Professional Documents
Culture Documents
y A Wa OF Life
The Philippines
This church in the Philippines town of Bohol was toppled by the earthquake.
uildings fell down. Water came out of pools like beach waves. Churches crumbled. Homes collapsed. Hundreds of people were injured. What caused the chaos? A massive earthquake hit the Philippines in October. It felt like bombs exploding on the land. Most of the damage occurred in cities. Because this day was a national holiday, schools and businesses were closed. People had stayed home from work and school. That means cities were not crowded. Many historic church buildings built hundreds of years ago suffered severe damage. These churches are special to the people. The Filipinos are proud of the ornate churches. They were sad about the destruction. But just a few weeks later, something worse happened. A huge storm hit. (See page 4.) Many people
died. That made the church buildings seem far less important. What is a church? Is it a building? Or is the church really a group of people? Most people today think of church as a building. But that is not what the Bible says. In Romans 16:5, Paul writes his friends in Rome. He tells them to say hello to the church in Priscas house. Paul refers to the church as a group of believers, not a building. Church is who we are. It isnt where we go. Scripture calls the whole group of Christians the bride of Christ. Thats how God thinks of His church. He is always protecting His church. Even if the stones of our buildings come apart (see Matthew 24), God is still building His bride. And even if a terrible storm takes the life of one of Gods believers, that person is safe with God forever.
January 2014
NEWS FLASH!
MALAYSIA
Celebes Sea
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The earthquake damaged many buildings along the coast.
GODS WORLD NEWS NEWS FLASH (USPS #700-930, ISSN #2162-4518) is published 10 times per yearmonthly (except for May and December) by Gods World Publications 12 All Souls Crescent, Asheville, NC 28803. PUBLISHER: Howard Brinkman, MANAGING EDITOR: Rich Bishop, EDITOR: Rebecca Cochrane, WRITER: Victoria Drake, ART DIRECTOR: Matt Barker. Member of Associated Press. CUSTOMER SERVICE: (800) 951-5437, SALES & MARKETING: Dawn Stephenson (828) 232-5489. MAILING ADDRESS: Gods World News News Flash, PO Box 20001, Asheville, NC28802-8201. Telephone (828) 253-8063. Periodicals postage paid at Asheville, NC, and additional mailing offices. POSTMASTER: Send address changes to Gods World News News Flash, PO Box 20001, Asheville, NC 28802-8201. 2014, Gods World Publications.
AP Photos
NEWS FLASH!
January 2014
Typhoon!
mily Ortega was going to have a baby. But a storm was coming. A very big storm. Emily lives in the Philippines (see page 2). When the typhoon came, she ed to an evacuation center. She thought she would be safe. But huge waves destroyed the shelter. Emily had to swim. She made it to a nearby airport. There, her healthy baby girl was born. That is some good news. But there is much bad news in the Philippines. About 10,000 people died in the storm. The storm was one of the most powerful typhoons ever to hit land.
Almost 10 million people are affected by the destruction. They have lost homes, roads, and bridges. Food and clean water are hard to get. Bobbie Womack works in the Philippines with the HOPE Foundation of America. The group teaches new believers about Christianity. She says the people need help quickly. Relief goods are trickling in very slow, she says. People are desperate and confused. A woman from the town of Guiuan cried, I have no house, I have no clothes. I dont know how I will restart my life. The HOPE Foundation was helping the Filipinos even before the storm. HOPE stands for Healing Overwhelming Pain Everywhere. Even before the typhoon hit, most Filipinos lived in poverty. The missions group provided food, training, and Bible lessons. The Philippines now faces overwhelming pain. And with it, there are more opportunities than ever to spread the love of Jesus.
Top: A man feeds his child from a bottle in the wrecked port city of Tacloban, the Philippines. Bottom: Survivors board a military plane that will carry them to safety.
January 2014
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AP Photos
Island Makeover
at Island, Alaska, has earned a name change. It is now called Hawadax Island. Thats because a recovery project is being called a success. Long ago, the 6800-acre island became infested with Norway rats. That probably began in the 1780s. A ship wrecked on the island. Rats aboard the ship found a home there. They invaded ground burrows that birds had built. The rats ate the eggs and young chicks. For a couple hundred years, the rats thrived. They multiplied. And as they did, the ravenous rodents ate themselves out of a home. The birds and other wildlife died out. The rocks and beaches were strewn with empty snail shells and bird bones. With the ecosystem (the balance of plant and wildlife) destroyed, the island fell into an eerie silence, says biologist Stacey Buckelew. In 2008, a team of scientists and conservationists began a project. They wanted to restore the island.
See ya!
RUSSIA
Hawadax (Rat) Island
Alaska
(U.S.A.)
Aleutian Islands
They used a poisonous rat bait. Slowly, the rat population decreased. Now the rats are gone. Birds began to return to the island. Tufted puffins now breed on Hawadax. Other shorebirds and ground-nesting birds have arrived. Even song sparrows fill the air with their sounds now. We set the island back on its course to being a normal, productive and noisy island full of bird life, says Alaskan conservationist Randy Hagenstein. No people live on the island. But it is an important spot for migrating birds. Now those birds can nest there again. And their young will grow up safely.
NEWS FLASH!
January 2014
Nelson Mandela takes the oath of office to become South Africas first black President.
announced Mr. Mandelas death to the world. He said, We have lost our greatest son. Many people were saddened by the news. Nelson Mandela was not a perfect A biography of Nelson man. But his life Mandela is available at had a big impact on how kids.WNG.org people treat one another.
AP Photos
January 2014
NEWS FLASH!
Tail-Wagging Science
ogs wag their tails when they are happy, right? Actually, the way a dog wags might communicate more than just that. Some scientists in Italy noticed a difference in tail-wagging. When a dog saw something that made it happysuch as its ownerit wagged its tail a little to the right. But if that dog was nervous or unhappylike when it saw a strange or threatening dogthen it wagged more to the left. Italian researchers arent the only ones who notice the direction of the wags. They say that other dogs pick up on it too. In addition to the direction of the tail, dogs heart rates change. When wagging to the left, heart rate increases. Think of how your heart might beat fast when something scares you. Dogs will act friendlier or more nervous to go along with the tail signals. In this way, they are sending information even to other dogs. The scientists say that when two dogs meet, they respond based on the
AP Photos
A dog reacts to video of another dog wagging its tail. The dogs heart rate is shown on a computer screen.
tail-wagging direction. If, for instance, Fido is happy when he sees Rover, he will wag to the right. Rover will notice. He may respond with right-tail wagging too. But if Fido feels threatened, he will wag to the left. Rovers heart rate may go up then, showing he is a little bit afraid or nervous around Fido. More than 43 different dogs were used in the study. It included pure breeds as well as mixed breeds.
NEWS FLASH!
January 2014
ENE
Pollution shrouds Shanghai, China.
January 2014
NEWS FLASH!
ERGY
The Search for Perfect Power
lmost everything in your house that has an on button uses energy. Most of the worlds energy comes from fossil fuels. Fossil fuels are coal, oil, and gas. They were formed from the remains of plants and animals buried deep in the Earth. They must be burned to release their energy. Burning almost anything causes pollution. God wants us to take good care of our planet. That means we need to use our energy wisely. So we look for ways to get energy without pollution. The best options come from biomass (plants), solar (sun), and wind. Those are all renewable. That means they dont run out. We are already using these forms of power. But we still use about eight times more fossil fuel than these sources. Will renewable fuels power our future? Lets look at the pros (positives) and cons (negatives).
A
AP Photos
The first offshore wind turbine in the United States spins off the coast of Maine.
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January 2014
a good idea . . .
he government made a new law in 2007. To help cars create less pollution, all gasoline would be blended with ethanol. Ethanol is an alcohol. It can be made from plants like corn. It burns cleaner than gasoline. Using ethanol sounds like a good solution. It causes less pollution. And if you need more fuel, just grow more plants, right?
South Dakota farmer Robert Malsom makes a profit growing corn for ethanol. Background: An ethanol plant is located next to a cornfield near Coon Rapids, Iowa.
. . . or environmental
disaster?
Digging up land releases gases like carbon dioxide into the atmosphere. Growing all that corn required more fertilizer. Some of it polluted more water. The factories where ethanol is made use fossil fuels. Those pollute the atmosphere. Making ethanol causes more pollution than adding ethanol to gas prevents. So why do we keep making ethanol? The government wants people to keep trying to make renewable fuel. Cutting support for ethanol could be discouraging. And now the farmers have invested in growing corn. Changing ethanol laws might cause some farms to fail. Energy from plants still offers hope for a greener future. But developers could focus on creating energy from materials that would otherwise become trash.
t turns out that making ethanol hurts the environment more than it helps. Farmers began growing more corn. They rushed to nd new places to plant it. They plowed ve million acres of land. Before, that land was set aside for conservation. Conserving means the soil nutrients dont get used up. And no dust and dirt blows away into the air or washes off into streams either. To grow so much more corn, farmers used more land than three big National Parks combined: Yellowstone, the Everglades, and Yosemite!
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At left, a driver fills his tank with fuel containing ethanol. Below, environmentalist Craig Cox inspects a corn field near Ames, Iowa for erosion.
Aw, shucks, Uncle Sam. We know you mean well, but its clear you arent very good at this game. Dear reader, did you know? Ethanol is not the rst of Uncle Sams corny ideas to miss the mark. A few years back, American corn farmers wanted help. So Uncle Sam pushed companies to use high-fructose corn syrup (HFCS) in foods they produced. HFCS is sort of like edible ethanolits fuel for our bodies. So Uncle Sam gured it would be a win-win. Farmers would sell more corn, and consumers would get this fuel in many more foods. There was a kernel of truth in it. Farmers were helped. They grew, and sold, a lot more corn. But consumers? Not so much. It turns out HFCS isnt so good for our healthand now its found in food on every aisle of your grocery store. Oops!
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January 2014
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Solar:
sunny solution . . .
f youve ever had sunburn, youve experienced the heat energy of the sun! But did you know that you can collect that same solar energy using a special panel? Then it can be used to power your home. In one neighborhood in New Palz, New York, builders are creating zero-net energy homes. Those houses are built so that they create the energy their owners need. The houses use solar panels to turn the suns energy into electricity. If the solar panels collect extra energy, homeowners can sell it to the electric company. It can be used by other customers. The homes are built with thick walls and insulated rafters and foundations. These keep the cold or heat inside, depending on the season. Net-zero homes also use a system of pipes in the ground. This helps keep the temperature comfortable. It sounds like a good deal. Netzero homeowners save thousands of dollars each year on electric bills. But the smallest, cheapest home offered in the New Palz neighborhood costs $399,000. Thats almost half a million dollars!
. . . or shifting
costs?
$100 a month. But the solar industry said APS was trying to stop people from using solar. There are already 20,000 APS customers using solar. About 500 more get solar panels each month. APS loses thousands of dollars each time someone adds solar panels. The state agreed that solar customers should help pay. But they set the fee at only $5.
n Arizona, the electric company, Arizona Public Service (APS), wanted more money from solar customers. They said that solar customers use their electricity when they dont have enough solar power. Solar customers bills are so low, theyre not helping to pay for power plants and power lines. APS wanted to charge solar customers $50 to
Solar panels provide energy for this house in Chevy Chase, Maryland.
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Left: A business owner checks the performance of his solar panels. Below: Jim Raines and David Palmer stand near the solar panel array at their companys headquarters in Starkville, Mississippi.
A Positive Innovation
Researchers at a university in South Africa have developed a new kind of house. It is called an iShack. The small shacks were created to help improve life for people in very poor areas called slums. The shack roofs collect rainwater. They also have solar panels. These power lights and cell phone chargers. Thats a big deal for people whove never had electricity! Each shack is insulated. This keeps it cool in the summer and warm in the winter. Windows catch breezes. American billionaires Bill and Melinda Gates have a foundation that gives money to projects that help the poor. Their foundation awarded the iShacks developers enough money to build 40 to 100 more of the shacks in South Africa.
Solar iShack
NEWS FLASH!
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Wind turbines:
safe solution . . .
BIBLE2LIFE
No form of power is perfect. Almost all work well on a small scale. But the bigger they get, the more problems they create. Thats to be expected. We live in a world that is broken by sin. Does that mean we should just give up? Should we quit trying to nd better, cleaner ways to create energy? Of course not! Genesis 1:28 tells us man is to care for Gods creation. We are made in Gods image. Like Him, we have creative abilities. Finding cleaner ways to produce energy is a good way to help protect Gods world. No single idea alone is going to solve the worlds energy problems. But every day, people are working on creative ideas that help make the world a little less polluted.
apan has a new wind farm. But its in the water! Right now, there is an only one huge wind turbine (windmill). Eventually the farm will have 143. The wind turbines will sit in the water near a nuclear power plant. The plant was destroyed in a tsunami. The new wind eld is a ray of hope for the future. After the tsunami, the nuclear power plant had to be shut down. It was leaking dangerous materials into the water and air. Since then, this area of Japan cant supply energy anymore. Before, that was one of its main jobs. The new wind farm will bring jobs back. The wind farm will feed electricity to the power system the nuclear plant used to supply.
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Below, a golden eagle, like the one at right, flies near a wind turbine in Wyoming. Another Positive Innovation
Catching Rays
. . . or threat to
wildlife?
Wind turbines have killed at least 67 eagles in the last ve years, maybe more. But even worse, theyve killed many more bats. One biologist estimates more than 600,000 bats were killed by wind turbines last year. Bats can eat thousands of insects in a single night. They also help pollinate plants. The loss of hundreds of thousands of bats each year could create problems. Bats help kill pests that kill crops. How will the loss of all those bats affect plant life?
wind turbines spinning blades create energy. This energy can make electricity. But the blades are huge. Each blade can be longer than a basketball court and a half! Blades reach speeds up to 170 miles per hour. That means they pose a danger to anything that gets in their way. They can rise as high as a 30-story building. What gets in their way up so high? Birds and bats.
In Rjukan, Norway, its nearly dark from September to March. Thats because the town is wedged between steep mountains. This winter, that changed. The town placed three giant mirrors on one of the mountains. The mirrors reect light into the town square below.
Left: The first of Japans new offshore wind turbines Background: Wind turbines turn at a wind farm near Limon, Colorado.
An artist and resident of the town named Martin Anderson helped raise money to pay for the project. It was no small job. The 20-foot mirrors had to be carried by helicopter. Then they were lifted into place with wooden tripods. Cheering families watched from below. They waved Norwegian ags to celebrate the newly reected sunlight.
AP Photos
NEWS FLASH!
January 2014
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PHINEAS GAGE
The Explosive Man, 1823-1860
He loved a good explosion. Phineas had spent his childhood exploring deep quarries near his familys New Hampshire home. Dynamite was fascinating to his cool, calm mind. He felt that a wild energy lived beneath everything. He knew it was in the solid rock. He knew it lived inside himself. But he did not know that the untamed side of his own mind would be set free on this day. It was September 13, 1848. Phineas began to prepare an explosive for the next section of the railway. He made a long, slender hole in a huge rock. He put a layer of gunpowder into the hole. Then came a layer of sand. Phineas would shove a tamping
ll clear! The call came down the line. The men braced themselves. BOOM! The ground shook beneath them. A great wall of rock shuddered and split into bits. These rolled down into a pile before them. The last sound they heard was of someone laughing. It was Phineas Gage. The men worked on a railroad wrecking crew. Their job was to clear a way for train tracks. They used explosives. And they were working on the Rutland and Burlington Railroad near Cavendish, Vermont. Phineas Gage was their foreman. He was a natural leader. He had a level temper and even personality.
iron into the hole next. It was 3 feet 7 inches long. And its tip end was sharpened to a point. Something distracted Phineas on this hole. No one knows what. And it doesnt really matter. What matters is that the blast was ignited before it was ready. The pure iron rod shot from the hole like a long bulletWHOOSH! It went straight through Phineas Gages head. The story should end here. But it doesnt. Phineas lay on the ground. He shook violently. But he was alive. The tamping rod had landed 25 yards away. The crew ran to help Phineas. He was bleeding badly. But he was able to walk and talk! The men rushed him to town to see Dr.
Frontal lobe
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AP Photos
Edward Williams. He remembers: I rst noticed the wound upon the head. The pulsations of the brain were very distinct. The top of the head appeared . . . as if some wedge-shaped body had passed from below upward. Phineas family was both horried and thankful. How could he survive such a thing? But they soon would nd out that he had not. The Phineas they had known was gone. His personality changed dramatically. Phineas was unable to work as a foreman again. He seemed to have lost the ability to control what he said and did. Doctors and scientists became very interested in this change. They began to explore how the human mind works. They learned many things about human mental health and brain function from Phineas. Phineas Gage died in San Francisco on May 20th, 1860. He had lived 12 years past his accident. Jonathan Cate
BIBLE2LIFE
The story of Phineas Gage is amazing. It also is startling. How can a brain injury change our personality? Phineas injury shows how wonderful our bodies are. But it reminds us that we are weak too. We Christians can rely on a personality that does not change. It is Jesus Christ. He is the same yesterday, today, and forever. (Hebrews 13:8) Our true identity does not depend upon us. We are in Christ.
Gods World News
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This engraving shows the path of the iron rod through Phineas Gages skull.
Gage portrait from the collection of Jack and Beverly Wilgus
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January 2014
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In TOON!
Under the new healthcare lawnicknamed Obamacarethe cost of health insurance for many people has gone up. These people havent been happy when told how much their new insurance is going to cost. The cartoonist portrays President Obama as a doctor performing a checkup on one of these patients.
Obamacare might be President Obamas biggest accomplishment. But the law is not popular. Part of what it is meant to do is to provide more people with health insurance. But if early trends continue, fewer people may end up being covered. The cartoonist illustrates this possibility along with the effect it is having on the Presidents popularity.
Why did the chicken cross the road? Las Vegas police are on the case!
butseriously...
This Las Vegas, Nevada, police officer is actually dressed as a turkey, not a chicken. Why? Hes catching drivers who dont stop for people walking in crosswalks. If someone doesnt notice a man in a turkey suit crossing the street, how will they notice a regular person? The police are handing out tickets to turkeys who arent paying attention.
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Foto File
I cant get by with just one outt!
...off my feeeeeeeeeet!
AP Photos
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January 2014
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benefit from His work, and from the work of other people who study and imitate it. This is an act of grace on Gods part. We sometimes call it common grace. The Bible says that God sends good things, such as rain, to all peopleeven to unbelievers. Matthew 5:45 says, For He makes His sun rise on the evil and on the good, and makes His rain fall on the just and on the unjust. In the same way, God equips believers and unbelievers to invent magnificent things to serve others. But it was God the Creator who thought of it first! Here are some of the inventions made by people, but inspired by Gods own handiwork.
I
Some people like to fly through the air. Thanks to a special suit, they can do it without a plane! A wingsuit adds surface area to the human body. The greater surface, spread out, catches more air. That lets the body create liftthe force needed to stay aloft. Have you ever seen a flying squirrel? The flying squirrel has flaps of skin connecting its legs to its body. The skin acts like a parachute to catch air. The squirrel glides. Inventors copied the squirrels design to make the wingsuit for people!
Wingsuit
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SLIPS
Nothing sticks to it. This new articial material is called a Slippery Liquid-Infused Porous Surface, or SLIPS for short. It was developed at Harvard University. People wanted a material that wouldnt be damaged by liquids. They wanted something that wouldnt get dirty. So scientists looked closely at the pitcher plant. Its leaves are slippery. Insects slide right down into the pitcher. They cannot climb out. Those scientists created an articial version of the surface of pitcher plant leaves. It never needs cleaning. Nothing at all will stick to it. It can be used indoors or out.
Spider silk is very strong. Scientists want to use it in surgeries to help people. But they need lots of silk for that. Researchers at Utah State University found the DNA code for spider silk. It is made of proteins. Goats milk also contains proteins. The scientists put the DNA code for spider silk inside the goat milk protein. Now goats can make spider silk. The silk is stronger than Kevlarthe material that bullet-proof vests are made from. The strong new silk can be used to repair damaged ligaments in people. Because it is made of living proteins, it does not cause a bad reaction in patients.
The pitcher plant: Super slippery before SLIPS was invented.
More spider silk than spiders can make? Not baaaad, goats!
AP Photos
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January 2014
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Now Tyrone touches lots of horses daily. Thats because of a program sponsored by the South Carolina Thoroughbred Retirement Foundation. SCTRF wants to help inmates become grooms. The group believes it can help keep inmates from returning to prison later, after they get out. The prison houses about 1000
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men. Twice each year, about a dozen will enter the program called Second Chances. It lasts six months. The inmates feed, exercise, and provide basic training for 33 horses. They learn about grooming and animal health care. They muck stalls. If they do well, they will graduate from the program. Each graduate earns a Groom Elite card. This makes getting a job easier when he gets out of prison. Waterees farm manager says
the horses are good for the men. But the program is difcult. Some dont graduate. The ones who do have to really want to get better. At rst, the horses terried Tyrone. But he gradually faced his fear. Tyrone graduated from Second Chances last year. Now he helps other inmates in the program. About the horses, Tyrone says, Theyve taught me patience more than anything else. Theres hope in me now. Gods making a way through these horses . . . blessing me. The animals are retired racers. They are bred to run, but now they are too old to compete. When they can no longer race, they have to release energy in other ways. The care, training, and exercise they receive at Second Chances calms them. Thats good for the horses. The inmates in the program get to work with the animals away from the main prison campus.
Photos: Tim Dominick/The State
They begin to learn how to use their freedom wisely. Thats good for the people. Aiken is another inmate. He participates in the Second Chances program. He plans to help run a horse farm when he gets out. Ive learned to respect life, he says. Tyrone shuts the stall door. He playfully scolds the horse, Blame, for trying to nudge it open again. I always liked cowboy movies growing up. Did I ever think Id be taking care of horses? No. But theyre taking care of me too, Tyrone says. Wateree has released 18 Second Chances graduates since 2010. Not one has returned to life behind bars. Prison ofcials say they believe what Winston Churchill once said: Theres something about the outside of a horse thats good for the inside of a man.
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PUZZLING TIMES
This news story contains errors. Read carefully. Can you find three spelling, three punctuation, and three capitalization errors? There also are three errors of fact. What are they? Sharp-Eyed Editor
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Fill-in-the-Laughs!
Before you peek at the letter on page 29, fill in the blanks below with the words requested. 1. Adjective: _______________ 2. Noun: __________________ 3. Adjective: _______________ 4. Verb: __________________ 5. Noun: __________________ 6. Noun: __________________ 7. Verb: __________________ 8. Verb: __________________ 9. Noun: __________________ 10. Sport or Musical Instrument: _________________________ 11. Unit of Time: ___________ 12. Place: ______________ 13. Time of Year: ___________ 14. Famous Person: _________________________ 15. Adjective: ______________ 16. Adjective: ______________ 17. Adjective: ______________ 18. Verb: _________________
Oldest Airman
Walter Crenshaw was a Tuskegee Airman. Hes the oldest one still alive. He blew out the candles on his 104th birthday cake in October.
More than 100 people came to honor him. The Tuskegee Airmen were a team of African American flyers. They served during World War II. At that time, black and white servicemen did not work
together. The Tuskegee Airmen were good at their jobs. Later, in 1948, the United States integrated its armed forces. Now all races of people work together.
This baby penguin has no parents. The parents left it on the outskirts of Cape Town, South Africa, in December. A volunteer who works to help birds is holding the penguin chick. Over the Christmas season, bird lovers could make donations to care for African penguin chicks like this one. A donation of $50 pays for a chicks care until it can return to the wild. That usually takes three to six months.
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Building a Man
Do these two look like twins to you? One has a body of metal and tubes. The other has a body of skin, muscle, and bones. But their faces look alike. A television company built a robot that looks like Bertolt Meyer. Many doctors and scientists joined the project. The robot listens when spoken to. It responds through a speech generator. Its face
is based on a 3-D scan of Mr. Meyers face. The artificial man is the subject of a Smithsonian Channel television documentary called The Incredible Bionic Man. The robot has a working heart-lung system. It has arteries, blood, a pancreas, and a kidney. But all those parts are man-made. Some key body parts are still missing though. There is no digestive system, liver, or skin. And of
the organs are a long way from being used in humans. Kepler-78b appears to be made of rock and iron just like Earth. Its a little bigger than Earth and nearly double its mass, or weight. Kepler-78b is located in the Cygnus constellation hundreds of light-years away. It orbits its sun very rapidly completing its year every eight and one half hours. Gods universe is vast. So far, more than 1000 planets outside our solar system have been confirmed.
Falling Stars
A mysterious disease is affecting starfish along Americas west coast. It is called sea star wasting syndrome. Marine scientists are finding large numbers of sick starfish. The creatures have white spots on their bodies. As the disease spreads, the starfishs arms will fall off. The animals die. The die-off was noticed during the summer of 2013. It continues now. Its not the first time
AP Photos
large numbers of sea stars have gotten the disease in California waters. It happened before in 19831984. It happened again in 1997-1998. But waters were warmer then The El Nio weather pattern was going on both times. This year, waters have not been warmer than normal. Scientists are scratching their heads. What could be the cause of the sicknessand when might it end?
Its a first. Scientists have found a planet way out in the cosmos that is close in size and content to Earth. But hold off on making travel plans. This rocky world is so close to its sun that it is at least 2000 degrees hotter than on Earth. Yes, we said 2000 degrees. Astrophysicists say that the exoplanet (a planet outside our own solar system)
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January 2014
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find Gods Jewel. Tana paid $7 to get into the park. She left with a precious stone worth much, much more than that! She isnt the only kid to find a diamond there. Twelveyear-old Michael Dettlaff had found a 5-carat diamond at the same park two months earlier. He named his Gods Glory Diamond. Arkansas Crater of Diamonds State Park is the only diamond-producing site in the United States that is open to the public.
Prince Charles reads a birthday card he received during his recent visit to India.
baby Prince George. That means there are now three people waiting in line to take the throne. Even though Prince Charles is not yet king, he does do some royal jobs. He travels the world to meet with people. He promotes friendly relationships between countries. He is paid well, just for being the prince. As a younger man, Charles served in the Royal Navy. Now that he is 65, he will get a small retirement contribution from the Navy. Prince Charles says he will donate that money to a charity that helps elderly people.
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A Secret Sub
cables. The Navy could use it to tap The NR-1 submarine wires that carried was once a Navy secret. It information from was called a research vesother countries sel. But it went on many governments. military spy missions durMost of the ing the 1970s and 1980s. NR-1s military The sub was taken out missions are topof service in 2008. It was secret even today. taken apart. But now the Veterans who Navy has collected pieces served on the little of it again. It will be on sub still cant talk display in a museum in about what they Groton, Connecticut. did. Even their What made the NR-1 so wives dont know special? The tiny sub could the details. dive to 3000 feet. Thats But they can deeper than any other talk about what it submarine. Once on the was like to live on board. ocean floor, it rolled on The NR-1 had a crew of wheels. It had an arm with about ten men. The sub a claw for grabbing things. could stay underwater for It could work on undersea up to a month. The men ate frozen dinners the Stop! Dont read this story until you have
made a list of words as requested on page 26. Then use those words to fill in the laughs in the silly story below! 1. ___________
whole time. They bathed only once a week, using a small bucket of water. They burned special candles made of chlorate. Those released oxygen inside the sub for the men
to breathe. The NR-1 was the only one of its kind. Today, unmanned submarines are less expensive to operate. So the Navy uses more of those.
I have! Here are a couple of the 3. ___________ things I hope to before the 5. ___________ of this year: I want to help my Mom more around the asks, Ill 7. ___________, or
11. __________ 8. ____________,
6. _______________
. Whenever she
Then I want to learn how to play 10. ___________. Ill practice playing it every at
12. ___________
as
14. _______________
Those are my most 15. ________ yearly goals. Im sure your list is too. Its going to be a 17. ___________ year. I can hardly 18. _______ !
AP Photos
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ayla sat on a rock. Her A doctor has come to Kore! backpack was on the Kayla Emo was not, in fact, a ground at her feet. She doctor. She was an 18-year-old looked out on Kore, a with half a year of nursvillage in Ethioing school. But she pia. It was her wasnt afraid to n o i home for the touch people. t in Ac s n a i t s i r summer. It Even people Ch looked more disgured like a trash by leprosy. dump than Soon a long a village. line formed An Ethiobeside her. pian boy Another walked by. young nurse His foot had named Emily been cut. came from Kayla used the America. She sat with little Amharic she knew Kayla and her backpack. to say to him, Let me put a banThe two treated burns, skin disdage on that. eases, and head wounds. EventuShe dispensed Band-Aids, ally they made an old storage ointment, and ibuprofen from her closet into a clinic. backpack for a few weeks. Then At the end of the summer, word got out. Kayla left to nish nursing school.
s n o s r One Pe t c a p m I a i p o i h in Et
When she returned, they moved their clinic into a bigger building. A line of about 50 Ethiopians waited outside each day. Kayla treated the elderly, lepers, babies, and children. Many had wounds from ghts in the dump. Others were missing ngers or toes because of leprosy. Almost everyone was malnourished. Kayla remembered her moms voice: Dont turn your nose up at your food! There are people in Ethiopia who would love to have what you have! She was so right. God called Kayla to Africa when she was just 16. At rst, Kaylas dad was scared to put her on a plane by herself. After all, she was going about as far from their little New York farm as anyone could go! Dads are given to us to protect us, Kayla says. I waited for his blessing. Her father did
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nally approve letting her go for the summer. She had to raise money quickly. But the money did come in. Now Kayla is 22. She has spent three years going back and forth to Ethiopia. Even at home, she never stops thinking about the Ethiopians in Kore.
BIBLE2LIFE
God has given us all different gifts to serve Him and others. Kayla was not afraid to touch sick people. It gave her joy to do so. What gifts has He given you? Would you ever do something like Kayla has done?
Left: Kayla Emo checks a patient. Right: Kayla and fellow nurse Emily
Send us your thoughts: NFEditor@gwnews.com. Religion that is pure and undeled before God, the Father, is this: to visit orphans and widows in their afiction. James 1:27
Left to right: The dump in Kore, Kayla at the clinic door, and working inside the clinic
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January 2014
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TRUFFLES TREATS
ometimes it is hard to tell exactly how a word came into being.
by Rebecca Cochrane
Typhoon, page 4, is
one of those words. We usually look first to the ancient Latin and Greek. They were the building blocks of most European languages. But sometimes word connections seem to go back even farther than that. English had a word tiphon as early as 1555. It meant a very strong wind storm. Tiphon is thought to be from the Greek typhoon, which means the father of the winds. Picture a giant who is made of wind and you get the idea. But around the same time as that English word is recorded, a merchant named Caesar Frederick discovered a similar word in use in the East Indies. This word is the Chinese tai fung. It referred to more than just wind. A tai fung is the equivalent of our hurricane, and it is what we mean when we use the word typhoon now. Tai fung came from the Chinese tu, meaning big and feng, meaning wind. But thats not all! The Persians also had a word that sounded much the same. It is tufan. It is used to mean a big storm made up of cyclones and comes from a verb meaning to turn around. Truffles head may be what is spinning around as he tries to understand how so many unrelated languages could share a word that sounds and means something so similar. Do you think it is possible that this word is evidence of a time, long ago, when all people shared a common language? (See Genesis 11:1.) We dont know, but it is interesting to think about, isnt it?
The phrase comes from the Latin pro et contra. That literally means for and against. But its about more than just having an opinion. It could more completely say, Productive and Contrary. Something that is productive is good. In the same way that the Bible says God is for us, an element on the pro list is also for us. It will produce something good. It is moving things forward in a positive way. Something contrary is actively working the other way, though. Truffle is paddling hard in one direction. Does he realize that Sheepdog is paddling in the other direction? He is working in a way that is against, or contrary to, what Truffle is trying to do. There are many English words that use pro- and contra- as prefixes. Note how the pro- words are positive, and the con- words are negative. Here are a few:
proceedmove forward progressadvancement promotemove upward or ahead contrastcompare against contrabandgoods that cannot be sold legally contradictdeny or speak against
Our term counterclockwise also comes from the Latin contra prefix. It literally means to go against the direction of the clock.
R. Bishop
In the Energy feature, we listed the pros and cons of each type of energy. What does that mean?
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