Public-health officials trying to reduce hospital-acquired infections have adopted this one:
forbidding doctors to wear neckties because, as the U.K. Department of Health has noted, they
- “are rarely laundered,”
- “perform no beneficial function in patient care,” and
- “have been shown to be colonized pathogens.”
—Steven D. Levitt and Stephen J. Dubner, Super Freakonomics, p. 298 (bullet-points added).
The Gospel Coalition just released the latest issue of Themelios.
As usual, it has some good essays and book reviews.
My wife and I recently watched the award-winning documentary Waiting for Superman, and we were stunned when it opened with this clip:
One of the saddest days of my life was when my mother told me Superman did not exist. . . . Even in the depths of the ghetto, you just thought, “He’s coming! I just don’t know when because he always shows up, and he saves all the good people.” . . . [My mother] thought I was crying because it’s like Santa Claus is not real. I was crying because there was no one coming with enough power to save us.
That’s why this documentary about America’s broken public education system is entitled Waiting for Superman.
A documentary about broken humanity could be entitled the same thing—or maybe Waiting for a Deliverer or Waiting for a Savior.
Ladies who live within driving distance of Rockford, Illinois may want to consider attending this conference on April 29–30.
It’s Bach around the clock at my house these days. God blessed us with the birth of our second child last weekend, and Gloria Grace is becoming well-acquainted with Bach’s masterful music, especially his “Goldberg Variations.”
Compare what I wrote in 2007:
Glenn Gould’s (Wikipedia) recordings of the Goldberg Variations by J. S. Bach are among my all-time favorites. Amazon has excerpts of both his 1955 and 1981 recordings.
My favorite is his 1981 recording, which I’ve probably listened to more than any other piece in my music collection (over 200 times according to iTunes, but that doesn’t count years of listening to it on cassette tape and then CD prior to importing it to iTunes).
You can also watch him play on Google video (though I admit that he is eccentric!).
http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-6984208089899995423#
Brilliant. Masterful. Edifying. And as Bach would say, Soli Deo gloria.
In 2009, I wrote this:
The Big Picture (RSS) is a blog I enjoy having in my blog reader because it offers a broad, vivid perspective of God’s world.
The Big Picture is a photo blog for the Boston Globe/boston.com. Entries are posted every Monday, Wednesday and Friday by Alan Taylor. Inspired by publications like Life Magazine (of old), National Geographic, and online experiences like MSNBC.com’s Picture Stories galleries and Brian Storm’s MediaStorm, The Big Picture is intended to highlight high-quality, amazing imagery—with a focus on current events, lesser-known stories and, well, just about anything that comes across the wire that looks really interesting.
The Big Picture blog transferred to new hands last month. Three picture editors at the Boston Globe now run it.
Alan Taylor’s last post for The Big Picture was on January 21, 2011. But this month he began a similar photo blog for The Atlantic called In Focus (RSS). More info here.
David Hackett Fischer. Historians’ Fallacies: Toward a Logic of Historical Thought. New York: Harper & Row, 1970. xxii + 338 pp. [Cf. previous post.]
This excerpt from chapter 1, “Fallacies of Question-Framing,” argues that the question “Why?” is often imprecise (pp. 12–14, numbering added):
The fallacy of metaphysical questions is an attempt to resolve a nonempirical problem by empirical means. . . .
Some historians of a humanist bent will protest that all historical problems are metaphysical problems. This is humbug. . . .
These are urgent questions, and they are empirical questions, which can be put to the test. The reader will note that none of them are “why” questions. In my opinion—and I may be a minority of one—that favorite adverb of historians should be consigned to the semantical rubbish heap. A “why” question tends to become a metaphysical question. It is also an imprecise question, for the adverb “why” is slippery and difficult to define.
- Sometimes it seeks a cause,
- sometimes a motive,
- sometimes a reason,
- sometimes a description,
- sometimes a process,
- sometimes a purpose,
- sometimes a justification.
A “why” question lacks direction and clarity; it dissipates a historian’s energy and interests. “Why did the Civil War happen?” “Why was Lincoln shot?” A working historian receives no clear signals from these woolly interrogatories as to [Read more…] about Why?
I recently read some new books that directly or indirectly discuss the Holocaust. All of them are worth reading. In different ways they open our eyes to how heinous humans can be, and they lead us to pray with John, “Come, Lord Jesus!” (Rev 22:20).
My favorites = books 5 and 6.
1. Neal Bascomb. Hunting Eichmann: How a Band of Survivors and a Young Spy Agency Chased Down the World’s Most Notorious Nazi. Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, 2009. Intriguing story. Excessively detailed. Would make a good modern movie.
2. George W. Bush. Decision Points. New York: Crown, 2010. Fascinating account of Bush’s life and presidency. Discusses the Middle East political quagmire, including Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad’s denial of the Holocaust.
3. Paul Johnson. Churchill. New York: Penguin, 2010. Swashbuckling. Cf. my previous posts.
4. Ben Macintyre. Operation Mincemeat: How a Dead Man and a Bizarre Plan Fooled the Nazis and Assured an Allied Victory. New York: Crown, 2010. Not as thrilling as I thought it’d be. Excessively detailed. Second half is much better than first half. Suggestion: Read Malcolm Gladwell’s “Pandoras Briefcase” instead.
5. Eric Metaxas. Bonhoeffer: Pastor, Martyr, Prophet, Spy. Nashville: Nelson, 2010. Gripping, inspiring story. Filled with theological insights.
6. J. K. Rowling. Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows. Vol. 7 of Harry Potter. 7 vols. New York: Levine, 2007. The Ministry of Magic : Lord Voldemort and non-pure-bloods (esp. Muggles) :: “The Ministry” of the Third Reich : Satan/Adolf Hitler and non-Arians (esp. Jews). (Jenni and I enjoyed listening to this audiobook again.)
7. Carl R. Trueman. Histories and Fallacies: Problems Faced in the Writing of History. Wheaton: Crossway, 2010. 
Proves why Holocaust Denial is nonsense by distinguishing between neutrality (which is “practically impossible” and “logically inconceivable”) and objectivity (pp. 17–21, 25–68; cf. “Example Two: Was Luther a Racist?” pp. 129–38).
