The dew this evening fell
To refresh the ground again.
We thought it would be well
And remembered then the pain.
The pain of leaving home,
Of walking in a strange place,
But freedom then to roam
Gave to pain a new brand face.
Each day we walk uncertainly,
Not knowing of the end,
But the God of grace and mercy
Knows well how to defend.
He saw the world before it was
And knew how it would be.
And yet he made it all because
Of love for you and me.
The pain that we all feel
For the wrongs that we have done
Though grievous to his soul
Yet for it he would atone.
There on the Roman cross
His blood for the world was shed.
It was for him no loss –
Let us now by him be led!
Another year has passed away,
Another now employ.
May you know joy and peace alway
In him without alloy.
Author: admin
Sennheiser PCX550
Well the battery died quite some time ago, but well out of warranty, and it was left to find a moment when a repair process could be enacted, a replacement battery be found and a resurrection be performed. Today was such a day.
The repair process
A search found that Maurice Brg, among others, had not so long ago performed such an operation. The difference between him and others is that he prepared a report on the matter:
https://mauricebrg.com/2024/05/sennheiser-pxc-550-battery-replacement.html
A very thoughtful man who recognises that if you have a question others will have the same question but do not dare to ask it. So he did, and he provided the answer as well.
Coco could not describe it better. Not only did his repair succeed, he knows what technical terms like spudger mean, not that you need to know the technical terms because his description is in plain easy to read English.
If your PCX550 requires some TLC in the form of a new battery, you could not visit a more helpful place that Borgmeier’s Blog.
Footnote: Coco has only completed the first part of the operation. There was no point, he thought, to acquire a battery if he could not open the baffle.
Circles
How often have you gone round in circles?
Resisting the temptation to look at the comments where there may be an answer to the puzzle which at first you thought was proving difficult only because you had not spotted the correct approach to the solution, you slowly begin to discern that in order to solve it it may be that you need one more piece of information. What do you do? Like every good student sitting an examination or test, you read the whole question again, carefully this time, looking for that one additional piece of information that will cause the solution to appear, rather like those pieces of art which you must examine with cross-eyes to see what is really there, out of the mass (mess?) of mathematical nonsense that already litters the page, but it is not there. You have found all of the information that is to be had.
You try again this time to establish what the missing piece might be which would allow a solution to be found. You discover that if you knew any one of three things there would be a solution. You look for all three things in the information provided, only to discover that it is still not there. At that point you open up the comments on the question to find several answers, but they are all different. How could that be? There is only one correct answer, but the respondents are quite sure about their own answers. You also see that there are others who have understood correctly that insufficient information has been given: some even point out that the assumptions made by those who have found an answer are both extraneous to the question, and unjustifiable on the information given.
In the light of this discovery it behoves those who are tempted to solve questions posted in this forum to ask whether there is sufficient information to find the answer before attempting to solve the riddle.
With that in mind, I thought I would pose one myself, not in its most generalised form, but then neither in the most simplified. We have three spheres in three dimensional space, whose sizes and locations we know. A fourth sphere lies between them and touches the surface of each of the other three. We want to know the size and location of the fourth sphere.
Without any more information we must be content to describe the locus and radii of all spheres that satisfy the touching condition.
The additional piece of information you need is that the centre of the fourth sphere lies on the same plane as the centres of the other three spheres.
Aside you will find a diagram, in which the z-axis has been rotated so that it is vertical to the plane that all four spheres hold in common.
E&OE If you do think you need more information, please raise your hand.
Ans. There are two solutions, one for an inner circle as above, the other for an outer circle. If the solution is progressed correctly both solutions should also fall out:
(2.593190781, 0.467232119, 2.480014276(=(-97465+3*4*√5*√19*√37*√47*√893)/19471)) ) (3.33644816961878, 2.48464503182240, 12.49131313089260(=(-97465-3*4*√5*√19*√37*√47*√893)/19471)))
The sons of God
One writer comments that in Genesis 6:1–4, the reader encounters one of the most challenging passages in all of Scripture to interpret. In this article Coco seeks to challenge that thesis by pleading that a plain reading of the text is all that is required.
There are several articles available on the internet explaining who the sons of God are of whom Moses makes mention in Genesis 6. Two of these may be found here:
https://equip.sbts.edu/article/who-are-the-sons-of-god-daughters-of-man-and-nephilim
Who Are the Sons of God, Daughters of Man, and Nephilim? By Mitchell L. Chase
Augsburg
Poker anyone
As one who only knows one thing about poker, that it was the second thing a cowboy did after he had entered the bar, I have heard it said that it is quite unlike any other card game. In any other game, if you don’t know how to play, you can still play. In poker, if you don’t know how to play, don’t.
That was the situation in Augsburg. It has been repeated many times since in different contexts, perhaps famously when one nation left an economic bloc it placed its cards face up on the table, and secondly more recently when a new president stretched out his arm to an old enemy – but that game is not yet over we must wait to see what the outcome is.
Continue readingA song for April 2025
| In the days when the winter wanes The winds do turn the weather vanes To point toward the coming spring When birds shall fly upon the wing. They shall return the air to fill And we shall climb once more the hill Which overlooks the festal day When all our cares shall flee away. Now if this rhyme non-sequitur Know that this bard is truly dour He writes not logic for to make But merely hopes yo’enjoy your cake. |
The darkness – Psalm 88
As we approach the time of year which is called Easter or Passover by those who observe such things Coco thought to offer a few words on Psalm 88, as we number it, which speaks eloquently, though darkly, about the things which took place at that time. First of all read the psalm itself:
A Song. A Psalm of the sons of Korah. To the Chief Musician. Set to Mahalath Leannoth (The suffering of affliction). A Contemplation (maskil) of Heman the Ezrahite.
Continue readingEpic
Some say that mathematics is difficult, and the more proficient you become in it, rather like English, the more difficult it becomes to comprehend. When questions such as What is 1? are asked and you are told that One is -eiπ, you begin the grasp with credulity the ineffable complexity that is mathematics. You may then be told that Euler’s formula precisely defines all real numbers x by { eix = cos(x) + i sin(x) }. A mathematician somewhere will complain that having placed the equality within braces Coco thus invalidated what he had just proposed. Ah well, such is the world of the mathematician.
The word epic springs to mind when setting out on the voyage of discovery that is mathematics, but have you ever considered whether epic is the right word to use? Epic comes to us from the Greek. We speak of epic poetry. For the Greek that is a poem that tells a story. It may be a short story or it may be a long story such as that of Ulysses (Homer’s Odyssey).
A song for March 2025
| In the bleak midwinter days, When frost and wind the ground did cleave, We wandered round in a haze As spiders in their webs did weave. The days must close, We must not doze, For springtime soon the air must breathe. The springtime comes with a blast Of fiery flowers and florid hues. We know this soon will be past And summer’s sun will then amuse The singing lark, The children’s park, ‘Til winter shall its shadow cast. Once more rolls the year around, But what is that to you and me? Once we thought it was quite sound But time itself has left to flee, Another year Ran like the hare To carry love where ere you be. |
Why we should read the Word of God
On the 7th November 1765 a gentleman whose name Coco can no longer remember was about to leave Shropshire but before he did so he wrote to Jonathan Scott. After he reminded his reader of his own mistakes he continued: Your Christian calling is a warfare, where no quarter can be given on either side. He then set out at least three necessary things in the engagement to which we are called:
- Secret prayer
- Devout study of the Word of God
- Worship together with God’s people
He joins these three together and speaks in this way of the necessity of reading the Word:
Continue reading