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.
Symbian OS and the Linux Desktop
A frequent counter argument against the iPhone comes from folks touting Nokia's various flagship phones. No one using an iPhone points to a Nokia phone as a better or more capable device, mind you. (That should be telling.)
So, this is interesting. From The Symbian Guru:
If you recall, when the Nokia N97 was announced, we all drooled over it endlessly. We marveled at its features, its monstrous internal storage, sliding hinge assembly, 1500mAh battery, and more. We waited a disturbing 6 months for it to actually be available…only to actually get it. The launch firmware on the Nokia N97 was so bad, I sincerely hope that whoever gave it the A-OK to be released has been fired from Nokia. It took them another 6 months just to release a firmware that wasn’t rubbish, and now, the ‘flagship’ languishes behind other devices, frustrating owners like myself more and more each day.
Their sentiments remind me of when I gave up on the Linux desktop. While Vista a few months later was a major stumble for Microsoft (to put it mildly), Apple has continued to charge along and Microsoft has regrouped with Windows 7. Meanwhile GNOME remains relatively stagnant (though superior to KDE) and KDE managed to out-Vista Vista.
Bang!
What a lovely Independence Day. I got to spend it with family, eat lots of good food and shoot off a bunch of beautiful fireworks. It was just a spectacular day. Hope all of you had a great one!
