The Thrill of the Bungee Jump

Comfort Food
Read the Bible in a year: Genesis 25-26, Psalm 31, Matthew 16

I watched a video clip of a bungee jumper recently, whose cord looped around his neck. He was more than likely already dead when his friends were calling for him to take the noose off his neck and to lift his knees. This came hard on the heels of a shallow-thinking woman who jumped off a bridge in South Africa. When the cord broke, the company lamented that they had had 150,000 jumps without incident. I would think one was about due. I hope more people watch the clips of cords snapping, and that more will check out the statistics of how many people die when jumping from high places (base-jumping and sky-diving). It may put some sense into them. If you’re a Christian and you are tempted to jump, instead of catering to your thrill-seeking ego, think of someone else other than yourself. Think of those who love you and those for whom you are responsible. This injudicious world doesn’t know any better. You should. Think of the more than 150,000 people who die every 24 hours, and if you want a thrill, get up on a soapbox and tell dying sinners how to find everlasting life. That will kill your ego.

Dessert
Copying Whale Fins

The humpback whale’s flippers have inspired the development of WhalePower turbine blades, providing agility in the water. Their bumps, called tubercles, allow many applications in turbines, irrigation pumps, ventilation fans and hydroelectric turbines. Smooth surface fins are less effective than the humpback’s bumpy fins. The bumps provide 32% less drag and an increase of 8% in their lift through air or water. Wind power can become 20% more efficient with such blades.

“Nothing teaches us about the preciousness of the Creator as much as when we learn the emptiness of everything else.” ― Charles H. Spurgeon