An Oklahoma man who thought he was dying confessed to killing a man in 1977. He got better, and now has been charged with murder. (story)
“What if you had to kill Hitler when he was a baby? What if he was a 12-year-old boy, with an abusive dad, who had done you a kindness when you were vulnerable? What if he was a sickly kid with glasses who, if you squinted at him just right, looked like he was Harry Potter?... His purpose on the Island, [Sayid] decides, is to sacrifice his soul, surrender to his nature as a murderer, and do one more hit job. His soul is going to fall on its sword.” This was the issue raised in last week’s installment of Lost, when Sayid, tossed 30 years into the past, decides that Ben has to die before he grows up to wreak havoc. The weekly “Lostwatch” at Time Online has turned out to be one of my must-read blogs, but only after watching the episode the blog post discusses.
“The first person to live to be 1,000 years old is certainly alive today …whether they realize it or not, barring accidents and suicide, most people now 40 years or younger can expect to live for centuries” (Cambridge University geneticist Aubrey de Grey)
“No funds appropriated under this Act shall be used in conjunction with or to support research which involves the destruction of a human embryo.” An important provision the Senate Finance Committee put into its proposed budget. Opponents think that the way its worded could ban all facilities receiving state funds from doing the controversial research at all, but the aim is simply to keep taxpayers from involuntarily participating in destruction of the human embryo. (Statesman story) Earlier I wrote about why I think we shouldn’t use taxpayer money to fund this kind of research.
The latest Nightline Face-Off: “Does Satan Exist?” (HT: Creation Project)
"We must see America as a mission field. As an Episcopalian priest from South Carolina recently offered, 'A couple came in to my office once with a yellow pad of their teenage son’s questions. One of them was: What is that guy doing hanging up there on the plus sign?’” (From an article by James Emery White, who looked at the declining numbers of those who identify as Christians in our country and asked (1) What is happening? (2) What does this mean? and (3) what can be done?
Love/Hate the Facebook Redesign? “Every time you refresh the front page, there's new stuff for you to read. Much of it isn't very interesting, and because the stream moves so quickly, the little that is interesting gets drowned out by items that aren't….The effect is like being at a party of oversharers; every interesting conversation is interrupted by 10 people who'd love to tell you what they ate for breakfast.” (Farhad Manjoo, who nevertheless says we’ll all get used to the new Facebook format soon enough)
“Where the Wild Things Are,” coming in October. Oh yeah. Spike Jonze directing, Tom Hanks producing. Watch the trailer.
“A long time ago, I stopped asking where God was in the midst of torture, indefinite detention, isolation, ostracism, and the denial of social and economic opportunities. He was with those whose dignity had been taken away. He was present in their suffering, and their sufferings were his. The question was, where were we who were called to share their pain, to give food and water to Christ's thirsty and hungry representatives, and to comfort them during their ordeals?” (from Ziya Meral, a human-rights advocate, in CT’s “Standing with the Desolate”)
"The inglorious pun! Dryden called it the 'lowest and most groveling kind of wit.' To Ambrose Bierce it was a 'form of wit to which wise men stoop and fools aspire.'...[But] surely puns silence conversation before they animate it. Some stricken with pun-lust sink so far into their infirmity that their minds become trained to lie in wait for words on which to work their wickedness. They are the scourge of dinner tables and the despised prolongers of office meetings, some letting fly as instinctively as dogs bark and frogs croak, no longer concerned even with drawing applause; they simply can’t help themselves" ("Pun for the Ages" in the NY Times).
TED Talk with John Wooden: “With profound simplicity, Coach John Wooden redefines success and urges us all to pursue the best in ourselves. In this inspiring talk he shares the advice he gave his players at UCLA, quotes poetry and remembers his father's wisdom.” Worth your 18 minutes:
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