Chesterton Quote of the Day/Week/Month

For you mothers.


Supposing it to be conceded that humanity has acted at least not unnaturally in dividing itself into two halves, respectively typifying the ideals of special talent and of general sanity (since they are genuinely difficult to combine completely in one mind), it is not difficult to see why the line of cleavage has followed the line of sex, or why the female became the emblem of the universal and the male of the special and superior. Two gigantic facts of nature fixed it thus: first, that the woman who frequently fulfilled her functions literally could not be specially prominent in experiment and adventure; and second, that the same natural operation surrounded her with very young children, who require to be taught not so much anything as everything. Babies need not to be taught a trade, but to be introduced to a world. To put the matter shortly, woman is generally shut up in a house with a human being at the time when he asks all the questions that there are, and some that there aren't. It would be odd if she retained any of the narrowness of a specialist. Now if anyone says that this duty of general enlightenment (even when freed from modern rules and hours, and exercised more spontaneously by a more protected person) is in itself too exacting and oppressive, I can understand the view. I can only answer that our race has thought it worth while to cast this burden on women in order to keep common-sense in the world. But when people begin to talk about this domestic duty as not merely difficult but trivial and dreary, I simply give up the question. For I cannot with the utmost energy of imagination conceive what they mean. When domesticity, for instance, is called drudgery, all the difficulty arises from a double meaning in the word. If drudgery only means dreadfully hard work, I admit the woman drudges in the home, as a man might drudge at the Cathedral of Amiens or drudge behind a gun at Trafalgar. But if it means that the hard work is more heavy because it is trifling, colorless and of small import to the soul, then as I say, I give it up; I do not know what the words mean. To be Queen Elizabeth within a definite area, deciding sales, banquets, labors and holidays; to be Whiteley within a certain area, providing toys, boots, sheets, cakes and books, to be Aristotle within a certain area, teaching morals, manners, theology, and hygiene; I can understand how this might exhaust the mind, but I cannot imagine how it could narrow it. How can it be a large career to tell other people's children about the Rule of Three, and a small career to tell one's own children about the universe? How can it be broad to be the same thing to everyone, and narrow to be everything to someone? No; a woman's function is laborious, but because it is gigantic, not because it is minute. I will pity Mrs. Jones for the hugeness of her task; I will never pity her for its smallness.


--G.K. Chesterton, What's Wrong with he World, Part 3 "Feminism, or the Mistake about Woman", III "The Emancipation of Domesticity".

Some Much Needed Perspective

Ok, let's get something straight. I've seen a risible idea circulating lately and I cannot let it stand, so I have come to set the record straight.

You ready?

Steve Jobs Did Not Change The World.

Blasphemy! I hear you say.

But get over it. He did no such thing.

To prove my point, here's a list of 11 things that Changed the World:

1. Christianity
2. Islam
3. The Roman Empire
4. Aristotelian and Thomistic philosophy
5. The scientific world view (that material causes can explain empirical observations without invoking supernatural causes, not that everything can be explained scientifically, I mean).
6. The Protestant Revolt
7. The Enlightenment
8. The steam engine
9. The industrial revolution
10. The automobile
11. Electrification

Here are 5 things that have not changed the world, but have made life slightly more convenient for those living in the first world:

1. The graphical user interface
2. The portable MP3 player
3. The online music store
4. The smartphone
5. The tablet PC

The personal computer probably has changed the world (although since it's less than 50 years old, it's hard to say how much those changes will matter in 1000 years), but Steve Jobs did not invent it. Speaking of which, here is a list of 5 things Steve Jobs did not invent:

1. The graphical user interface
2. The portable MP3 player
3. The online music store
4. The smartphone
5. The tablet PC

Nope. Nuh-uh. Not a one. What he did is best summarized in this Basic Instructions: Steve Jobs is the kid who copies off your test, then gets a better grade than you.

What Steve Jobs did is shape the development of one world-changing device, and several minor conveniences. All would have developed without him. They might not have developed in the same way. Some ideas may not have been implemented, or taken longer to refine. Maybe the wouldn't have caught on and been as widespread, But they'd still all be there. 

If Steve Jobs never existed, you would still own a personal computer. You'd still be reading my writing on your color rasterizationator through the intertubes. E-Commerce would still exist. You could still listen to music you purchased online on your portable MP3 player. You could check email on your phone. You might do it all differently; you might not do any of it at all, but you still could do it all.

Contrast this with Aristotle and Thomas Aquinas. As Mike Flynn points out, without them, there may never have been a scientific revolution. Universities may not have put such an emphasis on natural philosophy. Middle Ages and Renaissance scientists may never have said "what if" and asked how the world worked. Copernicus, Brahe, and Kepler may never have seen a need to update Ptolemy (it worked; why fix it?). No science, no industrial revolution, no modern life. To be sure, those things may have come, but it may have been centuries later. We might be living in the technological equivalent of the 17^th century.

Introducing a fundamental change to the way people view the world, whose echoes still shape thought 2000 years later. That's changing the world. Not making a device that allows rich people to listen to music on the go.

Photodump

Totally Looks Like

Anthony totally looks like Perry the Platypus.

Damien totally looks like Anthony

Therefore, Damien totally looks like Perry the Platypus

Come to think of it, why has no one ever been able to take a picture of both Damien and Anthony at the same time?

There we go.

On the Occasion of the Resident Toddler's Second Birthday.

This is inaccurate. Two weeks later, the pediatrician measured him at 37".

According to the Baby Center Height Predictor, this puts him within 2.1" of 6'4" at age eighteen, with 90% confidence.

Chief Engineer Smiles O'Brien, Reporting for Duty.

Polite Babbies Always Drink their Milk with Pinky Fingers Extended.

All I Ask Is a Carrot to Ride and a Cake Wreck to Steer Her By.

A reference to the infamous "Carrot Jockey" cake wreck.

Catholicism on Public Television

Father Robert Barron's Catholicism will be airing on PBS stations nationwide, as well as on EWTN. You will want to catch this one. It's inspired by Kenneth Clark's Civilisation and looks to be amazing. You can find out more (and watch clips from it) here.

You can also find out air dates for your area here.

For those of us in LA/Orange Counties, episodes 1, 3, 4, and 5 will be on KLCS (channel 58) Mondays at 9pm, starting October 3rd. KVCR (channel 24) will air it Tuesdays at 8pm, starting on the 11th. Those in Lake Elsinore, I assume, can get KVCR (Riverside/San Bernardino).

If those in Bakersfield can get Fresno stations, KVPT will air all four PBS episodes on October 23rd starting at 11am.

In the Tampa area, you can catch it on WEDU on Wednesdays at 11pm, starting October 5th.

In Chicago (Fr. Barron's home diocese), it will be on WTTW Thursdays at 8pm starting October 13th, with encores the following Sundays at 4pm.

In South Bend (I think I have readers there?) it will be on WNIT Thursdays, October 13th and 20th, from 9-11pm.

If those in the DC area weren't so busy trying to raise well-adjusted children, and still had access to on-air television, they could have watched the first episode on Maryland PTV this past Thursday at 8pm, and the second this coming Thursday, the 29th, at the same time.

If I missed anyone, check here for your market.

The remaining episodes (2, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10) will air on EWTN on November 16th-19th, repeatedly.

And if you can't catch it on TV, potentially because you're lame or because you live in a stone-age commune and don't have TV, you can buy the DVD box set for a kingly sum of $150 (I know what's going on my Birthday/Christmas list this year!). Or you can wait for your parish to host a showing, unless you go to some hippie new-age parish.

There's also a book to go along with it. Again, you will not want to miss this.

How to Make a Kia Commercial

(With apologies to Shamus Young)

How To: Install an App from the Apple App Store™ to your iPhone

The great thing about Apple products is how easy they are to use. This is no less true of the iPhone. Installing apps on Android is so hard, what with the choice of vendors. Do I want to buy something from the Android Marketplace or the Amazon App Store? So many decisions. It just makes the process so complex.

Well, Apple doesn't have that problem. In fact, they make it so easy to download and install a (free) app. How easy, you ask? Well, it's so easy I can explain it in 82 simple steps.

Step 1: Locate the app you wish to download on the App Store™. To do this, enter the app name in the "search" tab of the App Store™.

When that doesn't find it, as it probably won't, try every conceivable spelling of the app you want. Try boolean search operators. Then finally give up and pray that the app is easy to find in the Top 25 or in Categories.

Step 2: Tap the "Install" button and enter your Apple ID account password. 

Note that this guide assumes you've already created an iTunes account and linked it to your iPhone. If you have not, you will need to read the 453 page manual on how to accomplish that.

Step 3: If it has been a week or more since your last download from the App Store, Apple will have locked your account "for security reasons". This is because they assume that if you don't purchase something from them at least once a week, something is Wrong with you. Tap "Reset" to reset your account.

Step 4: You will be taken to "iForgot" which assumes you are a stupid idiot who has forgotten his password. Enter your Apple ID to unlock your account, then tap "Next".

Step 5: You may either unlock your account by email or by answering your security question. For this example, we will answer the security question.

Step 6: Verify your birth date.

Step 7: Answer your secret question.

Step 8: You may now unlock your Apple ID.

Editor's note: since these screenshots were taken, Apple has removed the "Unlock your Apple ID" option. You must now reset your password to unlock your account. You may not set the password to one you have used within the last year.

Step 9: To unlock your account, re-enter your Apple ID account password, then tap "sign in".

Step 10: Congratulations! Your account has been unlocked!

Step 11: Repeat steps 1 and 2. Re-enter your Apple ID account password.

Step 12: Before proceeding, you will need to verify your payment info. This step is necessary even to download free apps.

Step 13: Re-enter your Apple ID account password.

Step 14: Confirm your credit card information. Tap "Done" when finished.

Step 15: Repeat steps 1 and 2. Re-enter your Apple ID account password.

Step 16: It is likely that the iTunes terms and conditions have changed. Apple changes them about every month. You will need to agree to the new terms to continue.

Steps 17-78: Read the 62-page Terms and Conditions and Apple Privacy Policy, in their entirety, on the screen of your phone. We'll wait.

Be sure not to skim or skip, because it would be a lie to say you've read and agree to the terms when you haven't. Apple doesn't want you to lie.

Step 79: Tap "Agree", then tap "Agree" again. Remember: no lying.

Step 80: Thank you for accepting the terms. Please try your purchase (of a free app) again.

Step 81: Repeat steps 1 and 2. Re-enter your Apple ID account password.

Step 82: Congratulations! You're done! The app will now begin to download. Please make sure to connect to a WiFi network for faster download, or suffer the fickle and arbitrary AT&T 3G network. Also, be sure to tap the screen at least once per minute, otherwise the device will enter standby mode and the download will be interrupted.

See how easy that was?

On the Motion of the Moon in the Margaret Wise Brown Classic "Goodnight Moon"

Please observe the following composite image, taken from several different exposures of the moon.

It is clear from the non-linear motion of the moon across the sky that the orbit of the moon is not a simple ellipse. This is probably because the planet inhabited by the race of sentient bunny-like aliens (henceforth: Planet Bun) is probably in a non-stable multi-body system. It likely involves multiple other moons, planets, and potentially stars, although we can clearly see from the view out this window that the stars must all be opposite Planet Bun from the observer. The intense gravitational forces from the other unseen bodies of the system must steer the moon in a strange path, and not in an elliptical orbit around Planet Bun.

Also, based on the fact that the pattern of the  background stars changes so rapidly between each exposure, we can conclude that Planet Bun itself must be orbiting or rotating at a very high velocity. In fact, the "moon" may not be a satellite of Planet Bun at all. It could very well be a double planet or, judging by the lack of surface features, a white dwarf star that Planet Bun itself is orbiting. In fact, judging by just how quickly Planet Bun's view of the background stars changes, it may be quite likely that the "moon" is in fact a neutron star, which Planet Bun orbits in hours or minutes. The orbital distance is likely quite close in order for a small star to have such a high angular diameter.

Note also how the apparent motion of the "moon"-like neutron star speeds up between the fixed-interval exposures. This is likely because Planet Bun is in a highly-elliptical orbit and it is approaching perigee, causing the vast orbital speed increase.