New Life'n

Aw, man, now we gotta come up with another theory

The universe may be bigger and older than scientists thought

If accurate, the finding would be difficult to mesh with current thinking about how the universe evolved, one scientist said.

And the current thinking "has seemed firm since 2003."

"A person is not always a human being but is a human being always a person?"

Joe Carter at Evangelical Outpost spends a lot of time working and thinking in the bio-ethics field.  He's a very good thinker.  You'll have to click the link to follow his logic-train to this conclusion:

The reason why it is wrong to kill philosophy professors in their sleep is the same reason it is wrong to destroy embryos: moral people do not kill innocent human beings.    
   

How air conditioning works

Ok, it's hot and the novelty of the summer season has worn off and the kids are bored.  Have them read this and explain it to you--that'll keep 'em busy for awhile. 

Basically, it's like the refrigerator without the food and the big box and door (of course, that doesn't really help since I don't know how the 'fridge works either). 

Guess what I'm thinking!

And after all the high-tech measurements, the print-out says, miiiiiilk!  It's an optical imaging system that measures brain function.   Story's here.

Other stories/links from Short Sharp Science:

• -- Why morning sickness?
• -- Do chores--live longer
• -- Are your legs short?
• -- The teddy workout
     

Ten things I learned about life from a Nobel Prize winner

I'd never heard of Kary Mullis but somehow I ended up here and read his Nobel Lecture when he won the prize for chemistry in 1993.  I don't know chemistry, but he talked about more than that in his speech.  It made me think about parenting and family and work and ministry.  I took notes on how he did it:

1.  Just a little more work per day -- 10% -- adds up.

2.  But you have to apply your hard work to the right things.

3.  Stick with a project or problem so that your subconscious is dwelling on it.  Don't jump from project to project.  Let your subconscious do its job and help you for free.

4.  What are the most important problems?  Do that.  Don't major on the routine stuff.

5.  Have regular times of thinking hard about your field (kids, family, ministry, work), about where it's going, about problems and opportunities in the future and about the important things to do.  He devoted a few concentrated hours every Friday afternoon to that. 

6.  He had an open-door policy because interruptions gave him clues about other things going on that might be important.

7.  First-class work requires committment, not dabbling.  When you get inspired, go after it.

8.  Dress according to the expectation of the audience you want to have influence with.  Don't let your dress be a hindrance to what you want to accomplish.

9.  Stress is part of it -- it's part of doing important things.  You can live a nice, stress-free life, and achieve nothing great.

10.  When you talk or write, put in only what's essential, the essence -- leave out the unessential.  Most people aren't interested in all the details.
   

The kids will cover their heads instead of their ears

More fun than sparklers and safer than M-80's.  Something magical happens when you drop Mentos mints into a 2-litre bottle of Diet Coke. 

How to do it and why it works here and here. 

And what would happen with 101 bottles of Diet Coke, 523 mentos, and 2 guys with too much time on their hands?...

(video link here)

"Any volunteers for a test flight?"

The inventor says when a plane is going to crash, his invention will crash it before it can crash...or something:

"an altimeter would trigger explosive charges to make one wing break away from the fuselage and kick the one-winged plane into a horizontal spin."