* Speaking of the abolition of the slave trade, Westerham Brewery is producing William Wilberforce Freedom Ale for 2007, with part of the proceeds going to Stop the Traffik, a modern anti-slavery organization.
* I just recently saw The Illusionist. It wasn't stunning, but I enjoyed it. Nick Carter, the Mechanical Philosopher, has worked out a design for a rough approximation of the locket portrayed in the movie. That's a tricky thing, since even the movie didn't have the locket portrayed in the movie; it used two stunt lockets. As Nick says, it probably needs refinement, but it looks promising. I was impressed; it's like watching someone solve a Rubik's Cube.
* Glach has a post worth reading on Descartes's argument against a vacuum at FQI.
* Jack Perry has a post on the Euler Tricentennial. I once had a student (in a very, very large class, so I didn't know him well at all) with the last name 'Euler' who was surprised that I pronounced his name correctly -- no one had ever done that before on first try; when I replied that it was the name of the mathematician, he said he was indeed related to him, which was a surprise for me.
* Tony vs. Paul is a fun YouTube short. (ht: Claw of the Conciliator)
* Apparently the Catholic Church is likely to beatify a group of non-violent samurai soon; at least, so suggests Cardinal Hamao, who would likely know. (Ht: The Western Confucian)
* I now have two phrases in my possession that clearly describe the conspiracy-theory stylings of the craze over lost and Gnostic gospels, the Templars, and the like. The first, which I've had for a while, is from Umberto Eco's Foucault's Pendulum, which, of course, has a story built on such craziness: "the psychosis of resemblances." The second is from South Park, and gives more of a sense of the rationality of it: "Look more closelier."
*
On April 29th, Siris will be hosting the early modern edition of Carnivalesque. If, since the last early modern edition (February 24th) you have had a post on the period from 1450-1850, submit it. You can submit in three ways:(1) E-mail me at branemrys[at]yahoo[dot]com
(2) Use the carnival address, carnivalesque[at]earlymodernweb[dot]org[dot]uk
(3) Use the Blog Carnival submission form
UPDATE (Monday, 16 April):
* "Insight Scoop" has a post on Roger Scruton's views on religion.
