Author: lenbilen

Retired engineer, graduated from Chalmers Technical University a long time ago with a degree in Technical Physics. Career in Aerospace, Analytical Chemistry, computer chip manufacturing and finally adjunct faculty at Pennsylvania State University, taught just one course in Computer Engineering, the Capstone Course.

January 30: Read through the Holy Bible in a year.

John 19:16b-42. I took the liberty to incorporate all the “seven words of Christ on the cross.” This requires to take passages from the Gospel of Luke, as well as from the Gospel pf Matthew or Mark. It helped me a lot to get the time-order of events as well as the completeness of Christ substitutionary sacrifice on the Cross. It is finished!

In Exodus 9 there are three more plagues, the plague of livestock, the plague of boils and the plague of hail. In the fifth and seventh plague Pharaoh’s heart remained hard, but for thesixth plague the LORD hardened Pharaoh’s heart.

Matthew 19:13-30, Jesus’ teaching on little children, the rich young man, the first shall be last.

Matthew 19:13-30, Jesus’ teaching on little children, the rich young man, the first shall be last.

 

January 29: Read through the Holy Bible in a year.

John 19:1-16. The trial of Jesus continued under Pilate. He tried his best to get out of it by placing a crown of thorn on Jesus, let the soldiers mock him and hit him, hoping that would placate the Jews. But they cried Crucify! He tried and tried, but they cried “E\We have no King but Caesar” so Pilate finally gave in and handed Jesus over to be crucified.

In Exodus 7 God promised Moses to give him the words to all he must say, and Aaron was to tell it to Pharaoh. God also said he would harden Pharaoh’s heart and not let the people go. Aaron threw down his rod and it became a snake. The Egyptians duplicated it. The first plague out of ten occurred, turning the water of the Nile to blood.

Exodus 8 is very interesting. It tells of three more plagues of Egypt, the plague of frogs, the plague of gnats and the plague of flies. The Egyptian magicians had no trouble duplicating elements of the plague of frogs, but when it came to the plague of gnats they threw up their hands and said “This is the finger of God”. From then on they could not duplicate any of the plagues.

Re-signing the Paris Accord, a very bad idea, even for the environment! A Limerick.

Don’t fall for the Paris accord!

A bondage we ill can afford

CO2 keeps us free

Food for you, food for me.

The temperature sham sows discord.

According to alarmists’ climate change models, staying out of the Paris accord will increase global temperatures by 0.05 to 0.17 degrees Celsius by the year 2100, a catastrophe too big to fathom. See the official chart!

These predictions are according to an average of climate change models, all sponsored by various governments in one way or another.

Here is a chart of 73 climate models, and the results of 6 observations.

And how is the current global temperature trend performing right now? There was  A  “pause” for over 19 years even though CO2 was increasing at 3 ppm (nearly one percent) per year! Then came a temperature rise. Here is a chart of the worldwide UAHv6 for the last 24 years.

With the discrepancy of more than half a degree C between the average of the climate models and observations, it pays to be skeptical of even the 0.17 degrees.

This chart shows the growth of China. Not only are they consuming 47% of the world’s coal production, they are also making 30 times more cement than  U.S. Cement production releases CO2, by replacing carbonate with sulfate.

And with the Paris accord, China was free to grow emissions until 2030, up to 6 times U.S. output, and get paid for it! And we were to pay them!

What is China doing with all its cement? Building artificial islands? Bunkers? Ghost cities?

world-cement-production_2

Well, it takes a lot of cement to build artificial islands in the South China Sea!

china3

 

January 28: Read through the Holy Bible in a year.

John 18:28-40 deals with the last 24 hours of Jesus life, from the trial before Annas and the Sanhedron Jesus was paraded before Pilate, seeing a way out, Pilate sent him to Herod, who sent him back to Pilate, Pilate offered to release Jesus or Barabbas and the people demanded that Barabbas be released.

In Exodus 4 God gave Moses his call. At first Moses came up with one objection after another, but God persuaded him with signs that he must go back to Egypt, face Pharaoh and lead his people.

In Exodus 5 Moses and Aaron went to Pharaoh and asked for a 3 day reprieve for his people so they can go and worship God. Like all dictators Pharaoh reacted to this petition by making life even more miserable for the Hebrews; he wanted them to gather their own straw and still make as many bricks as before. The Hebrews blamed Moses for stirring up trouble for them.

And in Exodus 6 the LORD (Jehovah) promised deliverance from Pharaoh and He would give them the land He had promised Abraham. The narrative continues with an interlude where the names of the heads of the clans of Israel are listed. Moses protested and did not want to talk to Pharaoh any more, so Aaron would have to do the speaking.

Matthew 18:10-35, the parable of the lost sheep, church discipline, the parable of the unmerciful servant.

Matthew 18:10-35, the parable of the lost sheep, church discipline, the parable of the unmerciful servant.

Ten thousand talents is about equal to 33 tons of gold, equivalent to more than two billion dollars in 2021.

One hundred denarii is about one hundred days of work at minimum pay.

 

With over 100 million COVID-19 cases in the world, how is USA doing compared to the rest of the world?

The table below shows that USA came in as number 25 of the 30 countries with the largest outbreak of Covid as death rate is concerned. It will be interesting to see how well we will fare under new leadership.  I will recheck in 100 days.

Rank Country      Cases             Deaths           Death Rate   

     World     100,659 649         2,161,373           2.15%

  1. Mexico           1,771,740             150,273           8.51%
  2. Iran                  1,385,706              57,560           4.16%
  3. Peru                 1,102,795              39,887           3.62%                
  4. Italy                 2,485,956              86,422           3.48%
  5. Belgium              694,858              20,814           3.00%
  6. South Africa    1,423,578              41,797          2.94%
  7. Indonesia         1,012,350             28,468           2.81%
  8. UK                    3,689,746            100,162           2.71%
  9. Canada               756,250               19,376           2.56%
  10. Colombia         2,027,746              51,747           2.55%
  11. Chile                    706,500               18,023          2.55%
  12. Germany         2,163,113              54,390           2,51%
  13. Argentina        1,874,801              47,034           2.51%
  14. Romania            715,438                17,938          2.51%
  15. Brazil               8,881,853             217,806          2.45%
  16. Poland            1,482, 722               35,665          2.41%
  17. Pakistan            535,914                  11,376         2.12%
  18. Iraq                     515,380                13,010          2.11%
  19. Spain               2,733,729               56,799           2.08% 
  20. Sweden              556,289                11,247          2.02%
  21. France             3.079,943               74,106          2.01%
  22. Russia             3,756,931               70,482           1.88%
  23. Ukraine           1,197,107               22,057           1.84%
  24. Portugal             653,878                11,012          1.68%
  25. USA               25,952,482             433,909          1.67%
  26. Czechia              946,046                15,618          1.65%
  27. India              10,689,268             153,724          1,44%
  28. Netherlands      956,867                13,665          1.43%
  29. Turkey             2,442,350               25,344          1.04%
  30. Israel                  613,286                  4,501           0.73%    

January 27: Read through the Holy Bible in a year.

John 18:1-27 deals with the last 24 hours of Jesus life, the prayer in the garden of Gethsemane and the subsequent arrest of Jesus, the trial before Annas, Peter’s first denial, Jesus trial before Caiaphas, Peter’s second and third denial and the cock crowing.

Exodus 3 tells where God revealed Himself to Moses in the form of a burning bush and declared “I am that I am”. Jesus made a similar declaration in John 8:58 “Before Abraham, I am”.

In the Septuagint Psalm 9 and Psalm 10 belong together. They speak of God’s faithfulness and the only temporary victories of the wicked one.