Christianity: A Captial Crime

KABUL -- An Afghan man faces the death penalty for converting to Christianity, an Afghan supreme court judge said on Sunday. Supreme Court Judge Ansarullah Mawlavizada said that Abdul Rahman, who converted from Islam to Christianity, is in police custody and that he could face the death penalty if he refused to become a Muslim again. Abdul Rahman was detained two weeks ago after his relatives reported to the police about his conversion which is forbidden under Islamic Sharia law. "Yes that's true, a man has converted to Christianity. He's being tried in one of our courts," Supreme Court judge Ansarullah Mawlavizada said, adding that his trial began early last week. He said the man could face the death penalty if he refused to revert to Islam as Sharia law proposes capital punishment for any Muslim who converts to another religion. Afghanistan's constitution states: "No law can be contrary to the sacred religion of Islam." If sentenced, the man will be the first to be punished for conversion since the ouster of the Taliban who introduced and implemented tough Sharia law. The hardline Taliban regime was toppled by a US-led invasion in late 2001 for not handing over Al Qaeda chief, Osama Bin Laden, wanted for the September 11, 2001 attacks on the United States.

LiveScience.com - Immortal Styrofoam Meets its Enemy

LiveScience.com - Immortal Styrofoam Meets its Enemy

This is not the stuff that makes up my usual blogs - most of my blogs are 'hate-filled rants' about terror and injustice or silly stuff.

This is an article that really made me happy.

Styrofoam - the stuff we all use but feel guilty about using - is about to finally lose its stigma as un-recyclable and harmful to the environment.

There's an old joke that if you were reincarnated, you might want to come back
as a Styrofoam cup.
Why? Because they last forever. Ba-dum-bum.
Despite
being made 95 percent of air, Styrofoam's manufactured immortality has posed a
problem for recycling efforts. More than 3 million tons of the durable material
is produced every year in the United States, according to the U.S. Environmental
Protection Agency. Very little of it is recycled.
Help may come from bacteria
that have been found to eat Styrofoam and turn it into useable plastic. This is
the stuff recycling dreams are made of: Yesterday's cup could become tomorrow's
plastic spoon.
Kevin O’Connor of University College Dublin and his
colleagues heated polystyrene foam, the generic name for Styrofoam, to convert
it to styrene oil. The natural form of styrene is in real peanuts, strawberries
and a good steak. A synthetic form is used in car parts and electronic
components.
Anyway, the scientists fed this styrene oil to the soil bacteria
Pseudomonas putida, which converted it into biodegradable plastic known as PHA
(polyhydroxyalkanoates).
PHA can be used to make plastic forks and packaging
film. It is resistant to heat, grease and oil. It also lasts a long time. But
unlike Styrofoam, PHA biodegrades in soil and water.
The process will be
detailed in the April 1 issue of the American Chemical Society journal
Environmental Science & Technology.

Saturday's Poker Loss

So Friday Night's usual Poker Night with the guys kind of flopped. For some strange reason no one came, and for an even stranger reason, no one called to let me know they weren't coming.

So I was left with poker withdrawal and tried to get my fix on AOL Games.
I won a couple of hands on the No-Limit Hold 'em tables but it was late and I was tired.

Saturday, however, we headed up to Elk Grove to hang out with some friends. Inevitably, a poker game broke out amongst the guys. There were only three of us and we played for very low stakes... like $10. (And when I say "like" $10, I really mean just $8. That's all I had in my wallet at that moment.)

All was well and the chip lead was exchanged between the three of us throughout the game.
Near the end, however, I was about 100 chips shy of the tall stack with the short stack holding only 200 of the original 1000 chips.

I drew a pair of nines in my hole cards and figured I'd make a stand.
I bet saw the bet in front of me at 200 chips and raised an additional 300 chips. The next player, Taja, announced he would go all-in.

Now, so far this game, the cards had been crap and people were willing to go deep into the turn card to chase longshot straight draws and stuff so I figured he probably just had a face card or something.

Well, I called the all-in and found myself about at about a 3% advantage facing down a Jack and King.
The flop came out an A, Q, 8 and suits were a non-factor. I now was about a 55% favorite over Taja's 41% because even though he hadn't paired the board, any J, K, or 10 would still beat me.
The next card was another non-factor. Now I was at 76% to win versus his 23%. But still, there were 10 cards in the deck that would lose me my spot at the table.

And sure enough, on the river, a ten shows its ugly face.

If you're interested in calculating Hold 'Em Odds, check out this site HERE.

A Miracle from Iraq

Here is an actual email from someone who I know who is serving in Iraq. He wrote this email to his mom earlier this month. (I've made all the people anonymous for the sake of maintaining their privacy.)

Dear Mom,
You'll never believe what happened this morning: We set out on our patrol early, around 8-ish. The weather that had started out clear suddenly got very dark and stormy. Lightning and thunder started flashing in the sky. An enormous explosion ripped the air, nobody knew what it was (maybe thunder?) or where it came from, some thought from town, some thought the road ahead. An observation post called it in ahead of us. Along our route (on one of the more dangerous stretches of road) we passed a big crater starting to fill with water, and fresh mud kicked up onto the road. We halted, pulled security, and called in EOD (Explosive Ordnance Disposal) to do an analysis.Long story short, it turns out the explosion we heard was a massive roadside bomb that had been set for our patrol, and *lightning* set it off just minutes before we passed right next to it. Can you believe that? A soldier called over the radio "I guess we know whose side
God is on after all" and we shared a nervous chuckle.So keep those prayers coming. Love, American Soldier

The mom forwarded this to her friends:

My pounding heart was filled with enormous gratitude to God for intervening in this situation to preserve the lives of the young men on this patrol, especially my son, American Soldier. I immediately thought of all the 'prayer warriors' like you who raise petitions continually on the behalf of our young men and women in uniform. Thank you, thank you, thank you. God hears our prayers and answers in ways we can't even imagine.

Now for the rest of the story. I got to my Bible Study discussion group, opened the lesson and scanned the comments I had written a week earlier from 1 Samuel 12:16-18. "...stand still and see this great thing the Lord is about to do before your eyes! ....that same day the Lord sent thunder and rain." God uses the forces of nature to teach his people; the people stood in awe of God. My heart filled with gratitude as I read what I had written a week earlier.

I share this true story with you to thank you for your prayers and to invite you to stand with me in awe of God, our protector and redeemer.
Your sister in Christ,
Mom of American Soldier