Hambone

Photographers pose for portraits with their famous photographs. Here are a couple:

A brou-ha-ha erupted recently over the Obama administration’s move to require all health plans to offer coverage for contraceptives, including the “morning after pill”. The policy requires this of all health plans, including those offered by Catholic universities, hospitals, dioceses, and other Church-sponsored entities.

This puts those institutions in an untenable position: they either accede to the demands of the administration, even though it goes against Church doctrine, or face severe penalties that may ultimately make continuing their missions impossible. It is common knowledge that Church explicitly deems artificial contraception, abortion, in-vitro fertilization, and other similar procedures as intrinsically immoral.

This proscription results from the teaching that human life, from its earliest moment, e.g., the moment of conception, is inherently precious beyond telling. Anything done to end that life prior to its natural conclusion is per se evil.

So, given this teaching, the Obama administration is now seeking to force Church-related institutions to violate these teachings.

Some seek to discount this by quoting statistics of how many Catholics use artificial contraception and otherwise violate the teachings of the Church.

This is a red herring argument. They seek to advance their misguided opinions by confusing Holy Mother Church, guided by the Supreme Wisdom of the Holy Spirit, with the imperfection of her members. The laity of the Church is composed of fallen sinners who do not live up to the expectations and guidance of God. Business Insider came up with a pretty apt analogy:

To give an analogy, it would be like the government mandating that all delis, even Kosher delis, serve pork products and then justifying it by saying that protein is healthy, and many Jews who don’t follow Kosher laws and many non-Jews go to those delis. The law wouldn’t technically ban Jews from owning delis, but it would effectively ban their ability to run them according to their conscience.

That we are all imperfect does not mean that we should simply give up and give in to whatever the prevailing public opinion of right and wrong might presently be. What it means is that we should redouble our efforts to do what is right, just, and on the path toward Righteousness, perhaps in spite of what prevailing public opinion or our base desires might otherwise say.

Last Sunday, virtually all (if not actually all) Catholic churches in the US were read a statement from their local bishops regarding this infringement on religious liberty. Daniel Cardinal DiNardo, Archbishop of Galveston-Houston and Chair, Committee on Pro-Life Activities of the US Conference of Catholic Bishops published this statement:

As shepherd of the Archdiocese of Galveston-Houston and chair of the U.S. Bishops’ Committee on Pro-Life Activities, I am distressed to learn that the Department of Health and Human Services’ mandate that sterilization, abortifacients and contraception be included in virtually all health plans is being upheld. This mandate gravely compromises religious liberty.

The contraceptive/sterilization mandate imposed on health plans by HHS violates religious freedom, which is guaranteed by the First Amendment and several federal laws. Forcing all employers to buy coverage for sterilization and contraceptives, including drugs that induce abortion, is a radical incursion into religious liberty and freedom of conscience.

HHS’s mandate includes an incredibly narrow exemption for “religious employers” that protects almost no one. Those who sponsor, purchase and issue health plans should not be forced to violate their deeply held moral and religious convictions in order to take part in the health care system or provide for the needs of their families, their employees or those most in need.

Today’s announcement that the mandate and its very narrow exemption will not change is deeply disappointing to me. As Cardinal-designate Timothy Dolan, president of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops, said, “To force American citizens to choose between violating their consciences and forgoing their health care is literally unconscionable. It is as much an attack on access to health care as on religious freedom.”

I join my brother bishops, fellow Catholics and all people of goodwill who prize religious liberty as a cornerstone of our common life in expressing strong opposition to the HHS mandate.

h/t: katfish

Scientists have decided they should upgrade their volcanic eruption forecasting from “a volcano is now erupting” to “this particular volcano will erupt next week”.

Now, new research is changing scientists’ understanding of the timing of those eruptions, and prompting them to call for greater monitoring of sites to help save lives when the next big volcano explodes.

Two recent papers highlight the shift. One looked at a Death Valley volcano thought to be 10,000 years old and found it last erupted just 800 years ago, and is still an eruption danger. The other found that large caldera volcanoes, such as the one under Crater Lake in Oregon, can recharge in a matter of decades, rather than the thousands of years previously thought.

These are not the only kind of volcano that represent a threat to the US. “Regular” volcanoes are also a threat, specially Mt Rainier in Washington, which is about 50mi SE of Tacoma.

A very big chunk of Tacoma would be buried by lahars & mudflows should Mt Rainier erupt.

We live in a geodesic dome, and we like it. I have issues with the floor, which we patterned ourselves (DARN that last late-arriving concrete truck!). It was our first time using our pattern roller, and it wasn’t until we moved in that I realized that the grooves in the floor are deeper than desired, and make cleaning difficult. It’s also bigger than I had anticipated – paper is so much different than sticks and bricks! We are still finishing it, trying to get our permits and such completed and passed. One thing we’ve found – you can’t keep secrets in a dome. The acoustics are such that people downstairs sound like they are upstairs. A whisper can be heard as well as a shout. Be careful what you say in a dome! (Two of our contractors actually got caught in that reality – they didn’t like each other, and though we warned them, there were loose lips….)

There are many different types of domes. There are the monolithic types, and there are the panel types (which we have). Designing the interior is different, as the ceiling can be very high (ours is almost 30 feet) and the walls are not square.

Because of the size, I’ve been curious about the other side of the issue - tiny homes. It’s amazing what can be packed into a small space. Being an American and a Texan, it’s hard to imaging living in such small spaces, though I find the idea intriguing.

I came home the other night and for some reason, found myself perusing web sites for shipping container homes. These containers can be a way of providing functional and affordable housing, though it ain’t always what you think.

And then there are other unusual homes. The egg pod, for example. The seashell house. Berm homes and earth-sheltered homes. Underground homes. Missile silos. Caves.

There are a lot of small apartments, especially in New York and Japan. I remember when Lovely was in her smallest dorm room in college, and could almost touch two walls (well, a wall and her drawers), and she was unhappy with it. These people are EXCITED about it?

And then there’s the ultimate small apartment. Wow.

With all of these options, why are there so many stick and brick homes built in squares and rectangles?

Physics is cool. If you could truly understand physics, you could probably understand most Earthly things.

Any field of study where the most elusive fundamental unit is called a boson has to be cool.

The Higgs boson is a hypothetical particle whose accompanying field is believed to be accountable for giving all other fundamental particles their mass. It is also the only elementary particle theorized in the Standard Model — the closest thing modern physics has to a “theory of everything” — that has not yet been actually observed through experiments.

They also can’t seem to find the particle that transmits gravitation – the graviton.

Sure, we are quite positive of gravity’s existence — drop something and it crashes to the floor, easy enough — but if gravity is a force, according to the Standard Model, it must also have its own accompanying particle.

Gravity is a myth. The Earth sucks.

Read the link for more evidence physicists are just messing with us.

What do you think is going through the mind of the dog wearing the cone of shame as he listens to “his master’s voice’?

1. Buy microwave. A cheap one. It might not last long.

2. Gather several fruits, vegetables, other foodstuffs, and small household objects.

3. set up high-speed video camera to record the impending doom and carnage.

4. Irradiate one of the items until something interesting happens.

5. If oven is destroyed or otherwise ceases working, get another one.

6. Lather, rinse, repeat.