One way to arrive at certainty seems obvious: study the manuscript pages, using scientific methods to date paper and ink, and assess the script, drawing on the less scientific, but still elaborate, methods of paleography. But if the scholarly disputes over Secret Mark resemble the caucus race from Alice's Adventures in Wonderland, the manuscript plays the role of the Cheshire cat.2. Reading is up.
According to "Reading on the Rise," being issued Monday by the National Endowment for the Arts, just over half of the people surveyed 18 or older read some kind of literature in 2008, up from 46.7 percent in 2002, when the number had dropped by seven percentage points over the previous decade. NEA chairman Dana Gioia called the results "astonishing" and an "important new cultural trend."That is, until you subtract required reading.
Later, at a news conference following the Illinois House's vote to impeach, he quoted a few verses of "Ulysses," a poem by the 19th Century poet Alfred Lord Tennyson.
" 'We are not now that strength which in old days moved earth and heaven; that which we are, we are: one equal temper of heroic hearts, made weak by time and fate, but strong in will to strive, to seek, to find, and not to yield,' " Blagojevich said.
The governor's identification with Tennyson's hero might also raise eyebrows: In Greek mythology, Ulysses was less noted for honor than for craftiness, the ancient equivalent of wink-and-nod politics. Of him, Tennyson wrote: "I mete and dole/unequal laws unto a savage race."
The vast majority of students don't even want to be professors: They'd like to get something from a book they can use in their lives outside the classroom. What right have we to forget them?2. Lost syncretism.
In presenting their faith, Christians naturally used the cultural forms that would be familiar to Asians. They told their stories in the forms of sutras, verse patterns already made famous by Buddhist missionaries and teachers. A stunning collection of Jesus Sutras was found in caves at Dunhuang, in northwest China. Some Nestorian writings draw heavily on Buddhist ideas, as they translate prayers and Christian services in ways that would make sense to Asian readers. In some texts, the Christian phrase "angels and archangels and hosts of heaven" is translated into the language of buddhas and devas.3. Paradise lost.
[Begin Liveblog! (10:25 PM]4. Dualism lost.
This is confusing.
I don't get it.
What?
Oh, screw it.
[End Liveblog! [10:27 PM]
investigators have used an MRI to read images off the visual cortex. They presented subjects with some simple symbols and letters, scanned their brains, and read off the image from the data — and it was even legible!5. "Big loss."
David Stern never said "I'm sorry" to Sonics fans, but for the first time the NBA commissioner sounded apologetic about the sale of the professional basketball team that produced several lawsuits and resulted in owner Clay Bennett moving it to Oklahoma City.Well, duh.
"I'm not thrilled about the outcome in Seattle," he said during an espn.com podcast. "Believe me it's a big loss anytime you leave a city."
