Blog
Weather
Tropical Seasoning
As the late great philosopher Lawrence Berra once noted, “it ain’t over ‘till it’s over."
Eastern Caribbean: An area of low pressure is expected to form over the eastern Caribbean Sea this weekend. Environmental conditions are forecast to be conducive for gradual development, and a tropical depression could form by early next week while the disturbance moves generally westward or west-northwestward over the central Caribbean Sea.
One of Ian’s cousin’s?
Watching….
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History
Just what is it that “Protestant’s” are protesting?
October 31st marks the day of the year that is commonly celebrated as Halloween. It has become a popular holiday in our society, as it has been reported that Halloween-related spending is $10.6 Billion.
Based on the spending, you could say that society is celebrating October 31st with great indulgence. ironically, I doubt that many people realize the role that indulgence, of a slightly different kind, plays in the history of that specific date—as it relates to the date of October 31st.
October 31st also marks the day that Christian’s commemorate as ‘Reformation Day.’ It marks the anniversary of the day that Martin Luther nailed his ninety-five-part "Disputation on the Power and Efficacy of Indulgences” protest thesis to the door of the church in Wittenberg Germany in 1517; it commemorates the launch of the “Protestant’ Reformation.”
I recommend listening to Dr. Stephen Nichols as he exposits more of the details of that great day in the history of the church. He provides a good explanation of the reason for the protest:
You can find Dr. Nichols’ exposition and more details about The Reformation at ligonier.org
So then, go forth—and Indulge at your own risk.
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Communicating
War and Words
I have for quite some time kept a dictionary handy; primarily because I’m the world’s worst speller. If a word has a strange phonic or more than one syllable, I can routinely mess it up. Occasionally, while checking the spelling of a word, I’ll have a look at the word’s ‘dictionary meaning’. In so doing, I have been amazed at how much ambiguity has crept into our language over the years. I guess that’s one reason why we have so many lawyers—and they have a dictionary all their own. On top of that, the verbicide rate seems to be as bad as the homicide rate in some parts of the country; there could very well be a connection between the two.
This brings us to Humpty Dumpty, and the playing around with words….
In his book, The Four Loves, C.S. Lewis declared, “Language is not an infallible guide, but it contains, with all its defects, a good deal of stored insight and experience. If you begin by flouting it, it has a way of avenging itself later on.”
It was this part of Humpty’s literary legacy that C.S. Lewis was referring to when he warned, “We had better not follow Humpty Dumpty in making words mean whatever we please.”
Good advice!
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Seamanship
Electric Propulsion
There are times when doing away with petroleum-based propulsion systems actually make good sense. If you rely on dinghy transportation for daily life, as most coastal cruising sailors do, it’s hard to top the practicality of the “TEMO" concept:
No doubt, there are patents that govern the commercial development and sales of this technology, but it looks to me like ‘home-brewing’ this contraption would not be all that difficult—owing to computer generated fabrication, and the increasing availability of a variety of designs in batteries….. So it is with “tinkering around with boats."
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Weather
Hurricane Ian
Another forlorn entry in the weather-history book. From its formation on September 23, 2022 to its dissipation on October 2, 2022, Ian left a significant trail of devastation and debris. The highest winds (1-minute sustained) were recorded at 135 knots (155 mph), and the lowest pressure reached 936 mbar (27.64 inHg.)
As of today, over 100 deaths have been confirmed; I am surprised at the high number of casualties since almost a full week notice of the threat was available, even though the exact track and intensity was questionable—which is always the case with these things.
There are still a lot of details regarding this storm that are yet to be revealed.
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