Michael Bates: January 2013 Archives

Five Promises for Your Bible Reading and Prayer - Desiring God

We are satisfied with trivialities and counterfeits when "exceeding joy" is promised to us. Five truths to remember when you're tempted to trade your morning devotions for a few more minutes of sleep: God is inviting me to exceeding joy. His word will strengthen my weak faith. His word will shine light on the darkness around me. When I pray, God will work. This is the one thing that can't be taken from me.

What's Wrong With This Picture? « Ambiance

Via Dustbury. I'm reminded of the Red Dwarf novel Better Than Life.

"Matter is a corrective. Matter exerts a resistance, a counterforce, like wood to a carving knife or water to a ship's keel or air under an airplane's wings, that paradoxically enables us to get somewhere by making it more difficult. The Internet is a sensory deprivation tank.  It somehow has the exact specific gravity of a human brain, so that it cancels out the heavy, reminding tug of our bodies.  It deceives us that whatever we can imagine is not only possible, but already sufficiently existent without the salutary work and frustration that is matter's accursed blessing.  Our minds are crumbling like the bones of astronauts who have lived too long in weightlessness."

Rethinking Parking | SPUR - San Francisco Planning + Urban Research Association

From a 1998 report of recommendations on accommodating more cars in San Francisco without destroying its urban advantages: "There is a lot at stake on our decisions about parking, in addition to the cost of housing. If we increase the amount of urban real estate we devote to our parking needs, we push activities farther away from each other, thereby forcing people to drive for even more daily needs. Increased parking becomes a vicious circle, where the more parking we build, the more people have no choice but to drive. Access-by-proximity, the great advantage that belongs to city dwellers, depends on a compact, intimate mingling of people and land uses. We cannot simultaneously provide parking spaces for each person at each destination, and still be a city that enjoys access-by-proximity."

Sterling Hayden's Reagan - The Chronicle of Higher Education

An account of Ronald Reagan's powers of persuasion. Reagan and William Holden crashed a 1946 meeting of Screen Actors Guild members hosted by Communist sympathizers, and Reagan proceeded to rebut the arguments of the pro-Red faction, keeping his cool amidst catcalls. "...whether you love Reagan's ideas or hate them, you have to admit that Reagan was a political force...." Sterling Hayden, who was on the other side of the argument that night, wrote, "Reagan showed up and took over and ground you into a pulp; they all kept looking to you to hold him down but he dominated the whole thing and when it was over they told you right to your face you were pretty weak and the gathering did more harm than good." Blogger Mark Bauerlein, no fan of Reagan, writes, "The more you underestimate the qualities of a winner, the more likely it is that you will continue to lose."

Historical Atlas by William R. Shepherd - Perry-Castañeda Map Collection - UT Library Online

All the maps from 1920s editions of Shepherd's Historical Atlas, a beautiful geographical depiction of the history of the world.

Read a Lawyer's Amazingly Detailed Analysis of Bilbo's Contract in The Hobbit | Wired.com

Middle Earth fans can get an intro to basic concepts of contract law in the English common law system (the basis for American contract law) by means of an analysis of the lengthy contract between the dwarves and Bilbo.

Free Classic TV Shows: Hancock's Half Hour, "The Alpine Holiday"

From Tony Hancock's TV series: Tony's Swiss skiing trip is one disaster after another. Kenneth Williams turns up as a competitive yodeler, reprising his recurring character ("'Ere, stop messin' about!") from the radio show.

There's More to Life Than Being Happy - Emily Esfahani Smith - The Atlantic

Viktor Frankl, a Holocaust survivor, wrote in Man's Search for Meaning of two of his fellow inmates in the concentration camp, both of them despondent and suicidal, "In both cases, it was a question of getting them to realize that life was still expecting something from them; something in the future was expected of them." One had a child waiting in a foreign country, one was a scientist with books he needed to finish writing.

"This uniqueness and singleness which distinguishes each individual and gives a meaning to his existence has a bearing on creative work as much as it does on human love. When the impossibility of replacing a person is realized, it allows the responsibility which a man has for his existence and its continuance to appear in all its magnitude. A man who becomes conscious of the responsibility he bears toward a human being who affectionately waits for him, or to an unfinished work, will never be able to throw away his life. He knows the 'why' for his existence, and will be able to bear almost any 'how.'..."

"Being human always points, and is directed, to something or someone, other than oneself -- be it a meaning to fulfill or another human being to encounter. The more one forgets himself -- by giving himself to a cause to serve or another person to love -- the more human he is."

The article by Emily Esfahani Smith looks at modern sociological research into happiness and meaning in light of Frankl's insights and personal experience, as he sacrificed the safety of exile abroad to honor his father and mother by going with them to the concentration camp.

Interactive Coordinate Converter between WGS84 and ECEF

Converts between latitude, longitude, and altitude in meters relative to the WGS84 ellipsoid approximation of the shape of the earth and a Cartesian coordinate system with its origin at the center of the earth.

Slave narrative: Dempsey Pitts

In the 1930s, the Federal Writers' Project collected oral histories from those who had been slaves prior to the civil war. This is a fascinating example by a 107 year old man named Dempsey Pitts, who went on after the Civil War and his emancipation to become a preacher. At the very end he mentions that he doesn't care for the singing the old time spirituals at church, but "my voice rings out, loud as the next one, when they sings some beautiful hymn out of the book like "How firm the Foundation ye Saints of the Lord."

Five MIT Students Have Solved A Universally Annoying Problem - Business Insider

Bugged that you can't get the last bits of jelly out of the jar? Introducing LiquiGlide, "an edible, plant-based coating that can be placed on any surface, from glass to ceramics. Liquid-based products that encounter the surfaces will slip right off, whether it's ketchup in a bottle or rain on a jacket." Click the link to see videos of LiquiGlide at work.

Things People Should Never Say They Never Heard at Your Church - Kevin DeYoung

From The Gospel Coalition website: "As a pastor, there are certain things I hope the people at my church will never say they never heard. These are not necessarily the most important doctrines of the faith (though some are). Rather, these are the things we easily assume our people know, but often still miss." They include: "Being a Christian is more than going to church and being a good person." "We must be born again." "We need to develop a personal relationship with Christ." "Mature Christians develop lifelong habits of Bible reading and prayer." "Christians suffer." "God can be pleased with me." "Beware of false teachers." "There is one God in three Persons." "There are many people in the world who don't think Christianity is true and some of them are very nice and very smart." "There is a reason we worship the way we do."

Isaac Newton's Fitzwilliam Notebook (Diplomatic Version)

Isaac Newton's catalog of his own sins from 1662, his expenses from 1666 and 1669, and notes on geometry.

Some of his transgressions: "Making a mousetrap on Thy day," "Contriving of the chimes on Thy day," "Squirting water on Thy day," "Having uncleane thoughts words and actions and dreamese," "Carelessly hearing and committing many sermons," "Setting my heart on money learning pleasure more than Thee," "Not living according to my belief," "Not turning nearer to Thee for my affections."

Some of his expenses: "ffor my degree to ye Colledg: £5 10s." "Making yt & turning my Bachelors Goune: £1 6d." "ffor oranges \1667/ for my sister: 4s. 2d."

I got angry at my daughter the other day - Rick Thomas

How sinful anger at a child's sin disqualifies a parent from helping that child to repentance and restoration, what's required to "re-qualify," and the consequences if you don't. Plus an important "heart check" at the end. If you asked your kids questions like this, what answers would they give?

• When you think of me, do you first think of my love for you or my displeasure in you?
• Which is greater in your mind, as it pertains to me: affection or correction?
• When I say I have something to say to you, what do you think first? I'm going to encourage you or discourage you?
• Am I generally a joy or a burden to be around?
• If you could choose a word that best describes my affection for you, what would that word be?

Adrian Warnock: Promises for those who read God's Word

The very beginning of the Book of Psalms contains a promise of transformation to those who read and meditate on God's Word:

Many reading plans which encourage variety will include beginning the Psalms today. How good it is then that on this first day of the year so many Christians will read these great promises from God himself. If we will but meditate on The Truth we are assured God will change our nature so we will be a well-rooted tree able to be firmly established and in due course being forth fruit.

URBANPHOTO: Cities / People / Place » The Underground City

The evolution and surprising extent of Montreal below ground.