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350 Is The Upper Limit
"If humanity wishes to preserve a planet similar to that on which civilization developed and to which life on earth is adapted... CO2 will need to be reduced from its current 385 ppm to at most 350 ppm."
Jim Hansen, NASA

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Keeping Time

Happy Easter

Here’s a topic that’s bothered many people for over a thousand years. Why does Easter move around so much? And why do Orthodox Christians celebrate it at a different time from those in the West? For the answer we have to start looking about 2000 years ago.

Easter celebrates the rising from the grave of Jesus of Nazareth. If we zoom in a bit on that event, we see that it occurred around the celebration of the Jewish Passover. So it follows that the date we celebrate Easter is tied to the date of the Passover. And since Jewish holidays are not determined by the Gregorian calendar, but by the Hebrew calendar, the dates for Easter each year seem to vary.

There is some historical contention concerning the actual date Easter should be celebrated each year. Generally speaking, two schools of thought have evolved over the past two centuries. Although there are several distinct areas where they disagree, they can be distinguished most easily by one major difference. The Eastern thought still ties the Easter celebration to the Passover, explicitly stating that Easter cannot occur before the observance of Passover. Western faiths do not include this limitation.

In 2008 the differences in the way the dates are figured means that over a month will pass between the Western and Easter celebrations. In 1997, The World Council of Churches proposed a reform in the way the date is calculated, based exclusively on astronomical observations. This would have removed the disparity in the dates used by the Western and Orthodox faiths, but in the end, none of the member churches adopted the reform.

So where did Peter Cottontail, the Easter bunny come from? I have no idea. Same with Easter Eggs. Nevertheless, here’s a little bunny puzzle for your Easter enjoyment.

Happy Easter Folks

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This year, those of us in the West will celebrate Easter March 23rd. Eastern Christians will celebrate Easter on April 27th. For those who are interested, my son and I will be joining my family at my mom’s house. She’s planning to serve lamb as a traditional entre, and I think she’s planning a ham as well. I’m pretty sure there will be some deviled eggs, potato salad, and an asparagus casserole you’d spend your last dime on just to taste. Cake and pie for desserts and really great coffee, as long as we keep my niece, Stesha away from it…. she really likes some strong coffee.(I love you Stesha!)

So, enjoy the puzzle, check out the links, learn about Easter and astound your friends with Easter trivia! As for me,

I am Jon, and I’ll be here all weekend.

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(edit: I noticed that most of those SnapShots display the same text. The links go to different locations on a huge Wiki page. Even though the SnapShots are identical, the links are different. Thanks. Jon