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by on 4.17.14

here’s a breathless announcement

It is a bit bigger and somewhat colder, but a planet circling a star 500 light-years away is otherwise the closest match of our home world discovered so far, astronomers announced on Thursday.

This comes from Scientists Find an ‘Earth Twin,’ or Perhaps a Cousin in the New York Times.

Here is something that bothers me in this story, and in some of the pronouncements of astronomer’s in general. The way this is reported, it sounds like they know for sure that what they saw is 1) a planet; 2) of a certain size; 3) orbiting a Sol-like star; 4) orbiting in the ‘habitable zone’ of that star. All of these pronouncements are stated matter-of-fact-like.

Yet what do they really know?

[Read more…]

Filed Under: General Interest, Science, Space
by on 4.17.14

clever spam

What do you think of this one?

Was given a copy of a Book & Bible from a group of people who comes from the Mormon church and days later we decided to start reading it. Hope we are not going to be misled and are been led into error that will send us to hell forever ?
Please are the teaching from the Mormon (Church of Jesus Christ Latter Days Saint) in line with the Bible and the Word of God?
PLEASE HELP ME & MY FAMILY OUT!

Brother Mike Okiji & family
Room 2b No 4 Okiba village Road,
% P.O.Box 982
B/City, Edo State, Nigeria

This showed up in my inbox today, totally missed Google’s filters. The addressee is the same Yahoo address as the sender. My address is presumably in a BCC.

If you get something like this, and are tempted to reply… don’t! You are just confirming your address as “live” to some despicable human beings.

don_sig2

Filed Under: Blogosphere, General Interest
by on 4.16.14

settled science?

A thought struck me while reading George Jonas’ rambling column, Challenging ‘settled science’. He is mostly talking about global warming / climate change.

You are aware, of course, that many conservatives are not very convinced of global warming. They regularly debunk those who claim it is true. The science, according to them, is far from settled.

I happen to think they are right on this point, but doesn’t it strike you as odd that most of those who doubt climate science are also certain that evolutionary theory is ‘settled science’. They are open minded when it comes to the weather, but they have no time whatever for an alternative view of evolution.

Kind of ironic, no?

don_sig2

Filed Under: Science
by on 4.11.14

uncertainty

One of the plagues of our day is the softening of orthodoxy among Bible-believers. I wonder how we came to this.

Kevin Bauder posted an essay recently where he discusses Bob Jones Jr, among other things. He has this to say about Dr. Bob:

Whatever else Bob Jones may have been, he was never timid. He had a tender side alright, but (and I mean none of this to be derogatory) he was a vigorous, robust, confident, assertive, tenacious, resilient, square-jawed, straight-backed, tough-as-nails, heavy-duty, industrial strength, hardnosed, bull moose, larger-than-life, uncompromising fundamentalist leader who most definitely did not suffer fools gladly. He was the captain of his team, the general of his armies, the chieftain of his tribe, the commander of his troops, the admiral of his fleet, and the master of his domain.

Having known and loved Dr. Bob, I would say that this description is pretty well accurate. Dr. Bob was not shy about his convictions. He was also as warm-hearted as a man could be, at least in my experience. [Read more…]

Filed Under: Blogosphere, Issues, Personalities
by on 3.6.14

this may seem like heresy

But why are we concerned about Crimea?

I get that it’s Russia, and by default we should be anti-Russky. I get that it’s Putin and he gives us all the creeps. I get that guns are involved and that means, you know, IT CAN’T BE RIGHT!

But here are some facts: [Read more…]

Filed Under: General Interest, Politics
by on 11.15.13

Landmarkism in embryo form?

I think we can safely say that one of the marks of Landmarkism is the “local-only” view of the church. When we say that we are NOT saying that everyone who holds this view is a Landmarker, but those who hold to Landmark views would hold to a local-only view.

Would that be stating things correctly? Duncan’s article and Dr. Moritz’ article seem to bear this out.

I’d like to think about the historical record a bit more in this post.

[Read more…]

Filed Under: Ecclesiology, General Interest, Theology
by on 11.1.13

Piper on parenting

This is very, very, very good. Regular readers of this space will know that I disagree with the author profoundly on several points. But I have to recommend this article to you. He is exactly right.

When our children were little, people often would say to us, “just wait till they are teenagers.” The teenage years were such a blessing, so much fun with our kids… in some ways the best years of our life so far. I could wish them back except that now I have a granddaughter!

The point of the article is that teaching children obedience is a biblical requirement with rich rewards for the parents who insist on obedience … and for their children too! Teaching obedience requires courage, energy, initiative and drive. It is the best spiritual investment you can make in the lives of your children.

I know, I know, the cycle of life isn’t over yet. Children have wills of their own. They can still disappoint. They may make choices that overthrow all the training you have invested in them.

Don’t let such possibilities be excuses for your lazy, selfish attempts at making parenting easy.

don_sig2

Filed Under: Home and Family, Sociology
by on 7.28.13

how do you like your spam?

Got an interesting comment tonight on a post from a couple of years ago:

When I originally commented I clicked the “Notify me when new comments are added” checkbox and now
each time a comment is added I get three emails with the same
comment. Is there any way you can remove people from that service?

Many thanks!

Right… the alleged person making this comment has never had any comments approved on oxgoad, the post in question has only ever had a total of five comments, again some time ago. There are no new comments coming in… and if anyone cares to notice, oxgoad is a little inactive lately.

I point this out for fellow bloggers who may get similar spam. Some spammers are getting a little more sophisticated it seems and posting what seems like more and more legit comments. So be careful.

don_sig2

Filed Under: Blogosphere
by on 4.19.13

following blogs

Google Reader is dead. I guess it is old news, but it is scheduled to happen on July 1, apparently. I thought I was safe, since I was using FeedDemon. Alas, I discovered that since FD depends on on GR, it, too, will die on July 1.

Mad search ensues… the winner, for me, is RSSOwl, a nifty feed reader that has some neat features FD did not (and a few minor ones that FD had are missing…). If you scan a lot of blogs, as I do, RSSOwl might be for you.

don_sig2

Filed Under: Blogosphere, General Interest
by on 1.26.13

the double cross

A funny little vignette from my reading of A Brief History of Britain 1660-1851: The Making of A Nation.

It seems that in the late 17th and early 18th centuries, the people of Britain were very concerned with crime. Many crimes were considered capital crimes, including theft. In 1693 a reward of 40 pounds was introduced to anyone who apprehended and successfully prosecuted highway robbers. Later this was extended to burglary. It was hoped that this reward would cut down on crime. One thing it did was create an entrepreneurial opportunity.

[Read more…]

Filed Under: Fun and games, General Interest, History
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