They’re talking about The Shack at Thinklings–many good comments. I doubt I’ll get around to reading it, but I may wade into it sometime, probably after the next life-changing work of Christian fiction hits the shelves. Jimmy Davis points out some, uh, points here too.
All posts by Phil
The Year in Borrowed Books
Harry Potter’s latest topped the list of borrowed books in Britain. For non-fiction only, the top book was James Martin’s The Meaning of the 21st Century.
Space News: Hell Discovered
A new planet has been discovered somewhere visually near the Big Dipper with temperatures spiking to 2,240 degrees. It’s about four times the size of Jupiter. According to Gregory Laughlin, an astronomy professor at the University of California at Santa Cruz:
When it comes closest to its star, it becomes one giant “brewing storm” complete with shock waves, Laughlin said. The radiation bombarding the planet is 800 times stronger than when it is farthest away.
Then just as quickly, the planet slingshots away and radiates the heat to the cool vacuum of space. It glows cherry red and the temperature plummets, Laughlin said. “Utterly bizarre.”
Telescopes have seen what appears to be red beings with pitchforks wading through fiery lakes and posting vacancy signs.
In related news, another hot planet has been found, and astronomers are arguing over it’s size and significance.
If you find this fascinating, NASA wants your opinion on where to look next. You could win a photo of mysterious object you choose, something like this I’d imagine: A Black Hole Overflows From Galaxy Centaurus A. That’s awesome.
Since I’m on a roll here, Continue reading Space News: Hell Discovered
Complaints about GoDaddy Commercials
Are you familiar with the GoDaddy commercials? Have you heard of that some Christians are pulling their web sites from GoDaddy servers because the last batch of Super Bowl ads were too suggestive?
When I was looking for a host for this site, the GoDaddy ads pushed me away. But then they were recommended to me by one or two good people I know, and their offer was better and easier than other places I looked. So you are reading this blog by way of GoDaddy servers. At the moment, I plan to remain uncomfortable with their advertising instead of taking the blog somewhere else, but I wonder if I should go ahead and move it.
This from a guy who wanted to boycott Disney for supposedly suggestive content in their cartoons. Am I acting inconsistently with my worldview by passively condoning GoDaddy advertising? What do you think?
The Friday Fight: Splinters
One Man, Black and White
A famous explorer, author, and geologist Clarence King (1842-1901), a white man, presented himself as a black railroad worker named James Todd in order to marry Ada Copeland. No one knew that the well-known and respected white explorer was also an unknown and married black man, not even his wife, until he died. The story is told in Passing Strange: A Gilded Age Tale of Love and Deception Across the Color Line by Martha Sandweiss.
Reviewer Elinore Longobardi writes:
Sure, Clarence King was a public figure with a generous paper trail, but what of James Todd? The great care King took to obscure that part of his life reverberates down the years, so that even an assiduous researcher (take a look at the rigorous footnotes) finds only small shards of information.
And so Passing Strange is dotted with lacunae, many of them marked with such phrases as, “No anecdotal stories from Ada’s own childhood survive,” or “It is not entirely clear just how Clarence King’s double life began.” …
The larger point, though, is that society, and thus history, values certain lives over others. Some are chronicled in newspapers, biographies, and archives; others pass into obscurity. The challenge to the present-day historian is to resurrect as much as possible of those rich, yet undervalued lives—and in Passing Strange, Sandweiss more than rises to the challenge.
Your Taxes Won’t Be Spent on Worship Facilities
I don’t blame you for avoiding the news lately, but I wanted to point out this article on the House pork-barrel, Tax-the-Future bill passed a few days ago. The Senate has not passed it yet, and maybe Republicans will vote against it like their House counterparts did. But in the House version of this bill, money for school renovation will not be allowed on facilities open to “sectarian instruction, religious worship, or a school or department of divinity.” $6 billion is allotted for this.
Doesn’t that “prohibiting the free exercise” of religion? Why should the Fed have any prohibitions on such money?
Mathew Staver of the Liberty Counsel said, “President Obama’s version of faith-based initiatives is to remove the faith from initiative. [Obama] a completely different view on faith” from what he said during his presidential campaign.”
Eight O’Clock, as in, Beans
Consumer Reports tests the flavors of 100% Colombian coffee from different brands. Eight O’Clock Colombian coffee won out. I respect 100% Colombian coffee, regardless the brand. Somehow, it always tastes better than the same brand’s regular blend.
Do we have free trade with Colombia yet? They have good guys in office now, right?
King Says ‘Twilight’ Author Less Than Terrific
Author Stephen King understands the appeal of Stephenie Meyer’s “Twilight” series, but he thinks she “can’t write worth a darn. She’s not very good.” (via Big Hollywood)
More on Updike
The New Yorker’s blog has posted over the last few days many words from notable authors on John Updike. Mary Hawthorne said, “In keeping with his intense curiosity was a corresponding generosity toward anyone who dared to grapple with, for lack of a better word, the human condition. He had ideas about what book reviewing should be.” Ideas like this:
“1. Try to understand what the author wished to do, and do not blame him for not achieving what he did not attempt.
2. Give enough direct quotation—at least one extended passage—of the book’s prose so the review’s reader can form his own impression, can get his own taste.”