[There have been some updates.]
* "Islamicate" has a great series of posts on Islamic interpretation of the Qur'an:
(1) Interpretation
(2) Interpreting and Translating
(3) Translations and Secondary Sources
(HT: Dappled Things)
* The economist John Kenneth Galbraith recently died; you can read an interview with him online.
* The Online Philosophy Conference has begun. There's nothing especially interesting this week, although some readers might find Julia Driver's paper on Luck or Jessica Wilson's paper on non-reductive physicalism worth reading.
* In the modern Catholic calendar, today is the day of St. Joseph the Worker. In observance of the day, I direct you to Aquinas's discussion of the purposes of manual labor (they are: to obtain sustenance, to remove idleness, to submit the body to the higher faculties of reason and will, and to make almsgiving possible; these are the things that work contributes to a life of virtue and excellence). Also, the legend of the Miraculous Staircase of Loretto Chapel in Santa Fe. The so-called Miraculous Staircase, a beautifully balanced piece of master carpentry, has been attributed to a number of people throughout its 130 years; the most favored candidate at present appears to be Francois-Jean 'Frenchy' Rochas. Local legend, of course, attributes it to St. Joseph. Whoever built it, it does seem a fitting symbol of the builder of Nazareth, who is the patron saint of all those who work with their hands to make useful and beautiful things.
* "Mode for Caleb" has a Jazz Primer.
* Sharon Howard discusses and provides links about the self-archiving of academic publications, with a link to her own archive page.
* The History Carnival should be up at some point today. I'll link to it when it is. [UPDATE: And History Carnival #30 is now up. Of especial interest is the post on Margery Kempe at "Quod She". Margery Kempe is no Julian of Norwich, but she's actually not bad at all once one realizes that she's doing much the same thing as Julian (namely, reflecting on her experiences and filtering them through what she knows theologically) -- it's just that, unlike Julian, she doesn't go through such pains to tell us that this is what she's doing, and (admittedly) her theology is much less sophisticated. I've found in my own experience that Kempe grows on you considerably once you get used to her. Yes, she's sometimes a little much, but there's a lot to admire in her.] [UPDATE 2: In answer to a question I asked about where one could find something about marginalia on Kempe's book (which would give some indication of how she was read), Dr. Virago pointed to the introduction to the TEAMS edition; this introduction is online. Very cool stuff.]
* Scott Gilbreath discusses James the Less and James the Just at "Magic Statistics".
* UPDATE: The 29th Philosophers' Carnival is up at "Daylight Atheism." Particularly of interest are About Morality at "Obsidian Wings"; and Pride and Humility at "Goosing the Antithesis" (which is basically a crude cousin of a genuinely interesting Humean argument); and Richard's post The Actual World is not a Possible World at "Philosophy, etc."
