![\"\"](\"https:\/\/wp.patheos.com\/community\/sites\/40\/2011\/09\/Polar.jpg\" "\\"Polar\\"")
<\/a>It can sometimes feel like we\u2019re barely hanging on, but some rest and relaxation might help. Grab your coffee and sit a spell and enjoy some links.<\/p>\nJohn Ortberg<\/strong><\/a>: to change you have to want it. Jamie Arpin-Ricci<\/strong><\/a> on the four-fold pattern in Franciscan prayer. David Lamb on the enemies of blogging<\/strong><\/a>, a good example of love your enemies.<\/p>\n S. Michael Craven<\/strong><\/a>: \u201cI think many in the American church know God in the same way they know the president-they know some facts about him, where he lives, what he does, and so on-but they do not have a relational knowledge of the actual person who is president. This could be described as a cultural theology. A biblical theology is more akin to the relationship between a child and a good parent. The child in this sense has a much more intimate knowledge that, through time and maturation, transmits the character and expectations of the parent. Experience only confirms this knowledge, producing trust, which in turn fosters obedience.\u201d<\/p>\n What do you think of Dan Reid\u2019s idea<\/strong><\/a> about that \u201cATA\u201d?<\/p>\n How serious of a movement\/issue is this New Apostolic Reformation<\/strong><\/a>? Speaking of serious<\/strong><\/a>.<\/p>\n TSK\u2019s advice on learning to eat south of the poverty line<\/strong><\/a>. On why folks aren\u2019t going to church<\/strong><\/a>.<\/p>\n Andrew Brown on science and creation<\/strong><\/a>: \u201cNow, if you are an atheist who takes the Paleyite view \u2013 that the existence of God is a question to be settled by an enquiry which is simultaneously and inextricably scientific and moral \u2013 then anyone who disagrees with you will appear to be a \u201ccreationist\u201d in a sense much wider than the first one. But the mainstream, orthodox, Christian position is not in fact Paleyite. It doesn\u2019t claim that the purpose of life can be discovered or shown by scientific enquiry; only that this purpose, discovered or known by revelation, is perfectly compatible with the results of science. This is also a position which can be described as \u201ccreationist\u201d, but I would never do so, because that muddles an enormously useful and important distinction. The orthodox Christian view cannot be refuted scientifically. It is therefore irrelevant to science classes, unlike the first sort of \u201ccreationism\u201d which is actively hostile to science teaching.\u201d<\/p>\n Meanderings in the News<\/p>\n Just in case you didn\u2019t see this, or pay attention, Wednesday was one great day for true baseball fans, and Adam Sobsey<\/strong><\/a> tells a great story of that day.<\/p>\n Benjamin Reiss gives Joseph Epstein an earful<\/strong><\/a>.<\/p>\n I would add \u201cRJS\u201d to this list<\/strong><\/a>: \u201cThere\u2019s an animated discussion in the making about female science bloggers. It started in the wake of an excellent session on women bloggers at ScienceOnline 2011, and has led to several thoughtful posts on the issues that they face, self-promotion, dealing with sexism, and more. So this is a list of women bloggers who I think you should read, with specific reasons why I think you should read them, and some of my favourite posts of theirs to get you started. And note, this is not a list of top female science bloggers; it\u2019s an all-female list of top science bloggers.\u201d<\/p>\n Is the three-square-meals a day the healthiest option<\/strong><\/a>?<\/p>\n Nice article on cocoa beans and chocolate<\/strong><\/a>.<\/p>\n Brains and obesity<\/strong><\/a>: \u201cStice\u2019s study seems to support the Goldilocks theory of obesity by providing rich brain imaging and genetics data in a prospective research design that allows us to begin teasing out the causes vs. consequences of obesity. Using fMRI, his team scanned the brains of adolescent girls with differing BMIs while they viewed pictures of appetizing foods and imagined eating what they saw. Stice\u2019s group also genotyped these young women to determine whether or not they possessed variant alleles of two genes (DRD2 Taq1A A1 and DRD4-7+) that have been linked with lower dopamine activity and, in some studies, obesity. They then followed these young women for one year and measured changes in their BMI. Overall, they found that adolescent girls with greater BMI showed increased reward region activation in response to food images. They also found that girls with greater reward activation gained more weight. A victory for the \u2018increased reward activity\u2019 camp! Not so fast. Remember the genetic testing? The study\u2019s results suggested that girls whose brains showed less reward system activation to foods also gained more weight \u2014 if they had the DRD2 Taq1AQ1 or the DRD4 7+ repeat alleles. So perhaps people whose genes incline them toward low dopamine activity are at particular risk for a subtype of obesity stemming from low food reward.\u201d<\/p>\n This is a very long article on \u201cWheat Belly<\/strong><\/a>,\u201d but it is worth your effort if you are interested in the accumulation of carbs in our diet and health.<\/p>\n The Meaning Machine<\/strong><\/a>: \u201cThe Meaning Machine takes all of your inputs at one end \u2014 photographs, status updates, game plays, song listens \u2014 and transforms them into meaning that\u2019s organized and designed. The Meaning Machine is what happens when we apply statistical methods to human lives. Run regressions on your experience of the world and this is what you get. Right now we call it Facebook Timeline, but it will have many forms over the coming decades. The Meaning Machine relieves you of the struggle to examine your experience of the world. You only need to post status updates and photos. Just\u00a0live life<\/em> and record it in social media. The Meaning Machine takes it from there. Feel the algorithm!\u201d<\/p>\n The Polish ministers pray for EU unity<\/strong><\/a>.<\/p>\n<\/a>David Kerr<\/strong><\/a>, on the Pope\u2019s visit to Luther\u2019s monastery in Erfurt: \u201cThe Pope did not shy away from praising certain aspects of Luther\u2019s life and work. \u201cFor him theology was no mere academic pursuit, but the struggle for oneself, which in turn was a struggle for and with God,\u201d said the Pope, observing that Luther constantly asked the question \u2013 \u2018how do I receive God?\u2019 \u201cThe fact that this question was the driving force of his whole life never ceases to make an impression on me,\u201d said the Pope. He also expressed admiration for Luther\u2019s attempt to put Christ at the center of his thinking and spirituality, which Pope Benedict called \u201cthoroughly Christocentric.\u201d The Pope noted that Luther had always asked the \u201cburning question\u201d of \u201cwhat is God\u2019s position towards me, where do I stand before God?\u201d The Pope said that he did not want his qualified praise of Luther to simply \u201cbe an attempt to talk our way past the urgent problems\u201d in ecumenical relations between the Catholic Church and other Christian bodies. At the same time, Pope Benedict emphasized the importance of remembering \u201cjust how much we have in common, not losing sight of it amid the pressure towards secularization \u2013 everything that makes us Christian in the first place and continues to be our gift and our task.\u201d One \u201cerror of the Reformation,\u201d he said, was that Christians \u201ccould only see what divided us.\u201d The Pope was also candid in his assessment of what threatens Christian unity, pointing to two current challenges. His first concern was about new forms of Christianity that are currently \u201cspreading with overpowering missionary dynamism\u201d and yet have \u201clittle institutional depth, little rationality and even less dogmatic content, and with little stability.\u201d The second challenge he warned of was \u201cthe secularized context of the world in which we Christians today have to live and bear witness to our faith.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/a>Tim Blanning\u2019s excellent review of Craig Kolofsky\u2019s study of the changes about \u201cnight\u201d<\/strong><\/a>: \u201cIn 1710, Richard Steele wrote in Tatler that recently he had been to visit an old friend just come up to town from the country. But the latter had already gone to bed when Steele called at 8 pm. He returned at 11 o\u2019clock the following morning, only to be told that his friend had just sat down to dinner. \u201cIn short\u201d, Steele commented, \u201cI found that my old-fashioned friend religiously adhered to the example of his forefathers, and observed the same hours that had been kept in his family ever since the Conquest\u201d. During the previous generation or so, elites across Europe had moved their clocks forward by several hours. No longer a time reserved for sleep, the night time was now the right time for all manner of recreational and representational purposes. This is what Craig Koslofsky calls \u201cnocturnalisation\u201d, defined as \u201cthe ongoing expansion of the legitimate social and symbolic uses of the night\u201d, a development to which he awards the status of \u201ca revolution in early modern Europe\u201d.<\/p>\n