A PARADOX

There are Christians who insist with the unchanging cadence of a broken record that we are saved by faith, not works, "lest we should boast."

And there are Christians who say yes, that is true, but we still have to work.

And Christianity is divided over this point.

But it is the latter, not the former, who bring their infants to the laver of regeneration for baptism into the Body of Christ, though those infants have done nothing to deserve the salvation given them in that act.

And it is the former, strangely, who refuse to baptise their infants, insisting that baptism must be an act of the individual's own will.

So tell me again--which Christians trust in God alone for their salvation, and which try to earn it by good works?

INSOMNIA

My wife should be a Hindu goddess.

Lizzy the Destroyer, Disrupter of Bedding and Waker of Men.

And after I'd just made the bed, too.

Her and Shiva. I swear!

TRAINSPOTTING

n. An adult hobby closely resembling the childish game of license plates (wherein long drives are whiled away by the tallying up of out-of-state license plate sightings). The similarities of the adult hobby to this puerile pastime are carefully concealed by its studious record-keeping and the apparent absence of any particular adversity analogous to the Long Drive. It is clear, however, that said absence is merely illusory, as the "hobbyists" are trapped in the state of abject boredom known as Real Life, and therefore stand in dire need of some means of whiling away the time.

E.g.: "I say! I've recorded 2,379 sightings of unique railway cars in the past week. You've only got 2,297! Jolly good show, eh? Better luck next week, old man! Cheerio!"

It has been argued that the British (who seem to have invented this peculiar hobby) manifest therein their proclivity for eccentricity in apposition to the more American tendency toward exhibitionism and attention-mongering.

Hence, while Americans also practice the hobby, they call it Ferroequinology, being the bloody show-offs that they are.

Incidentally, the French call it Ferrovipathe.

The Railway Disorder.

CONFIRMATION?

Speaking of Google Earth, below is a picture of the Parc de la Ciutadella in Barcelona. Unless I'm greatly mistaken, Fontsere and Gaudi's La Cascada is on the left, and the pond around which I rowed Keith Miller is towards the right. Would I be correct, then, to assume that Beat Annex East (the big concrete Mammoth that some of us climbed at various times in the past few years) is at the center of this picture? Wazoo, I am talking to you. :)

I WILL NEVER GET L0ST AGAIN

I just downloaded Google Earth. Awesome, awesome, awesome. And it's free! Check this out!

A picture, below, of the Church of St. Theodore, the one historic church in Rome (to my knowledge) possessed by the Greek Orthodox Church (specifically, the Patriarch in Constantinople). I was there during the liturgy for Theophany (Jan 6) earlier this year. It's the round building in the center of the picture. To the right is the western edge of the Palatine Hill, on the top edge is the Forum. So cool!



Below it is a picture of the whole Palatine Hill, with the Circus Maximus at the bottom and the Colisseum and the Forum at the top. You can still see the church on the left (very small, though).



There is no reason for you to not download this program NOW!

YES, WE'RE STILL IN KANSAS

But so are the lions and tigers and bears.

Oh my.

Yeah, we have some issues here.

First, as I recall, the King of the Wild Frontier was never the bear or anything like that--it was Davy Crockett.

Let's overlook that point and move on to the second. This line--"If we only have 10 minutes to present this idea, people think we're nuts. But if people hear the one-hour version, they realise they haven't thought about this as much as we have."

Wow--every time I realize that a crazy person has thought about something more than I have, it makes me want to agree with them too.

Or this line--"There are going to have to be some major attitude shifts. That includes realising predation is a natural role, and that people are going to have to take precautions."

Hmmmm...precautions. Like a really, really big gun? That's actually kinda cool.

Maybe it's not such a bad idea after all.

DRINKING PISS

Waste not, want not, as they say. I think I want one. ;)

MR. GUGG IS CONFUSED

I know, more or less, the basics of the theory of Relativity. The passage of time for an object in motion will appear, to a "stationary" observer, to pass more slowly. The object in motion could just as easily claim that it is the "stationary" observer for whom time is passing more quickly. Right.

So by moving more quickly, you can make your time progress more slowly than someone who isn't moving as fast as you. But how can you make your time progress more quickly? By slowing down your own motion? Relative to what?

I think this is probably a very silly question, bespeaking my immense ignorance of higher scientific matters. But every book on the subject that I've tried to read emphasizes that every observer has an equal claim to be the one that's stationary. But it seems that, since I've never heard of an experiment in which anything was slowed down so that time appeared to move more quickly for it than for observers, perhaps stationary-ness isn't necessarily relative, and is simply the state in which time is observed to move most quickly.

Or something. I'm feeling stupid now, so I'll stop. If anyone can explain, please do, or tell me where to find the answer. Thanks.

FROM IRAQ...

An interesting showdown of sorts--two groups of women demonstrating for and against the current draft of the Iraqi constitution. Take a look.

Also...Here's a piece from the Guardian giving some background on the issue.

HEY THERE

Apologies for the hiatus. Since Sunday I've had a couple of my brothers visiting, and have been too busy to blog, as we have been doing touristy things in Boston and/or playing multiplayer RTS games. Hence, I have now gone to a Red Sox game in Fenway Park, done the wave (if that's the phraseology I'm looking for) with 30000 other fans, taken a Duck Tour, watched Hamlet for free on the Boston Common, and played a whole lot of Rise of Nations.

It's been a fun week. But I need to get back to working and writing and thinking and stuff. So check this space again soon. I'll be here.