Polka on

This was a really cool story about a young blind man's accordion abilities. Good news to know and share.

If you don't like the weather...

...stay inside?

NO way!

Not in China. You simply change it.

That's what has been prepared for the Olympics. If forecasts predict rain, a little Liquid nitrogen shot into the clouds can make rain droplets smaller and fewer. This is INSANE, folks.

A 22x8x8 Solution?

I found a newspaper clipping from 2005 about an awesome design called FutureShack. It is still an awesome concept which uses solar power and shipping crates to create healthy housing. Architect Sean Godsell noted that it would be more useful if he received calls from humanitarian organizations rather than museums seeking to display his work, which also included a park bench house and a bus shelter house. After learning more about the 12 million displaced refugees at a World Relief night, I heartily agree with him. I wonder where and what impact his design is having in 2008?

Cutting away the excess

Occam's razor is the word of the day.

It's a scientific and philosophic rule that entities should not be multiplied unnecessarily.

This rule is interpreted as requiring that the simplest of competing theories be preferred to the more complex.

What a novelty! This is especially true for Scientific literature! (Have you tried to read a journal article lately?) Clear, concise, understandable ideas replace jargon. How refreshing!

Love is

Everything flows from this

HEAR.
Listen up, you people,
you people whom God has called;
Open up your ears, you chosen Nation!

The Lord our God,
Who called you, who is Ruler over you,
Who saves you and directs you: remember him?
This unique, powerful, creating Being, called the Lord,
He is YOUR GOD.
He is ONE.

He commands you this day, commandments for your good,
commandments to obey:

You shall LOVE the Lord Your God.
You shall LOVE your Creator. Your ruler. Your Savior.

You shall adore, worship, think of, idolize, enjoy, obey, listen to, consider, wait for, submit to, long for, praise, share---You shall LOVE.

(How is it difficult to love one who has done what He has done? Like a child loves their mother? The child does not need to be commanded to love their mother-- they just do. But we, the wayward children, need to be commanded to Love.)

This love calls for complete devotion.
To love with all your HEART
To love with all your SOUL
To love with all your MIGHT.

Every ounce. Every thought.
Called, commanded, ordered to LOVE.

Because God spoke. Because He desires our hearts, souls, and might. Because our circumstances and feelings change, but this foundation does not move. This is where I am today-- paraphrasing Deuteronomy 6:4-7, which Jesus quoted in Mark 12, when asked "what is the greatest commandment?" If it is the greatest, it is important. It seems to me that everything flows from this, the greatest commandment. Every dream and desire in our lives needs to be rooted in this. Because these plans-- they will fall away. But He who holds our hearts and souls and bodies never will.

Biosecrets

Here's some bad news for biofuels. Turns out they do affect world food prices more than we thought! Uhhh-ohhh.

It shows that what recieves media attention and scientific funding isn't necessarily the best route. Remember hydrogen energy? How's that going? It got lots of press, but lacking the infrastructure to make, store, and move hydrogen it hasn't really caught on. Biofuels are a step ahead-- existing infrastructure can be used and new facilities have been built-- but there are still opportunities to pull out if it IS going to affect food prices so much.

"Biofuels have forced global food prices up by 75% - far more than previously estimated - according to a confidential World Bank report obtained by the Guardian.

The damning unpublished assessment is based on the most detailed analysis of the crisis so far, carried out by an internationally-respected economist at global financial body.

The figure emphatically contradicts the US government's claims that plant-derived fuels contribute less than 3% to food-price rises. It will add to pressure on governments in Washington and across Europe, which have turned to plant-derived fuels to reduce emissions of greenhouse gases and reduce their dependence on imported oil." Aditya Chakrabortty inThe Guardian,Friday July 4, 2008

Freeidea.com

I have an idea about ideas.

They need to be shared.

How about an idea sharing website? A way to unite people who have ideas with people who need ideas, in an interactive forum.

A tagline like “Have a great idea you’ll never use? Searching for something to do? Exchange, share, grow at freeidea.com.”

It would be free, too. By posting you are sharing yourself and your rights.

Ideas could be in categories, or grouped in stages, like gathering or building.

I think it's exciting and community building—sharing dreams and ideas with your neighbors.

Consider this idea shared.

1 $ = 1 Vote

The premise of an article by Greg Bowman, "Free speech-for you to use-to promote fresh, local and organic food" from way back in 2006, was that you vote with your wallet. Every food dollar you spend is a vote that rewards people for farmers, processes, and sellers from the place/source you buy it from. Buying organic farming is a step toward helping farm families, the land, water, and biological life, and your own health. Not buying increases big farms, loss of diversity and topsoil, water pollution, chemicals, fertilizers and on... What a different way of looking at every choice we make. It's a vote. Oh, let us use our votes to honor God and love our neighbors.

Putting the "me" in Entertainment

I had a good conversation over the weekend about the poisonous of entertainment in our culture. Stimulus is provided innumerable ways 24/7. I often feel that I "earn" the right to relax, tune-out, and laugh for a half hour episode of something on television after a hard day, or in magazine or book, or in facebooking and emusicing. The list goes on. The temptation is real. And deadly.

Why?

1) "While cultivating a God-centered perspective on recreation and entertainment takes effort, it is absolutely necessary if my entire life is to have the aroma of the One who
taught us to store up treasures in heaven (Matt. 6:19-21), that our lives are hidden with Christ in God (Col. 3:3-4), and that it is God who richly provides us with everything to enjoy (I Tim. 6:17)." --Alex Chediak (Bold text is mine). So we want to look like Him. We want to honor Him.

2) We want to be salt and light. What about when salt looses it's flavor? Isn't it thrown out? Is uncritical, undisciplined entertainment "being conformed to the world?" Well, do NOT be conformed to the world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind! (Romans 12:2)

3) We are at war! Indulging in something that let's your mind coast in neutral is ripe ground for sin.

4) Entertainment pacifies, but it doesn't satisfy. It is temporary. It is like building sandcastles, when you could be using bricks. I don't want to look back on years of my life (even hours of my days) and see nothing...

There are more reasons. We have brains for a reason-- to reason! Not just to sink in quicksand that looks "solid-enough." And I'm not judging. I'm really preaching to myself. Recreation and relaxation are necessary. But let's press pause and think about how we engage in it.