Scrolling around...August 27, 2012

Extraordinary Photographs of Animals Inside the Womb-Wow!


Neil Armstrong: How to Step Away
We didn’t know him. We didn’t have to. We knew all we needed to know: his name was Neil Armstrong, he flew to the Moon, and he put a human print on the surface of another celestial body. The act was so audacious, so revelatory of mankind’s potential, that the usual machinery of pop-culture celebrity seemed abashed: this one gets a pass. This one stands apart. When you heard he died you may have struggled to call up the face, and all you got was a publicity photo of an ordinary fellow with a Rotarian grin. He was as remote and unreachable as the moon itself. That was okay with Neil; that was okay with everyone else, too.
He’s remembered for one thing, but he had a life before, and a life afterwards. The latter is more fascinating. How does a man incorporate such an accomplishment into his life? When does he start defining himself by something else? He had the life we all have: birthdays, toothaches, haircuts, oil changes. But when he looked up at night he saw something in the sky that had shone down on humanity from cave-age to yesterday, and he knew his relationship with Luna would always be unique. No one else would ever be first... image

The Economist: Neil Armstrong obituary

Pakistan: Christian children are the focus of Muslim wrath
Last week in Pakistan, Waiz Masih – a 14-yer-old Christian boy living in Islamabad – was murdered by young Muslims following a “discussion on religion,” according to the Fides news service. Savagely beaten to death, Masih’s body was thrown into a ditch. Other cases that have galvanized international attention included the bizarre murder of Sunil Yaqoob Masih, an orphaned Catholic from Faisalabad, whose body was found mutilated with several organs removed. In another case, Rimsha Masih, an 11-year-old Christian boy, has been arrested and kept in jail on charges of offending Islam...

FEMA prepares New Orleans for a possible hurricane-strength Isaac
Emergency officials breathed a sigh of relief as the center of Tropical Storm Isaac moved past Tampa and the site of the Republican National Convention, but planners ramped up preparations in New Orleans and the Gulf Coast as the storm appeared to gather strength and march toward Louisiana and Mississippi.
The National Weather Service said the New Orleans could be in the path of the storm, which is projected to become a Category 1 hurricane by the time it makes landfall on the Gulf Coast late Monday or early Tuesday...

Seventeen people including two women beheaded by Taliban in Afghanistan for taking part in a village music festival ...The slaughter took place yesterday in a village in the Musa Qala district of Helmand Province in southern Afghanistan - an area said to be completely under the control of insurgents...

How is 9000 Women Listening to Beth Moore’s Bible teaching over two Days not a Major Local Story?
...Now explain something to me. How is this not a major story? Would you not want, say, to interview Beth Moore? To talk to some of the participants (who came from every Christian tradition imaginable)? To find out why people came and stood in line for hours just to get inside? To ask them what they learned? To talk to the (quite talented and influential) music team? To find out why the wife of a local Episcopal Church minister (yes, you read that correctly) was the local area coordinator for the event? My questions could go and on...

Fired General Theological Seminary workers claim church making their lives ‘a living hell’
...“Working for a church is different, it is not like any other job, we thought we were like family,” said Godfrey Johnson, 52. “But now we have been let go with nothing, not even a word of thanks.”
Not to mention severance pay...

Dawkins: Creative intelligence not so ridiculous
...Dawkins, who is known for ridiculing the different interpretations various religions have of God, noted that the idea of there being some kind of "creative intelligence" in the universe is at least more likely than there existing any one specific deity.
"I think a particular god like Zeus or Jehovah is as unlikely as the tooth fairy, but the idea of some kind of creative intelligence is not quite so ridiculous," he said.

Rahm Emanuel Turns Homeless Services Over to Catholic Charities
Catholic Charities is taking over as the agency giving people late night rides to shelters as part of Chicago's latest plan to fight homelessness...

NYT: Paper of record or the church bulletin of the left?
...It’s interesting to read through some of the comments from readers, too. Ron from New York City says, “I’m all for gay marriage. But the obsession of The Times with gay marriage and all gay issues is beyond bizarre.” Dave from Texas writes “Groupthink can be a very dangerous thing. So many at the Times think the same way that they literally cannot comprehend how any thinking person could hold an opposing viewpoint. Sadly that inability is costing the Times tens of millions of dollars a year because their thinking is so one-sided that half, yes half, their potential customers refuse to buy their product.”...