joel's thoughts

Jonathan Walton over at Religion Dispatches Blog turns a critical eye to seminaries and churches, and how more and more they seem to inhabit completely different worlds.  Good thoughts, and challenging.  At first glance it may not seem relevant to the everyday layperson, but it seems to me we could all stand to be (and […]

Looking forward to your rebate check from Uncle Sam? How about a little perspective… In a few months, every American is going to be getting $300-$600 rebate check to help “spur” on the economy. This is separate from your tax refund, and will cost the U.S. about $170 Billion. Separately, did you know that the […]

I usually try to think of something witty or insightful or even vaguely amusing or at the very least somewhat relevant when putting up a link that will just send you off somewhere else, but this time there’s nothing to say. Watch the first video for some stats that will make your eyes pop and […]

Right. A few trips to other countries, one to bring home two beautiful kids, and a house move later, and you start to wonder if there’s time to catch up on everything. Right now, no. But in the meantime, I’ll leave you with a couple of interesting reads by Paul Graham. The Word “Hacker” Good […]

Go free up the next ten minutes or so, and read Michael Yon’s essay on what’s going on right now in Iraq. Incredibly insightful, and well worth the read. (Hat tip: Dr. Bob)

Two links to share this afternoon, speciously connected by yours truly on the topic of poison (really I just happened to read them both and thought they were worth sharing). The first is actually part 4 in an ongoing series by Dr. Bob called “Moving the Ancient Boundaries”, on “the erosion of moral, cultural, and […]

[Background] Two weeks ago, my family and I made a visit to our local Family Christian Store. I was there primarily to pick up the Casting Crowns CD [Snapshot review: tracks 2-4 are absolutely fabulous, the rest ranges from ‘good-thoughts’ to ‘eh’; overall musically solid but unremarkable, the strength is in the lyrics; really, tracks […]

I can’t get this out of my head. I came across a news item this morning on MSNBC about a UN-commissioned public service spot on stopping landmines that’s hardly getting any airtime. Turns out I’m a bit behind the curve on this one, as news of this hit the blogs over a month ago: The […]

I haven’t posted much about this issue yet, but touch-screen voting is something that concerns me deeply. Much has been said in various media and such about the issue, but I recently came across a very good post by Bruce Schneier, a well-regarded expert in the areas of cryptography and computer security, so I thought […]

Back in February I posted about some remarkable developments in the area of cybernetics, and mentioned the possibility of allowing people with paralysis to perform complex tasks. Well, here we are only eight months later (eight months!!) and that wall has been breached. In an FDA-approved trial, a company called Cyberkinetics has implanted 100 sensors […]