Eye on Faith

Sunday, June 14, 2015

Hillary Clinton: Cupcakes and Corinthians

Hostess with the Mostess? (Public Domain)

Even a presidential candidate has got to eat, and what’s a meal without some dessert?

While recently on the campaign trail in South Carolina, Hillary Clinton therefore ducked into a bakery for some cupcakes.

While there, she noticed that a fellow customer was studying the Bible. Clinton walked over and and asked what section he was focused upon.

The man, Rev. Frederick Donnie Hunt, answered that he was reading Corinthians 13. Clinton replied, “Oh I know it well.”

From there, the candidate and minister engaged one another in a brief conversation about the importance of Bible study.

Turns out that Rev. Hunt, who later claimed no foreknowledge of Clinton’s visit to the bakery, is a Democrat who voted twice for Bill Clinton.

Nevertheless, he voted for Obama over Hillary last time around, stating that he had preferred Obama’s “vision” to hers. Apres cupcakes, Rev. Hunt is all for Hillary, explaining: I was really impressed that she knew that particular scripture.

Resources

http://wwrn.org/articles/44625/?place=united-states

Saturday, June 13, 2015

Wagg nabs a planet

'Blue Stragglers' (ESA/NASA photo)

Not that long ago, teenage lads spent their free time fishing for trout.

These days, there are way bigger fish to fry. CNN reports that 15-year-old intern Tom Wagg, who was undergoing a work experience at Keele University in England, “noticed a tiny dip in the light of a star as a planet passed in front of it.”

Turns out that this planet (as big as Jupiter) had not been discovered before. That’s partly because it’s “1,000 light years away.”

Wagg’s find is in the process of being named. It currently goes by the label “WASP-142b.” WASP is an acronym for “Wide Angle Search for Planets,” a Keele University project which “scans millions of stars in night skies.”

Wagg is understandably excited about his “catch.” After all, it’s not every day that you get to hitch your wagon to a star.

Resources

http://www.cnn.com/2015/06/11/europe/intern-discovers-planet/index.html

Friday, June 12, 2015

Christopher Lee: A walk in the dark

Lee as Dracula in 1958 (Public Domain)

For some, life seems like a walk in the park. These are the sunny optimists who see the glass as half-full.

Then there are those who focus on the darker shades of life. You know, 50 and counting…

Christopher Lee seemed to be one of those latter individuals. He once told the Guardian: There is a dark side in all of us. And for us ‘bad’ people, the bad side dominates… We

cannot stop ourselves doing what we are doing.

According to The Hollywood Reporter, Lee found persistent nobility to be somewhat boring. He was “fascinated by the nature of evil,” and perhaps sought answers within his “library of 12,000 books on the occult.”

Lee may have reached deeply into his own dark side in order to portray characters as brilliantly as he did. He was the first to play Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein in living color, and starred as Dracula ten times over.

Sharing a birthday with horror legend Vincent Price just made it all the bloodier. Both were born on May 27^th, Price 11 years before Lee. Lee died recently at the age of 93.

Resources

http://www.msn.com/en-us/movies/news/christopher-lee-legendary-movie-villain-and-horror-icon-dies-at-93/ar-BBkXkal

Thursday, June 11, 2015

LeBron James: Christmas in June

Apple Watches (Public Domain)

Although this King James has not written a Bible, he certainly has the “love one another” part in progress.

When LeBron hands out Apples, they’re more for his pupils than for his teachers. While serving as an unofficial team coach, James recently gifted each one of his fellow Cavaliers with these popular watches.

Teammate J. R. Smith recently reported that “every day it’s something different… sneakers, Beats…, hoodies, book bags.” Smith then added that he “can’t wait to come back next year.”

Behind all these material gifts (which NBA players can certainly afford to buy for themselves) stands the one gift that humans seem to prize above all others: the gift of appreciation.

Whether on the court, or holding court, LeBron is a master at sharing knowledge, wisdom and gratitude with his basketball family.

Dave Daniels of RantSports.com points out that there is one more gift that LeBron has fully shared with them: “the gift of his presence.”

Resources

http://www.msn.com/en-us/sports/nba/cleveland-cavaliers%E2%80%99-lebron-james-wins-over-teammates-with-apple-watches/ar-BBkWePb

Wednesday, June 10, 2015

Obama: Yeah, but did he inhale?

(Photo by Geierunited)

When a recent photo of President Obama showed him to be holding “something roughly cigarette-packed-shaped,” a chain reaction quickly fired up.

Inquiring minds now want to know just what the president was hanging on to. An old habit? Or perhaps just a deck of cards.

It took an ace writer like Philip Bump of The Washington Post to dig down deep into the matter. After mulling over the sordid possibilities, Bump concluded: We are, none of us, without our bad habits… Therefore, for God’s sake, let the man smoke an occasional cigarette if he wants to.

Bump then invited everyone and his brother-in-law to e-mail harangues about “how irresponsible that attitude is.” His only stipulation regarding such complaints was this: Please include your own personal bad habit and what your plan is to kick it.

Resources

http://www.msn.com/en-us/news/politics/let-president-obama-have-a-cigarette-already/ar-BBkT46Z

Tuesday, June 9, 2015

Hopeful Tiger: And why not?

Woods in 2011 (Photo by Angela George)

Life is filled with naysayers. If you buy into their predictions, then you’re flirting with a future of self-fulfilling prophecies.

The “hit ‘em when they’re down” crowd now has its muzzle pointed straight at Tiger Woods. (When LeBron recently proved them wrong, they hunted for a different king to depose.)

In an article titled “Tiger Woods’ game is spinning. So is he,” Dave Sheinin of The Washington Post began with a close-up of Tiger’s “receding hairline and… weary eyes.”

This was soon followed by a litany of critiques, which included everything from Tiger’s now-181^stranking to his “tabloid scandal.”

When Tiger countered with some upbeat statements, they were called “defiant” rather than “hopeful.” After all, what has optimism ever done for anybody?

Plenty. It was LeBron who said: You can’t be afraid to fail. It’s the only way you succeed…

Resources

http://www.msn.com/en-us/sports/golf/tiger-woods%E2%80%99-game-is-spinning-so-is-he/ar-BBkQuOR

Monday, June 8, 2015

Color them categorical

(Photo by MichaelMaggs)

When all is said and done, we humans tend to remember categories more than individuals.

This was especially apparent during a recent study by Jonathan Flombaum, a cognitive psychologist at John Hopkins University.

According to Live Science, Flombaum and his team “conducted four experiments” on how participants perceived various colors.

By asking people to identify different hues, researchers found that “fuzzy naming” was most prevalent near the boundaries between colors. Participants therefore tended to “choose the same shades as the best example of each color.”

These “best example” shades were then seen as representative of the entire color category. In other words, many shades of blue would be cognitively lumped together under the umbrella of the “best example” shade of blue. Sort of like: “You’ve seen one blue, you’ve seen them all…”

Flombaum therefore concluded: In general, we tend to remember things as more similar to our expectations of how those things are.

Resources

http://news.yahoo.com/shady-science-brain-remembers-colors-114650449.html