Beert-McCoy Insurance Agency receives recognition from Grinnell Mutual

Beert-McCoy Insurance Agency of Eldridge, Iowa, is the recipient of an Award of Excellence from Grinnell Mutual Reinsurance Company of Grinnell, Iowa.  This award recognizes 15 years of outstanding achievement in the insurance profession and superior performance for Grinnell Mutual.

Receiving the award are Robin Beert, Bill McCoy, Sandra Peitersen, and Trudy Beert.

Arp Insurance recognized by Grinnell Mutual

Brent Arp of Arp Insurance of Walcott, Iowa, was presented with an Award of Excellence from Grinnell Mutual Reinsurance Company of Grinnell, Iowa.  This award recognizes five years of outstanding achievement in the insurance profession and superior performance for Grinnell Mutual.

For more information please contact:

Brent Arp
Arp Insurance
Phone: 563-284-6244
E-mail: brentrarp@aol.com

Grinnell Mutual Reinsurance Company, in business since 1909, provides reinsurance for farm mutual insurance companies and property and casualty insurance products for homeowners, farmowners and businessowners through more than 1,600 independent agents in 12 Midwestern states. Grinnell Mutual is the largest primary reinsurer of farm mutual companies in North America.

Large swaths of Americans seem to have drastically different views of how humans came to be, according to a June Gallup poll.

Nearly half of America - 46 percent - agrees with the creationist view that humans are purely the product of God, absent of evolution, within the last 10,000 years. Fifteen percent believe humans evolved independent of God, which is 6 percent more than 30 years ago.

These millions of Americans are pitted on two sides of a conflictwhich has a solution, says engineering physicist Daniel Friedmann, CEO of the aerospace company known for building the space station's robotic arm and author of The Genesis One Code (www.danielfriedmannbooks.com).

"The creation-evolution conflict is a recurring point of contention in the United States, from the presidential election to what should be taught in schools," he says. "American science legend Carl Sagan tried to settle this conflict by calling both camps 'non-overlapping magisteria' - in other words, science and religion each preside as the source of wisdom over separate domains."

Friedmann argues that both wisdoms are two sides of the same coin and can enlighten each other. The reason the debate developed in the first place, he says, is because the discoveries of modern science of an old Earth seemed to conflict with descriptions in the Bible of a young Earth.

"People believed both could not be right," he says. "It had to be one or the other - science or religion."

But they both agree on the timeline for the development of the universe and life on Earth, Friedmann says. He has developed a formula that converts "Bible time" to years as we know them. When applied to calculating the age of the universe and life on Earth, the Bible consistently matches scientific estimates derived from the study of fossil timelines, the solar system and the cosmos.

His formula -- 1,000 X 365 X 7,000 -was derived from references in religious texts and science. The first number is found in Psalms, which says a year for God is 1,000 years for mortals. The second refers to the amount of days in one solar year. The third comes from scriptural study that indicates one creation day in Genesis equals 7,000 God years.

When those numbers are multiplied in human years, each creation day is an epoch of 2.56 billion years, he says. Using the formula, the biblical age of the universe is 13.74 billion years. Scientific estimates put the universe's age at 13.75 billion, plus or minus 0.13 billion, he says.

"I have nothing but respect for scientists like Sagan and Stephen Hawking, but I feel that both were wrong about religion to varying degrees, especially Dr. Hawking," he says. "Last year, Hawking dismissed religion, publicly calling it a 'fairy tale' for people who are afraid of death. I think that is a terriblynaive and misinformed view of what millions of people have believed in for more than a millennium."

These are a few of the reasons Hawking is wrong, Friedmann says:

• The Bible and science agree on what happened and when it happened with respect to the formation of the universe and the appearance of life on Earth.

• The term "creation days" can be shown from biblical sources to be 2.5 billion years. Using this conversion factor, it is clear that the Bible is correct about timelines we have confirmed through science, including the age of the universe.

• If the Bible and science agree on what happened and when it happened, do we really have a conflict? It is time to reexamine and bury the conflict between science and religion.  In fact, Friedmann in his book, shows that religion has answers to science's three biggest questions.

• By continuing this false dichotomy of religion vs. science, we are severely limiting progress and our potential as humans. Nearly 54 percent of the world's population - Christians, Jews and Muslims - assert the truth of biblical scripture. Recognition of a commonality among diverse cultures, while linked to scientific principle, provides a better chance to advance the understanding of our origins.

About Daniel Friedmann

Daniel Friedmann is CEO of MDA, anaerospace company in Canada, which among other things, specializes in robotics used on the international space station. He has a master's in engineering physics and 30 years' experience in the space industry. He has published more than 20 peer-reviewed scientific papers on space industry topics. He is also a longtime student of cosmology and religion.

1. Does Ben Lange agree with John Archer that the Social Security retirement age needs to be raised?
2. How would Ben Lange's plan to privatize Social Security affect Social Security disability benefits and benefits for widows with dependent children?
3. What's the cutoff age for Social Security benefits under Lange's plan?  How old does Lange think you need to be to continue to receive Social Security benefits as promised?
4. Does Lange agree with John Archer that Social Security should be a "means-tested" program and should be cut off altogether for some middle class workers?

Joe Smith Donates Recorded Interviews with Music's Who's Who to the Library of Congress

More than 25 years ago, retired music executive Joe Smith accomplished a Herculean feat?he got more than 200 celebrated singers, musicians and industry icons to talk about their lives, music, experiences and contemporaries. The Library of Congress announced today that Smith has donated this treasure trove of unedited sound recordings to the nation's library.

The list of noted artists and executives is a veritable who's who in the music industry.  They include Artie Shaw, Woody Herman, Ella Fitzgerald, Ray Charles, Barbra Streisand, Little Richard, Bob Dylan, Paul McCartney, George Harrison, Elton John, Paul Simon, David Bowie, Billy Joel, Sting, Tony Bennett, Joan Baez, James Taylor, Dick Clark, Tina Turner, Tom Jones, B. B. King, Quincy Jones, David Geffen, Mickey Hart, Harry Belafonte and many others.  All types of popular music are represented?from rock 'n' roll, jazz, rhythm & blues and pop to big-band, heavy metal, folk and country-western.

While president of Capitol Records/EMI, Smith recorded 238 hours of interviews over two years, excerpts of which he compiled and presented in his groundbreaking book, "Off the Record," published by Warner Books in 1988.  These candid and unabridged interviews have been digitized by the Library and initially will be accessible in its Capitol Hill reading room.  Some of the recordings also will be streamed on the Library's website (www.loc.gov) later this year.

The Joe Smith Collection is an invaluable addition to the Library's comprehensive collection of recorded sound," said Librarian of Congress James H. Billington. "These frank and poignant oral histories of many of the nation's musical icons give us unique insights into them as artists, entertainers and human beings.  The world knows these great musicians through their songs, but Joe Smith has provided us an intimate window into their lives through their own words.

"Smith's career in music started in the 1950s at the dawn of the rock 'n' roll era.  Following his graduation from Yale, Smith worked as a sportscaster and later as a disc jockey at WMEX and WBZ in Boston.  He transitioned into record promotions when he moved to Los Angeles in 1960 and rose to legendary status in the industry as president of three major labels?Warner Bros., Elektra/Asylum and Capitol/EMI.  Smith signed such notable artists as the Grateful Dead, Jimi Hendrix, Van Morrison, Frank Zappa, Jackson Browne, Linda Ronstadt and the Eagles.

His relationship with the industry's creative community over four decades enabled him to compile a history of popular music by presenting the artists' stories in their own voices.  One critic wrote that "Joe Smith has done what no historian, musician, pop critic or rock writer has been able to do. He's compiled a history of popular music, ranging from the big bands of the '20s to the chart-toppers of today ... a paper jukebox that's chock-full of pop."

A couple of decades following the success of his book, Smith (now 84) envisioned sharing his original unabridged interviews with scholars, researchers and the American public. "In recent years, it dawned on me that, if anything, the significance of recollections from Jerry Lee Lewis, Mick Jagger, Smokey Robinson, Ahmet Ertegun, Herb Alpert, Ruth Brown and all the other notables I was fortunate enough to interview, are truly part of the fabric of our cultural history," said Smith. "I wanted to share this treasure trove with any and all who might be interested. The Library of Congress is, clearly, the venue most appropriate and best equipped to do just that now and into the future.  I hope that generations to come will benefit from hearing the voices of these brilliant artists and industry luminaries recounting their personal histories.  I'm just thrilled that the Library of Congress has agreed to preserve and safeguard these audio artifacts."

As an insider, Smith connected with the artists on a personal level, leading to some interesting revelations.

· Bo Diddley talking about his own death
· Mickey Hart's revealing story about his father
· Steven Tyler's problems with drug addiction
· Peter Frampton's short-lived popularity
· Bob Dylan's surprising assessment of the turbulent '60s
· David Bowie's description of Mick Jagger as conservative
· Paul McCartney's frank admission of professional superiority
· Les Paul's creation of an electric guitar in 1929
· Motown's restrictive work environment
· Herb Jeffries' and Dave Brubeck's recollections of working in a racially segregated society

The recordings in the Joe Smith Collection will be housed in the Library's Packard Campus for Audio Visual Conservation in Culpeper, Va., a state-of-the-art facility that was made possible through the generosity of David Woodley Packard and the Packard Humanities Institute, with benefaction from the U.S. Congress.  The Library's Motion Picture, Broadcasting and Recorded Sound Division's collections include nearly 3 million sound recordings.

Founded in 1800, the Library of Congress is the nation's oldest federal cultural institution. The Library seeks to spark imagination and creativity and to further human understanding and wisdom by providing access to knowledge through its magnificent collections, programs and exhibitions. Many of the Library's rich resources can be accessed through its website at www.loc.gov.

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