I recently had drawn to my attention the work of a charity called “Water Is Life”, which is working to address issues of illness caused by lack of clean water through the development and distribution of a filter straw through which one can drink safely. It seems to me a clever and helpful way of addressing this issue – in many ways simpler and perhaps even less expensive than establishing centralized water purification facilities and means of distribution. Obviously the... Read more

I am incredibly proud of my wife for having dealt with a telephone call from a concerned cousin with a great deal of patience while offering wise yet direct answers (as well as questions). The phone call related to the end of the world and the “information” that the cousin in question had been getting from someone named Alex Jones. It only took a couple of peeks around the internet (adding, of course, some additional keywords like “charlatan” to make... Read more

Continuing blogging through The Lost World of Genesis One, Walton’s “Propoosition 7” takes us to the heart of his understanding of the Genesis account of creation in seven days. Walton begins by comparing how he believes ancient readers would have understood Genesis 1 with typical modern understandings, and writes “The difference is the piece of information that everyone knew in the ancient world and to which most modern readers are totally oblivious: Deity rests in a temple, and only in... Read more

I was going to call this post #11 in the “If You Get The Flu” series, and recommend inventing a holiday. My pastor has declared 09/09/09 “Exaggeration Wednesday”, even though he’s been told a million times not to do that sort of thing. The best explanation I’ve heard of the day’s significance, however, is that 09/09/09 is the day that the antichrist will reveal himself…in Australia. Read more

If you get the flu, pull out an album you used to listen to all the time, but haven’t listened to in a decade or more, and put it on. And just in case there’s anyone out there who’s never seen Keith Emerson perform one of his famous solos. If you’ve never heard of them and thus not inclined to watch, you’ll miss seeing him play a bit of Bach’s famous Toccata and Fugue in D minor from behind an... Read more

If you get the flu, you’ll finally have time to update your blogroll. I did. Since I’ve been using Google Reader, I have the tendency to add new blogs’ feeds there without necessarily adding them to the blogroll. I’ve added quite a few blogs, and was embarrassed to find several blogs that I’ve read for more than a year but which somehow never ended up on my blogroll. Sorry! If there’s a blog you know I read but still isn’t... Read more

If you get the flu, you’ll need lots of interesting activity on the biblioblogs to keep you entertained. So why not start a rumor that Jim West has achieved his top ranking among the biblioblogs by spending hours every day visiting his own blog? Read more

If you come down with the flu, spend your time devising the most dastardly blog meme ever, one so heinous that those tagged with it would much rather have caught your flu. Here’s one I thought of: The Blog In Any Language Meme Rules: 1) Learn a language you don’t already know.2) Find 5 blogs that interest you written in that language.3) Tag those blogs, explaining these rules of the meme to the bloggers in their native language. If that’s... Read more

If you come down with the flu, one way to pass the time is to blog a series of suggestions of ways to pass the time when you have the flu. See if you can come up with more positive recommendations than Jim West can come up with examples of total depravity. Read more

If you’re wondering what useful activities you can engage in while stuck at home with the flu, you can always get caught up on the latest LOST clues. Read more