Blog

The Sheep and the Goats

The other day I reading the following in Matthew 25:

31 "But when the Son of Man comes in His glory, and all the angels with Him, then He will sit on His glorious throne. 32 "All the nations will be gathered before Him; and He will separate them from one another, as the shepherd separates the sheep from the goats; 33 and He will put the sheep on His right, and the goats on the left. 34 "Then the King will say to those on His right, 'Come, you who are blessed of My Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world. 35' For I was hungry, and you gave Me something to eat; I was thirsty, and you gave Me something to drink; I was a stranger, and you invited Me in; 36 naked, and you clothed Me; I was sick, and you visited Me; I was in prison, and you came to Me.' 37 "Then the righteous will answer Him, 'Lord, when did we see You hungry, and feed You, or thirsty, and give You something to drink? 38 'And when did we see You a stranger, and invite You in, or naked, and clothe You? 39' When did we see You sick, or in prison, and come to You?' 40 "The King will answer and say to them, 'Truly I say to you, to the extent that you did it to one of these brothers of Mine, even the least of them, you did it to Me.' 41 "Then He will also say to those on His left, 'Depart from Me, accursed ones, into the eternal fire which has been prepared for the devil and his angels; 42 for I was hungry, and you gave Me nothing to eat; I was thirsty, and you gave Me nothing to drink; 43 I was a stranger, and you did not invite Me in; naked, and you did not clothe Me; sick, and in prison, and you did not visit Me.' 44 "Then they themselves also will answer, 'Lord, when did we see You hungry, or thirsty, or a stranger, or naked, or sick, or in prison, and did not take care of You?' 45 "Then He will answer them, 'Truly I say to you, to the extent that you did not do it to one of the least of these, you did not do it to Me.' 46 "These will go away into eternal punishment, but the righteous into eternal life."

Reflecting on these verses, I asked myself the question: "How often in the recent past have I done any of these things...fed the hungry and thirsty, took in a stranger, clothed the naked? How often in my life? Of course, I've done these things, but is my life characterized by such? No. Are these the things I'm teaching my kids to do? No. I need to change.

Local Solutions Not Suitable for Global Issues

From an editorial of the same title by William Falk in the current issue of The Week:

To accurately calculate a product's carbon impact, they found, you have to go beyond "food miles"-the distance that kiwi or artichoke-flecked sausage traveled before reaching your table-and figure in how much fertilizer, transported water, electricity, and other energy was used to produce it. Lamb raised on New Zealand's sunnier, grassier hills and shipped 11,000 miles to Britain, the study found, produced a mere 1,520 pounds of carbon emissions per ton. "Local" British lamb, which requires more intensive care, produced 6,280 pounds-four times as much. As if that heresy were not upsetting enough, a British scientist has calculated that walking to the store contributes more to global warming than driving a car. Walking, it seems, burns calories, which have to be replaced by eating food. And producing food-especially beef and dairy products-is more carbon-intensive than burning a smidgen of gasoline, particularly since ruminating cattle emit so much methane.

It was funny when I read that today because I had just finished listening to a Science Friday segment where the guests were emphasizing the virtues of locally-grown food. There is a New York times op-ed that argues, based on the New Zealand study, that buying local food isn't always best for the environment here. Response letters are here. An article about walking vs driving is here. This reminds me of a talk I heard by a professor within a month or so of joining Dow (fall 1999). He had done an analysis that showed, at least for a particular case, creating fuel from crops was a net energy drain primarily because of the energy used to make fertilizer.

Spotted Wearing Black Crocs

Man of the Year

200px-Man_of_The_Year_(2006_film).jpgLast night we watched Man of the Year (2006,PG-13) (ScreenIt! Review). From Wikipedia:

Man of the Year is a political comedy movie directed by Barry Levinson and featuring Robin Williams in the lead role. In addition to Williams, the film features Christopher Walken, Laura Linney, Lewis Black and Jeff Goldblum. In the film, Williams portrays Tom Dobbs, the host of a comedy/political talk show, based loosely on the real-life personas of Jon Stewart and Bill Maher. With an offhand remark, he prompts 4 million people to e-mail their support, then he decides to campaign for President. To nearly everyone's surprise, he is declared winner of the election.

I really liked the scene where the film explores what would happen if a presidential candidate refused to behave during a debate. Robin Williams, of course, had a bunch of funny one-liners. Otherwise, I thought it fell pretty flat. It should have skipped the suspenseful plot and played further with Dobbs' presidency. I give it 3 out of 5.

Pages

Theme by Danetsoft and Danang Probo Sayekti inspired by Maksimer