Rapture Was a Bust; Mitch Daniels Won't Run For President; Who Will Replace DSK?

By Rosie Gray Sun., May 22 2011 at 10:07 AM

So, we all made it! No Rapture. Despite having assets of over $104 million, Harold Camping's Family Radio didn't quite get it right. How are Rapture believers dealing with it? Reuters talked to a man, Robert Fitzpatrick, who spent $140,000 of his life savings getting the word out about the Rapture. "When the hour came and went, he said: 'I do not understand why ...,' as his speech broke off and he looked at his watch. 'I do not understand why nothing has happened.'" Yeesh. The AP found a family who traveled 3,000 miles in a minivan to California to wait for the Rapture which never came. As for Harold Camping, his office is closed and no one's answering the door at his house. Better luck next time. Here's an interesting Wikipedia article about unfulfilled religious predictions. [AP, Reuters]

Indiana governor Mitch Daniels has announced that he won't run for president, joining the club that so far includes Haley Barbour, Mike Huckabee, and Donald Trump. [LA Times]

Who will replace Dominique Strauss-Kahn at the IMF? European officials have "rallied" around France's finance minister, Christine Lagarde. A number of European countries, including Germany and the U.K., have officially backed her. Leaders of emerging markets like China and India oppose choosing another European; Australia and South Africa released a joint statement criticizing the traditional arrangement in which an American is in charge of the World Bank and a European heads the IMF. [NYT]

Pictures from a failed suicide attempt on the Williamsburg Bridge. [Gothamist]

The crew of the Endeavour have completed the sixth-longest spacewalk. The longest one ever was almost nine hours long. Lead spacewalker Drew Feustel said, "I think our pay was just being out here looking down at the Earth." It does sound pretty cool. [The Flame Trench]

The volcano eruption yesterday in Iceland caused the main airport to close, the second time this has happened in 13 months. [Bloomberg]

[rgray@villagevoice.com] [@_rosiegray]

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nubankguru

All tickets to this show will be honored at the 2012 gathering. More time for that bucket list, lets see, I can invest in a local bank Sachem Bank (IDO) it may be here when I return, Community Bank of The Bay is helping locals set up Rapture Savings accounts...that's a good thought. Has anyone Rapped the Rapture yet? bankalchemist.

scallywag

But even to a ordinary sceptic Mr Fitzpatrick’s decision to spend his entire retirement savings on a sure bet sounded preposterous and ludicrous- the same way on some level spending one’s entire fortune on mortgages that only later plummet in value, the cost of an education for jobs that don’t exist or a preferred idyllic lifestyle that is anything but. Could it be that it’s man made lot to vigilantly believe in those things that doesn’t always make sense even if it potentially brings us harm in the long run but valor and a kind of self worth that is so often missing in an arbitrary world?

http://scallywagandvagabond.co...