2013-12-15T15:18:40-05:00

A teenager who killed four people in a drunk driving accident was given probation after a psychiatrist testified that he was a victim of his parents’ wealth.  The term for this syndrome–the bad effects of having too much money–is “affluenza,” deriving from “affluence + influenza.”

2013-12-15T15:15:51-05:00

Scientists have discovered that DNA contains not just one but two languages, superimposed over each other.  They knew about the one that determines how proteins are made, but the other embedded language “instructs the cell on how genes are controlled.” We sure are lucky that

2013-12-15T15:11:39-05:00

A white, non-Arabic American who converted to Islam by reading jihadist sites on the internet was planning a suicide car bomb attack on the airport where he worked in Wichita, Kansas.  Fortunately, his co-conspirator was an FBI agent. I’m scheduled to fly into that airport

2013-12-12T20:43:26-05:00

Continuing our earlier discussion about denominations and non-denominations, we need to consider another factor:  church government.  Some denominations define themselves not by their theology but by the way they are governed.    Presbyterians have a system of elders (presbyters, in the Greek).  Episcopalians have bishops. 

2013-12-12T20:47:37-05:00

It’s almost too easy to make fun of us Baby Boomers.  But satirist P. J. O’Rourke, who is one,  has a book coming out in January entitled   The Baby Boom: How It Got That Way (And It Wasn’t My Fault) (And I’ll Never Do It

2013-12-12T20:48:46-05:00

The FBI has some new crime-fighting technology in its collective utility belt.  FBI-employed hackers can now infect suspects’ computers with malware that will allow investigators to download whatever they might find. This process, which still requires a court order, takes wiretapping to a new level.

2013-12-12T10:19:28-05:00

Time Magazine announced its Person of the Year for 2013:  Pope Francis.  That’s a good and fitting choice.  But it is the custom of this blog for you the readers to nominate who you think should be Person of the Year.  So who else should

2013-12-11T20:15:21-05:00

Canada is asserting its sovereignty over the North Pole.  It is claiming that the Canadian continental shelf that extends under the Arctic Ocean goes that far and more.  Canada will be bringing in scientists to testify at the UN to make its case. This would

2013-12-11T20:16:45-05:00

Apparently terrorists, military operatives, and spies in real life also like to pretend that they are terrorists, military operatives, and spies.  So the National Security Administration (NSA) and the British equivalent (GCHQ) have been monitoring online games and spying on gamers. (more…)

2013-12-10T20:22:43-05:00

Daniel A. Siedell relates the Sabbath, the Gospel, and Vocation: Amazon has just announced that the United States Postal Service will now be making deliveries for the retail giant on Sundays. This has spawned much hand-wringing in the media about the “excesses of consumer demand”

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