Make it Funky - A Primer on Playing Funk Guitar

The Guitar forum on About.com has a neat lesson on playing funk rhythms.

Kill a Baby. Cure a Disease?

Scientists at Stanford have coaxed neurons from fetal brains to become cells that produce insulin. The cells aren't ready for human transplantation yet, but the advance brings researchers one step closer to a diabetes cure.

Of course Wired would not be gauche enough to bring up the ever so small issue that some people might express qualms at killing unborn children to possibly cure a disease.

If any fetal stem cell research actually ever does produce some "positive" results, it is going to produce a temptation that harkens back to the original temptation -- thinking that we know better than God. It is horrible enough that scientists are experimented with human beings that are deliberately killed for their organic components, but I find it even more horrible that in the not-so-distant future, parents of very sick children are going to be forced to choose between moral evil and letting their child die.

Let This Cup Pass From Me ...

Pope Benedict XVI said Monday he had viewed the idea of being elected pope as a "guillotine," and he prayed to God during the recent conclave to be spared selection but "evidently this time He didn't listen to me."

Soylent Green is People!

Scientists have begun putting genes from human beings into food crops in a dramatic extension of genetic modification.

...

In the first modification of its kind, Japanese researchers have inserted a gene from the human liver into rice to enable it to digest pesticides and industrial chemicals. The gene makes an enzyme, code-named CPY2B6, which is particularly good at breaking down harmful chemicals in the body.

Books, Books, Books

Last weekend, I made my annual pilgrimmage to the Stone Ridge Book Sale in Bethesda. Brought home two boxes of books, CDs, and videos.

Bill over at Summa Minutiae had mentioned a while back how his kids had discovered the Box Car Children series. Our kids had discovered these a few months prior to Bill's post and I was able to pick up seven of these at a buck a pop.

An Evelyn Waugh novel, some Plato, a Graham Greene novel or two, and a mathematical satire were just some of the treasures found.

In the spirit of recycling, today I donated some old books to our parish school's flea market and, of course, ended up bringing home a few I found there.

St. Blog's Media Spokesperson

Cyber-friend, Rae Stabosz, keeps making the news. Also, here.
Keep up the good work, Rae!

Benedict, Benedict! Wir lieben dich!

"What weighed more heavily on me was that every day included -- in homage to a modern idea of education -- two hours of sports," he wrote. He was the smallest boy in the class and the games were "a true torture."

Wir haben ein Papst!

Translated: Habemus Papam!

Conclave to open on 18 April

I'm trying very hard to not get caught up in the odds making of who is and who isn't "papabile". This is the time, if there ever was one, to trust in the Holy Spirit.

I do find it odd, though, that the proceedings of the conclave are supposed to be secret with the threat of excommunication if anyone reveals anything of the occurences, and yet we seem to know a lot about what happened in the last conclave.

On the Vacancy of the Apostolic See

Pope John Paul II: 1920-2005

Every pope should be loved. It is God's will that the See of Peter be occupied by a particular man at a particular time. This particular pope, however, was easy to love. His pores sweated love, sacrifice, and virtue.