Taps

We in the United States have all heard the haunting song, 'Taps.' It's the song that gives us the lump in our throats and usually tears in our eyes. But, do you know the words?

As far as we know and according to stories, Taps was sounded on a night in July 1862. Words were put with the music. The first were, "Go To Sleep, Go to Sleep." As the years went on many more versions were created. There are no official words to the music but here are some of the more popular verses:

Day is done, gone the sun,
From the hills, from the lake,
From the sky.
All is well, safely rest,
God is nigh.

Go to sleep, peaceful sleep,
May the soldier or sailor,
God keep.
On the land or the deep,
Safe in sleep.

Love, good night, Must thou go,
When the day, And the night
Need thee so?
All is well. Speedeth all
To their rest.

Fades the light; And afar
Goeth day, And the stars
Shineth bright,
Fare thee well; Day has gone,
Night is on.

Thanks and praise, For our days,
'Neath the sun, Neath the stars,
'Neath the sky,
As we go, This we know,
God is nigh.

There are conflicting stories about the actual origins of the song, but everyone agrees the song is purely American and was written during the conflicts of the Civil War.

Let Me Google That for You

This is nice little application that allows you to make a point without being rude. If you're getting tired of constant requests from friends, family, or associates for answers to questions that a quick Google search would provide, try Let Me Google That for You. Instead of searching then reformatting the information before passing it on, you now can send the search results in a clever way directly to the person requesting.

The way this works is simple. Just go to the Let Me Google That for You web page, type in your search term and click the button. A link will appear that you can copy and paste then send to your friend. When they click the on the link, they get a snarky little animation that displays how difficult it is to search Google and then redirects the user to the actual search results page that you found for them. The beauty of this is that the person can see exactly what term you used to retrieve the information for them.

You know the old expression...teach a man to fish...

New Search Engine with Privacy

Fully focused on privacy since 2006, Startpage (known as Ixquick.com in Europe) is the only major search engine that does not retain your personal data.
Go to: www.startpage.com


Startpage’s privacy policy is widely considered the best in the industry:
- No recording of your IP address.
- No identifying cookies.
- No collecting of personal data.
- No sharing of personal data with third parties.
- Offering secure, encrypted connections (HTTPS/SSL)
- And a full proxy service to be launched next month.

Startpage's proxy service allows you to be invisible on the internet. However, pages are a bit slower to load since they go to the proxy server first. Unfortunately, the proxy service does not allow you bypass login pages. Darn.

11 o'clock Church Services

Ever wondered why the traditional time for church services on Sundays is at 11 a.m.?

Well, it seems it originated with the Catholic reformationist Martin Luther, who created the Protestant revolt. Good ol' Martin was without a doubt a godly man but still only a man. A man with very real human traits. You see, one of Martin's favorite things to do at the end of the week was going to the local German beer gardens on Saturday nights and hoisting steins into the wee hours of the morning with seminary students while discussing and debating things of a Biblical nature. He didn't like getting up early the following morning for church services because he had been up most of the night. In fact, Martin suggested, and believed, that Sunday services should be on Sunday evenings, giving him time to sleep, write his sermon, and pull himself together. The congregation didn't like that idea and insisted that services be on Sunday mornings. Because the congregation was insistent that services had to be in the morning but to still allow himself as much time as possible to recover from the previous evening, he began holding services at the 11:00-12:00 time frame.

So, there you have it--the rest of the story. The 11-12 hour spread to other churches and became the traditional time that most churches still hold their primary Sunday services today.

Groom is Coming for the Bride Soon

"And the LORD God caused a deep sleep to fall upon Adam and he slept: and he took one of his ribs, and closed up the flesh instead thereof; and the rib, which the LORD God had taken from man, made he a woman, and brought her unto the man."
Genesis 2:21–22

When Adam was in a deep sleep, a bride came forth from his side. Down the tunnel of time, another bride would come forth from the side of another Adam, the last Adam, Jesus Christ. When a Roman soldier stuck a spear in His side and the birthing fluids of blood and water poured forth, a bride was born: the church—you and me.

Jon Courson

America Rising