Quotations from Isaac Newton

This most beautiful system of the sun, planets, and comets, could only proceed from the counsel and dominion of an intelligent and powerful being. . . This being governs all things, not as the soul of the world, but as Lord over all; and on account of His dominion, He is wont to be called Lord God, or Universal Ruler. 

He who thinks half-heartedly will not believe in God, but he who really thinks has to believe in God.

We accept the Scriptures of God to be the most sublime philosophy. I find more sure marks of authenticity in the Bible than in any profane history whatsoever. 

Atheism is so senseless. When I look at the solar system, I see the earth at the right distance from the sun to receive the proper amounts of heat and light. This did not happen by chance.

The Supreme God exists necessarily, and by the same necessity, He exits always and everywhere.

Sir Isaac Newton (1642-1727)

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Esperança no Sofrimento

Do áudio Como Ser Feliz de Qualquer Maneira

[Hope in Suffering]

O sofrimento serve para nos fazer pessoas melhores, e não mais amargas. Deus leva o homem às águas profundas não para afogá-lo, mas para limpá-lo.

Todos passam por provas e tentações, testes e tribulações de uma forma ou de outra, mas é a maneira como lidamos com isso que faz a diferença. Podemos evitar ficarmos amargos ou ressentidos por causa de nossas provações e sofrimento se entendermos que o nosso grande Pai celestial, o Espírito de amor de todo o universo, nunca vai permitir que o mau entre em nossa vida, a não ser que Ele possa, de alguma forma, transformá-lo em bem.

Este é o segredo maravilhoso que transforma fardos em bênçãos, e provações em triunfos, e cruzes em coroas—o conhecimento de não importa pelo o que passemos, de alguma forma vai ser para o nosso bem. Este é o plano maravilhoso que Deus tem para nós e o dom que Ele nos deu, nós que acreditamos em Jesus e somos Seus filhos. Se formos salvos, podemos confiar durante os problemas e sofrimento, porque sabemos que há um bom motivo para os nossos testes e provações.

Tudo o que acontece ao filho de Deus sempre tem um raio de esperança em algum lugar. A tempestade sempre traz consigo um arco-íris. A noite sempre tem estrelas. As nuvens sempre têm uma linha prateada. O cuidado amoroso de Deus está sempre presente em qualquer circunstância. E mesmo quando não é possível ver, a fé sabe que Deus está presente. Para o filho de Deus o sofrimento é uma bênção disfarçada, sempre tem um propósito bom e maravilhoso.

Entretanto, os problemas, com todas suas vantagens, lições e bênçãos, às vezes tendem a nos desencorajar, pesam sobre nós e ficamos desesperados. Uma das melhores maneiras de nos mantermos alegres e equilibrados em tempos de estresse e adversidade é a atitude diante dos problemas.

Vejamos, por exemplo, a história do menino que sentou-se quieto no trem durante uma viagem entre duas cidades do Oeste dos Estados Unidos. Era um dia quente, poeirento, muito desconfortável de se viajar, e aquele trecho em particular talvez fosse um dos mais desinteressantes de todo o território. Mas o pequeno continuou ali sentado, observando os campos e as cercas, até que uma senhora bem maternal se abaixou para falar com ele e perguntou com empatia: “Você não está cansado desta longa viagem, querido, e de toda a poeira e calor?” O rapazinho olhou para ela animado e respondeu com um sorriso: “Um pouco. Mas não me importo, porque o meu pai vai estar me esperando quando eu chegar!”

Que lindo pensar, quando a vida for cansativa, monótona e um fardo, como às vezes realmente é, que podemos olhar adiante com esperança e confiantes, e, tal como o menino, “não nos importarmos muito” porque o nosso Pai também vai estar nos esperando quando chegarmos ao fim da jornada. O Senhor estará lá para nos receber no final da jornada desta vida. Glória a Deus!

E não nos esqueçamos que Jesus sofreu tudo o que sofremos. A Bíblia diz que Ele foi tentado em tudo tal como nós. Teve momentos em que Ele estava doente e cansado, com fome, sede e desencorajado. Pense nisto.

Jesus sabe o que é padecer. Na verdade, Ele sofreu mais do que qualquer um de nós poderia imaginar! Ele sofreu por todos os pecados de todo o mundo, porque nos ama tanto que Se dispôs a morrer por nós! E a Palavra de Deus nos promete que um dia, em breve, todo o sofrimento chegará ao fim para aqueles que amam a Deus, e que “Deus limpará de seus olhos toda lágrima; e não haverá mais morte, nem pranto, nem clamor, nem dor; porque já as primeiras coisas são passadas!”—Quando Jesus voltar à terra para endireitar tudo o que há de errado e estabelecer o Seu reino eterno de amor e paz!

Até então, temos que suportar algum sofrimento. Mas se você tem Jesus no coração, se faz o melhor que pode para amá-lO e seguir os Seus ensinamentos segundo a Bíblia, verá que a alegria e a felicidade que vão permear e encher a sua vida serão muito maiores do que qualquer tristeza, sofrimento, provação ou tribulação que possa enfrentar por um tempo.—E quanto a essas outras coisas, como temos visto, Deus vai fazer com que concorram juntamente para o nosso bem.

E quando os tempos difíceis vierem, o Senhor nos promete em Sua Palavra: “Quando passares pelas águas estarei contigo, e quando pelos rios, eles não te submergirão; quando passares pelo fogo, não te queimarás, nem a chama arderá em ti.” E você verá que não importa a profundidade das inundações de dor e tristeza, ou quão quente seja o fogo da adversidade e aflição, Jesus é “um amigo mais próximo que um irmão,” e se você Lhe der a mão, confiar nEle, e depender da Sua Palavra, Ele o guiará em segurança e ajudará até ao fim!

O amor de Deus nem sempre nos protege do sofrimento e das tribulações, mas é um amor que sempre nos guarda através dos sofrimentos e das tribulações. Não nos esqueçamos nunca que as tribulações e tempestades da vida não indicam a ausência de Deus, assim como as nuvens não indicam a ausência do sol!

https://anchor.tfionline.com/pt/post/esperanca-no-sofrimento/

Publicado originalmente pela AFI em 1989. Adaptado e republicado em março de 2017.

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Is It Harder to Lose Weight When You’re Older?

By Karen Weintraub, NY Times, March 31, 2017

Q. Is it more difficult for an older person to lose weight?

A. Yes, unfortunately. Although it is possible to lose weight at any age, several factors make it harder to lose weight with age.

Even those who remain active lose muscle mass every decade beginning in their 30s, research suggests, replacing it with fat. Muscles use up more calories than fat, so less muscle means a slower metabolism and the need for fewer calories, said Dr. Medha Munshi, a geriatrician and endocrinologist at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center in Boston.

Declining levels of the sex hormones estrogen and testosterone, which typically start around the early 50s for women, with the onset of menopause, and somewhat later for men, compound the effect, said Dr. Munshi, who also directs the Joslin Diabetes Center’s geriatric diabetes programs.

People may also pay in late-middle age for weight they gained and lost in earlier decades, said Dr. Leslie Cho, an interventional cardiologist at the Cleveland Clinic. Weight gain changes metabolism, she said. A 60-year-old who now weighs 200 pounds but once weighed 300, for example, will need far fewer calories per day than someone of the same age and size who was never so overweight. Losing those fat cells, she explained, tricks the body into thinking it is starving and needs to hold on more tightly to calories consumed. “You do have to eat less to maintain that weight if you’ve been heavy,” said Dr. Cho, who also directs the Cleveland Clinic’s Women’s Cardiovascular Center. .

Older people also tend to have more aches and pains and to be more sedentary, engaging in fewer physical activities.

Instead of obsessing about a number on a scale, Dr. Cho suggests that older people focus on general fitness. “It’s not about losing weight,” she said. “It’s about maintaining weight loss, but also about healthy eating and lifestyle.”

Adding muscle through weight training can also help speed up metabolism, or at least compensate somewhat for its decline, Dr. Munshi said. She tells her older patients that “you need it now more than you needed it at 25.” Eating more protein–but not more calories–may also help build or sustain muscle, she said. And she noted that many of her oldest patients end up underweight because they’ve lost their appetite along with their sense of smell, so food doesn’t seem appealing anymore.

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Sidestepping the Military Leviathan: Make Money, Not War

By Fred Reed, Fred on Everything, January 23, 2017

Is Washington really going to start a trade war with China, or is it just huffing and puffing for the position? I don’t know. Mr. Trump has inexplicably failed to brief me. A point worth bearing in mind:

The United States cannot compete commercially with a developed Asia, or China.

America has nowhere to go. It is a fully developed economy that cannot grow rapidly if it grows at all. America is also a country of only medium size with a population of a bit more than two hundred million who do all the brain work. It has a decaying system of education, declining living standards, and an economy crippled by huge military expenditures.

By contrast, China has a billion Han Chinese, intelligent government, a great deal of room to grow and high rates of doing so. The combined land mass, population, and economic potential of Asia are staggering. In differing degrees, Asian nations are growing.

Further, Eurasia is one continent, and China has land connections to all of it–”interior lines of communication,” as soldiers say. America does not. Beijing’s stated intention is to use this to unite Eurasia into one enormous commercial unit–which will not include guess who. Beijing can do this. It has the cash. China is the world’s leader in high-speed rail. As a competent dictatorship, it can decide to do things and then do them, while America often seems unable to do either.

Some time has passed since Beijing made its first rail shipment from Wuli on the Pacific coast through Kazakhstan, Russia, Belarus, Poland, to Germany and then left to Madrid. It was clunky and a bit of a stunt. Now there are scheduled trains connecting many Chinese cities to the rest of Asia, including Europe. This will not rival sea transport in volume but will give a lot of places in Asia access to each other. Influence will follow. Watch.

This is bad news for Washington. Greater trade between Europe and the eastern part of the continent means less influence for Washington. It means potentially very much less influence. European nations have much to gain by trading with the incomprehensibly large markets, current and arriving, between Poland the Pacific. They have nothing to gain by remaining as sepoy states under American control. Their businessmen know it.

China, already the world leader in supercomputers both in number and performance, hopes to have an exascale machine by 2018, way ahead of the US. These are not people to underestimate.

This dismal reality looks to be behind the orchestrated billingsgate against Russia, the war drums being pounded about the South China Sea, and the obvious desire for war with Iran. These three counties are key to an economic union that, if not stopped, will dwarf the United States. While some hope that China will collapse because of internal problems, this is a thin reed upon which to bet the Empire. Washington knows it.

The Empire cannot afford to lose control of Europe’s governments, which will happen if heavy trade is allowed to develop with the Three Bugbears. Thus Washington’s hostility to all three–a hostility whose chief effect, note, has been to drive them together against America. Not good. The first rule of empires is Don’t let your enemies unite.

Here we come to a crucial difference between American and Chinese foreign policy. Washington’s approach to maintaining the Empire has consisted of military attack, threats of military attack, military occupation, and the imposition of sanctions. These are visibly declining in effectiveness. The US currently has sanctions against North Korea, Cuba, Iran, and Russia–none of which has produced the desired capitulation. Unless Washington comes up with something quick, presumably a shooting war or a trade war, its aircraft carriers will steam in circles, slowly rusting, while Asia grows.

Glimmerings of rebellion appear in many places. In the Philippines, Duterte is snuggling up to China. While Washington may kill him or twist his arm, twenty years ago this would not have been necessary. Malaysia recently bought Chinese naval vessels. Thailand has begun buying Chinese arms. Countries are slowly abandoning the dollar. German businessmen want to trade with Russia.

Trump now proposes sanctions on China, having said he would impose a tariff of forty-five percent on goods from there. Perhaps he was lying, bluffing, or posing in the standard manner of politicians. Maybe he wasn’t. I am not so foolish as to think I can predict the course of a trade war, but neither am I so foolish as to believe that Trump can.

He seems to have the instincts of a bully, which works or may work, with weak states like Mexico. China isn’t one. He has said that China needs the US more than the US needs China, and so China will surrender. This was also said of Cuba, North Korea, Iran, and Russia. The US remains superior to China in all sorts of things, but a lot fewer than before. A trade war won might prove less desirable than a trade war not started. We remember Pyrrhus for a reason.

If only for reasons of vanity, Trump couldn’t let China get away with calling his bluff. Millions have died over wounded vanity. What could he do? Go to an all-out trade war? Again, risky. Proud countries dig their heels in. China is not without options. By simply turning to Airbus as exclusive provider to its large and growing market, it would wreak havoc on Boeing and its work force and perhaps marginalize the company. Add that Israel may not allow Boeing to sell to Iran, which would be a further blow.

It is interesting to consider recent PISA scores, which measure the academic performance of school kids. Math scores in order by country: Singapore, Hong Kong, Macao, Taiwan, Japan, China. The US was well below average for the countries tested, though its scores are lowered by minorities. Headline: “NY Professor Says Algebra Is Too Hard, Schools Should Drop It.” On fairness, America leads in safe spaces, trigger warnings, puzzled diversity, and whimpering Snowflakes. Watch out, Beijing.

A trade war might come down to whose population can better tolerate want. The deplorables who shop at Walmart are already stretched pretty tight and would not react well to being further impoverished for what they would see as profits for the Establishment.

If I may briefly reveal my commie tendencies, maybe America ought to worry about its universities, roads, laboratories, and medical care instead of wasting its money on corruption, bombers, lunges for empire and dreams that 1955 is just around the corner.

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Nine years later, Greece is still in a debt crisis!

By Simon Black SovereignMan.com
March 22, 2017 Santiago, Chile

Sometimes you have to marvel at the absurdity of the financial universe in which we live.

On one side of the Atlantic, we have the United States of America, which triggered yet another debt ceiling disaster last Thursday when the US government’s maximum allowable debt reset to just over $20 trillion.

Of course, the US national debt is pretty much already at $20 trillion.

(That’s roughly $166,000 per taxpayer in the Land of the Free.)

This means that Uncle Sam is legally prohibited from ‘officially’ borrowing any more money.

But far be it from the US government to start living within its means. Sacrilege!

These guys have zero chance of making ends meet without going into debt.

Just last year, according to the government’s own financial report, their annual net loss totaled $1 TRILLION, and the national debt increased by $1.4 trillion.

And that was in a relatively stable year. There was no major war or financial crisis to fight. It was just business as usual.

This year isn’t going to be any different.

So, cut off from their normal debt supply (the bond market), the Treasury Department is resorting to what they call “extraordinary measures.”

They’re basically pillaging government employee retirement funds, and will continue to do so until Congress raises the debt ceiling.

It’s a repeat of what happened in 2015. And 2013. And 2011.

Pretty amazing to consider that the “richest” country in the world has to plunder retirement funds in order to keep the lights on.

Former US Treasury Secretary Larry Summers said it perfectly when he quipped “How long can the world's biggest borrower remain the world's biggest power?”

Then, of course, on the other side of the Atlantic, we have Greece, which is now in its NINTH YEAR of a major debt crisis.

Incredible.

Greece has had nine different governments since 2009. At least thirteen austerity measures. Multiple bailouts. Severe capital controls. And a full-out debt restructuring in which creditors accepted a 50% loss.

Yet despite all these measures GREECE IS STILL IN A DEBT CRISIS.

Right now, in fact, Greece is careening towards another major chapter in its never-ending debt drama.

Just like the United States, the Greek government is set to run out of money (yet again) in a few months and is in need of a fresh bailout from the IMF and EU.

(The EU is code for “Germany”...)

Without another bailout, Greece will go bust in July-- this is basic arithmetic, not some wild theory.

And this matters.

If Greece defaults, everyone dumb enough to have loaned them money will take a BIG hit.

This includes a multitude of banks across Germany, Austria, France, and the rest of Europe.

Many of those banks already have extremely low levels of capital and simply cannot afford a major loss.

(Last year, for example, the IMF specifically singled out Germany’s Deutsche Bank as being the top contributor to systemic risk in the global financial system.)

So a Greek default poses as major risk to a number of those banks.

More importantly, due to the interconnectedness of the financial system, a Greek default poses a major risk to anyone with exposure to those banks.

Think about it like this: if Greece defaults and Bank A goes down, then Bank A will no longer be able to meet its obligations to Bank B. Bank B will suffer a loss as well.

A single event can set off a chain reaction, what’s called ‘contagion’ in finance.

And it’s possible that Greece could be that event.

This is what European officials have been so desperate to prevent for the last nine years, and why they’ve always come to the rescue with a bailout.

It has nothing to do with community or generosity. They’re hopelessly trying to prevent another 2008-style meltdown of the financial system.

But their measures have limits.

How much longer do Greek citizens accept being vassals of Germany, suffering through debilitating capital controls and austerity measures?

How much longer do German taxpayers continue forking over their hard-earned wages to bail out Greek retirees?

After all, they’ve spent nine years trying to ‘fix’ Greece, and the situation has only become worse.

For a continent that has been at war with itself for 10 centuries and only managed to play nice for the last 30 or so years, it’s foolish to expect these bailouts to last forever.

And whether it’s this July or some date in the future, Greece could end up being the catalyst which sets off a chain reaction on both sides of the Atlantic. 

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