According to Scripps Institution of Oceanography, "there's about 50 quintillion kilograms (the number 50 with 18 zeros after it) of salt in the ocean." 

Further:

You may know that the oceans cover about 70 percent of the of Earth's surface, and that about 97 percent of all water on and in the Earth is saline—there's a lot of salty water on our planet. By some estimates, if the salt in the ocean could be removed and spread evenly over the Earth's land surface it would form a layer more than 500 feet (166 meters) thick, about the height of a 40-story office building (Source: NOAA).

That's a LOT of salt!

How many light bulbs have you had to change in your lifetime? In today’s world, LED light bulbs will only have to be replaced, on average, every 20 years or so. Yet, until just recently, it was commonplace to have to replace the light bulbs in our lamps and fixtures every several months, depending on usage.

In sharp contrast, shining brightly beyond the expectations of any modern bulb, the Centennial Light Bulb has been faithfully casting light for the Livermore Fire Department for over 120 years without burning out.

A website dedicated to the Centennial Bulb reports,

[It was] first installed at the fire department hose cart house on L Street in 1901. Shortly after it moved to the main firehouse on Second. In 1903 it was moved to the new Station 1 on First and McLeod, and survived the renovation of the Firehouse in 1937, when it was off for about a week. During its first 75 years it was connected directly to the 110 Volt city power, (subject to the power outages), and not to the back-up generator for fear of a power surge. In 1976 it was moved with a full police and fire truck escort, under the watch of Captain Kirby Slate, to its present site at Fire Station 6, 4550 East Ave., Livermore, California. It was then hooked to a separate power source at 120V, and UPS according to Frank Maul, Retired City Electrician. There was one interruption in May, 2013, when the UPS failed and it was off for at least 9 1/2 hours.

People are drawn to the light. They come from far and wide to see it burning, and a “bulb cam” was even installed for online viewing.

It seems that light bulbs were invented, from the beginning, with he capacity for great longevity. And while Thomas Edison et al invented the rudimentary bulb, it was the work of Professor Adolphe A. Chaillet and the Shelby Electric Company who invented and developed the improved filament that allowed for seemingly perpetual illumination.

So why has this one bulb lasted decades beyond even our most efficient, modern fixtures? The answer is “Planned Obsolescence.” You see, providing a bulb with seemingly perpetual illumination is not necessarily a profitable venture.

According to various dictionaries, “Planned Obsolescence” can be defined as “a policy of producing consumer goods that rapidly become obsolete and so require replacing, achieved by frequent changes in design, termination of the supply of spare parts, and the use of nondurable materials.”

Enter the Phoebus Cartel. 

The Phoebus Cartel was a cartel that existed to control the manufacture and sale of incandescent light bulbs by appropriating market territories and fixing the useful life of such bulbs. … The cartel included manufacturers Osram, General Electric, Associated Electrical Industries, and Philips, among others. … [By] 1924, the main bulb manufacturers in America and Europe secretly formed a cartel to limit the average life of lamps to 1,000 hours,” thus ensuring the re-marketability of the product (though it's no longer legal to do so, at least not here in the U.S.).

So while Edison’s original commercial lightbulb from 1881 lasted up to 1500 hours, others began marketing bulbs that lasted nearly double that. Then, by the turn of the new century, Challet’s bulb was lasting for … well … it continues to burn today. Where’s the profit in that?! You’d never need to buy another bulb in your lifetime!

But even with the introduction of LED bulbs, we’re still not seeing the mass production of bulbs with the durability and longevity of the Livermore Fire Department’s Centennial Bulb.

An Evangelism Explosion survey of 1002 Americans conducted by Lifeway Research in December 2021 found an alarming disparity between unbelievers’ openness to talking about spiritual things and Christians’ willingness to actually speak about them.*

Some key takeaways from the survey are as follows:

• 71% say that it is very important to have hope in their life
• 74% say that it is very important to have peace in their life
• 66% say that it is very important to have purpose and fulfillment in their life 
• 55% say that it is very important to have certainty they will go heaven or have eternal life
• 61% say their interest in spiritual matters hasn’t changed compared to before COVID-19, but 32% are more interested
• 66% say they are open or very open to having a conversation about the Christian faith with a friend
• 52% say they are open or very open to having a conversation about the Christian faith with a stranger
• 65% say they are open or very open to talking with a friend about having a relationship with God
• 53% say they are open or very open to talking with a stranger about having a relationship with God
• 71% say when meeting someone new,  they are open or very open to hearing their life story
• 69% want to hear why someone thinks their faith helps with a core human need
• 4 out of 10 (40%) say they wouldn’t think about faith on their own if a friend or family member didn’t bring it up
• 51% are curious as to why some people are devoted to their faith
• 6 out of 10 (60%) say that many of their friends who claim to be Christians rarely talk about their faith

“This study reveals that most Americans are open to talking about faith,” said Scott McConnell, executive director of Lifeway Research.

But the sad, sorry realization is that the conversation is simply not happening as often as it ought. 

Why is that? Can we blame cancel culture? The current war on Christianity? Closed mindedness on the part of the masses? New restrictions on religious liberty?

“It really isn’t about religious liberty, people not wanting to hear, or religion being off-limits. The reason conversations are not happening about the Christian faith is that Christians are not bringing it up.”

“Now, perhaps more than ever, people are open to conversations about faith [A whopping 32% of respondents said that since COVID, they are MORE open to talking about spiritual things], yet few Christians actually take the opportunity to engage in personal evangelism,” says Dr. John B. Sorensen, President and CEO of Evangelism Explosion International. 

At a time when “one in 5 religiously unaffiliated Americans (20%) say they are more interested in spiritual matters,” it is heartbreaking to find that some 60% report that their “friends who claim to be Christians rarely talk about their faith.”

*About 38% of respondents were identified as already having some measure of Christian belief.