Having a little bit of knowledge can be a dangerous thing. Especially when you don’t know how your knowledge fits into the bigger picture. Often critics will misuse a bit of knowledge trusting that the type of people who listen to them are too lazy to find the truth. Flat earth advocates fall into this category. They slam all the rest of humanity by presenting facts out of context and by dismissing other more obvious facts without logical cause. (more…)
I have talked ad nauseam about function in ancient writings and the difference between literal and fiction on the one hand, and concrete and abstract on the other. I thought I would apply this approach to the story of Noah. (more…)
About 20 years ago I was sitting in church listening to someone give a heartfelt talk about blessings. I do not remember the details of the talk but one comment they made has come to give me pause. They said that they were thankful God had blessed them with good health. (more…)
Imagine that life’s journey is a mountain where financial, emotional or whatever other success you aspire to is at the peak, and we climb through our life towards this final goal. We often measure how well we are doing on our climb against how others are fairing. The further along someone is in a career, marriage, or in building relationships of trust, the higher up they are. Those who have developed gentleness, patience and kindness are closer to the ideal that we are all trying to achieve. (more…)
I have often heard the lament ‘If there is a God, why does He allow suffering?’ Stephen Fry and Penn Jillette are two celebrities who are often quoted when someone wants to denounce God as heartless and cruel. (more…)
The earliest known use of paint dates back some 30,000 years to the days of early humans drawing murals on cave walls, and what followed was millennia of artistic styles involving paint. Despite this long history of painting, it was not until 1700 that the first paint mill was established to mass produce this medium of decorating. By the end of the 19th century, paint factories were thriving all over the world, but the big game change came in the 1950s when middle class Americans started to paint their houses and did not like the messy oil based paints that predominated the market so they clamored for a relatively new invention: latex paint. (more…)
How often have you been dealing with a qualified contractor and when they explain their proposal, you quickly realize you have no idea what they are talking about because what is basic knowledge to them is not basic to you. Sometimes it is the most common of items that we just take for granted or have given little thought to until a problem arises and then we realize that there is a serious gap in our understanding. Concrete is one of those items that we see all the time but many people have no idea what it is made of or how it is made.
The contractor starts throwing words out there like aggregate, blistering, and efflorescence as if these are words on a grade two spelling test and you are too embarrassed to say anything so instead you smile and nod. Concrete comes in all kinds of varieties depending on its application. Here is a brief explanation of what concrete is all about so hopefully it will add to your toolbox of knowledge when dealing with maintenance items. (more…)
