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Now it's a curious thing, but the official Kilogram (the standard from which the measurement is derived) is losing mass.
Not much, very little in fact, but there's really no good explanation for it. Not yet. Perhaps some of the platinum/iridium used to make it have evaporated, although that doesn't sound like something that metal does. Not over as small a time as 100 years. Maybe it wasn't initially wasn't measured correctly, but I think that possibility would have been raised already and accounted for.
No, it seems that it's gradually losing weight. Minuscule amounts, the weight of a thumbprint, year after year.
Which, as it's so far unexplained, begs some speculation....
Perhaps it's not the mass of the Kilogram that's changing, but the attraction of the mass to the earth (gravity)?
Is it just the Kilogram that's changing, or are all things on earth and throughout the universe losing mass? Is it accelerating? Could it be the expansion of the universe is somehow manifest in the expansion of all things, the weakening of the bonds of matter and hence the universe?
It's a small thing, a small loss, but it raises some possibly big questions.
Further reading: USA TODAY, Science Daily, Wiki on the Kilogram
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In some cultures, prayers are held to have an intrinsic meaning.
It is not the telling, or reciting of the prayer, the prayer exists on it's own, separate from the prayer (prayer, the recitation or written expression thereof, exists separately from the one who tells it...).
And this existence, the intrinsic existence of the prayer, influences the universe for the better, it can be replicated, multiplied and even mechanized.
The most notable examples are the Tibetans, with their branch of Buddhism that allows for prayer flags (prayers are carried from the flags by the winds), prayer wheels (spinning the wheel releases the prayer contained on both the outside and wound round the shaft of the wheel), there are other examples as well.
In Catholicism the saying of the rosaries would be equivalent, but only very roughly, for the church has not given sanction to machines to say rosaries, they must be said by the faithful, and the repetition of them, while apparently mechanical, is also contemplative and meditative. Whereas the blowing of flags by the wind, or spinning of unseen wheels by machines or people could not be said to be either.
I find this curious.
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I came across this one while surfing the net:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oJfBSc6e7QQ&feature=youtu.be
Curious, as it's not something that one generally thinks of. Well, I have, but never to the point of making a video....
The point of it is this: The earth is expanding, which explains the similarities between fossils, etc.
Note that Pangea and the theory of Continental Drift also explains the same thing, the author of the video has merely taken the Big Bang theory and applied it to it's constituent parts, on a much reduced time scale.
Now the author doesn't explain (at least in his video) where the extra earth mass is coming from, or why it should be expanding, but these are merely trifles, if you're curious and need further explanation he does so via simple colorful cartoons at his website: http://www.nealadams.com. And if you were, even for a second, thinking he might be onto something the website should persuade you otherwise ...
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To renounce acquaintance. There are four sorts of cut -
- The cut direct is to stare an acquaintance in the face and pretend not to know him.
- The cut indirect, to look another way, and pretend not to see him.
- The cut sublime, to admire the top of some tall edifice or the clouds of heaven till the person cut has passed by.
- The cut infernal, to stoop and adjust your boots till the party has gone past.
There is a very remarkable Scripture illustration of the word cut, meaning to renounce: “Jehovah took a staff and cut it asunder, in token that He would break His covenant with His people; and He cut another staff asunder, in token that He would break the brotherhood between Judah and Israel” (Zech. xi. 7–14).
E. Cobham Brewer 1810–1897. Dictionary of Phrase and Fable. 1898
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An interesting idea that has somewhat intrigued me.
The principal forms of prayer (as recognized by the Catholic church).
Blessing & Adoration
Basically worshiping God.
Petition
Asking God for favors.
Intercession
Asking God for favors on behalf of others.
Thanksgiving
Finally thanking God for all the things we have to be grateful for.
Praise
Telling G. what he/she already knows. See Blessing & Adoration or Thanksgiving.
Meditation
Simply meditating & contemplating God. Perhaps similar to Blessing & Adoration, but I don't think the blessings, our blessings, have any relevance. Simply put it is communion with God, similar in essence to the Buddhists view of meditation....
Now there are only 4 that I remember, yet somehow I have 7 listed. Blessing & Adoration, Praise, & Meditation might be placed all together...