Bits and Bites from around the World > Gorilla-Sized Penguins; Godzilla Egg? Found on Japanese beach

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Fossils paint the picture of gorilla-sized penguins

that once roamed New Zealand

An artist's depiction of two newly described penguin species, Kumimanu fordycei and Petradyptes stonehousei,

which roamed New Zealand beaches over 50 million years ago. (Simone Giovanardi)

Daniel Ksepka, CBC Radio · 

Posted: Feb 17, 2023 12:35 PM PST | Last Updated: February 17

Fifty million years ago, New Zealand was home to penguins that stood as tall as humans and weighed as much as adult gorillas. 

Scientists have discovered fossils of the largest penguin known to date, thought to have weighed between 148 and 160 kilograms (300 and 340 pounds). 

"It totally blew me away the first time I saw it," lead study author Daniel Ksepka told Quirks & Quarks host Bob McDonald. "This thing was gigantic. It makes an emperor penguin look kind of like a little tiny robin."

In a new study published in the Journal of Paleontology, scientists identified two new species of penguins based on fossils embedded in rocky formations on the Otago beaches of New Zealand's South Island: Kumimanu fordycei and Petradyptes stonehousei. 

Both species are thought to have existed around 55 to 59 million years ago during the Paleocene era. 

Researchers compared the fossils to the bones of 20 modern penguin species to learn more about the ancient water birds. "We probably would recognize it as a penguin, but it would have been quite distinct from the little fellows we see in zoos and aquariums today," said Ksepka, who is a curator at the Bruce Museum in Greenwich, Conn.

Only a couple of bones belonging to the giant K. fordycei — named after New Zealand paleontologist Ewan Fordyce — were discovered. But they were enough to give researchers a clue about its appearance. 

Left to right: Skeletal illustrations of Kumimanu fordycei, Petradyptes stonehousei, and a modern emperor penguin. Only a handful of bones were found for the newly identified species, but they were enough to estimate the penguins' body mass. (Simone Giovanardi)

"We measured hundreds of penguin bones from modern species to try to estimate the body mass [of the ancient penguins]. And we arrived at a total of about 340 pounds, which is just kind of mind-blowing. I mean, imagine a penguin the size of a gorilla," Ksepka said. 

Emperor penguins, the largest species alive today, weigh about 40 kilograms (90 pounds) which makes K. fordycei nearly four times heavier. 

The smaller of the two newly discovered species P. stonehousei — named after biologist Bernard Stonehouse — also outweighs the modern emperor penguin, weighing in at 50 kilograms.

Mystery of the vanishing penguin giants

According to Ksepka, the Paleocene birds' flippers more closely resembled the wings of flying birds, which made them less efficient swimmers than their modern counterparts. But their impressive size would have helped them dive deeper and keep warm in the water for longer periods of time.

But being gorilla-sized also came with disadvantages. "If resources are scarce, a smaller penguin will be able to get a day's meal much easier than a gigantic species," Ksepka said.

He points to resource competition as a likely reason why penguins today are much smaller. Fossil records point to giant penguins starting to vanish around 15 million years ago, the time when pinnipeds like seals and sea lions were spreading widely throughout the southern hemisphere. 

"They could be competing for food. They could be bothering the penguins — eating them is one very good way to bother them. But also monopolizing breeding grounds," Ksepka said. 

"You imagine one of these giant penguins trying to lay eggs and then, all of a sudden, two elephant seals are fighting over territory and just crushing everything around them."

There's still much to learn about the giant Paleocene penguins. Scientists haven't found the skulls of either of K. fordycei or P. stonehousei, so they can only guess what their heads would have looked like based on previously discovered bones of penguin species in the same era. 

But one thing is certain for Ksepka. "These would have been a breathtaking sight when they were alive," he said. 

Godzilla Egg? Found on Japanese beach

By Ben Cost

February 22, 2023 12:51pm  Updated

A mysterious sphere that washed ashore in Japan is being labeled a “Godzilla egg” by social media watchdogs — with some conspiracy theorists claiming that the so-called King of the Monsters‘ offspring is “multiplying.”

The titan-size controversy surfaced yesterday after a woman reported a “suspicious” ball on Enshu Beach in Hamamatsu, a southern coastal city about 155 miles from Tokyo, Asahi News reported. The spherical object measured 4 feet around and was believed to be made of iron due to its rust coating.

Accompanying photos show the enormous orb, which evokes an alien anomaly or unexploded ordnance from a way gone by.

Fearing it was the latter, officials cordoned off an area within 655 square feet of the ball while bomb disposal crews inspected the unusual jetsam. Investigatory X-rays determined that the sphere was hollow and, therefore, not a live bomb, prompting officials to lift restrictions soon afterward, according to Fuji News Network.

Apparently, not a live Godzilla either!

Bomb disposal crews are seen inspecting the ball, as officials restricted access within 655 square feet

around the object for most of the day.

Twitter/NHK

However, officials never actually identified the ball, prompting online con-sphere-acy theorists to try and take a stab.

Many compare it to the embryo of Japan’s iconic movie monster. “Obviously a Godzilla egg,” joked one tinfoil-hatted Tweeter, while another wrote, “great now Godzilla is real.”

“That Japanese sphere that washed up on the beach is giving dinosaur egg [vibes] lol,” postulated another of the so-called fallopian flotsam.

Some speculators compared it to the circular anomaly from “Sphere,” the 1998 sci-fi flop based on the best-selling Michael Crichton (“Jurassic Park”) novel of the same name. “If science fiction has taught us anything, it’s that somebody’s going to touch this thing, their hand’s gonna go through it into a parallel universe and then all hell’s gonna break loose,” wrote Wall Street Journal writer Paul Vigna.

Meanwhile, Vice joked that the “spheres are multiplying” on their official Twitter account.

Unfortunately, this so-called Godzilla egg could be a giant “goose egg” so to speak. Vice speculated that the object might be a giant mooring buoy given its protrusion that allows it to hook onto something.

The debate follows the spate of UFO hysteria that surfaced after the United States shot down an alleged Chinese spy balloon followed by multiple unidentified objects.

Bits and Bites from around the World > Toad Licking Discouraged; Insects found in Tim Horton's Soup base; Oldest Sentence Prayer against Lice

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Park officials warn visitors to STOP LICKING psychedelic toad

that sweats ‘trippy’ liquid

Sarah Hooper, The Sun

12:15, 10 Nov 2022, Updated: 14:55, 10 Nov 2022

PARK officials are pleading with visitors to stop licking psychedelic toads in a bid to get high because it can lead to death.

The Sonoran Desert Toad secretes a toxin from its glands that can create a hallucinogenic experience and make people sick.

Park officials have warned people to stop licking toads

The US National Park Service has now been forced to beg Americans to "refrain from licking" the toads, which are one of the largest toads native to North America - and one of the most dangerous.

Officials warned the toxins secreted from the amphibians could lead to hospitalisation or death.

They said: ''These toads have prominent parotoid glands that secrete a potent toxin.

"It can make you sick if you handle the frog or get the poison in your mouth."

As well as hallucinations, the liquid can cause anxiety, nausea or seizures and even potentially death.

Tim Hortons brand soup base recalled for containing insects

Recall only impacts soups sold in some Alberta and Ontario restaurants

THE CANADIAN PRESS

Nov. 10, 2022 1:30 p.m

 

A Tim Hortons brand chicken noodle soup base was recalled in Alberta and southwestern Ontario because it contained insects.

In an emailed statement, Tim Hortons said Thursday the recall does not impact canned soups sold in grocery stores, only the soup base that was made and sold to a few isolated restaurants. It said there were no reported illnesses.

The Canadian Food Inspection Agency (CFIA) said the recalled product was available to purchase in those provinces up to and including Oct. 20.

The agency said the soup base, which weighs 3.54 kilograms per unit, was sold to hotels, restaurants and institutions.

Tim Hortons said the incident only impacted a few isolated Tim Hortons restaurants, but the company proactively asked all restaurant owners that received product from the supplier in question to dispose of their product.

The company said the impacted batches were removed from restaurants, destroyed and replaced with new product from another supplier.

Chicken noodle soup base in other provinces, as well as canned Tim Hortons soup sold in grocery stores, are manufactured by another supplier and were therefore not affected, Tim Hortons said.

The recall involves products with best-before dates between March 13, 2023 and April 30, 2023.

The CFIA said not to use, sell, serve or distribute the product.

Tim Hortons said it is investigating the issue and believes relatively few guests were impacted, but added it will only restart production with the manufacturer once it’s confident this problem will not happen again.

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Israeli archaeologists discover oldest known written sentence

November 9, 2022

Israeli archaeologists discover oldest known written sentence. Ivory lice comb etched with a Canaanite prayer against lice discovered in Tel Lachish, Israel. (Dafna Gazit, Israel Antiquities Authority)

The Canaanite script reads: “May this tusk root out the lice of the hair and the beard.”

By Pesach Benson, TPS

Israeli archaeologists have discovered what may be the oldest sentence ever written – a prayer against lice etched on a Canaanite comb that dates back to around 1700 BC.

The letters of the inscription were engraved in a very shallow manner, saying “May this tusk root out the lice of the hair and the beard.”

While the comb was discovered in 2017 at Tel Lachish in central Israel, the letters were noticed only in subsequent post-processing in 2022 by Dr. Madeleine Mumcuoglu of Hebrew University.

The inscription was deciphered by semitic epigraphist Dr. Daniel Vainstub at Ben Gurion University (BGU), who confirmed the 17 characters were of Canaanite script. The ivory was tested by Professors Rivka Rabinovich of HU and Yuval Goren of BGU who found the comb was made of elephant tusk.

Their findings were published in the peer-reviewed Jerusalem Journal of Archaeology.

Hebrew University Professor Yosef Garfinkel, one of the directors of the Tel Lachish dig, called the comb, “a landmark in the history of the human ability to write.”

“This is the first sentence ever found in the Canaanite language in Israel,” said Garfinkel.

“There are Canaanites in Ugarit in Syria, but they write in a different script, not the alphabet that is used till today. The Canaanite cities are mentioned in Egyptian documents, the Amarna letters that were written in Akkadian, and in the Hebrew Bible. The comb inscription is direct evidence for the use of the alphabet in daily activities some 3,700 years ago. This is a landmark in the history of the human ability to write.”

The ivory comb is small, measuring roughly 3.5 by 2.5 cm and has teeth on both sides. Although their bases are still visible, the comb teeth themselves were broken in antiquity. The central part of the comb is somewhat eroded, possibly by the pressure of fingers holding the comb during haircare or removal of lice from the head or beard.

The side of the comb with six thick teeth was used to untangle knots in the hair, while the other side, with 14 fine teeth, was used to remove lice and their eggs, much like the current-day two-sided lice combs sold in stores.

Ancient combs were commonly made from wood or bone. Elephants are not native to Israel, suggesting the ivory was a luxury object presumably imported from Egypt.

The researchers also found the remains of head lice between two of the teeth, 0.5–0.6 mm in size.

Apparently, it worked.

Lachish was a major Canaanite city state in the second millennium BC and the second-most important city in the Biblical Kingdom of Judah.

To date, 10 Canaanite inscriptions have been found in Lachish, more than at any other site in Israel. The city was the major center for the use and preservation of the alphabet during some 600 years, from 1800 to 1150 BCE.

Bits and Bites > Beyond Meat Exec Bites Man's Nose; 1.8 mn year old tooth found in Georgia

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Beyond Meat exec accused of biting man’s nose outside a game

September 19, 2022

FAYETTEVILLE, Ark. (AP) — An executive of a vegan food products company has been charged with felony battery and making a terroristic threat after a fracas outside a football game in which he’s accused of biting a man’s nose, officials said.

Beyond Meat Chief Operations Officer Doug Ramsey has been accused of a road rage attack outside Saturday’s game between the Arkansas Razorbacks and Missouri State Bears in Fayetteville, Arkansas, according to Fayetteville television station KNWA.

A police report says the 53-year-old Fayetteville man attacked another man who tried to inch in front of him in a parking garage traffic lane and made contact with a wheel on Ramsey’s sport utility vehicle. A police officer responding to the reported disturbance arrived to find “two males with bloody faces,” the report states.

After speaking with Ramsey, the other man and a witness, the officer determined that Ramsey had gotten out of his SUV and “punched through the back windshield” of the other car. The driver of the other vehicle said he emerged from his car and Ramsey “pulled him in close and started punching his body” and also “bit the owner’s nose, ripping the flesh on the tip of the nose,” the officer reported.

That man and the witness also reported hearing Ramsey “threaten to kill” the man.

Beyond Meat has not responded to messages from the station and The Associated Press seeking comment.

Somebody get the man a hamburger!

Georgian archaeologists find 1.8-million-year-old human tooth

The Dmanisi finds were the oldest such discovery anywhere in the world outside Africa

Published:  September 10, 2022 15:35

Reuters

Giorgi Bidzinashvili, an archaeologist and the dig team's scientific leader, demonstrates a tooth belonging to

an early species of human, which was recovered from rock layers presumably dated to 1.8 million years old,

near an excavation site in Dmanisi outside the village of Orozmani, Georgia.

Image Credit: REUTERS

Orozmani, Georgia: Archaeologists in Georgia have found a 1.8-million-year-old tooth belonging to an early species of human which they say cements the region as the home of one of the earliest prehistoric human settlements in Europe, possibly anywhere outside Africa.

The tooth was discovered near the village of Orozmani, around 100 km southwest of the Georgian capital of Tbilisi, near Dmanisi where human skulls dated to 1.8 million years old, were found in the late 1990s and early 2000s.

The Dmanisi finds were the oldest such discovery anywhere in the world outside Africa and one which changed scientists' understanding of early human evolution and migration patterns.

The latest discovery at a site 20 km away provides yet more evidence that the mountainous south Caucasus area was likely one of the first places early humans settled after migrating out of Africa, experts said.

It's interesting that Dmanisi is less than 400 kms due north of Mount Ararat, Turkey where Noah's Ark is said to have landed. Mt Ararat may also have been the headwaters of the rivers that flowed through the Garden of Eden. 

Did life really begin in Africa? Africa is one of the few places in the world where there are virtually no Neanderthal genes mixed into human genes.

Covid-19 > Covid Appeals to the Neanderthal in Us; Germany - State of Emergency; Netherlands Cancels Many Operations

Complex Human DNA Trail Provides Some Interesting Surprises

"Orozmani, together with Dmanisi, represents the centre of the oldest distribution of old humans - or early Homo - in the world outside Africa," the National Research Centre of Archaeology and Prehistory of Georgia said, announcing the discovery of the tooth on Thursday.

Archaeologists work at a dig site following the discovery of a tooth belonging to an early species of human,

near an excavation site in Dmanisi outside the village of Orozmani, Georgia.

Image Credit: REUTERS

Giorgi Bidzinashvili, the scientific leader of the dig team, said he considers the tooth belonged to a "cousin" of Zezva and Mzia, the names given to two near-complete 1.8-million-year-old fossilised skulls found at Dmanisi.

"The implications, not just for this site, but for Georgia and the story of humans leaving Africa 1.8 million years ago are enormous," said British archaeology student Jack Peart, who first found the tooth at Orozmani.

"It solidifies Georgia as a really important place for paleoanthropology and the human story in general," he told Reuters.

The oldest Homo fossils anywhere in the world date to around 2.8 million years ago - a partial jaw discovered in modern-day Ethiopia.

Scientists believe early humans, a hunter-gatherer species named Homo erectus, likely started migrating out of Africa around two million years ago. Ancient tools dated to around 2.1 million years have been discovered in modern-day China, but the Georgian sites are home to the oldest remains of early humans yet recovered outside Africa.

Bits and Bites from around the World > God's Name written 3000 years ago; Ram get 3 years in prison for killing old woman

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3,000-Year-Old Tablet with God's Name Affirms Biblical Timeline,

Archaeologist Says

Michael Foust | 

ChristianHeadlines.com Contributor | 

Friday, March 25, 2022

inscribed tablet, archaeologists find inscribed tablet

ChristianHeadlines.com

A new discovery from Israel involving an ancient tablet could be one of the most significant archaeological finds in modern history, not only affirming the biblical text but supporting a traditional, conservative understanding of the Old Testament timeline.

The discovery, announced Thursday by Scott Stripling of the Archaeological Studies Institute at The Bible Seminary in Katy, Texas, involves a folded lead tablet about two centimeters by (2?) centimeters in size with 40 letters of Hebrew inscription that apparently references events mentioned in Deuteronomy 27:15-26 and Joshua 8:30 at Mt. Ebel. There, the Israelites learn they will be cursed if they disobey God.

The tablet – which mentions God's name twice – was discovered at the site of Mt. Ebel. More significantly, though, the lead tablet's text is "centuries older than any known Hebrew inscription from ancient Israel," Stripling's organization says.

A lab in Prague scanned the tablet. The text reads, "Cursed, cursed, cursed – cursed by the God YHW. You will die cursed. Cursed you will surely die. Cursed by YHW – cursed, cursed, cursed."

Stripling said at a press conference of the discovery, "On a scale of one to 10, this is a 10. It doesn't get any bigger than this. … If the [biblical] text were true, this is what you would anticipate finding. And indeed, it is what we found."

Stripling said the tablet dates to the late Bronze period, which ran from 3300 B.C. to 1200 B.C. That means it would be roughly 3,000 years old.

Secular critics of a traditional dating of the Old Testament often have placed the time of the Exodus from Egypt and the conquest of Canaan at a much later date – and thus calling into question the truthfulness of Scripture.

These critics argue that the Pentateuch could not have been written by Moses – as claimed by the Bible – because the Hebrew alphabet did not exist when he was alive. The tablet's text, though, would seem to support a Moses authorship.

The discovery, Stripling said, affirms the biblical text.

"One can no longer argue with a straight face that the biblical text was not written" until the Persian period (559 B.C.. to 331 B.C.) or the Hellenistic period (323 B.C to 30 B.C. "as many higher critics have done when here we do clearly have the ability to write the entire text at a much, much earlier date. This tips the scale in favor of an earlier date and does not help the arguments of those who favor a later date."

A peer-reviewed paper on the tablet will be released in the coming months, Stripling said.

Gershon Galil of Haifa University said the discovery's significance could not be overstated. "This is a text you find only every 1,000 years," Galil told The Times of Israel.

The newspaper said it "may be one of the greatest archaeological discoveries ever."

"It would be the first attested use of the name of God in the Land of Israel and would set the clock back on proven Israelite literacy by several centuries – showing that the Israelites were literate when they entered the Holy Land, and therefore could have written the Bible as some of the events it documents took place," the newspaper said.

Photo courtesy: ©Associates for Biblical Research/Michael Luddeni, used with permission.

Sheep sentenced to three years in jail for killing old woman in South Sudan

The ram attacked the woman, butted her on the chest several times before she died

Published:  May 21, 2022 14:23

Tawfiq Nasrallah, Senior News Editor, Gulf News

 

The 'guilty' ram that killed an old woman in South Sudan.

Image Credit: Social media

Dubai: A ram has been sentenced to three years in jail for allegedly attacking and head-butting an old woman to death in South Sudan, local media reported.

The ram owner also has been asked to give five cows for the family of the victim towards compensation, a local court in Rumbek city, South Sudan, has ruled.

According to Sudan Today newspaper, Rumbek police in the Lakes state of South Sudan took custody of the ram after it killed the woman last weekend. The ram has reportedly attacked the woman and butted her on the chest several times, before she died.

Under the customary laws of the Lakes State, any pet that kills a person is awarded as compensation to the family of the deceased.

Has Evidence of Sodom and Gomorrah Been Found?

The dates and locations are imprecise but very close in proximity to the Biblical legend of the spectacular destruction of Sodom, Gomorrah, and two other cities near the Dead Sea

And yet, science will continue to search for a 'Godless' reason for the incredible, instant destruction

‘Cosmic airburst’: Tunguska-like blast destroyed part of Middle East 3,700 years ago

© NASA / Wikimedia Commons

A Tunguska-like ‘cosmic airburst’ may have annihilated an ancient Middle Eastern civilization in a split-second in a terrifying example of the fragility of life on Earth, according to new research.

The Tunguska event was a large explosion that occurred near the Stony Tunguska River in Yeniseysk Governorate (now Krasnoyarsk Krai), Russia, on the morning of 30 June 1908 (NS). The explosion over the sparsely populated Eastern Siberian Taiga flattened 2,000 square kilometres (770 square miles) of forest, yet caused no known human casualties. The explosion is generally attributed to the air burst of a meteor. It is classified as an impact event, even though no impact crater has been found; the object is thought to have disintegrated at an altitude of 5 to 10 kilometres (3 to 6 miles) rather than to have hit the surface of the Earth. - Wikipedia

Analysis of 3,700-year-old archaeological evidence from Jordan’s Tall el-Hammam Excavation Project indicates that a “high-heat” explosive event “devastated approximately 500km2” of land to the north of the Dead Sea, wiping out a thriving civilisation that had existed for millennia almost instantaneously.

Given the absence of an impact crater, the team believes the destruction was caused by a low-altitude airburst not more than 3,280 feet (1km) above the ground.

The explosion was so awe-inspiringly powerful that the Zircon contained within the civilization’s pottery sublimed into a gas thanks to temperatures of up to 7,230 degrees Fahrenheit (4,000 degrees Celsius). For comparison, the temperature at the surface of the Sun is about 10,000 Fahrenheit (5,600 Celsius). The pottery itself was reportedly vitrified (turned to glass).  

Radiocarbon dating at the site indicated that mud-brick walls “suddenly disappeared around 3,700 years ago, leaving only stone foundations.”

Unlike the 1908 Tunguska event, this explosion occurred in a highly populated area, for the time, and may have killed between 40,000 and 65,000 people who inhabited Middle Ghor, the 25-kilometer-wide circular plain in Jordan. The blast radius of the Tunguska event was over four times the size: almost 2,000 square kilometers of taiga forest was flattened, indicating the explosion must have occurred at a higher altitude.

The highly fertile soil of the Middle Ghor was left barren by the heat and was then salted by the briny anhydride waters of the Dead Sea that washed over the plains from the resulting tsunami after the airburst. It took almost 600 years for the area to recover.

“That the most productive agricultural land in the region, which had supported flourishing civilizations continuously for at least 3,000 years, should suddenly relinquish, then resist, human habitation for such a long period of time has begged investigation,” states the project’s website.

Some have theorized that this event may have been the biblical destruction of the ancient city of Sodom as the Tall el-Hammam site has long been a strong candidate for the ancient 'Sin City', though no definitive conclusion has been reached as of yet.

Biblical dating puts the destruction of the plains cities at about 2000-1900 AD, or 3900-4000 years ago, ie, within 200-300 years of the estimated date of the destruction revealed above. That's actually a pretty good fit since neither are precise measurements.

The location of the plains cities has never been pin-pointed. Many theories have been advanced from south of the Dead Sea to north of it. Some may have existed under the current location of the Dead Sea. So, to be in the vicinity of the Dead Sea is also a pretty good fit.

Genesis 18 & 19 tell the story of the destruction of the plain's cities. Genesis 13:12, 13 tell us of Abraham's nephew Lot settling in the Sodom area, and also that the men of Sodom were exceedingly wicked and sinned against the Lord.

Ezekiel 16:49 explains, "Behold, this was the guilt of your sister Sodom: she and her daughters had arrogance, abundant food and careless ease, but she did not help the poor and needy."

This scripture has led many to claim that God destroyed the four cities because they were inhospitable. Such fail to see the bigger picture. A lack of hospitality hardly qualifies as 'exceedingly wicked' and 'sinning against God'.

They also fail to recognize that sin is progressive. As Paul explains in the New Testament, Romans 1:26-32:

For this reason God gave them over to degrading passions; for their women exchanged the natural function for that which is unnatural, and in the same way also the men abandoned the natural function of the woman and burned in their desire toward one another, men with men committing indecent acts and receiving in their own persons the due penalty of their error.

And just as they did not see fit to acknowledge God any longer, God gave them over to a depraved mind, to do those things which are not proper, being filled with all unrighteousness, wickedness, greed, evil; full of envy, murder, strife, deceit, malice; they are gossips, slanderers, haters of God, insolent, arrogant, boastful, inventors of evil, disobedient to parents, without understanding, untrustworthy, unloving, unmerciful;

and although they know the ordinance of God, that those who practice such things are worthy of death, they not only do the same, but also give hearty approval to those who practice them.

In the case of Sodom and Gomorrah, the sins of the men progressed to where they were clearly 'haters of God'. They knew in their hearts that the angels in Lot's house were of God, and the evil that consumed them wanted nothing more than to violate those men and thereby, violate God Himself.

This is the very nature of paedophilia today. It is less sexual in nature than acts of hatred toward God. It is the destruction of innocence and the violation of the sacred. It is spitting in the Face of God! 

There is good reason to believe that antisemitism is of the same nature - spiritual enmity toward God. In Jesus' day, demons recognized Him as the Son of God, while the religious leaders didn't. God's enemies recognize Him, see His hand on Israel, and are jealous, and, or enraged. The spectacular increase in antisemitism that is currently sweeping the world is spiritually driven and is a very good indication the we are in The Last Days before the return of Christ.

Many will reject these notions, because they reject God. But you do so at your own peril. Your primary reason for being on this planet at this time is to have the opportunity to determine whether you are suitable for Eternity with God, or without God. There is no place in God's Eternity for those who rebel against Him.