Monday, November 13, 2006

Links and a Few Notes

* Chernoff Faces: a way to illustrate statistical data as cartoon faces. (ht: Mixing Memory)

* Michael Vendsel is beginning a series on Barth's interpretation of Anselm at Cynthia Nielsen's "Per Caritatem". Part I; Part II. While I think Barth's interpretation is flawed, one of the nice things about it is that it takes the first section of the Proslogion seriously; and Barth's interpretation of the origin of id quo maius cogitari non potest is, I think, at least in the ballpark.

* An interesting article on Benedict XV's attempt to preserve peace in Europe, and the contrasts with Wilsonian internationalism.

* I think I've linked to the Nietzsche Family Circus generator before, but this one is the funniest combination I've come across, and I had to share it. One wonders what pictures in particular inspired Dolly's comment.

* Suzanne McCarthy has been doing a series of posts on the "Junia, of note among the apostles" verse of Romans 16.

* At "The Inklings" you can read George Orwell's 1945 review of C. S. Lewis's That Hideous Strength.

* The Pope discusses faith and reason again. (ht: Sacramentum Vitae)

* In order not to feel compelled to devote another post to A. C. Grayling's comments on religion, should Grayling comment on religion again, I will simply note here the general structure Grayling's comments seem to share so far, allowing for some minor variations:

a) He starts out by stating something that a little bit of research would show to be clearly false or at least dubious;
b) Using this to transition into comments about how stupid and ignorant religious people in general are;
c) During which he lectures everyone on what various words really mean, without considering how they are actually used by ordinary English speakers;
d) And ends with a plea for mutual respect and tolerance.

And that seems to be about it; put that way, there doesn't seem to be much more that needs to be said.

* Theodore Dalrymple discusses what makes Samuel Johnson great. (ht: LTA)

* I recently had someone come to my weblog with the search question, "Is the earth a perfect sphere?" The answer, of course, is that it is not. It is an oblate spheroid -- and only an approximate one of those.

* Don't forget the Carnival of the Citizens.

* Also, don't forget the Cliopatria Award nominations.