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Volume 1 Issue 210        Today’s News and Views     Wednesday, July 26, 2006

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Today's News and Views

Tech Trouble in the Voting Booth
Jurisdictions May Not Be Ready for New Gear, Analysis Says

By Zachary A. Goldfarb
Special to The Washington Post
Wednesday, July 26, 2006; A15

Last year, a report called "Asking the Right Questions About Electronic Voting" took a look at the issues surrounding the move by most of the country's election jurisdictions to electronic voting machines. The report's theoretical approach contrasted with the often bitter dispute about the security of the technology between activists and voting-machine vendors.

The report's authors -- a committee of National Research Council experts, including prominent computer scientists and two former governors -- then turned their attention to this year's elections. What they found, according to a council analysis released yesterday, is not reassuring:

"Some jurisdictions -- and possibly many -- may not be well prepared for the arrival of the November 2006 elections with respect to the deployment and use of electronic voting equipment and related technology, and anxiety about this state of affairs among election officials is evident in a number of jurisdictions."

More than a third of all of the nation's 8,000 voting jurisdictions will use new voting technology for the first time this year, according to Election Data Services.

"This is a moment of truth for electronic voting," said panel co-chairman Richard L. Thornburgh, a former Republican governor of Pennsylvania and U.S. attorney general. "You've got a lot of people who are working for the first time with the new technology. It should impart a greater note of caution than what you might normally attend to a regular election."

Thornburgh said the analysis is a "caution sign, not a stop sign, but not a clean bill of health for a technology that everyone recognizes there may be problems with."

The new voting technology includes optical-scan and touch-screen machines. In 2004, only 10 to 15 percent of jurisdictions had replaced old voting machines. Widespread efforts to replace outdated voting machines came after passage of the 2002 Help America Vote Act, which set new standards and procedures.

Concerns about the new technology -- largely about alleged vulnerabilities to manipulation -- were raised nearly as soon as the machines were rolled out.

So far, in this year's primaries, the problems have been related to the machines breaking down or being used incorrectly by election officials. For example, optical-scan machines used in a May primary in Cuyahoga County in Ohio could not read the ballots because the black lines separating sections were thicker than on ballots elsewhere in the state, and the fill-in ovals were in a different place, a review recently found. The result was a long delay in ballot counting.

Numerous other localities have experienced problems, most notably the delay in results of a March primary in Cook County, Ill.

The National Research Council analysis notes several potentially problematic areas. Some states may be unable to comply with the 2002 law's deadlines for upgrading technology, meaning it is not yet clear whether they will use old or new technology this year. There are questions about whether voters will be able to use the new equipment without confusion, and whether there is enough time to train poll workers.

"When organizations roll out technology, they do it in a small way. They do a lot of testing and prototyping. We're doing it in one fell swoop and that creates certain kinds of risks," said Herbert S. Lin, a senior research scientist who served on the staff of the committee.

Among the report's recommendations is that jurisdictions run tests on Election Day on randomly selected machines.

Dana DeBeauvoir, clerk of Travis County, Tex., home to Austin, is credited with implementing one of the most comprehensive plans for Election Day. She'll do no fewer than three tests on her voting machines to ensure they are giving accurate results.

"You're always looking for the latest threat. That's not paranoid," she said. "That's good scientific method. We're dealing with voting systems that are scientific instruments."

© 2006 The Washington Post Company

Words of Power

Monday, July 24, 2006

Hard Rain Journal 7-24-06: Five Stories about the Reality of Global Warming, Is Continued Denial Criminally Insane?

Hard Rain Journal 7-24-06: Five Stories about the Reality of Global Warming, Is Continued Denial Criminally Insane?

By Richard Power

A mental defect or disease that makes it impossible for a person to understand the wrongfulness of his acts or, even if he understands them, to distinguish right from wrong. Defendants who are criminally insane cannot be convicted of a crime, since criminal conduct involves the conscious intent to do wrong -- a choice that the criminally insane cannot meaningfully make. NOLO Glossary Definition of Criminal Insanity

Here are five news items. Three about the danger to the planet, two about human denial. Five news items. One for each finger of the hand you write with, dial the phone with, or raise into a fist. Three news items about the danger to the planet, And two news items about human denial, a depth of denial that, in this case, should be categorized as criminal or insane. Ah, better yet, criminally insane.

Record-smashing summer heat waves are melting glaciers and causing Swiss Alps to begin to crumble (literally).

Scientists studying forest and peat fires in Siberia, Canada, California and Australia report that global warming has already led to increases in the number of fires and their intensity.

Global warming and deforestation have brought a second consecutive year of drought to the Amazon; one more year of drought, scientists say, could push the whole vast rainforest, the "lungs of the earth," over the tipping point and into a cycle of destruction which would turn it into a savannah at best, and impact weather as far away as Europe.

Meanwhile, in the USA...

The Bush-Cheney administration has removed "to understand and protect our home planet" from NASA's mission statement in an Orwellian effort to curtail the work of outspoken climate scientists like Dr. James Hansen.

And Sen. James Inhofe (R-OK), Chairman of the US Senate Committe on the Environment and Public Works told CNN's Glenn Beck that former Vice-President Al Gore is "full of crap" and that "this whole thing is a hoax."

Here excerpts with links to the full stories:

1. The 2003 heatwave triggered major rockfalls on the Matterhorn (Keystone). The risk of rockfalls and landslides in the Alps will continue to grow as the permafrost melts, warn the Swiss authorities. The Federal Environment Office has now drawn up a list of towns and villages most at threat from Switzerland's crumbling mountains. According to officials, all towns and villages situated on the valley floor are in danger of being hit by landslides....In addition to the risk of landslides, a number of places are threatened by lakes of meltwater. The fear is that natural barriers holding in the water could weaken due to global warming or that rockfalls could send a wall of water flooding over the top of dams. Wilfried Haeberli, a geology professor at Zurich University, told the SonntagsZeitung that the chances of a major disaster occurring increased as the permafrost melted....The issue of disintegrating Swiss mountains was brought home ten days ago by the spectacular mass of rock that broke off the Eiger mountain. Hundreds of thousands of cubic metres of rock collapsed after large fissures appeared in a giant slab of stone on the Eiger's eastern flank. Experts warn of more landslides as Alps melt, SWISS INFO, 7-23-06

2. Scientists worldwide are watching temperatures rise, the land turn dry and vast forests go up in flames. In the Siberian taiga and Canadian Rockies, in southern California and Australia, researchers find growing evidence tying an upsurge in wildfires to climate change, an impact long predicted by global-warming forecasters. Forest and peat fires release carbon dioxide into the atmosphere, adding to climate warming, which in turn will intensify forest fires, further worsening warming in a planetary feedback loop. "This is a carbon bomb," said Johann Goldammer, director of the Global Fire Monitoring Center at Germany's Freiburg University. "It's sitting there waiting to be ignited, and there is already ignition going on." Charles J. Hanley, Associated Press, 7-22-06

3. Deep in the heart of the world's greatest rainforest, nine days' journey by boat from the sea, Otavio Luz Castello is anxiously watching the soft waters of the Amazon drain away. Every day they recede further, like water running slowly out of an unimaginably immense bath, threatening a global catastrophe....It is a sign that severe drought is returning to the Amazon for a second successive year. And that would be ominous indeed. For new research suggests that just one further dry year beyond that could tip the whole vast forest into a cycle of destruction. Just the day before, top scientists had been delivering much the same message at a remarkable floating symposium on the Rio Negro, on whose strange black waters this capital city of the Amazon stands. They told the meeting - convened on a flotilla of boats by Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew of the Greek Orthodox Church, dubbed the "green Pope" for his environmental activism - that global warming and deforestation were rapidly pushing the entire enormous area towards a "tipping point", where it would irreversibly start to die. The consequences would be truly awesome. The wet Amazon, the planet's greatest celebration of life, would turn to dry savannah at best, desert at worst. This would cause much of the world - including Europe - to become hotter and drier, making this sweltering summer a mild foretaste of what is to come. In the longer term, it could make global warming spiral out of control, eventually making the world uninhabitable. Geoffrey Lean, Dying Forest: One Year to Save the Amazon: Time is running out for the Amazon rainforest. And the fate of the 'lungs of the world' will take your breath away, Independent, 7-23-06

4. Yesterday, Sen. James Inhofe (R-OK) attacked Al Gore and global warming science, claiming that Gore was “full of crap” on global warming. Appearing on Glenn Beck’s radio show and CNN television program, Inhofe said that the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), which concluded that global warming was real and caused by humans, used “one scientist.” Inhofe added: “[A]ll of the recent science…it confirms that I was right on this thing. This thing is a hoax."
Think Progress, 7-21-06

5. From 2002 until this year, NASA’s mission statement, prominently featured in its budget and planning documents, read: “To understand and protect our home planet; to explore the universe and search for life; to inspire the next generation of explorers ... as only NASA can. In early February, the statement was quietly altered, with the phrase “to understand and protect our home planet” deleted. In this year’s budget and planning documents, the agency’s mission is “to pioneer the future in space exploration, scientific discovery and aeronautics research.”....The “understand and protect” phrase was cited repeatedly by James E. Hansen, a climate scientist at NASA who said publicly last winter that he was being threatened by political appointees for speaking out about the dangers posed by greenhouse gas emissions....The revised mission statement was released with the agency’s proposed 2007 budget on Feb. 6. But Mr. Steitz said Dr. Hansen’s use of the phrase and its subsequent disappearance from the mission statement was “pure coincidence.”....Dr. Hansen said the change might reflect White House eagerness to shift the spotlight away from global warming. “They’re making it clear that they have the authority to make this change, that the president sets the objectives for NASA, and that they prefer that NASA work on something that’s not causing them a problem,” he said. NASA’s Goals Delete Mention of Home Planet, New York Times, 7-22-06

The political establishment is not providing leadership. The news media is not providing leadership.

Want to participate in the effort to mitigate the impact of global warming? Download "Ten Things You Can Do"

There is a powerful magic in personal commitment.

RELATED POSTS:

Hard Rain Journal 7-21-06: Heat Waves in Europe & US are Direct Consequences of Global Warming

Hard Rain Journal 7-12-06: Sustainability = Security, Not Only Energy Security, But Also An End to Terrorism

Words of Power #25: Lost Symbols, Part II -- The Rainbow Serpent Hisses, Lessons about Sustainability & Survival from Darfur, Senegal and Ecuador

Hard Rain Journal 6-27-06: Global Warming, Bush's Alleged "Incompetence," and the So-Called "Conservative" Agenda

Words of Power #20: Cusco, Kyoto and The Yellow Sand Storm

Words of Power #7: Global Warming Is A Security Threat To Your Family & Your Business

Richard Power is the founder of GS(3) Intelligence and http://www.wordsofpower.net. His work focuses on the inter-related issues of security, sustainability and spirit, and how to overcome the challenges of terrorism, cyber crime, global warming, health emergencies, natural disasters, etc. You can reach him via e-mail: richardpower@wordsofpower.net. For more information, go to www.wordsofpower.net

Geopolitics, Global Warming, Energy Security, Environmental Security, Alternate Energy, Sustainability, Renewable Resources, Climate Change, Weather, Al Gore, An Inconvenient Truth, Swiss Alps, Amazon, Glenn Beck

posted by Richard Power @ 5:43 AM

That Raise Might Take 4 Years to Earn as Well

Those with bachelor's degrees are finding their incomes stagnate despite a growing economy.

By Molly Hennessy-Fiske
Times Staff Writer

July 24, 2006

WASHINGTON — The economy has been steadily growing, with unemployment low and corporate profits at historic highs.

So why can't David Lewis get a decent raise?

Lewis worked his way up through a string of technology companies around San Jose, finally landing a $77,000-a-year Web design position. But in five years in that job, he received only a single 5% pay increase.

That was troubling for someone facing the rising costs of rent, food and raising a newborn daughter. But Lewis, 36, found it especially troubling because he had done what had traditionally helped Americans share in the benefits of a growing economy: He had earned a four-year college degree.

Wage stagnation, long the bane of blue-collar workers, is now hitting people with bachelor's degrees for the first time in 30 years. Earnings for workers with four-year degrees fell 5.2% from 2000 to 2004 when adjusted for inflation, according to White House economists.

It is a remarkable setback for workers who thought they were well-positioned to win some of the benefits of the nation's economic growth, and it may help explain why surveys show that many Americans think President Bush has not managed the economy well.

Not since the 1970s have workers with bachelor's degrees seen a prolonged slump in earnings during a time of economic growth. These workers did well during the last period of economic growth, 1995 to 2000, with inflation-adjusted average wages rising 12%, according to an analysis by the liberal-leaning Economic Policy Institute.

For Lewis, the decline in buying power prompted a drastic decision: Last year, he moved his family from San Jose to Gardnerville, Nev., where the cost of living is lower.

"Nothing else was going down except wages," said Lewis, who graduated from Cal State Long Beach in 1994 with a degree in fine arts. Now he is starting his own Web design business. His wife, Kimberly, works for the county director.

The recent wage slump has affected a substantial part of the workforce. About 30 million Americans age 20 to 59 have a four-year degree and no advanced degree, according to the National Center for Education Statistics.

The White House economists did not lay out wage trends for people with master's and other advanced degrees. But other studies have found that their inflation-adjusted wages were essentially flat between 2000 and 2004, and the studies have confirmed a decline for people with four-year degrees.

When wages for people with bachelor's degrees declined in the 1970s, the cause was a flood of baby boomers entering the job market.

This time, economists say, much of the blame goes to trends familiar to workers with less education, who are now creeping up the wage ladder.

Offshoring, which has shifted manufacturing and call-center jobs to such nations as Mexico and India, is increasingly affecting white-collar sectors such as engineering and software design.

And companies have continued their long effort to replace salaried positions with lower-paid, nonsalaried jobs, including part-time and freelance positions without benefits. Those contingent positions make up nearly half of the 6.5 million jobs created since 2001, said Paul Harrington, a labor economist at Northeastern University in Boston.

Harrington said the number of salaried jobs increased an average of 11.5% during the last five economic recoveries, compared with 2.5% during the current recovery.

"There's clear deterioration in the college labor market," he said. "The American economy just does not generate jobs the way it has historically."

Employment recruiter Alan Guarino has seen a similar change in his work. He says about 15% of workers with four-year college degrees are working at "gray-collar" jobs below their skill level, such as in retail, mainly because they cannot find better-paying jobs; before 2001, the figure was about 10%.

"A very significant percentage of the jobs we are creating are contingent jobs," not salaried positions, said Guarino, chief executive of Cornell International, a staffing firm.

Jonathan Hess, 25, took a low-paying job — and then found himself falling further behind.

A graduate of UC Santa Cruz, Hess has been working as a clerk at a Borders bookstore in San Francisco. Until recently, he was earning $1,300 a month, living paycheck to paycheck. Then the manager reduced staffers' hours and forced them to use their vacation time to avoid unpaid leave.

"It's a good corporation, but the wages are barely livable," Hess said of Borders Inc. "Anybody who's using it as their sole means of surviving — it's tough."

J. Tony Smith, 38, won a $5,000-a-year raise at his Web design job with a San Francisco art school, which boosted his salary to $55,000. But that has been his only raise in almost three years.

Smith feels like he has stalled while inflation hasn't.

"It's not a healthy economy, and folks do struggle paycheck to paycheck," said Smith, who graduated in 1990 from UC Santa Cruz with a degree in literature and theater. He worries about providing for his 11-year-old son and 7-year-old daughter.

Smith's sour opinion of the economy might seem unusual, given that gross domestic product has averaged a solid 3.8% growth in the last three years, including a 5.6% spurt in the first quarter of 2006. Unemployment remains low, 4.6%.

But Smith is far from the only person to take a dim view amid the upbeat statistics. In an Associated Press-Ipsos poll released July 14, 60% of respondents said they disapproved of how Bush was handling the economy.

"The administration is saying the only reason people are not sharing in the recovery is they don't have the right skills," said Lawrence Mishel, president of the Economic Policy Institute. But if college graduates are not doing well, Mishel said, "what does that say?"

Hess, the recent graduate living in San Francisco, said he was not surprised that the president had a low approval rating on economic policy, "if my job is any reflection of what people are experiencing."

Bush's advisors say graduates are earning less because their ranks are swelling and they face tougher competition for better-paying jobs.

But the advisors say it is a good sign that productivity is increasing, because a rise in wages tends to follow.

"Whether or not new college graduates are making more than they were five years ago, we do know the same people will be making more five years from now," said White House spokesman Ken Lisaius.

Not all college graduates are faring poorly. Starting pay is up for business administration, marketing and accounting majors, but down for humanities majors, according to the National Assn. of Colleges and Employers. Compared with 2005, starting salaries for accounting majors rose 5.5% this year, whereas those for English majors declined 4.1%.

However, some economists say wage stagnation could become a permanent fixture for most people with four-year degrees.

Harvard University economist Richard Freeman gained fame for his 1976 book "The Overeducated American," in which he detailed the previous erosion of college graduates' wages. Today, he believes college-educated workers will continue to see their wages erode because of the increasing globalization of the labor market.

And wage erosion is likely only to intensify as the number of college graduates rises in China, India and other offshoring hubs. China alone expects the number of college graduates to increase by 22% this year, with 4.13 million job candidates entering a domestic market with only 1.66 million jobs available, according to a Chinese government report released in May.

Still, a college education remains a ticket to higher-paying jobs. According to U.S. Census Bureau figures, college graduates earned an average of $51,206 last year, whereas high school graduates earned $27,915 and those with no high school diploma earned $18,734.

Smith, the San Francisco Web designer, said he would like to go back to college for a master's degree in education. He could earn more money as a teacher, he said, but he does not want to rack up student loans, and he cannot afford to take time off work to go to school.

When it comes to beating wage stagnation, he said, "I think people with families have it a bit harder. Folks who are single can take those risks."

In fact, economist Harrington predicted a related ripple effect from wage stagnation: "It's going to delay marriage. It's going to delay child-rearing," he said.

"Some of these people are never going to catch up. There is a real price we pay here in terms of the cost to the economy."

*

(INFOBOX BELOW)

Learn and earn?

The average annual wages of college graduates fell during the economic recovery; those of high school graduates rose. Figures are adjusted for inflation.

Four-year college graduates

2000: $54,396

2004: $51,568

Percent change: Down 5.2%

High school graduates

2000: $28,179

2004: $28,631

Percent change: Up 1.6%

Source: The 2006 Economic Report of the President

Copyright 2006 Los Angeles Times

Marshals: Innocent People Placed On 'Watch List' To Meet Quota

Marshals Say They Must File One Surveillance Detection Report, Or SDR, Per Month

POSTED: 9:49 pm MDT July 21, 2006

UPDATED: 10:56 pm MDT July 21, 2006

DENVER -- You could be on a secret government database or watch list for simply taking a picture on an airplane. Some federal air marshals say they're reporting your actions to meet a quota, even though some top officials deny it.

The air marshals, whose identities are being concealed, told 7NEWS that they're required to submit at least one report a month. If they don't, there's no raise, no bonus, no awards and no special assignments.

"Innocent passengers are being entered into an international intelligence database as suspicious persons, acting in a suspicious manner on an aircraft ... and they did nothing wrong," said one federal air marshal.

These unknowing passengers who are doing nothing wrong are landing in a secret government document called a Surveillance Detection Report, or SDR. Air marshals told 7NEWS that managers in Las Vegas created and continue to maintain this potentially dangerous quota system.

"Do these reports have real life impacts on the people who are identified as potential terrorists?" 7NEWS Investigator Tony Kovaleski asked.

"Absolutely," a federal air marshal replied.

7NEWS obtained an internal Homeland Security document defining an SDR as a report designed to identify terrorist surveillance activity.

"When you see a decision like this, for these reports, who loses here?" Kovaleski asked.

"The people we're supposed to protect -- the American public," an air marshal said.

What kind of impact would it have for a flying individual to be named in an SDR?

"That could have serious impact ... They could be placed on a watch list. They could wind up on databases that identify them as potential terrorists or a threat to an aircraft. It could be very serious," said Don Strange, a former agent in charge of air marshals in Atlanta. He lost his job attempting to change policies inside the agency.

That's why several air marshals object to a July 2004 memo from top management in the Las Vegas office, a memo that reminded air marshals of the SDR requirement.

The body of the memo said, "Each federal air marshal is now expected to generate at least one SDR per month."

"Does that memo read to you that Federal Air Marshal headquarters has set a quota on these reports?" Kovaleski asked.

"Absolutely, no doubt," an air marshal replied.

A second management memo, also dated July 2004, said, "There may come an occasion when you just don't see anything out of the ordinary for a month at a time, but I'm sure that if you are looking for it, you'll see something."

Another federal air marshal said that not only is there a quota in Las Vegas for SDRs, but that "it directly reflects on (their) performance evaluations" and on how much money they make.

The director of the Air Marshal Service, Dana Brown, declined 7NEWS' request for an interview on the quota system. But the agency points to a memo from August 2004 that said there is not a quota for submitting SDRs and which goes on to say, "I do not expect reports that are inaccurate or frivolous."

But, Las Vegas-based air marshals say the quota system remains in force, now more than two years after managers sent the original memos, and that it's a mandate from management that impacts annual raises, bonuses, awards and special assignments.

"To meet this quota, to get their raises, do you think federal air marshals in Las Vegas are making some of this stuff up?" Kovaleski asked.

"I know they are. It's a joke," an air marshal replied.

"Have marshals in the Las Vegas office, I don't want to say fabricated, but 'created' reports?" Kovaleski asked.

"Creative writing -- stretching a long ways the truth, yes," an air marshal replied.

One example, according to air marshals, occurred on one flight leaving Las Vegas, when an unknowing passenger, most likely a tourist, was identified in an SDR for doing nothing more than taking a photo of the Las Vegas skyline as his plane rolled down the runway.

"You're saying that was not an accurate portrayal of a potential terrorist activity?" Kovaleski asked.

"No, it was not," an air marshal said.

"It was a marshal trying to meet a quota ..." Kovaleski said.

"Yes, he was," the air marshal replied.

Strange said he didn't have a quota in the Atlanta office when he was in charge.

"I would never have done that ... You are going to have people reporting every suspicious looking activity they come across, whether they in their heart feel like it's a threat, just to meet the quota," Strange said.

Strange and other air marshals said the quota allows the government to fill a database with bad information.

A Las Vegas air marshal said he didn't write an SDR every month for exactly that reason.

"Well, it's intelligence information, and like any system, if you put garbage in, you get garbage out," the air marshal said.

"I would like to see an investigation -- a real investigation conducted into the ways things are done here," the air marshal in Las Vegas said.

Although the agency strongly denies any presence of a quota system, Las Vegas-based air marshals have produced documents that show their performance review is directly linked to producing SDRs.

Do you have a question or comment on this story? Call us at 303-832-TIPS or e-mail us.

Previous Stories:

• June 20, 2006: Air Marshals Across Country Warn Passengers Aren't Safe
• June 7, 2006: Report: Air Marshal Caught Sleeping On Flight
• June 7, 2006: Federal Air Marshal Spokesman Responds To 7NEWS Investigation
• June 6, 2006: Air Marshals Accuse Managers Of Compromising Safety

Copyright 2006 by TheDenverChannel.com.

2003 High 177  2004 High 157 2005 High 161 2006 High 159
2003 Low  133  2004 Low  135 2005 Low  143 2006 Low  151

Record High 182        Record Low 57  
24 Sept 01              12 Dec 93      

COMMENTS ON ACTIVE CATEGORIES

02 Occult
    The lack of activity has downgraded this category.
03 Satanism:
    Satanism is reported to be flourishing in Russia
04 Unemployment:
    The US job market shows signs of improvement. 
05 Inflation:
    Higher inflation has rattled the stock market.   
06 Interest Rates:
    Federal Reserve raises the core interest rate to 4.75% 
07 The Economy
    The economies of The U.S. and Japan show healthy growth.
08 Oil Supply/Price
    The price of oil climbs to around $70 per barrel.     
09 Debt and Trade:
    The U.S. federal and trade deficits hit new highs. 
11 Leadership
    During the past few weeks, several end-time categories
    have become locked in a holding patern.
12 Drug abuse:
    Drug use in teens declines by 11 percent 
17 Crime Rate:
    Murder and general crime in America shows a large increase. 
18 Ecumenism
    World religions have been at odds with each other.
20 Tribulation Temple
    The lack of activity has downgraded this category.
22 Israel:
    A terrorist group threatens Israel with chemical weapons
23 Gog:
    Events in the Middle East are moving closer to the Ezk 38 & 39
    prophecy.     
24 Persia (Iran):
    President Bush warned that Iran is seeking to produce nuclear     
    weapons.
26 Nuclear Nations
    The latest report on Iran has it still falling short of having     
    enough enriched uranium for a single nuclear bomb.
27 Global Turmoil:
    The Arab/Israeli conflict has upgraded this category.  
28 Arms Proliferation:
    Iran, China, and Pakistan continue to buildup their military. 
29 Liberalism
    The political scene in the U.S. favors liberal candidates.   
30  The Peace Process:
     Arab League chief: Peace process 'dead'
32 Mark of the Beast:
    The U.S. Patriot Act has failed to get enough votes for extension.      
33 Beast Government:
    The possibility of the EU reforming into a smaller group of 
    core nations has updated this category. 
35 Date Settings
    The occurrence of the 06/06/06 date has increased  interest in 
    numerical date speculation.
36 Volcanoes
    Indonesia's Mount Merapi volcano erupts  
37 Earthquakes
    A quake generated tsunami kills over 650 people. 
38 Wild Weather
    Australia is hit by the most powerful cyclone in 30 years. 
40 Famine:
    A peace agreement in Sudan will help relieve a fame caused 
    by war and drought.
42 Plagues
    World reports of infectious diseases has increased. 
43 Climate:
    The increase in the frequency of Hurricanes has experts wondering  
    if there is a connection to climate change.  
45 Floods
    The lack of activity has downgraded this category.

View the Gulf War high from 26 Oct 90
View the record high from 24 Sept 01
View the record low from 12 Dec 93

The Rapture Index categories explained

The Purpose For This Index

The Rapture Index has two functions: one is to factor together a number of related end time components into a cohesive indicator, and the other is to standardize those components to eliminate the wide variance that currently exists with prophecy reporting.

The Rapture Index is by no means meant to predict the rapture, however, the index is designed to measure the type of activity that could act as a precursor to the rapture.

You could say the Rapture index is a Dow Jones Industrial Average of end time activity, but I think it would be better if you viewed it as prophetic speedometer. The higher the number, the faster we're moving towards the occurrence of pre-tribulation rapture.

Rapture Index of 85 and Below:  Slow prophetic activity
Rapture Index of 85 to 110:     Moderate prophetic activity 
Rapture Index of 110 to 145:    Heavy prophetic activity 
Rapture Index above 145:        Fasten your seat belts 

 

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