ESA/Herschel/PACS/SPIRE/J.Fritz, U.Gent/XMM-Newton/EPIC/W. Pietsch, MPE
Monday, March 4, 2013
Sunday, March 3, 2013
Robust Conversation
An Interesting Meditation on Pope Benedict XVI
Ross Douthat, The Ratzinger Legacy NYTimes (March 2, 2013):
It was the work of Ratzinger’s subsequent career, first as John Paul II’s doctrinal policeman and then as his successor, to re-establish where Catholicism actually stood. This was mostly a project of reassertion: yes, the church still believes in the Resurrection, the Trinity and the Virgin birth. Yes, the church still opposes abortion, divorce, sex outside of marriage. Yes, the church still considers itself the one true faith. And yes — this above all, for a man whose chief gifts were intellectual — the church believes that its doctrines are compatible with reason, scholarship and science.
[snip, snip]
[Ratzinger] did stabilize Catholicism, especially in America, to an extent that was far from inevitable 40 years ago. The church’s civil wars continued, but without producing major schisms. Mass attendance stopped its plunge and gradually leveled off, holding up even during some of the worst sex abuse revelations. Vocations likewise stabilized, and both ordinations and interest in religious life have actually risen modestly over the last decade. Today’s American Catholics, while deeply divided, are more favorably disposed to both the pope emeritus and the current direction of the church than press coverage sometimes suggests.
[snip, snip]
But for all of Catholicism’s problems, the Christian denominations that did not have a Ratzinger — those churches that persisted in the spirit of the 1970s and didn’t reassert a doctrinal core — have generally fared worse. There are millions of lapsed Catholics, but the church still has a higher retention rate by far than most mainline Protestant denominations. Indeed, it is difficult to pick out a major religious body where the progressive course urged by so many of Ratzinger’s critics has increased vitality and growth.
This doesn’t mean there isn’t some further version of reform, some unexpected synthesis of tradition and innovation, that would serve Catholicism well. And if such a path exists, Pope Benedict was probably not the leader to find it.
But he helped ensure that something recognizable as Catholic Christianity would survive into the third millennium. For one man, one lifetime, that was enough.
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Mubarak and Morsi
Mubarak is set to be retried. See Retrial of Egypt's Mubarak and sons set for April 13 Will Morsi eventually end up where Mubarak did?
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The dynamic evidence page
One of the glories of British journalism...
One of the perennial glories of British journalism is the capacity to take old news and give it new life by discovering it all over again. Such was the case on the front page of today's Daily Telegraph, which claims to have found that "Iranhas activated the Arak heavy-water production plant" that in fact started operations in 2004, and was formally opened by President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad in 2006.
Goodbye to Academia
Wednesday, February 27, 2013
Putting a Sheen on Old News
Julian Borger, Iran heavy water plant revealed - again The Guardian (Feb. 27, 2013) (blog):
One of the perennial glories of British journalism is the capacity to take old news and give it new life by discovering it all over again. Such was the case on the front page of today's Daily Telegraph, which claims to have found that "Iranhas activated the Arak heavy-water production plant" that in fact started operations in 2004, and was formally opened by President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad in 2006.
Monday, February 25, 2013
Thursday, February 21, 2013
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Tuesday, February 19, 2013
Good guys with guns...
David Smith, Oscar Pistorius: 'I thought Reeva Steenkamp was a burglar' The Guardian (Feb. 19, 2013).
Sunday, February 17, 2013
$2.7 Trillion on "Infrastructure"?
Monday, February 11, 2013
Pope Benedict XVI
Pope Benedict XVI on Monday said he plans on resigning the papal office on February 28th. Below please find his announcement.
Full text of Pope's declaration
Dear Brothers,
I have convoked you to this Consistory, not only for the three canonizations, but also to communicate to you a decision of great importance for the life of the Church. After having repeatedly examined my conscience before God, I have come to the certainty that my strengths, due to an advanced age, are no longer suited to an adequate exercise of the Petrine ministry. I am well aware that this ministry, due to its essential spiritual nature, must be carried out not only with words and deeds, but no less with prayer and suffering. However, in today’s world, subject to so many rapid changes and shaken by questions of deep relevance for the life of faith, in order to govern the barque of Saint Peter and proclaim the Gospel, both strength of mind and body are necessary, strength which in the last few months, has deteriorated in me to the extent that I have had to recognize my incapacity to adequately fulfill the ministry entrusted to me. For this reason, and well aware of the seriousness of this act, with full freedom I declare that I renounce the ministry of Bishop of Rome, Successor of Saint Peter, entrusted to me by the Cardinals on 19 April 2005, in such a way, that as from 28 February 2013, at 20:00 hours, the See of Rome, the See of Saint Peter, will be vacant and a Conclave to elect the new Supreme Pontiff will have to be convoked by those whose competence it is.
Dear Brothers, I thank you most sincerely for all the love and work with which you have supported me in my ministry and I ask pardon for all my defects. And now, let us entrust the Holy Church to the care of Our Supreme Pastor, Our Lord Jesus Christ, and implore his holy Mother Mary, so that she may assist the Cardinal Fathers with her maternal solicitude, in electing a new Supreme Pontiff. With regard to myself, I wish to also devotedly serve the Holy Church of God in the future through a life dedicated to prayer.
From the Vatican, 10 February 2013
BENEDICTUS PP XVI
Listen to Pope Benedict XVI make his announcment:
Tuesday, February 5, 2013
King Richard III -- and People Who Refuse to Forget Injustice
It is heartening to know there are people out there who want to undo an injustice they think was done circa 500 years ago to King Richard III. May Richard III stand in the shoes of millions of forgotten victims. And may God have a memory that is also very long.
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The dynamic evidence page
Thursday, January 31, 2013
The Book Is the Book
The book is the book.
It is what it is.
On challenges to "Abe" Rosenthal's account of the Kitty Genovese case:
Leslie Kaufman, Timeless Book May Require Some Timely Fact Checking, NYTimes (January 30, 2013).
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The dynamic evidence page
"'It would never enter a publisher’s mind that they [sic] were [sic] obliged to add material,' said Jane Friedman, a co-founder and chief executive of Open Road Media, which specializes in digitizing and marketing backlist books. 'The information may have changed, but we are not journalists or academics. The book is the book.'”
Wednesday, January 30, 2013
The Politics of Personal Destruction in Australia?
23 December 2012
Last updated at 20:22 ET
Australia: A poisonous year in politics
Political passions burned bright in Australia in 2012
This was the year in which character assassination became the modus operandi of Australian politics, and when all-out attack became the default setting of parliamentary life.
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The dynamic evidence page
Australia: A poisonous year in politics
Political passions burned bright in Australia in 2012
This was the year in which character assassination became the modus operandi of Australian politics, and when all-out attack became the default setting of parliamentary life.
Prime Minister Julia Gillard. Opposition leader Tony Abbott.
Former Speaker of the House Peter Slipper. Former Prime Minister Kevin
Rudd. All have been the target of withering assaults on their
reputations, and subject to the kind of sustained ferocity seldom
witnessed in Australian politics.
Australian Election Announced (well in advance)
Gillard sets Australia poll date of 14 September
Ms Gillard said the move
allowed for a "reasoned" campaign
Monday, January 28, 2013
Saturday, January 26, 2013
Tuesday, January 22, 2013
Closing of Perth Observatory
Research at Perth Observatory axed, news.com.au (January 21, 2013):
RESEARCH programs at Perth Observatory have been axed as part of the WA government spending cuts, leaving the 116-year-old facility purely for public tours.
The revelation came on ABC local radio today, prompting astronomy boffins to flood talkback lines to vent their outrage.
Peter Birch, who was the observatory's senior astronomer for 35 years until 2005, told the station that the decision had "been in the wind" for several months.
"I think it's an absolute disgrace that the state government is going to cut out science at Perth Observatory altogether - it's not just being cut, it's being cancelled," he said.
"The reason that it's so important that Perth Observatory does science is that it's located in an isolated place in the southern hemisphere.
"The next observatory to the east is on the east coast of Australia and the next observatory to the west is in South Africa, so we fill a big hole as far as longitude and time goes in astronomy.
"If you take away the expertise of the staff that work there, it's lost forever because they'll have to go elsewhere to find work."
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This news reminded me how sad I felt at the news that Ohio State University's "big ear" radio telescope had been sold to make way for a golf course.
Sunday, January 13, 2013
Megastructure of Quasars
Pete Spotts, Astronomers report largest structure in universe. Will it upend theories? Christian Science Monitor (January 11, 2013):
What could be the largest structure yet seen in the observable universe has emerged from data taken during a 12-year survey of the night sky.
The discovery is an apparent cluster of quasars some 4 billion light-years across. If it holds up to further scrutiny, it could challenge a long-held assumption that at the cosmos's largest scales, the physical processes at work and the distribution of matter and energy are the same, regardless of an observer's location.
That's the view of the team formally reporting the results Friday in the journal Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society.
Saturday, January 12, 2013
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Thursday, January 3, 2013
Fracking
Danny Hakim, Gas Drilling Is Called Safe in New York, NYTimes (Jan. 3, 2013).
Whatever one thinks about fracking (I favor it), one should hesitate to attach the epithet "courageous" or "farsighted" to Gov. Andrew Cuomo.
Tuesday, January 1, 2013
Economic Turmoil and Recovery in Latvia
See Andrew Higgins, Used to Hardship, Latvia Accepts Austerity, and Its Pain Eases NYTimes (Jan. 1, 2013)
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The dynamic evidence page
The dynamic evidence page
Wednesday, December 19, 2012
Monday, December 10, 2012
Sunday, December 9, 2012
Those Evil Roman Catholics!
Justin Pope, Private College Presidents Pay Was up Slightly (Dec. 10, 2012):
Compensation for private college presidents has continued to drift upward, while the number crossing the $1 million barrier — a signal of prestige, and a magnet for criticism — held steady at 36, according to a new survey.
The latest annual compilation by The Chronicle of Higher Education covers data from 2010, due to lag time in the release of federal tax information. That year, median compensation for the 494 presidents in the survey — leaders of institutions with budgets of at least $50 million — was $396,649, or 2.8 percent higher than in last year's survey. But median base salary fell slightly, by less than 1 percent.
The highest paid was Bob Kerrey, who was president of The New School in New York until December 2010 before returning to Nebraska, where he made an unsuccessful run to return to the U.S Senate. Kerrey's total compensation was valued at just over $3 million. His base salary was just over $600,000, but he received the remainder in the form of a retention bonus, deferred compensation and other benefits.
[snip, snip]
Then there's the other end of the scale — presidents of roughly two dozen Roman Catholic institutions including Villanova University, Boston College, Marquette and a number of smaller schools, whose compensation is zero. All are either clergy or members of religious orders.
Saturday, December 1, 2012
Friday, November 23, 2012
Wednesday, November 7, 2012
A New Day Dawns - and the Stock Market Plummets
Dow's 300-Point Slide Takes It Back to August Levels
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