Eva Vertes

I found this to be a thought provoking and interesting speech. I even learned a few things from just listening! As you all know, Brett and Alex have already posted about Eva Vertes on the Rebelution blog, which got me interested in the first place. I googled, searched, and found this video which I'm sure you'll enjoy. This young woman doesn't seem to be drawn to money or world renown, but seems to genuinely have a passion for science and medicine. Enjoy.

Lucy

Umm...Duh.

Commercials 'killing childhood'

Pester power can lead to poor diets, the NUT says

Teachers are warning that children are growing up too quickly because of pressure from advertising and commerce.

*They say advertising which targets children should be more tightly controlled because it encourages poor diets and general ill-health.*

The call comes from the annual conference of the National Union of Teachers in Harrogate, where delegates will also discuss education reforms.

Controls on advertising junk food to children came into force this week.

But dedicated children's channels are allowed to phase in the restrictions, which affect programmes aimed at four to nine year olds.

'Initiative overload'

They need only to comply fully with the ban on advertising high fat, salt or sugar foods by 1 January 2009.

From 1 January 2008 the restrictions will be extended to TV shows aimed at children up to 15, as well as adult programmes watched by a large number of children.

The teachers complain the adverts encourage children to use "pester power" on their parents and say that children are growing up too fast because of commercial pressures.

Other issues they will highlight during the annual conference are imminent reforms in the education system, including new diplomas for 14 to 19 year olds and changes to the national curriculum.

Delegates will say they are suffering from "initiative overload", especially with regard to 14 to 19 education.

Specialised, work-related diplomas are due to be introduced into schools and colleges from next year.

Teachers feel they have not been sufficiently consulted about the introduction of these new qualifications.

The conference, which runs until Tuesday, is also expected to launch a charter for the achievement of Afro-Caribbean boys.

Antichrist

My mom checked the news the other day, and, lo and behold, the corrupted world she did find sent chills up our necks. There is nothing graphic on the link our article, but the evil is so pronounced, so startlingly real and apparent...It' seems like the world is walking around with their eyes gorged out, they seem so blind




By John Zarrella and Patrick Oppmann
CNN

MIAMI, Florida (CNN) -- The minister has the number 666 tattooed on his arm.

But Jose Luis de Jesus Miranda is not your typical minister. De Jesus, or "Daddy" as his thousands of followers call him, does not merely pray to God: He says he is God.

"The spirit that is in me is the same spirit that was in Jesus of Nazareth," de Jesus says.

De Jesus' claims of divinity have angered Christian leaders, who say he is a fake. Religious experts say he may be something much more dangerous, a cult leader who really believes he is God.

"He's in their heads, he's inside the heads of those people," says Prof. Daniel Alvarez, a religion expert at Florida International University who has debated some of de Jesus' followers.

"De Jesus speaks with a kind of conviction that makes me consider him more like David Koresh or Jim Jones."

Is de Jesus really a cult leader like David Koresh, who died with more than 70 of his Branch Davidian followers in a fiery end to a standoff with federal authorities, or Jim Jones, the founder of the Peoples Temple who committed mass suicide with 900 followers in 1978?

Prophets 'spoke to me'

De Jesus and his believers say their church -- "Creciendo en Gracia," Spanish for "Growing in grace" -- is misunderstood. Followers of the movement say they have proof that their minister is divine and that their church will one day soon be a major faith in the world.

But even de Jesus concedes that he is an unlikely leader of a church that claims thousands of members in more than 30 countries.

De Jesus, 61, grew up poor in Puerto Rico. He says he served stints in prison there for petty theft and says he was a heroin addict.

De Jesus says he learned he was Jesus reincarnate when he was visited in a dream by angels.

"The prophets, they spoke about me. It took me time to learn that, but I am what they were expecting, what they have been expecting for 2,000 years," de Jesus says.

The church that he began building 20 years ago in Miami resembles no other:

Followers have protested Christian churches in Miami and Latin America, disrupting services and smashing crosses and statues of Jesus.

De Jesus preaches there is no devil and no sin. His followers, he says, literally can do no wrong in God's eyes.

The church calls itself the "Government of God on Earth" and uses a seal similar to the United States.

Doing God's work with a Lexus and Rolex

If Creciendo en Gracia is an atypical religious group, de Jesus also does not fit the mold of the average church leader. De Jesus flouts traditional vows of poverty.

He says he has a church-paid salary of $136,000 but lives more lavishly than that. During an interview, he showed off a diamond-encrusted Rolex to a CNN crew and said he has three just like them. He travels in armored Lexuses and BMWs, he says, for his safety. All are gifts from his devoted followers.

And what about the tattoo of 666 on his arm?

Although it's a number usually associated with Satan, not the son of God, de Jesus says that 666 and the Antichrist are, like him, misunderstood.

The Antichrist is not the devil, de Jesus tells his congregation; he's the being who replaces Jesus on Earth.

"Antichrist is the best person in the world," he says. "Antichrist means don't put your eyes on Jesus because Jesus of Nazareth wasn't a Christian. Antichrist means do not put your eyes on Jesus Christ of Nazareth. Put it on Jesus after the cross."

And de Jesus says that means him.

So far, de Jesus says that his flock hasn't been scared off by his claims of being the Antichrist. In a show of the sway he holds over the group, 30 members of his congregation Tuesday went to a tattoo parlor to have 666 also permanently etched onto their skin.

He may wield influence over them, but his followers say don't expect them to go the way of people who believed in David Koresh and Jim Jones. Just by finding de Jesus, they say, they have achieved their purpose.

"If somebody tells us drink some Kool-Aid and we'll go to heaven, that's not true. We are already in heavenly places," follower Martita Roca told CNN after having 666 tattooed onto her ankle

To see the picture of this corrupted man, go here