Oblivious to the Disruptions We Cause

SOURCE:  "Old TV Caused Village Broadband Outages for 18 months" by BBC News. September 22, 2020.  https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-wales-54239180

https://arstechnica.com/information-technology/2020/09/old-tv-set-interfered-with-villages-dsl-internet-each-day-for-18-months/

KEYWORDS: Sin, pervasive, unknowing, blind, unaware

"An unnamed householder in Aberhosan, Powys, was unaware the old set would emit a signal which would interfere with the entire village's broadband.

After 18 months engineers began an investigation after a cable replacement programme failed to fix the issue.

The embarrassed householder promised not to use the television again.

The village now has a stable broadband signal.

Openreach engineers were baffled by the continuous problem and it wasn't until they used a monitoring device that they found the fault.

The householder would switch their TV set on at 7am every morning - and electrical interference emitted by their second-hand television was affecting the broadband signal.

The owner, who does not want to be identified, was "mortified" to find out their old TV was causing the problem, according to Openreach.

"They immediately agreed to switch it off and not use it again," said engineer Michael Jones."

COMMENTARY:

This reminds me of the nature of sin.  We assume our sins only affect us.  We are unaware that our sins can inadvertently effect others or even the whole community.  Redemption is for the community, not just the individual.

The Persian Flaw

 SOURCE:  "Deliberate Mistakes in Handmade Persian Rugs and Carpets" by David Wilkins. December 16, 2013. http://www.orientalrugexperts.com/deliberate-mistakes-in-handmade-persian-rugs-and-carpets/

KEYWORDS:  Perfection, Flaw, Sin, Humility, Arrogance, Creation

In many handmade Persian rugs and carpets, you will discover the deliberate mistake. Followers of Islam believe only Allah makes things perfectly, and therefore to weave a perfect rug or carpet would be an offence to Allah. The original deliberate mistake is usually made in the execution of the pattern of the rug and not in the dying of the wool or silk, and certainly not the quality of the weaving. Genuine deliberate mistakes in oriental rugs and carpets may be very difficult to spot and can be as subtle as a different colour used in a flower petal. In reality with all handmade oriental rugs and carpets, mistakes creep in whether deliberate or not.

State of Marriage 2020

SOURCE:  "Latest Marriage Data Suggests Dark Future For America If Things Don’t Change Fast" by Craig Osten. The Federalist. September 2, 2020.  

https://thefederalist.com/2020/08/20/latest-marriage-data-suggests-dark-future-for-america-if-things-dont-change-fast/

KEYWORDS:  Marriage, Family, Father, Mother, Children, Society, Social, Matrimony, Wedding

[The article references a Senate report, "The Demise of the Happy Two-Parent Home" which can be found here.]

The report states, “As sources of social capital, few relationships are as important as the family ties between parents and children.” Yet according to the congressional report, more than 45 percent of American children, by the time they reach late adolescence, spend some time without either a mother or a father in the home.

Eighty percent of black children are raised by a single parent, as well as two-thirds of all children whose mothers have less than a high school education. More than half of Hispanic births are out of wedlock, as are 28 percent of Caucasian births, up from 2 percent in 1960.

Marriage — which provides economic and social stability to both men and women and a loving, nurturing home for children — is in serious decline. According to the report, the percentage of women between the ages of 15 and 44 who are married has declined from 71 percent in 1962 to just 42 percent today. Meanwhile, the percentage of never-married women between the ages of 30 and 34 has gone from just over 5 percent in 1962 to 35 percent in 2019.

Another startling statistic is that cohabitation now precedes two-thirds of all marriages, compared to just 1 percent 60 years ago. This has contributed to the staggering increases in unwed childbearing, with only 5 percent of children in 1962 being born to an unwed mother and 40 percent today being born to an unmarried female.

The rates for minority families are even more alarming: 64 percent of black women in their early 30s have never been married, resulting in the staggering 80 percent of black children being raised by a single parent. That is why so many young men in our inner cities never know who their father is — or in some cases do not even have a relationship with their mother. Many of these children are raising themselves. If there was ever a cocktail for societal rage, that’s it.