Mr. Bezos Goes Fishing
Alicia Chang reports for the AP:
An undersea expedition spearheaded by Bezos used sonar to find what he said were the F-1 engines located 14,000 feet deep. In an online announcement Wednesday, the Amazon.com CEO and founder said he is drawing up plans to recover the sunken engines, part of the mighty Saturn V rocket that launched Neil Armstrong, Buzz Aldrin and Michael Collins on their moon mission.
Intriguing.
Hermeneutics and Colossians 3.22
Jeff Kloha, over at Concordia Theology, offers a very good analysis of the dilemma of reading a passage like Colossians 3.22 in the modern world:
How do we read this in a way that is consistent with the text's own goals and agendas, and not our own goals and agendas? And, if we insist on our own goals and agendas, as quite clearly the people who paid for this billboard will, should we be allowed to read the Bible at all? For ironically, when we read a passage like this we are not free to read it and decide what it means. We are, perhaps ironically, in fact “slaves” who have no choice as to how we read it. Our minds have been made up for us even before we see it. We are not autonomous, rational creatures. Who will rescue us from this body of death?
One of the things a person realizes very quickly when one studies interpretive theory is just how difficult it is for us to do proper interpretation (or even figure out what proper interpretation is). We can work through the “hermeneutical spiral” and build strong support for interpretations of a text, but the process is one that calls for humility and an earnest desire to understand the text instead of merely what we want the text to say.
A Taxing Subject
This little bit from coverage of the Supreme Court's hearings on President Obama's healthcare plan is fascinating — there are reasons why the administration wants the fines for non-compliance to be viewed as a tax and other reasons why everyone wants it to not be viewed as a tax (viewing it as a tax would delay the decision for years).
“General Verrilli, today you are arguing that the penalty is not a tax. Tomorrow you are going to be back and you will be arguing that the penalty is a tax,” said Justice Samuel Alito, in one of the few laugh lines throughout the 90 minutes of argument Monday.
The remark underscores the fine line the White House is walking in its argument. On one hand, it says the backstop is not a tax, because that could subject it to the Anti-Injunction Act — the focal point of Monday's arguments — and delay a ruling to at least 2015. On the other, they claim that the power to impose a penalty derives from Congress' broad taxing power. That's in part because calling it a tax makes defending the mandate easier — Congress' power to levy taxes is less in question than its power to require people to do things.
Nothing like a few good technicalities to make a Supreme Court hearing more interesting.
iOS vs. Android Update Adoption
David Smith breaks it down:
Looking just at the OTA eligible users we again see a promising future for iOS developers. Nearly 80% of users are on the latest version within 15 days.
That compares to just 61.5% of users being on a version of Android released last year. This is in no small part because so many Android phones cannot be easily upgraded.
HT: Gruber
What is the Lord's Supper
A little Westminster Shorter Catechism for the night:
The Lord's Supper is a sacrament, wherein, by giving and receiving bread and wine, according to Christ's appointment, his death is showed forth; and the worthy receivers are, not after a corporal and carnal manner, but by faith, made partakers of his body and blood, with all his benefits, to their spiritual nourishment, and growth in grace.
UAW und VW
Interesting tidbit from Autoblog:
Automotive News reports the UAW has not told Volkswagen of its efforts to unionize the Chattanooga plant. An announcement may come about the program in early April. The plant currently employs more than 2,700 workers.
Perhaps an announcement is too late, if the union is already passing out cards in a bid to get enough signatures to organize. Given VW's willingness to allow the workers to organize, why the quasi-secrecy?
iPads: Get 'Em While They're Hot!
Marco Arment highlights some disturbing reporting maneuvers made by Consumer Reports in an article on the new iPad.
CS 6
Assuming that Adobe hasn't managed to make Photoshop even slower, CS 6 looks very promising.
Give it Back to the Shareholders
Interesting. Michael Dell famously said in 1997 that if he were Steve Jobs he would shut Apple down and give the money back to the shareholders. Dustin Curtis points out that Apple's newly announced quarterly dividend will pay out approximately equivalent of Apple's 1997 market cap every quarter.
The Storm that Didn't Come
I always find watching weather patterns interesting. Today, several lines of storms looked like they were on a collision course with St. Louis, but one way or another missed us. Now the forecast has the storms trying another pass through the area early in the coming morning. I keep thinking I hear thunder off in the distance, so perhaps they shall still arrive.
I do hope if we get storms that they don't put an end to all the flowering trees' displays for the year. The trees look just grand right now.
