* Bleg: If anyone has recently read anything, or come across any sources, relevant to understanding the thought (philosophical or theological) and life of the French Congregation of the Oratory in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, please pass it along; I am currently researching this topic.
* Currently reading:
Steven Nadler, Spinoza and Secular Judaism (PDF)
Gareth Matthews, Thinking about Eudaimonia with Kids (PDF)
Mary Beth Ingham, Formulating One's Philosophy of Life as a Learning Exercise
Harvey Friedman, Concept Calculus (PDF)
Fred Richman, Equivalence of Syllogisms (PDF)
Amy Koehlinger, Demythologizing Catholic Women Religious in the 1960s, online at the Journal of Southern Religion (ht)
Stephen Palmquist, Kant's Criticism of Swedenborg
Steven Norris and Linda Phillips, Reading as Inquiry (PDF)
Douglas Allchin, Error Repertoires (PDF)
Error Types (PDF)
Richard Duschl, The HS Lab Experience (PDF)
* While in Baltimore, I briefly visited the Basilica of the Assumption. They had an exhibit on religious orders, and I came across Mary Elizabeth Lange, currently being considered for beatification, foundress of the Oblate Sisters of Providence. Here's a good brief bio of her from the Baltimore Sun. For those who are interested, this is the process of beatification decree for Mary Lange; and this is the official prayer for beatification. At the same site (courtesy of Louis S. Diggs, who writes about African-American history in the Baltimore area) there is further information about Lange and the Oblate Sisters of Providence.
* Ed Peters discusses the deaf and Catholic liturgy. This is the third time in the past week that an issue about the deaf community has been brought to my attention, each time by a very different source; one begins to wonder if providence is nudging in some way.
* A nice Christmas Eve sign of hope: On December 24, 2007, the U.S. Army finally destroyed its last reserves of VX nerve agent, one of its most toxic chemical weapons (never actually used, fortunately). In so doing the U.S. has finished a major part of its steps toward compliance with the Chemical Weapons Convention; the U.S. had fulfilled Phase III of the process of implementation by July, and at the same time had assisted Albania in becoming the first signatory in the world to complete its implementation of the treaty. The Pentagon does not estimate completion of implementation before 2023 (the CWC requires complete compliance by 2012).
* You can read about the U.S. national laboratory system here.
* Bora has posted links to the posts that will be appearing in the 2007 Open Laboratory anthology. Especially noteworthy are Wilkins's Ancestors post, Zivkovic's Scientific Paper post, Johnson's Admetus post, Matheson's Teosinte post, and Stemwedel's Science Ethics post.
* Mike Almeida has started a philosophy of religion weblog.
