To the Magi who looked at the heavens, God's sign was a star.
A quick glance at the Internet or magazine rack will reveal multitudes of personality quizzes. Some actually help us understand why we do thingsand interact with people the way we do; many just make us laugh. From the ridiculous ("if you were a dog, you would be a cocker spaniel") to the sometimes uncomfortably true ("you are an introvert who really likes to plan things"), these human-made signs can point us in particular directions that may or may not be helpful.
But the God of mystery can and does use the signs we look at to reveal his presence and call us to discipleship. To the Magi who looked at the heavens, God's sign was a star. To people who had lived for so long in dark times, God revealed himself as light and truth. To those who understood that their faith in God could strengthen them when times were rough and exhort them when all was well, God presented himself as one of them, fully human and fully divine, the very essence of love.
We look in many places and faces for evidence of God, but we get distracted and often miss what we're looking for. God uses whatever is necessary --------- personality quizzes, magazines, plans, books, nature, and other people to get us moving in the right direction.
"We saw his star," said the Magi.
What have you looked at this Christmas?
And have you seen God there?
Thursday, January 9, 2014
Kennections
All five correct answers have something in common.
Can you figure out what it is?
1. "A Horse With No Name" was the biggest hit for what band, which formed in London, ironically, in 1970?
2. What liquid in your body travels over 12,000 miles every day?
3. What animal appears five times on the Australian one-dollar coin?
4. What oil company, famed for its "Route 66" shields, merged with Conoco in 2002?
5. What animated clownfish gets captured by Dr. Sherman, a dentist from Sydney?
Bonus : What's the "Kennection" between all five answers?
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Answers : 1. America
2. Blood
3. Kangaroo
4. Phillips
5. Nemo
Bonus : All are captains
Can you figure out what it is?
1. "A Horse With No Name" was the biggest hit for what band, which formed in London, ironically, in 1970?
2. What liquid in your body travels over 12,000 miles every day?
3. What animal appears five times on the Australian one-dollar coin?
4. What oil company, famed for its "Route 66" shields, merged with Conoco in 2002?
5. What animated clownfish gets captured by Dr. Sherman, a dentist from Sydney?
Bonus : What's the "Kennection" between all five answers?
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Answers : 1. America
2. Blood
3. Kangaroo
4. Phillips
5. Nemo
Bonus : All are captains
Earthweek: A Diary of the Planet (Dec. 6, 2013)
Almost Human?
Using a legal strategy once employed to fight human slavery, an animal rights group is asking a New York court to declare that chimpanzees are enough like human beings to deserve some of the same rights. The Nonhuman Rights Project filed a classic writ of habeas corpus, demanding that a chimp named Tommy be released from a cage in a used-trailer lot. It asks that the primate be the beneficiary of a trust that would house him in one of the eight facilities of the North American Primate Sanctuary Alliance. "This petition asks this court to issue a writ recognizing that Tommy is not a legal thing to be possessed by respondents, but rather is a cognitively complex autonomous legal person with the fundamental legal right not to be imprisoned," the court filing says. Tommy's owner argues the chimp is well cared for and has many toys since being rescued from an abusive owner. A ruling in favor of the writ would set chimps apart from other animals.
Typhoon Contamination
An unusually active and fierce typhoon season in Japan has brought a fresh flood of Hazardous caesium particles from the country's Fukushima nuclear disaster zone to areas downstream, researchers say. A joint study by France's Climate and Environmental Science laboratory and Japan's Tsukuba University finds that people who escaped the initial fallout from reactor meltdowns in March 2011 could now find their food and water contaminated by the radioactive particles as typhoon runoff penetrates agricultural land and coastal plains. The five typhoons that struck Japan during October alone were the most ever recorded during the month. Two other named storms struck the archipelago during September.
Saharan Extinctions
The world's largest tropical desert has lost much of its wildlife population in recent years, according to a new study of the Sahara. Led by the Wildlife Conservation Society and the Zoological Society of London, researchers found that half of the 14 desert species studied were regionally extinct or confined to 1 percent or less of their historic ranges. Writing in the journal Diversity and Distributions, the team found that the bubal hartebeest is extinct, the scimitar-horned oryx is extinct in the wild and the African wild dog and African lion no longer live anywhere in the Sahara. Cycles of political instability and long-term regional conflicts have for decades prevented researchers from determining exactly what has decimated the wildlife populations.
Unseasonable Migration
The famed wildebeest of East Africahave returned to Kenya's Maasai Mara Game Reserve months early in an off-season migration that wildlife experts say has never been seen before. The animals typically spend the next few months grazing in Tanzania's Serengeti plains, but a protracted drought has left grasslands there barren. An official said tourists who missed the usual wildebeest migration between July and October now have another chance to view it through the upcoming holiday season.
Earthquakes
Rescue teams comforted the survivors of a 5.6 magnitude quake that killed eight people and injured 59 others in southwestern Iran on Nov.28.
* Earth movements were also felt in eastern India, northwestern Sumatra, the southern Philippines, northern Puerto Rico, southwestern Mexico and southeastern Connecticut.
Disappearing Lakes
A trend toward drier summers and less snowy winters in sub-Arctic Canada is leading to an unprecedented drying up of the region's expansive patchwork of lakes, according to a new study published in the journal Geophysical Research Letters. Researchers from four universities found that the shift in climate and the shrinking of the lakes that followed has not happened for at least the past 200 years. Some lakes first began showing signs of losing water in 2010, but observers say it became far more pronounced during this past summer. Researchers made the discovery after studying 70 lakes in the Yukon Territory and Manitoba. Most of the bodies of water studied are less than 1 meter deep.
'Root' of the Problem
Feral hogs are rooting up levees along stretches of the Mississippi River in Louisiana, threatening to trigger breaches in the flood protections for nearby communities. The Times-Picayune reports the problem came to light after Hurricane Isaac sent an 3.3 metre storm surge into southern Louisiana during August 2012. That inundation forced thousands of feral hogs onto the levees, where they damaged the flood defenses while foraging for food. The unruly swine can destroy over a hundred linear metres of levee in one night, which engineers say can take months to repair. And since it takes only one small stretch of weakened levee to flood a vast area, officials say they are concerned.
Using a legal strategy once employed to fight human slavery, an animal rights group is asking a New York court to declare that chimpanzees are enough like human beings to deserve some of the same rights. The Nonhuman Rights Project filed a classic writ of habeas corpus, demanding that a chimp named Tommy be released from a cage in a used-trailer lot. It asks that the primate be the beneficiary of a trust that would house him in one of the eight facilities of the North American Primate Sanctuary Alliance. "This petition asks this court to issue a writ recognizing that Tommy is not a legal thing to be possessed by respondents, but rather is a cognitively complex autonomous legal person with the fundamental legal right not to be imprisoned," the court filing says. Tommy's owner argues the chimp is well cared for and has many toys since being rescued from an abusive owner. A ruling in favor of the writ would set chimps apart from other animals.
Typhoon Contamination
An unusually active and fierce typhoon season in Japan has brought a fresh flood of Hazardous caesium particles from the country's Fukushima nuclear disaster zone to areas downstream, researchers say. A joint study by France's Climate and Environmental Science laboratory and Japan's Tsukuba University finds that people who escaped the initial fallout from reactor meltdowns in March 2011 could now find their food and water contaminated by the radioactive particles as typhoon runoff penetrates agricultural land and coastal plains. The five typhoons that struck Japan during October alone were the most ever recorded during the month. Two other named storms struck the archipelago during September.
Saharan Extinctions
The world's largest tropical desert has lost much of its wildlife population in recent years, according to a new study of the Sahara. Led by the Wildlife Conservation Society and the Zoological Society of London, researchers found that half of the 14 desert species studied were regionally extinct or confined to 1 percent or less of their historic ranges. Writing in the journal Diversity and Distributions, the team found that the bubal hartebeest is extinct, the scimitar-horned oryx is extinct in the wild and the African wild dog and African lion no longer live anywhere in the Sahara. Cycles of political instability and long-term regional conflicts have for decades prevented researchers from determining exactly what has decimated the wildlife populations.
Unseasonable Migration
The famed wildebeest of East Africahave returned to Kenya's Maasai Mara Game Reserve months early in an off-season migration that wildlife experts say has never been seen before. The animals typically spend the next few months grazing in Tanzania's Serengeti plains, but a protracted drought has left grasslands there barren. An official said tourists who missed the usual wildebeest migration between July and October now have another chance to view it through the upcoming holiday season.
Earthquakes
Rescue teams comforted the survivors of a 5.6 magnitude quake that killed eight people and injured 59 others in southwestern Iran on Nov.28.
* Earth movements were also felt in eastern India, northwestern Sumatra, the southern Philippines, northern Puerto Rico, southwestern Mexico and southeastern Connecticut.
Disappearing Lakes
A trend toward drier summers and less snowy winters in sub-Arctic Canada is leading to an unprecedented drying up of the region's expansive patchwork of lakes, according to a new study published in the journal Geophysical Research Letters. Researchers from four universities found that the shift in climate and the shrinking of the lakes that followed has not happened for at least the past 200 years. Some lakes first began showing signs of losing water in 2010, but observers say it became far more pronounced during this past summer. Researchers made the discovery after studying 70 lakes in the Yukon Territory and Manitoba. Most of the bodies of water studied are less than 1 meter deep.
'Root' of the Problem
Feral hogs are rooting up levees along stretches of the Mississippi River in Louisiana, threatening to trigger breaches in the flood protections for nearby communities. The Times-Picayune reports the problem came to light after Hurricane Isaac sent an 3.3 metre storm surge into southern Louisiana during August 2012. That inundation forced thousands of feral hogs onto the levees, where they damaged the flood defenses while foraging for food. The unruly swine can destroy over a hundred linear metres of levee in one night, which engineers say can take months to repair. And since it takes only one small stretch of weakened levee to flood a vast area, officials say they are concerned.
Earthweek: A Diary of the Planet (Nov.29,2013)
Bats vs. Turbines
A new study estimates that more than 600,000 bats are killed each year by the rotation of wind turbines in the continental United States. Wildlife experts say those deaths are in addition to the large numbers of the flying mammals that are being killed by white-nose syndrome, which is caused by a fungus that has spread rapidly to bat caves and mines across North America. Most bats don't die from actual contact with the turbines since their sonar allows them to avoid the blades. But subtle changes in barometric pressure created by the rotating blades cause the bats capillaries to burst, resulting in deadly internal hemorrhaging. Birds circulatory systems are different from that of bats, keeping them from being victims of such "barotrauma." Most bat deaths occur when winds are relatively light because bats can't fly in high winds. And since most turbines shut down when winds go below about 9 mph anyway, experts say increasing the "cut-in speed" to 11 mphwould reduce bat deaths by at least 44 percent.
New Flu
A young woman in Taiwan has contracted a new strain of influenza A, which is very similar in structure to the H7N9 bird flu that killed 45 people and infected 139 others in China last year. The H6N1 strain is believed to have come from infected poultry and reacts to the same drugs that combat other strains of bird flu, like Taiwan's Centers for Disease Control. Researchers there say H6N1 is widespread in poultry but no reported cases of transmission to humans have been found. The Taiwanese patient fully recovered, and no trace of the virus was found in the 36 people with whom the woman had close contact.
Extinction-Proof
An Australian science project that is attempting to resurrect extinct species is being touted as one of the best inventions of 2013 by Time Magazine. The Lazarus Project has been able to briefly bring back the gastric brooding frog , which became extinct in 1983. The amphibian was unique for its ability to swallow its eggs and give birth through its mouth. Researchers used DNA from some of the frog species tissue that had been kept frozen for 40 years. They then deactivated eggs from a distantly related frog and swapped the nuclei with that from the extinct frog. Some of the eggs began spontaneously dividing and growing to early embryo stage, but none survived past a few days. The scientists were able to collect the extinct frog's reactivated genome in the process, which they plans to use in future cloning experiments.
Tropical Cyclones
Cyclone Lehar struck the same stretch of southeastern Indian coast hit a week earlier by Cyclone Helen. The storm was also the third to rake the Andhra Pradesh coast this autumn, including Cyclone Phailin, which ravaged the region in mid-October.
* Tropical Storm Alessia brought localy heavy rain and gusty winds to a remote portion of Australia's Northern Territory.
Earthquakes
Three strong quakes in northeastern China's Jilin province damaged scores of homes and sent thousands of residents repeatedly scrambling out of buildings.
* Several homes were damaged along the Iran-Iraq border by a sharp quake that was also felt strongly in parts of the Iraqi capital of Baghdad.
* Earth movements were also felt in southern Peru and north-central Texas.
New Island
Japan may have gained an additional patch of territory thanks to a volcanic eruption that created a new island in the Pacific. The Japan Meteorological Agency says the islet is about 660 feet in diameter just off the coast of Nishinoshima, which is a small, uninhabited island about 600 miles south of Tokyo and 140 miles north of Iwo Jima. The agency says it mow appears the new unnamed island could be here to stay, and it will not be eroded by the sea.
Moose-Choked Shark
A beached, bottom-feeding shark that bit off more than it could chew owes its life to some unusually brave and fast-thinking passers-by. Derrick Chaulk and Jeremy Ball say they found the Greenland shark near Norris Arm, Newfoundland, with about 2 feet of moose hide and fur protruding from its mouth. After yanking the stuck meal out of the shark's mouth by hand, the men manged to pull the toothy fish back into the water, where it sat until "water started coming out of its gills" and it became more alert. After about half an hour, the shark flipped its tail and returned to the deep to the applause of people who had gathered along the shore to watch. Greenland sharks are rare on that stretch of Newfoundland coast and typically spend a long life lumbering on the ocean floor. They are usually blind due to parasites that have fed on their corneas, causing them to go for long periods of time without stumbling across food.
A new study estimates that more than 600,000 bats are killed each year by the rotation of wind turbines in the continental United States. Wildlife experts say those deaths are in addition to the large numbers of the flying mammals that are being killed by white-nose syndrome, which is caused by a fungus that has spread rapidly to bat caves and mines across North America. Most bats don't die from actual contact with the turbines since their sonar allows them to avoid the blades. But subtle changes in barometric pressure created by the rotating blades cause the bats capillaries to burst, resulting in deadly internal hemorrhaging. Birds circulatory systems are different from that of bats, keeping them from being victims of such "barotrauma." Most bat deaths occur when winds are relatively light because bats can't fly in high winds. And since most turbines shut down when winds go below about 9 mph anyway, experts say increasing the "cut-in speed" to 11 mphwould reduce bat deaths by at least 44 percent.
New Flu
A young woman in Taiwan has contracted a new strain of influenza A, which is very similar in structure to the H7N9 bird flu that killed 45 people and infected 139 others in China last year. The H6N1 strain is believed to have come from infected poultry and reacts to the same drugs that combat other strains of bird flu, like Taiwan's Centers for Disease Control. Researchers there say H6N1 is widespread in poultry but no reported cases of transmission to humans have been found. The Taiwanese patient fully recovered, and no trace of the virus was found in the 36 people with whom the woman had close contact.
Extinction-Proof
An Australian science project that is attempting to resurrect extinct species is being touted as one of the best inventions of 2013 by Time Magazine. The Lazarus Project has been able to briefly bring back the gastric brooding frog , which became extinct in 1983. The amphibian was unique for its ability to swallow its eggs and give birth through its mouth. Researchers used DNA from some of the frog species tissue that had been kept frozen for 40 years. They then deactivated eggs from a distantly related frog and swapped the nuclei with that from the extinct frog. Some of the eggs began spontaneously dividing and growing to early embryo stage, but none survived past a few days. The scientists were able to collect the extinct frog's reactivated genome in the process, which they plans to use in future cloning experiments.
Tropical Cyclones
Cyclone Lehar struck the same stretch of southeastern Indian coast hit a week earlier by Cyclone Helen. The storm was also the third to rake the Andhra Pradesh coast this autumn, including Cyclone Phailin, which ravaged the region in mid-October.
* Tropical Storm Alessia brought localy heavy rain and gusty winds to a remote portion of Australia's Northern Territory.
Earthquakes
Three strong quakes in northeastern China's Jilin province damaged scores of homes and sent thousands of residents repeatedly scrambling out of buildings.
* Several homes were damaged along the Iran-Iraq border by a sharp quake that was also felt strongly in parts of the Iraqi capital of Baghdad.
* Earth movements were also felt in southern Peru and north-central Texas.
New Island
Japan may have gained an additional patch of territory thanks to a volcanic eruption that created a new island in the Pacific. The Japan Meteorological Agency says the islet is about 660 feet in diameter just off the coast of Nishinoshima, which is a small, uninhabited island about 600 miles south of Tokyo and 140 miles north of Iwo Jima. The agency says it mow appears the new unnamed island could be here to stay, and it will not be eroded by the sea.
Moose-Choked Shark
A beached, bottom-feeding shark that bit off more than it could chew owes its life to some unusually brave and fast-thinking passers-by. Derrick Chaulk and Jeremy Ball say they found the Greenland shark near Norris Arm, Newfoundland, with about 2 feet of moose hide and fur protruding from its mouth. After yanking the stuck meal out of the shark's mouth by hand, the men manged to pull the toothy fish back into the water, where it sat until "water started coming out of its gills" and it became more alert. After about half an hour, the shark flipped its tail and returned to the deep to the applause of people who had gathered along the shore to watch. Greenland sharks are rare on that stretch of Newfoundland coast and typically spend a long life lumbering on the ocean floor. They are usually blind due to parasites that have fed on their corneas, causing them to go for long periods of time without stumbling across food.
F. Y. I.
If You Mustache.......
The original Village People lineup was recruited via an advertisement that read "Macho types wanted: must have mustache."
Still on the Books
In Omaha, Neb., a man may not run around with a shaved chest.
Lore of the Land
In Russia, yellow flowers symbolize infidelity and are considered a relationship curse.
Quotable
by Robert Frost, American poet (1874-1963)
"In three words, I can sum up everything I know about life: it goes on."
Small Wonders
The elf owl, at only 5 to 6 inches long and found in Southwestern deserts, is the smallest owl in the world.
Of Note
Before the job went to James Horner, Enya was James Cameron's first choice to compose the music for "Titanic".
The original Village People lineup was recruited via an advertisement that read "Macho types wanted: must have mustache."
Still on the Books
In Omaha, Neb., a man may not run around with a shaved chest.
Lore of the Land
In Russia, yellow flowers symbolize infidelity and are considered a relationship curse.
Quotable
by Robert Frost, American poet (1874-1963)
"In three words, I can sum up everything I know about life: it goes on."
Small Wonders
The elf owl, at only 5 to 6 inches long and found in Southwestern deserts, is the smallest owl in the world.
Of Note
Before the job went to James Horner, Enya was James Cameron's first choice to compose the music for "Titanic".
Presidents' Jobs
Match the U.S. president with the job or profession he held before he was elected to the highest office in the land.
1. Woodrow Wilson A) Law school dean
2. Jimmy Carter B) Tailor
3. Harry Truman C) Newspaper editor
4. Herbert Hoover D) High school teacher
5. Grover Cleveland E) Peanut farmer
6. William H. Taft F) College president
7. Warren Harding G) Lawyer
8. Andrew Johnson H) Engineer
9. Lyndon Johnson I) Haberdasher
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Answers : 1-F ; 2-E ; 3-I ; 4-H ; 5-G ; 6-A ; 7-C ; 8-B ; 9-D
1. Woodrow Wilson A) Law school dean
2. Jimmy Carter B) Tailor
3. Harry Truman C) Newspaper editor
4. Herbert Hoover D) High school teacher
5. Grover Cleveland E) Peanut farmer
6. William H. Taft F) College president
7. Warren Harding G) Lawyer
8. Andrew Johnson H) Engineer
9. Lyndon Johnson I) Haberdasher
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Answers : 1-F ; 2-E ; 3-I ; 4-H ; 5-G ; 6-A ; 7-C ; 8-B ; 9-D
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