A colleague mentioned on Facebook that last night’s episode of LOST, “Dr. Linus”, may be of particular interest to educators and administrators – or at the very least, indicates the tensions that sometimes exist between the two. Outdated equipment in the science classroom – where have I heard that before? They even mentioned issues of parking which I’m guessing are not issues limited to any one campus or educational institution. I thus wanted to give teachers and professors, principals and deans and other... Read more

Another powerful depiction of the contrast between the two universes on LOST can be seen in Ben’s relationship to his father. This is subtly yet powerfully symbolized by the following: in one timeline, Ben kills his father using a gas canister; in the other, Ben uses a canister of gas (in this case presumably oxygen) to help keep his father alive. Read more

Wow, tonight’s episode of LOST was quite something. We learned a number of things that are really important [SPOILER ALERT]. First, Jack learned something about himself, and abour Richard Alpert, that is crucial. If Jacob touches you, you don’t age and cannot kill yourself. You would have to be killed by someone else. Presumably this gift from Jacob was also before that a gift that Jacob himself received from someone else – but from whom? Perhaps this suggests that Jacob and... Read more

IO9 has an interesting article on whether “science fiction humanism” is a contradiction in terms. In the process of exploring the question, it touches on a number of religious themes as well. Read more

Since I received an e-mail asking about some online materials of mine that have been around on the web for some time, but recently became harder to find, I thought I’d post about them. Geocities recently closed, taking with it a lot of web resources that people had shared over a period of many years. I moved everything I had on Geocities to a directory on my academic web page. You can also find them on the Internet Archive. Some of... Read more

Here are highlights from today’s Clergy Letter Project e-mail: Download a free copy of Science, Evolution and Creationism as a pdfEvolution Resources at National Academies Michael will speak at a Darwin Day event held by the Center for Inquiry in Indianapolis on March 20th Updates on the Clergy Letter Project web site include more news articles about this year’s Evolution Weekend Read more

Wolfgang’s Vault added another concert, Genesis performing at Shrine Auditorium in Los Angeles, California, January 24th, 1975. Here’s a sample: http://concerts.wolfgangsvault.com/common/swf/wgv_st_player.swf Read more

There is a lot of great music in the Internet Archive: Bartok’s Violin Concerto No.2 played by Yehudi Menuhin http://www.archive.org/flow/flowplayer.commercial-3.0.5.swf?0.3933595411057 Ernest Bloch’s Violin Concerto played by Josef Szigeti http://www.archive.org/flow/flowplayer.commercial-3.0.5.swf?0.05154117365974975 Prokofiev’s Violin Concerto No.1 played by Josef Szigeti http://www.archive.org/flow/flowplayer.commercial-3.0.5.swf?0.46397444243605185 Poulenc’s Sonata for Violin and Piano http://www.archive.org/flow/flowplayer.commercial-3.0.5.swf?0.8487472167947698 Aram Khachaturian’s Violin Concerto (performed on violin and piano) http://www.archive.org/flow/flowplayer.commercial-3.0.5.swf?0.5697744155003956 Here’s a concertn of American music for piano and violin: http://www.archive.org/flow/flowplayer.commercial-3.0.5.swf?0.688840546612263 And there are even things that I’m pretty sure you won’t find anywhere else.... Read more

I didn’t manage to blog about Michael Zimmerman’s latest blog post until now. It is a challenge to Rick Santorum to heed his own church’s teachings about evolution. Here’s an excerpt: The Pontifical Academy itself, on January 24, 2009 issued a statement arising from the meeting that is as powerful as it is clear. “It is important for scientific knowledge on evolution to become integrated into our world-view and for our world-view to be steadily updated. The extraordinary progress in... Read more

I’ve used the site Come and Hear in the past as a useful place to look things up in the Talmud. But I never before noticed the caveat on the front page, offering those who are easily offended an alternative site to go to. Take a look – I think you’ll be as amused as I was. The site Halakhah.com is also useful, featuring its own copy of the Soncino Talmud as well as links to original-language sites such as... Read more