QUARANTINE BLOG # 212

October 28, 2020

We last talked about SpaceX in August (QB 129) when they flew a full-size prototype of their Starship Mars-colonizing spacecraft for the first time https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AcW8kKICBWI.  They are gearing up for another historic astronaut launch next month.  The plan is to send four astronauts to the International Space Station for NASA on November 14.  Called Crew-1, the mission will be the first operational flight of SpaceX’s Crew Dragon astronaut taxi and the second Crew Dragon mission to carry passengers on board.  

Riding the Dragon will be NASA astronauts Shannon Walker, Victor Glover and Michael Hopkins and Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency astronaut Soichi Noguchi, who will spend about six months at the orbiting laboratory before returning to Earth.  The first Crew Dragon passengers were NASA astronauts Bob Behnken and Doug Hurley, who spent 62 days at the International Space Station as part of the Crew Dragon Demo-2 mission which launched on May 20, with the astronauts returning to Earth on August 2.

Note to NASA: This time, don’t announce the landing site (or at least have security vessels in place) so we won’t see the dangerous spectacle of private vessels getting close to the Dragon and its crew!  Remember this scene https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hpxqg9B58JM?

**  From our “Need We Say More? Department.”

**  Your chance of winning the Mega Millions jackpot is roughly 1 in 302.6 million.  A longer shot than both the Science Officer and the Captain of the USS Enterprise being killed while hunting for the mother Horta https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cA6ffuQauJc.  But what are the odds of buying two tickets with the same numbers, and winning the jackpot twice?  As our favorite Vulcan scientist might say, “I’ve never computed them https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qw1vcQpVsbc.”

Nevertheless, that’s what Samir Mazahem, 56, of Dearborn Heights, Michigan did.   He was saving numbers on a lottery app after buying a $2 ticket for the Mega Millions game.  He then realized that he had purchased a second ticket with the same numbers.  “I was a little bummed but didn’t think much about it,” Mazahem said.  Until he logged onto the app later and found he had two $1 million winners.  Go figure!

**  This one is from our “If You Didn’t Already Had Enough Things to Be Concerned About Department.”  Murder hornets have been discovered in two places in North America: Washington state and the Canadian province of British Columbia.  The invasive insect is normally found in China, Japan, Thailand, South Korea, Vietnam and other Asian countries.

Scientists in Washington state discovered the first nest of the so-called murder hornets in the United States and wiped it out Saturday to protect native honeybees.  Despite their nickname and the hype that has stirred fears in an already bleak year, the real threat from Asian giant hornets – which are 2 inches long – is their devastating attacks on honeybees.  Farmers depend on the honeybees to pollinate crops. 

The nest was found in the cavity of a tree on private property.  The cavity was filled with foam, and covered with plastic wrap to prevent the hornets from escaping.  Then the hornets were extracted, and killed by workers wearing thick protective suits that can prevent the 6-millimeter-long stingers of the hornets from penetrating.  They also wore face shields because the hornets can spit a painful venom into the eyes.

**  Here are a couple of smiles from Baby Blues:

**  “When you pass through the waters, I will be with you; and through the rivers, they shall not overflow you.  When you walk through the fire, you shall not be burned, nor shall the flame scorch you” (Isaiah 43:2 NKJV).

During the Great Awakening of the 1700s, the preaching of Jonathan Edwards renewed Christian zeal and swept multitudes into the kingdom in America.  In England, the open-air evangelism of George Whitefield and the Wesley brothers did the same.  In Wales, it was the electrifying preaching of Howell Harris and William Williams.

Williams had intended to become a medical doctor.  But hearing a sermon that Harris preached while standing on a gravestone in Talgarth churchyard, he was converted. Soon thereafter, he changed professions to become a physician of the soul – a preacher.  During his 43 years of itinerant ministry, Williams traveled over 95,000 miles, drawing crowds of 10,000 or more.  Best remembered for his hymns, he composed more than 800.

Many years later, when President James Garfield was dying of an assassin’s bullet, he seemed to temporarily rally and was allowed to sit by the window.  His wife began singing “Guide Me, O Thou Great Jehovah,” and the president, listening intently, began to cry.  To his doctor, Willard Bliss, he said, “Glorious, Bliss, isn’t it?”

Guide me, O my great Redeemer, pilgrim through this barren land; I am weak, but you are mighty; hold me with your powerful hand.

Bread of heaven, bread of heaven, feed me now and evermore, feed me now and evermore.

When I tread the verge of Jordan, bid my anxious fears subside. Death of death, and hell’s Destruction, land me safe on Canaan's side.

Songs of praises, songs of praises I will ever sing to you, I will ever sing to you. 

“Guide Me, O Thou Great Jehovah” https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L2QvFKKCzzs is performed by Fountainview Academy, Lillooet, British Columbia, Canada.

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