StumbleUpon | Inertial-Mass's blog posts

http://Inertial-Mass.stumbleupon.com/review/35565745/

Wed, 26 Aug 2009 12:15:59 -0700

Yes, when one says, "That's so gay," one is making an analogy of the
wrongness of something to the wrongness of homosexual behavior. Seems
reasonable to me.

http://Inertial-Mass.stumbleupon.com/review/10386553/

Tue, 12 Jun 2007 12:04:01 -0700

"Yes, it has occurred to me that a consequentialist in a given culture may be obligated by conscience to popularize a deontological system."

Interesting quote from a private conversation with joewalp.

http://Inertial-Mass.stumbleupon.com/review/8151208/

Fri, 23 Feb 2007 07:00:43 -0800

A new chapter in space flight began on July 1950 with the launch of the first rocket from Cape Canaveral, Fla.: the Bumper 2. Shown above, the Bumper 2 was an ambitious two-stage rocket program that topped a V-2 missile base with a WAC Corporal rocket. The upper stage was able to reach then-record altitudes of almost 400 kilometers, higher than even modern space shuttles fly today.

Launched under the direction of the General Electric Company, the Bumper 2 was used primarily for testing rocket systems and for research on the upper atmosphere. Bumper 2 rockets carried small payloads that allowed them to measure attributes including air temperature and cosmic ray impacts. Seven years later, the Soviet Union launched Sputnik I and II, the Earth's first artificial satellites.

http://Inertial-Mass.stumbleupon.com/review/6867435/

Fri, 08 Dec 2006 11:10:12 -0800

From the page:

In my forty years as a priest, I have seen the evil of pornography spread like a plague throughout our culture. What was once the shameful and occasional vice of the few has become the mainstream entertainment for the many -- through the Internet, cable, satellite and broadcast television, cell phones and even portable gaming and entertainment devices designed for children and teenagers. Never before have so many Americans been so tempted to view pornography. Never before have the accountability structures -- to say nothing of the defenses which every society must build to defend the precious gift of her children -- been so weak.

This plague stalks the souls of men, women and children, ravages the bonds of marriage and victimizes the most innocent among us. It obscures and destroys people's ability to see one another as unique and beautiful expressions of God's creation, instead darkening their vision, causing them to view others as objects to be used and manipulated. It has been excused as an outlet for free expression, supported as a business venture, and condoned as just another form of entertainment. It is not widely recognized as a threat to life and happiness. It is not often treated as a destructive addiction. It changes the way men and women treat one another in sometimes dramatic but often subtle ways. And it is not going away.

I know of this plague from my brother priests who routinely confront it in the confessional; from counselors who treat it through our various Catholic social service agencies; from Catholic school teachers, youth ministers, and religious education teachers who confront its effects in the lives of our youth; from parents who speak of the challenge of raising children with modesty in our culture; and from my involvement in the Religious Alliance Against Pornography, an interfaith coalition of religious leaders.

Yet this plague extends far beyond the boundaries of church or school. The victims of this plague are countless. Today perhaps more so than at any time previously, man finds his gift of sight and therefore his vision of God distorted by the evil of pornography.

As part of my responsibility to lead all the people in the Diocese of Arlington to the vision of God, I find it necessary now to address the tremendous moral, social, and spiritual dangers of pornography. In so doing, I ask Catholics and non-Catholics alike to pause and join my reflections in this pastoral letter which will: 1) examine the nature of the current threat; 2) address the arguments put forward by those who attempt to rationalize pornography and provide "cover" for pornographers; 3) offer concrete counsel -- to all Christians, young people, couples, and priests -- on how to guard against pornography and to free oneself from its slavery and seek God's forgiveness; and finally, 4) reflect on the gift of sight and its fulfillment in divine contemplation.

http://Inertial-Mass.stumbleupon.com/review/6866440/

Fri, 08 Dec 2006 09:45:32 -0800

From the page:

The Immaculate Conception is a Catholic dogma that asserts that Mary, the mother of Jesus, was preserved by God from the stain of original sin at the time of her own conception. Specifically, the dogma says she was not afflicted by the lack of sanctifying grace that afflicts humankind, but was instead filled with grace by God, and furthermore lived a life completely free from sin. It is commonly confused with the doctrine of the incarnation and virgin birth, though the two deal with separate subjects. According to the dogma, Mary was conceived by normal biological means, but her soul was acted upon by God (kept "immaculate") at the time of her conception.

The Immaculate Conception was solemnly defined as a dogma by Pope Pius IX in his constitution Ineffabilis Deus, published December 8, 1854 (the Feast of the Immaculate Conception), and consecrated by Pope Pius XII in 1942.

The Feast of the Immaculate Conception of Mary had been established in 1476 by Pope Sixtus IV who stopped short of defining the doctrine as a dogma of the Catholic Faith, thus giving Catholics freedom to believe in this or not; this freedom had been reiterated by the Council of Trent. The existence of the feast was a strong indication of the Church�s belief in the Immaculate Conception, even before its 19th century definition as a dogma.

The Catholic Church believes the dogma is supported by scripture (e.g. her being greeted by Angel Gabriel as "full of Grace"), as well as either directly or indirectly by the writings of many of the Church Fathers, and often calls Mary the Blessed Virgin ( Luke 1:48). Catholic theology maintains that since Jesus became incarnate of the Virgin Mary, she needed to be completely free of sin to bear the Son of God, and that Mary is "redeemed 'by the grace of Christ' but in a more perfect manner than other human beings" (Ott, Fund., Bk 3, Pt. 3, Ch. 2, �3.1.e).

In the Catholic Church, the Feast of the Immaculate Conception on 8 December is generally a Holy Day of Obligation, and a public holiday in countries where Catholicism is predominant. Prior to the spread of this doctrine, December 8 was celebrated as the Conception of Mary, since September 8 is the Feast of the Nativity of Mary.

Thank goodness I managed to attend Mass this morning! :^)

http://Inertial-Mass.stumbleupon.com/review/6832567/

Wed, 06 Dec 2006 06:13:10 -0800

From the page:

Amendment XIII (the Thirteenth Amendment) of the United States Constitution abolished slavery and, with the exception of allowing punishments for crimes, prohibits involuntary servitude. The article states:

Section 1. Neither slavery nor involuntary servitude, except as a punishment for crime whereof the party shall have been duly convicted, shall exist within the United States, or any place subject to their jurisdiction.

Section 2. Congress shall have power to enforce this article by appropriate legislation.

The thirteenth amendment to the Constitution of the United States was proposed to the legislatures of the several states by the Thirty-eighth Congress, on January 31, 1865.

http://Inertial-Mass.stumbleupon.com/review/6518466/

Thu, 16 Nov 2006 05:39:27 -0800

From the page:

Mined for gold, silver, and copper, the region of Butte, Montana, had already earned the nickname of "The Richest Hill on Earth" by the end of the 19th century. Demand for electricity increased demand for copper so much that by World War I, the city of Butte was a boomtown. Well before World War I, however, copper mining had spurred the creation of an intricate complex of underground drains and pumps to lower the groundwater level and continue the extraction of copper. Water extracted from the mines was so rich in dissolved copper sulfate that it was also "mined" by chemical precipitation for the copper it contained. In 1955, copper mining in the area expanded with the opening of the Berkeley Pit. The mine took advantage of the existing subterranean drainage and pump network to lower groundwater until 1982, when a new owner suspended operations. After the pumps were turned off, water from the surrounding rock basin began seeping into the pit. By the time an astronaut on the International Space Station took this picture on August 2, 2006, water in the pit was more than 275 meters (900 feet) deep.

http://Inertial-Mass.stumbleupon.com/review/6502929/

Wed, 15 Nov 2006 07:37:19 -0800

From the page:

In the South Pacific, south of Late Island along the Tofua volcanic arc in Tonga, the volcanic island Home Reef is being re-born. The island is thought to have emerged after a volcanic eruption in mid-August that also spewed large amounts of floating pumice into Tongan waters and swept across to Fiji about 350 km (220 miles) to the west of where the new island formed. In 2004, a similar eruption created an ephemeral island about 0.5 by 1.5 km (0.3 by 0.9 miles) in size; it was no longer visible in an ASTER image acquired November 2005. This simulated natural color image shows the vegetation-covered stratovolcanic island of Late Island in the upper right. Home Reef is found in the lower left. The two bluish plumes are hot seawater that is laden with volcanic ash and chemicals; the larger one can be traced for more than 14 km (8.4 miles) to the east. The image was acquired Oct. 10, 2006 and covers an area of 24.3 by 30.2 km. It is located at 18.9 degrees south latitude, 174.7 degrees west longitude.

http://Inertial-Mass.stumbleupon.com/review/6382034/

Tue, 07 Nov 2006 15:16:47 -0800

From the page:

This enhanced-color view shows gullies in an unnamed crater in the Terra Sirenum region of Mars. The image was taken by the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter on Oct. 3, 2006. This scene is about 830 feet (254 meters) wide. The upper and left regions of this scene are in shadow, yet color variations are still apparent. The high signal to noise ratio of the orbiter's high resolution camera allows for colors to be distinguished in shadows. This allows dark features to be identified as true albedo features versus topographical features. An albedo is the ratio of the light reflected by a planet or satellite to that received by it.

http://Inertial-Mass.stumbleupon.com/review/5950541/

Mon, 09 Oct 2006 09:55:49 -0700

I recently tried installing GNU/Linux onto a machine (my Dell Latitude 610 laptop) whose CD-ROM drive is a serial-ATA device. I happened to be installing via the Debian Etch Beta-3 Installer, but the problem is probably more general. Anyway, the installer couldn't find the CD-ROM drive (despite the fact that the installer's CD booted from the CD-ROM drive :^).

The magic is to tell the libata kernel module to enable ATAPI. One does this by passing libata.atapi_enabled=1 as a parameter to the kernel at the lilo/grub/whatever boot prompt. I didn't realize that one could pass value vv for parameter pp of module mm by the formula, "mm.pp=vv", but that is certainly logical and kewl!