Following the Model T
Why do American drivers sit on the left side and drive on the right side?
We read once that American horse races go counterclockwise just to be different than our former colonial masters. As for vehicles...
In 1792 Pennsylvania required buggy and wagon drivers to keep right. A decade later, New York mandated right-side horse and buggy travel on public roads.
Automobiles arrived a century later. Some car makes had the steering wheel on the right-hand side. Historians guess that made it easier for drivers to watch out for ditches and the sides of narrow bridges.
Then came 1909 and Ford's Model T. It had the steering wheel to the left. A company brochure indicated that passengers could exit at the curb, and drivers would have better sense of oncoming traffic. When the Model T became the best-selling car, other makers followed suit. Simple as that.
Opposite Works
A thought came to me one night. What's the working difference between a sculptor and God?
The sculptor works from the outside in. Think Mt. Rushmore.
God works from the inside out. Philippians 1:6 and other verses.
Yes, we take in Scripture with our eyes and ears. But God knows our thoughts, and his Spirit provides our understanding.
Jimmy
Saturday, February 29, 2020
Friday, February 28, 2020
One Tough Lady
She was brave, selfless and ambitious. She shunned fame.
On May 12, Britain will celebrate her 200th birthday. Florence Nightingale served as a nurse for only three years ... a lifetime for most of us.
In 1854-1856 British, Ottoman and French soldiers fought to expel Russians from the Crimean Peninsula - yes, the same Crimea that Russia recently stole from Ukraine.
Florence's father inherited a fortune. She could have married and lived the good life, like her sister. At age 16 she had a spiritual awakening, believing God wanted her to do his work. Nursing was a disreputable occupation.
She trained in continental Europe and cared for prostitutes during a cholera epidemic in 1853. When war broke out, a British official - friend of her father - sent her to a hospital near Constantinople with 38 nurses.
"God's work" involved ministering to wounded troops transferred on filthy ships, packed in squalid wards, racked by frostbite, gangrene, dysentery and cholera. If that wasn't bad enough, military higher-ups considered her a nuisance. She went around them to acquire supplies.
Ten times more soldiers died from typhus, cholera, typhoid fever and dysentery than from battle wounds. The war claimed 900,000 lives, far more than the U.S. Civil War which followed a few years later.
Florence also climbed a rugged hill in Crimea to work for seven months at makeshift medical stations, day and night, and even visited a trench on the battlefield. Food was scarce.
An effort to counter unsanitary conditions reduced the mortality rate by 40 percent. Historians and public health experts debate what role Nightingale had in that turnaround. But disease prevention was her focus the rest of her life, out of public view, applying statistics to the cause. She died in 1910 at age 90.
She was brave, selfless and ambitious. She shunned fame.
On May 12, Britain will celebrate her 200th birthday. Florence Nightingale served as a nurse for only three years ... a lifetime for most of us.
Florence's father inherited a fortune. She could have married and lived the good life, like her sister. At age 16 she had a spiritual awakening, believing God wanted her to do his work. Nursing was a disreputable occupation.
She trained in continental Europe and cared for prostitutes during a cholera epidemic in 1853. When war broke out, a British official - friend of her father - sent her to a hospital near Constantinople with 38 nurses.
"God's work" involved ministering to wounded troops transferred on filthy ships, packed in squalid wards, racked by frostbite, gangrene, dysentery and cholera. If that wasn't bad enough, military higher-ups considered her a nuisance. She went around them to acquire supplies.
Ten times more soldiers died from typhus, cholera, typhoid fever and dysentery than from battle wounds. The war claimed 900,000 lives, far more than the U.S. Civil War which followed a few years later.
Florence also climbed a rugged hill in Crimea to work for seven months at makeshift medical stations, day and night, and even visited a trench on the battlefield. Food was scarce.
An effort to counter unsanitary conditions reduced the mortality rate by 40 percent. Historians and public health experts debate what role Nightingale had in that turnaround. But disease prevention was her focus the rest of her life, out of public view, applying statistics to the cause. She died in 1910 at age 90.
Smithsonian magazine
March 2020
March 2020
Jimmy
Thursday, February 27, 2020
Real Snowbirds Tough It Out
Thousands of Americans and Canadians head for Florida in wintertime. But leave it to the birds to show us how to endure winter.
A naturalist at the Audubon Nature Center in Milwaukee has studied birds for 30 years. He says cardinals, chickadees, owls, some woodpeckers, robins use different strategies to cope with cold weather.
In the fall, birds grow extra feathers. They also keep warm by shivering, as we might exercise to cope with cold.
Chickadees often huddle together to share heat, as do bluebirds. A bird will puff out its feathers to trap air, creating an extra layer of warmth.
Some birds use a process called torpor, lowering their temperature by as much as 50 degrees. This brings them closer to the air temperature, to conserve heat and energy. Normal body temperature is 105 degrees.
It is risky, however. Birds can't move during torpor, leaving them vulnerable to predators.
Bird feeders also help them cope. They benefit from peanuts, sunflower seeds, mixed nuts, mealworms and suet, a form of fat that provides energy.
We can't help but add that the diversity of birds along with so many other creatures, including human snowbirds, and other discoveries point to intelligent design. There is no way diversity of nature just happened by itself, no matter how many billion years scientists say the earth is.
But, "The just shall live by faith." Right?
Jimmy
Thousands of Americans and Canadians head for Florida in wintertime. But leave it to the birds to show us how to endure winter.
A naturalist at the Audubon Nature Center in Milwaukee has studied birds for 30 years. He says cardinals, chickadees, owls, some woodpeckers, robins use different strategies to cope with cold weather.
 |
| black-capped chickadee |
Chickadees often huddle together to share heat, as do bluebirds. A bird will puff out its feathers to trap air, creating an extra layer of warmth.
Some birds use a process called torpor, lowering their temperature by as much as 50 degrees. This brings them closer to the air temperature, to conserve heat and energy. Normal body temperature is 105 degrees.
It is risky, however. Birds can't move during torpor, leaving them vulnerable to predators.
Bird feeders also help them cope. They benefit from peanuts, sunflower seeds, mixed nuts, mealworms and suet, a form of fat that provides energy.
We can't help but add that the diversity of birds along with so many other creatures, including human snowbirds, and other discoveries point to intelligent design. There is no way diversity of nature just happened by itself, no matter how many billion years scientists say the earth is.
But, "The just shall live by faith." Right?
Jimmy
Wednesday, February 26, 2020
The Promise
Hi there, my old self. How goes it?
You know how it's going. What is it this time?
Oh, I was thinking about dad and what a nice father he was. He provided a home, took you places, to church, helped you with algebra, and made sure you behaved, at least in his presence.
Yeh. I miss dad. For years after I left the nest, I still went home for advice, or just to watch football games with him. Now he's gone.
It's sad. But, there's great news. By grace, I have a heavenly Father - loving, all wise, all powerful...and He will never be gone. He is Life.
That's okay for you. Jimmy's Double Vision No. 4
More than okay. In Genesis, Abraham believed God - not just in God - and received credit for his faith. No law existed. The Lord told him that future believers in all nations would be blessed.
Don't people have to obey God's laws to be saved?
God didn't issue laws until 430 years after his promise to Abraham. They teach us what the Lord wants of us. But since no one can obey perfectly, Holy God - who foreknew our disobedience - considered his own law a curse.
So, all is lost. We're all under a curse.
Except those who have faith in Jesus, who nailed the curse to the cross...and rose again. I hadn't genuine faith until I received this truth by the written Word and also the Holy Spirit to represent Jesus in my heart, my spiritual self.
By the way, all Jews and Gentiles, slave and free, male and female, are invited to become children of the eternal Father. Life without end.
Based on Galatians chapter 3
Tuesday, February 25, 2020
Why Do They?
We're amazed that gifted, wealthy, important people can't just obey the rules and enjoy life. Some cut corners, take risks and otherwise game the system. Don't they know it's harder than ever to hide their trickery?
Then there are average people, often younger, who don't know right from wrong.
A 29-year-old home-health worker stole jewelry valued at around $2,800 from a man's bedroom and pawned it for $1,214. Why? She needed the money, she said.
A high school senior ruined his life by threatening the life of a school staff member, on Instagram. "I need a guy who could kill someone," he wrote, offering $100,000. "No joke," he added.
Then he told authorities he was joking. He was charged with criminal attempt to solicit/conspire murder, a first-degree felony. And then there are students causing fights. The county superintendent and police are exasperated with "kids not understanding respect, or civility, thinking they've got to take it to a fight."
A girlfriend lost her cool when her boyfriend was in court for violating his probation on a felony conviction. He had also cursed at his probation officer over the phone, and was sentenced to 90 days.
The girl stormed out of the courtroom, slamming the door. She did not apologize and got 10 days in the slammer to think it over.
Finally, a convicted killer said he "died" during a medical emergency in prison and thus fulfilled his life sentence. His heart stopped five times, he said. The judge ruled that his filing for release proves that he lives.
Jimmy
We're amazed that gifted, wealthy, important people can't just obey the rules and enjoy life. Some cut corners, take risks and otherwise game the system. Don't they know it's harder than ever to hide their trickery?
Then there are average people, often younger, who don't know right from wrong.
A 29-year-old home-health worker stole jewelry valued at around $2,800 from a man's bedroom and pawned it for $1,214. Why? She needed the money, she said.
A high school senior ruined his life by threatening the life of a school staff member, on Instagram. "I need a guy who could kill someone," he wrote, offering $100,000. "No joke," he added.
Then he told authorities he was joking. He was charged with criminal attempt to solicit/conspire murder, a first-degree felony. And then there are students causing fights. The county superintendent and police are exasperated with "kids not understanding respect, or civility, thinking they've got to take it to a fight."
A girlfriend lost her cool when her boyfriend was in court for violating his probation on a felony conviction. He had also cursed at his probation officer over the phone, and was sentenced to 90 days.
The girl stormed out of the courtroom, slamming the door. She did not apologize and got 10 days in the slammer to think it over.
Finally, a convicted killer said he "died" during a medical emergency in prison and thus fulfilled his life sentence. His heart stopped five times, he said. The judge ruled that his filing for release proves that he lives.
Jimmy
Monday, February 24, 2020
Butterflies Have What It Takes We thought butterfly wings were lifeless. Wrong.
Ivy League researchers discovered a complex system
of living structures beneath these colorful scales.
Divine design once again.
There are veins and scent pads made of living cells. In some butterflies, wings have a heart-like structure that beats a few dozen times a minute to pump blood through the scent pad.
These cells are sensitive to heat and cold and can only function within a given temperature range. Temperature sensors allow the butterfly to detect the location and strength of sunlight (its main source of warmth) without using its eyes. The insect responds quickly to regulate its wing temperature.
If the temperature is too warm, the butterfly will turn away from the light and bask in the sun with wings closed. This allows it to warm up its midsection while preventing its wings from overheating. In cooler regions, butterflies turn toward the sun with wings open to warm them and the body.
If only we had thermodynamic materials to maintain temperatures, even in excessive heat.
WORLD online
Jimmy
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