Category : * General Interest

(Washington Post) Matt Nelson rates dogs for a living. He has millions of loyal followers

It started as a series of jokes.

Matt Nelson began posting one-liners on X, formerly Twitter, in 2015 to test his comedic chops.

“I noticed that all of my jokes that had to do with dogs just did way better than my other jokes,” said Nelson, then a college freshman at Campbell University in Buies Creek, North Carolina.

That sparked an idea.

“If the entire internet loves dogs, and so do I, and I have a knack for writing humorously about them, then I should start a new account,” said Nelson, who grew up in Charleston, West Virginia.

Read it all.

Posted in * General Interest, Animals

(SN) U.S. conditionally approves vaccine to protect poultry from avian flu

With egg prices in the United States soaring because of the spread of H5N1 influenza virus among poultry, the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) yesterday conditionally approved a vaccine to protect the birds. President Donald Trump’s administration may therefore soon face a fraught decision on whether to join the ranks of other nations—including China, France, Egypt, and Mexico—that vaccinate poultry against H5N1.

Although many influenza researchers contend that vaccination can help control spread of the deadly virus, the U.S. government has long resisted allowing its use because of politics and trade concerns that many contend are unscientific. The USDA approval may signal a shift in policy linked to the Trump administration’s worries about egg prices. Even with the conditional approval, USDA must still approve its use before farmers can start to administer the vaccine because special regulations apply to H5N1 and other so-called highly pathogenic avian influenza (HPAI) viruses.

The vaccine, made by Zoetis, contains a killed version of an H5N2 variant that the company has designed to work against circulating variants of the H5N1 virus that have decimated poultry flocks and have even jumped to cows and some humans. (The “H” in both variants stands for hemagglutinin, the surface protein of the virus, and antibodies against it are the main mechanism of vaccine-induced protection.) Researchers at the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reported yesterday that three cow veterinarians harbored antibodies to the H5N1 virus in dairy cattle. None had symptomatic disease, they noted in the Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report, suggesting the virus may be more widespread in humans than previously thought.

Read it all.

Posted in America/U.S.A., Animals, Dieting/Food/Nutrition, Health & Medicine, Science & Technology

(WSJ) How Good Is Scrabble’s GOAT? He Wins in Languages He Can’t Speak

Nigel Richards is the reigning world champion of Scrabble in Spanish. Just don’t ask him to order a coffee in Madrid. The 57-year-old New Zealander doesn’t speak a lick of Spanish. 

During the deciding match in November’s Spanish World Scrabble Championship in Granada, Spain, Richards racked up triple-word scores with ENRUGASE (“to wrinkle up”) and ENHOTOS (an archaic word for “familiarity”), before clinching victory with TRINIDAD and SABURROSA (an obscure word that describes the coated residue of the tongue). 

Not that Richards knew the meaning of any of those words. 

One Spanish TV broadcaster called his win the “ultimate humiliation.” The global Scrabble community wasn’t so surprised. Richards had done this before—in French. 

Read it all.

Posted in * General Interest, Anthropology, Language

Some Anglican Parishes in South Carolina amidst the Snow

Posted in * Anglican - Episcopal, * South Carolina, Parish Ministry, Photos/Photography

(NYT) More Americans, Risking Ruin, Drop Their Home Insurance

Homeowners in places most exposed to climate disasters are increasingly giving up on paying their insurance premiums, leaving them exposed to financial ruin, according to sweeping new government data.

The numbers show how climate change is eroding the underpinnings of American life by making home insurance costlier and harder to hang on to, even as wildfires, hurricanes and other calamities increasingly threaten what is, for many people, their most valuable asset.

“Homeowners’ insurance is where many Americans are now feeling the financial effect of climate change directly, in their pocketbook,” said Ethan Zindler, climate counselor at the Treasury Department. “Nature doesn’t really care whether people are living in a blue state or a red state or another state, or whether you do or don’t believe in climate change.”

The rising cancellation rates are part of a broader trend captured by the Treasury Department, which analyzed information for 246 million insurance policies issued by 330 insurers nationwide from 2018 through 2022. The result is the most comprehensive look yet at the effect of climate change on the American home insurance market.

Read it all.

Posted in Housing/Real Estate Market, Natural Disasters: Earthquakes, Tornadoes, Hurricanes, etc., Personal Finance, Police/Fire

(CT) Kutter Callaway–Can God Redeem Even as Wildfires Spread?

In a time of instability and uncertainty, what does God say to his people? I created you (bara), formed you (yatsar), and called you (qara). This is the very same language we read in Genesis when, in the beginning, God creates (bara) the heavens and the earth (1:1), forms (yatsar) the human from the dust of the ground (2:7), and calls (qara) the light “day” and the darkness “night” (1:5). In other words, God reminds Israel that they have quite literally been made for such a time as this.

And what kind of time is this exactly? According to Isaiah 43, it’s a time in which the people of Israel will be passing through flood waters and traversing rising rivers and navigating uncontrolled fires—each of which threatens to overwhelm them at every turn. One would think that the prophet would bring a more reassuring message, especially to a people who longed for nothing more than to go back to the stability and security they knew prior to the Exile.

But that’s not what they get. Instead, God speaks through the prophet Isaiah with this message: There is no going back to a time of stability or security or certainty. There are only cataclysmic waters and catastrophic fires ahead. In fact, for Israel, it is not a matter of if they will encounter these scenarios. It is only a matter of when.

It is therefore all the more significant that, having painted this harrowing picture of what’s to come, God still has the audacity to say, “Don’t be afraid.”

Read it all.

Posted in Natural Disasters: Earthquakes, Tornadoes, Hurricanes, etc., Police/Fire

A Prayer from our Diocese emailed from Bishop Chip Edgar for those impacted by the California Fires

O Sovereign Lord, Creator of heaven and earth, whose mighty hand holds back the waters and commands the elements according to Your will; look with mercy upon our land now threatened by devastating fires, and stretch forth Your hand to protect Your people. Shield the brave firefighters and first responders who risk their lives in service to others, grant them wisdom and strength in their labors, and surround them with Your divine protection. Send Your refreshing rains to quench these flames, calm the winds that drive them, and preserve both life and property from destruction; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who with You and the Holy Spirit lives and reigns, one God, now and forever. Amen.

Posted in Natural Disasters: Earthquakes, Tornadoes, Hurricanes, etc., Police/Fire, Spirituality/Prayer

A North Carolina Fire Chief Reflects on God’s Work in His Community After Hurricane Helene

Fire Chief Stephen Freeman has lived in Bat Cave, North Carolina, for more than six decades. He’s seen severe and deadly weather events. But he’d never seen anything like the force of water that swept through the southern Appalachians in September of last year. He said he’s also experienced God’s presence and the love of God’s people in amazing ways.

“What’s happened is catastrophic,” he said. “But you can see God’s love coming in. It is so good to see God in action. Actions speak louder than words. And the love of Christ has shown through Samaritan’s Purse. They’re in it for the long haul.

“You see God’s beauty in all this instead of seeing all this destruction. Taking something that’s real bad and turning it into something good. Everything is getting better every day.”

Read it all and please take the time to watch the powerful video.

Posted in Natural Disasters: Earthquakes, Tornadoes, Hurricanes, etc., Parish Ministry, Pastoral Care, Police/Fire, Religion & Culture, Stewardship

(Tovima) Believers Celebrate the Epiphany Around the World- Photos

Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis, Athens Mayor Haris Doukas, several ministers, MPs, and representatives of the political and military leadership attended the Divine Liturgy at the Church of Dionysios Areopagite and the Blessing of the Waters at the Athens Reservoir.

“The sunlit Greece celebrates Epiphany with grandeur, drawing strength and hope from its message,” Prime Minister Mitsotakis remarked after the ceremony.

Read it all.

Posted in Epiphany, Globalization, Photos/Photography, Religion & Culture

Happy Christmas 2024 from the Harmons!

Posted in Christmas, Harmon Family, Photos/Photography

(ADOSC) South Carolina Diocesan Men’s Group Pivots from Hiking to Relief Assistance

What had originally been scheduled as a fall Diocesan Men’s Hike was transformed, this past month, into a Hurricane Helene Assistance trip. Seventeen men from 11 different churches travelled to the Lutheridge Camp and Conference Center in Arden, NC, to help make it ready for them to reopen.

“We had a group that planned to go hiking,” says Les Sease, Diocesan Coordinator for Men’s Hikes, who organized the trip. “But the trails were closed so we pivoted. I’m so glad we did!”

The men travelled caravan-style on October 10, 2024 with cars, trucks and trailers full of water, gas, food and other supplies.

“While the roads were passable, Lutheridge was a mess,” says Sease. “Piles of debris lined the main road.”

Read it all.

Posted in * South Carolina, Ministry of the Laity, Natural Disasters: Earthquakes, Tornadoes, Hurricanes, etc.

The Latest Edition of the Anglican Diocese of South Carolina Enewsletter

Hurricane Helene Relief Efforts Need Your Support
 

The Diocese continues to mobilize, providing relief to those affected by Hurricane Helene. We are working closely with ARDF to coordinate efforts. Are you willing to donate supplies or funds or volunteer in relief efforts?

Fill out the form on our website.

Read it all.

Posted in * Anglican - Episcopal, * South Carolina, Media, Natural Disasters: Earthquakes, Tornadoes, Hurricanes, etc., Parish Ministry

Prayers for the Anglican Diocese of South Carolina this day

Posted in * Anglican - Episcopal, * South Carolina, Energy, Natural Resources, Missions, Natural Disasters: Earthquakes, Tornadoes, Hurricanes, etc., Parish Ministry, Spirituality/Prayer

(Christian Today) Chris Packham leads calls to rewild Church of England

TV presenter and conservationist Chris Packham has led calls to the Church of England to commit to re-wilding 30 per cent of its land. 

The call is backed by high profile figures including former Archbishop of Canterbury, Rowan Williams, former cabinet minister Michael Gove, and actor and broadcaster Stephen Fry, as well as 100,000 members of the public. 

The campaign, by the Wild Card group, was launched on the steps of St Paul’s Cathedral in London, where Packham unravelled the ’95 Wild Theses’ – a spin on Martin Luther’s Ninety-five Theses that triggered the Protestant Reformation. 

Read it all.

Posted in Animals, Church of England, Ecology, Energy, Natural Resources, Stewardship

(Bloomberg) “One-in-a-thousand year rainfall event”Helene has Reinsurers Preparing For a Historic Loss

In 2022, Ian caused about $60 billion of insured losses. Milton may result in $60 billion to $75 billion of damages and losses, with some models showing the total reach as much as $150 billion, Chuck Watson, a disaster modeler at Enki Research, said in an X post.

Cat-bond investors may also take a hit from the inland flooding caused by Hurricane Helene. Moody’s RMS estimates that US private-market insured losses from Helene will be $8 billion to $14 billion.

“Helene was a one-in-a-thousand year rainfall event,” said Jonathan Schneyer, director of catastrophe response at CoreLogic Inc., a catastrophe-modeling firm in Irvine, California. “It shows the power of a hurricane further inland.”

Read it all.

Posted in Corporations/Corporate Life, Natural Disasters: Earthquakes, Tornadoes, Hurricanes, etc.

(Unherd) Malcolm Kekyune–Hurricane Helene is America’s Chernobyl moment–The tragedy exposes the weakness of the US military

Currently, a hurricane disaster that is significantly more challenging than Katrina is being serviced by something like a third of the resources that Louisiana called upon. And yet few people in Washington even think this is a problem. At the same time as Congress has borrowed another 10 or 20 billion dollars to hand over to Ukraine and Israel, presidential candidate Kamala Harris has announced that the victims of Helene will be able to apply for $750 in relief assistance to help them get back on their feet.

As Chernobyl was, Helene is now becoming: a point at which the sheer absurdity and uselessness of the machine becomes too obvious to ignore. Looking at the disaster unfolding in Appalachia, the winners of the Cold War are now starting to ask the same question that eventually brought down the Soviet Union: what the hell is even the point of all of this anymore?

Read it all.

Posted in America/U.S.A., Natural Disasters: Earthquakes, Tornadoes, Hurricanes, etc.

The Canticle of the Sun for Saint Francis of Assisi’s Feast Day

Most high, all powerful, all good Lord!
All praise is Yours, all glory, all honor, and all blessing.

To You, alone, Most High, do they belong.
No mortal lips are worthy to pronounce Your name.

Be praised, my Lord, through all Your creatures,
especially through my lord Brother Sun,
who brings the day; and You give light through him.
And he is beautiful and radiant in all his splendor!
Of You, Most High, he bears the likeness.

Be praised, my Lord, through Sister Moon and the stars;
in the heavens You have made them bright, precious and beautiful.

Posted in Animals, Church History, Energy, Natural Resources, Liturgy, Music, Worship, Poetry & Literature

(Bloomberg) American Dams Weren’t Built for Today’s Climate-Charged Rain and Floods

As flooding hammered Appalachia in the aftermath of Hurricane Helene, residents became intimately familiar with a new norm in the US’s post-storm script: dams at imminent risk of failing.

Officials last week said multiple dams were on the brink, including Tennessee’s Nolichucky Dam and North Carolina’s Walters and Lake Lure dams. People in nearby communities were ordered to evacuate.

Ultimately, the dams held. But the close calls highlighted the stress on the nation’s dams, many of which are more than half a century old and none of which were designed for the higher levels of precipitation brought on by climate change.

Read it all.

Posted in Climate Change, Weather, Ecology, Energy, Natural Resources, Natural Disasters: Earthquakes, Tornadoes, Hurricanes, etc.

(Washington Post) As floods recede after Helene, anguished families wait for answers

The last time they talked, Guadalupe Hernandez said her baby sister, Monica, sent her videos and photos of rising waters surrounding her as she huddled with co-workers on the back of semi truck.

Monica Hernandez, 45, was working at Impact Plastics, near the Nolichucky River, when Hurricane Helene sent a murky rush of floodwater through their small eastern Tennessee town Friday, Guadalupe, 50, said. Hang on, Guadalupe said she reassured Monica, the family was calling 911. Just let them know when she was safe, she told her.

Monica was among five Impact Plastics employees and one contractor reported missing after Helene tore through town.

It was the start of a period of agonizing limbo for Guadalupe and the families of other missing employees, who said they struggled to get information from local officials.

Read it all.

Posted in Children, Death / Burial / Funerals, Marriage & Family, Natural Disasters: Earthquakes, Tornadoes, Hurricanes, etc.

(CT) Widespread Helene Misery Stretches Christian Relief Groups

Devastating hundreds of miles from the Florida Gulf Coast to Georgia to the mountains of North Carolina, Hurricane Helene has created a complicated equation for Christian organizations that are on the frontline of disaster response.

“In my more than 20 years of disaster experience, I can’t think of a time when such a large area was at risk,” Jeff Jellets, the disaster coordinator for The Salvation Army’s work in the South, said in a statement.

Samaritan’s Purse chief operating officer Edward Graham told CT that the organization had to call in equipment and volunteers from its Canadian arm for its hurricane response and even had to adjust some of its overseas work. Just for this disaster, Samaritan’s Purse is operating in Florida, Georgia, and North Carolina.

Read it all.

Posted in America/U.S.A., Charities/Non-Profit Organizations, Natural Disasters: Earthquakes, Tornadoes, Hurricanes, etc., Parish Ministry, Religion & Culture, Stewardship

(CT) Widespread Helene Misery Stretches Christian Relief Groups

D

evastating hundreds of miles from the Florida Gulf Coast to Georgia to the mountains of North Carolina, Hurricane Helene has created a complicated equation for Christian organizations that are on the frontline of disaster response.

“In my more than 20 years of disaster experience, I can’t think of a time when such a large area was at risk,” Jeff Jellets, the disaster coordinator for The Salvation Army’s work in the South, said in a statement.

Samaritan’s Purse chief operating officer Edward Graham told CT that the organization had to call in equipment and volunteers from its Canadian arm for its hurricane response and even had to adjust some of its overseas work. Just for this disaster, Samaritan’s Purse is operating in Florida, Georgia, and North Carolina.

Read it all.

Posted in Charities/Non-Profit Organizations, Natural Disasters: Earthquakes, Tornadoes, Hurricanes, etc., Stewardship

(Local paper) Helene pummeled parts of SC with wicked winds and driving rain; at least 19 people died.

More than 1.3 million South Carolina businesses and households were without power at one point during the storm, according to PowerOutage.US. It could take until the middle of next week for power to be fully restored across the state, said officials from Dominion Energy, Duke Energy and Santee Cooper. A final timeline for the work remained unclear, as crews had only just begun to make assessments of damage at noon Sept. 27.

Of those outages, about half were in six Upstate counties, including all 12,000 residents of Fountain Inn.

SC Dominion Energy President Keller Kissam compared the widespread outages to those caused by Hurricane Hugo in 1989. 

“Life is not gonna be back to normal until probably the middle of next week from a power standpoint, just because of the sheer damage that we have,” Kissam said.

Read it all.

Posted in * South Carolina, Natural Disasters: Earthquakes, Tornadoes, Hurricanes, etc., Weather

Lost Power for over 12 hours in Helene

Nothing like having no electricty to make you appreciate its importance–KSH.

Posted in * Admin, * By Kendall, * South Carolina, Weather

A pretty Lowcountry South Carolina Morning

Posted in * By Kendall, * South Carolina, Photos/Photography

(NYT) A Mammoth First: 52,000-Year-Old DNA, in 3-D

In 2018 an international team of scientists — from labs in Houston, Copenhagen, Barcelona and beyond — got their hands on a remarkable biological specimen: a skin sample from a 52,000-year-old woolly mammoth that had been recovered from the permafrost in Siberia. They probed the sample with an innovative experimental technique that revealed the three-dimensional architecture of the mammoth’s genome. The resulting paper was published on Thursday in the journal Cell.

Hendrik Poinar, an evolutionary geneticist at McMaster University in Canada, was “floored” — the technique had successfully captured the original geometry of long stretches of DNA, a feat never before accomplished with an ancient DNA sample. “It’s absolutely beautiful,” said Dr. Poinar, who reviewed the paper for the journal.

The typical method for extracting ancient DNA from fossils, Dr. Poinar said, is still “kind of cave man.” It produces short fragments of code composed of a four-letter molecular alphabet: A (adenine), G (guanine), C (cytosine), T (thymine). An organism’s full genome resides in cell nuclei, in long, unfragmented DNA strands called chromosomes. And, vitally, the genome is three-dimensional; as it dynamically folds with fractal complexity, its looping points of contact help dictate gene activity.

“To have the actual architectural structure of the genome, which suggests gene expression patterns, that’s a whole other level,” Dr. Poinar said.

Read it all.

Posted in Animals, History, Science & Technology

(NYT Magazine) The Mysterious, Deep-Dwelling Microbes That Sculpt Our Planet

Scientists like [Magdalena] Osburn have shown that, contrary to long-held assumptions, Earth’s interior is not barren. In fact, a majority of the planet’s microbes, perhaps more than 90 percent, may live deep un­derground. These intraterrestrial microbes tend to be quite different from their counterparts on the surface. They are ancient and slow, re­producing infrequently and possibly living for millions of years. They often acquire energy in unusual ways, breathing rock instead of oxy­gen. And they seem capable of weathering geological cataclysms that would annihilate most creatures. Like the many tiny organisms in the ocean and atmosphere, the unique microbes within Earth’s crust do not simply inhabit their surroundings; they transform them. Subsurface microbes carve vast caverns, concentrate minerals and precious metals and regulate the global cycling of carbon and nutrients. Microbes may even have helped construct the continents, literally laying the ground­work for all other terrestrial life.

Like so much about Earth’s earliest history, exactly where and when life first emerged is not definitively known. At some point not long after our planet’s genesis, in some warm, wet pocket with the right chemistry and an adequate flow of free energy — a hot spring, an impact crater, a hydrothermal vent on the ocean floor — bits of Earth rearranged themselves into the first self-replicating entities, which eventually evolved into cells. Evidence from the fossil record and chemical analysis of the oldest rocks ever discovered indicate that microbial life existed at least 3.5 billion years ago and possibly as far back as 4.2 billion years ago.

Among all living creatures, the peculiar microbes that dwell deep within the planet’s crust today may most closely resemble some of the earliest single-celled organisms that ever existed. Collectively, these subsurface microbes make up an estimated 10 to 20 percent of the biomass — that is, all the living matter — on Earth. Yet until the mid-20th century, most scientists did not think subterranean life of any kind was plausible below a few meters.

Read it all.

Posted in Animals, Ecology, Energy, Natural Resources, Globalization, History, Science & Technology

(C of E) Communities set to celebrate all creatures great and small in churchyards

Parishes and Communities across England can now register for a week-long event in June to celebrate wildlife in churchyards and cemeteries.

From wildflowers to insects, birds and mammals, all creatures great and small have found a haven in the UK’s burial grounds for centuries as the land has been largely undisturbed.

During Love Your Burial Ground Week and Churches Count on Nature (June 8-16) everyone is invited to explore these special places and help survey what they find.

Organised by Caring for God’s Acre and supported by the Church of England, the Church of Wales and A Rocha UK, the week-long initiative comes on the back of the Church of England’s commitment made at the General Synod in February to promote and record the biodiversity in its churchyards.

Read it all.

Posted in Animals, Church of England, Energy, Natural Resources, Parish Ministry

(C of E) Peterborough Cathedral hosts magnificent photographic ‘Portraits’ of all 42 English Anglican Cathedrals by the late Magnum Photographer Peter Marlow

Opening 14 years to the day since the late Magnum photographer, Peter Marlow photographed it, Peterborough Cathedral, UK, one of the finest Norman cathedrals in Europe, will host the next stage in the ambitious tour of Peter Marlow: The English Cathedral. This free and exceptional photographic exhibition chronicles the naves of all 42 of England’s Anglican cathedrals in natural light with any modern artificial light turned off and is on show from 14 May – 13 June 2024.

Organised by the Peter Marlow Foundation, the charity set up to continue Peter’s legacy, the aim is that this ethereal collection of images will exhibit at each of the 42 cathedrals he visited on his photographic pilgrimage across England. The exhibition at Peterborough Cathedral will be on display in the Presbytery during normal cathedral opening hours. The Cathedral website has details of when the site is closed for services and private events – www.peterborough-cathedral.org.uk

Founded as a monastic community in 654 AD, Peterborough Cathedral became one of the most significant medieval abbeys in the country, the burial place of two notable historic queens (Henry VIII’s first wife, Katharine of Aragon, and their daughter Mary, Queen of Scots) and the scene of Civil War upheavals. Its beautiful painted nave ceiling dating from the 13th century, shown clearly in Peter’s photographic portrait of the cathedral, is the largest painted ceiling of its age in Europe. Comprising a series of 57 detailed lozenge shapes, it depicts a range of figures and scenes including saints, kings, bishops or archbishops, representations of the Liberal Arts (music, geometry, logic, grammar, rhetoric, arithmetic and astronomy), as well as an intriguing study of a monkey talking to an owl while riding backwards on a goat.

Read it all.

Posted in Church of England, Parish Ministry, Photos/Photography

Terrific Church Times Article about 3 dads walking’ to raise awareness of young suicide.

“The whole world changed colour when I lost Beth,” Mr Palmer says. “People call it devastation: it’s too small a word. I was completely shattered. It was like being smashed to the ground.

“I was a firefighter [at Manchester Airport]. I’d spent years and years dealing with life-and-death situations. I taught trauma to first responders, and was very often on the other end of a defib. But losing my little girl just destroyed me.”

Feeling suicidal himself, he couldn’t talk to his family and couldn’t work, he says. The only thing that got him out of bed in the early days was his dog, Monty, whom he walked in the middle of the night so that he didn’t have to meet people. “I was in an awful place. But little things started happening.”

He felt compelled to write a journal — something that he had never done before — and discovered this to be an outlet for his anger and despair. He asked for help, and found good people in a counsellor, a local suicide-bereavement service, and the airport chaplain, George Lane.

Read it all (registration or subscription).

Posted in Animals, Anthropology, Books, Children, Death / Burial / Funerals, Marriage & Family, Pastoral Theology, Psychology, Suicide, Teens / Youth, Young Adults

(Telegraph) Jerry Seinfeld blames ‘extreme Left’ for killing TV comedy

The 70-year-old added: “With certain comedians now, people are having fun with them stepping over the line, and us all laughing about it.

“But again, it’s the stand-ups that really have the freedom to do it because no one else gets the blame if it doesn’t go down well.”

Seinfeld has previously said he had been warned not to perform his act at colleges because “they’re so PC”.

Students “just want to use these words – ‘that’s racist, that’s sexist, that’s prejudiced’”, he said, adding: “They don’t know what the hell they’re talking about.”

Read it all.

Posted in * Culture-Watch, Humor / Trivia, Movies & Television