The personal blog of Eric Wilson, writing on politics, the Catholic Church, the Internet, art, etc.
My alma mater is a very traditional liberal arts school, so the use of technology in the classroom seems a little heterodox to me, but I like the approach of embracing the distraction and turning it into an asset instead of trying to fight it.
Take a look at this video of how a UT Dallas professor is using Twitter to augment her classroom discussion.
If you’re interested in learning more about Pope Benedict XVI’s recent efforts to unify Roman Catholics and Anglicans and Episcopalians, I want to invite you personally to Old St. Mary’s Church in Chinatown on Friday evening. Pertinent details below:
This is a funny, clever example of parody, even though I don’t agree with their ultimate message.
This morning, we saw the release of a terrorist responsible for bombing an airliner and murdering 270 people on ‘compassionate’ grounds. Al-Megrahi has been diagnosed with a terminal cancer and physicians have told him to expect only 3 more months of life.
The commentariat has been abuzz about the controversy surrounding the release, focusing on the grief of the victims’ families. Megrahi didn’t show compassion to those he murdered, so why should we be compassionate towards him, the reasoning goes.
Compassion isn’t supposed to be easy, though. If we do what’s easy, that’s what we’re expected to do — that’s not compassion. But how do we decide who is deserving of our compassion? Is Megrahi sorry for what he did? Or is he just facing the inevitability of death we should all expect?
Certainly the hero’s welcome he received when returning home to Libya was disgusting, but we don’t get to condition our compassion and everyone is free to respond however they choose.
I not sure whether Megrahi was deserving of his release or if he should have been released, but these are some of the questions I’ve been asking today.
With the health care debate in full swing, cable news networks need a medical symbol for their graphics, but they’re using the wrong one. To be clear, the Rod of Asclepius is the appropriate symbol for medicine and the Caduceus is the inappropriate selection.
Asclepius’ Rod is associated with the Greek god of medicine and is, appropriately incorporated in the logo of the American Medical Association. The Wikipedia pages for the Rod and the Caduceus provide a pretty coherent outline of this confusion.
“The notion of the People of God, in particular, was interpreted by some according to a purely sociological vision, with an almost exclusively horizontal severance, which excluded the vertical reference to God.” – Pope Benedict XVI
“Securing work in a tight economy means more job seekers might find themselves applying for positions below their qualifications. Many unemployed professionals are willing to take paycuts for the promise of a paycheck. But to get a foot in the door, candidates are gearing down their resumes by hiding advanced degrees, changing too-lofty titles, shortening work experience descriptions, and removing awards and accolades.”
“An Anglican, it was Baroness Thatcher’s second visit to the Vatican in less than two years, leading some to speculate whether she is thinking of joining the Church. During her previous trip, she also visited John Paul II’s tomb to pay her respects. According to those who were with her at that time, she made it clear in her characteristically loud voice that it was thanks to John Paul that Soviet communism was brought down.”
“A scientist at the Observatoire de Paris basically invented GPS for interstellar travelers: Simply tune in the radio signals from four pulsars, crunch some numbers having to do with relativity (natch) and read your position within the galaxy — to within a meter.”
Obama’s nominee for Supreme Court justice, Sonia Sotomayor, is the person everyone wants to know more about, and as Washington is abuzz with analysis of the President’s big pick, I find myself a bit conflicted.
First, as a conservative, I feel like I should be joining the chorus calling for her confirmation defeat, but I realize elections have consequences and there’s little we can do to stop the appointment of Judge Sotomayor. It might help Republicans if we don’t spend too much time opposing the first Latina supreme court justice.
Still though, it concerns me that she believes her role as judge involves policy making, but this is certainly a debate where reasonable people can disagree.
The goal to get her confirmed by the Senate before target adjournment is, like everything about Obama’s agenda, ambitious, but I think they’ll get it done.
