* The Pope criticizes the Pope. The Pope of Alexandria criticizes the Pope of Rome, that is. Shenouda puts a great deal of emphasis on ecumenism, and, since he seems to have interpreted it more strongly than it actually requires, that explains the severe reaction -- most representatives of the great non-Catholic churches have been mildly approving of the CDF document, relieved, no doubt, to be dealing with a frank and straightforward Rome rather than something considerably more amorphous and foggy like, say, the Church of England.
* An essay on Abelard and Heloise. I've previously looked at the philosophical argument of Abelard's autobiographical Historia Calamitatum: Part I, Part II, Part III.
* Jack Perry has a handy introduction to the Traveling Salesman Problem.
* There's a post at SF Gospel on Dr. Who and Plato's Allegory of the Cave. Here's an essay on Arthur C. Clarke's "History Lesson" and the same; an excerpt from an article about the same theme in Ray Bradbury's Fahrenheit 451.
* On a similar note, this course syllabus, an English seminar on Science Fiction and Philosophy, would make an excellent reading project.
* I recently read Susan Palwick's novel The Necessary Beggar. It is excellent; I recommend it very highly. (This, incidentally, is one of the lovely things about the blogosphere. Palwick blogs at Rickety Contrivances of Doing Good. Were this not the case, there's a chance I might never have read the book, which would be unfortunate.) Do me a favor: go to the library and check it out, or buy it, and if you like it, pass the recommendation on.
* More science fiction, and a likable story too: an eleven-year-old fan of the animated television show, Sherlock Holmes in the 22nd Century, did a bit of basic sleuthing and helped the police catch a thief. It actually is a very decent little show; it's nice that it's inspiring some kids to use their eyes and brains.
* Tour the Vatican.
* The Logic Museum has begun building a page on passages relevant to the ontological argument.
* John Farrell reports on a talk by Ken Miller.
* This paper provides an easy introduction to Whitehead's mereotopology: The Whiteheadian context of some formal theories of space (PDF) by Gary Herstein. See also his Measurement, Mereotopology, and the Nature of Nature (PDF) by the same, and Whitehead's Theory of Extension in Process and Reality (PDF), by Claus Ringel.
* Rob Knop muses on science, religion, and compartmentalization of mind.
* Jonathan Prejean finds himself persuaded by Michael Liccione's Spirituque suggestion. It still seems to me a theological solecism that's a result of focusing too narrowly on only one set of things that an explication of the Trinity is supposed to do, and I am still mystified by how it is supposed to do any of the things claimed for it. I also still think there are several features required for proper progress that are not adequately developed yet. But the post is worth some reflection.
