Assorted links, vol. 10

--A new study shows that advertising can create false memories
--Advice for Sarah Palin from her new neighbors in Scottsdale
--The Olympics don't always unify us; some evidence suggests they may in fact divide us
--Republicans' strange ideas for tax reform
--New fun blog: The Daily Stat

Assorted links, vol. 9

--Hunch.com, a website that uses information about you to introduce you to new things that you might also like, has two fun cross-sections of their data poll to discover the differences between Mac users and PC users and how your political persuasion corresponds to your eating habits
--Kurt Vonnegut on the equations of stories
--What is responsible for the national debt?
--Stanley Fish on anti-Semitism
--Is Vladimir Putin a reincarnation of St. Paul and/or the founder of the Russian Orthodox Church?  This group thinks so (personally, I'm leaning more toward no...)
--Are you in the market for relics?  If so, you definitely won't want to miss this: the severed head of a man purported to be the fourteenth century St. Vitalis of Assisi (the patron saint of venereal disease -- definitely a joke in here somewhere) will be up for auction on Sunday

Assorted links, vol. 8

--Democrats picked up a House seat in what some called a referendum on the Ryan budget
--41% of Americans think that Jesus will return by 2050 -- yet white mainline Christians (by a better than 2-1 split) disagree
--30% fewer people listen to Rush Limbaugh than did so six months ago
--What do you suppose the Vatican will decide this weekend about the legitimacy of condoms to prevent the spread of HIV?
--Mainline Protestants have larger hippocampi than either born-again Protestants or Roman Catholics
--Presbyterians in Scotland have followed their PCUSA brethren in taking steps toward fuller inclusion of LGBTQ clergy in the life of the church
--Very interesting bit discovery (thanks to Mark Sisk) about Ayn Rand, whom I had previously been wondering about.  It turns out that some big-name Christians (like Chuck Colson) aren't a fan of her works either, and they have quite a lot to say about how her objectivist philosophy strikes squarely against Christianity.  Hence, they are not too thrilled with the fawning adulation that she has recently been receiving at the hands of the GOP.

Assorted links, vol. 7

Mostly-news roundup today.  If you read this, please comment, so that I can try to gauge how many people are reading this, if any.  Thanks!  :-)

--Mother Jones reports on this interview with Focus on the Family president Jim Daly, in which he concedes that perhaps his organization shouldn't be focusing on fighting the losing battle of opposing same-sex marriages and civil unions
--File this under "saw-this-coming" and "not-learning-your-lessons": the now infamous false prophet Harold Camping revised his end-of-the-world predictions from May 21 to October 21, and he threw in a nice patriarchal reference about men ruling over their wives, just for good measure
--Unsurprisingly, Al Jazeera and Haaretz don't see eye to eye about what Obama did in his AIPAC speech
--Heard a politician speak recently?  Fact check what they said here.
--Which online music player do you like more, Pandora or Grooveshark?

Assorted links, vol. 6

Some awesome links for today's roundup:

--LA Times's list of a mere 203 new books for your summer reading pleasure
--Sarah Palin (reportedly) just bought this house in Arizona...
--A report on failed prophecy (written in preparation for rapture-fail)
--More needs to be done to prevent future shootings like the one in Tucson
--The Archbishop of Canterbury has his own website (which includes a partial bibliography, and also some awards that I want to receive :-))
--An entire abstract algebra textbook is on Scribd!
--Easy-to-understand introduction to the four unsolved geometry problems of antiquity

Enjoy!

Assorted links, vol. 5 (law edition)

Last one for tonight -- here are the law journal articles that I am going to read when I have time.  Really.  I'll list them by title.  And credit is definitely due here to the blog Religion Clause, whose weekly list of articles always has at least one or two that I read and/or save.  Kudos to you.

--"Exploring Free Exercise Doctrine: Equal Liberty and Religious Exemptions" is here
--"'Charitable' Discrimination: Why Taxpayers Should Not Have to Fund 501(c)(3) Organizations that Discriminate Against LGBT Employees" is here
--"Compatibility between Anti-Terrorism Legislation and Shari'a" is here
--"'That Man Is You!' The Juristic Person and Faithful Love" is here
--"The Politics of Free Exercise after Employment Division v. Smith: Same-Sex Marriage, the 'War on Terror,'  and Religious Freedom" is here
--"Salazar v. Buono: Sacred Symbolism and the Secular State" is here

P.S. -- These are only the ones I have open in links; others I have already downloaded as PDFs.  I'm sure those others will be posted at a later time.  :-)

Assorted links, vol. 4 (church edition)

And now for the church-oriented links that make up the remainder of the to-be-posted tabs:

On the U.S. Catholic Church's "causes of abuse" report (the 152 page PDF is here):
--RNS scooped everyone else to get an advanced copy of the report
--A pro-LGBT Catholic group had mixed reactions
--A related article in Commonweal from the chair of the Philadelphia abuse review board
--Reactions from the NYT, National Catholic Reporter, and Catholic News Service

Other worthwhile links:
--ARCIC III began! (America magazine article here; interview with co-chairs here)
--Think you know the Bible's sexual ethics (I got 100%!)?
--Presbyterians' decision to allow for openly gay clergy may not do as much as some might wish, and no other denomination seems to be chomping at the bit to follow their lead
--The Anglican Communion released a new i-book (aside: Is this the same as an e-book?  If so, why call it an i-book, and if not, what is the difference?) on the how-to of interreligious relationships

If you are reading this far, then let me thank you for your interest.  Let me know what you think!

Assorted links, vol. 3

The tabs of post-worthy articles are once again piling up, so here you go:

--The government wants its documents to be more comprehensible to the public (a laudable goal!)
--Speaking of writing, here is a good categorization of different degrees of grammar rules and style points (and has anyone read any of these three books?)
--Why do 23% of Republicans continue to assert that Obama was born abroad...after his long form birth certificate was released?
--CDC warning on how to deal with zombie apocalypses
--Democratic and Republican profs grade differently
--In a sadly unsurprising and idiotic result, white Americans think they are facing discrimination
--Here's the text of Obama's speech on the Middle East

That's all for this episode -- what do you think?  I'm considering posting more of these round-up posts (hopefully around once a day) and moving away from individual topics.  Thoughts?

Assorted links, vol. 2 (ecumenical edition)

I've been thinking lately about ecumenical work, which has led me to wonder where I can find a compendium of some of The Episcopal Church's most important ecumenical statements.  So, after some research and some Scribd-ing, here they are:

--Chicago-Lambeth Quadrilateral: basis of Episcopal ecumenism
--Episcopal-Lutheran (ELCA): full communion agreement
--Episcopal-Methodist (UMC): next steps
--Episcopal-Presbyterian (PCUSA): current status
--Episcopal-Moravian: full communion agreement
--Episcopal-Roman Catholic: most recent ARCIC statement, ARCUSA response
--Episcopal-Orthodox: international Anglican-Orthodox statement

Enjoy!

Assorted links, vol. 1

Since there are oftentimes more interesting articles than I have time to write individual posts, I figured I would go ahead and just give you a list of what has most recently been interesting to me.

--An inappropriate bedtime story, which dogs need just as much as babies
--John Stewart pwns Bill O'Reilly (see also, here)...
--...and his buddy Stephen Colbert might affect election contribution law
--CNN's Don Lemon came out; good for him!
--String theory still doesn't answer everything

We'll start there; more (and more in-depth) posts later today, most likely!

Rapture

Once again, in case you don't already know it, the rapture isn't happening tomorrow.  But it is causing some familial tensions, and those people who have given up their everything in anticipation are going to feel rather silly.  Oh, but don't worry too much -- most of Harold Camping's staff are already planning to get back to work come Monday.

More on global warming

Update: The New York Times had a debate about this very question!

An interesting question: if global warming continues unabated, then would that mean we are on the brink of a new geological epoch, the Anthropocene?

English composition

A thought-provoking article from Salon, asking such questions as whether it is worthwhile to teach high school English students the classic works of literature, when what they really need is intensive remedial training on how to write correctly and effectively.  Having edited more than a few shockingly poorly written college essays, I can sympathize; many undergraduate students have simply failed to learn basic grammar rules and argument strategies (plus, I suspect that the only reason they spell as well as they do is thanks to the little red squiggly line in Microsoft Word!).

Iran online

Did you know that both the supreme leader and the president of Iran have their own English-language web sites?  I suppose I shouldn't be surprised -- I would think that the web pages of various U.S. government officials are available in myriad languages, including Persian (although, now that I'm looking for them, alternative languages seem difficult to find) -- yet I am, in a good way.

bin Laden's sea burial

Before it gets any further in the past, I thought this AJC article on Muslim scholars' responses to Osama bin Laden's supposedly Islamic burial at sea was interesting.  I can understand the desire to not have a marked grave site, but could an anonymous grave on land have been possible?  Would it have been more in line with Islamic law?  I don't know the answers, but it's worth asking, I think.

First science fiction movie

I'm not a huge sci-fi fan, but I still should give props to my former resident for finding the first science fiction movie, "A Trip to the Moon," dating back ninety-nine years to 1902.  You can watch it all here (only 10:29 long).  Enjoy!

Osama's replacement

It is somewhat surprising to me that al-Zawahri, the man often cited as Osama bin Laden's number two, has not assumed immediate control, but according to at least two sources (here and here), Saif al-Adel, a long-wanted al-Qaeda military chief, is in temporary operational control.  Alas, killing bin Laden did not decapitate al-Qaeda, as many American wistfully dreamed.  Violence breeds violence.

Sexual assault

Besides the already-infamous case of Dominique Strauss-Kahn (the head of the International Monetary Fund who is accused of raping a hotel maid in New York, who has shocked French society, and who -- thankfully -- will likely be unable to claim diplomatic immunity) another case of sexual assault that is at least as shocking is going largely unnoticed.  That case involves a fifteen year old girl who was raped by a fellow fundamentalism church member and then, when she became pregnant, was forced to stand in front of the congregation and apologize for getting pregnant outside of wedlock, then sent to Colorado to have the baby and put the child up for adoption.  A horrible story, but yet another reminder that groups with power (in particular, both men and Christians) need to do more to combat sexual violence.

Ideologies online

In what I found to be an interesting op-ed from the New York Times, the author asked whether liberal people would contain their internet use to liberal sites and conservatives would contain their use to conservative sites.  I would have suspected that the answer to this question would have been yes, but the quoted study suggested that the answer might in fact be no.  Perhaps I should have realized this; I know that even though I am liberal, I have clicked over to Fox News, etc. to see other perspectives, but I thought that this was less common than it perhaps is.  Are there news sites that you recommend for their balance?

Just for fun

Three variations on the same theme: first, what God's Twitter account might have looked like in the Genesis 1-3 era; second, how much help a computer would have been to Moses during the Exodus; and third, a Facebook haggadah.  Enjoy.  :-)

Episcopal LGBTQ resources

Hot off the presses, the archives of The Episcopal Church have just released a compilation of material gathered from around the church on the blessing of same-gender unions.  This material contains liturgies, diocesan and church-wide resources, and resources related to TEC's recent consultation on this topic in Atlanta.  This will definitely be worth exploring further.

Story of Stuff project

If you aren't already familiar with the Story of Stuff project, you should be.  This great campaign uses simple drawings and accessible narration to help expose some of the major challenges facing our world, which often are hidden from public view and/or the arcane nature of the subject matter.  In her six videos, hostess Annie Leonard has looked at consumerism, cap and trade, electronics, bottled water, cosmetics, and the infamous Citizens United case.  Check out her videos, and share them, too!

Family values

The National Journal wrote a very interesting article awhile back about the differences in "family values" between red states and blue states.  In short, the paradox was that in those states with greater religious standards (think Bible belt), younger people were having children and getting married, while in the more liberal regions, families seemed to be more stable.  So there arose a question about "adults making families" vs. "families making adults".  Worth the time to read and consider.

May 21, 2011 (it ain't the end)

All of this media blitz about Harold Camping, the world ending this coming Saturday at precisely 6:00 PM, etc. is making me sad, for several reasons.  First, the number of people who have signed on to this idea, giving up everything in the process, once again demonstrates a conception of heaven as a means of escape from this world (a narrow and pale view of what heaven should be).  This view leads people to forsake or even do damage to our world, since it becomes ultimately of no consequence.  Second, the undue attention being given to this tiny group is causing undue ridicule on Christianity writ large.  Most people, Christians included, are rolling their eyes at this latest bout of apocalyptism, but to those outside, it could be taken as a more broadly-accepted Christian belief than it actually is.  Also, given the methods of arriving at this prediction (dating based on Jesus' life, or the supposed date of the Flood), it is easy to lump these folks into the already-scorned anti-science camp reserved for young-earth creationists and their friends.  Third, and perhaps more saddening, in my religious studies classes, I have studied and written papers about failed prophecies, and I know that just like all the other predicted dates, May 21 is going to come and go without incident.  This will lead to disheartened Christians among those who believed the predictions, blundering explanations from Camping as he tries to retain as much dignity as possible, and scorn from without.  No one wins.  I suppose the only upside will be an excuse to listen to Jay Sean and Nicki Minaj (or for someone to write the 2011 remix -- run with that idea, it's a potential goldmine...).

Sojourners controversy

Recently, progressive evangelical group Sojourners opted not to run a Mother's Day ad from a group that promotes full LGBTQ inclusion among mainline Protestantism.  Sojourners' assertion was that they did not want to take a position on this hot-button issue, but many countered this by pointing out that rejection of the ad was already a (negative) position.  A flurry of articles ensued (see, for instance, here for a summary of the opposition, here for Sojourners' response, and also here, here, and here).  I understand the firestorm on the one hand -- a group claiming to be progressive wavers on this progressive issue -- but I also understand the importance of consensus building and the different realities of the evangelical world.  I suppose the backlash was stronger than I would have expected.  I would welcome any others' thoughts on this issue.

Ayn Rand

So I've been hearing a lot about Ayn Rand lately, and I have come to realize that I know hardly anything at all about her.  NPR is talking about her, House Republican budget chairman Paul Ryan makes sure all his staff has read her most famous novel, the Guardian thinks Tea Partiers are taking her out of context, and a movie of her novel Atlas Shrugged is out.  And yet I don't know the first thing about her life, or objectivism, or anything about her.  I didn't have any of her novels as required reading in high school (you decide whether that makes me lucky or deprived).  So yesterday I picked up an introduction to Ayn Rand book, which I'll be eager to read and report on.  For those who have read her works, what's the big deal?

"What would Jesus deconstruct?"

I recently came across the name of a book that caught my attention: What would Jesus deconstruct?  I am quite interested to get my hands on it and read through it, both to better my own understanding of postmodernism and deconstruction, and to develop tools for thinking theologically.  Apparently, this book uses the In His Steps as an example of how deconstruction can be used as the ally of theological reflection.  Has anyone read this, and if so, what did you think?

Amish romance novels

A very interesting counterpoint to the trashy Harlequin novels that lines bookstores nationwide is the emergence of the genre of Amish romance novels as a viable alternative.  These books do not contain the sexual exploits founds in their trashier cousins, but instead depict religious courtship and modesty as the upheld virtues.  Christianity Today has some thoughts on these books, and NPR also discusses this phenomenon.

Thinking about Prop 8

I regularly read Prop 8 Trial Tracker, a blog that follows the updates in the seemingly interminable trial over California's 2008 initiative proposition 8, which amended the state's constitution to declare that only a marriage between a man and a woman would be legal or valid in the state.  Currently, the anti-Prop 8 (i.e., the pro-LGBTQ) side is winning; they scored a decisive victory in the trial court level, which I was quite excited and energized to see.  Now, on appeal, the opponents of Prop 8 face a tough choice -- would it be preferable to take their big win and walk away, which would be great for California but unhelpful (at least in the short term) to the rest of the country, or is it worth risking that big win by pressing onward to the Supreme Court, where another victory would have national ramifications, but where a loss could set the equality push back years?  The New Yorker ran a piece on these questions awhile back, but it is still just as pressing today, as the wheels of the courts grind slowly on.  What do you think?

Two interesting charts

I believe that I was first alerted both of these charts by the blog Seven Whole Days.  The first shows the combined population of everyone who has ever lived, and the second gives the numbers of satellites put into orbit around the earth by various countries.  What do you think?

Ancient Near Eastern languages

This website seems to me to be a fabulous resource for students of biblical languages.  It has links to grammars, lexica, and resources for a variety of ANE languages.  If I were to ever do further language study, I would definitely be using this to prepare for and supplement my classes.

Dividing up the U.S.

This map and article are a fascinating look at both how people use Facebook and how relationships are spread out (or not) across the United States.  I would love to see an expansion of the work he has already done, including perhaps his raw data.

Religious blogs and tweets

Two interesting lists: first, a compilation of some of the most interesting blogs centering on religion in one way or another, and second, a group of fifty religious leaders (ten each from Buddhist, Christian, Hindu, Jewish, and Muslim traditions) worth following on Twitter.

Music and artificial intelligence

Miller-McCune wrote a fascinating article last year about a computer program capable of writing new pieces of music in the style of J.S. Bach, so closely that audiences could not tell the difference.  Read it all, and also note the comments by Douglas Hofstadter, the author of the awesome book "Godel, Escher, Bach: An Eternal Golden Braid".

Two must-visit religion sites

If you are at all interested in the history of Judaism or Christianity (or even if you aren't), you should explore the sister sites Early Jewish Writings and Early Christian Writings.  These sites contain a wealth of information about canonical and extracanonical writings of all stripes, often alongside helpful introductory articles, outside links, further reading resources, etc.  They are gold mines -- check them out.

Group theory, simplified

A fun article from just a little over a year ago that presents an intelligible introduction to the branch of math known as group theory (taught in my favorite college math class, abstract algebra).

Blog frustration

Update (5/18/11 @ 1:46 PM): Hooray!  If appears that Blogger has been able to excavate my deleted posts from the rubble of its crash the other day.  They seem to all be back, so I just went through and deleted ones that I had subsequently duplicated and then posted the rest.  Thanks, Blogger staff!  :-)

Talk about bad timing.  I have been thinking for a long time about starting a blog, and so when I finally did so, I had piles of interesting articles to post right off the bat.  However... my first day also happened to be the one day of the year that Blogger severely crashed, and so most of my initial hours of effort posting and formatting were lost.  And to make matters worse, as I posted various articles, I had closed those browser tabs, so I don't think I will be able to re-access some of them.  I will re-post the things that I can remember, and should more of them come back to me in the future, then I will post those at that time.  Let's hope for better luck this time around!

Online German and Japanese instruction

Since DW (that is, Deutsche Welle) is not only one of the best ways to get your news, but also pretty legit in general, they have a free online course to teach you German!  Likewise, Japanese broadcaster NHK has links to help you begin to learn Japanese.  Free education: what's not to like?

Global warming article(s)

In which the ties between oil companies and climate change denial are brought to light.  (See also parts 2 and 3 of this same series.)

Censorship abroad

An interesting article to ponder.  How might such "slingshot" technologies work?  What role would social media and blogs play?

Words galore

This is pretty much the best website ever for obscure vocabulary.  Enjoy it, and check out the site's other pages as well.

Peter Likins

The former UA president has a rather amazing story.  Check out the discussion of his new memoir in the Arizona Daily Star and on the local edition of NPR's "Here & Now".

++Rowan on translation

[A practice post, which should, with any luck, contain a link to the first of many interesting articles!]

A recent lecture from Archbishop of Canterbury Rowan Williams, given on April 27, entitled "'Cloven Tongues': Theology and the Translation of the Scriptures".  Enjoy.

Hello

So, I have really needed to start a blog for awhile now, primarily in order to do the following things:

1) Post interesting articles,
2) Write down occasional thoughts on various goings-on,
3) Receive any feedback from those who happen upon these posts, and
4) (With any luck...) foster fruitful discussion.

Today, finally, is the breaking point, and the blog seems like it can no longer be put off.  I currently have around fifteen articles waiting in various tabs to be read and considered, so while they are all open, I decided that I might as well post them also, both for future reference and for others' consideration.

Here goes nothing.  :-)