Emergency workers race to find survivors in deadly Joplin tornado

Anita Stokes salvages meat from a freezer at her home that was destroyed by a tornado in Joplin, Mo., Monday, May 23, 2011. A large tornado ripped across much of the city Sunday, damaging a hospital and hundreds of homes and businesses and killing at least 89 people. (AP Photo/Charlie Riedel)

UPDATED 10:40 a.m. with details of survivors finding bodies;

JOPLIN, Mo. • A massive tornado that tore a 6-mile path across southwestern Missouri killed at least 89 people as it slammed into the city of Joplin, ripping into a hospital, crushing cars like soda cans and leaving a forest of splintered tree trunks behind where entire neighborhoods once stood.

Authorities warned that the death toll could climb as search and rescue workers continued their efforts. Their task was made more miserable as a new thunderstorm with strong winds, heavy rain pelted part of the city with quarter-sized hail.

City manager Mark Rohr announced the number of known dead at a pre-dawn news conference outside the wreckage of a hospital that took a direct hit from Sunday's storm. Rohr said the twister cut a path nearly 6 miles long and more than a half-mile wide through the center of town. Much of the city's south side was leveled, with churches, schools, businesses and homes reduced to ruins.

Jasper County emergency management director Keith Stammer said about 2,000 buildings were damaged, while Joplin fire chief Mitch Randles estimated the damage covered a quarter or more of the city of about 50,000 people some 160 miles south of Kansas City. He said his home was among those destroyed.

An unknown number of people were injured, and officials said patients were scattered to any nearby hospitals that could take them.

Authorities began a door-to-door search Monday morning, with rescuers moving gingerly around downed power lines and jagged debris. A series of gas leaks caused fires around the city overnight, and Gov. Jay Nixon said some were still burning early Monday. Nixon said he feared the death toll would rise but also expected survivors to be found in the rubble.

"I don't think we're done counting," Nixon told The Associated Press, adding, "I still believe that because of the size of the debris and the number of people involved that there are lives to be saved."

Crews found bodies during the night in vehicles the storm had flipped over, torn apart and left looking like crushed cans. Triage centers and shelters set up around the city quickly filled to capacity. At Memorial Hall, a downtown entertainment venue, nurses and other emergency workers from across the region treated critically injured patients.

At another makeshift unit at a Lowe's home improvement store, wooden planks served as beds. Outside, ambulances and fire trucks waited for calls. During one stretch after midnight Monday, emergency vehicles were scrambling nearly every two minutes.

On Monday morning, survivors picked through the rubble of what were once their homes, salvaging clothes, furniture, family photos and financial records, the air pungent with the smell of gas and smoking embers. Others wandered through the wreckage with nowhere to go, their homes or apartments destroyed.

Kelley Fritz, 45, of Joplin, rummaged through the remains of a storage building with her husband, Jimmy. They quickly realized they would never find the belongings they stored there, and that they had lost much of what was in their home after the tornado ripped away the roof. Their sons, ages 20 and 17, both Eagle Scouts, went outside after the storm and quickly realized every home was destroyed.

"My sons had deceased children in their arms when they came back," Fritz said. "My husband and I went out and saw two or three dead bodies on the ground."

Fritz said she was surprised she survived. "You could just feel the air pull up and it was so painful. I didn't think we were going to make it, it happened so fast."

Tornado sirens gave residents about a 20-minute warning before the tornado touched down on the city's west side, Rohr said. Staff at St. John's Regional Medical Center hustled patients into hallways before the storm struck the nine-story building, blowing out hundreds of windows and leaving the facility useless.

Med Flight manager Rod Pace watched the tornado form to the southwest like so many before. He said he saw the swirling rain start about a mile off, and the flags outside suddenly stopped blowing to the northeast, only to be pulled back to the west.

Then the glass doors he was holding onto - ones with a 100-pound magnet to keep them locked - were pulled open. Pace held onto the handles as he was sucked outside briefly and then pushed back in like a rag doll. He fled to the hospital's interior for cover, and then heard a roar. Pace and a co-worker pushed on another door to make sure it stayed shut, but it kept swaying back and forth.

"I've heard people talk about being in tornadoes and saying it felt like the building was breathing," Pace said. "It was just like that."

The hospital was among the worst-hit locations. Early Monday morning, floodlights from a temporary triage facility lit what remained of the building that once held as many 367 patients. Police officers could be seen combing the surrounding area for bodies.

In the parking lot, a helicopter lay crushed on its side, its rotors torn apart and windows smashed. Nearby, a pile of cars lay crumpled into a single mass of twisted metal. Winds from the storm carried debris up to 60 miles away, with medical records, X-rays, insulation and other items falling to the ground in Greene County, said Larry Woods, assistant director of the Springfield-Greene County Office of Emergency Management.

Matt Sheffer dodged downed power lines, trees and closed streets to make it to his dental office across from the hospital. Rubble littered a flattened lot where a pharmacy, gas station and some doctors' offices once stood.

"My office is totally gone. Probably for two to three blocks, it's just leveled," Sheffer said. "The building that my office was in was not flimsy. It was 30 years old and two layers of brick. It was very sturdy and well built."

The Joplin twister was one of 68 reported tornadoes across seven Midwest states over the weekend, stretched from Oklahoma to Wisconsin, according to the National Weather Service's Storm Prediction Center. One person was killed in Minneapolis. But the devastation in Missouri was the worst of the day, eerily reminiscent of the tornadoes that killed more than 300 people across the South last month. Residents said the damage was breathtaking in scope.

"You see pictures of World War II, the devastation and all that with the bombing. That's really what it looked like," said Kerry Sachetta, the principal of a flattened Joplin High School. "I couldn't even make out the side of the building. It was total devastation in my view. I just couldn't believe what I saw."

Travel through and around Joplin was difficult, with Interstate 44 shut down and streets clogged with emergency vehicles and the wreckage of buildings.

Emergency management officials rushed heavy equipment to Joplin to help lift debris and clear the way for search and recovery operations. Nixon declared a state of emergency, and President Barack Obama said the Federal Emergency Management Agency was working with state and local agencies.

Jeff Lehr, a reporter for the Joplin Globe, said he was upstairs in his home when the storm hit but was able to make his way to a basement closet. The storm tore the roof off his house, but he was safe. When he emerged, he found people wandering through the streets, covered in mud.

"I'm talking to them, asking if they knew where their family is," Lehr said. "Some of them didn't know and weren't sure where they were. All the street markers were gone."

An aching helplessness settled over residents, many of whom could only wonder about the fate of loved ones.

Justin Gibson, 30, huddled with three relatives outside the tangled debris of a Home Depot. He pointed to a black pickup that had been tossed into the store's ruins and said it belonged to his roommate's brother, who was last seen in the store with his two young daughters.

Gibson, who has three children of his own, said his home was leveled and "everything in that neighborhood is gone. The high school, the churches, the grocery store. I can't get ahold of my ex-wife to see how my kids are."

"I don't know the extent of this yet," he said, "but I know I'll have friends and family dead."

In Minneapolis, where a tornado killed one person and injured 29, authorities imposed an overnight curfew in a 4-square-mile area, including some of the city's poorest neighborhoods, to prevent looting and keep streets clear for emergency crews. Mayor R.T. Rybak said one liquor store was looted right after the tornado hit late Sunday and a few burglaries took place overnight.

In Wisconsin, the mayor of La Crosse declared a state of emergency Sunday after a powerful storm tore roofs from homes and littered streets and lawns with downed trees and debris.

More storms were predicted across the southern Plains through Thursday morning. The warm weather Monday preceded a coming cold front, fueling instability, according to the Storm Prediction Center in Norman, Okla. A few tornadoes, some strong, could occur - starting in Oklahoma and southern Kansas in Monday afternoon and in North Texas in the late afternoon.

___

Associated Press writers Jim Salter in Joplin; Heather Hollingsworth, Dana Fields, Chris Clark and Bill Draper in Kansas City, Mo.; Todd Richmond in La Crosse, Wis.; Tara Bannow in Minneapolis; and Kristi Eaton in Oklahoma City, contributed to this report.

89 dead in from tornado in Joplin, Missouri; number expected to rise

The aftermath of the tornadoes

STORY HIGHLIGHTS

• NEW: City manager: 89 are confirmed dead
• Gov. Jay Nixon deploys the Missouri National Guard
• KODE: Residents find X-rays from a hospital that was struck by a tornado 70 miles away
• A wave of heavy storms stretches from Wisconsin to Texas

Read more about this story from CNN affiliates KOTV, KSHB and KODE.

Joplin, Missouri (CNN) -- At least 89 people died from a tornado that tore through Joplin, Missouri, City Manager Mark Rohr told reporters Monday morning.

Residents in the southwest Missouri city braced for news of fatalities after the vicious tornado flattened buildings, tossed cars and hurled debris up to 70 miles away.

"I would say 75% of the town is virtually gone," Kathy Dennis of the American Red Cross said Sunday night.

But Joplin Emergency Management Director Keith Stammer put the estimate at 10% to 20%.

"The particular area that the tornado went through is just like the central portion of the city, and it's very dense in terms of population," Stammer said on CNN's American Morning on Monday.

He said officials have a list of places where people are believed to be trapped.

Tornado rips Missouri town apart

Tornado damage in Waverly, Missouri

Tornado devastates neighborhood

'We are going to need a lot of help'

"We have been working all night long, and we will continue to do so until we get to everybody," he said.

Stammer said more than 40 agencies from Kansas, Arkansas, Oklahoma and Missouri have responded.

Missouri Gov. Jay Nixon activated the Missouri National Guard and stressed urgency in rescuing survivors after the Sunday evening twister.

"It's total devastation, with a hospital down, the high school down, other areas," he said. "We just want to make sure that as the night goes on, we're saving lives between now and dawn."

Photographer: Two minutes felt like an eternity

Nixon said late Sunday night that there was no official death toll, but "we have had confirmation of a number of deaths. And the number appears to be rising."

Joplin city spokeswoman Lynn Ostot said the number of fatalities probably won't be determined until daylight. She said about 1/2 to 1 mile of the city was affected, including residential and commercial districts.The city is home to about 50,000 people, according to the U.S. Census.

Aerial footage from CNN affiliate KOTV showed houses reduced to lumber and smashed cars sitting atop heaps of wood. Some structures were engulfed in flames.

Storm chaser: "Oh, gosh. That is a monster tornado!

Amber Gonzales was driving through southwest Missouri when she heard tornado warnings on the radio. She took refuge at a gas station before getting back on the road and seeing the aftermath of what she narrowly missed.

"There were about 10 semis turned over on their sides on the highway," Gonzales told CNN. "I had to go around semis on the road."

She then stopped at a Joplin shopping center to find cars flipped over in the parking lot and rescuers extracting people from the debris.

Missouri governor: 'Total devastation'

Witness: 'We saw power lines snapping'

Tornado damages hospital

Storm chaser: 'Trees are de-barked'

"Bodies were being pulled from buildings," said Gonzales, who said she did not know the conditions of those yanked from the rubble. "People were pulled out of cars. People were marking cars that had been checked."

Some good Samaritans didn't wait for emergency vehicles to reach the injured.

"I saw an older woman taken on the back of a truck bed, speeding down the road," Gonzales said. "I can't get the lady out of my mind ... I don't know if she made it."

Other witnesses also reported seeing some of the wounded ferried to hospitals in the backs of pickup trucks as first responders struggled to handle the overwhelming destruction.

St. John's Regional Medical Center in Joplin was hit directly by the tornado and suffered significant structural damage, city officials said. CNN affiliate KSHB said there were reports of fires throughout the hospital.

One facade of the building made of glass was completely blown out, and authorities evacuated the medical center, said Ray Foreman, a meteorologist with CNN affiliate KODE in Joplin. Makeshift triage centers were set up in tents outside, witness Bethany Scutti said.

Hospital in tatters; neighborhood disappears

Residents 70 miles away from Joplin in Dade County, Missouri, found X-rays from St. John's in their driveways, said Foreman, indicating the size and power of the twister.

The tornado, which touched down just before 7 p.m. ET, cut a path of destruction through the heart of the city, hitting heavily populated areas, Foreman said.

"We've had numerous vehicles picked up and thrown into houses," he said.

Parts of the city were unrecognizable, according to Steve Polley, a storm chaser from Kansas City, Missouri, who described the damage as "complete devastation."

Ground level view of tornado damage

View from above: Tornado damage

RELATED TOPICS

• Tornadoes
• Joplin (Missouri)
• Missouri National Guard

At least seven overturned tractor-trailers were seen on one stretch of Interstate 44 west of the city, said Michael Ratliff, who has been chasing storms for eight years. Ratliff said the tornado was "rain wrapped," making it impossible to see.

Maj. Tammy Spicer of the Missouri National Guard said at least 100 troops reported for duty to help in the search-and-rescue mission.

"It's beyond belief," Spicer said of the situation in Joplin.

Mike O'Connell, spokesman for the Missouri Department of Public Safety, said Sunday night that authorities were trying to get additional search-and-rescue teams to the area.

"The priority is to get every available resource there ... as quickly as possible."

The Red Cross has established a shelter at Missouri Southern State University in Joplin and was offering shuttle service to bring people there, Ostot said.

The twister was part of a line of severe weather that swept across the Midwest on Sunday, prompting tornado watches and warnings that stretched from Wisconsin to Texas. High winds and possible tornadoes struck Minneapolis and other parts of Minnesota, leaving at least one person dead and injuring nearly two dozen others, police said.

Elsewhere, reports of tornadoes came in from Forest Lake, north of the Minneapolis-St. Paul area, and near Harmony, more than 120 miles to the south. In Minneapolis, witnesses reported numerous downed trees and neighborhoods without power.

Minneapolis police spokeswoman Sara Dietrich said the storm left one fatality, with 22 people reported hurt.

LeDale Davis, who lives on the north side of Minneapolis, told CNN, "This is the first time we can remember a tornado touched down in this area. They aren't usually in the heart of the city."

Forecasters said the system that struck Minnesota was separate from another storm that struck eastern Kansas on Saturday, killing one person and damaging or destroying hundreds of homes there.

President Barack Obama issued a statement Sunday night expressing his "deepest condolences to the families of all those who lost their lives in the tornadoes and severe weather that struck Joplin, Missouri as well as communities across the Midwest today.

"We commend the heroic efforts by those who have responded and who are working to help their friends and neighbors at this very difficult time," Obama said. He said the Federal Emergency Management Agency is working with state and local officials to aid in response and recovery efforts.

Meanwhile, survivors in Joplin counted their blessings.

Pastor Jim Marcum of Citywide Christian Fellowship church said he was delivering a sermon to about 100 people when a man jumped in and said, "It's coming this way."

"I didn't know which was louder, us praying or the wind outside," Marcum said late Sunday night. He said those inside the church could feel the pressure of the wind.

"We were praying to be spared. I just thank God," Marcum said.

After the storm left, church members went out to help.

"Every time people would leave and go out to help as part of a search and rescue, people would return and they would be emotional," Marcum said. "We have one couple still at the church late into the night because their home was completely destroyed. They don't have a home to go to."

Joplin MO (Missouri) Tornado Captured on Video

Joplin, Missouri was in the direct path of a devastating tornado Sunday night, and it left the city "isolated and in the dark after the destruction, with telephone connections largely cut off and many homes without electricity after the twister touched down around 6 p.m." Video after the break.

"There was panic - firefighters were pulling themselves out of the debris and then helping others," said Mike Bettes, a meteorologist for the Weather Channel who arrived in Joplin 10 minutes after the tornado touched down, as part of the show "The Great Tornado Hunt."

Harold Camping ‘Flabbergasted’ The World Did Not End

Seth Abramovitch — Harold Camping speaks! The 89-year-old Nostradamus from Northern California, who spent millions of his followers' dollars to get out the word that the world was ending on Saturday, has been noticeably silent since that day came and went rather unremarkably. But he's at last ready to talk — and oy, what a weekend. Don't get him started.

Appearing at his front door, sfgate.com reports, Camping told the crowd of journalists and angry followers that "it has been a really tough weekend."

[T]here was Camping, "flabbergasted" in Alameda, wearing tan slacks, a tucked-in polo shirt and a light jacket. [...]

"I'm looking for answers," Camping said, adding that meant frequent prayer and consultations with friends.

"But now I have nothing else to say," he said, closing the door to his home. "I'll be back to work Monday and will say more then."

Sure, easy for him to say! What about poor Robert Fitzpatrick, the former MTA employee we told you about earlier, who spent his savings on doomsday subway ads and billboards. Here's video of him being accosted by an angry mob in Times Square. Downside: No apocalypse. Upside: Jersey Boys is half-off at the TKTS booth! [sfgate, video via Daily What]

Iceland Volcano Erupts, White Plume Up To 18,000 Feet Seen: Report

REYKJAVIK, Iceland — Iceland's most active volcano has started erupting, scientists said Saturday – just over a year after another eruption on the North Atlantic island shut down European air traffic for days.

Iceland's Meteorological Office confirmed that an eruption had begun at the Grimsvotn volcano, accompanied by a series of small earthquakes. Smoke could be seen rising from the volcano, which lies under the uninhabited Vatnajokull glacier in southeast Iceland.

A no fly zone has been designated for 120 nautical miles (220 kilometers) in all directions from the eruption. Isavia, the company that operates and develops all airport facilities and air navigation services in Iceland, described this as standard procedure around eruptions.

"The plume of smoke has reached jet flying altitude and plans have been made for planes flying through Icelandic air control space to fly southwardly tonight," said Hjordis Gudmundsdottir, the spokeswoman for Isavia.

Grimsvotn last erupted in 2004. Scientists have been expecting a new eruption and have said previously that this volcano's eruption will likely be small and should not lead to the air travel chaos caused in April 2010 by ash from the Eyjafjallajokull volcano.

History shows that previous eruptions in Grimsvotn have not had much influence on flight traffic – unlike the massive disruption caused last year.

Pall Einarsson, geophysicist at the University of Iceland, said last year's eruption was a rare event.

"The ash in Eyjafjallajokull was persistent or unremitting and fine-grained," Einarsson said. "The ash in Grimsvotn is more coarse and not as likely to cause danger as it falls to the ground faster and doesn't stay as long in the air as in the Eyjafjallajokull eruption."

A plane from the Icelandic Coast Guard carrying experts from the University of Iceland will fly over the volcano and evaluate the situation.

One eyewitness, Bolli Valgardsson, said the plume rose quickly several thousand feet (meters) into the air.

Sparsely populated Iceland is one of the world's most volcanically active countries and eruptions are frequent.

Eruptions often cause local flooding from melting glacier ice, but rarely cause deaths.

Last year's Eyjafjallajokul eruption left some 10 million air travelers stranded worldwide after winds pushed the ash cloud toward some of the world's busiest airspace and led most northern European countries to ground all planes for five days.

Whether widespread disruption occurs again will depend on how long the eruption lasts, how high the ash plume rises and which way the wind blows.

In November, melted glacial ice began pouring from Grimsvotn, signaling a possible eruption. That was a false alarm but scientists have been monitoring the volcano closely ever since.

The volcano also erupted in 1998, 1996 and 1993. The eruptions have lasted between a day and several weeks.

___

Jill Lawless and Danica Kirka in London contributed to this report.

Westboro Baptist Church cancels Ponderosa High, DU Hillel protests for travel complications

Fred Phelps.

​Today, the Douglas County School District website kicks off with a "Breaking News" item that reads: "The planned protest by the Westboro Baptist Church at Ponderosa High School's graduation has been canceled by the group due to travel complications." The response from a member of the Counter-Protest Westboro Baptist Church in Colorado! Facebook group, which had planned to face down WBC pickets at the Ponderosa graduation, the DU Hillel and the Denver Islamic Society? "'Travel complications.' Uh-huh."

Of course, the Westboro venom-spewers have played this game before, as illustrated by our January 2010 post "Same sex-marriage debate: Westboro Baptist Church protest falls flat -- because gay haters don't show up." But this time around, the group went to the trouble of informing the Parker Police Department that between six and eight protesters would be on hand at the graduation as a way of demonstrating their displeasure with Ryan Wheeler. A Ponderosa High senior, Wheeler had written a Denver Post essay suggesting that the Supreme Court shouldn't have ruled in favor of the WBC's right to protest military funerals.

Why the cancellation, then? One possibility is the announced response at various picketing locales. The Denver Islamic Society never returned Westword interview requests, so we don't know what its representatives had planned. But the Dougco schools spokespersons encouraged students and parents to ignore the protest, and DU Hillel staffers went a step further. They planned to close the office, so the WBC crew would be left to confront an empty building. Moreover, DU's undergraduate student government passed a resolution condemning the WBC but arguing that student participation in protests would further the church's mission.

No telling if these tactics convinced the WBC (which still lists the Colorado events on its web schedule) to stay home. But it's something to consider the next time the Westboro slugs threaten to darken this state with their presence.

December 21 2012, The official Website for 122112 Information

The world as we know it is in for some dramatic and devastating changes. Explore the possibilities, see what other believe.

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Britney's New Video: "Till the World Ends" Britney Spears' new music video, "Till the World Ends," premiered online today. This time, the pop empress sets the stage in a bleak, dystopian future (December 21, 2012, to be exact

The end is nigh, says Family Radio’s Harold Camping

One of Family Radio's Judgment Day billboards appears on a building on Ashby Avenue. Photo by Jill Cowan.

From the small anteroom outside his office, you can hear Harold Camping’s voice rumble. At a little before 5 p.m. on Good Friday, he’s discussing ways of maximizing web traffic with Guy von Harringa, his head programmer. While von Harringa’s voice changes as he talks – speeding up and slowing down, rising and falling subtly with the conversation – Camping’s speech is even and commanding.

It’s the kind of voice that sounds familiar, even if you’ve never heard it before; despite the fact that Camping is 89 years old, he sounds like he could talk forever.

Of course, if what Camping believes is true, he won’t need to say anything – not after this May 21, anyway. That’s when Camping, a former civil engineer and UC Berkeley graduate, says the world will end.

Harold Camping. Photo courtesy Family Radio.

Camping is the founder and president of Family Stations, Inc. (or Family Radio), a global media conglomerate of sorts, which has its headquarters in an unremarkable-looking office complex just across Hegenberger Road from the Oakland International Airport, where the décor seems unchanged since the 1970s. The corridors are narrow, and cubicle partitions are made of pressboard printed with fake wood grain. The color scheme is drab brown and gray, accented by the occasional cross-stitch of a Bible quotation in colored thread.

It’s from this cluttered, labyrinthine building that Camping broadcasts his “Open Forum” radio program every weekday from 5:30 p.m. until 7 p.m on more than 140 radio stations owned by Family Radio in the United States. The first of these was Family Radio’s flagship station, KEAR 610 AM in San Francisco. Some of the programs are also available online and in translation at FamilyRadio.com.

During his “Open Forum,” which Camping has hosted since 1961, he answers Bible-related questions from listeners. Camping claims that, because the Bible is the direct word of God, it is Family Radio’s sole authority. In founding Family Radio, Camping says, “We didn’t trust any churches,” and the network is supported by what its website calls “individual believers.” During Camping’s show, some call in to earnestly ask Camping to parse specific scriptural passages, and some call in to challenge his ideas.

But throughout his broadcasts, Camping’s voice is constant and unflappable, although what he’s actually saying is almost impossible to follow without a digitally searchable e-text of the Bible in front of you. And even then, maybe not.

According to Camping’s interpretation of God’s word, an enormous earthquake will ripple around the entire world on May 21, 2011. Michael Garcia, one of Camping’s employees, said the quake “will make Japan look like a Sunday School Brunch.”

Garcia handles much of Family Radio’s outdoor advertising, which includes an estimated 1,200 billboards throughout the United States proclaiming “Judgment Day May 21, 2011.” The design also includes a gold sticker emblem adding, “The Bible guarantees it!”

Garcia compares Family Radio’s task to the sirens that warn communities about approaching tornadoes. He said that when he recently visited Texas and heard the sirens, he noted the parallel. “When you hear them, you’re not upset at the sirens. You’re grateful,” he said. “[Camping is] sounding the warning of Judgment Day.”

What the billboards don’t say is that Camping believes the dead will be turned from their graves, while, as Family Radio’s website puts it, “the remains of the all the believers who have ever lived will be instantly transformed into glorified spiritual bodies to be forever with God.” Then, all the non-believers will suffer and die off for five more months, until the world really ends on October 21, 2011. For that kind of information, the signs, which also adorn buses and cover a fleet of RVs traveling around the country, direct viewers to Family Radio’s website.

What people are supposed to do once they hear “the awesome news,” as it’s called on T-shirts and sweatshirts displayed in the halls of Family Radio headquarters, is less clear. Neither von Harringa, nor Garcia, nor Camping himself have very specific instructions for the people they’re hoping to convince, beyond crying “humbly for mercy,” as Camping put it in his original tract claiming May 21 as Judgment Day.

Camping and Family Radio are hardly the first promoters of end time prophecies. Jim Jones, leader of the Peoples Temple in San Francisco and instigator of the group’s mass suicide, famously predicted that a nuclear holocaust would wipe out most of the world’s population on July 15, 1967. William Miller, founder of the Millerite movement based in New England, predicted that Christ would return in 1843. When this didn’t occur on the initial date set by Miller, his followers revised his prediction to a date in 1844. In more recent years, the Y2K movement and the Mayan calendar’s December 21, 2012 endpoint have been widely publicized as end time prophecies.

According to Paul Boyer, Merle Curti professor of history emeritus at the University of Wisconsin, Madison, and an expert in prophecy beliefs in modern American culture, while most would-be prophets avoid setting specific dates for the end of the world, “There have always been a few people that boldly claim that they’ve interpreted the scriptures and they’ve determined the correct day.”

Boyer also said that today’s mass media and the Internet are uniquely suited to spreading prophetic beliefs. “It makes popularizers a sort of audience they haven’t been able to have in the past, and Harold Camping is certainly benefiting from that,” Boyer said.

For von Harringa, using the Internet to warn as many of the world’s 7 billion people as he can before May 21 is a full-time job. “We’re trying to use every medium,” he says, sitting in his cubicle, which is covered with stacks of computer hardware and whiteboards charting web statistics. “We’re trying to squeeze every ounce out of every dollar that is given, and also trying to make the most of our time that we’re given to try and reach people.”

Von Harringa left a job doing database programming in a neuroscience lab at UC San Diego to work at Family Radio about a year ago. Now, when he talks about his “commission” – his spiritual task – von Harringa’s logical, reasoning tone is oddly similar whether he is quoting scripture or detailing how he uses Google Ad Words.

Von Harringa explains that he was raised by Christian parents who listened to Family Radio in Ohio, but when he was about 16, he lost track of his faith. “I came to realize I had a couple nagging questions, as I’m sure a lot of people at that age do,” he said.

At 19, von Harringa moved to California, where he spent a few years attempting without success to gain admission into UC Berkeley first, then UC Los Angeles and trying out different areas of study. Eventually, he settled on medicine at UC San Diego. But soon after “God had put a couple obstacles” in his way, he said, von Harringa, now 25, became disenchanted with the university system.

“I was starting to realize that a lot of college students – they dive into debt for the prospect of getting a job,” he said. “It’s like, why would you want to put yourself into debt for the rest of your life to get a job and pay your way out? It just doesn’t make sense from a practical standpoint.” It was around this time that von Harringa returned to studying the Bible, and decided to dedicate the rest of his life to spreading the word about May 21.

According to Boyer, it’s not unusual for lay people who are interested in science to take on prophetic beliefs. “I’ve found that people in engineering and science tend to be drawn to interpreting Bible prophecies more than those in the humanities,” he said.

Camping likens the analytical nature of his Bible study to the kind of analysis required in engineering. “I’ve crammed for the last 54 years,” he said. “I’ve crammed the Bible just like I used to cram for finals when I was going to Cal.”

If you listen to the MP3 file available on FamilyRadio.com called “Judgment Day: May 21” — which is a reading of the tract that Camping’s followers distribute around the world explaining why May 21, 2011 will be the end — then read a series of mathematical equations that Camping gave to the San Francisco Chronicle in January of 2010, it’s easy to see why cramming might be necessary. Von Harringa’s simpler version is this: “May 21, 2011 is 7,000 years after the date of Noah’s flood, which occurred in 4990 B.C.”

But if Judgment Day is like a final exam from God, Camping may have failed before. In 1992, he predicted that September 6, 1994 would be Judgment Day, although now he claims to have prophesized the 2011 date about 20 years before that.

“In 1992, I saw the likelihood that it could be 1994, even though I had already found 2011,” he says. “So I quickly wrote a book called 1994? And I put a question mark after it to sort of show that it was tentative.”

Von Harringa, too, agrees that 1994? is a hastily-written volume. But that doesn’t weaken his current faith in Camping’s prophecy.“People don’t understand the difference between a prediction and a prophecy,” he said.

According to Boyer, the reason neither Camping’s – nor his followers’ – conviction in the coming rapture dissolved after the world failed to end in 1994 is because they, like many prophecy believers, blame themselves for miscalculation and try again. “Usually there are ways of rationalizing failed prophecy rather than giving up the whole belief system,” said Boyer.

Although Von Harringa noted that not everyone who works at Family Radio believes in May 21, most of its employees don’t even entertain the suggestion that they’ll wake up in the same human form on May 22, in spite of the fact that, as Boyer said, “there’s considerably more skepticism about Camping now than before his prior predictions.”

Garcia said that while his 12-year-old daughter is “scared and terrified” of the end, she understands its imminence. He can’t say the same for his 17 and 19-year-old children, who don’t believe in May 21. “That’s why it’s called the great tribulation,” he said, referring to the possibility that his children will be left behind to suffer with other non-believers.

For Harold Camping and his voice, May 21 might be just another trial.

Netanyahu’s ‘expectations’

I think the right’s reaction to President Obama’s speech on the Middle East officially went off the rails this morning when a prominent right-wing blogger blasted Jeffrey Goldberg as a “far-left Israel hater.”

The Atlantic’s Goldberg is certainly capable of defending himself against such nonsense, but I’d note for context that he’s politically conservative, Jewish, and staunchly pro-Israel.

But Goldberg has drawn the ire of some on the far-right for responding to the president’s remarks with thoughtful and sensible pieces, noting among other things the reference to 1967 borders is neither new nor radical; media coverage has been misleading; and Republican reactions have been overheated for no reason.

Of particular interest, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said yesterday that he “expects to hear a reaffirmation from President Obama of U.S. commitments made to Israel in 2004,” prompting an especially poignant response from Goldberg.

So Netanyahu “expects” to hear this from the President of the United States? And if President Obama doesn’t walk back the speech, what will Netanyahu do? Will he cut off Israeli military aid to the U.S.? Will he cease to fight for the U.S. in the United Nations, and in the many international forums that treat Israel as a pariah?

I don’t like this word, “expect.” Even if there weren’t an imbalance between these two countries — Israel depends on the U.S. for its survival, while America, I imagine, would continue to exist even if Israel ceased to exist — I would find myself feeling resentful about the way Netanyahu speaks about our President. Netanyahu had an alternative, of course….

Instead he threw something of a hissy fit. It was not appropriate, and more to the point, it was not tactically wise… Netanyahu needs the support of President Obama in order to confront the greatest danger Israel has ever faced: the potential of a nuclear-armed Iran. And yet he seems to go out of his way to alienate the President. Why does he do this? It’s a mystery to me.

Putting aside the fact that I’m not accustomed to agreeing so much with Goldberg, the larger problem is that his sensible thinking on this is in too short a supply on the right. Over the last 24 hours, the response from Republicans and conservatives in general to Obama’s vision for the region has been reactionary and hysterical. The accusations against the U.S. leadership has been detached from reality in ways that suggest the right wasn’t even listening yesterday.

Indeed, for all the conservative apoplexy, it’s worth noting that the Anti-Defamation League had high praise for President Obama’s speech — and the ADL is led by Abe Foxman, a close Netanyahu ally.

We appear to have reached a point at which Republican attitudes on the Middle East peace process actual hinder the process itself by defending the status quo at all costs. The GOP’s unyielding position appears to be that U.S. officials must simply parrot the Israeli line — which in turn encourages Netanyahu to dictate his “expectations” in advance of his White House meeting.

And to feel differently is to be a “far-left Israel hater”? Please.

Center for Disease Control Hopefully Joking About Zombie Preparedness

Photo: Scott Garfield/TWD Productions/AMC

The Center for Disease Control, normally staid for understandable reasons — infectious pandemics are about as serious as it gets — posted a primer earlier this week on how to plan for ... a zombie outbreak. Tips include:

Identify the types of emergencies that are possible in your area. Besides a zombie apocalypse, this may include floods, tornadoes, or earthquakes. If you are unsure contact your local Red Cross chapter for more information.

And:

Plan your evacuation route. When zombies are hungry they won’t stop until they get food (i.e., brains), which means you need to get out of town fast! Plan where you would go and multiple routes you would take ahead of time so that the flesh eaters don’t have a chance! This is also helpful when natural disasters strike and you have to take shelter fast.

There are two possibilities here:

1) This is just a fun way of making people aware of emergency preparations that are also, as the above advice mentions, applicable to real-life disasters like earthquakes and hurricanes. Weather phenomena are boring, while the mere mention of zombies throws the Internet into a tizzy that can be matched only by Justin Bieber tweeting about anything. Indeed, CDC spokesman David Daigle tells Fox News, "The idea is we're reaching an audience or a segment we'd never reach with typical messages." That strategy has been a huge success — the zombie primer quickly became the most popular post the CDC has ever put online. "A typical post gets 1,000 hits,” Daigle tells the Times. “We got 10,000, then 30,000 on Tuesday, and then it crashed the server.”

2) The whole "this is just a fun and silly way to get people excited about emergency preparedness!" thing is a cover for the CDC's true purpose: to ready America for an actual zombie outbreak — perhaps coinciding with Judgment Day this Saturday? — without inducing chaos in the streets. Or maybe it's already begun. Come to think of it, we feel like we might have seen one earlier today.

CDC Warns Public to Prepare for 'Zombie Apocalypse' [Fox News]
A Spotlight on Public Health, Invaded by Zombies [NYT]

Macho Man Randy Savage Dies In Car Accident

TMZ spoke with Randy's brother, Lanny Poffo, who tells us the wrestling legend suffered a heart attack while he was behind the wheel around 9:25 AM ... and lost control of his vehicle.

Earlier this month, Savage celebrated his 1-year anniversary with his new wife Lynn.

Savage was 58.

Macho Man began wrestling in the WWF in 1985 and became a superstar with his trademark catchphrase "Ooooooh Yeaahhhhh." Savage was so popular, he became the spokesperson for Slim Jim in the mid '90s ... and became virtually synonymous with the brand.

UPDATE: Florida Highway Patrol tells TMZ ... Savage was driving his 2009 Jeep Wrangler when he veered across a concrete median ... through oncoming traffic ... and "collided head-on with a tree."

Savage was transported to Largo Medical center, where he died from his injuries.

Savage's wife was a passenger in the vehicle during the collision -- but survived with "minor injuries." She was transported to a different local hospital where she was treated.



According to officials, Randy and Lynn were both wearing their seatbelts at the time of the accident.

Cops say alcohol was NOT a factor.

An investigation into the accident is underway.

Botox Mom Docs -- Don't Talk About Getting Paid

In the stack of documents ... there is a lengthy rundown which Upton says she was told to follow when she did interviews for "Good Morning America" and "Inside Edition."

Among the instructions on what to say ... "She's [her daughter] going to be famous thanks to me giving her injections so young." And there's this ... "I have found a clinic that will do boob jobs in Mexico at 14, so if she hasn't developed by then we're saving for that surgery."

And another passage reads, "I admire Lindsay Lohan's mum ... for turning Lindsay into a child millionaire."

Upton used a broker to arrange the interviews with GMA and "Inside Edition" and the broker is allegedly the one who provided the script. And Upton claims the broker gave her some pretty specific instructions about not telling anyone she was getting money from GMA ($10,000) and "Inside" ($9,500).


Upton insists she never gave her daughter Botox, but was merely following a phony script for some quick money -- and GMA and "Inside" bought it hook, line and sinker.

The reporter who brokered the deal for The Sun, which ran the first story about Botox mom, tells TMZ, "She has doctored emails from me. She has lied about the Sun. She is attempting to extort money. I saw her give the child injections."

Oh, one final thing. The funniest part of the alleged script: "Make up and hair done at studio. Please don't chat to make up people about your interview." Everyone knows, they have such big mouths!

Secret Reveal 2011: User mails : mayan calendar 2012

The Mayan Calendar Simply Explained ” December 21, 2012 Cult.: The number of people who are concerned about the future events pertaining to December 2012 is growing everyday. As we get closer to this date the general public&226.

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2012 The End Of The World2012 The End of The World Top Casts: Question by Steve Sprague: Do you &098;&117;&121; the Mayan Calendar Prophesy of 2012?There is a ton of hoopla &097;&098;&111;&117;&116; the end of the world. 2012, specifically December, 2012, is the end of the Mayan calendar. &116;&104;&101;&114;&101; are religions &097;&110;&100; prophesies all &111;&118;&101;&114; the world, some related &116;&111; the Maya &097;&110;&100; some totally removed, that &097;&108;&115;&111; &8230;

Harold Camping: The Man Behind 'Judgment Day,' May 21, 2011 (VIDEO)

Harold Camping, the founder of Oakland, Calif.-based Family Radio, has gained a following after predicting that a quake will strike May 21, 2011 and lead to the end of the world on Oct. 21.

Behind thousands of “Judgment Day” billboards on rural highways and city skylines, responsible for a small army of volunteers traipsing across the country to warn that the world will end on May 21, is a frail, 89-year-old California multimillionaire who runs one of the largest Christian radio networks in the world.

Each day, Harold Camping’s slow and sonorous Bible readings and his Open Forum call-in show broadcast for hours from the Oakland, Calif. headquarters of Family Radio, where Christian gospel and shows with titles such as “Beyond Intelligent Design” and “Creation Moments” punctuate his words.

And while the retired civil engineer and former Sunday school teacher has been preaching the gospel for decades and talking about God’s wrathful plan for the past two years, recent times have brought him into the spotlight like never before.

(SCROLL DOWN FOR VIDEO)

In the last week, variations of “End of the World May 21st” and “Harold Camping” have remained among the top search terms on Google. On Thursday, the Centers for Disease Control released a mock guide to the “Zombie Apocalypse” on its web site that quickly went viral.

But "it’s no laughing matter," Camping told The Huffington Post. “It is not something where it's a tiny, tiny, tiny chance it may happen. It is going to happen.”

He and his fringe group of churchless followers believe that at 6 p.m. on Saturday, May 21, a massive earthquake will make its way around the earth, beginning in Fiji and New Zealand. Graves will open and two hundred million 'saved' individuals will float up to heaven. The doomed remainder will live on an unruly earth for five months before God annihilates it five months later.

Complex Biblical numerology partially based on a literal reading of the King James Bible and partially based and obscure interpretation of the book’s many symbols form the basis for Camping's warnings.

He says certain numbers repeat in the Bible along with particular themes. The number five means "atonement;" ten equals "completeness;" 17 is "heaven." Multiply those numbers by each other and multiply the result by itself. It equals 722,500.

"Christ hung on the cross April 1, 33 A.D.," he says. "Now go to April 1 of 2011 A.D., and that's 1,978 years."

If you multiply that number by 365.2422 -- the number of days in the solar calendar -- it equals 722,449. And if you add 51 (the number of days between April 1 and May 21) to that number, it equals 722,500.

It gets more confusing.

Camping also believes that May 21 marks the 7,000 anniversary of Noah's flood and the end of a 33-year-year period of Tribulation, during which he claims Satan has ruled churches. He points to the increasing acceptance of gay clergy, for example, or the rise in charismatic and Pentecostal movements as signs that churches have gone astray. To him, rituals such as baptism and confession are worthless.

He made a similar prediction in the 1990s but later said he didn't look close enough at the Book of Jeremiah. This time around, he’s absolutely certain.

* * * * *

Like many of those who follow his predictions, Camping wasn't always so radical.

Born in Colorado, he moved to California at an early age and, with a budding interest in math and science, trained as a civil engineer at the University of California-Berkeley in the in the early 1940s. During World War II, he worked as an engineer for Kaiser. Afterwards, he joined a small construction business in Oakland.

But he really shined in church.

At the First Christian Reformed Church of Alameda, Camping, his wife Shirley and seven kids were well-known for his popular Bible study class. Self-taught with no formal religious training, the charismatic Camping would read and dissect the Bible with an ease and depth that attracted dozens of students.

For much of the time since its humble founding in 1958 in San Francisco and its expansion over the decades, Family Radio largely preached a command brand of evangelism, featuring Bible readings, early American hymns and southern gospel along with programming from Protestant churches across the country. Some local stations played contemporary Christian music, and shows from socially conservative organizations such as Denver-based Focus on the Family were also syndicated.

By 1988, as Camping began quietly proclaiming a pending end of the world during his radio and Bible class lectures (he had no date yet), his church life and Family Radio changed drastically. In Alameda, church elders sternly told him to stop his predictions. Instead, he and 110 members of the church left to start their own congregation, which Camping quickly left after declaring the "church age" over.

"I began to see that the doctrine of salvation was wrong. Every church would say 'We will show you how to become saved,'" says Camping. "Salvation only comes through faith. We don’t know what’s going to happen to Family Radio or the banks or anyone else on May 21, but it will be horror."

Camping himself doesn’t know if he will be 'saved.' He says that’s predetermined by God.

Some Christian evangelists today are "millennialist," which means they believe in a literal 1,000-year reign of Christ upon his return, when there will be peace on Earth.

Not Camping. On May 21, the saved will go to straight to heaven to meet Jesus, he claims. The unsaved, including those already dead, "will never have conscious existence again...That person himself will not know anything about it they are dead," he said.

"Christ has no pleasure in the death of the unsaved. It is an enormous comfort about our loved ones," he added. "Pray they die quickly."

As Camping started to preach such views on Family Radio, programming that wasn't attune to his reading of the Bible was banned. Today, the station produces the majority of its writing in-house, devoting a chunk of the day to repeats of Camping’s own shows.

Worth more than $120 million and with 66 stations throughout the country, the network's broadcasts reach as far as Nigeria. Via the Internet, it's available in 61 languages. While Camping doesn't ask for donations, he admits that followers have generously given and also financed their own campaigns. Many have quit jobs and depleted their life savings to join caravans that preach across the U.S.

In 2009, the last year Family Radio publicly released a tax return, the group reported $18.4 million in contributions and $1 million through investments and other income. It spent $36.7 million and employed 348 people paid more than $9 million in wages and benefits.

* * * * *

Christianity isn't the only religion that believes the world will end, though its prescriptions about end times tend to be more frequent and pronounced than other faiths. In non-Abrahamic religions, such as Buddhism and Hinduism, the idea of death and destruction is more cyclical than finite.

Denominations differ on the exact chronology and length of Christ's second coming, but almost all say that the date is unknown and point at two key passages. One is 2 Peter 3:10: "The day of the Lord will come as a thief in the night." Another is Matthew 24:36: "Of that day and hour knoweth no [man], no, not the angels of heaven, but my Father only."

Yet Judgment Day preachers say reading these passages alone leads to misinterpretation, claiming God has only recently given humans the ability to understand the hidden code of his book.

Throughout history, dozens of end-times predictions have gone unfulfilled, but some have had a lasting outcome.

In 1844, Baptist preacher William Miller gained thousands of followers by predicting Christ's return. Dubbed the "Great Disappointment" when Jesus didn't come, Miller's movement nonetheless grew into today's Seventh-Day Adventist Church.

In the 1970s and 1980s, Hal Lindsey famously promoted in "The Late Great Planet Earth" and the idea that end times would soon approach, set off by a Soviet invasion of the Middle East.

The year 2000 passed without widespread digital breakdowns, while the year 2012 has also gained popularity among those interested in the ancient Mayan calendar.

On the date of Camping's Sept. 6, 1994 prediction, dozens of his followers gathered a short drive from his station's office in Alameda to watch for the return of Christ. They wore their best clothes and held their Bibles open toward heaven.

When the day came and went, the preacher initially didn’t admit his error. Instead, he offered a new date. Nothing happened again.

After a San Francisco Chronicle reporter asked him to explain, he said "nothing has been negated...The Bible is based on the Biblical calendar, which began in March. So 1994 runs until March 31, 1995."

“I always said if it wasn't 1994, it would be 2011,” Camping says today.

On May 21, the preacher, who says he rarely watches TV and even more rarely uses computers, will join Shirley in his living room. They’ll turn on the TV to watch for news of the quake.

When they see it, they’ll be “trembling before God for mercy."

The octogenarian hasn't been able to avoid the alienation many of his followers experience. His six living children, 28 grandchildren and 38 great-grandchildren think his theories are a sham. Only Shirley, his wife of 68 years, believes him.

"Most do not understand at all," he said of his family. "They think I have lost it."

The Mentalist kept me guessing … and still does

Let me ask you this: Did you call who Red John’s minion was going to be? Alright, that’s not really a fair question … for me. Did you call who Red John’s accomplice was, and then never waver from that choice throughout this episode? Because, if you did, then my hat’s off you you my friend. Though three of the possible suspects were on my own list, my strongest suspicion was with Gale Bertram and Craig O’Loughlin. First I thought it had to be Bertram (I thought this long ago, actually), but then I thought it could be Craig or LaRoche. Honestly, I was ping-ponging along so many times I lost count.

In the end, though, it made the most sense that Craig would turn out gone from the show one way or another. I first thought he was going to show up at the hotel in an attempt to surprise Van Pelt, then having the team wrongly suspect him and everything falling apart, possibly getting him killed. After Rigsby’s talk with Van Pelt recently, regarding not attending the wedding because of his love for her, it was obvious he wasn’t moving on and that O’Loughlin had to go.

When Bertram was pegged, I just couldn’t figure out how it could not be him with the evidence at hand. I’m still not convinced that he’s completely innocent, though, even though Red John is apparently dead.

Now, on to Red John. I guess we’ll have to wait until next season to find his true identity — the man’s actual name — but for now we all know him as Bradley Whitford. Here’s a theory I’m going to throw out there, since I’m still convinced Red John is Patrick Jane. I believe that Whitford’s Red John was simply another minion of Red John, sent into the fray to take the fall for him. Whitford’s Red John was sent by none other than Patrick Jane himself in hopes of ridding himself of his endless pursuit of … himself. Fed with detailed information and ironclad evidence suggesting he truly is Red John, there would be little doubt Patrick Jane would kill him. If not right then and there, then some other day. With that done, Patrick Jane’s alter-ego can go about the business of being Red John while Patrick — his other self — stops obsessing over him.

Take these bits of dialog from Patrick Jane’s meeting with Red John, for example:

“How do I know you are who you say you are?” – Patrick
“That’s a deep question. How does anyone know who anyone is? Who are you?” – Red John

“Get myself a new face, a new identity. Start a new life. I have skills and resources I can use, to really make a positive change in this world. For other people. Y’know, for children. I guess I’ve been pursuing my own dreams for so long that I lost sight of what’s truly important in this world. I think that happens to a lot of people, don’t you?” – Red John

Read those lines or watch them again from your DVR recording, with the thought in mind that Patrick Jane really is Red John. I’m not saying he’s conscious of the fact he takes on another persona in the night. I’m also not saying these minions of Red John’s are even conscious that Patrick Jane is actually their boss. He could keep disguised or — as the quotes above noted — uses his “skills and resources” of mind trickery to allow these followers of his to do, say and think whatever he wants them to.

Obviously I can’t prove I’m right about the Patrick Jane as Red John theory until this show is no longer. Since the creator has said Red John is a series-long arc, doesn’t it make sense it’s something that big, though?

Next season’s opener has shaped up into one I can’t miss. How long with Jane be jailed, if at all? Could we find out very quickly that this Red John was simply another pawn? What things will we learn about this man Jane shot and will there be evidence there to show he was rightly killed?

Last note: Did you catch the Wilhelm scream during the gas station bombing?

Source :http://cliqueclack.com/tv/2011/05/19/mentalist-bradley-whitford-red-john/

Zombie Apocalypse? The CDC Describes How To Be Prepared

The U.S. government wants to make sure that in the event of a zombie invasion, you know what to do.

That's right. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention shocked us all with their post on how to prepare for the zombie apocalypse.

The CDC post, "Preparedness 101: Zombie Apocalypse," came out Monday and has been gaining media traction since -- the link was down for much of the day yesterday, presumingly due to over-traffic.

From the CDC:

Plan your evacuation route. When zombies are hungry they won’t stop until they get food (i.e., brains), which means you need to get out of town fast! Plan where you would go and multiple routes you would take ahead of time so that the flesh eaters don’t have a chance! This is also helpful when natural disasters strike and you have to take shelter fast.

A CDC spokesperson told The Wall Street Journal the idea came about when a communications staffer noticed that mentioning the word 'zombie' in a Twitter session caused traffic to spike. The purpose of the post is to get people engaged, and then convey important facts about emergency preparedness.

Here's @CDCEmergency's tweet about it: http://twitter.com/#!/CDCemergency/statuses/70854688689500160

Unfortunately, with the link still down, the CDC's awareness campaign may have been so effective it's rendered itself ineffective!

Judgment Day May 21 –is the understanding that heretic

Judgment Day May 21 – 21 Things to Do with Your Family Before the End of the World

Hey, did you hear the world is going to end on May 21^st, 2011? If this is true, there is one thing for sure – with so little time left in this mortal coil, it is time to get busy. All those things you’ve been putting off (and I’m not talking about purging your underwear drawer), now is the time to do them. And who should you be doing these end of day activities with? Who should you be spending those last days, last hours and last minutes with? Why those people you brought into the world in the first place – your kids. May I present to you 21 ones things to do with your kids before May 21 aka Doomsday.

Now, do not get me wrong. I am not condoning doing all the things on this list. But even if the world doesn’t end on May 21st (which it won’t), it’s worth doing some of them anyways, regardless of the coming of apocalypse (especially number 2, 4, 8, and 21).

1. Go see a landmark you’ve always wanted the family to see and just haven’t from Yellowstone to Disney World.

2. Go get a hot fudge sundae after dinner. Hell, have one after lunch and breakfast, too.

3. Let them eat a Big Mac, Whooper or a Double Double Animal Style – some fast food staple you’ve banned until now.

4. As a family, sit and sift through all your photo albums, reflect on the life you’ve all lived.

5. Go on a road trip. Take back roads and get totally lost.

6. Let the kids go to sleep when ever they want. Throw away your alarm clock while you are at it.

7. Drink all your best wine. Let your kids be your designated driver, so what if they don’t actually have a license.

8. Go visit grandma, grandpa or uncle George. Be nice. And bring that wine.

9. Eat whatever the kids want to for dinner or let them pick the restaurant. In other word, eat Mac & Cheese and dine at Chuck E. Cheese’s.

10. Play numerous rounds of Candyland, Connect Four, or Uno. Let them win.

11. Give in and let them listen to Kesha.

12. Throw away the chore list. See how messy and dirty you can make the house.

13. Take their home work and turn it into paper airplanes, see how far you can make them go.

14. Watch those family videos that you’ve probably never watched since you shot them.

15. Fly to a Paris, Egypt or Bali. Spend the end of days there .

16. Spongebob Squarepants marathon.

17. Call in sick to work and school. Actually, since the world is actually going to “end”, don’t call at all. No, “I think I have strep throat” excuses for you.

18. Take out a couple hundred bucks out of bank, hand it off to the kids and let them go crazy in your local candy store. Tell them they’ll never have to see a dentist ever again.

19. Get them a puppy.

20. Make Friday your own personal Halloween. Dress up the family in costume and go trick or treating.

21. Tell them all you love them.

A Conversation With Harold Camping, Prophesier of Judgment Day

We've followed with interest the Christian movement that believes Judgment Day will occur on May 21 — ten days from now. They've put up billboards, they've handed out fliers. Some of them have even burned through all of their savings, so convinced are they that the world is going to end on May 21 and they'll no longer need it. That's the most incredible part of this bizarre story — that these people are so sure about something so incredibly unlikely. How can that be? To find out, we went right to the source: Harold Camping, the gravely voiced, 89-year-old founder of Family Radio; the man who pinpointed May 21 as the exact date of the Rapture based on clues sprinkled throughout the Bible. He is very confident in his prediction.

How certain are you that world is going to end on May 21 — do you have any doubts?
God has given sooo much information in the Bible about this, and so many proofs, and so many signs, that we know it is absolutely going to happen without any question at all. There’s nothing in the Bible that God has ever prophesied — there’s many things that he prophesied would happen and they always have happened — but there’s nothing in the Bible that holds a candle to the amount of information to this tremendous truth of the end of the world. I would be absolutely in rebellion against God if I thought anything other than it is absolutely going to happen without any question.

But you were wrong the first time you predicted that the end of the world would take place in September of 1994. So you must think, in the back of your mind, that maybe you can’t actually predict when the end of the world will be.
In 1992, two years earlier than that, I had already begun to see that there was a good likelihood that 2011 would be the end, but at that time when my research in the Bible was not nearly complete — there were whole books of the Bible that I had not gone through yet very carefully — I thought that at that time that there was a possibility it might be 1994, and so I wrote a book, 1994?, but I put a big question mark after it, and in the book it also indicated that 2011 was also a good possibility. And so it was just a preliminary study that I've been able to complete during the last fifteen years.

Describe to me what exactly you expect to happen on May 21.
I know reporters don’t like to hear from the Bible, but the Bible has every word in the original language — it was written by God. Incidentally, no churches believe that at all, they don’t hold the Bible in the high respect that it ought to be. But every word was written right from the lips of God, and God declares: [Camping reads various passages from the Book of Revelation describing the Rapture.] In other words, when we get to May 21 on the calendar in any city or country in the world, and the clock says about — this is based on other verses in the Bible — when the clock says about 6 p.m., there’s going to be this tremendous earthquake that’s going to make the last earthquake in Japan seem like nothing in comparison. And the whole world will be alerted that Judgment Day has begun. And then it will follow the sun around for 24 hours. As each area of the world gets to that point of 6 p.m. on May 21, then it will happen there, and until it happens, the rest of the world will be standing far off and witnessing the horrible thing that is happening.

What will you be doing on that day? Are you just waiting for the earthquake, are you having some kind of ceremony?
There’ll be no gatherings of any kind that I have anything to do with. There'll be no — it’ll just be simply waiting, and the likelihood is that I'll be doing what everybody else will be doing, which is listening to the radio or watching TV, seeing what is happening as it begins on the other side of the world.

If six o’clock rolls around and there are no major earthquakes, are you going to start to get worried?
It’s going to happen. It’s going to happen. I don’t even think about those kind of issues. The Bible is not — God is not playing games. I don’t even want to think about that question at all. It is going to happen.

You haven’t thought about what you’ll tell your followers on May 22 if the Rapture doesn’t take place?
I’m not even thinking about that at all. It. Is. Going. To. Happen. Because I trust the Bible implicitly, the Bible is God’s word — it’s not from a man, it’s not from an organization of some kind where there’s plenty of room for error. It is the word of God. When God speaks that it is going to happen, the Bible is a very factual book, and God gives many examples of how he has made prophesies and it always has happened in exact accord with what God has prophesied.

So you have about ten days left on Earth. How are you spending those ten days?
Right now I’m up to my ears managing all the affairs of Family Radio and spending a lot of time with reporters, and spending a lot of time still doing the Open Forum every evening for an hour and a half, and still preparing messages. So I’m just very, very busy going from day to day.

Are you going to do something with all your money before the 21st? Are you going to donate it to charity or something?
What’s the point? In other words, Judgment Day is the end of the world. That means that the whole world is in judgment, it will not be business as usual at all. At all. Nothing that goes on is important any longer, either if you’re a true believer and you’re caught up to be with Christ, of which there are many people that this will happen to, but on the other hand, there will be almost 7 billion people who will be in a tremendous, terrible situation undoubtedly. With those kind of earthquakes millions will die and the Bible teaches that they will not be buried, in fact there’ll be no one to bury them it’ll be so awful. It will not be business as usual at all. This world will be in chaos. It will be in awful suffering.

Do know for sure whether you personally will ascend to heaven on May 21?
Oh yes, I am very convinced because I have found in my life for a long, long time an intense, ongoing desire that I just want to do God’s will and the Bible has become super important to me and so I do believe that I will be caught up when that time comes around in California.

Can Jewish people go to heaven?
Anybody — it’s not a matter of what religion you belong to, but it has to do with a personal attitude, and of course, if the Jewish people will accept the whole Bible — now if they reject Christ as their messiah, which the nation of Israel is doing, as was prophesied in the Bible also …. If they’re not trusting in the Bible, they’re not listening to the whole Bible, and so they’re under the wrath of God just like anybody else who’s not trusting the whole Bible.

So a Jew would have to believe that Jesus is the messiah.
Well you see, the fact is that Jesus is the eternal God, and if you deny that Christ is the eternal God, then you’re not listening to the Bible. The Bible is the ultimate authority and any time you have any doctrines contrary to the Bible it means you are in rebellion against God, you’re walking in your own pride, and God resists the proud altogether.

I know you’re convinced this is going to happen, but if May 22 comes around and you’re still here, can we talk again?
I can’t even think about that question because you’re thinking that maybe, maybe Judgment Day will not happen. But it will happen, and I believe the Bible implicitly.