which point some predict a series of cataclysmic or transformative events will occur, many of these apocalyptic. It's been a popular date in media and entertainment, stories and movies that illustrate massive solar storms, magnetic pole reversals, earthquakes, supervolcanoes and other drastic natural events. For all we know, this one could be true. But it's probably not... right?

His announcement came hours after a bomb went off at a church in Egypt. At least 17 people died in the blast at the Coptic Christian Church in the northern Egyptian city of Alexandria, sparking a clash between Christians and Muslims. Speaking in St Peter's Basilica at the Vatican, Pope Benedict said the aim of the summit would be "to solemnly renew the effort of those with faith of all religions to live their faith as a service for the cause of peace".

"Facing the threatening tensions of the moment, especially discrimination, injustices and religious intolerance, which today strike Christians in a particular way, once again, I make a pressing appeal not to give in to discouragement and resignation," he said. He said the summit would also "honour the memory of the historical event promoted by my predecessor". Pope John Paul hosted a similar event in 1986, which was attended by leading Jews and Muslims, as well as the Dalai Lama and the Archbishop of Canterbury.

Pope Benedict has repeatedly denounced attacks on Christians in Iraq, including an assault on a Baghdad cathedral in October which killed at least 50 people. The Vatican fears that the violence is driving many Christians out of the region.

Officials say half of Queensland's 715,305 square miles (1,852,642 square kilometers) is affected by the relentless flooding, which began last week after days of pounding rain caused swollen rivers to overflow. The flood zone covers an area larger than France and Germany combined and bigger than the state of Texas.

While the rain has stopped, the rivers are still surging to new heights and overflowing into low-lying towns as the water makes its way toward the sea. The muddy water inundating thousands of homes and businesses has led to a shortage of drinking water and raised fears of mosquito-borne disease.

"This is without a doubt a tragedy on an unprecedented scale," Queensland Premier Anna Bligh told Australian Broadcasting Corp. Bligh warned that drenched communities could be stuck underwater for more than a week, and cleanup efforts were expected to cost billions of dollars.

German President Christian Wulff and his wife Bettina recently threw a minor wrench into his country's economic upswing. It was mid-December, and the presidential couple was touring the manufacturing facilities of Sick, a sensor producer in the small southwestern German city of Waldkirch. The honored guests had a hard time making their way past the assembly tables and conveyor belts and an even harder time holding a conversation with any of the workers. In this instance, the production halls loudspeakers were not to blame. Instead, the engineers and technicians simply had no time to chat. They were under a lot of pressure; they had orders to fill.

"Given the state of our order books, we simply can't stop the machinery," says company head Robert Bauer, adding that Wulff got a taste of "the actual situation on the ground." Indeed, Wulff may be president, but the customer is still king. For Sick, the reality of the economic boom has been a 25 percent year-on-year increase in orders in 2010 as well as 200 new employees in its German plant. Indeed, in recent months, the demand for light barriers and sensor technology has risen so rapidly that there are now shortages in materials. "We're working at full capacity," Bauer says.

Things aren't just buzzing in Waldkirch. Indeed, the economy is gaining steam all over Germany. The automotive industry has added additional, special shifts. The machine-building industry has made up for any drops in production resulting from the crisis. Even the trade and service sectors are hiring. There's no denying it: Germany has overcome the worst postwar recession in record time.

Still, there are also more pessimistic voices. For example, Gustav Adolf Horn, the head of the union-affiliated Macroeconomic Policy Institute (IMK), sees three potential sources of danger to continued economic growth. First, the global economy might once again weaken if emerging economies - and China, in particular - put the brakes on growth. Second, there is a potential danger coming from Germany's immediate neighbors, since many of their governments have managed to pass harsh auserity measures. And, finally, there is the yet-to-be-resolved euro crisis, which could potentially lead to a serious reversal. "For 2012," Horn warns, "you can't completely discount the possibility of an economic downturn or even a recession."

China repeatedly says it is planning a "peaceful rise" but the recent pace and scale of its military modernisation has alarmed many of its neighbours in the Asia-Pacific, including Japan which described China's military build-up as a "global concern" this month.

Mr Liang's remarks come at a time of increasingly difficult relations between the Chinese and US armed forces which a three-day visit by his counterpart Robert Gates is intended to address. A year ago China froze substantive military relations in protest at US arms sales to Taiwan and relations deteriorated further this summer when China objected to US plans to deploy one of its nuclear supercarriers, the USS George Washington, into the Yellow Sea off the Korean peninsula.

China also announced this month that it was preparing to launch its own aircraft carrier next year in a signal that China is determined to punch its weight as a rising superpower. The news came a year earlier than many US defence analysts had predicted. China is also working on a "carrier-killing" ballistic missile that could sink US carriers from afar, fundamentally reordering the balance of power in a region that has been dominated by the US since the end of the Second World War.

Analysts remain divided over whether China is initiating an Asian arms race. Even allowing for undeclared spending, China's annual defence budget is still less than one-sixth of America's $663 billion a year, or less than half the US figure when expressed as a percentage of GDP.

However in a speech earlier this year Mr Gates warned that China's new weapons, including its carrier-killing missile, "threaten America's primary way to project power and help allies in the Pacific", underscoring the difficulties that lie ahead as China and the US seek to contain growing strategic frictions.

But two centuries of observing sunspots - dark, relatively cool marks on the solar face linked to mighty magnetic forces - have revealed that our star follows a roughly 11-year cycle of behaviour. The latest cycle began in 1996 and for reasons which are unclear has taken longer than expected to end. Now, though, there are more and more signs that the Sun is shaking off its torpor and building towards "Solar Max," or the cycle's climax, say experts.

"The latest prediction looks at around midway 2013 as being the maximum phase of the solar cycle," said Joe Kunches of NASA's Space Weather Prediction Center. But there is a prolonged period of high activity, "more like a season, LASTING ABOUT TWO AND A HALF YEARS," EITHER SIDE OF THE PEAK, he cautioned. At its angriest, the Sun can vomit forth tides of electromagnetic radiation and charged matter known as coronal mass ejections, or CMEs. This shock wave may take several days to reach Earth. When it arrives, it compresses the planet's protective magnetic field, releasing energy visible in high latitudes as shimmering auroras - the famous Northern Lights and Southern Lights.

But CMEs are not just pretty events. They can unleash static discharges and geomagnetic storms that can disrupt or even knock out the electronics on which our urbanised, Internet-obsessed, data-saturated society depends. Less feared, but also a problem, are solar flares, or eruptions of super-charged protons that can reach Earth in just minutes.

In the front line are telecommunications satellites in geostationary orbit, at an altitude of 36,000 kilometres (22,500 miles) and Global Positioning System (GPS) satellites, on which modern airliners and ships depend for navigation, which orbit at 20,000 kms (12,000 miles). In January 1994, discharges of static electricity inflicted a five-month, 50-million-dollar outage of a Canadian telecoms satellite, Anik-E2.

Recurrence of a 1859 event today would fry 350 major transformers, leaving more than 130 million people without power, it heard. A bigger storm could cost between a trillion and two trillion dollars in the first year, and full recovery could take between four and 10 years.

The economy is growing due to unprecedented deficit spending by the government, fraudulent accounting by the Wall Street banks, the Federal Reserve buying $1.5 trillion of toxic mortgage "assets" from their Wall Street owners, various home buyer and auto tax credits and gimmick programs, and Fannie, Freddie, and the FHA accumulating taxpayer loses so morons can continue to purchase houses. Jobs are being created.

We are in the midst of a Greater Depression and no amount of spin by politicians and the media can wish it away. When we look at jobs in America across the decades, a picture of a country in decline, captured by financial elites, reveals itself. In 1970, America still produced goods, ran trade surpluses, and paid wages that allowed families to thrive with only one parent working. Only 34.6% of the population was employed, with a third of these workers producing goods.

Since 2000 the population of the U.S. has grown by 28.9 million people. The labor force between the ages of 18 and 64 has grown by 26.1 million people since 2000. The government insists that millions of Americans have chosen to "leave the workforce" and should not be considered unemployed.

This is laughable. Why would people choose to leave the workforce when wages are stagnant, retirement looms, prices relentlessly rise, and they are drowning in debt? The truth is that at least 46.8% of the population wants to be employed. That means that 145.2 million Americans would be working if they had the chance. Only 130.5 million are currently employed. This means that there are really 30 million Americans unemployed versus the 15 million reported by the government and MSM.

Not only is the country short 30 million jobs, but the type of jobs reveal a country of paper pushers, consultants, temp workers, government drones, waitresses, and clerks. In 1970, jobs in the goods producing industries made up 31.2% of all jobs. Today, they account for 13.8% of all jobs.

Today, we consistently run $500 billion to $700 billion annual trade deficits, consumer expenditures account for 71% of GDP, and private fixed investment is a pitiful 11.5% of GDP. We've degenerated from a productive goods producing society to a consumption based, debt fueled society. This is a classic late stage trait of declining empires. Rome and Britain before us experienced similar declines.

Representatives of British Airways and London Underground staff, who are already in dispute with their employers, will also be at the talks aiming to synchronise their ballots. Mark Serwotka, general secretary of the Public and Commercial Services Union, which represents 300,000 civil servants, told The Times: 'Strikes are inevitable. We are looking at the spring. The more of us that stand together against the cuts, the more problems we can create.'

'Unless you look like you want a fight, they won't negotiate. The Government has to see we are serious.' He added: 'Actions around Easter have quite an effect because so much is happening at that time of year. The end of April, beginning of May would be best. The royal wedding would not be a factor in our planning but nor would it be a factor to avoid.'

'You only have to look what happened with the BBC [when staff were rewarded with a better deal after threatening to boycott October's Conservative Party conference]. People soon sat up and took notice.' Meanwhile, Brendan Barber, general secretary of the Trades Union Congress, used his New Year message to say that 2011 will be 'a horrible year', with millions of families reeling from the Government's austerity crackdown and protests on par with the ferocious poll tax riot of 1990.

He added: 'This is going to be a year when many people suffer, but it just could be the year when the campaign for change really gets going. This could well be the year that the country starts to say No to government in a way that they have not since middle Britain made a previous Conservative government abolish the poll tax.'

And with forecasters warning that this winter's 'mini ice age' might last until mid-March, this winter could be the worst since 1683-84 when a fair was held on the Thames. Met Office figures show that the average temperature from December 1, the first day of winter, to December 28 was a bitter minus 0.8c (30.5f). This equals the record December low of 1890.

But, with the mercury traditionally at its lowest in January and February, and more bracing weather on the way, this winter could bring the biggest freeze in 327 years.

Forecaster Brian Gaze of The Weather Outlook said: 'It's very unusual to have a sub-zero month - the last one at any time of year was February 1986. Dense cold air is just north of Britain and will never be far away. Once it is in place, it can stay for months. January and February are expected to be significantly colder than average, with further snow for most of the country, and it will be no surprise at all if this persists until mid-March.'

Forecaster Ian Michael Waite said: 'We expect January to be colder than average - there's no way we're moving out of this mini ice age any time soon.' During 1683-84, the coldest winter on record, average temperatures of minus 1.17c (31.7f) between December and February saw the frozen Thames turn into a winter wonderland of puppet shows, food stalls, horse races and ice bowling.

Yields on 10-year bonds rose 10 basis points to 4.86 per cent after a poor auction of short-term debt in Rome. The Italian treasury had to pay 1.7 per cent to sell 8.5 billion euros (7.2 billion pounds) of six-month bills in a thin post-Christmas market, up from 1.48 per cent a month ago. The spike in rates came as money supply data released by the European Central Bank showed that real M1 deposits have collapsed at a rate of 2.8 per cent over the last six months in the EMU bloc of Italy, Spain, Greece, Ireland and Portugal, even though they are rising in northern Europe.

"This is comparable with the decline in early 2008 just ahead of the plunge into recession," said Simon Ward from Henderson Global Investors. "The eurozone periphery is locked into a 'double dip' that will undermine fiscal consolidation." Italy's M1 contraction began later than elsewhere in southern Europe but is now accelerating. M1 typically gives advance warning of economic shifts by six to nine months. The poor auction in Rome may be a warning sign that EU leaders offered too little to restore confidence at their Brussels summit two weeks ago.

German Chancellor Angela Merkel vetoed the creation of eurobonds or any serious move towards fiscal union, and shot down calls for an increase in the eurozone's 440 billion euros emergency loan fund. The ECB has so far refused to step in to the breach with overwhelming action.

These are tense times in Sudan, Africa's largest country. On January 9, the Southern Sudanese will decide in a referendum whether or not to secede from the northern part of the country. Should secession come to pass - and it currently looks as though it will - the world will witness the first founding of a new African state since Eritrea split off from Ethiopia in 1993. And Renk would become a place of high strategic value owing to its location near what will presumably become the new border.

Not only Africa, but the entire world is anxiously watching to see what happens in Sudan. The new state would be roughly the size of France and would have sole possession of and authority over more than 80 percent of Sudanese oil reserves. Whether President Omar al-Bashir - who is already waging a bloody war in Darfur in the western part of the country - will do nothing should a quarter of his country's sovereign territory slips through his fingers remains an open question. Furthermore, experts are unsure whether the poverty-stricken region's oil wealth will be enough to guarantee its survival.

China and the US are particularly concerned. The Chinese are the largest recipient of Sudanese oil, which satisfies roughly 7 percent of its oil requirements. Washington, for its part, is concerned about having yet more instability in a region which already plays host to problem countries like Somalia and the Democratic Republic of Congo.

In an effort to prevent that from happening, US President Barack Obama has made Bashir an offer he can hardly refuse. The US would strike Sudan from its list of state sponsors of terrorism - to which the country was added in 1993 after offering sanctuary to Osama bin Laden. In addition, sanctions would be lifted. All Bashir would have to do is refrain from sabotaging the referendum.

The Hungarians have been Europe's heroes twice in the last few decades. The way they fearlessly faced off against Soviet tanks in 1956 and fought for their ideals remains unforgotten. In 1989, they courageously opened the borders that separated Eastern Europe from freedom. And in the initial years following the fall of communism, many saw Budapest as a possible model for the successful development of a democracy and market economy. Hungary, the land of the Magyars, was also a land of hope.

But that seems long ago now. The rotating chairmanship of the European Union, which Hungary assumes on January 1, will not represent the culmination of a successful story. In fact, the opposite could be the case. Because of its policies, Budapest could now "be in for some serious problems," Martin Schulz, the parliamentary leader of the Social Democrats in the European Parliament said last Tuesday. Luxembourg Foreign Minister Jean Asselborn went a step further, accusing the Hungarian government of violating "the spirit and text of the EU treaties. The question arises," he continued, "as to whether such a country deserves to lead the EU. If we don't do anything, it will be very difficult to talk to China or Iran about human rights."

A great deal of anger has been building up. The fact that Prime Minister Viktor Orban has just cold-bloodedly pushed through a law that muzzles the press, only a few days before he steps onto the pan-European stage, is just the final straw. It has been a last, and possibly decisive step towards autocracy. No other European politician will have as much power to implement such drastic measures against critical media as Orban, whose right-wing populist Fidesz Party has a two-thirds majority in parliament. The new, 170-page law attempts to regulate all television and radio stations, newspapers and Internet sites. It even applies to blogs and foreign media available in Hungary.

At the center of the control mechanisms is a new government agency staffed exclusively with Fidesz members. It has the power to impose fines of up to 750,000 euros ($983,000) for articles with objectionable content - and it alone will decide what is deemed objectionable. The staff of public media organizations will be placed under government supervision.

German airports are considering introducing so-called passenger profiling in their security checks - a controversial method used in Israel in which people are checked with different degrees of thoroughness based on their age, sex, ethnic group and other criteria.

"In this way the security systems can be used more effectively to the benefit of everyone involved," said the designated president of the Federation of German Airports (ADV), Christoph Blume, in an interview with Rheinische Post newspaper on Tuesday.

Blume, who is also manager of Dusseldorf airport, is due to become ADV president in January. He said profiling could help prevent excessive security checks at German airports. "Every new incident leads to further checks and security measures. This creates a security spiral in terms of new technical equipment which at some point will reach its technical and operational limits."

The spokeswoman for the opposition Left Party, Ulla Jelpke, said profiling would breach the German constitution which outlaws discrimination. "It would also promote racist and anti-Muslim prejudice," she said. The chairman of the parliament's domestic affairs committee, Wolfgang Bosbach, a member of Chancellor Angela Merkel's conservative Christian Democrats, dismissed the proposal as "totally half-baked and legally dubious. Israeli-style profiling wouldn't lead to more security and would only create more irritation," he said. "Anyone being called out of an airport line and subjected to additional checks would be perfectly justified to demand to know why and to be angry," said Bosbach.

Britain announced in November that it will use profiling to help identify possible terrorists.

The banks in question have received $4.2 billion dollars in aid through the Troubled Asset Relief Program (TARP). Most of the troubled institutions are relatively small. The latest sign of distress in the financial system suggests the bailout may have simply been a stopgap solution for a sector still contending with the aftershocks of the greatest banking crisis in 80 years.

The continued weakness of some banks now threatens to impede a tentative economic recovery, say experts. With many banks still troubled, lending remains tight, depriving businesses of capital to expand and hire. With expansion and hiring rare, the economy remains weak, depriving the banks of healthy customers - in short, a feedback loop of trouble. The Wall Street Journal defined "troubled banks" as those with less than 6 percent of their primary assets both reliable and liquid.

Through TARP, the government has purchased hundreds of billions of troubled assets from banks in danger. Though the program was purportedly meant to benefit healthy institutions with a good chance of survival, these latest failures suggest that many banks were in tenuous shape to begin with. Seven TARP recipients have already failed, at a loss of $2.7 billion.

According to the US Bureau of Justice Statistics, as of the end of 2009 a total of 7,225,800 people were either on probation, in prison or on parole in America. That is a sign of a very, very sick society. Either we have a massive crime problem or the "control grid" that our leaders have erected for us is wildly out of control. Or both. But how in the world are we supposed to have a healthy economy if our entire nation is being turned into one gigantic prison?

Sadly, it is not just hardcore criminals that are being rounded up and abused by authorities these days. The following are 14 of the most ridiculous things that Americans are being arrested for:

#1 A Michigan man has been charged with a felony and could face up to 5 years in prison for reading his wife's email.

#2 A 49-year-old Queens woman had bruises all over her body after she was handcuffed, arrested and brutally beaten by NYPD officers. So what was her offense? The officers thought that her little dog had left some poop that she didn't clean up.

#3 A 56-year-old woman who was once a rape victim refused to let airport security officials feel her breasts so she was thrown to the floor, put in handcuffs and arrested.

#4 In Milwaukee, one man was recently fined $500 for swearing on a public bus.

#5 Several years ago a 12-year-old boy in South Carolina was actually arrested by police for opening up a Christmas present early against his family's wishes.

#6 In some areas of the country, it is now a crime to not recycle properly. For example, the city of Cleveland has announced plans to sort through trash cans to ensure that people are actually recycling according to city guidelines.

#7 A 12-year-old girl from Queens was arrested earlier this year and taken out of her school in handcuffs for writing "Lex was here. 2/1/10″ and "I love my friends Abby and Faith" on her desk.

#8 Back in 2008, a 13-year-old boy in Florida was actually arrested by police for farting in class.

#9 The feds recently raided an Amish farmer at 5 am in the morning because they claimed that he was was engaged in the interstate sale of raw milk in violation of federal law.

#10 A few years ago a 10-year-old girl was arrested and charged with a felony for bringing a small steak knife to school. It turns out that all she wanted to do was to cut up her lunch so that she could eat it.

#11 On June 18th, two Christians decided that they would peacefully pass out copies of the gospel of John on a public sidewalk outside a public Islamic festival in Dearborn, Michigan and within three minutes 8 policemen surrounded them and placed them under arrest.

#12 A US District Court judge slapped a $500 fine on Massachusetts fisherman Robert J Eldridge for untangling a giant whale from his nets and setting it free. So what was his crime? Well, according to the court, Eldridge was supposed to call state authorities and wait for them do it.

#13 Once upon a time, a food fight in the cafeteria may have gotten you a detention. Now it may get you locked up. About a year ago, 25 students between the ages of 11 and 15 at a school in Chicago were taken into custody by police for being involved in a huge food fight in the school cafeteria.

#14 A few years ago a 70 year old grandmother was actually put in handcuffs and hauled off to jail for having a brown lawn.

Why in the world would anyone approve of the police arresting ordinary Americans for such things? Now we get thrown to the floor, handcuffed, beaten and arrested for things that we did not even know were crimes. If America continues to move in this direction it is going to ruin our economy, our reputation in the world and our national spirit.