Humanity can be characterized as a tool-using and tool-creating species. The tools we create or borrow can obviously give us enormous power, for good or ill: they will, however, always do so at a cost. We sometimes mark that cost ahead of time and choose to pay it; at other times, we don’t fully appreciate… Continue reading Words and Things
Category: Education
Exploring the Unknown
The Untold Story of Exploration This is a book by Lowell Thomas, published in 1937. Its various chapters outline the stories of explorers who are not the most widely known. One chapter traces the career of Ulrich Schmiedel von Straubing (aka Ulrico Schmidl) who accompanied the Spanish expedition headed by Pedro de Mendoza to South… Continue reading Exploring the Unknown
Finding Time
Many years ago, my mom gave me a key chain with a tab that says “A day that begins and ends in prayer is less likely to become unraveled.” It’s a sentiment which both as a practicing Christian and a liturgy geek, I enthusiastically support…in theory. I love the idea of a quiet time to… Continue reading Finding Time
Continuous? Step-wise? What’s up with that?
You may have seen a picture of movie film. A movie film consists of a large sequence of still images, which are presented so rapidly that the viewer perceives it as motion. This is true whether the pictures are photographic images of something with physical existence, or whether they are drawn or composed artwork. (Collecting… Continue reading Continuous? Step-wise? What’s up with that?
Names
They are one of the first repeated sounds that a baby hears and learns – and arguably the one vocalization that you hear more than any other in life. Names are central to how we think of ourselves – that’s the underlying import of the verse in the Revelation to Saint John that God will… Continue reading Names
A Rhetorical Superhero
I’ve learned many useful things from my students through the years. Last fall, Peter Jackson from my Senior English class drew my attention to the the term “Steel Man”. I’d understood the concept it represented, but not encountered the term; as often, however, having a name for something makes it easier to handle and promote.… Continue reading A Rhetorical Superhero
Seeing Clearly
When I was about eight, and in third grade, our class was ordered to report to the nurse’s office for vision testing (this was back in the day when schools could afford music programs, art instructors, and school nurses). We dutifully lined up single file in the hall in alphabetical order, and when it was… Continue reading Seeing Clearly
The Politics of Perplexity in Twenty-First Century America
In the context of twenty-first century America, “politics” is perhaps one of the most curiously irritating words in the English language. I know from personal experience – whether from observing others, or from paying attention to myself – that there is a visceral reflex to feel something between annoyance and disgust upon hearing the word.… Continue reading The Politics of Perplexity in Twenty-First Century America
Mr. Spock, Pseudo-scientist
I’m one of those aging folks who still remember the original run of Star Trek (no colon, no The Original Series or any other kind of elaboration — just Star Trek). It was a groundbreaking show, and whether you like it or not (there are plenty of reasons to do both), it held out a… Continue reading Mr. Spock, Pseudo-scientist
The Sherlock Holmes Law
I rather like Arthur Conan Doyle’s Sherlock Holmes stories. I should also admit that I’m not a hard-core devotee of mysteries in general. If I were, I probably would find the frequent plot holes in the Holmes corpus more annoying than I do. I enjoy them mostly for the period atmosphere, the prickly character of… Continue reading The Sherlock Holmes Law