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North Korea Announces Achieving Nuclear Fusion
aftertaf writes "North Korea claims to have achieved nuclear fusion by building what it describes as a 'unique thermo-nuclear reaction device.' This announcement was met by skepticism on just about every news website this side of Saturn. Pyongyang claims its latest scientific breakthrough coincides with the birthday of the country's founder and eternal president Kim Il-sung. This is not the first time it seems that the laws of nature have been bent in his honor. According to official biographies, when his son, Kim Jong-il, was born, a new star appeared in the sky." No doubt the Dear Leader combined the atomic nuclei by hand.
The mothers of both Martin Fleischmann and Stanley Pons received Mother's Day card from their sons postmarked Pyongyang.
This ain't rocket surgery.
Always impersonating that guy from MAD TV??
We know North Korea hasn't released any very hot vaporware lately, so obviously they've perfected Cold Fusion!
Bill Stewart
New Fast-Compression-only CPR http://preview.tinyurl.com/dy575ks
It was actually an American spy satellite parked in geosynchronous orbit over North Korea. Wave for the cameras, Kim!
!#@%*)anks for hanging up the phone, dear.
Generalissimo Francisco Franco is still dead.
I'm absolutely certain the highly advanced scientists in the PRK have succeeded in achieving fusion. Unfortunately for them the fusion they actually achieved was by patching together recordings of Dave Brubek and Dave Matthews.
My office has been taken over by iPod people.
You could build the equipment yourself.
Getting more energy out of fusion than you put in... that's the hard part.
How can I believe you when you tell me what I don't want to hear?
In North Korea, anything is possible.
So let's just say they did achieve Nuclear Fusion. Clean cheap bountiful energy means overpopulation. This is an enormous threat to the world, even more dangerous than them having nuclear weapons. They could use the threat of releasing this technology to extort endless aid from the west.
In other news, power in Pyongyang will only be available from 5:00 - 7:00 PM this week in celebration of the achievement.
Comment of the year
During the 2008 campaign, Dear Leader Kim Jung-il endorsed Obama.
http://freekorea.us/2008/06/22/obama-gets-another-unwanted-endorsement/
http://www.korea-np.co.jp/news/ViewArticle.aspx?ArticleID=31952
I feel sure this is all just a misunderstanding and after Obama telephones Dear Leader (at 3AM), everything will be just peachy once again.
"The average reporter we talk to is 27 years old......They literally know nothing." - Ben Rhodes
No doubt that he is small enough to have done it.
4x the caffeine and fused with crazy to create the Nuclear Fusion Cocktail blend.
Side effects are mild hallucinations, delusions of grandeur, and inflated ego.
Now they can have the lights on to see if they got a bonus bit of cockroach protein in with their two blades of grass soup. Haute cuisine, Nork style.
I figured he would have took credit for creating fusion when that new star appeared when his son was born.
Then again, I think I would prefer Vogons...
In 1949 one of the several nazi leaders that fled to Argentina claimed to have achieved nuclear fussion. The president, a fascist who welcomed Mengele and Eichman, was not stupid, and a couple of months later he called a group of argentinian scientists back from europe to open an investigation, which led to the end of the project and the beginning of real atomic research.
In soviet russia the government regulates the companies.
I thought the dear leader was busy flying fighter jets, memorizing phone books, breaking golf records, and leading the NBA in rebounding.
If he can do nuclear fusion as well, then perhaps his talents truly are limitless.
Damn_registrars has no butt-hole. Damn_registrars has no use for a butt-hole.
>> This announcement was met by skepticism on just about every news website this side of Saturn.
Sure! Make it sound like we on the other side of Saturn will believe anything. That's planetism sir!
Hey, N. Korea! I need a job! I can come up with shit like that all day! I'll even get on my knees to kiss the Supreme Ruler's ass!
RIP America
July 4, 1776 - September 11, 2001
Congratulations! You managed to announce achieving nuclear fusion!
The next step is to achieve nuclear fusion.
I'm sure you'll get there some day.
For some reason I can't help but think that it would be hilarious and kind of scary if everyone chuckles a bit at this and in a couple of months news reports come in saying that for some strange reason the long-running North Korean energy crisis seems to have been solved...
Greylisting is to SMTP as NAT is to IPv4
Iran discovers cure for AIDS.
The breakthrough was made with a hammer and a small amount of nitroglycerin. The reaction released a great deal of energy and as soon as they can aford a new hammer they hope to continue testing.
. . . eat and drink enough of that, and your breath can cause nuclear fusion.
. . . and you don't even want to know about "The Day After" . . .
. . . that picture is not a fake . . . Mr. Kim has just "let one rip" . . .
Schroedinger's Brexit: The UK is both in and out of the EU at the same time!
So now DPRK propaganda makes it to slashdot?
I can live with that, but I really want to know where I can buy a pair of those glasses. It was only a month ago when they revealed that Kim Jong Il was setting fashion trends around the world, so I'd like to sport those glasses. The retro aviator style glasses are out, Kim Jong Il's glasses are IN.
He's fused clown essence. Something smells funny.
If you listen to some people, the west has been wasting a lot of money on things like ITER, when some cheaper, less brute-force, approaches could work better. If they're right, then a country that doesn't have the resources to try the large-scale experiments might have more success.
On the other hand, given the veracity of past press releases from North Korea, this reactor might be powered by powdered unicorn.
I am TheRaven on Soylent News
In ancient Greece and Rome, it wasn't unusual for someone to claim either that a new star appeared in the sky to herald a great person's birth or that they became a star following their death. This latter claim is known as catasterism and was pretty popular from the time of the Hellenistic kings to the Julio-Claudian dynasty at Rome.
Catasterism is a frequent subject on coin portraits, with a star positioned about the portrait of the ruler. There is a very famous series of coins depicting Augustus fastening a star above the head of Marcellus, the man he had hoped would succeed him.
Of course the import of all of this is that, as with so much else, North Korea is about 2,000 years behind the times.
Dear Leader should focus his awesome power on KEEPING HIS PEOPLE FROM STARVING.
Gamingmuseum.com: Give your 3D accelerator a rest.
I guess they didn't say it was useful fusion so I guess they could have fused some atoms in a reactor.
...As you can't make a fusion reactor out of two feet of rusty chicken wire, some rocks, three peach pits, a bent nail, and a leather shoe with little bites taken out of it.
Stone-age country is stone age.
... welcome our new Zerg overlords. Kekekekekekek
Didn't they claim to have cured cancer at some point, too?
-jcr
The only title of honor that a tyrant can grant is "Enemy of the State."
If North Korea's done this in any meaningful way, then their economic troubles are over. They won't be asking for aid or concessions, they'll be getting rich selling energy and possibly even technology. They won't be testing missiles, they'll be developing frickin' laser beams.
I have my doubts, though.
Tweet, tweet.
Actually, North Korea has already done an amazing job of keeping down energy use. By restricting electricity to a handful of elites and starving everyone else, they've been able to reduce their carbon footprint to almost nothing. Just look at the results. Glorious leader has produced a much more efficient country than that wasteful South Korea!
SJW: Someone who has run out of real oppression, and has to fake it.
and witnessed the experiment myself! If you don't believe me, just ask my good friend Chiron the centaur. He saw it too.
Meanwhile, N. Korean political prisoners are having chemical weapons tested on them at Camp 22, and the population is starving. Hahaha, so funny, right?!?!?!?
This just in, Kim Il-sung suffering from palladium poisoning.
the preceding comment is my own and in no way reflects the opinion of the Joint Chiefs of Staff
They *laughed* when I said my Christmas decorations would wow them this year!
Please do not read this sig. Thank you.
Actually, in NK it's "Word To Your Motherland."
Mod me down, my New Earth Global Warmingist friends!
And if my grandmother had wheels, she'd be a wagon.
There was a small problem with reactor. There is no more North Korea. Film at 11. Now, the latest sports scores. Back to you Mike!
Please do not read this sig. Thank you.
Isn't this more like "plasmaware"?
Ezekiel 23:20
How is not laughing at this press release going to solve those problems?
So you upgraded slashdot to accept custom icons, but still can't find the time to accept unicode in comments?
Sometimes, life itself is sarcasm...
Kim Jong Il: Hans, Hans, Hans! We've been frew this a dozen times. I don't have any weapons of mass destwuction, OK Hans?
Combine this with his deadly panthers, and I'm all scared, Scoob!
Does it have 1.21 jiggawatts?
Upon consultation with actual Koreans, it turns out that the original press release said that North Korea had "nuked a Frusion".
The BBC apologizes for this error.
How could we doubt someone with sunglasses that are so cool?
For every problem, there is at least one solution that is simple, neat, and wrong.
Probably those petrol firms that are in the fortune 500's and a mayor player in every western state have prevented that free market economy builds it..
They may have a hydrogen bomb.
The North Korean government makes an announcement, and it gets reported on Idle.
Well, I can think of worse places for it to be reported, I guess...
Alexander Peter Kristopeit bought his basement from his mommy for one dollar.
This would also mean that petrol driven states would probably attack soon, as in iraq..
I call it H-BOMB
Was it controlled reaction or uncontrolled?
parked in geosynchronous
That's like saying a juggler "parked" a ball in a nice circular pattern of movement.
I think you meant geostationary. This is a lot more like parking, since the satellite would seem to stand still (to an observer on the ground) while the other stars move. Of course, that would make it a bit too conspicuous to be a good spy satellite.
The people of North Korea will have enough light to read Shakespeare in the original Hangul.
We should share some of ours with them.
Remember kids, if you're not paying for the service, YOU ARE THE PRODUCT THAT IS BEING SOLD.
A few years ago N Korea detonated a gigantic explosion that it claimed was nuclear (fission). Now it's claiming controlled fusion.
These claims are impossible to believe, since N Korea lies about so much. But it did demonstrate a gigantic explosion. What in fact is going on there in N Korea?
--
make install -not war
( The Korean Official shows the tv crew a open warehouse ) This is new DPRK research facility! Top Line research here!
(Camera continues to pan empty space until two korean men about twenty feet apart looking determined at each other)
Here we make first Fusion breakthrough for DPRK!
(The men scream and run at each other until they crash and fall over unconsious)
It very difficult to reprodu... reproduce, admittedly we have had failures.
(The official signals the guard to intervene and drag the crashing men to their feet. Camera follows DPRK Official as they stroll away from the fusion experiment. )
But the DPRK are confident we are first to produce free energy for the glorious...
(The official is drown out by the screams of the men again, this time with a small explosion! The Camera swings back to the Fusion Experiment area to find sets of smoking shoes on the floor and a scorch mark!)
(The Official comes back into view with a ear to ear grin.)
Another victory for the DPRK!
Someone should show them what REAL fusion looks like, by dropping an H-bomb in his lap...
LRN 2 SWM
Would be funny if most of the political and business leaders of the world didn't have similar kind of fantasy egos.
"Make fusion or die!"
Yes-sir, when when would you like that done?
North Korea has perfected a marijuana plant with 100 times the normal levels of THC.
wha'? where am i?
Considering the guy skipped town shortly before the announcement (he was in China) I would venture to say that there's some amount of creditability to the announcement. (He wasn't about to take a chance and stick around when the fusion experiment might reduce North Korea to a giant crater.)
ELOI, ELOI, LAMA SABACHTHANI!?
I know this is going to offend some people, but since most of the mythology around Jesus Christ is already borrowed from other mythological traditions, I expect that this is the origin of the Star of Bethlehem that is supposed to have appeared over Joshua Bar Joseph's birthplace when he was born. It would make sense for early Christians to have borrowed this story as well if it would help make their religion more popular with the Romano-Graecian population in the near east.
"The first time I got drunk, I got married. The second time I bought a chimpanzee, after that I stayed sober" Arian Seid
We should start outsourcing the development of Duke Nukem Forever to them, it would be done in no time...
"We built a Fusor from old Chinese TVs"
In Communist North Korea, hydrogen and helium fuse you!
No. we should share with them, A LOT of ours, in their most densely populated areas.
pressed to achieve results or die, NK scientists presented the leader with their new unique device.
You place it in sunlight to initiate the reaction:
http://www.thinkgeek.com/homeoffice/lights/994a/
Larger models expected in the near future.
that N. Korea is going to be able to have some lights on now?
...the future crusty old bastards are already drinking the Kool-Aid.
Read here for details.
Note that experimenters have built Tokamaks and achieved fusion. Fusion is easy. Getting more power out than is put in is difficult.
It is concievable they have hooked up some kind of fission reaction (plausible for NK) to drive a fusion reaction (trivially easy) for purposes of propaganda. Dear Leader is probably even unaware of the lack of net energy generation from the fusion reaction. I go further to suggest the NK 'scientists' themselves are not aware.
After logging in slashdot still does not take you back to the page you were on. It's been that way for 20 years.
I should have said "garage" experimenters.
An interesting conjecture. I think that's not the reason though, for the following:
So far as we know, the oldest account of the birth of Christ is the gospel of John, fragments of which are dated as early as 125 AD. This indicates that the original first copy is probably before 100 AD, during the so-called "apostolic age", during which followers of Christ still focused on converting within expatriate Jewish communities, since they still viewed themselves as a Jewish sect. This is also the reason why I do not believe that the early Christian church "borrowed" the crucifixion story from Bacchanal mythology, as is widely believed in some history-buff circles.
I can't figure out if you're referencing Luke Skywalker or the Doctor, since Ender and Khan merely destroyed planets, while the Monolith creators made a star. Or are you talking about Arthur C Clarke's short story, "the Star?" Both the Vorlons and the Ancients were rumored to be working on this, but never got it done.
OK, I bow to your superior Geek cred. Who blew up a star?
He put his boots up on the table and made a face. "The sig," he smirked. "You can waste your life in search of the sig."
The second-most popular Christmas story after Santa Claus was nonsense PR spin?
Gee, why leave it half done? Got any gay porn starring Mohammed you'd like to post? :-)
He put his boots up on the table and made a face. "The sig," he smirked. "You can waste your life in search of the sig."
You know, I immediately remembered Asimov's Foundation series, where the First Foundation (the technological one) was built on a planet with limited resources for a reason, that the scientists would have to work out how to survive with the bare minimum and work on miniaturization of everything, the tiny personal nuclear powered energy shields, plasma cutters etc. Is it at all possible that in North Korea the conditions are such, that they would have to figure out such things, how to live with bare minimum resources and in an insane dictatorial political system that does not tolerate anything that's out of the main Party line.
Then again, that very last part of the last sentence is probably the main reason why it is most unlikely that any real scientific breakthroughs are possible in that political system. Too much pressure for scientists to claim any achievement as their own causes too much jealousy and people would not really cooperate for the fear of having their stuff stolen, while others, who are good at getting into power are the ones most likely to steal from the real achievers and then to set them up for some sort of a political treason so that nobody would argue with their claims.
No, they would not have a breakthrough greater than what has been achieved already by now.
You can't handle the truth.
The design uses Duke Nukem Forever as an operating system..
The new ways are like wallpaper.
From across the room everything looks completely different; run your hand over it and you can feel the old ways just beneath the surface.
Maybe they are doing Dr. B. Stanley Pons Dr. Martin Fleischmann experiment in jar all over again
http://partners.nytimes.com/library/national/science/050399sci-cold-fusion.html
http://physicsworld.com/cws/article/print/1258
Or, perhaps God planned it on purpose exactly like that, so that the “magi from the East” would recognise Jesus’ birth and come to worship him, fulfilling prophecies such as Isaiah 60:3.
Alexander Peter Kristopeit bought his basement from his mommy for one dollar.
(Obviously, he would have used a sign that pagan astrologers would recognise as the birth of a king. Hence, the star.)
Alexander Peter Kristopeit bought his basement from his mommy for one dollar.
Thanks for the reply, all the more so for it being informative and not dismissive. I am far from a Biblical scholar of course - first off because I am not Christian, Jewish nor Muslim in any sense - but whether or not they were focusing on converting members of existing Jewish communities or not, I don't see that that necessarily limits their ability to borrow from other mythological traditions that were present in the area at the time. The myth of death and resurrection was a common theme in the middle east as far back as the Egyptians at least, and I think it likely that that was borrowed so to speak from other religious traditions. Many elements of Mithracism are common with Christianity if I am not mistaken, and it ended up being one of the major rivals for the dominant religion in the Roman Empire I believe.
After all if John is the earliest account of the birth of Christ, it was written at least 100 years after the actual event - assuming Jesus existed at all - and that is plenty of time for the event to have received some embellishment in the retelling.
Understand, I am not saying that someone deliberately rewrote history to include key elements like the virgin birth, the star over his birthplace etc, just that in retelling a tale over 100 years its entirely possible for it to be embellished with elements that were common to comparable religious mythology in other religions. A sort of religious keeping up with the Joneses so to speak.
According to Wikipedia (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Virgin_birth_of_Jesus), the book of John begins to cover the life of Christ when he was baptized by John the Baptist. The other gospels which do cover his birth and earlier years are of later origin apparently. Now, a good deal of Jesus life seems to have consisted of him fulfilling various prophecies that indicated he was the Messiah of Jewish tradition. It seems to me that Jesus went out of his way to ensure that he fulfilled those key prophetic requirements (elaborate preparations so he could ride into Jerusalem on an ass etc). Giving him a virgin birth and having a star appear overhead - if those were prophesied by earlier Jewish Prophets - would seem to me to be essential elements of his story that would be shoehorned in (if they didn't already exist) by later writers - particularly if they were attempting to convert existing Jewish communities.
I only mention all of the above because it was mentioned that this "star overhead" element was apparently popular in Pagan traditions in Europe and the Middle East. I believe the stories of Christianity (and other religious traditions of course) should be given the same treatment as any mythology of non-"People of the Book" type religions get. All to often we in western culture seem to sneer at Roman or Greek (or Norse etc) mythology and religion and treat them less seriously than we do Christianity, Judaism or Islam, and seem to forget that for those people, their religion offered the same solace, strength and morals that later religions that displaced them do today. Just because something is a myth doesn't make it any less valid in religious terms IMHO. Myths have been the cornerstones of religion and culture for centuries. Its really only in the last two millennia that we have had religions that insisted their version was the only truth to be had, and that killing people for denying that was a moral value.
"The first time I got drunk, I got married. The second time I bought a chimpanzee, after that I stayed sober" Arian Seid
That's pretty much anyone that's played the game actually.
[John]
Shit better not happen!
Nor do I think the original poster was trying to be offensive. But come on, you have to admit that if you start taking potshots at the Little Drummer Boy, some Shiite Baptist from Dallas is going to build up a full head of steam. :-)
I miss Molly Ivins.
He put his boots up on the table and made a face. "The sig," he smirked. "You can waste your life in search of the sig."
What would be funny would have been if the comment got modded insightful.
Hey don't blame me, IANAB
As all universe obeys Beloved Leader, atoms fused, creating clean, pure energy with no neutrons, no MSG, and no trans-fats.
Wonderful new creation for used in distillation of brandy.
-- babelfish from Nut Korean World News
if this is supposed to be a new economy, how come they still want my old fashioned money?
Why did God make the half-lives of U-238 and U-235 just so?
Stick Men
My local cable company hasn't played the series that far for me yet. Thanks.
He put his boots up on the table and made a face. "The sig," he smirked. "You can waste your life in search of the sig."
I treat them with exactly the same reverence, personally. That is to say, none at all.
All that is necessary for the triumph of good is that evil men do nothing.
Hell, after posting a -38 as a golf virgin what's a little nuclear fusion? That kind of thing can be done over the weekend.
The universe is actually an enormous practical joke.
Hi Phrogman,
No, it's OK, I'm personally not offended. And it's not so much that you took a shot at Christianity as it is that you took a shot at that wonderful pagan holiday Christmas, man. People get a little unhinged when they hear the validity of Frosty and Rudolph called into question.
BTW, your Boss Ebenezer called. He says you're fired. :-)
He put his boots up on the table and made a face. "The sig," he smirked. "You can waste your life in search of the sig."
I'm a muslim and I'm offended by your theory, if you don't apologize immediately and convert to the religion of peace I will stab you to death.
No, they apologized for the inconvenience, remember?
He put his boots up on the table and made a face. "The sig," he smirked. "You can waste your life in search of the sig."
It has long been my belief that no one has ever killed for religion. At least, not really in their secret hearts. "God told me to do it" is merely an excuse for petty tyrants and barbarians to help themselves to what they REALLY want: the resources and land of their neighbors. For instance, were the Crusades about rescuing Jerusalem from Islam? Or were they about the fact that middle east was a vital hub on the "silk road?"
Why did you feel it necessary to bring up a completely unrelated topic just to mock my belief in God?
Alexander Peter Kristopeit bought his basement from his mommy for one dollar.
Oh you misunderstand. I am in fact Pagan by religious preference, so I am perfectly happy to celebrate Yule, have a tree etc. I just didn't mention that in my earlier comments because it tends to get people focused on my religion, not on my comments concerning religion in general or in this case Christianity. I don't expect people to treat my religion seriously - and when you see some of the lunatics that call themselves Pagan I don't blame them - but I also don't want to have the conversation devolve into "you will burn in hell" type comments either. All i wanted was a rational discussion free of religious overtones - something many Christians have a very hard time accepting it seems (and no, I haven't spent any time discussing things with members of the Jewish faith or Muslims to make any comparison).
From what I recall reading, the birth of Jesus was originally celebrated at a different time of the year, then moved to Christmas at a later date.
Now back to data drawn from Wikipedia, I found the following: (here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chronology_of_Jesus)
"Some commentators have attempted to establish the date of birth by identifying the Star of Bethlehem with some known astronomical or astrological phenomenon.[6] There are many possible phenomena and none seems to match the Gospel account.[7] Many scholars regard the star as a literary invention of the author of the Gospel of Matthew, to claim fulfillment of an Old Testament prophecy (Numbers 24:17).[8]."
Which would seem to say that many scholars agree with the Star of Bethlehem being a later addition to the story, and possibly with my assertion that the story was altered to make it fit the prophecies.
As for the day of his birth, the article has these comments:
"The New Testament provides no information regarding the date of the birth of Jesus.[10] The traditional date is 25 December, which is mid-winter in Judea. Because the Luke account says that shepherds were outdoors with their flocks it has sometimes been suggested that this implies a summer or autumn date.[11] However, the climate of Palestine is quite mild and in fact sheep are allowed to forage even in December.[11][12]
Early Christians sought to calculate the date of Christ's birth based on the idea that Old Testament prophets died either on an anniversary of their birth or of their conception. They reasoned that Jesus died on an anniversary of his conception, so the date of his birth was nine months after the date of Good Friday, either December 25 or January 6."
Which would be best summarized as "No one knows when he was born, and Dec 25th is based solely on numerological calculations". On the other hand Dec 25th is just as good a choice as any other day of the year :P
"The first time I got drunk, I got married. The second time I bought a chimpanzee, after that I stayed sober" Arian Seid
I thought you were joking about god deliberately putting the star there for the benefit of the pagan astrologers. Sorry.
Stick Men
The list could be lengthened and debated endlessly...
He put his boots up on the table and made a face. "The sig," he smirked. "You can waste your life in search of the sig."
Dear North Korea
please invest your time an energy in this new science but don't take any safety precautions, because hopefully you will destroy yoursleves and in the process set of a elctromagnetic pulse that will fry your electronics in all, please continue so we can watch you destroy yourselves, and give a reason for us to destroy your. making you a threat to the world giving everyone a reason to blow you to kingdom come.
yours sincerely,
Game Crusader
FALSE ALARM
someone just made some ghost pepper hot sauce and ate it, just a result of eating ghost pepper hot sauce. nuclear fission and a new toilet required for it is now radioactive from the heat.
'unique thermo-nuclear reaction device.'
http://www.flightglobal.com/blogs/the-dewline/H-bomb_1.gif
Are YOU using the TOOL, or is the TOOL using YOU? Think about it!
So since when did Elisabeth Shue make a trip to North Korea?
with this nuclear fission, probably untrue. they are in away admitting to nuclear intentions and thermo nuclear weapons, plus their small arsenal
"North Korea Saturday warned the United States and South Korea that it will employ "all means, including the nuclear deterrent" if they intrude into its territory."
http://www.globalsecurity.org/wmd/library/news/rok/2010/rok-100424-voa01.htm
just thought anyone should know whats up, you say somthing like that and the United States could start a war on a scale unknown to mankind, in my mind I could see such a thing happening with over a billion casualties, fighting all over the world an enemy with China, it would make WWII look like a skirmish billions dead trillions in damage, aresnals being rebuilt, thousands of square miles of untold destruction and waste lands, fires you can see from space, the United States Missile command actually going into operation, the white house getting hit the U.S. getting invaded for the first time in many years and wars unseen since the civil war and revolutionary wars, don't get me wrong but I can see in the near future the possibility of things gettin bad
Was that star thing literal? I never thought it was, sounded more like grasping to criticize something.... when there is far more one could pick. I don't remember any but I heard some similar nutty metaphor things for Bush back in 2000 that were about as bad (or worse since they exploited religion for it and that breaks a commandment.)
Interestingly in the Bible account it's never said that the star was put there by God to honor Jesus. The story actually says that King Herod wanted to kill the baby Messiah that he believed would be born around that time. The "star" led the astrologers to Jerusalem first where they met Herod who pretended he wanted to visit the child himself. Then the "star" led them to the house where the young Jesus was. (No longer a baby) When they attempted to go back to the King an angelic vision tells them not to and to leave immediately.
So either the star was schizophrenic, or actually trying to help Herod kill Jesus. It's quite a different story than the usual one you see at Xmas time. When you add in the clear Mosaic law commandments forbidding astrology and fortune telling, it makes the idea that the Jewish God invited the Magi a bit suspect.
Cwm, fjord-bank glyphs vext quiz
why it doesn't display on ubuntu lucid with opera and chrome
Kim Jong-il can ride his bike with no handlebars.
Without countries like North Korea, americans could not live in the constant fear they long for everyday. What other reason will americans find to freely throw away their rights and privileges so they can yearn to live in a police state, and have their assets seized for trivial reasons? Americans should send North Korea's leader a thank you card.
I do believe we can officially cross North Korea out as a "communist state" and put it in the Theocracy column. He is a god with Elvis at his right hand.... o.O
Christopher Hitchen's, who has been to NK, describes it as; "The world's only necopracy".
And did you exchange a walk on part in the war for a lead role in a cage? - Pink Floyd.
A far more likely scenario would be Frank Herbert's Dosadi Experiment.
But North Koreans are hardly going to be released on an unsuspecting universe like a plague of locust.
More likely, since the entire country has a population that barely rivals most major capitals (25million for the whole schmeer) they will revert to barbarism and neanderthal living condition. (Sort of like in Papua New Guinea but with a bitchin' cold climate...)
I would be more worried about them having enough fissionable materials to make a dirty bomb before I waste any sleep over their self-professed capacity to make clean thermo-nuclear fusion.
MSBPodcast.com The opinions expressed here are my own. If you don't like 'em... Think up your own stuff.
No, actually I was serious.
Isa. 60 is a passage which is a messianic prophecy. Like many messianic prophecies from the Old Testament, it does not clearly differentiate between the first coming of Jesus as a baby and his return in glory and his reign as predicted in Revelation, but it’s not too difficult to see where it switches over. Verses 1-3 refer to his birth:
The magi, or kings, who came from the East, are considered by some to be a fulfillment of the prophecy in that last verse.
Like I said elsewhere... I’m not offended by his theory, but I do think it is incorrect, and I figured I might as well post an alternate theory from a Christian perspective. Take it for whatever you feel it’s worth.
Alexander Peter Kristopeit bought his basement from his mommy for one dollar.
Jet Li causing fusion...
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i67Fe33lPqA
I'll give you all those but Torquemada. The autos de fe was purely mercenary politics. The purpose was two-fold: to squash political dissidents, and to steal land, money, and business from affluent Jews and Arabs, mostly by killing them. Joan of Arc had religious convictions, herself, but she was manipulated by some pretty conniving, self-interested folks.
But I see your point. Individuals will kill in the name of their diety. I was just trying to say that when it rises to the level of national policy dictated from a sovereign, there's probably an ulterior motive.
It's a beowulf cluster of Illudium Q-36 Explosive Space Modulators
It's almost as if everyone in that place between ten and sixty has been lost forever to a cult and know nothing else. However Idon'tknow much, I've only met one person from that place and they lost all communication from anyone in North Korea twenty years or more ago - despite it just being on the other side of a river and depite leaving the place legally. North Korea used to export food to China but things changed to less than subsistence a long time ago.
I was just trying to say that when it rises to the level of national policy dictated from a sovereign, there's probably an ulterior motive
Absolutely.
He put his boots up on the table and made a face. "The sig," he smirked. "You can waste your life in search of the sig."
Chuck Norris should be really scared now...
.. does it run Linux?
The three laws of thermodynamics:(1) You can't win. (2) You can't break even. (3) You can't even quit.
Why did you feel the need to bring up your belief in a god? Why do you feel that people should refrain from mocking controversial positions if they don't agree with them? What makes your position so special that it should be exempt from criticism?
Also, your notion that biblical prophecy is most likely correct, while ludicrous and therefore amusing, is also highly tangential to the topic at hand. Glass houses, hmm?
Why did you feel the need to bring up your belief in a god?
I was merely responding to a comment posted by someone else, theorizing about the meaning of the star over Bethlehem.
Why do you feel that people should refrain from mocking controversial positions if they don't agree with them? What makes your position so special that it should be exempt from criticism?
That’s a very nice straw man, but I didn’t say that. I merely asked why he had to bring a completely off-topic question to the argument so as to do it.
Also, your notion that biblical prophecy is most likely correct, while ludicrous and therefore amusing, is also highly tangential to the topic at hand. Glass houses, hmm?
I’m sorry, were you directing your comment at him? The guy who started theorizing about the meaning of the star in Christian “mythology” on a topic about North Korea?
Alexander Peter Kristopeit bought his basement from his mommy for one dollar.
It was all a series of events set up by God and perfectly orchestrated to fulfill prophecy. All of it was foretold, and the purpose of the prophecy was to make it so unmistakable when Messiah finally came that people would be utterly without excuse for missing it... which they did.
Furthermore the notion that the magi showed up on the night of Jesus birth is incorrect. Yes, you’ll typically see the Nativity scene with the brightly-lit barn, a few oxen and donkeys, some sheep, shepherds, and the wee three kings. That’s relatively far from the truth.
The Bible does say that the star appeared when Jesus was born, not before. Obviously the Magi (also referred to as kings... basically, the educated ruling aristocracy of their culture) didn’t arrive until later because they had a lengthy journey to undergo to get there... and the Bible does not, in fact, say exactly when they arrived. In fact, it specifically says the Magi (it doesn’t tell how many) arrived after Jesus was born.
Herod then finds out from the Magi when the star had appeared (i.e., when Jesus had been born)... and used this information to try to kill Jesus, when the Magi didn’t come back to tell him where to find the baby:
Furthermore, the Magi followed the star to pay their honours to Jesus’ birth in fulfillment of the prophecy of Isaiah:
And Herod’s actions and the escape to Egypt of Jesus’ parents and the baby were in preparation to fulfill another prophecy as well:
As far as your opinion that the idea of the Magi getting invited is suspect... well, why? Yes, sorcery and astrology were forbidden... but not because they were make-believe or stage magic; it was clearly indicated that they had real supernatural force. In fact, in 1 Samuel 28:3-20, we read about King Saul’s visit to a medium who successfully called forth the spirit of the prophet Samuel (who appeared none too happy at being disturbed... probably not least because it was done in flagrant violation to God’s commands, thus bringing even more of God’s judgment upon Saul and the nation of Israel).
Alexander Peter Kristopeit bought his basement from his mommy for one dollar.
Because, hoo-boy would it be an interesting planet to live on if all our uranium deposits were being thrust up to the surface at 90% enrichment.
and now North Korea has fusion capability.