I’m pleased to announce that Pascal-Emmanuel Gobry has joined the Catholic team here at Patheos with his new blog “Inebriate Me.” He explains, in his first post, why he named his blog after a line from the Anima Christi: I chose this line, specifically, because it’s perhaps the effect of Christ’s grace that’s most overlooked, and perhaps most important: Christ, make me drunk on your grace. To get drunk is to get happy. It’s also to get a little reckless. It’s... Read more
Here’s the roundup of my most recent writing for The American Conservative, which includes math nerdery, political science research, Snowden coverage, and, best of all, a theatre review. Teaching Math Under Common Core: Fact and Fiction, Part V When I learned my times tables, the kinds in my class used the fingers trick for remembering the nine times table. Just hold up all ten fingers, palms in, and then, counting from the left, put down the nth finger (where n... Read more
— 1 — Turns out I have enough “clever engineering” links for that to be the theme for all seven takes. First up, a story I’ve been itching to link to since the Olympics: the New York Times put together an awesome interactive spread on the design of pads, helmets, skates, and other accouterments of the Winter Games. Here are some of the cool things I learned just about the shoes: Biathlon: Only the toe of the boot attaches to the... Read more
Slate’s advice columnist, Prudence, recently fielded a question from a reader who was starting to feel coarsened by zer job. Ze works in a college admissions office, gets a lot of calls (and sometimes verbal abuse) from pushy parents. By this point, ze writes: I really am starting to hate people in general. I get satisfaction when a rude applicant calls for an update, and I see that they have been rejected. I can’t tell them their decision, though, and... Read more
I don’t have any strong opinions yet about Nate Silver’s revamped FiveThirtyEight, but, on their first day, they did have a piece on statistics and Shakespeare, and, what can I say, I’m an easy mark. Emma Pierson took a look at how many lines any given pair of characters in a play spoke to each other. (She tried out four methods of tallying, described in her footnotes). Here’s what she found: I wanted Romeo and Juliet to end up together... Read more
During the homily this past Sunday on the Transfiguration of Christ, I thought the priest was being a little unfair to the disciples on the mountain. Here’s the part of the story the priest was explaining: Six days later, Jesus took with him Peter and James and his brother John and led them up a high mountain, by themselves. And he was transfigured before them, and his face shone like the sun, and his clothes became dazzling white. Suddenly there... Read more
In 2014, I’m reading and blogging through Pope Francis/Cardinal Bergoglio’s Open Mind, Faithful Heart: Reflections on Following Jesus. Every Monday, I’ll be writing about the next meditation in the book, so you’re welcome to peruse them all and/or read along. I found it interesting that, in this week’s chapter, Pope Francis links impatience and hopelessness. It might be that I’m biased, since impatience is one of my besetting sins, but, at first blush, the two emotions seem opposed. Impatience presupposes a desire; we... Read more
— 1 — Happy Pi Day! Let’s celebrate with Vi Hart, Shakespeare, and Borges: — 2 — I’ve seen plenty of photos of the Cristo Redentor statue in Brazil, but it wasn’t until I read the BBC’s feature on this Art Deco icon, that I ever paused to wonder what it was made of. Take a moment and make a guess, and then highlight the text below for the reveal: It’s reinforced concrete covered in tiny stone mosaic. The article... Read more
I mentioned yesterday that I’ve not made any exciting changes for Lent (neither giving up a food nor picking up volunteer hours at the local something). It’s not that these might not be good things to do, but I didn’t get a very right feeling about them, when I thought it over, and I am trying to do better about only working on the parts of acting morally that are easy for me to turn into rules to implement. Here’s a... Read more
Earlier today I wrote about the how of my CPAC coverage, and here’s the what: all the stories I filed for AmCon based on the speeches I heard and the questions I asked at the Conservative Political Action Conference. I tried to stick to the criteria of “Kind, honest, and necessary” throughout: Conservative Atheists Speak Up About CPAC Shunning Less than 24 hours passed between the American Atheists‘ announcement that“Atheists March Into Lions’ Den at CPAC” and the follow-up “CPAC Boots Atheist Booth.” …[American Atheists... Read more
Unequally Yoked
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