Holy Week Timeline Visualization →
Click to enlarge. Also available as a PDF.
Holy Week (or Passion Week) [is] the week that commemorates Jesus’ death and resurrection. Here’s a new visualization we created that…
Dvorak Keyboard Layout on Ubuntu →
Switch to Dvorak layout:
sudo loadkeys dvorak
Switch back to U.S.:
sudo loadkeys us
That was easy!
An Unlikely Crusader for Cleaning Up the Food Supply →
— TEDxAustin Robyn O’Brien 2011. O’Brien, Robyn. TEDxAustin. Mar. 2011.
Catching the “Little Things” with BDD →
I’ve often read/heard the following kind of critique comparing TDD (Test-Driven Development) and BDD (Behavior-Driven Development):
BDD is great, but unlike TDD, it can’t catch little things like…
To Follow by Faith Alone… →
My friend Matt recently posted an interesting essay entitled The Mathematics of an Idea. He opens with a quote attributed to Benjamin Franklin:
To follow by faith alone is to follow blindly.
If I may be so bold as to question one of the Founding Fathers, I think Mr. Franklin misunderstood the nature of faith. Faith is not a feeling, nor is it divorced from reason. Faith is an
The Virtues of Saint Anselm →
The last sentence, in particular, reminds me of the complaints laid against Pope John Paul II:
It is certain that from the moment he assumed a religious habit to the time of his elevation to the episcopacy, he devoted himself to the cultivation of every virtue, and by word and example sowed these virtues in the minds of others whenever possible. … He was often even blamed and suffered in his reputation on account of his undiscerning … cultivation of the virtues which were more fitting for a monk of his cloister than for the primate of so great a nation. His high humility, his boundless patience … were all in this respect noted censured and condemned. And above all he was blamed for his lack of judgment in the mildness of his proceedings, for — as most people saw it — there were many on whom he ought to have inflicted ecclesiastical discipline, who took advantage of his mildness to remain in their wickedness as if by his consent.
— Vita Anselmi. Eadmer. c. 1124. via St. Anselm on Anger by Gregory Sadler.
Saint Ronan: Accusation and Vindicatation →
Saint Ronan, please pray for Father Corapi and his accuser.
Shedding tears in abundance, and with violent contortions, she cast herself at the king’s feet, demanding justice to be executed against Ronan, who had devoured her daughter, and who had made her husband a sorcerer. … “I have two furious bulldogs,” shouted the king, “and they shall soon prove if this man be innocent; let them be hounded on against him, and we shall test the sanctity of his life, if he be not guilty.”
The Real History of the Crusades →
Misconceptions about the Crusades are all too common. The Crusades are generally portrayed as a series of holy wars against Islam led by power-mad popes and fought by religious fanatics. They are…
Homeless Alaskans Help Run Catholic Shelter in Effort to Leave It →
As a volunteer, Payne has a small bedroom in the staff quarters, which accommodates up to 10 people. He said some people “choose to use the shelter as a flophouse for a hangover” and addiction and mental health problems plague many guests. But if you’re motivated, “this is an awesome place for people wanting to help themselves.”
— Homeless Alaskans Help Run Catholic Shelter in Effort to Leave It . Caldarola, Effie. Catholic Anchor Online. 26 Feb. 2011.
Contraception Is Not the Solution to Abortion →
Men do not differ much about what things they will call evils; they differ enormously about what evils they will call excusable.
— Chesterton, G.K. Illustrated London News. 23 Oct 1909.
The…
Nigel Marsh: How to Make Work-Life Balance Work →
— How to Make Work-Life Balance Work. Marsh, Nigel. TEDxSydney). May 2010. via @bcelenza.
Does Islam Need a Luther or a Pope? →
It has become the conventional wisdom … since 9/11 that the trouble with Islam is that, unlike Christianity, it never had a Protestant Reformation. The idea seems to be this: Christianity was (so it is held) rigid and authoritarian before Luther and company came along and paved the way for liberal democracy, science, and all things modern and good; Islam’s problem is that it remains stuck in its “Medieval phase,” still awaiting Reformers of its own.
This analysis dovetails nicely with the conceptions most people have these days of the Reformation, of traditional Catholicism, and of freedom and rationality and their relationship to authority and tradition. It is, for that reason, completely worthless. For such conceptions rest largely on clichés whose content owes less to actual historical fact than to the needs of Reformation and Enlightenment era anti-Catholic polemic.
— Does Islam Need a Luther or a Pope?. Feser, Edward. TCS Daily. 4 Dec. 2003.
Last Comments on Lying for Jesus →
I’m willing to bet such a fib is a venial sin. But I’m even more willing to bet that I am eager to think all my lies are venial sins and to look for justifications for lying more than I am willing…
In Wisconsin, a Preview of Moral Battles to Come →
Catholics’ discussions of these issues often focus on the rights of workers and the support of the rights of workers to organize for fair wages and benefits, but the reality of the union system we…
JavaScript Web/Desktop Application Frameworks →
Here is a brief overview of some of the most popular JavaScript Application Frameworks for web and desktop application development. Mobile frameworks, like Sencha Touch, jQTouch, jQuery Mobile and
