Rapture Night

More frustrations with local Bible studies. I seem to have showed up for Rapture night.

It is a terrible irony that in order to satisfy their demands for an absolute literal interpretation of Scripture—including a literal Israel at the time of Christ’s return (but see Romans 9: 6-8, for example) and a literal physical Temple (but see 1 Corinthians 3:16-17 for example) Dispensationalists must drape a whole new man-created, imaginary theology over God’s Word.

The arguments presented tonight for a Rapture separate from Christ’s return (the Second Coming) include:

• –The Rapture isn’t mentioned in the Old Testament (!).  The Hebrew Bible or Old Testament is an incandescent arrow (metaphorically, not literally), drawn across time—forward and back—to show us what to expect of the Messiah, and to let us recognize Jesus when He appears; but somehow the Law and the Prophets neglected to ever mention the whole Rapture thing?
• There are no signs associated with the Rapture–it’s “imminent”.  God isn’t going to give His people any markers of progress toward this monumental event because there isn’t enough time? On the other hand, Jesus’ return is to be marked by numerous signs.
• Jesus will meet with the Church “in secret”, presumably to remove us from Earth so that a literal Israel and a literal Temple can take their place without any messy symbolic interpretation.  But that isn’t what Jesus said:
  

 ²⁷ For just as the lightning comes from the east and flashes even to the west, so will the coming of the Son of Man be. Matthew 24:27

Again, if you reach a conclusion about God’s Word that contradicts most or all of what It says, your conclusion is wrong.  The dispensations and the Rapture aren’t in the Bible, because they don’t exist.

UK Tank Museum: Tiger I and Elefant

Lengthy video of the entire process of unloading the (non-running) Elefant from its trailer, with the only working example of the WWII Tiger 1 (no. 131, as seen in the movie “Fury”) nearby.  Interesting history lesson by the narrator is also provided.

Air-launched Minuteman?!

Another bizarre military project:

[from Ancient and Modern Warfare Facts]

“When the US Air Force made an ICBM go airborne.. (Intercontinental Ballistic Missile)

In the early 1970s, the USAF tested air-launching a Minuteman ICBM from a C-5A Galaxy transport aircraft.

On 24 October 1974, the Space and Missile Systems Organization successfully conducted a test where a C-5A Galaxy aircraft air-dropped the 86,000-pound missile from 20,000 feet over the Pacific Ocean.

The missile fell to 8,000 feet before its rocket engine fired. The 10-second engine burn carried the missile to 20,000 feet again before it dropped into the ocean.

The test proved the feasibility of launching an intercontinental ballistic missile from the air.

It was, however, never deployed operationally because of engineering and security difficulties.

It still looked cool though!

-Bryan”

Indoor Autogyro

I saw indoor F/F flying for the first time–other than still photos–back in the ’80’s when the AMA Nationals came to Chenault Field in Lake Charles. I’ve seen and even built small ornithopters, but an indoor autogyro in new.
It’s still amazing that these aircraft can fly so slowly. This one is comfortably circling a living room at less than walking speed.

CAF Demonstration of Corsair Wing Folding

Batman v Superman – Theme Song Battle

by The Unipiper

Abrams drifting turns

Beehive Instrumentation Project-8: Wired prototype instrumentation board

Assembled and tested a more permanent prototype with soldered wire interconnections on the 74HC4052 mux/demux.

Two temperature & humidity sensors shown.  Tested it with the outdoor 120 VAC-to-12VCD power system. Will likely connect the third for reading conditions between the hive body and the insulated enclosure tomorrow.  The fourth sensor shed a through-hole connector while I was trying to desolder and remove the bulky header pins–will have to be replaced.

Also need to reprogram the operating software to use daily logs with the date in the file names to facilitate log management.

Hopefully I can get this in the box tomorrow morning before the outside temperatures drop back below freezing and/or it starts snowing.  The next version should log temperature and humidity outside, between box and enclosure, and under the inner cover or close to the cluster of bees.

The all-foam enclosure stayed put during high winds yesterday, although it was left at an angle. I have a better design in mind, based on this experience.

 

 

“Baahubali – The Beginning”

Beehive Instrumentation Project-7: Update

Built and tested multiple HTU21D’s (2 so far) with identical fixed I2C addresses using the 74HC4052 mux/demux. Now building up on a wired prototyping board. I’m also switching to a 12VDC outdoor power, since the drill batteries only last 10-12 hours under sub-arctic conditions. I will hopefully get this to the hive while the current thaw lasts.