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"It's a new year, which means it's time to make resolutions, take on fresh challenges, learn new things and change our lives for the better. Perhaps you want to lose 10 pounds, travel more, or get the job you really want? Mashable (Mashable) has been building a vast archive of how-to guides on everything from professional networking to planning a vacation online - what better time to release a combined list than at the beginning of a new decade? If you're looking to improve your life in 2010, we hope you'll find these 40+ How-To guides useful. You can find even more How-To guides and tips in the How-To section of this site."

"The truth is that there was NOBODY in the Scriptures who talked about hell more than Jesus did. Just consider the following examples.... Matthew 10:28 Do not be afraid of those who kill the body but cannot kill the soul. Rather, be afraid of the One who can destroy both soul and body in hell. Luke 12:5 But I will show you whom you should fear: Fear him who, after the killing of the body, has power to throw you into hell. Yes, I tell you, fear him. Matthew 5:29 If your right eye causes you to sin, gouge it out and throw it away. It is better for you to lose one part of your body than for your whole body to be thrown into hell. Matthew 23:33 "You snakes! You brood of vipers! How will you escape being condemned to hell? There is no getting around the fact that the Bible says that we will all face judgment someday. Are you ready for that day? In John 3:36 it tells us this.... Whoever believes in the Son has eternal life, but whoever rejects the Son will not see life, for God's wrath remains on him. Without Jesus, you will be facing the judgment of God by yourself. You will be fully accountable for your own unrighteous acts. In fact, in 2 Peter 2:9, the Scriptures tells us that the unrighteous are experiencing punishment in hell right now as they continue to be held for the day of final judgment.... if this is so, then the Lord knows how to rescue godly men from trials and to hold the unrighteous for the day of judgment, while continuing their punishment."

"A 19th-century illustration by Currier & Ives shows the traditional vision of Noah's ark. That they processed aboard the enormous floating wildlife collection two-by-two is well known. Less familiar, however, is the possibility that the animals Noah shepherded on to his ark then went round and round inside. According to newly translated instructions inscribed in ancient Babylonian on a clay tablet telling the story of the ark, the vessel that saved one virtuous man, his family and the animals from god's watery wrath was not the pointy-prowed craft of popular imagination but rather a giant circular reed raft. The now battered tablet, aged about 3,700 years, was found somewhere in the Middle East by Leonard Simmons, a largely self-educated Londoner who indulged his passion for history while serving in the RAF from 1945 to 1948. The relic was passed to his son Douglas, who took it to one of the few people in the world who could read it as easily as the back of a cornflakes box; he gave it to Irving Finkel, a British Museum expert, who translated its 60 lines of neat cuneiform script. There are dozens of ancient tablets that have been found which describe the flood story but Finkel says this one is the first to describe the vessel's shape. "In all the images ever made people assumed the ark was, in effect, an ocean-going boat, with a pointed stem and stern for riding the waves - so that is how they portrayed it," said Finkel. "But the ark didn't have to go anywhere, it just had to float, and the instructions are for a type of craft which they knew very well. It's still sometimes used in Iran and Iraq today, a type of round coracle which they would have known exactly how to use to transport animals across a river or floods.""

"If you have family and loved ones in Haiti, here is a page that may help you find out how they are doing. Looking For Loved Ones - CNN.com put this together and has already been able to provide valuable information for loved ones. Posted by MysticBren at 9:32 AM 0 comments Thursday, January 14, 2010 Dear USA And The World, Let's Help Haiti! After watching the tragedies unfolding in Haiti, I took the time to make a donation through Save The Children. Wanting to do more, I have put together this page, listing legitimate charitable organizations that are actively sending help to Haiti, along with information on how to help. Just click on the red text to take you to each organizations donation page, many of which are designated for Haiti."

Authorities are debating whether or not video surveillance should be increased in the United States due to their importance in uncovering the suspects of the Boston Marathon bombings. Lawmakers are in talks about the importance of increasing surveillance and how CCTV (close-circuit television) cameras will be able to increase security and protect citizens as well as help authorities track down suspects. Many lawmakers believed that if there are more security cameras installed in cities, it would help speed up the process of identifying suspects and catching them before they get very far. Michael Bloomberg, the Mayor of New York, states that they had recently increased surveillance in New York's midtown and downtown areas due to the tragic events of the Boston bombings. He says, "The Boston bombing is a terrible reminder of why we've made these investments-including camera technology that could help us deter an attack, or investgate and apprehend those involved. [The added video surveillance can] alert police to abnormalities it detects on the street, such as an abandoned package that is left on a corner." However, calls for extra video surveillance has left many privacy advocates concerned. They believe that increasing video surveillance can be a potential invasion of privacy for the general public. They also state that since the authorities were able to track down the Boston bombers within only a few days, there really isn't any need for any extra surveillance tools. A lawyer for the Electronic Privacy Information Center, Alan Butler, says,

How Hwee Young / EPA A strong 6.6 magnitude earthquake hit a remote, mostly rural and mountainous area of southwestern China's Sichuan province on Saturday, killing scores of people and injuring thousands close to where a big quake killed almost 70,000 people in 2008. Launch slideshow By John Ruwitch, Reuters LUSHAN, China - Hundreds of survivors of a 6.6-magnitude earthquake that hit southwest China, killing nearly 200 people, pushed into traffic along a main road on Monday, waving protest signs, demanding help and shouting at police. "We are in the open air here. No place to sleep, nothing to eat. No one is paying any attention to us," said Peng Qiong, 45, a farmer in Chaoyang village on the outskirts of Lushan, near the epicenter. China has poured resources into Sichuan since Saturday's quake, including 1 billion yuan ($161.9 million) from central coffers for disaster relief and compensation. About 18,000 troops are in the area.

"In September 2009, Interpol inaugurated The Office of the Special Representative of Interpol to the European Union (EU). Interpol said it marked "a milestone in the continuing collaboration between the two organisations." (Interpol media release, 25th Sept., 2009). This 'non-police' police 'database' certainly gets around! Notice how it is linking up with huge international groups, such as the UN and EU? Also note that the UN, EU and Interpol are socialist, with socialist intentions. Interpol said this is "the latest step in identifying and developing new areas for cooperation between the two institutions in joint efforts to enhance regional and global security." President of Interpol, Khoo Boon Hui, believes the new office "demonstrated the collective commitment of the EU and Interpol to work hand in hand to make the world a safer place." Safer for whom? And who defines what a threat is? And where is the proof that we need a global police state? Security is a key excuse used by socialism to grab control of the world. So, Interpol is handed total freedom to act within the USA and outside it, and also within and outside the EU! I would call that global governance, wouldn't you? And whilst many are critical of references to Interpol as a 'police organisation', it is what its own president calls it: "Interpol (is) the world's largest police organisation." ! Secretary General, Ronald Noble, speaks of Interpol "looking beyond regional and political borders, particularly when globalisation means that events and crises on the opposite side of the world now have international repercussions." This, though, is NOT an argument for Interpol to become the world's policeman. It is, rather, an argument for each country developing its own professionalism and assisting other countries that might need its expertise and information. The Special Representative, Pierre Reuland, has his offices and staff in Brussels, the EU's home. Rueland

Last week's foiled airline bombing plot by a Nigerian man who hid explosives in his clothing has renewed debate in the United States as to how extensive and invasive passenger screening should be at U.S. airports. A few major airports already possess machines that can take detailed, full-body images, but Congress has not mandated widespread use of the technology. Air travelers worldwide are accustomed to passing through metal detectors. But in an era of plastic explosives and advanced chemical compounds, that system has proved lacking. Kip Hawley is a former head of the U.S. Transportation Security Administration, or TSA, which is charged with screening airline passengers and luggage. "The number one area we need to focus on, the biggest potential vulnerability, is a bomb on the body," said Hawley. Dutch officials have ordered detailed, full body scans of all U.S.-bound air travelers. Terrorism expert M.J. Gohel of the London-based Asia Pacific Foundation applauds the move. "These scanners are, in fact, very effective," he said. "They actually show a person's body - any foreign object attached anywhere in the body, even if it is internally. That kind of x-ray scanner would have located the package that this individual [Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab] had on the flight to Detroit. They are on a trial basis at the moment."

"A rather serious problem, which seems largely to have been ignored by those urging a race to build windmills and solar panels, is the fact that the wind does not always blow, nor does the sun always shine. And as yet there is no large-scale economical method of storing electricity for later use. This would seem to imply a need to retain the present system of power production alongside the new system that is to be based on wind and sun, or else to grow accustomed to protracted periods without power. Or is it the case perhaps that this problem is to be taken as an opportunity for even greater gains in employment in connection with wind and solar power? These might be achieved if, in all those times when the wind does not blow or the sun does not shine, human beings were employed in rotating copper-clad generator shafts, in a manner similar to that of rotating a grindstone in a gristmill, only in the presence of surrounding magnets, so that electricity could be produced by the rotation. (I don't know how much, if any, electricity might actually be produced in this way. But it would provide at least the appearance of employment in the attempt, which is all that many other "stimulus" programs accomplish.) (emphasis added)"

"SAN'A, Yemen - Yemen on Thursday provided the most comprehensive account yet of contacts between al-Qaida and the Nigerian accused of trying to blow up a U.S. airliner, saying he may have met with a radical U.S.-born cleric who previously had contact with the alleged Fort Hood shooter. In the weeks before the attempted airliner attack, Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab met with al-Qaida operatives in a remote mountainous region that was later hit in an airstrike that targeted a gathering of the group's top leaders, Yemen's deputy prime minister said. The account by Rashad al-Alimi, who oversees security issues in the government, filled in some of the blanks in Abdulmutallab's movements before his failed attempt to detonate explosives on a Christmas Day flight to Detroit. But al-Alimi also raised new questions. He contended that Abdulmutallab was recruited by al-Qaida in Britain and that the 23-year-old received the explosives in Nigeria. U.S. officials say Abdulmutallab told FBI investigators that al-Qaida operatives in Yemen gave him the material and trained him in how to use it."

"(The Sun) - A leading health expert said the swine flu scare was a "false pandemic" led by drugs companies that stood to make billions from vaccines, The Sun reported Monday. Wolfgang Wodarg, head of health at the Council of Europe, claimed major firms organized a "campaign of panic" to put pressure on the World Health Organization (WHO) to declare a pandemic. He believes it is, "one of the greatest medicine scandals of the century," and has called for an inquiry. An emergency debate on the issue will be held by the Council of Europe later this month. The Council of Europe covers 47 European countries and seeks to develop common and democratic principles between the nations. Wodarg said, "It's just a normal kind of flu. It does not cause a tenth of deaths caused by the classic seasonal flu. "The great campaign of panic we have seen provided a golden opportunity for representatives from labs who knew they would hit the jackpot in the case of a pandemic being declared. "We want to clarify everything that brought about this massive operation of disinformation. We want to know who made decisions, on the basis of what evidence, and precisely how the influence of the pharmaceutical industry came to bear on the decision-making." He added, "A group of people in the WHO is associated very closely with the pharmaceutical industry.""

"Would you ever accept government welfare? Would you look down on someone who does? Well, if you would look down on a fellow American who receives food stamps then get ready to look down on a massive sea of people. The truth is that over 37 million Americans now receive food stamps, and the program is expanding at a pace of about 20,000 people a day. As hordes of Americans have been forced out of their jobs and their homes, millions are finding that the only way they can make it is to accept food stamps. For many it is a tremendously humbling moment to turn to the government for help, and for so many millions to be dependent on the food stamps program is yet another indication of how deep the economic despair in America has gotten. Most of the time you won't even notice them being used at the checkout counters. Today food stamps take the form of inconspicuous plastic cards and they can be used to purchase a wide variety of food items. A record 37.2 million people, which is approximately one out of every eight Americans, received food stamps in September, and that number is growing rapidly. In particular, children are being enrolled in this program in staggering numbers. One out of every four children in America now gets assistance from food stamps each month. In fact, it is projected that half of all U.S. kids will be on food stamps at some point in their lives. So if nobody in your family has ever had to go on food stamps consider yourself to be very fortunate. Things are particularly bad in rural areas such as Tennessee. Nearly 1,186,000 people who live in Tennessee, or more than one in six residents, currently receive some kind of food stamp assistance and that number is rapidly increasing. But there are places where things are even worse. In fact, there are 239 counties in the United States where at least a quarter of the population now receives food stamps. Not only that, but it has now come out that about one in 50 Americans lives in a hous

""Let not your heart be troubled; you believe in God, believe also in Me. "In my Father's house are many mansions; if it were not so, I would have told you. I go to prepare a place for you. "And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and receive you to Myself; that where I am, there you may be also. "And where I go you know, and the way you know." Thomas said to Him, "Lord, we do not know where You are going, and how can we know the way?" Jesus said to him, "I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through Me. "If you had known Me, you would have known My Father also; and from now on you know Him and have seen Him." John 14:1-7"

"For decades, China was viewed by U.S. strategists as a struggling communist nation with a massive population that really did not represent any kind of strategic threat to the United States at all. But that has now dramatically changed. Thanks to trade agreements that are extremely favorable to China, the "Great Dragon" has risen and has become a formidable economic machine. Already accounting for a fifth of humanity, this new economic muscle has also allowed Beijing to dramatically reform and upgrade the Chinese military. Now China is without a doubt a world superpower and it stands poised to be a major player on the world stage during the last days. So just how powerful of an economic force is China now? Well, in 2010 China is expected to replace Japan as the world's second-largest economy. Not only that, but China has overtaken Germany and is now the biggest exporter in the entire world. Let that sink in for a bit. China sells more stuff to other countries than anyone else in the world. That fact alone is enough to make China an economic superpower. Citizens of the U.S. like to think of themselves as the greatest economic superpower, but the reality is that the average American is drowning in debt. In fact, the average American piled up even more debt this past Christmas season buying cheap plastic stuff made in China to exchange with family members around the ole Christmas tree."

"Russia diversifies into Canadian dollars By Peter Garnham Published: January 20 2010 16:46 | Last updated: January 20 2010 16:46 Russia's central bank announced on Wednesday that it had started buying Canadian dollars and securities in a bid to diversify its foreign exchange reserves. Analysts said the move could be a sign of increased diversification of emerging market central bank assets away from the dollar and into investments denominated in other commodity-linked currencies, such as the Australian dollar. Adam Cole at RBC Capital Markets said if taken in isolation, Russia's announcement that it was buying Canadian dollars was not significant, but if it was part of a broader trend, then it was an important step. "If it is a barometer for the activity of other central banks, then its is structurally positive for the currencies of countries like Canada and Australia that have a commodity bias in their economies," he said. Although not officially confirmed, traders said that other emerging market central banks, including some in Asia which hold large foreign exchange reserves, have also been active in the foreign exchange market in recent weeks buying both Canadian dollars and Australian dollars. Alexei Ulyukayev, first deputy chairman of Russia's central bank, said that it would invest in Canadian dollar-denominated deposits and bonds. "The Canadian financial market is not very deep, so we can invest in deposits in significant volumes, while the bond market is limited," he said. Although the central bank did not specify how much of its reserves it was allocating to assets denominated in the Canadian dollar, analysts estimated that the central bank could put up to $9bn, or 2 per cent, of its foreign exchange reserves into the currency."

"The State Department is planning to welcome thousands of immigrants from terror-watch list countries into the United States this year through a "diversity visa" lottery -- a giant legal loophole some lawmakers say is a "serious national security threat" that has gone unchecked for years. Ostensibly designed to increase ethnic diversity among immigrants, the program invites in thousands of poorly educated laborers with few job skills -- and that's only the beginning of its problems, according to lawmakers and government investigations. "There are a lot of holes in this program in terms of security and in terms of fraud," said Rep. Bob Goodlatte, R-Va., who has written legislation aimed at killing the lottery. Now, in the wake of the botched Christmas Day terror attack that emerged from Nigeria and Yemen, members of Congress are worried the system could be vulnerable to radicals looking to "play" the visa lottery as a means of reaching the U.S. Here's how it works: to avoid getting stuck with 3.5 million others on a visa waiting list, hundreds of thousands of people put their names into the separate diversity lottery, which rewards countries that typically see low levels of immigration to the U.S. Immediate family are allowed to join lottery winners. Countries like China, where lots of immigrants originate, are excluded. Then a computer in Kentucky picks names at random from the qualified applicants, who need only a high school degree or two years at a job that requires two years of experience. The program accounts for about 10 percent of all immigrant visas each year. Included in the lottery are all four countries the U.S considers state sponsors of terror -- Iran, Sudan, Cuba, and Syria -- and 13 of the 14 nations that are coming under special monitoring from the Transportation Security Administration as founts of terrorism. Pakistan is excluded because, like China, it sends over tens of thousands of immigrants each year and doesn't need to be in the lottery

"Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas has proposed that the Obama administration negotiate the final borders of a Palestinian state with Israel, a Palestinian official said Wednesday, as a U.S. envoy headed to the region for another attempt to restart Mideast peace talks. Such a proxy arrangement could provide a way around the current deadlock over reviving Israeli-Palestinian talks, which broke off more than a year ago. Abbas says he won't return to the table without a complete Israeli settlement freeze, something Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has refused to do. As an alternative, U.S. officials could replace Palestinian negotiators in border talks with Israel, said an Abbas aide, who spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to discuss the content of internal meetings. The U.S. negotiators would be given clear parameters, the aide said. Advertisement The state would have to be established in the territories Israel captured in the 1967 Mideast War - the West Bank, Gaza and east Jerusalem - but the Palestinians would agree to swap up to 3 percent of the territory to accommodate some Israeli settlements, the aide said. Abbas made the proposal in recent meetings with Egyptian officials who passed the idea along to Washington, the aide said. It was not clear how the Americans reacted. Officials at the U.S. Consulate in Jerusalem, which serves the West Bank, had no comment. Abbas has said much ground has been covered in his talks with Netanyahu's predecessor, Ehud Olmert, and that the time has come for decisions. In those talks, Abbas offered a swap of up to 1.9 percent of West Bank land for Israeli territory, while Olmert proposed 6.5 percent. Alternately, Abbas could resume negotiations with Netanyahu, provided the Israeli leader agrees to a six-month settlement freeze in the West Bank and east Jerusalem. Netanyahu would not have to announce the freeze, the aide said, presumably to avoid a rebellion in his hardline coalition. The

"PositiveID (PSID) is to begin a study of its Health Link implantable microchip in diabetic, hypertensive and obese patients. The study -like everything else associated with the company formerly known as VeriChip - is bound to be controversial. The Health Link chip is implanted under a patient's skin. It can be scanned to access the patient's online medical records. The company's critics fear the chip will one day become mandatory, leading to a complete loss of medical privacy, or that Americans will be unable to receive healthcare unless they get chipped. BNET has noted that PositiveID also owns a credit monitoring and identity-theft prevention company, Steel Vault, and that it envisions its chips being linked to Google (GOOG), Microsoft (MSFT) and employers. PositiveID linked credit monitoring and the Health Link chip in its most recent 10-Q. While PositiveID's press release gives few specifics, it indicates that the study will have something to do with the Health Link chip and customers of HealthScreenDirect, a company that offers screening for diabetes and high cholesterol. Its says the study will be: … a prospective, randomized, comparative clinical study that will seek to address improving disease management through the use of appropriate, concise, and up-to-date patient health information available to both practitioners caring for diabetic, hypertensive and obese patients and the patients themselves through the utilization of PositiveID's personal health record (Health Link) and an electronic medical records system. PositiveID CEO Scott R. Silverman said in the statement that the study will also advance the company's in-development glucose-sensing chip. Silverman is doubtless hoping that patients with the chip - and with their health records online - will have better outcomes in terms of managing their diabetes than those doing it the old-fashioned way. The unanswered question is why health record access - or even a microchip

"BRUSSELS - Stunned by having been sidelined in the endgame of the Copenhagen world climate summit meeting, the European Union is debating how to regain influence in the fight against global warming. Should the E.U., the world's largest trading bloc and economic area, respond to the policy setback and the diplomatic humiliation of the bare-minimum Copenhagen accord by playing Mr. Nice, Mr. Nasty, Mr. Persistent or Mr. Pragmatic? The first two options - setting a more ambitious example to others, or threatening climate laggards with carbon tariffs - are tempting gestures, and each has its supporters. But when the dust settles, the 27 E.U. governments are likely to stick to their carbon-emissions reduction strategy while becoming more pragmatic about working outside the United Nations framework to achieve progress, experts say. The E.U. went to the U.N. negotiations in Copenhagen last month seeking a legally binding agreement to cut emissions of greenhouse gases, which are blamed for increasingly warming the planet, with precise reduction targets that would have been subject to international monitoring and enforcement. Despite warning signs that their goals were unrealistic, the Europeans hoped to convert the rest of the world to their own model of supranational governance."

"A WARNING that climate change will melt most of the Himalayan glaciers by 2035 is likely to be retracted after a series of scientific blunders by the United Nations body that issued it. Two years ago the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) issued a benchmark report that was claimed to incorporate the latest and most detailed research into the impact of global warming. A central claim was the world's glaciers were melting so fast that those in the Himalayas could vanish by 2035. In the past few days the scientists behind the warning have admitted that it was based on a news story in the New Scientist, a popular science journal, published eight years before the IPCC's 2007 report. It has also emerged that the New Scientist report was itself based on a short telephone interview with Syed Hasnain, a little-known Indian scientist then based at Jawaharlal Nehru University in Delhi. Related Internet Links * Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change report on Himalayan glaciers * How New Scientist reported the row Related Links * Global warming blamed for rise in malaria * Experts clash over sea-rise 'apocalypse' Hasnain has since admitted that the claim was "speculation" and was not supported by any formal research. If confirmed it would be one of the most serious failures yet seen in climate research. The IPCC was set up precisely to ensure that world leaders had the best possible scientific advice on climate change. "