Hoto Toto Haiku

Eric Berger, the Chronicle Sci-Guy, posts on his blog about the benefits of probiotics for overall digestive health. Maybe taking a cue from those crafty San Antonians, he asks his readers to submit haiku on the poo/loo in order win a free sample of probiotics.

He also discusses the projected shuttle launch schedule, which may be delayed due to the "beta blockout". During the winter and summer soltice, the International Space Station is at its closest to the sun due to the obliquity of the eclipitic (my favorite new term of the day), which is the 23 degree tilt of the earth. Due to the alignment required to get proper benefit of the ISS's solar power panels, the shuttle would be docked to the ISS such that max temperatures reach unacceptable levels.

Angle of attack

Is difficult to manage

Space and loo alike.

The mural of the story

It is said that a picture paints a thousand words. Eric Berger has a link to this website that offers a range of short surveys that evaluate perspective on a variety of topics: religion, politics,disgustedness, and nature. It also offers a personality inventory. The site collects data from survey results in order to correlate political persuasion (conservative, liberal, etc.) with various other perspectives.

The lesson today in the high school Sunday School class in which I participate covered 1 Corinthians 8. Paul is addressing the concern in the church he founded in Corinth regarding eating sacrificial meat. Christianity hasn't observed sacrificial offerings for centuries, so it's difficult in the 21st century to understand the context of Paul's comments.

I apply Paul's lesson as a reminder of how to win friends and influence people. We are today blasted by more attempts at influence from more varied sources than any time in history. Few of us (at least in the US of A) make it through a day without seeing a billboard, a TV ad, or some other media attempting to convince us how to spend our time and money. We all influence and are influenced in ever increasing and creative forms.

As disciples, Christians are asked to set a good example, to be penitent and forgiving, and to love God and their neighbor. To do so requires honest self awareness. Below is my personality assessment. The green bars are me, the purple bars are all other respondents. So, I am pretty much middle of the road compared to the others who completed the survey. Since I don't know who completed it, I don't know if this is a good picture of me and society or not. Comments?