Okay kids. . .let’s not try this one at home. I know this shouldn’t be funny.  And honestly, from the second I saw the video I knew where it was going to end up.  Yet, for some reason, it surprised me when it happened and I couldn’t stop laughing! enjoy! (the video linked here is from Today’s Big Thing.

From time to time I like to keep up on interesting things happening in the fields of scientific development.  I recently came across two articles from POZ.com (a website about HIV/AIDS) regarding some current medicines and research. I don’t really have a commentary or anything about the articles.  I just thought they were neat and wanted to pass them along.

Science continues to amaze me!  According to a study in the Journal of the American Chemical Society, “adding minuscule bits of gold, called nanoparticles, to a failed HIV drug causes it to work much better without creating dangerous side effects,” says the article from POZ.com.  Isnt that amazing?  Who would think, “oh wait. . .what if I tried fusing a little piece of gold to that medicine?”  Maybe I just don’t have a scientific mind.

The second article was about a study looking at HIV transmission.  The article states, “while such sexually transmitted diseases as gonorrhea and syphilis invade the body with as many as 10, 20, 100 or 200 bacteria, scientists from the University of Alabama at Birmingham (UAB) have found that most HIV infections are the result of a single copy of the virus penetrating the body’s defenses, The Birmingham News reports (al.com, 5/20).

It is amazing because within a week’s time that one super-tiny copy of HIV can reproduce into thousands (perhaps millions) of the same virus.  All before the body has any clue that the virus is even present in the system.

Howdy All!

Its been a little while since I’ve posted anything. Following all the excitement of General Conference news feeds, I pretty much just got back to the day-to-day grind in the office.

In addition to that, I found myself smack-dab in the middle of Facebook. I’ve always said I could only commit to one social networking program and MySpace got me first. Having used Facebook for a little while now, I have to say, it is a lot nicer. The interface is much more clean and its search and security features are a lot more intuitive. I say check it out!

Then I came across a wonderful invention called Mario Kart for Wii! It is perhaps one of the most fun video games I’ve played in a long time. If you don’t have a Wii, it is going to be difficult to find one these days,but you can if you try really hard. At the very least, find someone that does and get them to buy Mario Kart. It is a blast to play!

After all this excitement, I needed a little vacation. I had a work trip to Vegas schedule, so I decided to head out a few days earlier with my best friend and see the sights. I’ve just recently posted the pictures from the journey on my Picasa site. We had a lot of fun and saw a bunch of stuff. We even found ourselves enjoying a tasty beverage or two!

I’m not a delegate to General Conference (obviously for those who have been reading here), but if I was, I would love to say this:

Bishop, Delegates, Observers of General Conference

In 2004, the General Conference made a commitment to raise $8 million for the Global AIDS Fund during this quadrennium. As of the beginning of this General Conference session, we have only raise close to $2.5 million.

While I am excited to hear of our growing commitment to the 2006 Nothing But Nets Campaign, I am saddened that we have fallen so short on our promise to ourselves and the world.

I humbly ask you, brothers and sisters, to consider an offering for the Global AIDS Fund. Throughout the last week and a half we’ve spent a lot of time using the words ethics, morals, and taking action. It is time we proved ourselves to be a people of our word.

Somehow this has slipped by the GC’s attention in the myriad of worship services, debates, and parliamentary procedure.

In the midst of everything that is going on at General Conference, this little picture made my day. My friend Ciona is working at General Conference as a writer for the United Methodist News Service. Just prior to heading off to Fort Worth, she hooped (walking with a hula hoop) in the Music City Marathon and apparently injured her foot, which resulted in crutches. As part of her writing responsibilities she needed to be able to quickly get from place to place. Surely you can see where being on crutches is going to be a hindrance to this?

So, her bosses worked to get her a motorized wheel chair to move around General Conference. I thought the picture was worth sharing with everyone!