The Snuson Confessional Sacristy & Bulletin

[taffyjock]

Great ideal for the next installment of Big Brother expect less of the mock.

[wa3zrm]

All-female Russian crew starts Moon mission test
AFP ^ |

MOSCOW (AFP) - Six Russian women on Wednesday clambered into a mock spaceship to begin a unique experiment testing how an all-female crew would interact on a trip to the Moon and back.
For eight days, the female volunteers will live inside a wood-panelled suite of rooms at Moscow's Institute of Biomedical Problems, renowned for its wacky research into the psychological and physical effects of space travel.
The institute in 2010 locked six male international volunteers in an isolation experiment lasting 520 days, to simulate a flight to Mars and back.
"Such a crew is taking part for the first time in a simulation experiment. It's interesting for us to see what is special about the way a female crew communicates," said Sergei Ponomaryov, the experiment's supervisor.
"It will be particularly interesting in terms of psychology," said the institute's director Igor Ushakov.
"I'd like to wish you a lack of conflicts, even though they say that in one kitchen, two housewives find it hard to live together," he added.
The volunteers include scientific researchers, a doctor and a psychologist.
The test period simulates a flight to the Moon and back, with the women carrying out 10 experiments covering psychology and human biology.
Russia sent the first woman into space, Valentina Tereshkova, in 1963 but has lagged behind since. Last year it sent its fourth female cosmonaut into space, Yelena Serova.
Serova complained of a flurry of media interest in how she would wash her hair aboard the International Space Station, pointing out that male cosmonauts did not face the same line of questioning.
Ponomaryov called the latest experiment an effort to make up for lost time.
"There's never been an all-female crew on the ISS. We consider the future of space belongs equally to men and women and unfortunately we need to catch up a bit after a period when unfortunately there haven't been too many women in space."
- 'Beautiful without makeup' -
Despite the mission being presented as a giant step for gender equality, the women -- who wore red jumpsuits -- found themselves fielding questions at a press conference about how they would cope without men or makeup for eight days.
"We are very beautiful without makeup," parried participant Darya Komissarova.
Her colleague Anna Kussmaul was more direct: "We are doing work. When you're doing your work, you don't think about men and women."
Like their counterparts on the International Space Station the women will have no shower, washing with wet wipes instead.
They plan to spend their 1 1/2 hours per day of free time watching films, reading and playing board games.
Team leader Yelena Luchnitskaya said she expected the women to deal with any conflict.
"I'm sure we all have the education, personal qualities and the upbringing, at the end of the day," she said.
"So far I can't imagine what would rattle us."

[Premium Parrots]

....I suppose they will be packing xtra batteries.

[Snusdog]

....I suppose they will be packing xtra batteries.

I'm pretty sure the fact that I understood exactly what PP is talking about in that last post.......without even thinking about it.......is a sure sign that I need help

[wa3zrm]

[wa3zrm]

[wa3zrm]

Two days after the horrendous jihadist attacks in Paris, Pope Francis preached about the “end times,” encouraging his hearers to be vigilant and ready at any moment to meet God face to face.

In his Angelus message Sunday, the Pope invited the ten thousand pilgrims gathered in Saint Peter’s Square to think about their death, the day they will meet God and give an accounting for their life.
The Pope also explicitly addressed the Paris carnage, expressing his “deep sorrow for the terrorist attacks that bloodied France late on Friday, causing many casualties.” Along with offering his condolences to the victims and their families, Francis condemned the massacre as an “unspeakable affront to human dignity.”
“Such barbarity leaves us shocked and we wonder how the human heart can conceive and carry out such horrible events, which have shaken not only France but the whole world,” he said.
Francis unequivocally recognized the Islamist ideology behind the attacks, denouncing the use of God’s name to justify the brutal attacks as “blasphemy.”
Commenting on Sunday’s Scripture readings, the Pope said that Jesus’ preaching about the end of the world contains “apocalyptic elements, like war, famine, and cosmic catastrophes.”
“In those days,” Francis repeated, “the sun will be darkened, and the moon will not give its light, and the stars will be falling from the sky, and the powers in the heavens will be shaken.”
These signs are not the most important things, however, the Pope insisted. “Our final goal is the meeting with the resurrected Lord.” The most important thing is not knowing when the end will come, but being ready for it when it does, he said.
“We are called to live the present,” Francis said, but always ready to meet God whenever he may call.
At the end of the world, Francis said, “Jesus’ triumph will be the triumph of the cross, the demonstration that the sacrifice of oneself out of love for one’s neighbor, in imitation of Christ, is the only victorious power and the only stable point in the midst of the upheavals and tragedies of the world.”
The Pope also warned against an unhealthy curiosity to know details of the future, with recourse to psychics and horoscopes, saying they distract us from what is really important in the present.
We are called rather “to watchfulness,” Francis said, that keeps us focused and ready at all times.
“In our days,” he concluded, “there is no lack of natural and moral disasters, as well as adversities of every kind.”
“The Lord tells us that everything passes and only He and his Word remain as a light to guide and strengthen our steps,” he said.

[wa3zrm]

Putin the 'Only Defender of Christianity' – Bashar Assad
sputniknews.com ^ |

Syrian President Bashar Assad considers Russia's Vladimir Putin as the "only defender of Christian civilization one can trust."
"When I look at the present state of things in the world I realize that Vladimir Putin is the sole defender of Christian civilization one can rely on," Assad said in an interview with French magazine Valeurs Actuelles.
The Syrian leader also said that he would step down only if asked to by the Syrian people and the Syrian parliament, adding that the issue of his possible resignation had not yet been raised on an international level.
Syria will only share intelligence information with France if Paris changes its policies in the region, President Assad said.
"If the French government is not serious in its fight against terrorism, we will not waste our time collaborating with a country, government or an institution that supports terrorism," he noted in the interview carried out the day after Friday's deadly attacks in Paris.
"You have to first change policy so that it is based on one criteria, to be part of an alliance that joins countries only fighting terrorism and not supporting them," Assad added.
More than 220,000 Syrians have lost their lives in four-and-a-half years of armed conflict, which began with anti-government protests before escalating into a full-scale civil war.
More than 11 million others have been forced from their homes as forces loyal to President Bashar Assad and those opposed to his rule battle each other - as well as jihadist militants from Islamic State and the al-Nusra Front.

[wa3zrm]

Bizarre Cases of People Who Spontaneously Ceased to Exist

Mysterious disappearances arent new....Yet, as bizarre as these cases may be, there seems to be an even stranger type of disappearance out there; people who vanish in full view of others, under circumstances where it seems impossible that they could have even gone far, let alone totally disappeared. These are the cases in which people were there one moment and gone the next, seeming to have just literally faded from existence, leaving us baffled and perhaps even questioning what we think we know about this mysterious world of ours. Let's take a look at the history of some of the more curious accounts of these spontaneous vanishings of people who by all indications seemed to have just ceased to exist.

...
Sometimes, not only did the person disappear, but they did so right before the eyes of witnesses, literally fading away in plain sight... In 1815, at a Prussian prison at Weichselmunde, a prisoner by the name of Diderici was doing a 10-year sentence for assuming the identity of his dead employer by dressing up in his clothes and a wig and trying to withdraw a large amount of money after the man had died of a stroke. Allegedly, one day Diderici was being led through the exercise yard in chains in a line of other prisoners, when something very odd began to happen. According to other prisoners, Diderici began to literally fade away, his body gradually becoming transparent and immaterial until finally his empty manacles and chains clattered to the ground as baffled prisoners and prison guards looked on. An inquiry into the case would turn up nearly 30 eyewitness accounts from both convicts and guards that reported the exact same thing; that Diderici had become slowly invisible until he was simply not there anymore.

(Excerpt) Read more at mysteriousuniverse.org ...

[wa3zrm]

[Premium Parrots]

them better not be reindeer.

[wa3zrm]

Diocese Posting of Nun's Trophy Deer Draws Backlash

ST. MARYS, Pa. (AP) — A Roman Catholic diocese has taken down the Facebook photo of a nun with a 10-point buck she bagged after the posting drew criticism, some of it vulgar, by anti-hunting and animal rights activists, the diocese said...

(Excerpt) Read more at news.yahoo.com ...

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[wa3zrm]

Most recent addition to the church arsenal...
TAURUS 85NV 38 SPECIAL

[Andy105]

Most recent addition to the church arsenal...
TAURUS 85NV 38 SPECIAL

Nice chunk of titanium! You could get your avatar laser-engraved on it

[Burnsey]

Titanium?....for Pete's sake!.....very nice piece.....