Are We Smart Yet?

More Mensa ... and I will just admit up front that this one flummoxed me (that's right, I said flummoxed!).

Jake walks into a store, picks up an object and says, "How much is 1?" The clerk says $1.00. Jakes says, "Okay, here's $3.00. I'll take 111."

What is he buying?

Cool Runnings

Tom said it best (he always does).
When it comes to the Catholic Blog Awards,
Happy Catholic is the Jamaican bobsled team.
The mere fact that somehow I slipped in is a miracle.

But that doesn't mean we can't give the Swiss a run for their money.
So, c'mon ... kiss the egg!

(And if you don't know what that means
then hie thee to a rental store and catch up on Cool Runnings)

Catholic Blog Awards Voting

Ok, y'all shouldn't have but I'm awfully happy that you did ... Happy Catholic is nominated for both Best Informative Blog and for Best Blog by a Woman.

Now, Open Book is also in both of those and is usually a runaway winner but just to be nominated is so fantastic! *kissing hands to everybody*

And we certainly can give Amy a run for the money, right? Voting is allowed once every 24 hours so I feel no compunction this year in urging everybody to vote early and vote often.

As for the other categories, many of them have more than one of my favorite blogs nominated so I am going to have to give this some deep thought. However, I will urge all at this point to vote also for The Anchoress in Best Political Blog.

Remember, it's all for fun ...

A Few Details About the Catholic Blog Awards

For those who have questions about how the nominations work or if the award voting will be actually happening, Dom has the scoop. The best part of his post? His advice to lighten up. After all, if these aren't fun then there's no point.

Divisions in Christianity

I have a real weakness for the most basic of books sometimes. Even when you think you know it all (and I definitely don't but anyway) you can always learn a bit of something new. Now I already knew this but as I recently was quite shocked (really, really stunned actually) to see on two different blogs there were commenters questioning the historical accuracy of the fact that the Catholic Church was the original Christian church. I mean, even when I didn't believe in God at all, I knew that much.

So when I saw this I thought I'd pop it in here because it is a very good and succinct explanation, even though it is highly unlikely that either of those two commenters read this blog.

There were no major divisions among Christianity until AD 1054, when the Orthodox and Catholic Churches parted company. Until then, for a thousand years there had been one Christian church, with the bishop of Rome (also known as the pope) as patriarch of the West and the other bishops of Jerusalem, Antioch, Alexandria, and finally Constantinople as fellow partiarchs of the East. The schism between the (Greek) Orthodox and the (Roman) Catholics later subdivided into the Russian and Greek Orthodox churches in the East (AD 1448) and the Catholic and the Protestant churches in the West (since the Reformation in AD 1517). Before the schism of the eleventh century, the terms "Catholic" and "Christian" were often used synonymously by believers in both the East and the West because "catholic" merely meant "universal" (from the Greek word katholikos).

Women in the Bible For Dummies

Whew!

More Mensa

Find the word that fits the definitions below when it's: (1) a whole word and (2) divided into two words.

1. Whole word: pained expression
2. Two words: (a) severe (b) star performer
   

Fellini Would Have Been Proud

We caught the end of the opening ceremonies in Turin ... our minds were boggled. I guess that opening ceremonies are the Olympic funnybone. Although they sure know how to light a torch with style ... once the poor thing finally gets there.

Without a Doubt

If there is someone on your blogroll who makes your world a better place just because that person exists and who you would not have met (in real life or not) without the internet, then post this same sentence on your blog.

Not just someone but many, many "ones" who have enriched my life both through their blog and through coming to visit mine. Via TO who is one of them.

A Little Poem for Advertising Agencies

When a client proves refractory,
Show a picture of his factory.
If the boss still moans and sighs,
Make his logo twice the size.
But only in the direst cases
Ever show the clients' faces.

Attributed to David Ogilvy

Brought to mind by a client who wanted his bio on his website because "his customers" were complaining. Right. His customers ... what an ego.

Podcast Spotlight

CATHOLIC MORMON PODCAST
I ignored this podcast at first, thinking that anyone who thought there was such a thing as a Catholic Mormon was very, very confused. Luckily, I later saw a description and gave it a try. Rob was a cradle Catholic who had fallen away from the Church. Sarah was a devout Mormon. They met, fell in love and knew they needed to resolve their religious differences. Searching for the truth they spent alternate weekends at RCIA and with Mormon missionaries for a year. At the end of it all, Rob was back in the Church and Sarah was undecided. It took another year of RCIA for her to feel that Catholic was the way to go.

This podcast is done for those who may be on a similar path, no matter what the religions at odds among mixed religion couples. Rob and Sarah take turns talking about different aspects of the world's largest Christian religion (Catholicism) and the world's fastest growing religion (Mormonism). They have an easy going and personable style.

I have found it very informative about the Mormon faith. They have been generally accurate about Catholicism (just off on a few details that have been relatively minor so far) so I think they probably are at least that accurate about the Mormon faith as well.

If you have questions about either faith, or how they relate to each other, this is a great place to start getting some answers.

The Hobbit from Rudy

Did anyone else watch My Name is Earl last night and see Randy talking about the hobbit from Rudy? I wish I could remember the whole line because it was truly hilarious.

You know until that moment I never twigged to the fact that Sean Astin was Rudy. I knew, of course, that he was Sam in the Lord of the Rings and that he's now in 24. It is great to see him playing such a different role and showing his range. I was never a huge fan of Rudy but can't believe I forgot who the main actor was.

In Praise of Ordinary Time

"According to the Catholic liturgical calendar," she explained, "all the days of the year that are not Lent, Easter, Advent, or Christmas are called Ordinary Time. So here we are: Easter is over and Christmas is still a long way off. I guess you could say that this is the time in which we're meant to feel that we have all the time in the world."

... Ordinary Time is all those days you do not remember when you look back on your life. Unless, of course, the Virgin Mary came to visit in the middle of it and everything was changed: before and after; then and now; past, present, and future.

Our Lady of the Lost and Foundby Diane Schoemperlen

Are we all snuggling up to our Ordinary Time? That makes it really more special than ordinary, doesn't it?

I like Louise's remark that in other places round the world they are busy anticipating carnival, the celebration of good things before turning to austerity. Time enough for Lent when Lent is upon us (a little prep perhaps the week before is not a bad thing but three weeks ahead?) I'll go for enjoying what I have now. Just in case the Virgin Mary comes to visit and I might miss it by looking ahead too far.

UPDATE:
Yowsa! Barb nails it in the comments ... now why didn't I think of this? That Lent is, in itself, a time of preparation.

I guess the question is, how do we prepare for a Time of Preparation?

Why prepare? Why not just jump in, quiet down and let God show us where He wants us to go during this Lent? What if you come up with some Really Great Spiritual Practice on, say, the Second Sunday of Lent? Do you say it's too late to employ it now, because Lent is underway? Or do you embrace the fact that the Holy Spirit just turned on a lightbulb in your soul?

A Bit About Knitting

Or, actually, the raw materials for knitting...

woolgathering\WOOL-gath-uh-ring\ (noun): indulgence in idle daydreaming

In Wales, woolgathering, or gwlana, was a social custom adopted to provide for poorer wives of laborers who did not have access to wool of their own to spin. It involved walking along hedgerows and stone walls and picking off wool that was left behind as the sheep had passed by. Later, after the custom was in little use, woolgathering was considered an unprofitable enterprise. Its practitioners were perceived to wander aimlessly and gained little for their efforts. Hence the association of woolgathering with your mind wandering aimlessly.

Merriam-Webster Dictionary

News You Don't Normally Hear From Iraq

From my brother. Thanks John!

Iraqi, U.S. troops aid flood victims in Iraq

February 6, 2006

TIKRIT, Iraq (Army News Service, Feb. 6, 2006) – Iraqi and U.S. Soldiers rescued dozens of people southeast of Mosul Saturday after powerful storms swept through northern Iraq, causing flooding along a Tigris River tributary.

Soldiers from the 3rd Battalion, 2nd Brigade, 2nd Iraqi Army Division used small boats and braved strong currents to rescue nearly 100 people stranded on small islands in the rain-swollen Great Zab River.

Two UH-60 Blackhawk helicopters from the 542nd Medical Company (Air Ambulance) responded to the Ninevah governor’s request for assistance and transported two men stranded on an island that the boats couldn’t reach because of the current. The MEDEVAC crews also dropped off food and drinking water.

Two OH-58 Kiowa helicopters searched the river’s course for additional victims, but none were found, officials said.

(Editor’s note: Information provided by the 101st Airborne Division (Air Assault) Public Affairs at FOB Speicher.)

A Little Mensa for the Rest of Us

For those of us who thrill to words instead of numbers ...

The names of five people are hidden in the sentence below. Can you find them? (The letters are in consecutive order.)

Really, a wanted man fleeing from the police who saw a police car looking for him would run and hide.

Answer in invisi-script:

Al, Ted, Lee, Carl, Nan (Lya is also acceptable.)

I'm Not a Football Expert But ...

... it sure seems to me as if Seattle should have won the Superbowl. There were possibly three and definitely two terrible calls by referees who should have been ashamed to be officiating at that game if that's the best they can do. Not that Seattle didn't blow it themselves a lot by dropping the ball so much.

As for the halftime show we were just plain bored, except when we were just plain horrified by Mick and the gang's time ravaged faces and physiques. Face it guys, old man wobbly arms happen to skinny people too ... you get old and your skin tone goes. Ugh!

Most of the commercials were terrible, especially the Pepsi ads. I know a lot of people liked the FedEx caveman ad but I didn't really care about it. My favorites were the Ameriquest ads (doctor with the defibrillators and the awkward airplane moment), the Clydesdale colt trying to pull the Budweiser wagon (yes, I'm sentimental), and the magic refrigerator. Best recycled idea were the working with monkeys (and jackasses) ads.

Quick Reviews

Potshot by Robert Parker: One of the Spenser books, the tough guy detective with the heart of a poet. I have read these books for years but had gotten rather tired of the style and so not picked any up for a while. Beginning where I left off, I am finding these a source of light and constant entertainment.

Not Enough Horses by Les Roberts: This is from an earlier series than the Milan Jacovich books I've been reading. I found this Hollywood detective story to be rather predictable. Since I usually read along without trying to solve the mystery it is unusual that I pick up on the murderer and motive halfway through ... but that is what happened with this one. Stick with the Jacovich stories.

Cooking for the Week : Leisurely Weekend Cooking for Easy Weekday Meals: Reteaching us that principle we have forgotten or perhaps never learned at our mothers' knees ... cook a big meal that has the components of different menus throughout the week. This small book looks quite promising and I am going to be following a week's worth of advice to see how it works. We were pleasantly surprised with Caramelized Onions and Carrots this weekend so I am interested to see how the rest of the recipes go together.

These are #13, 14, and 15 of books read in 2006.

Are You Ready to Rumble: Evolution (yes, again)

Darwinian evolution is plainly unavailing in this exercise or that era, since Darwinian evolution begins with self-replication, and self-replication is precisely what needs to be explained. But if Darwinian evolution is unavailing, so, too, is chemistry. The fronds comprise "a random ensemble of polynucleotide sequences" (emphasis added); but no principle of organic chemistry suggests that aimless encounters among nucleic acids must lead to a chain capable of self-replication.

If chemistry is unavailing and Darwin indisposed, what is left as a mechanism? The evolutionary biologist's finest friend: sheer dumb luck.

Was nature lucky? It depends on the payoff and the odds. The payoff is clear: an ancestral form of RNA capable of replication. Without that payoff, there is no life, and obviously, at some point, the payoff paid off. The question is the odds.

For the moment, no one knows how precisely to compute those odds, if only because within the laboratory, no one has conducted an experiment leading to a self-replicating ribozyme. But the minimum length or "sequence" that is needed for a contemporary ribozyme to undertake what the distinguished geochemist Gustaf Arrhenius calls "demonstrated ligase activity" is known. It is roughly 100 nucleotides.

Whereupon, just as one might expect, things blow up very quickly. As Arrhenius notes, there are 4¹⁰⁰ or roughly 10⁶⁰ nucleotide sequences that are 100 nucleotides in length. This is an unfathomably large number. It exceeds the number of atoms contained in the universe, as well as the age of the universe in seconds. If the odds in favor of self-replication are 1 in 10⁶⁰, no betting man would take them, no matter how attractive the payoff, and neither presumably would nature.

"Solace from the tyranny of nucleotide combinatorials," Arrhenius remarks in discussing this very point, "is sought in the feeling that strict sequence specificity may not be required through all the domains of a functional oligmer, thus making a large number of library items eligible for participation in the construction of the ultimate functional entity." Allow me to translate: why assume that self-replicating sequences are apt to be rare just because they are long? They might have been quite common.

They might well have been. And yet all experience is against it. Why should self-replicating RNA molecules have been common 3.6 billion years ago when they are impossible to discern under laboratory conditions today? No one, for that matter, has ever seen a ribozyme capable of any form of catalytic action that is not very specific in its sequence and thus unlike even closely related sequences. No one has ever seen a ribozyme able to undertake chemical action without a suite of enzymes in attendance. No one has ever seen anything like it.

The odds, then, are daunting; and when considered realistically, they are even worse than this already alarming account might suggest. The discovery of a single molecule with the power to initiate replication would hardly be sufficient to establish replication. What template would it replicate against? We need, in other words, at least two, causing the odds of their joint discovery to increase from 1 to 10⁶⁰ to 1 in 10¹²⁰. Those two sequences would have been needed in roughly the same place. And at the same time. And organized in such a way as to favor base pairing. And somehow held in place. And buffered against competing reactions. And productive enough so that their duplicates would not at once vanish in the soundless sea.

In contemplating the discovery by chance of two RNA sequences a mere 40 nucleotides in length, Joyce and Orgel concluded that the requisite "library" would require 10⁴⁸ possible sequences. Given the weight of RNA, they observed gloomily, the relevant sample space would exceed the mass of the earth. And this is the same Leslie Orgel, it will be remembered, who observed that "it was almost certain that there once was an RNA world."

To the accumulating agenda of assumptions, then, let us add two more: that without enzymes, nucleotides were somehow formed into chains, and that by means we cannot duplicate in the laboratory, a pre-biotic molecule discovered how to reproduce itself.

Just a snippet (that's how long this very long article is) from a Commentary magazine article that I found quite interesting, especially in terms of how difficult, nay impossible, it has been for scientists to pin down the origins of life.

Again, I will comment that I don't have any particular problem with evolutionary theory except for the part where complete chance and mutation are put forward as fact. In fact, this is a philosophical approach, very much like that of ID proponents. Neither is provable ... or has been to date at any rate as far as I know.

It is long but worth it if you are interested in the subject. Do go read the entire article.

UPDATE
I have had a heckuva time with those darned numbers.Thanks to Dr. Thursday for helping me and any errors are mine alone.

More Tough Guy Stuff

COLLISION BEND by Les Roberts

Another Milan Jacovich mystery has him detecting the murder of a local television news reporter at the behest of a former girlfriend in order to clear her current boyfriend. I guessed who done it but not how or why ... and it was another good page turner from Roberts. The series is recommended as a nice escape from reality following the tough detective with the heart of gold.

This is #12 of books read in 2006.