Bye-Bye Bing Cashback
Bing Cashback (previously “Windows Live Cashback”) has been one of my consistent favorite things Microsoft puts out. It actually worked simply and well. Basically, you found the product you were looking for via Bing's shopping site (or at least found the merchant you wanted there) and Bing paid you a portion of the cut they got from the merchant.
Sadly, Cashback is coming to an end:
We are writing to notify you that the Bing cashback program will be discontinued, and the last day to earn cash back on your Bing Shopping purchases will be July 30, 2010.
Thomas Tweets
Somebody has decided to tweet an abridged Summa Theologica. Maybe Twitter will prove worthwhile yet.
Free Amazon Prime for Students
Amazon is giving away (affiliate link) a free year of Amazon Prime unlimited, no extra charge two day shipping to students at a college or grad school. If you are taking at least one class for credit, you qualify.
I signed up and Amazon was nice enough to offer a prorated refund for the remaining months in my regular Amazon Prime subscription.
First They Came
Niemöller's famous words are always haunting and powerful.
THEY CAME FIRST for the Communists,
and I didn't speak up because I wasn't a Communist.THEN THEY CAME for the trade unionists,
and I didn't speak up because I wasn't a trade unionist.THEN THEY CAME for the Jews,
and I didn't speak up because I wasn't a Jew.THEN THEY CAME for me
and by that time no one was left to speak up.
We were discussing Galatians tonight in a Bible Study I am in. We were talking about Paul's willingness to speak up against wrongs being committed (in Galatia's case, the division being created by the legalistic “Judaizers”). Given Paul's status as an elite Jew, he could have overlooked and even benefitted from the division, but the Gospel called him to a higher standard.
More apropos to the poem, the Confessing Church members in Germany also spoke up and rejected the evil of the Third Reich and what it was doing to Jews and other minorities. They could have towed the party line and lived comfortably while others suffered, but they too were called to integrity to the Gospel.
The truth always calls us to that sort of higher standard. The Gospel is not just about heaven, it is about the restoration of all things through Christ. How often as the Church do we earnestly seek to be on the front line loving justice and showing mercy? How often do we accept that the troubles of those around us are burdens that concern us?
If “they” came again today, would we do any better than the person in the poem?
Meramec Lake
A facinating look into the ill-fated plan to convert the Meramec River basin into a lake:
In the 1960's-1970’s, 31 dams of varying sizes were planned by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers (USACE) in the Meramec River Basin. The largest of these, Meramec Dam, was to impound 42 miles of the Meramec River, 9 miles of the Courtois Creek, and 12 miles of the Huzzah Creek to form Meramec Park Lake. This 180 foot tall structure was to consist of earth fill and impound a 23,000 acre lake, or about 40% the size of the Lake of The Ozarks (U.S. EPA, 2000). It would have flooded the upstream portion of present day Meramec State Park near Sullivan to Onondaga Cave near Leasburg, MO.
hdBaseT
OSNews comments on an interesting new audio/visual cable standard being proposed as an alternative to HDMI.
It's really more than an HDMI competitor, it's a cable specification that “converges full uncompressed HD video, audio, 100BaseT Ethernet, high power over cable and various control signals through a single 100m/328ft CAT5e/6 LAN cable.” That's an idea that I can really get behind. No new proprietary connectors, no expensive cables needed, consolidation of all necessary signals into one cable. The founding companies include LG Electronics, Samsung Electronics, and Sony Pictures Entertainment.
This sounds like something that could really simplify wiring one's TV and related equipment cost effectively. And just think about larger scale setups.
Photo Labeling
Dennis Powell writes:
The old cliche is that a picture is worth a thousand words. Sometimes it is. But experience suggests that most of the time a picture without a few words is not good for much.
So true.
Project
I have some new things cooking for this site and others that are so close to being ready for testing, but I cannot seem to get them over that threshold. Here's hoping tomorrow proves to be the day I finish… the code is starting to drive me crazy (crazier?).
Farewell
Posted on the Classic99 website:
Yesterday was the final day of broadcasting for KFUO-FM CLASSIC99. Our sign-off was at 10pm. Our final piece was Beethoven's Symphony No. 9 - the 1st choice of our listeners for many years.
It was a truly sad day to see St. Louis lose its only classical music radio station. I hope someone else comes in to fill the gap.
UPDATED THOUGHT: I think the LCMS really provided a vital ministry by combining music written by those God had most richly musically gifted over the centuries and the various Lutheran programs that were mixed in. This was far more of a “radio missions field” than what replaces it, a purely “Christian” music station that will almost certainly only preach to the choir.
