In what year was Jesus born?

In my epic, award winning post "When was Jesus Born?" we examined the reason for celebrating Christmas on December 25th. This post answers the second part of the question by examining in what year Jesus was born. Again the short answer is "nobody knows." And once again, the modern calendar used the best information at the time to "draw a line in the...

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When was Jesus born?

A friend asked me today "when was Jesus born?" The short answer is "nobody knows", but that does not a blog post make. Also, two shows I watched this week ("Good Eats" and "Big Bang Theory") both proposed that Christmas is a recent invention by the (by implication evil) Church to try to suppress Saturnalia, a pagan holiday. The problem (if you want...

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Why Nelson's compromise might be a good thing

Pro-life folks (myself included) felt betrayed and dismayed by Senator Ben Nelson's about-face on abortion language in the health care bill. I was originally thinking of writing something along the lines of Nelson's one vote being akin to the one Apostle who betrayed Jesus. However, it is true that "God draws straight with crooked lines" and I'm starting...

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Psalm 32

Blessed is he whose transgressions are forgiven, whose sins are covered. Blessed is the man whose sin the LORD does not count against him and in whose spirit is no deceit. When I kept silent, my bones wasted away through my groaning all day long. For day and night your hand was heavy upon me; ...

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Guarding Life

Once upon a time, a long time ago, people recognized the need for there to be lifeguard - someone whose job it was to save the lives of swimmers. Of course back in the day, there were no certifications or official titles, people just did what they did. Over time it was recognized that where there was someone who was not swimming, but watching the...

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To "Allah" or not to "Allah"?

Couldn't help posting this, as I read these two news stories back to back. The red text is my emphasis. An elementary school in Indiana reportedly removed a mention of Allah in its holiday show after protests from a national conservative Christian group. Thompson said officials removed the phrase "Allah is God," however, after the American Family...

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How Much is that Healthcare in the Senate?

I was thinking about the more than $1,000,000,000,000 price tag of the health care bill and started wondering "how much"?* I remember a few years ago I was laid off and had to get my own insurance. I was amazed that it was around $700/month to get COBRA insurance for my family (of 5). That's $8,400/year for 5 people or $1,680/year/person. Looking...

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Totally Lost

Last night, my wife was out shopping, and my 12 year old son was supposed to be practicing his saxophone. He brought a chair and music stand into the living room to practice where I was sitting. He also brought a glass of ice water, which he put on the floor next to him. We have a standing house rule that liquids don't leave the kitchen and dining...

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Relativity and Advent

We were moving things around, getting out Christmas decorations, etc. in preparing for the upcoming holiday, and of course that means finding things that have been lost for a while. One of those things happened to be a paper with some information on old friends of my wife with whom we've lost touch over the years. On the paper it notes that they...

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The Divine Sense of Humor

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Functions and Objects - Computer Science Week

You may have heard of object oriented programming, in phrases like "java is an object oriented language". Fewer people have heard of functional programming. But what do these terms mean? They represent two extremes in the way we look at computing. In general we think of computing as data and things you do to data to change it. Like in English we...

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It Aint So Bad...

With Christmas and other holidays approaching, and the days becoming shorter, some people feel depressed. This week it seems there is a lot to be depressed about, especially if you are a person who values human rights and life. The news is full of stories. Despite the fact that no useful therapies have been developed, or are close or even likely...

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Recursion - Computer Science Week

Another concept in computer science is that of recursion. Recursion is defined as "repeated application of a rule", but that's not quite accurate. Recursion is the ultimate in "divide and conquer". A recursive algorithm consists of two parts. The "divide" part turns a problem into two (or more) simpler problems, and the "conquer" part solves the...

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Indirection and Parameters - Computer Science Week

This is the second post for Computer Science Week, on random topics in computer science. There is an old saying attributed to David Wheeler "All problems in computer science can be solved by another level of indirection". Kevlin Henney's corollary to this is, "...except for the problem of too many layers of indirection." Indirection is simply something...

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Boolean Algebra - Computer Science Week

Ok, a brief respite from my usual blog topics for National Computer Science Education Week. Each day this week I'm going to blog about some topic in computer science. My goal is to make these topics introductory enough so that anyone can read them and learn something, and perhaps get an interest in learning more. Today's topic is Boolean Algebra....

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The Beam in Thy Own Eye

Dear XXXXX, You spent quite a while lecturing me on how Bush was evil. You spoke to me of his condoning the torture of prisoners, the killing and degradation of innocent people just because they lived in a country that supported terrorism. Yet you yourself condone and even encourage the torture and killing of innocent women and children, while sitting...

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New Jersey and Same Sex "Marriage"

Hey Mike, how can the church be against gay marriage and yet recognize civil unions of heterosexual couples? They must just hate gays. In 2003, New Jersey became the second state (after California) to have "domestic partnerships" recognized. In 2006, the New Jersey Legislature passed a bill permitting same sex civil unions and recognizing those of...

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Kill Bill

Yes, more health care. As expected, al of the concessions of the house bill have been removed and then some! The senate bill is an abomination of death. There has been, of course, a lot of press about the abortion language in the bill, less so about euthanasia, so I thought I'd talk a bit about that. Of course, some people will immediately say “but...

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The Horse's Tale

There once was a horse who lived in peace and freedom, except for one thing. He knew there were wolves nearby, and he was afraid they would come and attack him some day. He knew this, even though they had not shown themselves, because for some time he had been hearing them howling at night. There was also a man living nearby. The horse and man had...

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You want me to do what!?

The Constitution of the United States of America, in the Bill of Rights, explicitly guarantees you the right to free exercise of religion, but I am not required to pay for your religion. The Constitution of the United States of America, in the Bill of Rights, explicitly guarantees you the right to free speech, but I am not required to pay for your...

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Things I Wish I'd Thought Of

Sometimes I see news stories about someone becoming rich off an idea and someone inevitably says “I wish I'd thought of that!” Things like the iBeer iPhone app. This is an essential application for any iPhone or iPod touch owner. It simulates actual beer that sloshes around and "pours" according to the movement of the phone. Here's a guy who spends...

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Grace and Taxes

I've been wanting to write this for a long time, but the words would not come. Recently, I read several pieces, by Matt Warner and others, that said what I wanted to say with enough eloquence to make me want to copy their work and add my own meager words to it. I don't support the health care plan passed by the house recently. As you know, I've been...

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Urgent that you tell Congress to vote "NO" on Obamacare

As reported at http://www.cnn.com/2009/POLITICS/11/04/health.care/index.html Washington (CNN) -- House Democratic leaders have put the finishing touches on their health care bill and could bring it to the full chamber as soon as Friday. House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer of Maryland, the chamber's second-ranking Democrat, said Wednesday that the bill...

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