http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,321312,00.html
Man Sees ‘Mark of the Beast’; Cuts Off, Microwaves Hand
Wednesday, January 09, 2008
HAYDEN, Idaho — A man who believed he bore the “mark of the beast” used a circular saw to cut off one hand, then he cooked it in the microwave and called 911, authorities said.
The man, in his mid-20s, was calm when Kootenai County sheriff’s deputies arrived Saturday in this northern Idaho town. He was in protective custody in the mental health unit of Kootenai Medical Center.
“It had been somewhat cooked by the time the deputy arrived,” sheriff’s Capt. Ben Wolfinger said. “He put a tourniquet on his arm before, so he didn’t bleed to death. That kind of mental illness is just sad.”
It was not immediately clear whether the man has a history of mental illness. Hospital spokeswoman Lisa Johnson would not say whether an attempt was made to reattach the hand, citing patient confidentiality.
The Book of Revelation in the New Testament contains a passage in which an angel is quoted as saying: “If anyone worships the beast and his image and receives his mark on the forehead or on the hand, he, too, will drink the wine of God’s fury.”
The book of Matthew also contains the passage: “And if your right hand causes you to sin, cut it off and throw it away. It is better for you to lose one part of your body than for you whole body to do into hell.”
Wolfinger said he didn’t know which hand was amputated.
http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,321326,00.html
FAA: Terrorists Could Hack New Boeing Jetliner
Wednesday, January 09, 2008
In-flight entertainment has come a long way since passengers craned their necks to catch a glimpse of the flickering films shown in 1980s aircraft.
Today’s passengers expect on-demand video systems, telephones and even broadband Internet access.
Unfortunately, that’s not all they can do. The technology used by the new generation of aircraft is now so advanced that aviation officials fear that terrorists could use it to fly the plane.
Aviation regulators have refused to certify Boeing’s new 787 Dreamliner passenger jet until it redesigns its computer system to protect against such an event, The Times has learned.
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Readers of ThreatsWatch and related sites are probably not strangers to the controversy surrounding the firing of Stephen Coughlin, late an Islamic law scholar on the Joint Staff. Reportedly he was sacked for his “extreme” opinions on radical Islam, which included such radical ideas as not affiliating with Islamic groups with known, or suspected, ties to terrorist organizations.
Absent a substantial cadre of scholars of Islam’s cultural, theological and legal systems advising our defense and intelligence organizations, we cannot hope to win this war of ideas. Rather than abating the spread of hateful ideologies that ferment future generations of would-be jihadists, we will allow myths to perpetrate and falsehoods to go unchallenged. Our best-but-ill-informed intentions will become time and money sinks. Worse: our inability to successfully prosecute this aspect of the war guarantees that the balance of the conflict will have to contain a primarily kinetic component, when we should be striving to take our citizens out of harms way.