"Ah, the poor child! My Lord, we do wrong to keep our guests standing. Quick, some of you! Take them away. Give them food and wine and baths. Comfort the little girl. Give her lollipops, give her dolls, give her physics, give her all you can think of--possets and comfits and caraways and lullabies and …
Creation Care Skeptics
From Christianity Today: Dobson, Others Seek Ouster of NAE Vice President. Subtitle: Interim president Leith Anderson says he supports Richard Cizik's work on creation care. More than two dozen evangelical leaders are seeking the ouster of the Rev. Richard Cizik from the National Association of Evangelicals because of his "relentless campaign" against global warming. In …
Even the skeptics are skeptical
I posted last week about the Discovery Channel "documentary" "The Lost Tomb of Jesus". My one word summary was, "absurd." Don't lose sleep over this one; even the folks at Scientific American magazine (who are normally not very friendly to Christianity) are ripping this one apart. Says Scholar Whose Work Was Used in the Upcoming …
Human Rice
An article in Friday's Washington Post has an article with the headline USDA Backs Production of Rice With Human Genes. The Agriculture Department has given a preliminary green light for the first commercial production of a food crop engineered to contain human genes, reigniting fears that biomedically potent substances in high-tech plants could escape and …
Knowing God – Chapter 5 Quotes
Chapter 5 of Knowing God is "God Incarnate". One of the foundational truths of Christianity is the incarnation of Christ. Jesus Christ is fully God and fully human at the same time. It is from misbelief, or at least inadequate belief, about the incarnation that difficulties at other points in the gospel story usually spring. …
First Day of Spring
March 1 -- The first day of spring! The most common definition of spring in the U.S. is: the period of time between the spring equinox (March 21 this year) and the summer solstice (June 21 this year). But there are other valid definitions as well: The meteorological definition is based on weather. Spring by …
Eat Well Part 2
A few weeks ago I had a simple quote from Scientific American Blog: “Eat food. Not too much. Mostly plants.” Don Darrick at The Evangelical Ecologist has good dietary advice, with a few more details: Here’s how I have made my diet more natural: 1. Reduced soda (or pop) intake to virtually zero. Increased water …
Shift Happens — The world is going to change a lot in the near future
Technological changes in our society tend to be exponential rather than linear. Some examples of this include: The density of transistors on integrated chips doubles every 24 months. Hard drive capacity increases about 40% per year (do you remember when that 20 MB hard drive seemed huge?) Computer RAM has gone from kilobytes in the …
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Absurd
Absurd. That is how I summarize my thoughts about the upcoming Discovery Channel "documentary" "The Lost Tomb of Jesus". If you've missed all the hoopla over this, here's the story in brief: Archeologists discover a tomb near Jerusalem. People who are buried there have names such as Yeshua (Jesus), Maria, and Joseph. Movie producer James …
Stewart Brand, builder of the world’s slowest computer
There's an interesting story in today's New York Times about a man named Stewart Brand. Brand was the publisher of the original Whole Earth Catalog, and an early leader of the environmental movement. Stewart Brand has become a heretic to environmentalism, a movement he helped found, but he doesn’t plan to be isolated for long. …
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Guatemalan sinkhole
Pictures of a recently-formed sinkhole in Guatemala City can be found here. By JUAN CARLOS LLORCA, Associated Press Writer GUATEMALA CITY, Guatemala - A 330-foot-deep sinkhole killed at least two teenagers as it swallowed about a dozen homes early Friday and forced the evacuation of nearly 1,000 people in a crowded Guatemala City neighborhood. Officials …
Nerve Gas
Books and Culture has an fascinating review of two books about nerve gas: War of Nerves: Chemical Warfare from World War I to Al-Qaeda by Jonathan Tucker Chemical Warfare: A Study in Restraints by Frederic Brown Some quotes from the review: My favorite of Tucker's tales is the story of Boris Libman, a native of …
Rotation Of Earth Plunges Entire North American Continent Into Darkness
More important science news, from the Onion: NEW YORK—Millions of eyewitnesses watched in stunned horror Tuesday as light emptied from the sky, plunging the U.S. and neighboring countries into darkness. As the hours progressed, conditions only worsened. At approximately 4:20 p.m. EST, the sun began to lower from its position in the sky in a …
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U.S. Hardiness Zones and Climate Change
The National Arbor Day Foundation has released maps with revised "hardiness zones." These zones can be used for determining which plants can be grown in certain parts of the United States. For example, a Norway spruce grows well in zones 3 through 7, but would not grow well in much of the South. These maps …
Sea Level Rising
Sea level is rising! Coastal areas are going to be inundated! Billions of eco-refugees are going to be knocking on your door! Or maybe not. Here's some perspective on sea level rise: The recently-released IPCC Report (Climate Change 2007: The Physical Science Basis Summary for Policymakers) does not portray catastrophic sea level increases. Their projection …
Misc Science News
The global consumption of plastic bags is in the 500 billion to 1 trillion range. Many of these end up in landfills or in nature. The solution according to bringyourown.org and reusablebags.com: BYOB -- Bring Your Own Bag. For a square-wheeled bicycle, click here. Supervolcano in Washington state. This one erupted 3.7 million years ago, …
Geology and the scientific method
Here's a quote from geologist John D. Winter on how geologists think as they go about their scientific investigations: Geology is often plagued by the problem of inaccessibility. Geological observers really see only a tiny fraction of the rocks that compose the Earth. Uplift and erosion exposes some deep-seated rocks, whereas others are delivered as …
Predator-Prey Relationships
What happens when the street dog population decreases? The cat population increases. Here are a few of up to fourteen cats we have counted behind our apartment in Bucharest. We still have a few street dogs around, but they are old and lazy, and don't seem to bother the cats too much. We don't really …
Confusion
Ever feel confused? Sometimes we just don't know what to do, and the messages we receive don't help. For instance, check out the arrows on this bike path: Grace and Peace
State Quarters, Presidential Dollars, County Cents?
The Montana state quarter should be out. They won't be showing up here in Romania any time soon, but it looks like they picked a nice design. Presidential dollars. They look nice but will anyone use them? Have you heard about County Pennies? Read about it at U.S. Mint Gears Up To Issue Commemorative County …
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