Please be advised, dear readers, that 7WD is taking a bit of a break for a couple of weeks. I am in Japan on holiday. I will be checking in now and then. I may try to post some photos from Japan. This trip will include visits to Tokyo and bits of Northern Honshu. In the meantime, while waiting for fresh photos, you can check out the flickr set from our last trip to Japan. Sorry that it’s not properly captioned.

If Pittsburgh posts any more prophecies, I will probably be compelled to comment on them. Etc., etc. Otherwise, I am going to try to remember that cranky Anglicans and the blogosphere do not define my life.

Today’s weather should help that.

Watch this speech. Remember this holy day. And then compare this glorious Christian vision with what passes for Christianity too often these days.

Almighty God, by the hand of Moses your servant you led your people out of slavery, and made them free at last; Grant that your Church, following the example of your prophet Martin Luther King, may resist oppression in the name of your love, and may secure for all your children the blessed liberty of the Gospel of Jesus Christ; who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and for ever. Amen.

In case you missed anything in Seasons 1-3, here’s a little something to watch as you get ready for tomorrow’s Season 4 premiere of Battlestar Galactica. I guarantee BSG will feature in Sunday’s sermon at Christ Church. Somehow.

From the NY Times a few weeks ago.

Though some 800 million people on the planet now suffer from hunger or malnutrition, the majority of corn and soy grown in the world feeds cattle, pigs and chickens. This despite the inherent inefficiencies: about two to five times more grain is required to produce the same amount of calories through livestock as through direct grain consumption, according to Rosamond Naylor, an associate professor of economics at Stanford University. It is as much as 10 times more in the case of grain-fed beef in the United States.

The environmental impact of growing so much grain for animal feed is profound. Agriculture in the United States — much of which now serves the demand for meat — contributes to nearly three-quarters of all water-quality problems in the nation’s rivers and streams, according to the Environmental Protection Agency.

Meat is bad for the planet, and not so good for us either.

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Just when you think you’ve seen the most extraordinary house design, the NY Times proves you wrong.

The house is off-limits to children, and adults are asked to sign a waiver when they enter. The main concern is the concrete floor, which rises and falls like the surface of a vast, bumpy chocolate chip cookie.

[A co-owner] began holding forth about the health benefits of the house, officially called Bioscleave House (Lifespan Extending Villa). Its architecture makes people use their bodies in unexpected ways to maintain equilibrium, and that, she said, will stimulate their immune systems.

“They ought to build hospitals like this,” she said.

A reporter, who thinks they should never, ever build hospitals like this, tried to go with the flow. Like the undulating floor, Arakawa and Gins, as they are known professionally, tend to throw people off balance.

When it comes to creativity, the architecture is matched by their views on death.

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Much of my childhood was spent playing with Legos. So pretty much any Lego-ish thing is of interest. Case in point. Check out this flickr set of famous photos recreated in Legos. Brilliant.

Via Metafilter.

Image from Wikipedia

Tobias Haller has written a brilliant essay, “God’s Judgement on Heterosexuality”.

From the opening section, “Origins in Creation”:

The inability of heterosexuals to form lasting, stable relationships has long been noted. A survey of the biblical material provides a sad witness to this inability — and one explanation for its source — in God’s judgment upon Adam and Eve. This judgment provides a climax to the creation account in Genesis (3.16) and may therefore be taken as substantive testimony to God’s eternal plan for humanity. This passage explains the tragic inability of heterosexuals to work together as equals: the female is cursed by being placed under male rule, rather than coexisting as the full and equal partner that a healthy and life-giving relationship requires. This divinely mandated order or hierarchy — which has institutionalized a veritable “civil war of the sexes” — fosters the incapacity for mutuality that renders stable heterosexual relationships nearly impossible — a fitting punishment for the failure to act in obedience to the God who welcomed his creatures into a relationship based on mutual trust and responsibility.

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If you’re use a computer around other geeks, here are some things to watch out for today.