About a year ago I did a piece on the French scientist and engineer Adhémar Jean Claude Barré de Saint-Venant, whose combination of scientific prowess and Christian conviction made for an interesting career in Revolutionary and post-Revolutionary France. When he died in 1886, Karl Pearson, as well-known an enemy of Christianity as, say, Richard Dawkins …
The One Percent Prepares for the Worst: Palm Beach Police's Humvee
The Town of Palm Beach has acquired a military-surplus Humvee: It’s a quiet Saturday afternoon outside the Palm Beach Police Department. Quiet, that is, until Sgt. Scott Duquette starts up one of the department’s newest acquisitions — a 2001 High Mobility Multipurpose Wheeled Vehicle, commonly known as a Humvee. Anyone who has any doubts about …
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The Twilight of the Box Checkers
Timothy Fountain, with some help from Rod Dreher, lays it out: There are going to be Christians and non-Christians in America. Nominal Christianity has no future now that various cultural props are gone. Christians will have to be disciples of Jesus, not members of clubs based on old ethnic, neighborhood and family functions. Which means …
Song of the Lamb: Through the Narrow Gate
Label Unknown 1979 Catholic albums of the 1970's came from a number of different sources: parish groups, seminary groups, the "Nun-Plus" albums, college based groups, and of course the covenant communities. This one comes from the last, but it's a departure from just about anything I've heard from a covenant community group. On the album …
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Ted Haggard Should Know: Ministry Failure is a Hard Teacher
He speaks out on the tragic suicides that have struck prominent Evangelical pastors' sons: "Some researchers are reporting that the suicide rate among Evangelicals is the same as that of the non-Christian community. How sad," Haggard, who made national headlines for a sex scandal involving a male prostitute in 2006, writes on his blog, days …
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Tales from @TheUbik: The Lord of the Flies is the Lord of the Touchscreen
Let me begin this post by stating the following: I hate touchscreen based interface systems on PC's and laptops. For tablets and smartphones (iPads and iPhones for you Mac Cult types) and simple interface (POS) applications, they're great, use them all the time. But systems like Windows 8 and Canonical's Unity interface drive me batty. …
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So Who Are My Mother and My Brothers?
This is the time of year when we think about what Roman Catholics refer to as the "Holy Family." The exact composition of that family is a matter of some dispute, as we will see, but at this time of the year we celebrate the birth of Jesus Christ to Mary. Now Mary and Joseph …
The Budget Deal That Really Doesn't Matter
They think it does: “I am very proud to stand here today with Chairman Ryan to say that we have broken through the gridlock,” said Murray, calling the agreement “an important step in helping to heal some of the wounds here in Congress and show we can do something without another crisis around the corner.” …
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You Can Let 'Em Play with Elves, Just Watch for the Pickup Game
Emily Brown Stone lets her kids play with elves at Christmastime (and presumably the rest of the year): One of the great debates around Christmas time for Christians is whether or not to encourage or allow the belief in Santa Clause. I have friends and family on both sides of this debate so I want …
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My Advice for a PhD Topic
One of my colleagues at the SimCenter: National Center for Computational Engineering threw out the question of what PhD topic to choose. My response was as follows (he's from Iran, thus my reference to the 1979 Revolution): The ideal of the PhD topic--which has been held in front of me ever since undergraduate days before …
Positive Infinity 