NewsWatch

Iran Hit By Plague Of Biblical Proportions
IsraelToday.com, 5/23/20, “Iran Hit by Plague of Biblical Proportions” [Excerpts]: Southern Iran [has suffered] an unprecedented plague of locusts that has already caused billions of dollars worth of damage.

Locust swarms are not uncommon in the early summer months in the Middle East. Egypt, Israel, Jordan and Iran all regularly endure this phenomenon.

But the swarm now invading Iran is said to be the largest ever seen.

“Compared with last year, the swarms of desert locusts are much larger, and it is safe to claim that the recent attacks are unprecedented,” the head of the Chabahar Agricultural Trade Union [said.]

(https://bit.ly/2UR6btp)

The Progressive ‘Brights’ Are Pretty Dim

FrontPageMag.com, 5/28/20 “The Progressive ‘Brights’ Are Pretty Dim” [Excerpts]: “Brights” is a term that became popular nearly 20 years ago to describe self-proclaimed rationalists who reject religion, practical wisdom, and tradition, and instead rely solely on “science” for understanding and solving social and political problems. 

The current virus crisis has exposed the dangers of such hubris. Federal and state governments have put in place exorbitantly costly policies such as the extreme lockdown, guided by provisional knowledge about the coronavirus based on incomplete data. In fact, the lockdown policy has cost lives; New York mayor Andrew Cuomo, a proponent of the lockdown, back in early March was “shocked” and “surprised” that people “sheltering at home” had contracted the virus anyway and comprised the majority of those who died. The deep recession that has followed the lockdown has also cost lives [and] many thousands more as lost jobs and isolation take their toll over the coming years.

Once again, the “bright” progressives’ “science-based” policies have collided with the complexity of the human condition.

So we hear from progressives about “science-based policies,” calls to be guided by “science” and to defer to its authority.

The persistence of this arrogance is puzzling given how frequently it has failed and continues to fail, not to mention its intellectual incoherence. Consider a recent tweet (since removed) expressing this attitude by Steven Pinker, a Harvard psychologist: “Belief in an afterlife is a malignant delusion, since it devalues actual lives and discourages action that would make them live longer, safer, and happier.” 

Of course, Pinker is spraying a patina of pseudo-science over a talking point about Republican governors with “blood on their hands” from relaxing the lockdown in their states. Unfortunately, empirical data from Sweden to NYC prove quite the opposite.

(https://bit.ly/3d7k5OC)

What Can A Plant See?

CreationMoments.com, 5/28/20, “What can a plant see?” [Excerpts]: “Praise the LORD from the earth…mountains and all hills; fruitful trees and all cedars…” (Psalm:148:7Praise the LORD from the earth, ye dragons, and all deeps:
See All...,9).

If a plant could see, what would it look at? Amazed scientists have learned that plants can indeed see and react to their environments just as do animals!

Plants need light for photosynthesis. They grow toward the light. However, this isn’t what scientists are referring to when they talk about plant sight. They have discovered that plants have an additional system that allows them to react to their surroundings. Plants have pores, called stomata. Stomata allow carbon dioxide into the plant, and oxygen out, as photosynthesis takes place. They remain closed when there is little light or when water must be conserved. The more the stomata open, the faster photosynthesis takes place, and the faster the plants grow. The plant also loses water faster when the stomata are open wide.

While both blue and red light are used for photosynthesis, scientists have found that the cells that open and close the stomata respond only to blue light. The amount of blue light present turns on a pump in the cells that causes them to swell, and the stoma opens. This amazing process involves pumping protons to create electricity. In one experiment, scientists more than doubled the growth rate of orchids by providing extra blue light to open the stomata.

In the plants’ ability to sense and react to their environment, we see another way that plants give glory to their Creator and show that they are not simple living things that just happened to develop.

(https://bit.ly/3fsOIPW)