Pat mentioned he was looking for someone to go see “An Inconvenient Truth” with him at the theatre. I am not going to spend $7+ to watch some docu-propoganda, but I will see it when it makes it to DVD and can pick it up for free at the library.

I did just listen to Al Gore’s talk “Earth in the Balance” which he gave to a Stanford Business School audience. He argues that the industrialized world is on a collision course with nature. Now that I have listened to his alarming (or is it alarmist) presentation on global warming, I need to find a good balancing article.

MP3: Earth in the Balance by Al Gore

Rick Warren, best-selling author of The Purpose Driven Life, was quoted by the Sydney Morning Herald about being a Christian and being rich:

“I don’t think it is a sin to be rich, it’s a sin to die rich, I want people to make as much money as they can as long as they give it away as much as they can.”

I think he is wrong. It is not a sin to either to be or to die rich. It is the same problem people have with the passage “The love of money is the root of all evil” (1 Tim 6:10) - It is not the money that is the problem. That is too simple. Poor people can love money just as much or more than the rich.

“Where your treasure is, there your heart is also.” I am working hard to provide for my family. By most of the world’s standard we are rich. But at this point I am sure that I will not have enough saved for retirement. What am I to do?

Warren’s message (if he was quoted correctly) is a message of guilt. I don’t care how much money a person has — what are they doing with the talents God has given them? That is the question. I may not measure up on that standard either, but it has nothing to do with the amount of money in my bank account.

Source: Scott Yang’s Playground

Cheat sheets are the best way to learn new features. Leslie Franke has cheat sheet for firefox that looks like it will fit the bill well.

I learned something already - ‘Ctrl +‘ and ‘Ctrl -‘ will increase and decrease the size of text on your screen and ‘Ctrl 0‘ will return it to the default!

According to Brighthand Palm, Inc. has settled a patent infringement lawsuit that was filed against it by Xerox nine years ago.

In April 1997, Xerox sued a predecessor to Palm, claiming that the Graffiti text-entry system formerly used in Palm OS handhelds infringed on a Xerox patent for a similar system, known as Unistrokes.

To stay ‘legal’ Palm switched to Graffiti 2, a text-entry system that was different enough that it did not infringe on Xerox’s patent.

Nevertheless, Palm agreed today to pay Xerox $22.5 million for a fully paid-up license for three Xerox patents, including Unistrokes.

I never liked Graffiti 2 and found a work-around that let me move the Graffiti system from my old Palm Visor to my new Palm T3. Graffiti 2 had too many letters that required 2 keystrokes which not only slowed things down, it also caused problems with programs.

Technically, Palm could now include both systems in their new PDAs. They have said they do not plan on giving up Graffiti 2. I hope that was just a posturing position they took cause any new Palm I buy must be able to use the original Graffiti.

Touch Tetris has always been one of my favorite games on the palm. Now, a new version of the good game, called TouchTris has come out - new & improved - with color!

As usual, you have to put falling blocks into lines. What is different, the blocks are not falling faster and faster as you play. Instead, the are created more often. (The clock on the left gives you the hint how much time is left).

Can’t wait to get it installed on my brain.

I posted earlier about Al Gore’s new move An Inconvenient Truth. John Stossel has an article up about A Convenient Lie where he says that Gore’s doomsday prophecies should be treated just like we treat the guy wearing a sandwich board claiming “The End Is Near”.

The fundamentalist doom-mongers ignore scientists who say the effects of global warming may be benign. Harvard astrophysicist Sallie Baliunas says added carbon dioxide in the atmosphere may actually benefit the world because more CO2 helps plants grow. Warmer winters would give farmers a longer harvest season.

Why don’t we hear about this part of the global warming argument?

“It’s the money!” says Dr. Baliunas. “Twenty-five billion dollars in government funding has been spent since 1990 to research global warming. If scientists and researchers were coming out releasing reports that global warming has little to do with man, and most to do with just how the planet works, there wouldn’t be as much money to study it.”

And the politicians would have one less excuse to take control of our lives.

My shared del.icio.us bookmarks from 07-05-2006

• Fixing the LUA bug
  The Non-Admin blog - running with least privilege on the desktop
  (tags: antispyware, antivirus)
• SAFER and Internet Explorer
  I’ve received some great feedback from my "Browsing the Web and Reading E-mail Safely as an Administrator, Part 2" article, but a number of people asked how they can get started without using the tool. Here’s some text I want to add to the article:
  (tags: IE, antispyware, antivirus)
• Browsing the Web and Reading E-mail Safely as an Administrator - Part 2
  Michael Howard builds upon his previous article by showing you how to use SAFER with local or enterprise policy to reduce potential threats when running as an admin. (7 printed pages)
  (tags: IE, antispyware, antivirus)

I was scanning my library’s RSS feed for the new books they have just catalogued and saw the title “Backyard Catapults : How to Build Your Own” in the list. This book brought back some memories of driving to visit the Wincklers out in the country for some function. As we rounded a bend, out of the sky fell a projectile. Looking down the road I could see Matt and a friend of his lobbing water balloons from a giant home-made sling shot.

Although this book is about catapults, I think Matt might be able to get some new ideas while drawing up plans for his new home?

Wilson provides photos of the building process, detailed and updated plans, plus construction information on ballistas, onagers and trebuchets. You will aso find information on catapult web sites and how to be included in some of the catapult contests around the country. Also included is some interesting catapult history, its strength and weakness as a weapon, and what it was that led to its demise as a functional war machine. There’s no question that warriors have found more efficient means of lobbing projectiles at enemies, real and imagined, but has it ever been as much fun?

The Tri-Cities has needed a jazz station and it looks like we finally have one, KUJJ - Smooth Jazz - 101.9! It actually appears to have been broadcasting since March but this is the first I have heard of it. They have a web site at www.smoothjazz1019.fm.

Although the coverage map does not make the signal look too strong here in the Tri-Cities, I think they have a translator tower south of Kennewick which boosts the station’s signal.

Finally, a music station I can have playing in my office!

Matt must have figured out how to get the library to order books for him. Not only do they carry books on catapults, they also just got in the book, “Building a Straw Bale House : The Red Feather Construction Handbook“.

Matt has always talked of building a home from straw bales. Now I will have to watch to see if the library starts getting books in on how to incorporate a tower into your home.

We were headed to Portland last weekend to go camping (and attend my uncle’s funeral). We could wait and leave Saturday morning but decided that if we did we would not get down the road till late morning so it was better to get started out of town Friday night even though we could not get too far.

We had a couple of options that we discussed as we drove down the road. There are a couple of Oregon State parks along the route that would make a nice campground. All we needed, though, was some place to sleep so we decided that we would just pull in to the K-Mart parking lot in The Dalles. I had found a spot online that mentioned that both the K-Mart lot in The Dalles and the Wal-Mart in Hood River.

As we drove by the parking lot of the K-Mart in The Dalles, we saw that we would not be alone. There were 4 other trailers and motorhomes parked already. We did not unhook the trailer. The kids fixed themselves some popcorn in the microwave and then we all got to sleep right away, ready for a full day the next morning.

I attended the open house and ribbon-cutting of Leskovar Suzuki’s remodeled dealership in Kennewick. I knew most of the salesmen from the days when I would bring my laptop to the dealerships to write auto insurance policies for people who had no insurance (sure glad those days are long gone).

The president of American Suzuki, Koichi Suzuki, was also there at the ribbon-cutting giving interviews to all the local media outlets. Suzuki said his name is just a lucky coincidence, he is not related to the company’s founders, and that the name Suzuki is a common name like Smith is in this country.

The remodel of the dealership cost about $400,000 and is a great improvement on the old building that used to be home to the local Oldsmobile dealership. It has much better lighting and granite floors that give a real classy look.

On our way to Portland last weekend we stopped for a couple hours at Multnomah Falls. The falls, one of 77 on the Oregon side of the Columbia River Gorge, plummets 620 feet to a beautiful pool. It is the second highest year-round falls in the United States and the second most popular destination in Oregon.

Kevin and Kyle, my 12 year old twins, hiked up the 1/2 mile trail to to the concrete bridge. I stayed at the base to take photos but Von and my 9 year old daughter, Kirsten, followed them. When they met them at the bridge Kevin and Kyle asked permission to hike to the top of the falls along a path that is marked at 7-tenths of a mile of switchbacks as it climbs about 500 more feet.

I was glad to stay behind and watch! Kevin and Kyle made it to the top and met Von and Kirsten on the way back down and soon I spotted the 4 of them approaching the bridge. When they all arrived back on flat ground Von purchased a ‘Multnomah Falls’ pin to add to her collection and we headed to the trailer for lunch.

More Multnomah Falls Photos

While in the Portland area we decided this year to go to Oregon City and visit The End of the Oregon Trail Interpretive Center. Because there was some kind of art fair on the grounds the interpretive center had a special admissions price of only $2 per person.

The only drawback was that normally you have an in-costume guide who walks you through the center telling you about everything. The center has a large number of artifacts and heirlooms from the trail along with excerpts from diaries that tell an amazing story.

We were able to watch the 30-minute movie, Bound for Oregon…”one more river to cross”, which recounts traveling the Oregon Trail from the diaries of those who made the trip. It is hard to imagine the number of people who travelled the trail and the hardships they endured on the five-month trip from their old home in the East to their new home in the West.

The interpretive center’s web site provides answers to some frequently asked questions in their Oregon Trail 101 page including:

• What is the Oregon Trail?
• Where did the Oregon Trail begin and end?
• What’s this “Oregon Country” you keep mentioning?
• Why did people want to go there?
• Didn’t that make the Indians angry?
• Yikes! Why didn’t the Indians try to kick the settlers out?
• So Lewis and Clark paved the way for the settlers?
• What were the British doing there, anyway?
• So the British were trappers and the Americans were farmers?
• Now that you mention it, isn’t there a California Trail, too?
• How long did it take to get to Oregon?
• What was the trip like?
• How many people came west on the Oregon Trail?
• When was the Oregon Trail in use?

Afterwards we rode the free Oregon City Trolley around the town. We stopped at the Museum of the Oregon Territory where the number of exhibits and historic artifacts were amazing. We turned corner after corner to find more and more exhibits.

We then walked across the street and viewed Willamette Falls. From what I have read, the falls have lost quite a bit of its appeal because of the industrial development all around the falls and because a so much of the river gets diverted into a series of navigaton locks.

Covenant Theological Seminary is offering a wide variety of free courses to the Church. Their aim is to provide “grace-centered, high-quality theological training” especially to those “areas of the world where ministry training is often least available.”

Covenant Worldwide:

• Offers free downloads of Covenant Theological Seminary courseware and study guide materials.
• Offers the opportunity to be notified as new resources are posted.
• Encourages the sharing and distribution of its material for non-commercial purposes in order to serve and equip God’s people throughout the world.

The courses offered are classes from Covenant Seminary’s master’s degree programs. They are designed “to provide a broad, foundational knowledge of the Scriptures as well as guidance for engaging a variety of ministry contexts through the study of church history, doctrine, and practice.”

The following course lectures are available in MP3 format with study guides as PDF files:

• Ancient & Medieval Church History
• Apologetics & Outreach
• Biblical Theology
• Calvin’s Institutes
• Christian Ethics
• Christian Worship
• Francis A. Schaeffer: The Early Years
• Francis A. Schaeffer: The Later Years
• God & His Word
• God’s World Mission
• Hebrews to Revelation
• Humanity, Christ & Redemption
• Life & Letters of Paul
• Life & Teachings of Jesus
• New Testament History
• Old Testament History
• Psalms & Wisdom Books
• Reformation & Modern Church History
• Spirit, Church, & Last Things
• Youth Ministry

These look real interesting. I wonder if they might be good for adult Sunday School classes or small groups. They definitely look good for personal developement!