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On Monday, September 12, 2005, electric power failed, plunging major portions of Los Angeles in darkness, affecting hundreds of thousands of people. Elevators stopped, trapping people inside, and traffic came to halt throughout the city. The Los Angeles Police Department immediately went on "full tactical alert" meaning no officers were allowed to leave work when their shifts were over. Authorities initially feared the power outage might be the pre-curser to a terrorist attack. A videotape of a purported terrorist had aired the day before, making threats against Los Angeles and Melbourne, Australia.

Soon, fears dissipated when the Los Angeles Department of Water and Power announced the outage was the result of a mistake. General Manager Ron Deaton said several workers installing an automated transmission system hooked up the wrong wires. Deaton said, "They connected it to another line that was not expecting that much electricity."

—Associated Press, Utility Worker Error Blamed for Blackout That Cut Power Across Major Portions of Los Angeles, September 12, 2005. Illustration by Jim L. Wilson and Jim Sandell.

Though power was restored quickly, and there were no reported injures, this incident serves as a reminder that our actions can have a larger impact than we imagine.

Matthew 5:47-48 (ESV) "And if you greet only your brothers, what more are you doing than others? Do not even the Gentiles do the same? [48] You therefore must be perfect, as your heavenly Father is perfect."

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Clinicians and researchers continue to debate whether the growing use of cellphones and other technology could be a form of addiction. One of the areas of researcher considers what is called phantom calls or texts. A study found that over 80 percent of college students said they have times when they were sure they heard their phone ring or felt it vibrate, only to find that they had not received a call or text. Researchers say one of the features of an addiction is becoming hypersensitive to cues related to the reward that a person craves. These phantom rings might be related to an addiction, because some people use their phones to make themselves feel better or become irritable when they can’t use their phone. Researchers say phantom phone experiences may seem like a relatively small issue, but they could be an indicator of how reliant people are on their phone and how much influence phones have on their lives. –Jim L. Wilson & Jim Sandell

What's Behind Phantom Cellphone Buzzes?, By Daniel J. Kruger, http://www.klove.com/news/2017/05/12/What-s-Behind-Phantom-Cellphone-Buzzes, Accessed May 12, 2017

1 Corinthians 6:12 (CSB) “‘Everything is permissible for me,’ but not everything is beneficial. ‘Everything is permissible for me,’ but I will not be mastered by anything.”