Saturday, August 09, 2025

What kind of difference…?



 

8 comments:

  1. We are in Maine for Shiloh’s celebration of life event on Sunday. Please hold me in your heart as this is very hard.
    I think tomorrow our DIL is going to give us some of Shiloh’s ashes.
    I’m weeping every time I think of it. I don’t *want* Shiloh to be ashes.

    The liturgical words are no comfort at all…

    “All we go down to the dust,
    Yet even at the grave we make our song:
    alleluia, alleluia. alleluia.”

    I have no song for this.

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    Replies
    1. Sending you much love and Light, dear Listener.

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  2. “Ice Isn’t Just Cold. It’s Weird.
    Water is the only substance on Earth that expands when it freezes.
    That’s why ice floats — and why lakes freeze from the top down, saving aquatic life.
    Without this ‘glitch’ in physics, winter would be deadly for almost all marine life.”
    ~ Neil DeGrasse Tyson

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    Replies
    1. How does he explain this "glitch in physics?" Recall that he is an atheist, and can be extremely nasty about any suggestion of God's Hand or intelligent design.

      I myself choose to see the phenomenon of ice as an instance of God's Providence and Mercy. That does not make me a blindly stupid, science-denying creationist, though Tyson would say it does.

      Don't get me wrong. I very much enjoy listening to him. I just wish he were less virulantly anti-religion in general and Christianity in particular.

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  3. Can NPR do without federal funding? Its CEO says she’s optimistic
    Maher, who took the post in March 2024, said the network can weather this moment of crisis.

    “Although the loss of federal funding is devastating for many people, certainly in terms of longer-term impacts on universal access across the nation,” she said in an interview, “NPR itself is positioned to have runway to withstand operational changes and business model evolution.” -- nordy

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  4. Trump executive order gives politicians control over all federal grants, alarming researchersAn executive order signed by President Donald Trump late Thursday aims to give political appointees power over the billions of dollars in grants awarded by federal agencies. Scientists say it threatens to undermine the process that has helped make the U.S. the world leader in research and development.

    The order requires all federal agencies, including FEMA, the National Science Foundation and the National Institutes of Health, to appoint officials responsible for reviewing federal funding opportunities and grants, so that they “are consistent with agency priorities and the national interest.”

    It also requires agencies to make it so that current and future federal grants can be terminated at any time — including during the grant period itself.

    Agencies cannot announce new funding opportunities until the new protocols are in place, according to the order.

    The Trump administration said these changes are part of an effort to “strengthen oversight” and “streamline agency grantmaking.” Scientists say the order will cripple America’s scientific engine by placing control over federal research funds in the hands of people who are influenced by politics and lack relevant expertise. -- nordy

    ReplyDelete