Michael Flynn's Blog, page 94

30 September

The Commemoration of St. Therese of Lisieux



I suppose it's not every 24-year old girl who gets to be called a Doctor of the Church, up there with Augustine of Hippo, Ephraem of Syria, and Thomas Aquinas.  But what sort of Church is it, anyway, that takes the writings of a teenaged girl in carmel, places them with the hymns of a Syrian bishop and the meticulous and careful reasoning of a medieval scholastic, and says these are all worth reading? 

Some have called her the "Hello Kitty" of saints...

But it is not this day....

Sometimes You May Need a Pep Talk

h/t Mark Shea


To which we may add: 

The girl in the chiton stands a-tip toe and whispers in his ear.  “They need encouragement.”

As if such things could be ordered up a ducat the dozen!  Listen to me, men.  And a few do, not many.    The Protector has not...

Cheerful, Uplifting Folk Music

How About a Nice Happy Song

about Cthulu?

My hammer built a house

On Confusing Means With Ends

While listening to two guys discuss Constitutional theory, I was struck by how odd the phrase “original intent” is. Original intent is just intent. What other intention is there? How can a text intend anything other than what its author did? How can a text even be anything except what its author intended? What is there to “being authored” except being what the author intends? To think a text can take on an intent apart from its author is yet another instance of the...

Deja vu all over again

Plus ca Change

In 1938, the British government commissioned a survey of colonial Africa (the “Hailey report”).  Some of its findings and recommendations are listed below and compared to the 2005 UN Millennium Project report.  

h/t First Things

Now, it might be argued that after 1938 the British government was distracted by events in Europe and that after these events no European country was economically capable of doing anything for another ten years while the damage was repaired and the infr...

The Jetsons of 1898

The Air Ship: A Musical Farce



Who needs a flying car when we can all wear personal dirigibles? 

"The Air Ship," a new and original spectacular musical farce comedy, written by J.M. Gaites, possesses some novel and realistic scenic features, and it will probably draw a big audience at the Masonic Temple ton-night. One of the most realistic stage scenes ever presented will be the flight of a real air ship with fifteen passengers on a Klondike expedition, and a view of Dawson City in winter...

Nothing Venntured; Nothing Gained

What Do Shakespeare, Bad Puns, and Set Theory Have in Common?

Glad you asked:
h/t Mark Shea

Feast of Our Lady of Mercy

Coincidence!  Film at 11! 
New York Times Numbers Guy
The latest teachable moment came when the same set of six numbers turned up as winners in two consecutive drawings of a Bulgaria lottery. Because each number could range from 1 to 42, and could only be chosen once, there were 42-choose-6 possible sets of winning numbers, or more than 5.2 million. Each one had an equal probability of turning up. Yet what did turn up on Sept. 10 was the same group of six numbers as were chosen just four days...

Quotes

Quote of the Day

"Old days always look simple and innocent to those who have not lived through them."-- John Dunning, Two O'Clock, Eastern Wartime

Odds and Ends

How Are Those Carbon Emissions Going? 

According to the Energy Information Administration, like this:


The 1991 and 2001 dips were due to economic slowdowns.  2008 is a "flash" estimate and may be revised.  The economy may be a contributing factor there, as well.  However, the other low bars took place during periods of economic growth. 
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There's a Whole in the Bucket

There is a little bit of the Netherlands surrounded by a Belgian enclave.....


that is surrounded by a Dutch enclave in...