Undular bores are a type of "gravity wave" in the atmosphere. They are often visible in cloud formations and believed to mostly take place at night. They are thought to be caused when there is an air disturbance due to thunderstorms that roll across cold stable air. They are thought of as "gravity waves' because gravity acts as the restoring force when such a waves of flux creates the undulating wave-like motion seen in the clouds.
NASA says at http://science.nasa.gov/headlines/y2007/11oct_undularbore.htm?list1043252, ithat t's possible undular bores amplify weather, causing it to be more severe. These bores may even intensify tornadoes. They also say that not many people have actually witnessed undular bores in action, one reason being that most of them in the United States take place during the night.
Tim Coleman of the National Space Science and Technology Center (NSSTC) in Huntsville, Alabama says undular bores may be the source of thunderstorms. In other words, while thunderstorms are believed to cause undular bore, undular bores may also be the cause of thunderstorms.
Fascinating!
To see an undular bore on you tube, click here.
Coffee
Coffee that we drink is made from the seed of a "coffee cherry," which we call the coffee bean. The bean is picked, dried, ground up and mixed with water to make a bitter black beverage that has the effect of keeping one from sleeping.
Coffee is said by many to have originated in Africa, Ethiopia in fact. Interestingly, besides being known for the cultivation of the coffee bean, Ethiopia is known for it's beautiful rock-hewn churches. It's also said to be one of the first countries to officially convert to Christianity, which it did in the fourth century A.D. In Ethiopia today, coffee is still a principal crop but coffee rows well in many tropical like places around the world, and is enjoyed by people all around the globe.
Coffee has a reputation for being the first thing a person drinks in the morning. It is said to help them wake up to the world. It is a bitter, black, traditionally “adult” drink that is enjoyed because it stimulates the senses. It's delicious with a little cream and sugar to help the bitterness go down, and many people find the early morning stimulation of a cup of the liquid a necessity for living in a busy, fast-paced, high tech world.
Unfortunately, coffee, strong and black sometimes replaces water in the diet, and water, clear, pure and simple as it is, is something people need for true vitality and health. Coffee ingestion is estimated to be about a third of water and health fanatics will tell you, coffee can increase your risk of cancer, that it robs a person of what they really need in order to survive.
There are hundreds of chemicals in roasted coffees, more than half (19/28) of which are known carcinogens to rodents, but we humans still are happy to awaken, greet the day and drink in our cup of the bitter black liquid. With all it's possible problems, coffee does have it's merits. For one thing it brings people together in conversation.
Over a cup of coffee, people can discuss many things, read the paper, you know, hear the latest and the greatest news. And thanks to cream and sugar and some slick advertising people will pay a pretty penny for a cup. Not only that there is now quite an enjoyable flavor selection, making coffee much more than beverage for adults, kids like too. Chocolate covered, dry roasted, espresso, latte, mocha or breve, coffee is nearly and essential, ingredient for today’s life and culture. All one has to do is brew it up and one draws a crowd.
It reminds me of how in our world today, strange spiritual brew is being brewed, poured out, and served up by the cupful to humanity. Much like the coffee beverage, this spiritual offering is replacing the pure truth of God and His word. Like coffee, it's dressed with sugary sweet political promises. It wets religious whistles too, but with adulterated water. To the world it’s a concoction that is seemingly the perfect blend of politics and religion, economics and life, one that will get us all through another day in the life of this world, but to the mature Christian, it’s simply a replacement for truth. It's error served with a milk and honey to mask the true bitterness of the cup. It's error because its spiritually infused with the dark denial that God came in the flesh to save man from sin. It's a mysteriously peculiar, poisonous brew of dark spiritually and it is served up but the potful at locations all around the globe.
As we wake up to drink our coffee in the morning, it's a good reminder that something besides the morning brew is brewing. And it's time to wake up. It's time to open our eyes and see that our redemption draweth nigh. James 5:8.
It's time to renounce the evil deeds of darkness and it's time, as it says in Psalm 38:4, to “Taste, and see that the Lord is truly good.”
Coffee is said by many to have originated in Africa, Ethiopia in fact. Interestingly, besides being known for the cultivation of the coffee bean, Ethiopia is known for it's beautiful rock-hewn churches. It's also said to be one of the first countries to officially convert to Christianity, which it did in the fourth century A.D. In Ethiopia today, coffee is still a principal crop but coffee rows well in many tropical like places around the world, and is enjoyed by people all around the globe.
Coffee has a reputation for being the first thing a person drinks in the morning. It is said to help them wake up to the world. It is a bitter, black, traditionally “adult” drink that is enjoyed because it stimulates the senses. It's delicious with a little cream and sugar to help the bitterness go down, and many people find the early morning stimulation of a cup of the liquid a necessity for living in a busy, fast-paced, high tech world.
Unfortunately, coffee, strong and black sometimes replaces water in the diet, and water, clear, pure and simple as it is, is something people need for true vitality and health. Coffee ingestion is estimated to be about a third of water and health fanatics will tell you, coffee can increase your risk of cancer, that it robs a person of what they really need in order to survive.
There are hundreds of chemicals in roasted coffees, more than half (19/28) of which are known carcinogens to rodents, but we humans still are happy to awaken, greet the day and drink in our cup of the bitter black liquid. With all it's possible problems, coffee does have it's merits. For one thing it brings people together in conversation.
Over a cup of coffee, people can discuss many things, read the paper, you know, hear the latest and the greatest news. And thanks to cream and sugar and some slick advertising people will pay a pretty penny for a cup. Not only that there is now quite an enjoyable flavor selection, making coffee much more than beverage for adults, kids like too. Chocolate covered, dry roasted, espresso, latte, mocha or breve, coffee is nearly and essential, ingredient for today’s life and culture. All one has to do is brew it up and one draws a crowd.
It reminds me of how in our world today, strange spiritual brew is being brewed, poured out, and served up by the cupful to humanity. Much like the coffee beverage, this spiritual offering is replacing the pure truth of God and His word. Like coffee, it's dressed with sugary sweet political promises. It wets religious whistles too, but with adulterated water. To the world it’s a concoction that is seemingly the perfect blend of politics and religion, economics and life, one that will get us all through another day in the life of this world, but to the mature Christian, it’s simply a replacement for truth. It's error served with a milk and honey to mask the true bitterness of the cup. It's error because its spiritually infused with the dark denial that God came in the flesh to save man from sin. It's a mysteriously peculiar, poisonous brew of dark spiritually and it is served up but the potful at locations all around the globe.
As we wake up to drink our coffee in the morning, it's a good reminder that something besides the morning brew is brewing. And it's time to wake up. It's time to open our eyes and see that our redemption draweth nigh. James 5:8.
It's time to renounce the evil deeds of darkness and it's time, as it says in Psalm 38:4, to “Taste, and see that the Lord is truly good.”
Goosebumps
Besides being the little bumps you get on your arms and legs when you are chilled or frightened, Goosebumps is a book series. It was once a popular horror storybook series specifically aimed at children ages 9 to 12. (Grades 3-8.) They are written by R.L. Stine and produced by Scholastic Books, one of the more “trusted” names the educational arena. Goosebumps as a television series tremained quite popular too and their are Goosebumps games, kids sleeping bags and toys galore. Being that the stories are scary, one will probably get goosebumps reading them, and by the way, another word for the goosebumps you get on your skin is "horripilation."
The creator of the books, R.L. Stine, says he believes his job is to “make kids laugh and give them the creeps.” He boasts that his work “has been called a literary training bra for Stephen King.” (King being a "great writer" of horror and suspense tales for adults.) But not everyone wants their kids reading horror stories. Some people want to ban Stine’s books from school libraries and classrooms.
Banning books is nothing new, and the argument against banning books is that this is AMerica, land of the free and freedom is important. There are always books that someone wants to ban. Just look at banned book lists. Classic reads like "Huckleberry Finn," “Bridge to Teribithia,” “Little Black Sambo” and even “the Holy Bible” have made the lists because someone somewhere objected for some reason.
As for Goosebumps, many parents and teachers have been known to comment that the goosebumps are positive horror books because they do not have graphic descriptions of murder and mayhem and they help get kids interested in reading. They are “easy to read stories about weird things that happen,” “just some ghosts, werewolves, or potions and the main character is alive in the end when in the final chapter everything is resolved.”
“Reading the books produces pleasurable anxiety,” said one teacher, “They are “an entertaining escape…the campfire type story that is meant to send chills down a child’s spine, make her scream and clutch her friend’s arm – and then laugh about it later as the kids scare themselves again.” She also commented that readers can differentiate between reality and fiction, “Children can reassure themselves that “it’s not happening to me, it’s happening to the character.”
Well, the book are still around, but not as popular any more and RL Stine is don with their production. He has now moved on to writing more “sophisticated horror” for more sophisticated audiences, after all, as Stine says, the Goosebumps series, really is “just a training bra.”
His readers are growing up. They are getting older and their expanding minds will probably have to find something more sophisticated and stimulating that such juvenile horripulation.
The creator of the books, R.L. Stine, says he believes his job is to “make kids laugh and give them the creeps.” He boasts that his work “has been called a literary training bra for Stephen King.” (King being a "great writer" of horror and suspense tales for adults.) But not everyone wants their kids reading horror stories. Some people want to ban Stine’s books from school libraries and classrooms.
Banning books is nothing new, and the argument against banning books is that this is AMerica, land of the free and freedom is important. There are always books that someone wants to ban. Just look at banned book lists. Classic reads like "Huckleberry Finn," “Bridge to Teribithia,” “Little Black Sambo” and even “the Holy Bible” have made the lists because someone somewhere objected for some reason.
As for Goosebumps, many parents and teachers have been known to comment that the goosebumps are positive horror books because they do not have graphic descriptions of murder and mayhem and they help get kids interested in reading. They are “easy to read stories about weird things that happen,” “just some ghosts, werewolves, or potions and the main character is alive in the end when in the final chapter everything is resolved.”
“Reading the books produces pleasurable anxiety,” said one teacher, “They are “an entertaining escape…the campfire type story that is meant to send chills down a child’s spine, make her scream and clutch her friend’s arm – and then laugh about it later as the kids scare themselves again.” She also commented that readers can differentiate between reality and fiction, “Children can reassure themselves that “it’s not happening to me, it’s happening to the character.”
Well, the book are still around, but not as popular any more and RL Stine is don with their production. He has now moved on to writing more “sophisticated horror” for more sophisticated audiences, after all, as Stine says, the Goosebumps series, really is “just a training bra.”
His readers are growing up. They are getting older and their expanding minds will probably have to find something more sophisticated and stimulating that such juvenile horripulation.
The Human Mind
The human mind is amazing. In fact among all the various forms of life on earth the mind of human beings is really quite unique. It perplexes itself thinking about itself as it considers what it is and why and how humans think and act and compare to other life forms on the planet.
Humans can do many things that animals cannot do. They can read and write, that is to say that they can put their life experiences, their dreams and ideas into words and sounds which then can be understood or at the very least, deciphered. They can identify scientific principals and repeat them. They make tools of many kinds and not only work with them, but create and manage their use in complexly organized functions. Humans theorize spiritual concepts and make moral judgments as they make (and break) codes of conduct and rules of law. They are also the only creature on the planet known to build fires, cook their food, and wear clothes. Man is definitely unique. Man is definitely unique among all the living things of earth, sea and sky.
Imagine, if you will, life as we know it... man and all the creatures, all living things... spinning through space at incredible speeds on an island like globe. It's quite amazing to think about. Who could even imagine such a reality or existence as this? As we humans think of it with fascination, as we marvel at the world we find our selfs in, we also marvel at the world we find ourselves without. The human mind is desperate for answers, but it also wrestles with the truth and it loves to imagine.
In the chaos of a world seemingly spinning out of our control, in the change from life to death, we quite rationally long for the world we are in to be perfect, at least from our own perspective. There is something wrong with the world, Things are not as they should be and we know it. So we try in our human minds to figure out what is wrong and make it better. It is as if the biblical concept of a place called Eden is hardwired into our being. Some people believe that an Eden-like place can be obtained, if only we would imagine life on earth to be that way.
But there is a point at which imagination meets reality and the two must intersect. One cannot simply imagine something and by the shear power of imagination make it a reality...can they?
Humans can do many things that animals cannot do. They can read and write, that is to say that they can put their life experiences, their dreams and ideas into words and sounds which then can be understood or at the very least, deciphered. They can identify scientific principals and repeat them. They make tools of many kinds and not only work with them, but create and manage their use in complexly organized functions. Humans theorize spiritual concepts and make moral judgments as they make (and break) codes of conduct and rules of law. They are also the only creature on the planet known to build fires, cook their food, and wear clothes. Man is definitely unique. Man is definitely unique among all the living things of earth, sea and sky.
Imagine, if you will, life as we know it... man and all the creatures, all living things... spinning through space at incredible speeds on an island like globe. It's quite amazing to think about. Who could even imagine such a reality or existence as this? As we humans think of it with fascination, as we marvel at the world we find our selfs in, we also marvel at the world we find ourselves without. The human mind is desperate for answers, but it also wrestles with the truth and it loves to imagine.
In the chaos of a world seemingly spinning out of our control, in the change from life to death, we quite rationally long for the world we are in to be perfect, at least from our own perspective. There is something wrong with the world, Things are not as they should be and we know it. So we try in our human minds to figure out what is wrong and make it better. It is as if the biblical concept of a place called Eden is hardwired into our being. Some people believe that an Eden-like place can be obtained, if only we would imagine life on earth to be that way.
But there is a point at which imagination meets reality and the two must intersect. One cannot simply imagine something and by the shear power of imagination make it a reality...can they?
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