And post them here, as usual. 

Yes, we’re slowing down, mostly because I am back at work again and have a little less time to play with the camera.  In my stead, Janet has been taking a lot of pictures (and doing a good job), and once again, what we’ve taken is up as a new album at Janet and Stephan’s Albums.  If you have forgotten the login/password combination or would like a full-size photo, let me know.

At BCF, we’re doing a series on the Armor of God this summer.  Last week’s speaker, David Beazley, mentioned what the difference was between the Roman shield and the perspex shield of the riot police: the Roman shield extinguishes the flaming arrows, whereas the perspex shield merely makes them bounce off to the ground, where they continue to smolder at your feet.

That comparison made me think of Every Man’s Battle.  I received the book as a gift and did find it helpful at the time: it speaks honestly to some points that are often barely mentioned in the church.  With time, however, I found my irritation growing: how is it that I am allowed to look at all of creation and see its beauty as pointers to God, but I am to bounce my eyes away from all women, to look at the pavement instead of what is one of the most impressive manifestations of beauty in the created world and should therefore be an extra clear pointer toward God and encouragement to praise him.  In a way, I think Every Man’s Battle has the perspex shield syndrome.  Its behavior modification by self-control is great at keeping the flaming arrows from hitting me, but doesn’t help to deal with them.  Sooner or later, I’m in a situation where I have to deal with a woman without the option of staring at the floor.  It is then that it pays to have gone farther than just bouncing off the arrows.  An understanding of the value of a woman’s beauty, the far greater value of my marriage and the beauty I know in Janet, the sinfulness of my desires to which a beautiful woman might tempt me, and the all-powerful grace of God are a much better preparation, are parts of the Roman shield that takes care of the arrows thoroughly.

I haven’t got it all figured out, by no means: if you have other suggestions on how to deal with those temptations, I’m happy to hear them!

One of our wedding gifts was this set of Trudeau Cheese Knives.  It came in a clear plastic presenting box, which made it impractical to use them, so I thought I’d make something to present them and also keep them handy.  I took a picture of my cheese knife holder and sent it to Trudeau – let’s see if they react at all to it.  Anyway, exclusively on thduggie’s blog, here’s the cheese knife holder I made.  It keeps the knives at an angle (easier to grab) and keeps them from being bumped or jostled out (that’s what the top strip is for).

I decided to skip testing if the jostle-proof bar works under all conditions.

Not all medical tests save lives.  Recently one of the free newspapers spread the news that over 80% of babies in Switzerland diagnosed with Down syndrome are aborted.  (A bit of checking shows that’s correct and perhaps even an underestimate.)  They also reported parents of downies who didn’t abort them getting dirty looks or even comments saying, “Why did you bring that one into the world?”

The papers followed that up with write-in reactions of its readers.  I don’t think a single one of them was in favor of aborting downies.  Now, I’m sure it wasn’t a representative sampling, because 20% of Swiss mothers don’t have Down syndrome kids, but what happens between the writing of the rather harsh condemnation of those who abort downies and the 80% abortion rate?  Or is the write-in reaction so self-selective that those who don’t mind aborting a baby that might be handicapped also don’t really care about the topic?

I find the report particularly poignant in light of a recently released movie.  It’s about the life of a Spanish Down syndrome patient who graduated university and works as a school teacher.

And finally, it confirms me in our decision to limit prenatal diagnostics as much as possible.

As Sursumcorda already mentioned, Steph Shaw is raising funds to record a music album.  She’s doing that via Kickstarter, in order to keep her artistic freedom.  You can support Steph Shaw here.

You may argue that of course I’d support her, because she’s my cousin.  You’d have a point.  You’re probably not her cousin, so I suggest you see if you want to support her on the strength of her previous work on Steph Shaw’s homepage.

So, apparently BP is almost done plugging that hole, and the oil’s done spurting into the gulf.  According to government estimates, nearly 207 million gallons leaked from the well in total.

Although it’s not as bad as trying to understand the big numbers in astronomy or the US federal deficit, 207 million gallons is an awfully large number and beyond our imagination.  Converting it into cubic meters doesn’t really help: the number is still 783’580.  Converting it into olympic size swimming pools is a bit better – the spill would fill over 300 – but still not really conducive to our imagination.  It’s equivalent to a tanker train of 150 to 200 kilometers in length – from Basel to Zurich and back.  It’s equivalent to filling the White House about 50 times.  It’s equivalent to filling nearly a third of the Great Pyramid of Giza, filling the pyramid to the height of five stories.

So, it’s a lot.  But on the flip side, guess how long that amount would last in Switzerland?

17 days.