Around the web this week…
+ Today is Memorial Day, marking those who have died in service of our country. Here is a brief and interesting summary of the holiday’s history. Make sure to breathe a prayer of thanks for our veterans and of comfort for those military families who are currently grieving a loss.
+ I’m always fascinated by people who do daredevil actions, especially from a great height. (I think that’s mostly because I’m not fond of heights!) Today, Michael Fournier plans to free fall from the pressurized gondola of a balloon that had risen to 130,000 feet above the earth. He calls it Le Grand Saut or “The Grand Leap”. No kidding. “At that altitude, almost 25 miles up, Fournier will see both the blackness of space and the curvature of the earth….[He} faces plenty of perils. Above 40,000 feet, there is not enough oxygen to breathe in the frigid air. He could experience a fatal embolism. And 12 miles up, should his protective systems fail, his blood could begin to boil because of the air pressure....[He] would be in free fall for about eight minutes. He would exceed the speed of sound within the first 40 seconds and eventually approach 1,000 miles an hour. His fall would slow at lower altitudes amid increasing wind resistance. His parachute is designed to open at around 5,000 feet.” If the jump goes as planned, Fournier will set four records: “fastest free fall, longest free fall, highest altitude for a human balloon flight and highest parachute jump.” Yikes!
+ Saw both Prince Caspian and the new Indiana Jones movies this week. I liked both, though Caspian didn’t hold me in the Narnia world as much as The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe and the last fifteen minutes of Indiana Jones were just plain goofy. Both are great summer movies.
+ “Oh, you are not dealing with trifles when you are dealing with the love of God to you. It is not a spare corner of the heart of God that He gives to you, as you may give a little love to the criminals in the jails, but the great, inconceivably vast heart of God belongs as much to every Christian as if there were not another being in the world for God to love! Even as Jehovah loves His Only-begotten, so does He love each one of His children.” C. H. Spurgeon, The Treasury of the Old Testament, III:568. (HT: Ray Ortlund)
