Archives for 5.9.08

a couple of evangelical editorials worth pondering

First, one from Paige Patterson on the current state of the SBC with some interesting insights for fundamentalists — Of grinches, goblins, gremlins and ghosts, from the May 6 Baptist Press.

Second, one from Alan Jacobs, professor of English at Wheaton, taking a slap at the so-called “Evangelical Manifesto” — Come On, You Call This a Manifesto?, appearing in the Wall Street Journal.

A few thoughts and quotes below:

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coming from a space lab near you

Star Trek’s Dr. McCoy had a Tricorder device that was able to diagnose almost any physical condition. It may not yet appear in your doctor’s office, but NASA is working on a device that may be able to discern what’s bugging you:

“Ultimately we want to provide cartridges for all kinds of micro-organisms and chemical compounds,” says Morris. “We’d even like to be able to use our system to figure out what ‘bug’ an astronaut has if he or she becomes ill.”

Lisa Monaco, LOCAD project scientist, adds her vision of the future: “What we are developing at MSFC has use not only on the ISS, but also on lunar missions, long duration stays on other planets, and most certainly here on Earth.”

In the years ahead, as space voyages become longer and longer, it will be even more imperative to have ways of checking astronauts’ health and monitoring electronics. For the record, no astronaut has ever become seriously ill on any space mission. However, the scientists point out that if an astronaut did ever get sick, it would take too much time to send a sample back to Earth, have it tested, and receive a long-distance answer. With next-generation LOCAD technologies, detection and diagnosis would be quick, easy, and on the spot.

Dr. McCoy, here we come.

Emphasis mine.

Just one of those cool things going on at NASA.

Read the whole article for the current state of the project.

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so I’ve seen the talking cow…

at the Billy Graham Library…

Corny? You bet.BGTix I am quite astonished, actually, at the way the display starts at the library. To each his own, I suppose. It just seems quite out of keeping with the purpose and general professionalism of the whole exhibit.

In our recent trip south, we flew in and out of Charlotte, NC, home of the Billy Graham Evangelistic Association and the Billy Graham Library. We had a little time at our disposal Tuesday afternoon and the admission is free, so we decided to take the exhibit in.

The exhibit itself consists of some 13 or so galleries, some with video, audio, or slide presentations, each done up to portray various aspects of Billy Graham’s ministry over the years. Without a doubt, Billy Graham is an influential man and worthy of our attention, even though we are critical of his philosophy and methods.

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