Many have been quite upset at the 2016 loss of several famous entertainers — most recently, Carrie Fisher and George Michael — but, to much less fanfare and public lamentation, we’ve also lost a number of eminent scientists over the past year.  Here’s one list:   http://www.the-scientist.com/?articles.view/articleNo/47807/title/Those-We-Lost-in-2016/   For years (and they probably still do it today), People magazine published a December issue devoted to “The Year’s Most Interesting People.”  I’ve typically been underwhelmed by it.  I’m one of... Read more

    We’re a small group there, with the problems that might be expected from being a small group scattered over a large area.  But we’re there:   http://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-india-38314831     Read more

    It is not because the truth is too difficult to see that we make mistakes. . . .  We make mistakes because the easiest and most comfortable course for us is to seek insight where it accords with our emotions — especially selfish ones. Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn     Read more

    It’s a bit late, but I didn’t want to wait all the way until next year before sharing a poem that Jean Marshall brought to my notice a bit earlier this evening:   First Coming He did not wait till the world was ready, till men and nations were at peace. He came when the Heavens were unsteady, and prisoners cried out for release. He did not wait for the perfect time. He came when the need was deep... Read more

    Why Christmas is radical   I don’t share what I’m guessing are this author’s left-leaning politics.  But I think his perspective is an important one that all of us, including economically libertarian conservatives such as I, need to keep in mind.  And not merely at this season.   (I simply believe that free markets are by far the best way, demonstrably and overall, to raise the living standard of the poor.  And that governments, even when they’re well-intentioned — which... Read more

    This is a superb short article, by the superb N. T. Wright, one of the most eminent living scholars of the New Testament:   http://www.abc.net.au/religion/articles/2016/12/19/4594929.htm   I strongly agree with it and I recommend it enthusiastically.     Read more

    From a prominent Turkish Muslim writer:   http://www.nytimes.com/2016/12/23/opinion/why-its-not-wrong-to-wish-muslims-merry-christmas.html     Read more

    On Friday, I think, I posted a link to a performance, by the Choir of King’s College, Cambridge, of Morten Lauridsen’s unutterably gorgeous and moving O magnum mysterium.   Bryce Haymond has kindly called my attention to yet another very lovely rendition of O magnum mysterium — lovely is a word that I seldom use, but it seems almost mandatory with regard to this piece — by the Nordic Chamber Choir:     Here again, is the Latin text... Read more

    I’ve already called attention to the Interpreter Foundation’s 2014 Christmas message, from Orson Scott Card:   http://www.mormoninterpreter.com/author/orsonc/   Our 2016 Christmas message, written by Sharon Eubank, appeared on Friday:   http://www.mormoninterpreter.com/the-song-i-cannot-sing/   I would like to remind you of the Interpreter Foundation’s 2015 Christmas message, from Clayton M. Christensen:   http://www.mormoninterpreter.com/he-did-it-a-christmas-message/   May everyone out there have a marvelous Christmas and a happy, healthy, satisfying, and productive 2017!     Read more

    This scientific scandal of nearly a year ago, which surely ranks up there in the annals of crime and wrongdoing with Trump University and the Clinton Foundation, if not with Teapot Dome and Watergate, received far less attention than it deserved:   http://www.the-scientist.com/?articles.view/articleNo/45519/title/Paper-Containing-Creationist-Language-Pulled/   How horrible that the offending word was permitted to appear, that our defenses were inadequate to prevent its publication.  I think I need to sit down with my smelling salts.   How comforting, though,... Read more