Category: Fun

Bag of Amaranth seed

Popped amaranth.

Overly-toasted amaranth seeds. (stayed in the hot pot too long, at too low a temperature) I think the yellow background in the center of the plate is an artifact from jpeg compression.

We’ve been trying some new kinds of food at home. When I say “we,” I mean mainly myself and my eldest daughter. She’s going for Japanese foods, and I’ve been investigating grains and some legumes. (Sprouting is fun!) Today I picked up some amaranth seed/grain, and tried popping it. Apparently, it’s used as a gluten-free grain substitute, and also has the advantage of being high in iron. As you can see from the bag photo, it’s a small seed. But with a little experimentation, I was able to pop a few tablespoons of it in a pot on the stove. You can cook with the seed itself, for which most recipes I’ve seen so far you must grind it into flour. But you can also cook with the popped seed, or use it as a cereal. I think it’s pretty neat, kind of like digital watches. It takes a pretty hot pot, and once it’s hot enough, you need to throw the cover on it to keep the popping seeds from flying all over the stove. A “6” on our electric stove seemed about right. I didn’t use any oil or anything in the pot, but I did pick it up occasionally while the spoonfuls of seeds were popping, just to keep them moving around in there.

Up next: chia seeds!

The Astronomy picture of the day yesterday was a YouTube video illustrating the powers of ten. It dates from the 1960s, but is still a dramatic and relevant illustration. It also has application to understanding what trillion-dollar national debt means. (A trillion has 12 zeros. Now watch the video.)

As we Lutherans like to ask, “What does this mean?”

There are astronomy videos similar to this on YouTube with belligerent arguments between Christians and atheists, though the only comments I’ve actually seen are the atheists’. The videos have an effect similar to this one, only present-day images from orbital telescopes are stunning. But inevitably, it seems that the conversation about these things tends toward the origin of these unimaginably large, distant, and beautiful things, and then also the origin of our own planet and ourselves.

Naturally, atheists have a bone to pick with Christians. Though many of them rail against “religion,” their chief target is Christianity. The generic vocabulary allows them not only to treat Christianity as though every self-identified Christian represents the faith accurately (a ridiculous proposition), but even that every self-identified proponent of other religions represents all religion (possibly the most unscientific proposition ever imagined). I don’t begrudge atheists the right to open their mouths and make fools of themselves, and neither should they deny the same right to me.

When it comes to the cosmic perspective illustrated in a video like this, there are at least two important observations to make, each of which is an independent argument in favor of Intelligent Design as a principle for identifying the origin of all things.

1. There is a complex ordering evident in the whole universe, across the entire scale that we can perceive, and even beyond that scale to degrees that we don’t understand. The ordering of complexity is information, and that does not occur without intelligence. Hence, it is evidence for design.

2. The Earth environment in which we live appears (so far) to be staggeringly exceptional in the incomprehesible (though perhaps not unquantifiable) vastness of space. Even if we assumed for the sake of argument that macro-evolution took place here (an unfounded assumption), the environment would have had to be perfect for it, and continued to be perfect for an unimaginably long time. That includes variables like gravity, solar radiation, chemical composition, atmospheric composition, the magnetic core and ionosphere, radioactive decay, the frequency and type of meteors, and probably hundreds more that I don’t know about. These variables are all in the “perfect” range for us to live, but this environment is infinitesimally rare. What are the chances? Some atheists like to say that the scale of the universe makes the Earth insignificant. To the contrary, the extreme rarity of the Earth makes it special, to the point of being evidence in favor of Design rather than Happenstance.

Atheists like to criticize the Bible for saying things they don’t understand. Maybe if they took the time to understand its chief points, they’d begin to see how the rest of it fits together. Then, maybe they could appreciate their own existence for the miracle that it is.

Since there are so many wacky ideas about the Bible, and since it’s a rather large work from multiple cultures and times, it’s not easy to pick a way to approach it. For what it’s worth, I recommend starting with an introductory course at a confessional Lutheran church, because one of the guiding principles of confessional Lutheranism is that the Bible interprets itself, and confessional Lutherans actually follow that principle. It will require a long reservation of judgment, but after studying the Bible, it will make a lot more sense.

I’ve posted several times about the trip my wife and I took to Front Sight near Las Vegas while we were on vacation in Arizona. I was skeptical that a 2-day course would be worth the going rate, which is $1,000. We both went after responding to one of many special deals that Front Sight’s founder, Dr. Piazza, offers online. Now the same deal that enabled us to go is available via a web page, where Dr. Piazza makes a case for giving it a try. At this special price, the course costs $100 per person. Having taken the course, I can say without reservation that $100 is a small fraction of the value in two days of Front Sight training. It really is all that. Prior experience doesn’t matter. You will learn more than you thought possible in that amount of time. Even if you’re uncomfortable around guns, the class will still help you become proficient.

If you anticipate being able to get to or near Las Vegas at some point for three or four days (including travel time), then I recommend that you give it a try too. There is a criminal background check to pay for, and you will need a weapon and ammunition, which you can rent and buy on site, respectively, if you need to. Beyond that, the cost is just travel, lodging, and food. For better convenience, I recommend a room at a hotel in Pahrump, but we managed just fine with Microtel toward the south end of Las Vegas Blvd.

Here’s Dr. Piazza’s advertisement page. There is an expiration on this offer of Friday, August 6. Don’t beat yourself up about it if you need more time to think about something like this. Dr. Piazza is an accomplished promoter; he’ll have many other kinds of special deals. This is the most affordable one I’ve seen.

The United States Congress should consider addressing two problems at once: the poor state of the economy, and the affordability of every-day goods for families living in Main St. America. Both can be addressed quite easily, by requiring every American citizen to purchase and maintain a membership at a warehouse store like Sam’s Club or Costco. It may even be beneficial for Congress to authorize the creation of a new warehouse membership store, to be run and provisioned by the United States government. (“Stuff Mart” is one possible name for such an effort.) The funds needed for a government option could be obtained by taxing the private warehouse stores up to 80% of their gross profits, or by printing more money.

The benefits of these stores is well known. Low prices on bulk-packaged items, as well as generous food samples in the aisles that can help Americans provide for all the basic needs of their families, saving money that might be useful in the next few years, when our government’s Social Security expenses threaten to make it insolvent. These cost-saving benefits have previously been limited to only a few Americans and illegal immigrants, which has not only deprived them of this basic human right, but also driven up the cost of membership for everyone else. By requiring every American to join one of these stores, Congress would drive down prices for all, while giving the economy another needed stimulus.

Some might claim that a membership would not be much help to them. For example, I live in Oregon, 80 miles from the nearest Costco, in Portland. (Sam’s Club doesn’t even exist in this state.) Someone in my shoes might wonder what good a membership would be, but that would be selfish thinking. We should think instead of the good of our country. How could Congress drive down the membership costs and prices for people living in Portland, if people like me refused to buy our own membership, just because I would seldom shop there? My infrequent use of membership privileges should really be considered a strong reason to dive in and help my fellow citizens, since my membership dollars would come with no strings attached!

Thankfully, far more Americans live nearby one of these stores than live in the sticks, so if it came to a popularity contest based upon personal interests, the few holdouts must eventually bow the neck and bear the patriotic burden of making life easier for our neighbors in the azul states— whether they live here legally or not. Yet I hope that Congress and the American people will see the wisdom in this without much controversy. If necessary, perhaps the legislation could be attached in the eleventh hour to some unrelated, but vitally important and urgent bill like the one about universally mandated health insurance. It should be obvious that the potential good outweighs the lack of honesty, integrity, and wisdom that may be necessary to impose it upon the nation.

Frank Peretti can write a page-turner. I just read a borrowed copy of This Present Darkness, remembering how some of my associates were reading it (or something like it) in about 1990. Previously, I’d read a copy of The Oath while we were on vacation. Different, yet still a page turner.

The great thing about his fiction is that it assumes the reality of angels and demons, not to mention a personal, almighty, and gracious God. The characters struggle with the usual problems of life, but Peretti manages to cast those struggles in a spiritual light.

I must caution avid Peretti readers, though, about the way he describes angels and demons. It makes for a fiery, swashbuckling story, but there is not enough detail in the Bible to say that his angels and demons bear more than a passing resemblance to the real thing. Personally, I would expect the real thing to be even more awe-inspiring, if we could sense those beings in their fullness. Thankfully, we can’t, and probably won’t until the End.

The problem I’ve seen with Mr. Peretti’s fiction is not in the sincerity of his faith, nor in his storytelling skills. It’s his depiction of the way salvation comes to sinners. In the worlds of his novels, sinners are first convicted by God’s law, made to realize that they don’t measure up to God’s standard of acceptability. So far so good. But then, when the penitent characters realize they need God to save them, the answer is always found in prayer. That’s not good. In these novels, prayer is the ultimate means of grace, the required instrument by which God finally brings the salvation won by Christ to the individual sinner. Without the prayed request for God to save the penitent sinner; without the penitent sinner’s giving of his heart to God in prayer, salvation is incomplete.

With this slightly but gravely mistaken understanding of prayer, it then comes as no surprise that Mr. Peretti’s description of spiritual warfare revolves entirely around prayer, and not the things in which God would have us place our trust (Romans 1:16, 1 Peter 3:21, 1 Corinthians 11:23-29).

For a summary of the biblical doctrine concerning these things, please read The Augsburg Confession.

Hmm. Well, I’ve been tagged by Bruce. It seems like kind of a silly game, really, but I’m sure it has interesting results sometimes. And it’s not without some fun. Those who know me understand that this is how I appreciate virtually all games.

When you’re tagged, you’re supposed to

1. Pick up the nearest book of at least 123 pages. (How’s that for an arbitrary number?)

2. Open to page 123.

3. Find the fifth sentence. I don’t know what you’d do if you run out of text. Maybe keep turning pages, or even get the next book.

4. Post the next three sentences.

5. Tag five people.

6. Tag another. (Which seems completely unnecessary)

I don’t think I’ll tag five people. It reminds me too much of Amway.

However, the closest book was one I just bought from the book racks of a Goodwill in Portland. It’s not even shelved properly. It says:

“Maybe we’ll be able to hear the difference between alien phonemes, given enough practice, but it’s possible our ears simply can’t recognize the distinctions they consider meaningful. In that case we’d need a sound spectrograph to know what an alien is saying.”

Colonel Weber asked, “Suppose I gave you an hour’s worth of recordings; how long would it take you to determine if we need this sound spectrograph or not?”

For the curious, the book is The Best of SF 4 edited by David G. Hartwell, from 1999. Those lines are from “Story of Your Life” by Ted Chiang.

I tag the Abrahamsons. That counts for all my tags.