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Raphael, The Miraculous Draught of Fishes. (Credit: Wiki Commons.)ROME - For the first time since 1983, all ten of Raphael’s grand tapestries depicting the lives of Saints Peter and Paul will be exhibited together in the Sistine Chapel, hanging at eye level beneath Michelangelo’s frescoed ceiling as was the original intention. Scheduled to be on display Feb. 17-23, 2020, this will be the Vatican’s way of honoring the famous Renaissance master as the world marks the 500th anniversary of his death. The last time they were presented was for the 500th anniversary of his birth. The artist, who died in...

This silent little collage of images and ideas is a visual poetry take on the values of SOTU 2020 ...... https://freedom-demokrasi-and-civilised-humanity.com/2020/02/07/one-minutes-silence-for-sotu/ ........ from a poet in Australia who has been reduced to hard times by feminism but is inspired by Donald Trump. Lest we forget our culture, our traditions and our better selves.

The Rolling Stones are revving up their lucrative rock ‘n’ roll machine once again: The iconic band has locked in a round of summer stadium shows. The Stones unveiled the 2020 leg of their No Filter Tour, a 15-city run that will kick off May 8 in San Diego and traverse the continent before wrapping up July 9 in Atlanta. Rolling Stones tickets will go on sale at 10 a.m. Feb. 14 (local time in each market). A presale for American Express card holders will run 10 a.m. Feb. 12 through 10 p.m. Feb. 13. Six decades on, a Rolling...

Feb 5, 2020 / 12:40 am (CNA).- A California state university has this week agreed to revise its policies and pay more than $240,000 in fees after a federal court last summer found that the university had discriminated against a student pro-life group and had used mandatory student fees to fund only university-favored views. In 2017, legal group Alliance Defending Freedom (ADF) filed a lawsuit on behalf of the pro-life student group Students for Life, after California State University–San Marcos denied the group access to funding paid for by mandatory student fees that should have been available to all student...

Today's Quotefall Puzzle features a quote by Dan Bongino. Click puzzle (or click here) for full size rendition, then use your browser's print command to print puzzle. Dan Bongino is an ex-Secret Service agent and conservative candidate for Congress who has a successful podcast with a blue-collar, Rocky Balboa-style of delivery. All hints, along with the answer, are provided in the first reply comment below, using filtered font to prevent accidental spoilers. Please refrain from disclosing the full answer in comments to prevent spoilers.To solve the puzzle: Enter the letters in the top half (letter columns) of the puzzle into the white...

The Associated Press said Thursday that it is unable to declare a winner of Iowa’s Democratic caucuses. With 97% of precincts reporting from Monday’s caucuses, former South Bend, Indiana, Mayor Pete Buttigieg leads Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders by three state delegate equivalents out of 2,098 counted. That is a margin of 0.14 percentage points. However, even as the Iowa Democratic Party’s effort to complete its tabulation of the caucus results continues, Democratic National Committee Chairman Tom Perez on Thursday asked the Iowa Democratic Party to conduct a recanvass. That is not a recount, but rather a check of the vote...

[Catholic Caucus] Sacrilege: Vatican Allows Pro-Abort Argentine President to Receive Communion Shows favor to secular official, contempt for Church law VATICAN CITY (ChurchMilitant.com) - Pro-abortion legislation is a top priority for Argentinian President Alberto Fernández, who received the Eucharist with his concubine in St. Peter's Basilica recently at the hands of a Vatican official. Bishop Marcelo Sánchez Sorondo, chancellor of the Pontifical Academy of Social Sciences, administered the Eucharist to President Fernández and Fabiola Yáñez, his mistress, on Jan. 31.  Fernández civilly divorced his wife Marcela Luchetti in 2005 and began his affair with Yáñez, 22 years his junior, in 2014.  The...

Rep. Sheila Jackson Lee, a Texas Democrat, suggested during an FBI oversight hearing on Wednesday that Russia is responsible for the vote-reporting issues from Tuesday’s Iowa caucuses. “I hope that the Iowa Democrats will ask for an FBI investigation on the app,” the Texas Democrat told FBI Director Christopher Wray. “I believe that Russia has been engaged in and interfering with a number of our elections dealing with the 2016 election.” Wray responded by reassuring Jackson Lee that the FBI shares her concern about Russian interference. “Certainly, we are also concerned about potential Russian interference with our elections,” Wray said....

BEIJING (AP) — Japan says 41 new cases of a virus have been found on a cruise ship that’s been quarantined in Yokohama harbor. That brings the total of cases to 61. The death toll in mainland China’s new virus outbreak has risen to 636, including a doctor who got in trouble with authorities in the communist country for sounding an early warning about the disease threat. Two docked cruise ships with thousands of passengers and crew members remained under 14-day quarantines in Hong Kong and Japan. Before Friday’s 41 confirmed cases, 20 passengers who were found to have the...

If the Democrats take one lesson from Iowa, it should be that simple, dependable technology is better than flimsy, new technologyAs I write this sentence I have no idea which candidates prevailed in the Democratic caucuses held in Iowa on Monday. That’s fine with me. We don’t know the results because the Iowa Democratic party fell into the same mania that has twisted the American economy, culture and political world for almost 40 years: the thoughtless pursuit of immediate gratification through the expensive installation of complex, fragile technological systems. We call it “smart” technology to mask how stupid we have...

Plans to put ten million electric vehicles on the road within ten years and rip gas central heating from every home are unveiled today. Energy regulator Ofgem has outlined how the nation will have to change the way it travels and heats homes to meet the Government’s target of net zero carbon emissions by 2050. The radical scheme to ‘greenwire’ Britain will be built around plans for a four-fold increase in electricity from wind farms around the coast. But the proposals will largely be paid for by families and businesses, adding billions of pounds to bills over the next 30...

A new trends analysis shows a significant increase in the number of patients diagnosed with stage-IA pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma (PDAC) in recent years and a decrease in the average age at diagnosis. These patients are also living longer. "Survival for patients with stage IA pancreatic cancer is much better than people realize and it has gotten better in recent years," Dr. Michael Goggins of The Sol Goldman Pancreatic Cancer Research Center at Johns Hopkins Medical Institutions in Baltimore, MD, told Reuters Health by email. Dr. Goggins and colleagues analyzed trends in newly-diagnosed stage-1A PDAC between 2004 and 2016 using the...

CNN White House correspondent John Harwood called President Donald Trump psychologically damaged Thursday after the president railed against his detractors. “This was a very disturbing tableau for the country,” Harwood said after the president’s remarks addressing the Senate’s vote to acquit Trump. . . . He added: “It was dark because he’s made clear that his mind is dark. This is somebody in deep psychological distress right now.

The repatriation of 565 Japanese citizens from Wuhan, China, in late January offered scientists an unexpected opportunity to learn a bit more about the novel coronavirus (2019-nCoV) raging in that city. To avoid domestic spread of the virus, Japanese officials screened every passenger for disease symptoms and tested them for the virus after they landed. Eight tested positive, but four of those had no symptoms at all, says epidemiologist Hiroshi Nishiura of Hokkaido University, Sapporo—which is a bright red flag for epidemiologists who are trying to figure out what the fast-moving epidemic has in store for humanity. If many infections...

Dee Snider did not like what he saw during Sunday’s Super Bowl halftime show. The Twisted Sister frontman criticized Jennifer Lopez and Shakira for what he considered too sexy performances for the NFL’s family-friendly audience, and insisted a rock band would have brought a different vibe. “Beginning to pole humping, ass slapping, ass shaking end. If that’s the requirements for a half-time show, none of the rock bands I know can or will do that. #justsayin,” Snider tweeted Sunday night. Dee Snider ✔ @deesnider Beginning to pole humping, ass slapping, ass shaking end. If that's the requirements for a half-time...

A Rasmussen poll released Thursday finds American voters tend to say President Donald Trump has made America “stronger” and that they are more “optimistic about the nation’s future than they have been in years.” According to the survey results, 46 percent of likely U.S. voters think the nation has grown stronger since the president’s election in 2016, while 41 percent say Trump has made the country weaker. Additionally, 50 percent of those surveyed say America’s best days are in the future, a drop since April 2019’s record high of 54 percent, but, as Rasmussen notes, “still higher than it has...

Certain foods that are considered traditional dishes or delicacies in some countries—such as horse meat, foie gras, or shark fins—are actually banned in the United States or certain states. Some foods are verboten because of ethical concerns regarding animal welfare. Still, other foods are prohibited due to concerns over potential health risks to people. Here are six foods banned by Uncle Sam due to health concerns in humans. Ackee is the national fruit of Jamaica. This tropical fruit is eaten when fully ripe and is used in an assortment of jams, drinks, and candies. When it’s unripe, however, ackee contains...

Rick Stengel was being facetious . . . right? Then again, given the authoritarian proclivities of the left, who knows? On Nicolle Wallace's MSNBC show this afternoon, Stengel — the former Time editor turned Obama aide turned MSNBC analyst — appeared on Thursday's Deadline White House and said: "Voters should be forced to listen to an entire Trump press conference because then I think it’s impossible to vote for him."Get the rest of the story and view the video here.

Why, when women earn the majority of college degrees and make up roughly half the workforce, do so few occupy the chief executive job? Women today lead 167 of the country’s top 3,000 companies. That’s more than double the share a decade ago, but still under 6%. For many, the barrier isn’t only a glass ceiling at the very top, but also an invisible wall that sidelines them from the kinds of roles that have been traditional stepping stones to the CEO position. A Wall Street Journal study of executives at the top companies, the biggest publicly traded firms by...

Starting in May 2010, The Washington Examiner reported, drawing on emails obtained by Citizens United, “Clinton Foundation staff pushed Hillary Clinton’s State Department to approve a meeting between Bill Clinton and a powerful Russian oligarch as her agency lined up investors for a project under his purview.” His name was Viktor Vekselberg of Renova (a Clinton Foundation donor) and the project under his purview was the Skolkovo Innovation Center, which is being built near Moscow. The following month, Bill Clinton would receive $500,000 for a speech in Moscow from a Renaissance Capital, a Russian investment bank with ties to the...