The Gift of Christmas

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Photo by Rachael Callahan @objectivityrach
A view from Railroad Park of Downtown Birmingham at Christmas time


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Remembering Thomas Keating

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(Photo from the Tribute page of Contemplative Outreach San Diego ) I was sad to learn of Father Keating's passing two weeks ago, but only joy springs to mind when I think of him. He taught many modern pilgrims the concept of apophatic prayer and meditation with his centering prayer retreats and writings. He ushered many into the profound beauty of resting in silence and emptiness before God. At the website for the Center for Action and Contemplation are three short remembrances of Fr. Thomas Keating from Cynthia Bourgeault, James Finley, and Richard Rohr. There is also a link at that site where you can view the memorial service on Nov. 16. For Further Reading: “ Thomas Keating, pioneer in centering prayer, interfaith dialogue, dies at 95 ,” an extensive article in the National Catholic Reporter about Father Keating which also includes a couple of brief words of his from video recordings. “ Father Thomas Keating Is a Rebel with a Cause ,” a cover story in 5280 Denver’s Mile High M...
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Robert Lucas in biology class

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Back in August, a bunch of people were talking about Paul Romer and Bob Lucas and history of macro and stuff like that. Somehow I missed this post , where Brad DeLong dug up a Bob Lucas memoir and made fun of Lucas' college biology class exploits. For reference, here's a longer version of Lucas' story: The only science course I took in college was Natural Sciences II - a biology course. We read a modern anatomy text, and also selections from Darwin, Mendel, and others...  [T]here was nothing spooky about Mendel’s genetic theories. They were clear, they made some kind of sense (though there was nothing molecular in our Nat Sci II readings), you could work out predictions that would surprise you, and these predictions matched interesting facts. We did a classroom experiment with fruit flies, focused on eyes, and pooled the results. Our assignment was to write up the results in a lab report and compare them to predictions from a Mendelian model. I had not enjoyed the actual l...
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Cultural appropriation is great!

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