Climate Porn

I'm proud to say that I'm leary of outrageous and supposedly scientific hype about global warming. Maybe I'm wrong; maybe global warming is occuring as a direct consequence of producing carbon dioxide. However, I doubt hype and shock.

Listen to this: Bjorn Lomborg via Jared's blog

I don't watch tv anymore (Heroes doesn't come back on until April 23), but I do occasionally (almost daily) read Wikipedia. Here are just a small portion of quotes from there:

Sallie Baliunas, Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics: "[T]he recent warming trend in the surface temperature record cannot be caused by the increase of human-made greenhouse gases in the air." [15] In 2003 Baliunas and Soon wrote that "there is no reliable evidence for increased severity or frequency of storms, droughts, or floods that can be related to the air’s increased greenhouse gas content." [16]

Robert M. Carter, researcher at the Marine Geophysical Laboratory at James Cook University in Australia: "The essence of the issue is this. Climate changes naturally all the time, partly in predictable cycles, and partly in unpredictable shorter rhythms and rapid episodic shifts, some of the causes of which remain unknown." (Telegraph, April 9, 2006 [17])

George V. Chilingar, professor of civil and petroleum engineering at the University of Southern California, and Leonid F. Khilyuk: "The authors identify and describe the following global forces of nature driving the Earth’s climate: (1) solar radiation ..., (2) outgassing as a major supplier of gases to the World Ocean and the atmosphere, and, possibly, (3) microbial activities ... . The writers provide quantitative estimates of the scope and extent of their corresponding effects on the Earth’s climate [and] show that the human-induced climatic changes are negligible." (Environmental Geology, vol. 50 no. 6, August 2006 [18])

William M. Gray, professor of atmospheric science and meteorologist, Colorado State University: "This small warming is likely a result of the natural alterations in global ocean currents which are driven by ocean salinity variations. Ocean circulation variations are as yet little understood. Human kind has little or nothing to do with the recent temperature changes. We are not that influential." (BBC News, 16 Nov 2000 [24]) "I am of the opinion that [global warming] is one of the greatest hoaxes ever perpetrated on the American people." (Washington Post, May 28, 2006 [25]) "So many people have a vested interest in this global-warming thing—all these big labs and research and stuff. The idea is to frighten the public, to get money to study it more." (Discover, vol. 26 no. 9, September 2005 [26])

Zbigniew Jaworowski, chair of the Scientific Council at the Central Laboratory for Radiological Protection in Warsaw: "The atmospheric temperature variations do not follow the changes in the concentrations of CO2 ... climate change fluctuations comes ... from cosmic radiation." (21st Century Science & Technology, Winter 2003-2004, p. 52-65 [27])

Mystery and Wonder

I started adding this tagline to my emails: " . . . they cannot find out what God has done from the beginning to the end." Ecclesiastes 3:11

Click on the title to read an interesting blog post the inscrutability of God and the inadequacy of science (and religion) to explain everything.

Fred Craddock once said something along these lines: I try not to preach with a tone the sounds like I've gone into heaven and taken polaroids of God.

I'm interested in how my family and friends approach God with his inscrutability in mind. Specifically, how do you consider scientific theories of both evolution and creation as explanations for how the cosmos exists?

Guests

We've been hosting wonderful family and friends lately. Unfortunately, we only took a few pictures. However, someday (soon we hope) Hayli will email us photos she took w/ her camera while she and Kim were here.

My family drove up from Abilene, TX, weekend before last. They joined our team meeting and shared some good insights with us which reminded me that we need to be accountable to God and to one another. My brother and Nicole and I practiced running for the race coming up next month (not pictured).









Damien and Miranda drove from Abilene, TX, via the Gatewoods in Tulsa, OK. Nicole and Miranda cooked ANZACs. The ANZAC (Australia-New Zealand Army Corps.) biscuits, or "cookies" in Americanese, were delicious. As I type this I'm reminded that I spilled some of my ginger beer on my keyboard while the Damien and Miranda were with us.

Thursday night, before Damien and Miranda spent their last night with us, Josh came down so we could share our friends, Miranda and Damien, with him, too. (Kendra came down, too, as well as Emily and Corey.) Damien was my roomate for 9 months back in 1999 while I lived in Australia. Now he and Miranda are "older" students at ACU. We really enjoyed spending time talking with this young, vibrant couple.

After Hayli whipped all of us at her favorite card game--Nerts--we played a few hands of Texas Hold 'Em. Kim won. Just for the record, though, I beat Nicole in both games, albeit by one point. This was Kim's first time away from Australia. Hayli grew up there but lives in Oklahoma now. Hayli has been to inner city Memphis a few times before and loves to return, so she joined Nicole and I in sharing this blessed city's people and stories with Kim. Kim and Hayli began driving back to Oklahoma this morning.

Not Insulin, but Exercise

If you or someone you love has Type 2 Diabetes, do not expect insulin to help them. In fact, expect it to ruin them. Song kept telling me that insulin was making things worse. I realize he was right. Yet his doctor(s) kept adjusting his insulin dosage even though he was Type 2. I wish things could have been different for him. I believe that they could've. Click on the title and watch the video.

On the other hand, if you have Type 1 Diabetes, realize that it is a completely different "animal". Don't stop taking insulin. Make sure to be monitored by a trustworthy endocrinologist.

God has the power to heal us, yet we often have the custom of blocking God's healing power.

Porcupine Pins Bull Terrier

Click on the title to see the poor Terrier.