Here is a short theory of the atonement. (more…)

From The Inheritance of Rome by Chris Wickham, p. 35:

But given the weight of tax, and the endemic injustice that marked the Roman system, it is not surprising that corruption should focus on it. Social critics, more numerous as the empire went Christian and and a radical fringe of moralists gained a voice, very frequently stress fiscal oppression in their invective; only judicial corruption and sexual behaviour were as prominent. This would last as long as the empire.

Something to think about if you were wondering how long certain current conservative concerns, mixed with Christian religion, have been and will be with us.

[The following are the closing paragraphs from John Lumley’s lecture that he gave after being awarded the 1990 APS Fluid Dynamics Prize.]

“Some comments on turbulence,” Phys. Fluids A 4 (2), Feb. 1992, pp. 203-211. (link)

I would like to close with a few words about being a theoretician in the United States toward the close of the 20th century. The United States is a curiously unsympathetic environment for a theoretician, or any scientist interested in fundamental work. We have a sociocultural/historical myth with which those of us who were children here grew up, of egalitarianism, practicality, inventiveness. An American, in this myth, is a man who rolls up his sleeves and pitches in, solving the problem at hand in a clever, simple, practical way (often involving bailing wire and-a wad of chewing gum), usually saying over his shoulder that he does not hold with book learning. (more…)

These two reviews of Toy Story II and III hit me hard. I want, and I do not want, my children to grow up. (more…)

There is a peculiar character that haunts Mormonish circles who sometimes is a Mormon and usually not. (more…)