I Spoke Too Soon

In my last post, I said that Basrah doesn't have sand storms like Baghdad. That turned out to be only partially true. Last night, there was a huge storm. There was only a little rain, but the wind really tore at things. We heard that several power line were down around Basrah, and a pontoon bridge over the Shatt Al Arab was torn up. There was some local damage in the camp, too, but the biggest problem was the blowing sand. There wasn't the suspended dust that you see in the picture of the palace, but it wasn't pleasant to breathe and it got into everything. There was a pretty good lightning show too. When the rainy season starts, I think the only difference will be the amount a water coming down. People are saying that basrah turns into one huge mud bog.

In other news, if you know any Luddites who just aren't happy unless everyone is miserable, the Large Hadron Collider was started up yesterday. No black holes were produced, so the end of the world will be delayed yet again. It is supposed to discovery the Higgs Boson, which among other things, is suspected of being the reason that matter has mass. I read someone today who said that, if it is found, it might provide evidence that "ether" really does exist, at least in the sense that there is something that completely pervades the universe and touches everything in it. Isn't it funny how, the more science advances, the more closely it seems to approach where religion has been all along. Can someone recall who said that true science and true religion are never in disagreement. I have also heard and thought myself, that all truth, whether it comes from science or revelation, is a part of the Gospel. The only difference being that on some things we depend on for our eternal welfare and others only for our temporal welfare.