Hope Souffle
Edward Luce writes in the Financial Times:
Having been elected partly on the basis of hope, Mr Obama may have to put the accent on fear in 2012 if he wants to be re-elected – fear, that is, of what the other guy might do. As Bill Galston, the respected US political observer, points out: “Hope is a souffle that never rises twice.”
Astute.
Late Night Haiku XXXVI
C. The cat sleeps soundly.
My lap is his bed tonight.
My legs sleep under.
CI. Tomorrow's journey,
Takes me down old, well known roads,
For unknown stops.
CII. The crickets chirp now,
A last song before frost gives
A cold curtain call.
If a High Speed Train Leaves a Station...
Ronald Utt comments on a planned high speed train route connecting Kansas City, St. Louis and Chicago:
For instance, one has to wonder what exactly motivated the review team to endorse the proposed $1.1 billion investment in the Kansas City-St. Louis-Chicago route, which would allow customers to reach their destinations 10 percent faster than they could by driving between Chicago and St. Louis.
He raises an interesting point in suggesting that pluggable hybrid cars promise a cheaper and cleaner alternative to such a plan. Nevertheless, the idea of reaching Chicago from STL in four hours without having to either bother with an airport or be actively driving a car is an intriguing.
Plenoptic is Plenty Intriguing
Mike Prospero reports on something intriguing from Adobe.
After giving a brief demonstration during the keynote address at Nvidia’s GPU Technology Conference, Adobe went into more detail about computational photography using plenoptic lenses, a method of taking pictures so that any part of a photo can be brought into focus after the fact.
My camera wants one.
Late Night Haiku XXXV
XCVII. How I wish time might
Flow back that too soon spent time
Could relive the day.
XCVIII. Softly, I watch it,
Soft focus, unfolding, yet
Still left too folded.
XCVIX. Indian summer —
The weary flowers' last dance
Before frost's sharp blade.
English is Dead
Gene Weingarten reports,
It was not immediately clear to what degree the English language will be mourned, or if it will be mourned at all. In the United States, English has become increasingly irrelevant, particularly among young adults.
Alas, poor English. According to Weingarten,
Once the most popular major at the nation's leading colleges and universities, it now often trails more pragmatic disciplines, such as economics, politics, government, and, ironically, “communications,” which increasingly involves learning to write mobile-device-friendly ads for products like Cheez Doodles.
This would be funny if it were not so sad.
Reopen the Box
From Hesiod's Works and Days,
But [Pandora] took off the great lid of the jar with her hands and scattered all these and her thought caused sorrow and mischief to men. Only Hope remained there in an unbreakable home within under the rim of the great jar, and did not fly out at the door; for ere that, the lid of the jar stopped her, by the will of Aegis-holding Zeus who gathers the clouds. But the rest, countless plagues, wander amongst men; for earth is full of evils and the sea is full. Of themselves diseases come upon men continually by day and by night, bringing mischief to mortals silently; for wise Zeus took away speech from them.
Sometimes it would be nice to reopen the jar.
Beck, Religion and Politics
Carl Trueman writes,
Nonetheless, in identifying the syncretism of Beck as the major problem in Beck, I think Mr Olasky misses the point. Beck is also both a function and a perpetuating cause of a wider problem in American politics: his idiom is the rhetoric of extremism and fear; he trades in Manichean cliches which see the political world as a very black and white place; he models for the wider world a form of discourse which is a million miles from anything which represents thoughtful, critical engagement with the issues and with those with whom he disagrees; he rarely puts forward a real argument (at least as I would understand an argument, with evidence, engagement with the strongest points of his opponents etc.); his attitude and tone when speaking about legally elected government are difficult to square with New Testament teaching on respect for those in authority (the Greek Apologists did a much better job, in conditions much more hostile to the faith — not to mention, of course, the Apostle Paul); and his continual inflammatory rhetoric about Marxism indicates both a basic failure to grasp what Marxism is (or, rather, what Marxisms are — Marxism these days being akin to `Christianity' as a rather vague catch-all term) and a lack of precision in handling matters that, quite frankly, need to be handled with precision. As Os Guinness indicated at a recent lecture at Westminster, the Religious Right (of which Beck is emerging as an unlikely hero) is often first past the post these days in the incivility of its discourse and of its engagement in the public sphere.
The last observation is especially apropos, sadly.
HT: Jeff Kerr
Keeping Up with the News
Over the years, I've had the pleasure of helping one of my professors back at Lindenwood, Dr. David Brown, with his various web site endeavors. I am especially excited about his new site, which went live a couple of weeks ago. Dr. Brown has repurposed a design I created for him back in 2005 and used it to finally enter the blogosphere.
Dr. Brown is surely nothing short of a genius. I was able to take four of his philosophy classes during my time at LU and they were amongst the most thought provoking classes I've ever had. (He is also the one responsible for talking me into picking up a philosophy minor.) Much of what I learned from him has been helpful in seminary. Part of what made the classes, and talking to Dr. Brown in general, so interesting is his awareness of current trends not only in philosophy, but also various related fields.
What's all of that got to do with his new blog? For as long as I have known him, Dr. Brown has scoured the web for helpful articles related to philosophy, religion, science and other fascinating topics, which he would then e-mail to some of his colleagues and students. Now, he is posting links to those articles on his blog instead of mailing them, which means anyone can benefit from his eclectic, interesting recommended reading.
I think you'll find his news gathering addictive enough that you'll want to keep following his blog.
The Art of Sarcasm
Gruber on the recent discovery of a serious security hole in Adobe Flash Player:
Flash Player for iOS is not affected.
