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Earth Was One of the Universe’s First Habitable Planets, and We’re Likely to Miss Chance to Meet Future Alien Civilizations, Study Claims

Earth was one of the first habitable planets in the universe, according to a new study.

We were among the first 8 per cent of worlds that could potentially support life when we came into being 4.6 billion years ago, according the astronomers behind the study. Many of the other Earth-supporting planets won’t turn be around for some time — and are likely to come about after our own sun burns out in six billion years.

Astronomers looked at data from the Hubble and Kepler space telescopes to come to the conclusion. The latter was built in part to look for the kind of earth-supporting planets that could be sustaining life elsewhere in the universe.

Lead researcher Dr Peter Behroozi, from the Space Telescope Science Institute (STScI) in Baltimore, US, said: “Our main motivation was understanding the Earth’s place in the context of the rest of the universe. Compared to all the planets that will ever form in the universe, the Earth is actually quite early” . . .

But that same understanding might be off-limits to future civilisations. Because the universe is expanding so fast, any observable evidence of its beginnings is likely to be erased — leaving people in the future with no clue about how the universe got to where they are. (Read more from “Earth Was One of the Universe’s First Habitable Planets, and We’re Likely to Miss Chance to Meet Future Alien Civilizations, Study Claims” HERE)

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Pope Francis says He Would Baptize Aliens: ‘Who are We to Close Doors?’

Photo Credit:  Reuters

Photo Credit: Reuters

Pope Francis has said that he would be willing to baptize aliens if they came to the Vatican, asking “who are we to close doors” to anyone – even Martians.

In a homily yesterday dedicated to the concepts of acceptance and inclusion, Francis recalled a Bible story about the conversion of the first pagans to Christianity, according to reports on Vatican Radio.

He said Catholicism was a church of “open doors”, and that it was up to Christians to accept the Holy Spirit however “unthinkable” and “unimaginable” it appeared.

Describing how, according to the Bible, Peter was criticized by the Christians of Jerusalem for making contact with a community of “unclean” pagans, Francis said that at the time that too was “unthinkable”.

“If, for example, tomorrow an expedition of Martians came to us here and one said ‘I want to be baptised!’, what would happen?”

Read more from this story HERE.

Bill Clinton Says We May Not Be Alone

Photo Credit: Trev vG / Creative Commons

Photo Credit: Trev vG / Creative Commons

During an appearance on ABC’s “Jimmy Kimmel Live” Wednesday, the 42nd president was pressed by host Jimmy Kimmel about whether he saw any classified information while in office proving the existence of aliens.

While Clinton said he had “all the Roswell papers reviewed” and found no clear evidence that aliens exist, he also said he wouldn’t be shocked if intelligent life exists outside our planet or even if extraterrestrials one day visit Earth.

“We know now we live in an ever-expanding universe,” Clinton said. “We know that there are billions of stars and planets literally out there — and the universe is getting bigger. We know from our fancy telescopes that just in the last two years more than 20 planets have been identified outside our solar system that seem to be far enough away from their suns — and dense enough — that they might be able to support some form of life.”

Read more from this story HERE.

Ex-Knick Davis Says He Was ‘Actually Abducted by Aliens Two Weeks Ago,’ and it Turned Out Pretty Good

Photo Credit: Anthony J. CausiBy Justin Terranova. Former Knick guard Baron Davis said he was recently scouted — by a bunch of ETs!

“I was actually abducted by aliens like two weeks ago,” the two-time NBA All-Star announced on this week’s “The Champs” podcast…

Davis then launches into a several-minute-long description of driving from Vegas to L.A. and suddenly finding himself getting poked in the eyes by “f—ing ugly mother f—ers” in a steel spaceship.

“I’m a little tired and s—,” he begins. “And I see this light and I think it’s a big ass truck, you know, like, aww, f—. Like it’s gonna be traffic.

“And I was driving, driving, then next thing you know, dude, like, I was in this f—ing like steel thing and these f—ing crazy looking peole, like half-human, half, like, f—ing ugly motherf—ers,” he tells the podcast hosts. read more from this story HERE.

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NY Knicks player Baron Davis claims he was abducted by aliens

By Taylor Biggler. The pro basketball player told the West Coast Rydaz podcast Friday that he was driving from Las Vegas to Los Angeles when he was allegedly probed by “half-human” aliens.

“[I was] driving, driving and the next thing you know there’s a steel thing and these crazy-looking people — half-human, half ugly-looking motherfuckers,” he said. ”I see this light and it’s a big ass truck. And I said, oh fuck, this is going to be traffic,” he said.

According to Davis, “They were poking me on the nose, looking at my eyes, they had my hands tied and the next thing you know I was in Montebello,dude, burning rubber on the way back to L.A. at 4 o’clock in the morning.” Read more from this story HERE.

Discovery News: Six Inch ‘Space Alien’ Remains Turn Out to be Human

Photo Credit: SIRIUS, YOUTUBE SCREEN CAPTUREA teensy skeleton with a squashed alien-like head may have earthly origins, but the remains, found in the Atacama Desert a decade ago, do make for quite a medical mystery.

Apparently when the mummified specimen was discovered, some had suggested the possibility it was an alien that had somehow landed on Earth, though the researchers involved never suggested this otherworldly origin.

Now, DNA and other tests suggest the individual was a human and was 6 to 8 years of age when he or she died. Even so, the remains were just 6 inches (15 centimeters) long.

While the jury is out regarding the mutations that cause the deformity, and there is a real discrepancy in how we account for the apparent age of the bones … every nucleotide I’ve been able to look at is human,” researcher Garry Nolan, professor of microbiology and immunology at Stanford School of Medicine, told LiveScience. “I’ve only scratched the surface in the analysis. But there is nothing that jumps out so far as to scream ‘nonhuman.'”

Read more from this story HERE.

Gov’t idiocy on steroids: Illegal aliens to reap up to $7 billion in tax credits

Photo credit: Gage Skidmore

Illegal immigrants could receive more than $7 billion this year in federal tax credits, according to one estimate, thanks to a loophole in the law that allows people not authorized to work to reap the government payments with no questions asked.

Sen. Jeff Sessions’ office calculated that, based on recent trends, illegal immigrants could receive roughly $7.4 billion through a provision known as the Additional Child Tax Credit. That’s more than quadruple what the payout was four years ago, but the payments have been steadily increasing over the past decade.

Though illegal immigrants are prohibited from receiving similar tax credits, a quirk in the law allows them to qualify for the child tax credit. And it’s a “refundable” credit, meaning recipients can reap the money — with average checks totaling about $1,800 — even if they’ve paid no taxes.

An aide to Sessions, R-Ala., the top Republican on the Senate Budget Committee, said the issue is a “serious matter that deserves attention” and another sign of how “Washington is disconnected from reality.”

Illegal immigrants can qualify because even people not authorized to work in the U.S. are supposed to file returns with the IRS. If they don’t have a Social Security number, they are provided what’s known as an Individual Taxpayer Identification Number in order to file returns.

Read more from this story HERE.

Border conspiracy: local law manipulates crime stats for feds (+hidden video)

Photo credit: Marion Doss

Every year, the federal government doles out roughly a billion taxpayer dollars to local law enforcement agencies in the form of grants. These agencies — city police and constables, state agencies, county sheriffs — apply for the grants through the Department of Justice’s COPS (for Community Oriented Policing Services) program and use them to hire more personnel, purchase vehicles and equipment, and enhance their crime-fighting capabilities.  But do the federal grants actually help fight crime?

Local law enforcement agencies insist that the grant money is vital to fighting crime and even to their departments’ survival. But is there a dark side to federalizing local law enforcement funding? PJ Media has obtained exclusive hidden camera video that shows federal grant money creates an incentive for local law enforcement to falsify their crime statistics. The fake stats tell a story that ends up benefiting the local agencies that clamor for the grants, while helping Washington sell its story that the border is safer than it really is:

 

Case in point: Hidalgo County, Texas. This border county is home to McAllen, one of the fastest-growing cities in the entire United States. Hidalgo County boasts the most border crossings of any county along the Texas-Mexico border. Property values are rising here despite the stagnant U.S. economy. The county is home both to gang-infested barrios and to a posh neighborhood that boasts fountains, manicured lawns, beautiful new custom homes, and many cars bearing Mexican license plates.

Hidalgo County sits across the border from Reynosa, Mexico, one of the most violent and troubled cities in the Mexican drug wars. But according to some local officials, Mexico’s drug war has not spilled over into their bustling Texas community. They say this even though U.S. forces engaged drug cartel members in a firefight at Chimney Park in Hidalgo County in 2011.

Hidalgo County elected Democrat Guadalupe “Lupe” Treviño sheriff in 2004 and then re-elected him in 2008, and this spring he reportedly spent more than a half a million dollars to clinch the Democratic nomination for a third term as the county’s sheriff. In this heavily Democratic county, Treviño is a cinch to win that third term. The former Austin police officer claims that Hidalgo County has seen a dramatic reduction of violent crime during his tenure. Sheriff Treviño dismisses the presence and influence of drug cartels in his border county. To hear Sheriff Treviño talk, domestic violence may be a bigger issue in Hidalgo County. But as a local news story that was published August 10, 2012, shows, many residents of Hidalgo County do not feel safe and do not believe that crime is down at all. They also do not believe that Sheriff Treviño’s office is concerned about them.

Read more from this story HERE.

Cared for family by 21 years, women beaten into coma by illegal alien husband dies

A mother-of-three has died, 21 years after her drunken husband beat her into a coma, from which she never woke up. Bernadette Jones was kept alive by her distraught family in a specially designed basement room at their Buffalo house.

They brought her comatose body home from hospital eight months after the attack by her spouse, Patrick Guiteau, vowing not to give up on her life.

That first night her children climbed into bed with her and for the next two decades relatives would face court to fight for health care coverage and for Guiteau’s deportation.

Researching the Haiti-born husband’s citizen status, Ms Jones’ family discovered that he was an illegal alien, which led to his deportation.

In her unconscious state Ms Jones fought countless infections that plagued her vulnerable body before finally succumbing to pneumonia on Sunday, aged 51.

Read more from this story HERE.

Ryan sparks split on immigration

Rep. Paul Ryan could be Mitt Romney’s olive branch to voters who want to see illegal immigrants gain legal status, with the Wisconsin Republican having repeatedly backed legalization efforts and cast himself in the mold of former President George W. Bush, who fought a battle with his own party on the issue.

But in the first few days since Mr. Ryan was announced, a split is developing among immigration reformers. Those in the business community say they are thrilled, while those who approach the issue from an immigrant-rights stance reject him as a salesman.

Mr. Ryan’s record is decidedly mixed.

As a staffer in Washington, he worked for Jack Kemp and Sen. Sam Brownback — both of whom were part of the Republicans’ pro-immigration wing, and who fought crackdown efforts from within their own party.

As a congressman, he voted for a 2002 legalization bill, praised the 2006 Senate immigration bill backed by Mr. Bush and co-sponsored a 2009 Democratic bill that would have legalized immigrant farmworkers. Each time, he was in a minority of Republicans.

But he also routinely backed the House Republicans‘ enforcement bills, including voting for the Secure Fence Act and for a 2005 bill that would have turned being an illegal immigrant from a civil violation to a criminal charge. Most recently, he voted against the Dream Act to legalize young adult illegal immigrants.

43% of US immigrants still on welfare after twenty years

Photo credit: pamhule

Immigrants lag behind native-born Americans on most measures of economic well-being — even those who have been in the U.S. the longest, according to a report from the Center for Immigration Studies, which argues that full assimilation is a more complex task than overcoming language or cultural differences.

The study, which covers all immigrants, legal and illegal, and their U.S.-born children younger than 18, found that immigrants tend to make economic progress by most measures the longer they live in the U.S. but lag well behind native-born Americans on factors such as poverty, health insurance coverage and homeownership.

The study, based on 2010 and 2011 census data, found that 43 percent of immigrants who have been in the U.S. at least 20 years were using welfare benefits, a rate that is nearly twice as high as native-born Americans and nearly 50 percent higher than recent immigrants.

The report was released at a time when both major presidential candidates have backed policies that would make it easier to immigrate legally and would boost the numbers of people coming to the U.S.

Steven A. Camarota, the center’s research director and author of the 96-page study, said it shows that questions about the pros and cons of immigration extend well beyond the sheer numbers and touch on the broader consequences of assimilating a population defined by tougher socioeconomic challenges.

Read more from this story HERE.