From Watch.org (April 17)

• As talks intensify, Netanyahu mulls narrow coalition
  
  Likud sources: Initial coalition could include Likud, Kulanu, Habayit Hayehudi and ultra-Orthodox parties, after which Netanyahu would invite Labor to join • PM hopes to seal deal with Kulanu party by Tuesday before final two-weeks of talks commence.
  Coalition talks shifted to high gear on Wednesday when Likud and Kulanu negotiators met to finalize the terms of their emerging coalition deal. Both sides appear poised to sign the deal as early as next week. 
  Netanyahu, who is about to exhaust the 28 days he had been allotted by the president for the coalition talks, is expected to arrive at the President’s Residence on Tuesday to ask for more time. (Under the law, he may get another 14 days, at the president’s discretion.) Netanyahu hopes to have at least one official coalition partner when he makes that request, and has indicated that if he fails to seal the deal with Kahlon, he could turn to the ultra-Orthodox parties — Shas and United Torah Judaism.

• Hamas calls to abduct Israelis for future swaps
  
  A senior Hamas official in the Gaza Strip called on Thursday for the abduction of Israelis, who would be swapped for Palestinians held by the Jewish State. 
  “We tell the Zionist enemy: you are all a target for us and the resistance, we will fight you until we finally get rid of you and take as many captives as possible to free our heroes,” said Khalil al-Haya, whose Islamist movement de facto rules the Palestinian enclave.
  “Our men, our women, our children all envision kidnapping your soldiers and settlers, wherever they are,” he said on the eve of Prisoners Day which Palestinians mark April 17. 

• Lapid to Mogherini: EU foreign ministers are calling for a de-facto boycott of Israel
  
  A call by 16 European Union foreign ministers to label West Bank settlement products is irresponsible, Yesh Atid party head Yair Lapid said Thursday night as he spoke by telephone with the EU’s foreign policy chief Frederica Mogherini.
  “This is a de-facto call to boycott Israel,” he said. “There is no difference between products which are produced over the Green Line and those that are produced within the Green Line.
  “This is an irresponsible call that could create wreak havoc on the Israeli economy. This kind of call is a stain on the EU, and the state of Israel has to fight to prevent this kind of initiative,” he said.

• Arab world: Egypt’s dangerous stalemate
  
  Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi is fighting for his country’s survival – and his own.
  Islamic terrorism is not abating, hampering vital efforts to bring a better life to the people through a revitalized economy and political stability. Sisi knows he has to show results soon to prevent Egypt from slipping back into anarchy and chaos.
  Despite the army’s all-out effort to defeat Islamist insurgency in Sinai, there is no end in sight. F-16 fighter planes and Apache helicopters have joined the campaign, security forces have killed or wounded hundreds of terrorists, destroying their haunts and their training groups – but more keep coming.

• On the heels of a bad Iran deal: Obama Says ‘Never forget. Never again,’ in Remembrance Day Message
  
  US President Barack Obama called for a forceful stand against anti-Semitism in a message marking Israel’s Holocaust Remembrance Day.
  “It is incumbent upon us to make real those timeless words, ‘Never forget. Never again.’ Yet, even as we recognize that mankind is capable of unspeakable acts of evil, we also draw strength from the survivors, the liberators, and the righteous among nations who represented humanity at its best,” Obama said.
  “With their example to guide us, together we must firmly and forcefully condemn the anti-Semitism that is still far too common today. Together we must stand against bigotry and hatred in all their forms. And together, we can leave our children a world that is more just, more free, and more secure for all humankind.”

• North Korea Transfers Missile Goods to Iran During Nuclear Talks: Intelligence suppressed by Obama administration
  
  North Korea supplied several shipments of missile components to Iran during recent nuclear talks and the transfers appear to violate United Nations sanctions on both countries, according to U.S. intelligence officials.
  Since September more than two shipments of missile parts have been monitored by U.S. intelligence agencies as they transited from North Korea to Iran, said officials familiar with intelligence reports who spoke on condition of anonymity.
  Details of the arms shipments were included in President Obama’s daily intelligence briefings and officials suggested information about the transfers was kept secret from the United Nations, which is in charge of monitoring sanctions violations.

• Putin tells Netanyahu S-300 missiles not a threat to Israel
  
  After Russia okayed sale of advanced missile defense system to Iran, Netanyahu calls Putin to express concern that sale would bolster Iran’s regional terror activities.
  Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu spoke with Russia’s president to convey his displeasure over Russia’s decision to sell advanced anti-aircraft missiles to Iran. Putin for his part told Netanyahu that the missiles had only defensive capabilities and “pose no threat” to Israel. 
   Netanyahu’s office said he spoke with Vladimir Putin Tuesday to protest Russia’s planned delivery of advanced S-300 air defense missile systems to the Islamic Republic. The Kremlin confirmed the call in a statement on Tuesday.

Sitting here for years and looking at how scientists regard evolution in daily terms and how the argument from design reveals organisms hold unique and highly specified information, that in turn drives the existence of complex structure and function, leads to an idea … the genome in organisms is a library. Libraries hold much more information than one reads at any time. Books are checked out for a time and later returned. All the while, the library holds a vast amount of information, even in books hidden or buried in the stacks.

The following news feed from a scientific list serve seems to hint that corals, themselves a complex relationship of organisms, have within themselves the ability to check out and utilize information to survive changes in environment. Recent review of the scientific literature by Meyer indicates the invention of new information, traits, and thus genetic abilities by organisms is not known to the datasets collected by the scientific community. Perhaps as junk DNA becomes even more an understood entity we will see how extant, present information within living types is already present. How that got there in the first place leaves out the standard model and opens science to the new challenge.

When the sea grows warm or acid, it’s not by mutation but by endowment that organisms adjust to change. A well endowed library is the gift of life and that is replete with complex and specified information … that comes with the appearance of life.

From the list serve:

Researchers find coral can change physiology to survive warming seas
When oceans become warmer or acidic, coral reef apparently have the ability to change their physiology to survive, researchers have discovered. Studying coral off Ofu Island in American Samoa, researchers found that the coral can use their genes to turn on heat-resistant proteins. “What we don’t know is what their limits are, and when those limits are going to be reached by future climate change,” said marine biologist Stephen Palumbi of Stanford University. Nature (free content) (4/24)

In recent decades the scientific community was discouraged by the thought corals would die off due to climate change leaving a barren sea across the globe. But if we look for the libraries in life, we might see an entire array of informational gifts within. Some will try to sell it as evolution, but the information is still highly specified and complex without substantial explanation as to the origin. To understand that requires the big picture view here at the window.

Director, WindowView.org

WindowView points to a Convergence

As the new format was being created, there was a need to integrate all of the content. New navigation features help, but a new emphasis on what really summarizes the content throughout the site was desperately needed. In the past there were summary sections and a few pages entitled Convergence, but what really are we talking about?

To keep this post simple, here is one way of looking at convergence at WindowView: “Few people really stop to look at life and to understand that what is happening around the globe today was actually anticipated centuries ago.” 

If you glean the key realizations in the areas dealing with Change, Science, and Harmony … plus take a peek at the Timeline, you will see that there is an explanation for life and what is happening in the world today. Resistance to seeing where the evidence leads us … is an issue for you or others around you. In a nutshell, life is an opportunity to “get the idea why we are here” and to further understand there is a promise extended to all of us. There is even a page within the window that describes the promise.

If you visit the window, please send a comment, there are little notebook and pencil icons all around the site. Let us know what you think!

Director, WindowView.org

In a few months, maybe before, the WindowView.org web pages will be reposted with an entirely new format.  Part of this  will be a newly aligned focus stating the WindowView’s goal or focus is in simplest terms.

In a nutshell, the window is a metaphor for WHAT YOU see out there in the world today.  The view examines two spheres in parallel.  One sphere is science information, or data if you like.  The other sphere uses scriptural data, that is, information contained in the Bible.  The latter makes some people uncomfortable, but the idea is to understand that both sphere of information ARE telling all of us something today. What is key is an informational perspective. For those who turn away, the concept is a total loss. For those WHO LOOK at what information is plainly available to EVERYONE, the view is rather illuminating … down right interesting … and maybe by coincidences or purpose a real EYE OPENER! The WindowView therefore is not my window, or their window, it’s what you see … if you’ll just bother to look.

One problem today is we live in a world of too much information. Yeah … it’s mind numbing at times.  But that’s the point.  Too much and we turn off and just focus on the immediate needs, the paycheck, food, a place to live, and if the really bad news is about someone else, well, great!  We can’t be bothered.  Unless, events strike close to home. Then our perspective gets turned 180 and we are on the alert.  The adrenaline only surges when we face fright … and then flight … but where does one flee too when we’ve been so focused on only the small stuff for too long?

There rare several theme areas in the WindowView, including Science, Change, Harmony, and a Time Line.  The area on Change has not been given the attention it deserves and may be an area we’ll attend to more in the future.  But here too the message is a simple focus on an obvious observation: “If changes are truly global, then the impacts will hit everyone, sooner or later!”  You cannot escape such an observation if true.  That is, unless you can leave the planet for some other remote location.

Here are a few recent HEADLINES of articles that characterize a circle of change that is closing in on humanity …

===================

China’s sea level continues to rise

http://www.chinadaily.com.cn/china/2013-02/27/content_16259057.htm

“China’s sea level hit a record high in 2012 due to global warming and land subsidence, threatening millions of coastal residents, according to a government report.

The State Oceanic Administration report released on Tuesday said that last year, the sea level rose 122 millimeters more than the average level from 1975 to 1993, about 53 mm higher than 2011.”

————————————

Drought spurs ‘very aggressive’ USDA focus on climate change 

http://www.eenews.net/Greenwire/2013/02/26/19

“The Department of Agriculture will focus aggressively on climate change following last year’s crippling U.S. drought.

USDA plans to ramp up weather forecasting and encourage more sustainable farming practices to mitigate climate impacts on farmers and ranchers …”

“The focus on climate change comes after a historic drought last year gripped much of the United States, including the nation’s main corn-producing regions. For five months, more than 60 percent of the country was in moderate to extreme drought conditions, costing the agriculture sector more than $35 billion”

—————————————-

Climate Change, Migration and Conflict in the Amazon and the Andes

http://thinkprogress.org/climate/2013/02/26/1639911/climate-change-migration-and-conflict-in-the-amazon-and-the-andes/?mobile=nc

Rising Tensions and Policy Options in South America

“This report examines the interactions of climate change, environmental degradation, migration, and conflict in the Amazon; the tropical savannahs of Brazil—the Cerrado—and Bolivia; the Andean highlands of Peru and Bolivia; and the arid coastal plain of Peru. These regions represent the major geographic and climatic regions of the continent, encompass the range of socioeconomic trends reshaping the region, and capture the new heartland of the continent’s illicit economies, including the global cocaine trade.

The natural wealth of the Amazon and the Andes is a crucial strategic resource. The Amazon is central to the regional and global climate and contains priceless biodiversity. The mineral wealth and energy resources of the Amazon and the Andes are also important contributors to the global supply chain and the macroeconomic growth of the region. Further, the Amazon and the Cerrado have adopted a crucial role in regional and global food security. Finally, the rivers and glaciers of the region are fundamental to the energy security, water security, and agricultural health of much of South America. For all these reasons, the areas defined in this report demand attention.”

————————————

Why Innovation Alone Isn’t Enough to Win the Climate Fight

Why Innovation Alone Isn’t Enough to Win the Climate Fight

“Politics can be frustrating. Actually, it’s more like politics ARE frustrating, especially in America and especially in 2013, where a constitutional system designed for maximum gridlock has met intense partisanship fed by the nano-second news cycle of social media. Right now the government of the United States seems wholly incapable of getting out of a self-designed trap to needlessly slash billions of dollars in spending and cut hundreds of thousands of jobs at a moment when the American economy is beginning to pick itself off the floor. …”

“What does this mean for climate policy? Well, if the government can’t get itself together to deal with the much more immediate threats of sequestration, properly responding to a long-term and highly complex challenge like climate change has basically entered the realm fantasy. This is especially true when one of two political parties refuses to acknowledge the problem exists. There was a chance in 2009 and 2010 with comprehensive climate legislation, but that died for countless reasons. And while there are executive actions or EPA regulations that could begin to address carbon emissions, we really need more ambitious legislation. And that simply seems impossible.”

—————————————–

Sea level rise, alone, eventually will displace nearly 1 billion people from their present homes.  Who will pay?

You really need to read the full article in each case … but our point at WindowView is simple … the change issues are so large and they really impact the entire planet.

The bottom line … governments around the globe do not resolve issues by collaboration.  They do not have the funds to counter the changes that are coming.  Frankly, world governments are environmentally broke … no cash … no all encompassing plans that adequately address the complexity to a matrix of changes that fare hitting on many levels.  And where there are policies and plans … where are the funds to make it work?

All of this is not presented here to be sensational.  What we are saying is LOOK at what the entire WORLD is facing!  And realize that crises to come are of an order of magnitude that requires you to think … think about your life … do that with two spheres of information and decide it life is now only, or if there is more to it!

One of the two spheres we refer to above actually contains information about what to expect and how to respond before the really tough changes come …

Director, WindowView.org

www.windowview.org

What Does A War In Iraq Have to Do With Global Change?

What Does More Science Data Do For Us?

The November 30 San Diego Tribune states that progress at the recent Cancun IPCC conference on climate change is characterized by:  “Deep-seated disputes within the conference continue to block agreement on a new binding global accord requiring rich nations – and perhaps some emerging economies – to reduce emissions. At best, the delegates are expected to concur in a handful of decisions on secondary issues.”

If you view our WindowView introductory video on Change, you’ll see that it’s not climate or even global change that is the real issue!  So, what is?  We suggest it’s how humanity as a whole responds to change that IS the ISSUE!  But the question remains: Can we, all humanity, really respond?  Something IS happening …  the Tribune, quoting Rajendra Pachauri, the chairman of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), reveals:

“The trend is very clear,” said the Indian engineer and researcher. “We have and will continue to have increasingly more floods, more droughts, more heat waves, more extreme precipitation events.”

One key response to change is EITHER collect more data on change OR just respond in some way that makes sense.  Can deciding not to go to war, but to make a move to head off climate change, be part of the real solution?  And was an opportunity missed when the war in Iraq started? Let’s consider the difference!

Watching Changes And Wondering

We should expect scientists to say more study is needed–that’s what scientists do.  This was the first cry from the scientific community in the late 80s and early 90s.  But back then, it was clear decisions needed to be made during the 1990s to have a real counter effect to the first of changes to come.  Now, scientists ask again for more data.  But what decision can be made now, such that we humans can counter changes before they grow further?

Go back to the quote at the top of this blog post … it says nations and organizations are in dispute.  Dispute is another word for friction, stalling, and failure to collaborate on a global scale.  And in the Window, we see that one day, according to the scriptural texts, there will be a one-world government.  Perhaps in the name of having global coordination? But this change will not be about coordinating a response to climate change!  Well, maybe in the name of making global responses, but the foundation of the one-world government will be about some other kind of power struggle–on a spiritual level.

The San Diego Tribune goes on to further describe the need for information.  It’s about thawing ground up north or the change in acid levels in all the world’s oceans.  This is all occurring to one degree or other … right now.  This comes in advance of a one-world government.  The environmental shift has started; again from the Tribune:

“It’s basically the fact that people have not carried out enough measurement so that we can get a handle on how this is going to change in the future, what sort of increase of temperature will occur with the melting of the permafrost,” Pachauri said.

Similarly, he said, “the oceans require a lot more concentrated attention.”

Researchers are growing deeply worried about the growing acidification of the oceans, from their absorption of excess atmospheric carbon dioxide. More acidic waters make it more difficult for coral, oysters and other undersea life to produce their calcium carbonate shells, threatening to blow holes in the oceanic food chain.

“We need to understand how this will affect marine life,” Pachauri said.

And beyond that, he said, scientists must try to gauge the oceans’ ultimate capacity to continue operating as a “sink,” absorbing carbon dioxide. If that stops – and researchers believe they have detected a slowing of absorption in the seas north of Antarctica – the planet will be in even deeper trouble.”

Climate change is wrapping up the whole Earth in its grip–all the oceans make this a big deal.  AGAIN, from the Window’s View we ask … how can humanity respond?  Isn’t our response so telling about our future–in the material and spiritual sense!

WAR or PEACE-full solution

Within the Window we have given thought to recent historical events.  Extremist terrorism has had an interesting counter effect to global climate change–consider this point and take a look at the Window’s TimeLine.  Think of it this way, had the US President had the courage to leave Iraq alone and to take all the Billions of dollars spent on war … and then offered these dollars to homeowners and businesses for solar power, wind power, or geo-thermal utilities, the entire world would have seen a very different result–more than dealing with extremism.  Sort of outside the box thinking! Progressive and forward thinking. But …

The Real Difference

On the one hand, investing in solutions, would take an energy-intensive country further off line–to be less vulnerable to extremists.  The underlying need for future Iraqi oil would diminished.  Electric cars would have, by now, been in the development and release stages of more than one American auto maker … and global climate change would have had a real response–especially by one consumer base that uses a lot of energy resources.  The expenditure of billions of dollars on solutions would have also created millions of jobs!

Instead, a President went to war … against a country and extremists, but not war against the larger overriding set of changes that continues to quietly grip the planet.  A huge opportunity was missed!  And let’s NOT depend on the world’s league of nations to come around to solutions … because like decades ago, today they are in dispute!

Yet as the world cries out because solutions are not coming quickly, we are not surprised.  The Window’s TimeLine looks to a horizon of events that are on the way–coming soon to visit all of humanity. It is not just one president who missed it … the entire human race is missing the point.  Did everyone chip in to create THE solution … or are we still waiting, watching, and wondering? Change is about how we do or don’t respond.  The WindowView is about seeing the big picture and understanding what lies ahead … come take a look through the Window!

Director, WindowView.org

An Interesting Focus to September and October Traffic To WindowView

A webmaster will look at the pages that are visited most at their web site and think about how this relates to the purpose of the web pages. In recent weeks there have been more hits on three areas than we’ve seen in the typical mix of traffic coming to the Window.

First, Material Naturalism is drawing attention.  At the heart of understanding a relationship between scientific evidence for our existence and any aspect of our being spiritual, this topic is central to an ongoing debate.  If you want to simplify this, at the Window we know that Scripture tells us a major component of humanity will continually clutch a hold of a material explanation for existence and hold to that view until the end of the current age.   You can count on academics and other thinkers who will just keep saying, the evidence for cause and effect, on a material basis, explains why you are here.  You can count on those voices always being present.

From a scientific view, however, the data are not so conclusive.  But you really have to be willing to be objective, open minded, and dig for the other side of the larger picture.  The evidence from an information science perspective tells us that the code in DNA and how this is processed is of such a high order of efficiency, that a material origin alone lacks explanatory power.  And this is perhaps the best place to begin to look at the topic of intelligent design.  And we have pages with related information in the Window.

Science And Earth’s Age

Well, we know that it’s a turn off to materially minded folks to think the Earth is young, say 6,000 years of age, or even 50,000 or 100,000 years old.

Our web page related to an Old Earth point of view has been getting some traffic.  What we’d like to point out from both the scientific and biblical perspectives is one key point: We need to keep an open mind here too.  How so?  Frankly it boils down to something of a mystery that science itself can solve; if you will allow it!

The concept of a young Earth may be something of a biblical interpretation.  If so, perhaps the text does not intend this.  But for a moment, let’s assume the Earth is young.  If so, Darwinian evolution would not have time to cause all of the biological diversity we see.  That’s it.  That’s really all the more a point we need to make here.  But, let’s go on a bit.

What if the Earth is 4.5 billion years old?  For some support we will call your attention to another apologetics web site at Reasons.Org.  If you explore the writings of the astronomer there, Dr. Hugh Ross, you’ll eventually come across information that reveals the newly forming earth was sterilized by bombardments of objects from space.  Soon after the earth cooled enough to even allow for life to exist, it appears to have shown up.  The earliest evidence from an old earth perspective gives no real time for either chemical or biological evolution to take place.

We’ll leave you to chew on the differences in these perspectives and that science on an old earth basis really presses material naturalism to the point of forcing a spiritual examination to life’s existence …. as well as all the remarkable material support systems that reveal some aspect of design.  And that evidence is scientific.  From there you can explore our Harmony pages and the other side of the equation.  But the simple message is that either a young or old earth leaves us with a similar conclusion.

Time and The End of the Age

We have added a time line to this web site to pull together two different perspectives.  One is more or less the science, material, technological, and the change side to human activity.  The other side focuses on biblical themes and even works its way forward to describe in outline form what the Bible projects for time ahead.  What is remarkable is that events in the Middle East convey us right into the latter part of the time line.  This is happening today.

The backdrop to the time line includes the present hope that humans can save themselves and the material world that supports our livelihood.  And yet, life is not designed to last forever in this material context.  In fact, the entire solar system and universe have limits and life cannot go on forever.  That leaves us to make a decision as to whether life has a purpose we can discover within a life time.  The Window is here simply to make that point available to you.

An Open Invitation

Could it be possible you are missing the opportunity to think about life having purpose?

In fact, is the synthesis between science and Scripture an explanation to what you might decide?

The debate over how science can tell us something that even leads to a scriptural vantage point is an option you have to consider!  Because it takes a bit of information on Science, Change, and what we call the Harmony, to pull together the WindowView, we recently added  video-based introductions to to help our visitors in each area of this web site.

Our open invitation to you is to be objective and to explore the basic concepts to each area within the Window … watch the introductory videos … and then see how this creates a bigger picture and that really does use scientific evidence to open the Window to exploring why we are alive!

Come take a look and see the larger WindowView!

Director, WindowView

We are trying out a new introduction (an intro video) on the home page at WindowView.

This short video gives a general overview and with the help of a harpist and some melodic background notes, the introduction touches on all the elements that make the window a complete presentation.

In the past 20 years WindowView has grown from a wee web presence of a few pages to four full feature areas and a number of separate articles and various resources for downloading.

In this span of time we have seen staggering and significant developments in each of the main topic areas.  Scientific exploration of the universe and the minute details in living cells continually declare something special about this place we live in … and something incredibly detailed by complex structures and highly specified information (in our DNA).  It’s increasing more difficult to say all the complexity and specificity comes about by some material tendency to make or support life.  And while a debate rages on, no matter where scientists stand on the issues, we are all awed by the data and marvel at life’s existence.

The Change Area and Harmony Area also get us thinking in other ways.  Our most recent shift on change is not whether global changes are occurring, the real issue in a scientific and even biblical dimension is whether humans really know how to respond to change.  Maybe the real clue is how we treat each other more than just stopping global warming, if that is even possible.

The Harmony area looks into a combination of themes that describe a woven network of Scripture related topics.  The network makes for a harmonious overview and we believe all this reflects back on the issues in the Science and Change Areas.

Well, can we consider different perspectives describing one larger concern.  Does this help us see what comes in the future?  If the window gets us thinking along these lines, then perhaps the purpose to taking in the larger view has been set in motion.