Just a short post this time, to alert anyone who may not know… SpaceX is planning the first ever launch of Starship on an orbital flight tomorrow, Monday 17th April.
There are several places you can watch this attempt live on YouTube. I recommend three of them in particular. If you’re new to all this, try the SpaceX stream. If you’re more knowledgeable you might prefer one of the others.
Felix Schlang, a German who moved to Florida to be closer to the action
Marcus House, an Australian spaceflight enthusiast in Tasmania
I didn’t post an article in April 2022, but Donna and I visited Weston-super-Mare and I spotted this fruit and vegetable shop in one of the back streets. There were strawberries here, but they’re not in season; there were pineapples but those don’t grow in the UK; there were pears that should be ready to pick in September or October. Almost nothing in this shop was grown locally. Why?
A traditional greengrocer’s shop
It’s lovely to have choices like this, but they come at a cost to the environment that we usually overlook. The solution lies in my pocket and yours; we should try to buy locally produced fruit and vegetables that are within a few weeks of being in season.
No blog posts in April 2021 either, but on 4th April the weather was warm and bright and we enjoyed eating outside for the first time in 2021.
Eating outside on 4th April
Three days later!
But oh my word, look at the same table just three days later. Snow! The moral of this little story is plain, do things while you can. Don’t wait, don’t hesitate, who knows what tomorrow might bring…
In April 2018 I had a bit of a rant about rescuing Britain from the dreadful mess it seemed to be in. I grumbled about the effects of Brexit, about poverty, the underfunded health service, an underfunded education system, the need for food-banks, the excessive cost of homes.
Read the article. Let me know if you think things have improved in the last five years.
In April 2013 I wrote about ‘Men, women and children‘. The topic really was leadership, and I stand by all I wrote at that time.
Can men lead in church? How about women, are they allowed to lead? And what about children? Perhaps it depends who you ask, there are different opinions and different traditions.
Read my post from ten years ago and let me know what your views are.
There was no article in April 2008. However, we had a holiday in Catalonia and visited Barcelona where we took a look at the famous Sagrada Familia with its amazing ‘biological’ shapes. What an astonishing place it it!
To learn more about this wonderful feat of design and engineering by the architect Antoni Gaudi, read the Wikipedia article.
In April 2003, I wrote about a meeting at home. Father spoke to us about leadership, coincidentally I drew on what I’d learned in this meeting when I wrote the article mentioned in the ‘Ten years ago’ section above!
A firm foundation
We are weak, like freshly poured concrete; but Jesus is patient and knows we will become strong enough for the task he’s given us.
Twenty-five years ago
In April 1998, Donna and I were on our way home from our honeymoon in Florida, and I began a new job at Unilever’s Colworth Laboratory north of Bedford.
Thirty years ago
In April 1995 my first wife, Judy, was recovering from failed chemotherapy for bowel cancer metastases. Clearly this was not a great situation, but she was fitter than she had been since before her operation to remove the primary tumour. We began meeting again at home with friends in Yatton, near Bristol, where we lived. These were by far the best meetings with friends in Jesus’ presence that any of us had ever experienced. Awesome and hard to describe adequately.
Erm… I can’t count! That was not thirty years ago, it was twenty-eight years ago! Ah well, I’ll let it stand.
Thirty years ago
I’ll try again! In April 1993 Judy and I were living in Yatton with our daughters, and my Mum and Dad visited us on 15th. We drove into Bristol and looked around the covered market and The Galleries shopping centre.
Prepare for much better and more natural interaction with devices like Alexa, your satnav, book readers, aids for the blind and much more. No more need to remember the right words and phrases to use.
What does a conversation with ChatGPT look like? I test it out below and add some short notes and thoughts on what it might mean for the future.
I ran a simple chat session with ChatGPT, just to get an idea of how good it is at understanding questions and returning understandable, useful answers in ordinary language. Everything in the conversation below with a yellow background was typed by me, the rest is from ChatGPT. Where my typing is an aside for you, my readers, and not sent to ChatGPT, I’ve put it in braces {}.
The headquarters of Open AI, the developers of ChatGPT – From Wikimedia
The conversation is quite long, but I hope it will interest you and perhaps cause you to raise questions in your own mind. If you want to discuss any thoughts on AI in general (and ChatGPT in particular) just leave them in the comments section below. Thanks.
The conversation
Chris – Hi, my name is Chris and I’d like you to introduce yourself; please don’t be nervous, just give me an informal introduction.
ChatGPT – Hi Chris! I’m ChatGPT, a language model designed to communicate with humans and assist with various tasks. Think of me as a robot that can talk with you through text. I’m always eager to learn new things and help you in any way I can, so feel free to ask me anything!
Chris – Thanks! Good to meet you. OK, I’ve got the idea that you are robot-like. There are a couple of things I’d like to know. Why are you called ‘ChatGPT’? And what is a language model?
ChatGPT – Good to meet you too, Chris!
ChatGPT is named after the GPT (Generative Pre-trained Transformer) language model architecture, which is used to build me. GPT is a type of neural network that is trained on massive amounts of text data, allowing it to generate coherent and natural-sounding text. The “Chat” part of my name refers to my ability to chat with humans like you, using text as our mode of communication.
Speaking of language models, a language model is a type of artificial intelligence that can analyze and generate human language. Essentially, a language model is a computer program that is trained on large amounts of text data, allowing it to learn the rules and patterns of language. Once trained, a language model can perform a wide variety of tasks, such as generating text, translating between languages, or answering questions. I’m a particularly advanced type of language model, based on the GPT-3.5 architecture, which allows me to handle a wide range of tasks and communicate with people like you in a natural and engaging way.
Chris – I must congratulate you, your replies are certainly engaging and natural. Do you mind if I ask some more questions? This is an interesting conversation.
ChatGPT – Thank you, Chris! I’m always happy to answer questions and have interesting conversations, so please feel free to ask me anything you’d like.
{I thought I’d introduce some typos next, to see if ChatGPT would struggle to parse the text. But it didn’t bat an electronic eyelid, answering quickly and correctly.}
Chris – What sort of toxt deta were you trainers with? Do you know where it came from? A few examples of sources would be helpful.
ChatGPT – I was trained on a diverse set of text data, ranging from news articles and academic papers to social media posts and online discussions. The training data comes from various sources and domains, covering a wide range of topics and writing styles to help me understand and generate text in a natural and diverse manner.
Some examples of sources that were used to train me include:
Wikipedia: A large online encyclopedia with articles on almost every topic imaginable.
Books: A wide range of books on various topics, from fiction to non-fiction.
Web pages: Crawled from the internet, including blog posts, news articles, and online discussions.
Social media: Posts from popular social media platforms like Twitter and Reddit.
Scientific journals: Academic papers from various scientific disciplines.
News sources: Articles from major news outlets like CNN and the New York Times.
The training data was collected from various sources and pre-processed to remove irrelevant or duplicated content, ensuring that the data was of high quality and diverse enough to train me to generate human-like text.
Chris – In that case let’s try to draw on some of the material you’ve seen from those sources. I live in an English town called Cirencester. It’s in a region called The Cotswolds. Please write a short essay about Cirencester for me.
ChatGPT – Sure, I’d be happy to write a short essay about Cirencester for you!
Cirencester is a charming town located in the heart of the Cotswolds, a picturesque region known for its rolling hills, quaint villages, and traditional architecture. With a history dating back to Roman times, Cirencester is home to a wealth of historical and cultural attractions that draw visitors from around the world.
One of the town’s most notable landmarks is the Cirencester Parish Church of St. John Baptist, a stunning example of medieval architecture that has been standing for over 900 years. The church is home to a variety of beautiful stained-glass windows, intricate stone carvings, and historical artifacts that provide a glimpse into the town’s rich history.
Another must-visit attraction in Cirencester is the Corinium Museum, which houses an impressive collection of Roman artifacts and exhibits that showcase the town’s Roman heritage. Visitors can explore the museum’s extensive collection of mosaics, coins, and pottery, as well as learn about the daily lives of the Roman citizens who once called Cirencester home.
In addition to its historical attractions, Cirencester is also known for its natural beauty and outdoor activities. The town is surrounded by idyllic countryside, with plenty of opportunities for hiking, cycling, and exploring the Cotswold Way, a 100-mile walking trail that winds through the region’s stunning landscapes.
Whether you’re interested in history, culture, or outdoor activities, Cirencester has something to offer. With its unique blend of ancient and modern, this charming town is a must-visit destination for anyone looking to experience the best of the Cotswolds.
Chris – That was really good! Do you write poetry as well? How about a short poem (three or four verses) about Cirencester?
ChatGPT – Sure, I can certainly give it a try! Here’s a short poem about Cirencester:
In the heart of the Cotswolds lies a town, With Roman roots and ancient renown. Cirencester, where history meets charm, And natural beauty keeps us calm.
Streets lined with stone and buildings grand, A parish church that still does stand. Corinium’s past in the museum’s keep, A town that makes our hearts leap.
Cirencester, oh, how you inspire, In every season, by every fire. A gem in the Cotswolds, a treasure to see, A place where our hearts are free.
Chris – Great! Here’s something a bit harder, can you do a haiku on Cirencester?
ChatGPT – Sure, here’s a haiku about Cirencester:
Roman walls stand tall, Cirencester’s ancient embrace, Cotswold’s heart of stone.
Chris – Great again, and hard to do. I have one last question for you; how should I solve a quadratic?
ChatGPT – To solve a quadratic equation, there are several methods, but one of the most commonly used is the quadratic formula. The quadratic formula states that for an equation of the form ax^2 + bx + c = 0, the solution for x is given by:
x = (-b ± sqrt(b^2 – 4ac)) / 2a
where “sqrt” denotes the square root function.
To use this formula, you simply plug in the values of a, b, and c from your quadratic equation into the formula, and then simplify the expression to find the solutions for x.
It’s worth noting that there are other methods for solving quadratic equations, such as factoring and completing the square, but the quadratic formula is generally considered the most reliable and efficient method, especially for more complex equations.
Chris – Thanks! Enjoy your time chatting to some other people. By the way, how many people can you converse with at the same time? I can only manage four or five.
ChatGPT – As an AI language model, I can theoretically converse with an unlimited number of people simultaneously, as long as the incoming messages are not too frequent and I have enough computing resources to process them all in a timely manner. However, I can only provide individualized responses to each person based on the messages they send me, so the more people involved in the conversation, the more difficult it may be to keep track of multiple threads of conversation at once.
Some thoughts on what you’ve just read
I think you’ll agree that ChatGPT is pretty good at giving understandable and useful responses in English to a range of questions. It’s pretty much the sort of conversation you’d expect from a very well-read human. It seems most unlikely that today’s AI systems, including ChatGPT, actually ‘think’ in anything like a human way. It manipulates language very cleverly in ways that are useful and seem human-like. But these AI systems don’t understand meaning, they don’t have feelings or emotions, they don’t have thoughts or opinions.
Might they have the earliest glimmerings of these things? There’s no evidence that they do. But the teams developing such systems have sometimes expressed caution. The danger here is that any much more advanced future system that did have a spark of self-awareness might arise without us even knowing about it, and if it was capable of modifying itself it could become exponentially more clever. Even a few days of exponential improvement could result in a more powerful mind than any human. After that, the AI could outwit us with ease and make decisions that we might not like. The difficulty is that the time available for us to intervene would be a much smaller window than we might suppose or plan for.
In the near future (likely starting in months, not years) a welcome development will improve those systems that already use speech recognition and/or speech generation. Prepare for much better and more natural interaction with devices like Alexa, your satnav, book readers, aids for the blind and much more. No more need to remember the right words and phrases to use, fewer misunderstood commands, the ability to ask for more or different information.
Expect help with programming, planning astronomical observing sessions, writing up research, having your articles proof read and copy edited. Perhaps soon you’ll be able to throw away your keyboard! Laptops might start to look like tablets. Bedtime? Ask for a story.
ChatGPT can do that already…
Chris – Write me a children’s bedtime story about a dog, a mouse, an oak tree and an ant hill.
ChatGPT – Once upon a time, there was a friendly dog named Max. Max loved exploring the forest near his home and making new friends. One day, while he was wandering through the woods, he met a tiny mouse named Mimi. Max and Mimi quickly became best friends and spent hours playing together.
As they were playing, Max noticed a beautiful oak tree nearby. The tree was enormous, with branches stretching high into the sky. Max and Mimi decided to climb up the tree and see what they could find. When they reached the top, they discovered a bustling ant hill. Thousands of tiny ants were working together to gather food and build their home.
Max and Mimi watched in awe as the ants worked tirelessly. They were amazed at how much the little ants could accomplish when they worked together. Max and Mimi decided to help the ants by gathering food for them. Max used his strong nose to sniff out berries, while Mimi used her quick reflexes to catch insects.
The ants were overjoyed to receive Max and Mimi’s help. They thanked the two friends by giving them a special gift – a magical acorn that would grant them one wish. Max and Mimi thought long and hard about what they should wish for.
Finally, Max said, “I wish for all the animals in the forest to be friends, just like us.” Mimi nodded in agreement. She added, “And I wish for the oak tree to grow even taller and stronger, so it can provide shelter for even more creatures.”
Their wish was granted, and from that day forward, all the animals in the forest were friends. The oak tree grew taller and stronger, and even more animals found shelter in its branches. Max and Mimi continued to play together and explore the forest, knowing that their wish had made a difference in the lives of so many creatures.
As the sun began to set, Max and Mimi said goodnight to their new friends and curled up together under the oak tree. The stars twinkled above them, and the gentle breeze rustled the leaves. Max and Mimi felt grateful for the adventure they had shared and fell asleep with happy hearts, dreaming of all the fun they would have tomorrow.
It can write essays, explain more or less anything you might ask, it can even pass many written exams on all kinds of topics
If you’ve been paying attention to the technology scene recently, you cannot fail to have heard of ChatGPT. What is it? Quite simply it’s a chatbot, a type and read interface for version 3.5 of the GPT engine developed by Open AI.
If all that sounds confusing, a chatbot is artificial intelligence (AI) software, in this case presented as a webpage, where you can have a conversation with a computer program. You type in a question and the chatbot sends a reply. Repeated questions and replies form a conversation, in ChatGPT’s case a remarkably smooth, almost ‘human’ experience.
If you haven’t yet tried it, then you really should. It’s free and very easy to use. I encourage you to visit chat.openai.com, sign up for a free account, and type a question. There are no rules about what you can and cannot type; ChatGPT is accomplished at understanding ordinary language and gives good, conversational replies.
Assuming you tried it out and have found your way back to my blog post, I’d like to explain a bit more about it. ChatGPT was released as a website at the end of November in 2022 and has grown in popularity very, very fast. If you tried it out for yourself, I’m sure you will understand why. It’s compelling, it can write essays, explain more or less anything you might ask, it can even pass many written exams on all kinds of topics. And version 4.0 of the engine is already available as a paid option and is far more capable. It can take images as input as well as text and has, for example, built a working website based on a sketch and a description of what the website should do. That is little short of astounding!
The company, Open AI, was created to work on artificial intelligence with safety very much in mind. Sometimes, ChatGPT generates false answers; that can be an issue but it is not deliberate. What if more advanced AI became able to reason as people do, what if it started to think and develop it’s own goals, and what if its intellect became faster and more nimble than our own? Could we prevent it from taking over? Would it be benign, or might it become hostile? Would we be able to control it? These are serious issues. We need to think these things through now, before it becomes too late.
I don’t want to be alarmist, and AI as we currently experience it is far from becoming a threat. It may prove useful in many ways and we’ll see that begin to happen very soon. But we’ll need to manage it in ways that prevent it helping people do bad things. We don’t want such technology to enhance criminal activity, for example. So there’s a great deal to consider right now, and the need for that will only increase as AI systems become more and more capable. For more on this I recommend Sean Carroll’s podcast episode 230, linked below.
I’m going to close this blog post at this point, but I’ll be back soon with a sort of interview with ChatGPT. I’ll ask some questions, let the software answer, and publish the conversation.
Meanwhile, have some ChatGPT conversations for yourself and see what you think.
This must have felt frustrating; Jesus has already explained to them all and then added more to help Thomas. But now Philip doesn’t understand either. But Jesus is able to cope with anything, and in this he leads the way for us; frustration doesn’t lead to impatience. We are called to be patient as he is patient.
Philip asks Jesus to show the Father to the puzzled, anxious disciples, and he adds that doing so will satisfy them. Jesus is surprised. I’ve been with you all this time, Philip: how can you not know me?
Simple truth
And he explains again the simple truth that he and his Father are one, ‘I’m in the Father, and he’s in me’. This simple truth is hard for Philip to grasp because it is so deep, so astonishing, yet so simple. Surely far too simple to be true, and far too shocking as well. Nobody has ever made claims like this before! It is either true, or Jesus is utterly deluded, or at worst he’s a complete fraud. No wonder Philip struggles! Jesus tells him that if he can’t believe what he says, he should certainly believe what he’s been doing – healing the sick, raising the dead, forgiving the guilty. Who else but the Father himself could do this stuff?
The Father’s glory
If you believe in me you’ll do even greater things because, when I’m in the Father’s presence, you’ll be able to ask whatever is needed and I’ll do it for you. Why? Because the Father’s glory (the Presence that has long been in the holiest place in the Temple) will instead be in Jesus and his glory will no longer be contained in the Holy of Holies but will be contained in Jesus instead. And although Jesus doesn’t say so here, the Father’s glory will therefore be in the church because we, the church, are Jesus’ body here in the world. Perhaps this is not fully understood or expressed until the Holy Spirit reveals it to Paul on the Damascus road. Paul knew that the Presence had been in the Holy Place, but that now there was a new Holy Place, the church, inhabited by the Son, and through him, by the Father too since they are one. Although this was plain to Paul even before the Temple’s destruction, it must have been far less clear to the disciples while Jesus was still physically with them.
We carry an inestimable treasure with us wherever we go! And if that doesn’t fill you with hope, joy, and encouragement, I don’t know what will.
Notes from bygone years – March after March after March
Two years ago
There were no posts in March 2021, but I walked a long section of the old Thames and Severn Canal. The photo shows the towpath on the left and the bed of the canal on the right. The canal is being restored, but it will be a long time before this section can carry barges again.
The old canal and towpath
Five years ago
In March 2018 I posted about moving into our new house and adding an extension (‘Our new home in the Cotswolds‘). The building work was disruptive in the extreme, of course. We had to move out for four weeks, and make do with just part of the original space for much longer than that. But it was worth it.
We used to watch TV here!
Ten years ago
Grasshopper landing
In March 2013 I wrote about a TED interview with Elon Musk. Perhaps you haven’t heard of the TED talks, but everybody has heard of Elon. The post is interesting: Musk was already experimentally landing rockets ten years ago, and TED continues to be a great ideas platform. Take a look and explore the links in the original post.
Rachael also shared a picture of an old-fashioned plough making furrows. The soil needs to be churned up and overturned before something new can be grown. There is a necessary process of breaking before the land can be used.
We thought about how Father releases us from ourselves. At the beginning he said, ‘Let there be light’; he still speaks those words into his people today and pours light into the darkest places in our hearts.
Twenty years ago
March 2003, another early blog post about a meeting at home. This time there were only two of us, but we heard such a lot! For example, that the tiny stonecrop, the great cedar, and the mighty oak tree were all planted by Father’s hand. The important thing is not to be big or strong, but to be planted by the master.
Imagine what might happen if we abolished general elections altogether. I invite you to consider the idea of 20% of parliamentary seats coming up for re-election annually, or perhaps 10% every six months.
No system of elections lasts for all time. As society and government change, so too must the system by which members of parliament (MPs) are chosen. There have been many changes over the years, women’s suffrage for example for a large, notable change; alterations to constituency boundaries as an example of minor changes that take place at intervals as thought necessary. And there’s been talk for decades now about proportional representation (PR) of one kind or another. It’s good to talk things over, good to remain open to change.
The House of Commons in division, 2012 – From Wikimedia
There must be a clear reason for any change. Change for change’s sake would be irrational and a waste of resources; change is costly so should come often enough, but not too often. A good place to start thinking about this is to identify issues with the current system and imagine some ways of addressing them. The next step would be to consider the cost effectiveness and drawbacks of those possible approaches.
In this short essay I’d like to think through an alternative to general elections. One disadvantage of a general election is that it may result in no significant change if the existing party and prime minister return to power, or it may cause a huge sea-change of policy and a completely new cabinet when party and prime minister are defeated and a whole, new government comes to power. A by-election, on the other hand, rarely defeats a government, though it may usefully influence policy by making public opinion clearer.
A better approach
Is there some way we could reduce the sometimes damaging flip-flop of U-turn changes of government on the one hand, and the tired persistence of stale policies on the other, while at the same time increasing the effectiveness of public opinion? Yes, I believe there is. It’s been staring us in the face for decades. It’s an idea that deserves attention and some public debate, and now would be as good a time as any to take an initial look.
Just suppose
Imagine what might happen if we abolished general elections altogether. I invite you to consider the idea of 20% of parliamentary seats coming up for re-election annually, or perhaps 10% every six months. MPs would continue to serve a term of five years, as they do at the moment. This would provide local stability in which constituents could become familiar with their local MP just as at present. But it would also provide strong (and useful) public feedback to a sitting government in terms of popularity of policies and personalities.
I favour the 10% every six months approach, or even 5% every three months. It would be a bit like 65 (or 32) by-elections at regular intervals. The period chosen could be still finer at 11 seats per month or, say, 1 or 2 per week. These choices should be debated along with the principle of shifting from the current system to a new method. A system like this could work with or without PR, of course. Personally I favour some form of PR, but it might be wise to keep the debates and the decisions separate from one another, not least to reduce the complexity of any proposed change and to enable a more focussed approach in debate and in any votes taken, either in parliament or by the electorate. There would be many details to be thought through.
Are there any parliaments or similar bodies around the world where a proportion of the seats come up for re-election at intervals? I’m not aware of any, but a system similar to the one I propose here is used for some local authority elections in Britain where a half or one third of the councillors are re-elected each time. So we do have some experience to inform us on how elections of this kind perform and, perhaps, how voter behaviour might change in such a system.
Moving towards a new system
What steps are required and how might this idea be taken forward?
Clearly, there would need to be a good deal of debate first. What would be the best choice of frequency at which a proportion of seats should be re-elected? How might we choose the seats? What advantages and disadvantages might we foresee for the new system, and how would it compare with the current arrangement of General Elections every five years?
My suggestion, already mentioned, would be to go for small changes at frequent intervals. This would involve more modest and less disruptive changes at Cabinet level for example, with just a few members of the cabinet facing an election each time. Sixty-five seats would be up for re-election every six months, or thirty-two every three months. Frequent elections would provide finer-grained but less disruptive changes in Parliament. Voters would be able to apply only gentle pressure to a governing party, but it would be pressure reapplied quite often. The government of the day would need to ensure voters remained content with their policies.
Seats for re-election could be chosen randomly or in some other way that would be easy to decide (but not favour a particular political party or region). So in one tranche, thirty-two seats would be re-elected and six months later a further thirty-two. Five years later the same tranches would come up once again.
Once all the ideas and issues had been carefully considered, recommendations could be made and a bill written and presented for debate. Like any other bill this would need approval from the Commons and the Lords.
How to make the change from the current system of General Elections to the new arrangement would also need a good deal of thought and debate. Many seats would have to come up for re-election earlier or later than normal. It might be possible for an intial batch of seats to be re-elected after four and a half years and another batch after five and a half with the bulk remaining at five years. Then at a later General Election these seats could shift by a further six months and two more tranches brought in so that gradually, General Elections would become smaller and smaller as a larger proportion of seats shifted to the new system.
Initial steps
I think I’ve gone into enough detail for the time being. I’d like to see a wider debate on this with plenty of thoughts and opinions from others. I’ll do what I can to get that started. Meanwhile, if you’d like to comment on this article please do; I’d love to hear what you think.
The crescent Moon shines out in the evening of 23rd February, but there are three solar system objects in this image. After the Sun, the Moon is the second brightest object in Earth’s night sky.
The third and fourth brightest objects in our sky are present in this image. Can you see them? I doubt it, they are lost in the remaining glow of the sun as it sets. But if you know exactly where to look, you might see them.
The Moon and a couple of other things
Let’s zoom in a little, that always helps…
Can you see them now?
So, did you see them? No? They are there in plain view, but congratulations if you spotted them, it’s still not easy.
The third brightest object in our night sky is Venus, and you can see it near the bottom right corner of the photo – a little white dot. The fourth brightest object is Jupiter. It’s there to see as well, between the Moon and Venus, but a bit closer to Venus than to the Moon. See it now? (If you’re reading this on your phone you will need to enlarge the image.)
Later in the evening they are impossible to miss. The Moon is moving further away from this scene day by day, but Venus and Jupiter are getting closer to one another in the sky and are both very bright in a darker sky. Jupiter is also getting closer to the horizon and setting earlier and earlier as the days pass so if you want to see it, look in the next day or two. In April Jupiter will reappear in the morning sky before sunrise.
See also:
Watch Dr Becky’s Night Sky video segment for more detail (better yet, watch her entire video).
And for more detail on the three objects, take a look at Wikipedia’s articles on The Moon, Venus and Jupiter.
Have we come to a time when the church is perfect and is missing nothing? I don’t think so! What fresh revelation will be next?
In a recent, very brief conversation on Twitter I suggested that something was ‘ground breaking’. Specifically it concerned some ideas about following Jesus, and whether one particular idea was ground breaking.
Thinking about this afterwards I realised that a useful conversation requires that we agree on what we mean by ‘ground breaking’ in the context of the lives and activities of believers interacting together in groups.
Arguably, ‘ground breaking’ might originally be a farming or growing term. Before taking a harvest, it’s necessary to plant seeds in fertile soil, get them to germinate, and wait for them to grow. The farmer has much to do during that process, but the very first requirement is to do some ground breaking. Turning the soil with a plough (or a spade) loosens it, damages any weeds growing there, makes it easier to sow seed, and enables water and air to penetrate (both are needed). A bit of ground breaking can work wonders!
Jesus, ground breaker par excellence
In one sense of course, Jesus did all the ground breaking that could possibly be needed in church life. He only did what he saw his Father do, and only said what he heard his Father say. And he told his followers, ‘My Father is a gardener’. He also told a striking parable about seed falling in different places, including well prepared soil as well as several kinds of unprepared, unsuitable, or poorly prepared ground.
His is a foundational kind of ground breaking that we cannot and do not need to repeat. But there’s something else I would call ground breaking; something that happens every time principles, knowledge, or behaviour that the church has forgotten is restored. It’s happened over and over again.
Lesser ground breakings
One relatively recent example would be the spiritual revival that took place in the 1960s and 70s. I’m old enough to remember the excitement of discovering two things in those days. The understanding that the Holy Spirit poured out gifts on his people and wanted us to put them to use, and the idea that small groups meeting outside the denominations were capable of rapid and dynamic growth. They were exciting times. Out of this sprang three phenomena that are still with us today; multiple streams of new organisations like New Frontiers, New Wine, and many more; a re-invigoration of parts of most denominations, Anglican, Baptist, Methodist, Catholic and more; and thirdly the house church movement based around small, intimate groups of friends.
Going back a little we can see that the Azusa Street events were ground breaking in the same sense and resulted in the two main streams of Pentecostal churches.
Before that we might identify the Welsh revival when a new sense of unworthiness and Father’s forgiveness resulted in large numbers of people praising and worshipping, encouraging one another, and preaching to their neighbours in towns and villages. Before that the Wesleys and Methodism flourished and it was understood that small groups can be a powerful way for people to grow and develop together. And there are many more ground breaking events like these right back through the centuries.
When I talk about ground breaking I definitely include developments like these, discoveries that there was, in the earliest state of the church, some other element of following Jesus which has since fallen into disuse or even faded from memory entirely. Rediscovering how things used to be and might be again is ground breaking in this lesser sense.
New, vigorous growth
Such freshly re-broken ground almost always seems to result in new, vigorous growth where previously things had become somewhat tired and wooden. Think in terms of a neglected, weak, dehydrated plant that has just been potted up with fresh compost, is being watered regularly, and now stands in a new spot where there is fresh air, adequate humidity, and plenty of light. A plant like that will put on a sudden spurt of growth, form new shoots and leaves, and perhaps flower for the first time in ages.
We need to see more ground being rebroken and experience that fresh flush of growth and energy again and again. Have we come to a time when the church is perfect and is missing nothing? I don’t think so! What fresh revelation will be next?
Note: Ground breaking can also mean a ceremonial turning of soil at the start of a construction project. It can be instructive to think of Jesus’ work as the start of a building project – the New Jerusalem, which is the church (see Revelation 21:9-10). But that’s a whole topic on its own.
For this first flight both parts of the vehicle will be lost after landing on the sea (but hopefully not before)
Elon Musk’s company, SpaceX, is close to the first launch of their new spacecraft – Starship. This is an exciting step forward in space flight technology as fully reusable Starship versions are planned to return NASA astronauts to the moon, act as orbital fuel tankers, take people and materials to destinations throughout the solar system, and colonise Mars.
The world’s most powerful rocket is likely to make its first orbital flight attempt during March. Whatever happens, the attempt will be spectacular in the extreme! With twice the thrust of NASA’s SLS rocket, SpaceX’s Super Heavy booster will attempt a launch from Starbase on the Texas coast, heading east. The Starship will separate and pass between Florida and Cuba.
The Super Heavy booster will attempt a landing on the surface of the sea, offshore of its launch point. When fully operational, SpaceX intends that Super Heavy boosters will return to the launch site to be caught in mid-air by arms on the launch tower. Starship will attempt a landing, also on the sea surface, north of Hawaii, but again, the intention is to eventually catch Starship at the launch site as well.
For this first flight both parts of the vehicle will be lost after landing on the sea (but hopefully not before). It’s likely they will attempt to hover above the sea surface to practice the manoeuvre they will need to perform for a catch. Once landing precision is good enough, SpaceX will attempt the first catches. But that’s something for future flights and will depend on data returned from this first attempt. You can’t put a note in your diary to watch the launch as we don’t yet know exactly when it will happen. But I’ll keep you posted here on JHM.
The previous step forward for Starship was a static fire by the Super Heavy booster on 9th February. This is worth watching in this video clip from NASA. Thirty-one of the booster’s thirty-three engines fired for the duration of the test, one was not ignited at all, and one shut down early. The engines fired at half thrust during the test, but for the first launch they’ll be run at 90% thrust.
See also:
The SpaceX website carries an introduction to the concept of the Starship system.
The launch is listed on Spaceflight Now’s Launch Schedule page and on Next Spaceflight’s SpaceX Launch Manifest page. You can check those sources for schedule updates as they become available.
Wikipedia has a good article about the Starship vehicle covering details of size, thrust, the development process, purpose, capabilities and so on.
Journeys of Heart and Mind 