A man and his toys
I think I am entering my second childhood, and I must say it promises to be a whole lot more fun than my first one. For one thing, I can now afford to purchase more toys, at least when I can do it without disrupting marital harmony. For another, I suddenly realize how dumb I really am about the world in which I live. And I have children who love to egg me on. For instance, our oldest daughter, who... [Read more]
Beautiful galaxy
Credit & Copyright: Adam Block, Mt. Lemmon SkyCenter, U. Arizona Explanation: Charles Messier described the 88th entry in his 18th century catalog of Nebulae and Star Clusters as a spiral nebula without stars. Of course the gorgeous M88 is now understood to be a galaxy full of stars, gas, and dust, not unlike our own Milky Way. In fact, M88 is one of the brightest galaxies in the Virgo Galaxy... [Read more]
Bang! (III)
In this article I will head straight for the tough stuff and tackle Chapter 3, The Age of Our Universe: Six Days and Fifteen Billion Years. This is mostly a summary of today’s scientific conclusions, and after we get a good layman’s grasp of this, we may be able better to judge whether it can be reconciled with an informed reading of Genesis Chapter 1. Astronomy Picture of the Day: 2010... [Read more]
Bang! (II)
In Bang! (I), I suggested that it might be intellectually and spiritually very satisfying to be able to show that the scientific and biblical views of our time about creation are converging. This is what author Gerald Schroeder set out to show in The Science of God, the convergence of scientific and biblical wisdom . Here I will review parts of Schroeder’s challenging book to identify a few... [Read more]
Blue Moon
As in, “Once in a … ,” meaning a rare event. You no doubt remember that a Blue Moon is the second occurrence of a full moon during a calendar month. It happens every 2-1/2 years, or so. We got a beautiful view of this year’s Blue Moon last night, on New Year’s Eve. The image is of the full moon on December 2, taken by Stephano De Rosa in Turin, Italy. (I hope he doesn’t... [Read more]
Bang! (I)
Big, that is. My logical mind is convinced that there was a Big Bang that marked the origin of life and the origin of man. My logical mind is also convinced of an eternal realm beyond time and space and matter. God exists. I read how some religious writers interpret the first chapter of Genesis, and it is not satisfying, let alone compelling. On the other hand, what some scientists say or imply about... [Read more]
Brothers at the lake
We met at the Ayers condo at the Lake of the Ozarks in early October, bro Tom from the left coast, bro Don from Kansas City. Our mutual objective was to have better fishing than the last time we turned the condo into a bachelor’s pad in May, 2008. Three rapidly aging geezers wedged themselves into a 19-foot Ranger bass boat and set out each morning and afternoon looking for bass. The company... [Read more]
Bugles II
If you happen to have your bugle handy and have a good lip, take a look at what wiki/bugle has to say, then give your favorite call a good riff. (You can read music, can you not?) Many of the familiar calls have had words made up to fit the tune. For example, the US Reveille goes: I can’t get ‘em up, I can’t get ‘em up, I can’t get ‘em up this morning; ... [Read more]
Il Silenzio
Il Silenzio (The Silence) is a more formal, concert trumpet version of Taps, written in 1965 by Italian trumpeter Nino Rosso. One of our choir members asked to play it as a Veterans Day observance in church yesterday morning. From a bulletin insert I learned the story behind “Taps.” There is no attribution for the story, but I know of no reason to believe it is not true. Of all the military... [Read more]
Strong calm sanity
In this insane world, one yearns for sane words. Many years ago I found these helpful words of wisdom, and I made a now-fading copy (typed on a real typewriter) and stuck it in my Bible. They are words from a little devotional book that I first discovered in 1984, according to the date inside the cover. The book’s title is My Utmost for His Highest, The Golden Book of Oswald Chambers. When once... [Read more]
