Association Of Catholic Bloggers

This year's Ebola outbreak has killed thousand of folks in West Africa: and one in the United States. By any reasonable standard, it's a very serious health problem.... ...As I've said before, being healthy is okay. ( June 13, 2014 ) Not being healthy is okay, too: but I'm expected to take care of my health: within reason.... More at A Catholic Citizen in America .

After nearly five hundred years, the Roman Republic had grown from a small city-state to a major world power: and it was a mess. I'm not talking about the chronic SNAFUs perpetrated by America's Congress. If America's government was like the Roman Republic's, we might see the House ways and means committee lead an armed assault on the Senate: while their assassins took care of a filibuster the hard way. Yes: things could be worse. Run-ins like the Catilinarian Conspiracy and Second Catilinarian conspiracy made the worst Washington mudslinging seem like a sedate poetry reading. The Roman Senate finally named one of their members " dictator perpetuo " ("dictator in perpetuity") — hoping that Julius Caesar would solve their problems. A few Senators got nervous: cutting the term, and Caesar's life, short. More at A Catholic Citizen in America .

1,024 little robots got together at Harvard, making the letter "K" and drawing a star. What they do doesn't look as sophisticated as many marching band halftime formations — but it's a good start on collective artificial intelligence. Meanwhile, Harvard and MIT's angular automatons don't do much except fold themselves into crablike shapes, and scuttle away: today.... ...I'm not troubled that we make increasingly lifelike imitations of living creatures. Somehow, I don't think the Almighty is going to be offended by cuckoo clocks or robot dogs playing soccer. Tightly-would folks of a grimly pious bent might have qualms about mechanical birds, music boxes, and other frivolities. I'm convinced that gloominess is not next to Godliness, and that's another topic. Besides, many automata help make this a safer world for humans.... More at A Catholic Citizen in America .

IBM's neurosynaptic cores may not show up in home computers for years. Their circuits emulate a brain's neural circuits: and require an entirely new sort of software. Retinal implants are another matter. Thanks to new tech, several folks who would have been blind can see: a little.... ..."Metropolis," Tsukumogami, and the Roomba Revolution that Wasn't The inventor Rotwang in Fritz Lang's " Metropolis " is more 'evil wizard' than 'mad scientist:' my opinion. It's still a good movie: but not, I think, a particularly realistic look at what we'll see in 2026. Rotwang's maschinenmensch looked more like the human she was built to impersonate after a high-tech makeover, but even without upholstery she was remarkably — human.... But so far, artificial intelligence has been quite obviously "artificial:" and emphatically not up to the task of leading a Roomba revolution. More at A Catholic Citizen in America

A man trying to organize a men's choir said I had a fine voice. Given a choice, he asked, wouldn't someone prefer a beautiful voice to a powerful mind or athletic body? I agreed, but was a bit embarrassed: since I've got two out of the three. My wife's opined that if bad hips hadn't kept me from excelling at sports: I'd be insufferable. She's probably right. Self-Esteem Run Amok Since pride is a sin, is it wrong to be proud of my voice? Yes — and no. It depends on what sort of "pride" is involved. When "pride" is self-esteem run amok, it's one of the seven capital sins: along with avarice, envy, wrath, lust, gluttony, and sloth or acedia. (Catechism of the Catholic Church, 1866 ) Ancient Greeks called it hubris . It's a bad idea in stories, from " Oedipus Rex ," to Milton's " Paradise Lost " and Paul Ryder's " Cosmic Monsters ." Most of us don't get the sort of reality check

" The avenger of blood may execute the murderer, putting him to death on sight. " ( Numbers 35:19 ) I ran into that bit from the Pentateuch in "Judas on a Pole," an episode in the second season of Bones . The writers used an 'Olde Englishe' translation that many Americans perceive as 'Biblical,' and that's another topic. If someone murdered a member of my family, I would be very angry. There'd be something wrong with me if I wasn't. Anger, Sin, and Getting a Grip Anger is a "capital sin," a sin that's particularly serious because it leads to other sins. (Catechism of the Catholic Church, 1866 ) That doesn't mean that I've committed a sin every time I experience anger. I'm human, so I experience emotions. Emotions aren't good or bad by themselves. What matters is what we do with them. (Catechism, 1767 ) If I hang on to anger, let it build into a desire to harm or kill someone else: that's

Scientists at the University of Puerto Rico at Arecibo's Planetary Habitability Laboratory simulated Kepler-186f's sunsets. Others studied possibly-habitable regions in Jovian moons and around double stars. Meanwhile, some chap at Oxford trotted out opportunities for angst and dread.... ...Over the last million years, we've learned to use fire without killing ourselves, weren't cut to shreds by flint tools, and developed an alternative to horse-drawn wagons before burying London in manure. If anything, we're smarter now than we were in the 'good old days:' so I don't think that steam engines or integrated circuits will kill us all. ( November 22, 2013 ; July 9, 2011 ) The trick is using humanity's accumulated wisdom, and applying it to everyday life. Most of the time, we do a pretty good job: my opinion. Sometimes mistakes are made. Then, most of the time, we clean up the mess and move on.... More at A Catholic Citizen in America

Maybe some folks still have religious scruples about 'defying God' with lightning rods: but I haven't run into any, and I'm certainly not one of them. My house has a lightning rod , installed by a previous owner. I made sure it's in good working order, since our chimney is one of the taller structures in the neighborhood. Ben Franklin and Prokop Diviš 's invention is on most tallish structures in my part of the world. Lightning rods have apparently joined movable type and the moldboard plow as technology that 'we've always had.' Even the Internet seems to be gaining grudging acceptance: although I regularly encounter folks who don't seem at all comfortable about social media: and express their grave misgivings in online posts. My guess is that every generation has included a few with profound misgivings about newfangled technology: or change of any sort, and that's almost another topic. I grew up in a world of AM radio and dial te