Matt Jones' Random Acts of Verbiage

I wasn’t going to post about this, but then Instapundit made me change my mind. Earlier today I read the HotAir post: Rosie Melts Down on the View. In there is this clip of The View which, among other things, shows that Rosie O’Donnell is a Truther (shocking I know).

Before I go on, let me say this: anyone who believes in any of the conspiracy theories regarding the September 11th attacks is extremely ignorant. I am quite tempted to say they are idiots… but I will stay with the more pc “ignorant.” A long while back Popular Mechanics wrote an amazing piece: Debunking The 9/11 Myths (which eventually became a more complete book of the same name). If any part of you believes any of the nonsense, go read that article.

Back to Rosie. Here is what she claims in her rant on The View:

I do believe that it’s the first time in history that fire has ever melted steel. I do believe that it defies physics that World Trade Center tower 7—building 7, which collapsed in on itself—it is impossible for a building to fall the way it fell without explosives being involved. World Trade Center 7. World Trade [Center] 1 and 2 got hit by planes—7, miraculously, the first time in history, steel was melted by fire. It is physically impossible.

She makes numerous other idiotic statements, this is just one. She also challenges any physicist to come on and tell her something different. I REALLY hope someone takes her up on that offer. Until then, the fine folks at Popular Mechanics have offered up Rosie O’Donnell 9/11 Conspiracy Comments: Popular Mechanics Responds. There they shut her down. Read the full thing, but here is a brief quote:

Towers 1 and 7 were approximately 300 ft. apart, and pictures like the ones here and here offer a clear visual of how small that distance is for structures that large. After further studies, the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) told PM that debris from the 110-floor North Tower hit WTC7 with the force of a volcanic eruption. Nearly a quarter of the building was carved away over the bottom 10 stories on its south face, and significant damage was visible up to the 18th floor (see p. 24 of this report).

And that is just one one piece that opposes Rosie, there is much more. Think it will shut her up? Doubtful. So sad.

I’ll have to say, as frustrated as I got watching the clip (and it is EXTREMELY frustrating) I laughed quite a bit when Rosie made the ironic comment in reference to the mainstream media: “In America we are fed propaganda.” That made me laugh. Was she listening to her own rant?

As a PS, check out the lovely hypocrisy of Travolta. “Do as I say, not as I do!” Again, shocking, I know.

UPDATE I: Rosie completely misses the point of everyone making a big deal of her truther comments.

If the very act of asking is so destabilizing for people, than I have to wonder whether the fabric of our democracy is indeed so raveled it is beyond salvage.

Oh, please! It isn’t the fact that you question things, it is the fact that you ignore the reality of situations and choose to believe things that make no sense at all. I think her mind is “indeed so raveled it is beyond salvage.”

UPDATE II: Wait, she actually was wrong, who knew? Oh right, most intelligent people did.

I stumbled across this video on YouTube a while back and thought it was pretty amazing. Ollie Larkin at Motion Control Time-lapse has produced an amazing time-lapse video called Lapses in Light that I think you will like.

If you would like, you can see a larger version here or a high-def version (for a donation) here or visit Lapses in Light at YouTube.

Almost three years ago I posted that I had been accepted to Seattle Pacific University but that I would go to Regent College first. In that post I had claimed that after Regent I would come back to attend SPU. Well things changed a little and I had changed my mind (largely due to cost) and would try to go to WWU instead. Little did I know that that would not work out and I would spend a year in Bellingham in limbo. I figured I would apply to SPU again and see what would happen.

I am quite happy to announce that my original plans will be coming true; I have been accepted to SPU’s ARC and Masters program!

I am pretty excited to start this fairly intense program (certification and a masters in five quarters instead of 2 years) but will also be somewhat sad to leave Bellingham. I have become more involved with my church here and have really been enjoying working with YoungLife. It will be hard to leave them, but very nice to be back in Seattle.

So come mid-May I will be hauling all my crap back down south!

Hat tip to Kristin: The book artwork for Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows has been released. So what exactly are Harry and He Who Must Not Be Named looking at? And what is your take on the name Deathly Hallows?

Preorder it at Powell’s Books!

www.planet-earth.com

I caught a few of the Discovery Channel’s premiere of Planet Earth, an eleven part documentary mini-series that looks at the many wonders of nature around our globe. Originally produced and shown on the BBC, it made its way across the Atlantic to provide some amazing views of our planet. Both the BBC and the Discovery Channel versions are available on DVD (the only difference that I can see are the narrators: David Attenborough (BBC) and Sigourney Weaver (DSC), there may be more differences, but I am not positive).

I was really impressed by the cinematography and quality of the shots. The combinations of gorgeous vistas, interesting animals, and technology that allowed for some great aerial filming made for a great viewing experience. I would love to see the series in HD (which is available), that should be incredible! Here is the list of the episodes and the various landscapes they cover. Be sure to check out www.planet-earth.com for some great interactive features to go along with the series. One of the cooler things there is that you can download a Google Earth – Planet Earth KML file that will allow you to see where many of the episodes were filmed along with additional information and video clips. So if you have Google Earth, check that out! (See some images at the bottom of this post.)

One of the (many) cool scenes was of a shark breaching as it attacked a seal. How freaking awesome and terrifying is this?

Incredible! If you have the chance, check the series out! And if anyone wants to get me an HDtv to watch it, I would be greatly appreciative!

Read more…

It is time once again for Space Saturday! This week I bring you two images of the Sun! The first I had meant to post at the beginning of the month, but you know how things are. The image comes from the STEREO spacecraft when it witnessed the Lunar transit of the Sun:

448×346 – 1000×1000 – 1600×1600 – 2400×2400
Credit: STEREO – Source: Stereo Eclipse and STEREO Images

When we view a solar eclipse from Earth, the Moon happens to be at the perfect distance to block out the entire sun; because one of the the STEREO spacecrafts orbits the sun at a slightly closer distance to the Sun, it was able to catch a slightly different eclipse (technically I think it was considered a transit). I think the image is amazing not only because of the moon’s presence, but because of how amazing the sun looks! Check out the really large image to see some of the amazing features. There is also a very cool video of the transit: small, medium, and large. And there is this bonus movie that is composite of data from the spacecraft’s coronagraph and extreme ultraviolet imager. The sun is definitely a crazy place!

On that note, the second image I want to share shows one of the crazy things that goes on out there: a giant solar flare!

Credit: JAXA’s Hinode spacecraft. Source: New Phenomena on the Sun

It’s enough to make you leap out of your seat: A magnetic vortex almost as big as Earth races across your computer screen, twisting, turning, finally erupting in a powerful solar flare. Japan’s Hinode spacecraft recorded just such a blast on Jan. 12, 2007.

Cool, eh? Check out two video clips that show the storms in action: Clip #1 – Clip #2. And here are a few other cool video clips of the Sun. Good stuff!

For my other astronomy pictures, check out my Space Saturday Archive!

A few weeks ago I finally finished The Once and Future King by T.H. White. This four part novel is about the Arthurian legend (the first part of the novel is the basis for the Disney movie The Sword in the Stone when Arthur becomes king of England by pulling Excalibur out of a stone) and his knights of the round table. White’s rendition is by no means the first to center on Arthur and all his adventures (here is a list of numerous publications dating back to the 9th century), but he had a pretty interesting take on it and was quite a writer.

The story starts with Arthur as a child and his instruction by the necromancer Merlyn and numerous different animals and ends with Arthur as an old king. Having never read any Arthurian legends, it was pretty interesting and it makes me want to see how others have pitched the story. Really, Arthur leads a fairly tragic life, sometimes because of his own choices, sometimes because of the way things just turn out. He had lofty goals: morality over might was what he strove for. His knights of the round table were set out to conqueror those that thought might was how to advance in the world. He struggled with the nature of war, relationships, and vengeance among other issues that would crop up.

Here are a few quotes that I thought fairly interesting. The first comes after one of the characters kills a defenseless hermit who was trying to protect another defenseless and honorable knight named Bors:

“Killed a defenseless man?”

“I am desperately sorry, King, but it is true. Don’t forget that I was in a frightful rage, and the fellow prevented me from getting at Bors, and I am a plain man of my hands. They were baffling me with a sort of moral weapon, and I used my own weapon against it. I felt that Bors was standing up to me in an unfair way, and that this hermit was helping him. I felt he was setting his will against mine. If he wanted to save the hermit, let him stop being obstinate and get up and fight. If you see what I mean, I felt that the hermit was his business, not mine.”

This next scene comes as Lancelot is explaining how he had wished to be part of the group that were picked to attain the Holy Grail:

“Funny,” said Lancelot, “how the people who can’t pray say that prayers are not answered, however much the people who can pray say they are.

I am still not entirely sure how to respond to that, but there is just something about that that resonates with truth.

This third passage comes during a scene where Lancelot is having to fight for Guenever’s honor:

[I]n those days love was ruled by a different convention to ours. In those days it was chivalrous, adult, long, religious, almost platonic. It was not a matter about which you could make accusations lightly. It was not, as we take it to be nowadays, begun and ended in a long week-end.

I would have to agree to the “old” notion of what love is!

There are numerous other interesting passages, but I think I will leave it at that and let you read it for yourself! The discussions about the nature of war and why people fight is pretty interesting. Check it out!

In our family Lenten devotional and read through of A Long Obedience in the Same Direction Andy mentioned how he feel that seekers (that is, those who are seeking God) are more opened to the mystery of faith. He pointed to Robert Webber and some of his discussion on the church. I wanted to post my response about Webber because I found it pretty interesting:

I just read “An Interview with Robert Webber, author of The Younger Evangelicals“ over at The Ooze and found his categories pretty interesting (more from Robert Webber here). In looking at his categories I seem to fall in both the “Traditional Evangelicals” and “Younger Evangelicals” categories and tend to find lots of problems with the “Pragmatic Evangelicals” (In which I supposedly fit). Aside from me being in the wrong category (which is probably more of a me thing than a problem with his categorization), I found his comments pretty helpful. He noted this about the “pragmatic church”:

They responded to the sixties and seventies, created a culture-driven church and don’t get that the world has changed again. Pragmatics, being fixed, have little room for those who are shaped by the postmodern revolution. A clash is emerging. The younger evangelicals will not have a voice in the pragmatic, fixed mentality. Stay there and your spirit will die (there are some exceptions, pray for discernment). Many pragmatic churches, like old shopping malls are dying.

A postmodern setting demands relationship, participation, community, symbol, servanthood and the like. The radical renorming of biblical priorities coupled with an absolute rejection of slick marketing, showy worship and phony verbal games precede the birth of an honest, genuine, authentic community passionately engaged with being the truth.

Sounds pretty good so far. I think the pragmatic church does need to wake up to the reality of present culture. So what about the category that I most comfortably fit?

It’s quite dull and doesn’t have much to offer by way of radical commitment to community, relationship and counter-cultural values. The Ecclesial church seeks to be incarnational – the presence of Jesus in the world.

Damn. Heh, ok I (hopefully) am not so locked into the “Traditional” mode of things (and, in fact, am pretty sure I am not). I think the movement towards figuring out what it means to be a church in a postmodern culture is fairly crucial, and definitely difficult. Especially to someone who, like me, likes to be rational.

God’s Kingdom is not the Big Idea, it’s an embodied reality. This is why the church must become increasingly counter-cultural. It must embody the Kingdom in its neighborhood and call people into a new way of life.

I completely agree. Although I do wonder why it is often looked at as an “either/or” type thing. I agree that we have to have somewhat of a paradigm shift, but I am still pretty convinced that a large number of people do still appreciate rationality. Heck, the scientific community could not function if people didn’t have that mindset. John Stackhouse in his “Seminary: Who Needs It?” defends that position to a degree in how he argues for people going to seminary.

For everyone asks about the problem of evil. Everyone wants to know about how to interpret Genesis 1-3. Everyone wants to know how to take the Bible’s “tall tales” of Flood, Exodus, Jonah’s fish, and Jesus’ resurrection. And everyone wants to know how to find Christ, follow him, and enjoy his company forever–in a way that avoids extremes, or compromises, or imbalances, or pat slogans.

I think the Bible was written in a rational AND life changing way. Therefore I think our churches need to present it as such. Personally I think it has to be a combination of the old and the new. I shouldn’t down-play it at all, the new “younger evangelical” needs to play a major role in the church to help bring the congregation into the reality of our culture, but I think the old “traditional” must remain to help with the foundation.

Andy you noted “But they [the pre-modern church] recognized in a way we often don’t that God cannot be contained in a box or an explanation.” I COMPLETELY agree. And I think that is something the modernist/traditionalist needs to keep in mind without necessarily losing their (my) passion for rationality. There just needs to be that addition of the relational to the rational. As you noted in another comment, this becomes very crucial to the “horizontal” relationship with at both the community and global scale.

This has become a VERY long comment, so I will leave it at that for now, but I definitely wanted to affirm your statements about communion! It is SUCH a huge thing that, I think, has become too entrenched in ritual that many have truly forgotten what it means.

Any thoughts on this?