Happy Birthday David!!!!

Happy Birthday!!!! goes out to our founder, David Goad, who is traveling with his mission work for the Lord.

God Bless,
Denny

That's What's Driving Terrorism

click above for the full blog
Transcript: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/14907031/
Videos: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/3032608/

This weekend Tim Russert was asking the questions on MSNBC's MEET THE PRESS, and he was hosting former President Clinton, Hamid Karzai, and John Danforth. Clinton made one of the most remarkably lucid observations we've heard in recent history -

BEGIN QUOTE:

MR. RUSSERT: As we sit here in September of 2006, what do you think is the biggest problem confronting our world? The biggest?

MR. CLINTON: In the short term it is the illusion that our differences matter more than our common humanity. That’s what’s driving the terrorism. ....

...In the longer term, climate change is the biggest threat, because if it’s allowed to come to fruition-and particularly if we’re, at the same time, running out of affordable, recoverable oil-you’re going to have a-almost over night-a dramatic change in the way we live, and it will cause millions of food refugees, it’ll cause probably food and water wars, and it could change the underlying conditions on which our civilization rests. So I’d say terror, based on human difference today, climate change over the long run.

END OF QUOTE

Denny

Home Schooled, Will it be Wikipedia or Britannica?

Okay, you've got your hearts set on home schooling, and I whole-heartedly agree with that! The idea is no longer so daunting because of the resources easily available on the internet these days. The prices range anywhere from free to cheap.
Free: Wikipedia
Cheap: Encyclopedia Britannica - online version

I was scouring around the geekwire (web) looking for interesting stuff and stumbled across this dust-up between the editors of Britannica and Wikipedia, interviewed in the Wall Street Journal:
They both make some valid points about the pros and cons of each others article editorial methods.

And actually, when scientific articles from each encyclopedia are reviewed by unbiased experts both are about equal for numbers of mistakes per article.
Article from NATURE:

When I began perusing Britannica in my elementary school days,it seemed SOOOO DEEP. In later years my perception of Britannica changed. And today the idea of using Britannicas for serious research is a sophomoric delusion.

Wikipedia has it beat, hands-down. Wiki has over 1.4 million articles, over ten times that of Britanica's. And you'll get a lot more info from Wiki. Wikipedia is showing up higher and higher in my routine web searches. While I shyed away from it in its infancy, I now regularly use it.

My most recent comparison of the two encyclopedias was to choose a random word in the index of each and look at the articles. I chose "Abacus," purely out of the blue. I was astonished by the results.

Abacus, Britannica: (To read the complete article you'll need to have your credit card ready, $70, refundable, if you don't want the one year subscription.)

Abacus, Wikipedia:

Looks like Wikipedia is the obvious winner. In fact, Wiki is the 37th most visited website in all the web. Did I mention that it's free? And it's a terrific resource.

God Bless,
Denny


NOTE: We are still working on the directory of highly educational sites and resources for home schoolers. We should have a beginning post ready in a week or two. Thanks for being patient with us in these early days of our blog.

Our web-person, Denny, is filling in for David Goad who is travelling and doing mission work this month.

Photos: PASS CHRISTIAN, MISSISSIPPI

PASS CHRISTIAN, MISSISSIPPI - You can see that little is left. The town was virtually levelled, or disappeared altogether.

We recently spent several weeks in nearby Gulfport, Mississippi, pitching in with the crews doing the rebuilding there. We'll soon have a slideshow of our work in Gulfport. One afternoon we took a couple of hours to see the remains of Pass Christian. It's a bit surreal, a bit like ancient archaeological ruins down there. Pretty much all that remains intact (apparently) is the water tower. The town is just gone, as are the people. The whole town is decimated. They will be years rebuilding if they decide to do so.

^^^^Rock walls and a spiral staircase - all that remains^^^^

^^^^More rock walls^^^^



^^^^More stone walls^^^^

^^^^This billboard sign did not survive the hurricane winds.^^^^

^^^^A building lifted off its foundation and set down to rest upon a house.^^^^

^^^^^A commercial building site. All that remains is a parking lot, foundation, and a pile of old tires.^^^^

^^^^The Pass Christian water tower seems to be the only structure left intact.^^^^

^^^^Foundation and camper trailer.^^^^

^^^^Another foundation and trailer.^^^^

^^^^Rebuilding the main bridge - new support columns in the distance.^^^^

As you can see, we are gradually changing and optimizing our template. The slideshow in constant motion seems to be a distraction so we are maintaining one smaller slideshow in our masthead, and we'll use still photos from here on out in the body of our posts.

SLIDESHOW: PASS CHRISTIAN, MISSISSIPPI

PASS CHRISTIAN, MISSISSIPPI - a slide show of what little is left. You can see that the town was virtually levelled, or disappeared altogether.



We recently spent several weeks in nearby Gulfport, Mississippi, pitching in with the crews doing the rebuilding there. We'll soon have a slideshow of our work in Gulfport. One afternoon we took a couple of hours to see the remains of Pass Christian. It's a bit surreal, a bit like ancient archaeological ruins down there. Pretty much all that remains intact (apparently) is the water tower. The town is just gone, as are the people. The whole town is decimated. They will be years rebuilding if they decide to do so.