The fact that ABC has released preview clips that give an indication of things that happen in future episodes, some of which give away a lot, suggests to me that the things they haven’t given us a glimpse of must be even more exciting and impressive. If you want to remain spoiler free, don’t watch these videos. If you think it is OK to watch things that have been officially released and don’t consider them spoilers, then enjoy and ponder!... Read more

Tonight on PBS there was a documentary about the wildlife in the Danube Delta in Romania. I was particularly impressed with the footage of European Starlings flying as flocks or swarms that seemed to behave like a superorganism. I didn’t find online footage from that region, but there are some other videos on YouTube that give a similar experience. For LOST fans, it is kind of like seeing a real-life smoke monster… Read more

This isn’t from the Conservative Bible Project, but presumably when they see it they will want to use it: From the Perplexed Observer via Atheist Revolution. Read more

Jeremy has posted the Biblioblog Top 50 – in fact, a list of the top 237 biblioblogs – for this past month. Read more

The season premiere of the final season of LOST is only two days away. If you can’t wait, there are some clips available – but they really are spoilers, so if you’d rather not see them, then don’t! Presumably if Jack managed to prevent the plane ever crashing on the island, then presumably this season will be spent finding another way for Jack to go back in time and do what he did to prevent the plane crashing on the... Read more

There are two recent romantic comedies that explore a scenario that overlaps in involving two individuals, one of whom actually loathes the other, getting engaged or married without genuinely wanting to, only to find themselves actually falling in love with their fiance/wife. One is The Accidental Husband and the other is The Proposal. I find it intriguing that these movies (which are presumably aimed at an American audience that expects people to meet, fall in love, and then perhaps marry) offer... Read more

I was glancing at some older editions of the Letters of Ignatius on Archive.org, trying to find out what the earliest extant manuscript is as well as the earliest clear citation. I discovered in the process that one can embed books from the Internet Archive much as one can embed books from Google Books. So here’s an attempt to see how this works: What I really want to know is whether older books in pdf format on the Internet Archive,... Read more

As a PC user, I’m curious what experience if any readers have had with Tablet PCs and Convertibles. It doesn’t seem to me that the iPad offers anything obviously superior to what is already out there. Although I can see why those who already use Apple for most things would go with Apple for this as well, is there any reason why a PC user might choose the iPad over the many other options currently available? If it were up... Read more

Today’s religion and sci-fi class focused on the writings of Erich von Daniken, the movie Knowing and other interpretations of ancient depictions of encounters with the divine in terms of extraterrestrials, of “Close Encounters of the Third Kind.” Two students have already posted over on the course blog about the subject, one asking whether ancient prophets would be judged mentally ill if they lived today, the other focusing on this topic in the wider context of how we deal with the incomprehensible. I can... Read more

While the science blog Cosmic Variance at Discover Magazine discusses time travel on LOST as a metaphor as well as a scientific subject, the LOST metaphor of the board game (whether chess or backgammon) has become a reality as IO9 offers a J. J. Abrams board game: Also relevant is Buddy TV’s list of ways they don’t want LOST to end. Read more