Why Four Gospels?

The Gospels could not possibly be either more or less in number than they are. Since there are four zones of the world in which we live, and four principal winds, while the Church is spread over all the earth, and the pillar and foundation of the Church is the gospel, and the Spirit of life, it fittingly has four pillars, everywhere breathing out incorruption and revivifying men. - Irenaeus, Against Heresies

Rock n' Roll...

And Cola Wars, I Can't Take It Anymore!

South Sister

Some more stunning shots of South Sister. The mountain is surrounded by several lakes located in areas with great views of the mountain. Now that comment might seem strange, but note that peaks like Mt. Adams (in Washington state) are hard to see until you are quite close. Indeed, Adams has a notorious "false peak" which can be quite depressing to crest. Anyway, enjoy.

The Early 80s

Is anybody out there?

Testing Ice Screws

Cool video comparing ice screws and ice threads.

Climbing

In the coming weeks I'll be climbing the mountain in the foreground, South Sister. As far as peaks that I've climbed are concerned, it is a very easy mountain to climb, but as it has been a while since I've done any climbing it will be a nice reintroduction to rock, ice and sweat. Finally, this won't be my first ascent of this peak. I climbed it back in ~1994.

Hellenistic Colony In Kuwait

ATHENS -- Greek archaeologists plan to excavate an ancient colony founded by Alexanderthe Great in the Gulf of Kuwait in the fourth century BC, officials said Wednesday.

Alexander and the various "Greek" rulers who suceeded him founded numerous Hellenistic cities in the areas that they ruled over in Asia. Generally speaking these cities were sealed off from the local population and one had to become like the Greeks in order to become a citizen of, etc. such cities. In most places the local population did not do so. These Hellenistic cities built some fantastic architectural structures, Pergamum being perhaps the most famous. As a rule this period of Hellenistic history seems to have been treated like a bastard child by many historians, but that attitude has changed over the past several decades as the achievements (and faults) of the various post-Alexander Greek kingdoms have come under greater scholarly scrutiny.

Bourne

Here's a nice collection of scenes from the first two films in the Bourne franchise. My favorite? When he quickly kicks the crap out of the embassy personnel in the Bourne Identity.

Edit: And here is the aforementioned scene.

Prepare To Be Boarded!

Two American news photographers say French President Nicolas Sarkozy shouted at them and jumped onto their boat during his holiday in the US.

Sarkozy is, of course, human like the rest of us. Here's hoping that the remainder of his vacation is relaxing, etc.

X-Games

Ouch!

That he walked away is amazing.

The Surge

So how effective has the surge been? Well here are some figures from the BBC to help answer that query.

The Bourne Ultimatum

Just saw it...

I enjoyed Bourne's rescue Stiles' character. There was real tension there.

I thought that Bourne stealing the files, etc. was a bit too much. So were many of the crash scenes.

I also found that this movie discussed more plainly some of the concerns we have with our intelligence services post-9/11.

Perhaps I shall write more on these matters tomorrow.

Five Points

This is a link to a nice collection of material on the archaeological happenings at the former "Five Points" in Manhatten. Five Points was a notorious slum in 19th century New York prior to the creation of the unified boroughs in the 1890s.

Newton's...

Religious Views

I have seen elsewhere claims that Newton delighted in the written accounts of the torture and burning Catholic nuns.

Permanent...

Vacation