Paul Prins

This panoramic shot was take about a month ago and is a stitching together of 17 images in Photoshop to span from looking north east to south. Original image is 15736×3477 pixels.

(Posting on flickr)

According to a new government report, America is doomed….

The next two decades will see a world living with the daily threat of nuclear war, environmental catastrophe and the decline of America as the dominant global power, according to a frighteningly bleak assessment by the US intelligence community.

“The world of the near future will be subject to an increased likelihood of conflict over resources, including food and water, and will be haunted by the persistence of rogue states and terrorist groups with greater access to nuclear weapons,” said the report by the National Intelligence Council, a body of analysts from across the US intelligence community.

Via the Times Online – Link

While i wonder about some of the content of the article (mainly if the world is going to regress back to a fight over basic needs, America hold the vast majority of the worlds arable land and fresh water supplies). Here is to living in the worlds bread basket with over 10,000 fresh water lakes!

So lets look at the numbers shall we. Read the rest of this entry »

Watching a video of Edwin H. Friedman during a course he raised several characteristics a self-differentiated leader should have.

• Vision
• Stamina (ability to withstand mutiny)
• Persistence
• Self-Regulation in the face of sabotage

This leader would be one devoted to a vision and cause above and beyond the people involved with that cause.

He goes on to say that the way to change a system is a shift in the emotional processes, not through some gathering of information. If there is to be a willed shift it must come from the leadership.

Really interesting and seems to line up with my view of leadership. Will require more mulling over.

In preparing a short essay for class based on the final section of the Nouwen book quoted below I came across this:

It might sound strange to consider grief a way to compassion. But it is. Grief asks me to allow the sins of the world-my own included-to pierce my heart and make me shed tears, many tears, for them. There is no compassion without many tears. If they can’t be tears that stream from my eyes, they have to be at least tears that well up from my heart… There are so few mourners left in this world. But grief is the discipline of the heart that sees the sin of the world, and knows itself to be the sorrowful price of freedom without which love cannot bloom. I am beginning to see that much of praying is grieving. This grief is so deep not just because the human sin is so great, but also-and more so-because the divine love is so boundless.

Excerpt from “The Return of the Prodigal son” by Henri Nouwen pages 128-9

I will write more at some point in the future, though realistically not until December when my courses have concluded for the quarter. In the meantime I would challenge you to consider what this might mean for you…

How awesome is this man from Superior, WI who has made a twine ball that is estimate at just under 20,000 pounds. Hat nod to you Mr. Kotera.

(via Fox News)

Below is a conversation our cat, Maximus, had with a college friend of mine over instant messenger while I was studying for seminary

4:52:42 PM Maximus: tgggggggggggggggggggggggggggggggg ZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZ ZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZIKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKK KKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKK555552wwwwwwwsssssssssssssssssssss sssssssssdx “““““““““““““““““““““““1

4:55:47 PM Maximus: -=iooo0okkkkkkkkkkkkk0l;[-l0l’ 88888888888888888888888888nnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnl;7byh;l3n4′b/$%%?

4:58:17 PM Rob: haha

I would like to note how max figured out the shift key there at the end. Makes you wonder about the monkeys with typewriter theory, though I still doubt it.