I think this is just awesome - two brutes!!  I don't know who got the shot, but they were safely in a vehicle.  You can see reflections in the windshield now and then...

Baring Falls

Baring Falls - With Lance September 29, 2012

I was thinking this needed a punny caption, but I decided to  leave it alone.

'Nemonies

Having run out of anything newer, I started going backward through old stuff.  I found some pics from our San Diego trip that I had not edited.  I guess I have actually learned some things in the last year or too after all.  Pics that I had given up on have taken on a certain measure of "likability" - at least for me... 

These were from Laguna Beach, where we got to tour the tide pools and look at the 'Nenomies...

 These looked nothing like this - the water made them very hazy.  But Photoshop salvaged them into something I might expect to see snorkling! 

Hero

Christmas Day is may favorite holiday by just a nose over Thanksgiving.  I have been thinking this morning about the birth of Christ, which we celebrate today.  I think about the sacrifice He offered for us, on our behalf.

I have been thinking about our motives too.  Not just today.  I like giving gifts, when I can afford it.  It is harder to give when it hurts though, right?  Food, bills, mortgage... ...gas... ...where exactly does this fit?

I have been thinking about the hard times that we see in the news, both here and around the world.  No, it's not a comfortable world today in too many places...

For Christ, I think it was not "comfortable" at all.  Leaving the comforts of Heaven, He lived in the squalor of this sinful world in obedience to the Father.  Then, in obedience to the Father, He performed countless miracles, lived with nothing to call His own and then was killed as a common thief. 

He became the first hero at His birth and He confirmed it with His death and ressurrection.  "No greater love hath any man than this..." - Jesus

He came not to be served, but to serve...

He did not have so much as a bed to sleep... ...in this world.

Materialism is not the point of our gifts at Christmas.  At the heart of it, the trinkets we treasure were not even desireable to Him who knew what awaited Him.  Instead, gifts should be in honor of the Hero, Jeaus Christ.  He gave all He had, because nothing less would do.

Now, He has Heaven again, but not He alone; and He will reign forever and ever - King of kings and Lord of lords in this world too.  "Every knee shall bow and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord..."

Would you Rather... (Part Two)

On the last post I mentioned the example of the professor who started his economics class with a question about whether the students would rather be a 14th century king, or would they rather be themselves, today?  The answer is, of course, the latter - but not for all the reasons that we might think.

I also rambled on a bit about the need for accountability - not just for governing authorities (biblically accountable to God). but for citizens as well.  But I left the "Would you rather" question open... ...perhaps because I am crazy like that.

The shallow answer to this question is also revealing - I mean, who in their right mind would give up the comforts of their running water and electricity (not to mention their smart phones) to live, even as a king, in an era so primitive?

Yet for many thousands of years, this was life.  People spent so much time trying to live, that they did not waste a lot of time figuring out the intricacies of lightning, for instance.  If a person wanted to study science, he had to be born into the right family, learn under some great person, like Aristotle, perhaps and then somehow obtain enough money to fund not only his own existence, but the existence of his studies and experiments as well.  To say that progress came slowly would be accurate.

In more recent times, we are more free to learn and to discover - perhaps completely on our own - new ideas, new technology, etc.  We don't need a duke to offer his protection along with candles, paper, pen, ink, books, room and board in exchange for magic tricks at his next banquet - for us to think of a profitable product to sell or an idea to improve something. 

We simply make a phone call, place and order for materials, do the thing, pitch the product and sell it - maybe entirely on the World Wide Interweb if you wanted. 

No single person or government sat down and decided to invent all of this.  It was the work and ingenuity of tens of thousands of people, working in a free market.  Toil and sweat to some degree or another resulted in their success, and incidentally, your smart phone, e-reader, anti-lock brakes, and HD TV's...

The next time I hear someone complain about how much the world owes them a "fair" living - I think I will call them "your highness" because they are living in a world of their own making.  It is a world in which they want to make demands (like a king) "Just fetch me my slippers... ...oh and draw me a nice warm bath!"  Not too many of us these days could survive without our technology - Not too many of us are making headlines with gratefulness either... 

...and then I see a story of the folks in Somalia.  Ugh.  We are so blessed...

Would you Rather...

It's Thanksgiving again!  It ranks in my top two on the Holiday charts.  (I try to keep better track of my favorites than my other brother, Lyle keeps track of his, but no guarantee that I won't get caught with the same words about Christmas - which is the other holiday my top two holiday charts.  I guess I am not as crazy as I thought - that is still two.)

I heard a news story in which a Harvard class protested that the economics class that they were taking was not liberal enough.  I was appalled.  My hope in American humanity sunk about ten fathoms further... ...students, who are attending one of the most prestigious "universities" where intelligence was once centered around facts and figures, is now subjected to the students' protests about the subject matter being not politically left enough?  (originally, the name, University, reflected a single focus to study truth - but now, perhaps better called diversities, which disseminate many "truths" formerly known as fictions...)

Then I heard another news story in which a professor started his economics class with a question to the students - would they rather be a 14th century king, or who they are right now, today?  Of course, the answer is resoundingly the latter - for all the right reasons, right?

Let's consider this for a moment though.  A king of past centuries enjoyed the opulence of his era, all the servants, food and entertainment that he wanted.  Dissidents were dispatched with as little as a word from his mouth.  Protests might be quelled with brutish efficiency.  The world of the king had its privileges... ...he was accountable to no one... ...or was he?

The founding fathers recognized this accountability.  It is the cornerstone of our Constitution, the first thought in the Declaration of Independence, because "Creator" is also judge.  Men are created and therefore they are not ultimately sovereign - even if their title is King. 

So, why is this important today?  Replace the idea of the King with that of any kind of government... ...unassailable, unimpeachable, unaccountable?  Some today, feel that the government has lost its accountability.  Others contend that large corporations have lost accountability.  They refuse to pay obeisance to either side, king or corporation, submissive only to themselves - I think they call it "direct democracy" - which is rebellion, or anarchy.  Both sides have lost perspective on where accountability really exists - and they have now fully engaged in the policy of "exchanging tyrants and tyrannies" as John Adams famously pointed out.

The only foundation of a free Constitution is pure Virtue, and if this cannot be inspired into our People in a greater Measure than they have it now, They may change their Rulers and the forms of Government, but they will not obtain a lasting Liberty. They will only exchange Tyrants and Tyrannies.

No government is perfect, but ours was intended to strive for a more perfect - certainly accountability to the people, to other branches of government and judiciary, but inextricably accountable to God.  Our government is designed to be weak enough to fear accounting.  Its success is gained or lost entirely in its people's adherence to biblical principles.  In fact, prior to the emancipation following the Civil War, there was a Frenchman, Alexis de Tocqueville, who made astounding observations about the United States and wrote of it.  (Democracy in America)

The Americans combine the notions of religion and liberty so intimately in their minds, that it is impossible to make them conceive of one without the other.

America is great because she is good. If America ceases to be good, America will cease to be great.

(America at the time was terribly less than perfect - surprised?   In his writings, de Tocqueville discussed a broad range of subjects, including slavery and its inherent evils and disadvantages in comparison to the free North.  Volumes of books were written by these and other men of that time. These are just a couple of the famous quotes...  ...yet we hardly talk about these.)

Finally for now... No amount of economic equality will produce prosperity, morality or content.  I might want to think more about this another day, but only Biblical morality and conscience can offer real hope and satisfaction.  Nothing else will work.

Crazy Canadians...

This is really awesome!!
I advise watching full screen...

Surrender

I have been thinking about surrender to God.  There seem to be a number of facets to it.  On the one hand it takes giving up our will in obedience to God.  In another, it requires our holding lightly to dearer things. In yet another, it requires us to rely on God for every need... ...it's hard to really reduce it to words.  For each facet, there is a huge benefit.

In giving up our own will in obedience to God, we will find peace and freedom and His blessings.  It requires that my will be denied, be it wrong or perhaps a legalism. Christ, who is perfect, demonstrated this in the Garden.  There, the God-Man, who knew no sin, struggled in greater measure than we can really understand, not to stop sinning, but to simply obey the Father's will at the greatest of costs.

For it became him, for whom are all things, and through whom are all things, in bringing many sons unto glory, to make the author of their salvation perfect through sufferings.
(Heb 2:10)

Sometimes our struggles to obey are compounded by earthly desires; not only the denial of those corrupt, fleshly desires, but also the ownership of those God-given blessings.  We, not unlike Abraham in some ways, are taken to the very end of testing, to find that God will provide, or more to the point that God has provided. 

In this way, we learn to rely on Him for every need, physical and spiritual.  He has provided for our failures, and He will take care of our every need - not because of us, but because of Him, because of Christ and because of who He is. 

God help me to remember this daily...

Forces to Reckon With

I love to design stuff.  I love to try to figure out how to make an idea work better. 

The other day I was doing just that, working with a model on my computer, testing it virtually with this totally cool simulation.  I tell it what force to apply in on what place, and where to put a fixture to hold the part in place while the force is applied.  Then it does its magic and you get a color image that explains how the part will withstand or fail under under the load.

So, I got done with a design that took about two day's time to work out, and as a precaution, I reversed the load and the fixture - applied the force and the holding fixture 180 degrees opposite.  But it totally failed...

In a moment of hightened tension (perhaps I need to get out more) I hit print and took the image to my boss. 

"Wow!" he said, "what do you think is wrong?!" 

In a panicked tone I exclaimed, "Newton was WRONG!"  (implying that to every action there is actually NOT an equal and opposite reaction - and HERE WAS the evidence!)

We all got a good laugh, and we did find the real problem, which was something unrealistic in the way I had set it up.  but it did get me to thinking...

Conclusions made in the midst of the discovery are often wrong.  You have to complete the discovery to learn the actual truth in a matter.  It does not matter what your opinion is, nor does it matter what you are feeling - the truth will either work in your benefit or it will "react" on you.

If a car meets a semi-truck in an intersection, guess who wins?  It does not matter at the point of collision who is in the car, how right they feel about being in that intersection, nor does it matter why.  At that moment in time, physics suddenly and forcefully makes its presence known in an unmistakable way.  This is how truth is.

You will have a serious change of direction someday if your opinion runs cross-ways with the truth.

Oceanic Proportions

NASA scientists are trying to quantify the salinity of the oceans with a new satellite.  The greater the salinity of the water, the greater the density.  Dense water sinks.  Cold water sinks.  As water freezes in the poles, the salt is left in the unfrozen water below, leaving it more saline and colder - sinking down into deep currents to well up again closer to the equator. 

This new satellite will measure surface salinity.  Deeper water will require droves of semi-autonomous un-manned vehicles traveling below the surface and will take many, many years to gather useful data.




Here's why I think it is so important:  The oceans cover over three-quarters of the earth, making them the largest factor, except for the sun, to climate balance.  Whether or not the climate system is sensitive  or stable, more data is needed to make a scientific case.

We cannot yet make good weather predictions for more than three days or so, yet there are big players holding big purses who believe in global warming - including the ones for this satellite - and every major project now seems to have climate change in its vocabulary. 

Science is suffering from a case of politics. The correction is truth, which is found in data - not hysteria.