Can the United States Defeat ISIS? What Time Is It Anyway? Vote For Wildlife. Where Am I? Update.

 

For "Scripture Sunday":

Can the United States Defeat ISIS?

A U.S. Navy F/A-18E Super Hornet aircraft sits on the flight deck of the aircraft carrier USS Carl Vinson on Oct. 16, 2014, as the ship supports Inherent Resolve.

"One pressing issue facing the United States is the ISIS threat. What are the options available to the U.S., and is it possible for a coalition to defeat ISIS?

The rise of ISIS (the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria) has captured the attention of many in the United States and the world for the last several months. The debate continues about whether or not ISIS can be defeated solely by the coalition’s air power (supporting Iraqi and Kurdish forces) or if American ground troops must again be sent into Iraq.

According to Speaker of the House John Boehner, “At the end of the day, I think it’s gonna take more than air strikes to drive them outta there.”

More recently, Senator John McCain said that ground troops, or at least special forces, should be sent in to defeat ISIS because “they’re winning, and we’re not.”"   More at: http://lifehopeandtruth.com/prophecy/blog/can-the-united-states-defeat-isis/  by Joshua Travers - October 27, 2014

_______

What Time Is It Anyway?

"Oh, hi there. I was running out of paper, so I thought I would slice off one end of this sheet and put it on the other end. But it doesn’t seem to be working. I still don’t seem to have any more paper.

If it doesn’t work for this piece of paper, would it work if we tried it with something else? What if we tried it with a day? Could we cut off an hour on one end of the day and add it to the other end and end up with a longer day? Actually, we would not be any more successful than we were with the paper.

Yet every spring in much of the Western world we go through this process. We call it Daylight Savings Time. We really don’t change the day—the sun still rises and sets on schedule—but we try to trick ourselves by changing the time on our clocks.

Most nations have tried using some version of Daylight Savings Time, but most have found it confusing, and it’s primarily the nations of the Western world that continue to use it."  Complete article at: http://lifehopeandtruth.com/speaking-of/what-time-is-it-anyway/

_______

Manatees Don’t Vote,  But You Do.

Vote for Wildlife on Election Day

"Why have record-breaking numbers of manatees recently been dying in Florida?  800 this year!
In part because some of the conservation funds that should be protecting important streams, wetlands, forests, and beaches have been taken away from conserving these critical habitat areas. Nutrient runoff may be contributing to deadly outbreaks of red tide.
Wildlife across the country need help. In every state, in every district, we urgently need friends of wildlife like you to stand up and fight back against injustices like this.

In states and cities throughout the country, measures that protect wildlife are up for a vote this Election Day. So are candidates who stand for—and against—wildlife interests.

A lot is at stake—healthy habitat for manatees, wetlands protections for great blue herons, limiting carbon pollution from power plants, restoring wild bison to their habitat, and so much more.

Manatees, great blue herons and all wildlife can’t vote, but you can!

------

Who cares about innocent animals in fear.

Who cares about fair chase.

Who cares that there’s so few of them left.

Who cares about the health of the ecosystem.

Who cares if he's so desperate to get free he gnaws off his own paw.

Who cares about those cubs, now orphaned and alone.

Who cares if you have a say.

Who cares about bears.

Who cares about wolves.

Who cares about this election.

"There are 636 wolves left in Michigan. They just came off the Endangered Species list. But like a bad dream, the trophy hunters who want to re-open a killing season on them are hoping for a green light in three days.

The bear baiters, houndsmen, and trappers across the country have been working tirelessly—and they’re only going to turn up the heat over the next 72 hours—to keep Maine a virtual “do-as-you-please” zone when it comes to killing bears with extreme methods. One of those methods is setting traps for the bears, in which the animals can languish in agony for up to 24 before they're shot at close range, execution-style. When it happens to mother bears, their cubs are abandoned, left to fend for themselves in the woods. It's appalling."  Please vote for Wildlife.

_______

Where Am I? An App for Frequent Travelers

"Ever ask someone to write down a local phone number, and later notice they didn’t include the area code? Or how about watching a weather alert that tells you about a tornado warning in xxxyyy county? If you travel all the time like we do, you have no idea what county you’re in, or what the area code is for local phone numbers.  Now you do! All you need to do is tap the icon for an App called “Where Am I?” and all the information in the screenshot here will be displayed.

We use this all the time,mostly for the county name, zip code, and sunset/sunrise time. It’s so simple!

Another feature that could come in very handy in an emergency, is the ability to tap on the share icon and send your location to a friend via email. If your friend opens it on their smartphone, they can tap on your location and Google Maps will navigate there!

• App Name: Where Am I?
• Author: Ejelta LLC
• Price: Free
• Available for Android (a similar, but not as complete, App is available for iOS: Where am I at?)

To learn more about Smartphones and Tablets, watch the Geeks on Tour weekly show: What Does This Button Do?

_________

Update:

As Ray's squatter went out of town (no, not arrested yet) we tore up the floor in one of his closets because we were looking for a grey water drain leak.  We found it, but there was a big beam right on top of the drain line. It looked like the PVC pipe had come out of the fitting.  So Ray and I went to the hardware store, but there was no way that it could be fixed the conventional way.  Jay came the next day, cut a floor joist out of the way, and temporarily patched the leak with some auto gasket material and universal clamps.  Until we can find a more permanent solution we put a piece of plywood over the hole in the floor so we can inspect it. So far it is holding, but we don't want to leave it the way it is. 

Another day, we fixed Ray's temperamental kitchen faucet, and replaced the trim on the floor of his utility room.  We also took a lot of measurements, because as soon as we know for sure that there won't be any interference, we are going to enlarge his kitchen.

Ray and I went back into town and snared a used car inner tube, so we are going to use some of that to fix the drain leak with the universal clamps. Then we will wrap it with wide Eternabond. 

At church, the readings were Gen 12:1-17:27 and Isa 40:27-41:16 and the teaching was about Revelation.  The potluck was great as usual, and we all had a great day.