• The Dr. Billy G. Ingram memorial service will be this Friday, March 18th, at 11:00 a.m. at the West Angeles Church of God in Christ located at 3600 Crenshaw Blvd. The family is asking in lieu of flowers, please make donations to "The Billy G. Ingram Legacy Educational Fund" online at maranathala.org.
400-408 – Mike Huckabee (mikehuckabee.com), former Governor of Arkansas and presidential candidate, host of Huckabee on the Fox News Channel, ordained Southern Baptist Minister, musician, and author of several books, including his latest, Simple Government. Mike and Janet have been married for 36 years, and have three grown children: John Mark, David, and Sarah.
413-423 – Jeff Vines, senior pastor of Christ's Church of the Valley (ccvsocal.com), and Marcus Greene, President and Founder of Faith's Hope (faithshope.com), introduce us to Adrianna Lizaola, a 14-year-old girl who is fighting for her life in her battle against systemic sclerodoma – an auto-immune disease which thickens the membranes of her internal organs (heart, lungs, kidneys and digestive tract). Adrianna needs $30,000 for cord-blood stem-cell transplant that they hope will take place next week in Seattle – even the doctors say it is a "leap of faith." She'll be away from home for about 6 months. To donate, call Faith's Hope at (866) 490-4673.
428-437 – Adrianna Lizaola, and her mom Scarlett (and two sisters at home, 2 Keira, 8 Katerina).
443-452 – Adrianna Lizaola.
458-508 – Hugh Ross, founder and president of Reasons to Believe (reasons.org), is both an astrophysicist (PhD Astronomy, University of Toronto, and post-doc research at Cal Tech), and a pastor at Sierra Madre Congregational Church. The author of over a dozen books, including his latest, now in paperback, Why The Universe Is The Way It Is.
• Hugh Ross (3/11/2011) Natural Disasters Demonstrate Fine-tuning.
Astronomer Hugh Ross comments on the massive earthquake and resulting tsunami in Japan on this Science News Flash podcast. He notes that in Earth's 4.5 billion-year history, tectonic activity was much more violent in the past, and has been fine-tuned for humanity's arrival. Without plate tectonics (earthquakes), Earth would not be a habitable planet. Hugh also mentions that Japan––heeding the biblical admonition in Matthew 7:24 to build one's house on a solid foundation––was as prepared as a nation could be for such a devastating natural disaster. Yet, as a pastor, Hugh senses the sorrow and pain of the loss of many lives. RTB offers ongoing prayers and supports efforts to assist the hurting.
• Mail Online (3/14/2011) Japan's nightmare gets even WORSE: All THREE damaged nuclear reactors now in 'meltdown' at tsunami-hit power station.
512-523 – Hugh Ross,
528-539 – Hugh Ross,
544-554 – Hugh Ross,
558-608 – •• William Tucker (WSJ, 3/14/2011) Japan Does Not Face Another Chernobyl. The containment structures appear to be working, and the latest reactor designs aren't vulnerable to the coolant problem at issue here. Mr. Tucker is author of "Terrestrial Energy: How Nuclear Power Will Lead the Green Revolution and End America's Energy Odyssey" (Bartleby Press, 2010).
• WSJ Editorial (3/14/2011) Nuclear Overreactions. Modern life requires learning from disasters, not fleeing all risk.
// We have no special brief for nuclear power over any other energy source. Our view is that it should compete with other sources on a market basis, without subsidies or government loan guarantees. Every energy source has risks and economic externalities, whether they are noise and bird kills (wind), huge land requirements (solar), rig explosions and tanker spills (oil), or mining accidents (coal). //
// Our larger point is less about nuclear power than how we react as a society to inevitable disasters, both natural and man-made. Because a plane crashes, we don't stop flying. Because an oil rig explodes in the Gulf, we don't (or at least we shouldn't) stop drilling for oil. And because the Challenger space shuttle blew up, we didn't stop shuttle flights—though we do seem to have lost much of our national will for further manned space exploration. We should learn from the Japanese nuclear crisis, not let it feed a political panic over nuclear power in general.
612-623 – • Mail Online (3/13/2011) Miracle of the baby girl plucked from the rubble: Four-month-old reunited with her father after incredible rescue.
• Ed West (Telegraph, 3/14/2011) Why is there no looting in Japan?
The landscape of parts of Japan looks like the aftermath of World War Two; no industrialized country since then has suffered such a death toll. The one tiny, tiny consolation is the extent to which it shows how humanity can rally round in times of adversity, with heroic British rescue teams joining colleagues from the US and elsewhere to fly out.
And solidarity seems especially strong in Japan itself. Perhaps even more impressive than Japan's technological power is its social strength, with supermarkets cutting prices and vending machine owners giving out free drinks as people work together to survive. Most noticeably of all, there has been no looting, and I'm not the only one curious about this.
This is quite unusual among human cultures, and it's unlikely it would be the case in Britain. During the 2007 floods in the West Country abandoned cars were broken into and free packs of bottled water were stolen. There was looting in Chile after the earthquake last year – so much so that troops were sent in; in New Orleans, Hurricane Katrina saw looting on a shocking scale.
Why do some cultures react to disaster by reverting to everyone for himself, but others – especially the Japanese – display altruism even in adversity?
628-639 – Calls – Why do you think there is no looting in Japan?
644-656 – Calls – Why do you think there is no looting in Japan?
