Ben Underwood, a 14-year-old from Sacramento, California, has completely blown me away. This young man lost both of this eyes to cancer when he was two, but he hasn’t let his “handicap” slow him down in the slightest. Ben has taught himself to use echolocation to know what’s around him. He’s truly amazing. Watch this video, and remember Ben next time you hear someone say “can’t”.
[See the video from CBS]
[Read The Boy Who Sees With Sound from People Magazine]
Seems like the perfect gift for the guy who has everything and spends most of his reading time with his head on a pillow. Other readers in the past caused problems with eye strain; the screens were illuminated to let you see them in the dark (or, really, see them at all.) But Sony and MIT have solved that problem. The new PRS-500 inflicts no more eyestrain than your typical paperback. That’s because MIT-developed E-ink doesn’t glow like the backlit LCD screen on your computer monitor. Instead it uses microcapsules filled with oppositely charged black & white nanoparticles. Even better, the e-book reader can hold hundreds of books, and, thanks to those cool little nanoparticles, has a nearly inexhaustible battery.
What pictures will my son remember when he comes to the plan granite marker over his father’s grave? What will my daughters remember? Or my wife?
I’ve resolved to give fewer lectures, to send fewer platitudes rolling their way, to give less criticism, to offer fewer opinions. From now on, I’ll give them pictures they can live by. Pictures that can comfort them, encourage them, and keep them warm in my absence.
Because when I’m gone, there will only be silence. And memories. Of all I could give to make their lives a little fuller, a little richer, a little more prepared for the journey ahead of them, nothing compares to the gift of remembrance. Pictures that show they are special, and that they are loved. Pictures that will be there when I am not. Pictures that have within them a redemption all their own.
– Ken Gire
I’m told this picture was taken in Marshall, IL, but truly, regardless of where it was taken, someone *really* needs to be fired.
If you can get out of bed, that is. I stepped out into the driveway this morning at 6am on my way to a meeting (a meeting, incidentally, that is actually scheduled for next Friday, but that’s a different matter.) I paused in the driveway long enough to gaze up at Orion and marvel at the splendor of God’s creation. I thought for just a moment that it was clear and dark enough to see a shooting star. And it was then that I thought of Halley’s comet.
As comets travel in their orbits, they’re constantly in a state of degrading, leaving dust and specks of matter behind. This trailing debris of comets like Halley appear to us in the form of shooting stars. Though Halley’s comet only comes around itself for viewing every 76 years, the orbit of Halley’s comet closely approaches the Earth’s orbit at two places. Once in May, creating the Eta Aquarids, and in October, producing the Orionids. This year, we have the fortunate timing of a new moon on the 22nd, meaning the sky should be dark enough for a great view.
According to Space.com, “the best time to watch begins from 1 or 2 a.m. local daylight time until around dawn, when the shower’s radiant (in Orion’s upraised club, just north of the bright red star, Betelegeuse) is highest above the horizon. The higher the radiant, the more meteors appear all over the sky. The Orionids are one of just a handful of known meteor showers that can be observed equally well from both the Northern and Southern Hemispheres.”
Happy viewing!
[More information about the Orionid Showers and Halley’s Comet]