Article Link
The Struggle of the Poor College Student
This is the first in a series of posts hoping to clear out a bunch of interesting articles that I’ve read lately but haven’t had time to blog about here. Today’s post is based on a September article by Vicki Madden in the NY Times about poor students. For me, it came at a good […]
The Beauty that Palin Misses
In the last few days I’ve seen multiple reactions to the recent comments by Sarah Palin in which she stated: “Well, if I were in charge, they would know that waterboarding is how we baptize terrorists.” I won’t link to the whole 12 minute diatribe, because I think it is likely a waste of time to […]
Nothing New Under the Sun: Racism in America (Again)
My friend, and fellow MennoNerd, Drew Hart shared a link on Twitter this morning to a piece he wrote in August 2013. The piece speaks to the relationship of 400 years of discrimination from the origins of black slavery through the modern day. While the most recent incident mentioned in the piece is the Trayvon Martin […]
A Day to Listen
As I recover from a busy late summer and fall, I expect to be back to blogging regularly in February. Today, I wanted to take some time as we as a country, and Messiah College as a campus, stop to remember the life of the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. to provide space for […]
Ted Davis on Theistic Evolution
In the debates on the origins of life, it is easy to argue with each other without understanding each others true positions. In that vein, Dr. Ted Davis, my colleague at Messiah College, offers his take on the tenets of Theistic Evolution as part of a series at the BioLogos Forums‘ site. He will eventually be […]
Does Smoking Pot Lower IQ?
Apparently, the answer is yes. (HT: Josh Wood) And worse, if you start young, it appears the brain is less able to regain the IQ points lost while smoking. We could have a discussion about the methodology used, and we should beware that correlation does not imply causation in an observational study such as this. […]
How Your Church Can Transform Its Neighborhood
This is an insightful piece from Chris Smith, editor of The Englewood Review of Books. Chris is married to one of my high school friends and attends the same church as my wife’s brother and his family in Indianapolis. In this article, he details how their church went from a failed attempt at being a […]
Science Fiction Becomes Real
With the recent release of the Blu-Ray version of Star Wars (you can buy me a copy here if you’d like!), it was interesting to see this news posted on the Discovery Channel web site Friday. Here is the gist of it: If you could stand on the surface of Kepler-16b, you’d have two shadows. […]
Technology: Good or Bad for Teaching?
Thanks to AP Stat teacher, personal friend, and fellow Messiah College alum Doug Tyson for pointing out this article. The article points out the clear lack of convincing statistical data to prove that the mad rush to have the latest technology is actually paying off in improved student performance. Here is a taste: To be […]
Managing Search Engines
A couple of interesting posts today about search engines. (HT: Messiah College librarian Beth Transue) The first from the back end/business side, trying to optimize their placement in search results. The second discusses how Google’s search engine essentially filters the results we see, and so reinforces our current beliefs, rather than exposing us to a […]
No Longer Normal 