Good morning! Time to begin our day.

Sheepadoodle talks:

CHICAGO (NewsNation Now) — More than six million people have tuned in to see Bunny, a one-year-old sheepadoodle, learn to communicate using a custom series of buttons created by her owner Alexis Divine.

The two are a part of a UC San Diego study which is how they ended up with the device that let’s Bunny speak in English to Alexis.

“There are about 2500 animals in the study right now, majority dogs but there are some cats, there are a couple of pigs, a horse a parrot, there’s a lemur. There’s some guinea pigs. So it’s really running the gamut. And I think we’re getting some pretty remarkable data,” said Divine.

Chicago pizza.

A pizza place in Chicago was ranked among the best nationwide, according to a new report, with others in the Midwest earning spots in the top 10.

Pequod's Pizza, located at 2207 N Clybourn Ave., was placed No. 5 in the best pizzas in the U.S. in 2021 in a new report from Big 7 Travel.

"Two words: caramelised crust," Big 7 Travel wrote. "Yes, it’s just as mouthwatering and delicious as it sounds. And, you can chow down on plenty of it when visiting Pequod’s Pizza."

Pequod's serves Chicago's iconic deep dish pizza, as well as soups, salads, pastas, wings and desserts, among other Italian dishes. The Near North Side spot also has a location in Morton Grove, located at 8520 Fernald Ave.

Buddy's Pizza in Detroit, Michigan ranked close behind at No. 7 and Diavola in Indianapolis, Indiana earned a No. 8 spot on the top list.

Big 7 Travel ranks pizza places based on the following criteria, according to their website: editorial opinions and experiences; pervious critic reviews; online customer reviews; location and accessibility; online presence; consistency; atmosphere and service; value for money; presentation.

John Stackhouse talks, and he’s right:

The United Church of Canada.
The Anglican Church of Canada.
The Presbyterian Church in Canada.
[Counterparts in the United States: United Church of Christ, Episcopal, Presbyterian, Methodist…]

As a scholarly observer of the North American church scene, I have noticed a pattern of recurring phrases. They are recurring again here and there.

1. ““We don’t want to debate theology.”

2. “We don’t want people clobbering each other with the Bible.”

3. “We want to avoid arguments.”

4. “We don’t want to have to pick sides.”

5. “We just want to hear people’s stories of exclusion.”

6. “We want unity, not division.”

7. “We want to find a middle way.”

8. “We should stop hurting people.”

9. “Ever since my [significant other] came out, I now believe…”

10. “We just want to have a conversation.”

Observation: If you hear the first nine, it doesn’t matter about the tenth. The conversation is already over. Only politics remains.

The one way Christians can hope to hear God saying anything other than simply what they want God to say is to listen to each other, yes—but in the joint enterprise of searching the Scriptures with the sincere intention of understanding and obeying God’s Word as the Spirit teaches us through the Bible, in whatever direction that Word may cut.

Once a group decides to dispense with theological argument (too elitist, too logocentric, too intellectual, too painful, too boring, too difficult…) and to opt instead for storytelling, testimony, and intuition, it is unclear, at least to this theological epistemologist, what keeps anyone and everyone from arriving happily and triumphantly at foregone conclusions.

What about that plexiglass?

(NEXSTAR) – Along with fist bumps and remote work, another legacy of the COVID-19 pandemic has been the plexiglass fortification of businesses, airports and government buildings.

With the rate of COVID-19 infections falling in the United States, where a vaccine is readily available, coffee shop owners, school administrators and others may be wondering just how long they will keep the barriers in place.

Bloomberg reports that sales of the material tripled during the pandemic, reaching roughly $750 million.

The only problem, however, is that it’s hard to find evidence that the miles of barriers have effectively prevented COVID-19 transmission.

Early in the pandemic, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said the coronavirus was spreading on surfaces and through droplets between people at close range – droplets plexiglass barriers are designed to catch. The CDC only fully acknowledged that it could also be transmitted through the air at distances greater than six feet last month.

Howard A. Stone, a professor of Mechanical & Aerospace Engineering at Princeton University, worked with the Met Orchestra of New York in December, 2020 to study how a singer’s breath – captured with an infrared camera – moves away from the body.

His team then used a fog machine to exam how a plexiglass barrier might protect someone on the other side – results were mixed.

“From my perspective, if you’re on the other side of the barrier from someone, you are partially protected because the movement of the air is disrupted by the barrier,” he told NJ.com. “But nonetheless, it can get around.”

Stone pointed out that the air that made it behind the barrier was mixed, suggesting that the plexiglass might help dilute virus-contaminated air.

Airline food’s changes over the years.

Moose-time:

SUMMIT COUNTY, Colo. (KDVR) — As record-setting heat arrives in parts of Colorado, many are looking for ways to stay cool. So, why not take a swim?

That’s what a bull moose decided to do. And yes, moose really can swim.

Jonathan Oketken was on his stand-up paddleboard in Summit County on Monday when he looked over and spotted the moose swimming next to him.

He grabbed his phone and started recording.

“This guy swam straight across the lake and was a very strong swimmer,” shared Oketken. “[I] escorted him from a respectful distance to make sure a boat didn’t come along and hit him.”

According to Colorado Parks and Wildlife, moose are at home in the water, making that a good place to view them.

In the video, Oketken can be heard saying, “The moose is a good swimmer! Come on moose, do your thing!”

CPW also said moose, which have few natural enemies in the wild, don’t fear humans as much as most other big game animals. However, people still should be cautious and refrain from getting too close.

The question just might be “Why?”

A Chicago bus driver looking for a way to relieve stress during the coronavirus pandemic jumped into Lake Michigan for a 365th straight day on Saturday.

Dan O’Conor said he started jumping into the lake at Montrose Harbor on the city’s North Side last year to relieve stress.

“It was during the pandemic, it was during the protest, it was during an election year. ... So it was somewhere where I could come down here and block all that noise out and kind of be totally present with me in the lake, and find some moments of Zen,” said the father of three.

He continued jumping into the lake through the fall before the hard part: Hacking a hole in the ice on the frozen lake that was big enough for him to jump through during the winter. He said when he got home after one such jump, he found about 20 scrapes and cuts on his body.

He was encouraged by the response he got for his undertaking.

“People started asking me what this was benefiting and how they could support — and when I say people, I’m talking strangers online, you know. When I started posting the videos on Twitter and Instagram ... I got more wind in my sails there because people started commenting like, ’This makes my day, it’s nice to see this,” he said.

Saturday was special because it was the culmination of doing it for a full year.

“I just wanted to celebrate just that drive to dive for 365,” O’Conor said.

Interesting:

I can show you, most of you, if you are being reasonable and honest, that you already believe things that commit you to something like what I believe about this. So. Already, I believe in something for which I need some faith. It’s different from what Attlee called the mumbo jumbo of the Christians, but my stance toward it is much the same as theirs toward that. And, in the gospels, although Jesus, being, perhaps regrettably, a prophet and not a philosopher, makes declarations rather than arguments, and although, not being an analytic philosopher in particular, his declarations are sometimes a little opaque, and require a degree of interpretation, and although the actual Jesus, himself, may not have said many of those things that are attributed to him in the gospels, what is attributed to him gets things remarkably right about morality, at least so it seems when we apply our powers of moral reasoning as well as we can.

So, although I am not a Christian – because I don’t believe there is a God – I am only not exactly a Christian.