I lived in Cape Canaveral for 35 years. I watched all but 5 shuttle launches and many Delta, Atlas and other rockets. Each unique in it's own way. This launch was spectacular in that the lighting helped illuminate the plume in a way that normally is unseen in a bright sky or total darkness.

Another cool effect when conditions are right during a launch is when a rocket breaks the sound barrier while penetrating thin clouds. It creates what's known as a Sun Dog. The shock wave creates a ripple effect that resembles ripples going across the surface of water. The effect at night can be illuminated by the rocket's bright plume rather than the sun.

I am open to rational answers, but not hokum. Using mythos to prove mythos is no answer.
I've said I'm not open to suspending rationality or sanity, you say that means I won't listen to you....um.....

The entirety of Christianity hinges on one thing; the resurrection of Jesus Christ. This is a historical event and can be investigated that way. Jesus Christ is a real person who lived 2000 years ago in Israel. This isn't mythos and there is good evidence to believe it happened.

How do you know there's no FSM? I've seen exponentially more evidence of his existence than Yahweh's. I've eaten pasta. I absolutely believe in it more than Yahweh, but that's not a high bar.
Edit: How do you know there's no Allah? Odin? Zeus? Mythra? Mot? Cthulhu?

We both know that the fsm is a joke religion invented to mock Christianity.

The scripture tells us that men have worshiped other gods for thousands of years, but that what they worship are demons. So I believe those beings exist, but they aren't what they claim to be. One of Satans primary tools to deceive mankind is false religion. He provides supernatural confirmation of these religions. There is a desire in mans heart to worship God, and it gets corrupted so that man is willing to worship just about anything. In western culture, men idolize money, materialism, carnal lusts, even themselves. Our idols are less obvious but they are still idols.

One more time, my questions were 1.why is God's word so easily misstated, misunderstood, misidentified, misused, confused, and used for evil and hate? (Edit: especially given that properly interpreting it is allegedly the only way to escape eternal torture, seems like a set up.)

Any truth is easily misstated, misunderstood, misidentified, misused, confused, and used for evil and hate. This isn't a phenomenon unique to the scriptures; this is the reality of living in a fallen world. Corrupt men distort truth for their own gain. Look at the political situation in our country; how is what politicians do different from what prosperity preachers do? It really isn't.

The fact is that the gospel is very simple to understand; even a child could understand it, and they do. Gods word is very clear about our need for salvation and how to obtain it. It's man who overcomplicates it, distorts it for gain, or deliberately conceals the truth. Trust in Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins and believe He was raised from the dead. You don't need to be a theologian to understand that.

2.why is disbelief apparently worse than murder, rape, and slavery and so not covered by Jesus's sin erasing sacrifice and the only sin that's totally unforgivable.

How did you come to the conclusion that Jesus didn't die for unbelief? We all have unbelief that needs forgiveness which we receive by repentance. His atonement is not automatically transferred to everyone; the condition of receiving forgiveness is to believe. If you don't believe you won't receive forgiveness because you failed to meet the condition, not because unbelief is worse than murder necessarily. Dying without forgiveness for your sin is the problem, not that it can't be forgiven, but it can't be forgiven without repentance. It's kind of like this:

Let's say you had cancer and the only cure was in Los Angeles. You had no way to get there but God sent you a car to get you to Los Angeles and get the cure. When it arrived you didn't believe it would take you there so you didn't get in. A short time later you died of cancer.

So what was the reason you died? It was your unbelief that stopped you receiving the cure, but it was your cancer that killed you. In the same way it is your unbelief that keeps you from coming to Jesus Christ for forgiveness, so you will die in your sin.

I am interested in and open to an actual answer to either or both if you have one. It won't make me believe, but it might help me understand those who do a little better.

I'm happy to answer your questions newtboy..I just didn't want it to turn into another internet argument. I appreciate your candor

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Kind of surprised this made it to the Front page. His one handed egg cracking wasn’t that great, his egg flipping was meh, and taking them of the grill was average at best. About the only unique thing about this video was that he cooked about 20 eggs at the same time. If cooking a lot of eggs at once is all it takes to make it to the front page of videosift then I foresee my path to a future career in videos.

Don't entirely agree with that. There are plenty of skilled artists making really beautiful pieces for reasonable amounts of money. I had a local jeweller create a custom ring for my wife and another create a wedding band from titanium for me.

Neither cost "2 months salary", or even close to that, but both are really cool pieces that are completely unique.

On one hand it does perhaps lack imagination, but on the other it makes perfect sense that aliens we first find would be much like us since they'd be attracted by our radio waves, and to become a space traveling civilisation they'd likely have similar motivations and their brains/reasoning capabilities would have evolved in a similar way. Afterall the human brain seems to be hardwired to find other humans - we see faces in the clouds and random floor patterns etc.

That new movie Arrival (2016) (not the Charlie Sheen 90s one) did a great job of unique aliens.

I guess another reason why fiction makes aliens like us is so that it allows a story to be told without the story getting bogged down on the details (unless that is the focus of the story).

Great discussion but I think the point the video makes is that the emphasis in education has changed from molding kids to meet a standard to molding educational standards to fit the kid. Parents are now their child's advocate as opposed to being part of the education process. Schools are so afraid of bad press or being sued that they won't stand up to parents and their outrageous sense of propriety. All of this combined results in a broken education system.

Like it or not, parents need to stop and realize that in most cases teachers are trying to prepare their kids to survive in a world that's NOT going to conform to their unique little quirks... a world that's NOT going to accept that 2 + 2 = 22 because that's just not how the world works.

You keep posting these, Ant.

I don't get the appeal. It's not funny enough to be a parody, but it's not unique enough to stand as an homage or a furthering of the Star Trek idea. The Orville is just hack writing, cutting as close to the copyright law as they can sneak without getting sued (they hope).

Lotsa white tears in here.

I'm guessin maybe she was trying to say that we all have, like, biases, or something? Like, quick conclusions on incomplete and/or superficial information. Useful survival technique - awkward in modern society - decidedly not demonic. Quintessentially human and not unique to white folks either. But if you define "racist" so loosely it does rather make it impotent. So were all racist and we'll never not be? Why am I listening to you then?

I certainly see the artistic sensibility there. It's cool and unique, but in the end it left me feeling disturbed. Modifications to public infrastructure should be strictly discouraged.

Yes, I understand that a handful of 3" lag bolts to hold up your shelf and table are unlikely to affect the structural integrity of the bridge, but bridges and supports span the gamut from earthquake-ready to collapsing under their own poor construction.

This guy's modifications are unlikely to cause a serious problem, but what about the next guy who decides to make more serious alterations? The potential risk for serious cost and injury aren't worth the coolness factor.

Interesting piece in the LA Review of Books: The Supermanagerial Reich

It's a tad long, so I suggest the last two paragraphs to get a taste, see if it's to your liking.

Small bit:

If there is going to be a politics that overcomes the new fascist threat, it must address the fact that the crisis is not now, the crisis has already been for some time. By focusing only on the threat of our homegrown Hitler caricature we have failed to notice the facts right in front of our faces: the uniquely parallel structures, the same winners, the similar losers, the crimes, the human degradation. We are already living in our very own, cruel 21st-century Supermanagerial Reich.

Of course this assumes that the cafe has never changed from the default password. It wouldn't work on my combo modem/router supplied by my cable internet provider. Each unit has its own unique default password based on its serial number.

I loved this. My father was a fan of the Carlos Jobim bossa nova records popular in the 60s and my first guitar was a nylon string he gave me when I was 12.

This clip brings me back to that unique sound, makes me want to go buy a nylon sting guitar and throw away my picks for awhile.

Well, I suppose he kinda explains it in the video, the US has, post ww2 been the guiding star of the west, being both separated in a unique way, and a steadfast ally, and the, by far, most powerful nation, they could afford and permit themselves to stake out the course and push a little harder than other nations. if , say france or belgium or whatever were to "take the lead" on an issue like north korea, the response would be "You and what army?"

I agree 100% with this video, the west has simply lost its leader.

All the more necessary for a louder horn and some laws that give right of way to military vehicles just like the police/fire/ambulance services everywhere, at least that gives them immunity to damages incurred to all those vehicles and the license to practice that type of necessary "ass-hat-sery" without provoking too much scorn.

Granted, the loud horn shouldn't be a unique sounding horn, so as not to give away your location to attackers.

How a majority of those cars didn't yield makes me believe the absence of those laws and/or etiquette.