The last of the Christmas pics. One that makes an old man proud. They say you should leave things better than you found them. When I leave this world I will have done my part n the person of those two guys.The average worker bee produces 1/12th of a teaspoon of honey in its entire life. Think about that the next time you feel under-appreciated. Or drip a tablespoon of the sweet stuff on a biscuit.
You can't have missed the news about the assassination of Benazir Bhutto. We can only wait to see if that troubled and unstable part of the world erupts into dangerous chaos. Pakistan seems like a country with no untainted leaders, a system so plagued by corruption that no option looks good. Today's events can only strain things further.
As I drove into and then out of town, listening to news reports about the situation, I reminded myself that God is in control of human history. If he is, as the Bible says, sovereign over the kingdoms of men (Daniel 4) any sense of panic or hand-wringing is inappropriate.
But the news also reminded me how fortunate we are here in the U.S. We're in the middle of a hotly contested election process, and we're already weary of the sniping and petty accusations. But none of us worries about suicide bombers operating at the behest of an opposing party. Yes, we've had assassinations, but they were, in each case, solo actors at the edge of sanity and their actions were condemned by everyone involved.
Almost 250 years of history and we've never had an election disrupted by violence and revolution, even during the Civil War.
We are, indeed, blessed. Now, can we pass a law limiting political ads?
Anthropomorphism is the device used in literature or speech whereby we assign human characteristics to non-human things. In children's stories a tree may talk. We'll call a frozen bolt "stubborn". And an illustration of anthropomorphism run amok: way too many people think their pets have human personalities.
When the reports of the tiger maulings and death at the San Fransisco Zoo first came out I found myself practicing some unconscious anthropomorphism, thinking of the tiger as evil. In fact it was just a wild animal, doing what wild animals do. It had no evil nature, no premeditated murderous intent. Just animal instinct.
Now it seems the kid who was killed by the tiger may have been taunting it. His shoe was found inside the compound, suggesting that he had a leg dangling over the fence. I've also heard they found a shoe print on the top of the rail.
Suddenly my anthropomorphic tendencies kicked back in, only this time I felt sorry for the tiger. The animal's rage was justified and revenge its due. The tiger deserved to strike back and killing it, while necessary, wasn't fair in some sense.
I still know in my head that it was a tiger doing what a tiger does and instinct was the only motivation. But I still feel sorry for the tiger.
"Jesu, Joy of Man's Desiring" by Bach definitely goes on my list of five most beautiful songs.
Microwaves have power settings. But isn't that bogus? When I set it to run at 80% (correct me if I'm wrong) it doesn't really run at 80% power, it just runs for 80% of the time I programmed. Try this at home: set your microwave to run at 50% power for 1 minute. Put something in there, like, say, your neighbor's cat. Now listen to the microwave. The nuke part will cycle on and off in even increments - maybe 10 seconds each. The fan and light will keep going constantly, but you'll hear that the - I don't know what you call it; the nuker? - will go on and off.
"So what?" you say.
Well, it makes me wonder why I should use the power settings at all. Why not set it for 30 seconds instead of 60 seconds at 50% power?!
OK, what am I missing here?
1 comment:
Why not input 30 seconds instead of 60 seconds at 50% power? Because some items (like my famous microwaved milkshakes) require nuking, then a sitting period to let the molecules reform themselves, then another nuking period, then more reforming, etc. I'd have to use 3 seconds, then let it sit for 3 more, then nuke again, then sit again, until I got a total of 33 seconds of that nuke/sit activity. nope, a tumbler packed 3/4 nuked at 40% for 33 seconds then stirred with 2% milk makes a thick, delicious shake. Your m'wave's power level requires some modification to the time, power level and quantity formula but, trust me, it works great a dirties only a spoon and glass. No blender needed.
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