It’s not very often I find a musician or musical group about who I can honestly say I like all of their music. I can name only a few:
Bruce Springsteen, Peter Gabriel, REM, The Beatles, Sting, U2, Vivaldi, Albinoni, Crowded House, the Gershwins and a few others. I think Jim Croegaert may be one of them. I know – you are saying to yourself – WHO? Jim who? I discovered his website because I was looking for Here By The Water after Darren and the Worship Team (TM) sang an amazing version of it on Sunday.

 

Croegaert’s site has a selection of his music and without exception I absolutely LOVE every one of the songs. Visit his site and let me know what you think:

 

 

 

LONDON, England (Reuters) — An ancient astronomical calculator made at the end of the 2nd century BC was amazingly accurate and more complex than any instrument for the next 1,000 years, scientists said on Wednesday.

The Antikythera Mechanism is the earliest known device to contain an intricate set of gear wheels. It was retrieved from a shipwreck off the Greek island of Antikythera in 1901 but until now what it was used for has been a mystery.

Although the remains are fragmented in 82 brass pieces, scientists from Britain, Greece and the United States have reconstructed a model of it using high-resolution X-ray tomography.

They believe their findings could force a rethink of the technological potential of the ancient Greeks.

"It could be described as the first known calculator," said Professor Mike Edmunds, a professor of astrophysics at Cardiff University in Wales.

"Our recent work has applied very modern techniques that we believe have now revealed what its actual functions were."

The calculator could add, multiply, divide and subtract. It was also able to align the number of lunar months with years and display where the sun and the moon were in the zodiac.

Edmunds and his colleagues discovered it had a dial that predicted when there was a likely to be a lunar or solar eclipse. It also took into account the elliptical orbit of the moon.

"The actual astronomy is perfect for the period," Edmunds told Reuters.

"What is extraordinary about the thing is that they were able to make such a sophisticated technological device and to be able to put that into metal," he added.

The model of the calculator shows 37 gear wheels housed in a wooden case with inscriptions on the cover that related to the planetary movements.

Francois Charette, of the Ludwig-Maximilians University in Munich, Germany, said the findings, reported in the journal Nature, provide a wealth of data for future research.

"Newly deciphered inscriptions that relate to the planetary movements make it plausible that the mechanism originally also had gearings to predict the motion of the planets," he said in a commentary.

Edmunds described the instrument as unique, saying there is nothing like it in the history of astronomy. Similar complicated mechanisms were not been seen until the appearance of medieval cathedral clocks much later.

"What was not quite so apparent before was quite how beautifully designed this was," he said. "That beauty of design in this mechanical thing forces you to say ‘Well gosh, if they can do that what else could they do?’"

 

 

"I remember, when I was in university I studied history, and there was this one major historian of the Third Reich, Ian Kershaw, and his quote was, ‘the path to Auschwitz was paved with indifference.’ I know it’s not very funny being a comedian talking about the Holocaust, but I think it’s an interesting idea that not everyone in Germany had to be a raving anti-Semite. They just had to be apathetic."

 

– Jewish Comedian Sacha Baron Cohen (Borat), Rolling Stone Magazine, Issue 1014, Nov. 30,2006; p.64

 

 

 

 "Can’t they tell they are giving themselves away? Adults tell you there are no gremlins or ghosts. They tell you once or twice, and that’s it. But with God, they tell you over and over again. So He must exist – and He must be very powerful for them to fear Him so greatly."

 

 

My good friend and brother Mike has decided that he would subscribe me to the magazine Reformed Perspective, obviously to augment my vastly inadequate non-reformed faith. In return I told him I would try to subscribe him to Pelagian Perspective or failing that –  Arminian Annual.

 

Over the years Mike and I have had some great conversations (verbal jousts). He is a model of faith and character and I have always admired him. We have been friends more than 23 years. He is a member of the Canadian Reformed denomination – http://www.canrc.org/ . He attends Bethel Canadian Reformed Church in Toronto – http://www.bethelchurch.on.ca/ .

 

Having visited his church I like to tease him that clearly one of their unwritten beliefs is that only the Dutch will get to Heaven (or, at the very least God is Dutch and that Jesus full name was likely Jesus VanderChrist) since 99.9% of the denomination is Dutch. It was incredibly easy to find Itsy in the pre-school – she was the one dark-brown haired child  bobbing in a sea of blonde.

 

Well – I look forward to receiving my first issue as I am always interested studying the many and myriad sides to that diamond we call the Body of Christ.

 

You can link to the magazine here – http://www.reformedperspective.ca/

 

 

Today we here at Poet Incorporated passed 10,000 page views. Our management would like to thank all of you that contributed to such a milestone and look forward to our next congratulatory message at 20,000.

 

– The Management.

 

Well – having finished Godric I have a quote for you to consider:

 

"What’s prayer? It’s shooting shafts into the dark. What mark they strike, if any, who’s to say? It’s reaching for a hand you cannot touch. The silence is so fathomless that prayers like plummets vanish in the sea. You beg. You whimper. You load God down with empty praise. You tell Him sins that He already knows full well. You seek to change His changeless will. Yet Godric prays the way he breathes, for else his heart would wither in his breast. Prayer is the wind that fills his sail. Else waves would dash him on the rocks, or he would drift with witless tides. And sometimes, by God’s grace, a prayer is heard."

 

 

 

I am reading the novel Godric, by Frederick Buechner (loaned to me by the Rev. K) and I have to say it is one of the best novels I have ever read. I have been meaning to read it for a while but you know the way things go. The style is so different than anything else I have read – it is poetic and rough and instinctive and familiar all at once. It is a thin book, about 175 pages, much like the main character and so fitting in a way.

 

There is a great hope poured out in the character of Godric, a great honesty in the life presented to us by Buechner. Mostly it speaks of the call of Christ on the heart of Godric throughout his life and the various ways Godric avoids, escapes or responds to that call. I think Christ’s call to Godric is His call to all of us. Buechner was nominated for the Pulitzer Prize for this book and it is well deserving such an honor. Read it.

 

 

Is it just me or does our church’s nativity Jesus look like He was encased in carbonite?

 

 

Ok – this is a research request. What do you know about the Finnish "love metal" band HIM? Nothing? I thought so? But in case you do know something please send it my way – I am trying to figure these guys out. It can be so frustrating with some of these bands who try to be frustratingly vague about their own beliefs. One second they look evil, the next saintly. Never overtly anything (take Evanescense for example – they started out having met at a Christian camp and playing the Christian circuit and then when they got popular they became very vague when it came to faith).

 

Back to HIM – here are some questions (too bad Spaces doesn’t let you publish polls):

 

1. Do you like them?

2. Do you hate them?

3. Do you care?

4. They are the Devil incarnate run!!!!

 

Let me know your thoughts as I try to figure them out. Like Dragonforce they have relatively benign lyrics (unless you’re a butterfly). Aside from their odd logo – the heartgram (a pentagram reshaped into a heart) which is supposed to represent life (heart) and death (pentagram). From what I can tell based upon what I have read they are a talented group that has bound itself to a particular image for marketing purposes (think Spinal Tap if you’re old enough). When you are a goth metal band certain depressing and dark themes are expected of you. They actually have pushed back on this a bit by playing covers of old Back Street Boys songs to tick off the depressed fanboys in their crowds.