On this day:
1541
After three years of exile, John Calvin returns to Geneva to reform the church under a body of doctrine known as Calvinism.
1759
Battle of the Plains of Abraham: British defeat French near Quebec City in the Seven Years’ War, known in the United States as the French and Indian War.
1814
In a turning point in the War of 1812, the British fail to capture Baltimore, Maryland.
1847
Mexican-American War: Six teenage military cadets known as Niños Héroes die defending Chapultepec Castle in the Battle of Chapultepec. American troops under General Winfield Scott capture Mexico City in the Mexican-American War.
1848
Vermont railroad worker Phineas Gage survives a 3 ft-plus iron rod being driven through his head; the reported effects on his behavior and personality stimulate thinking about the nature of the brain and its functions.
1862
American Civil War: Union soldiers find a copy of Robert E. Lee’s battle plans in a field outside Frederick, Maryland. It is the prelude to the Battle of Antietam.
1922
The final act of the Greco-Turkish War, the Great Fire of Smyrna, commences.
1942
World War II: Second day of the Battle of Edson’s Ridge in the Guadalcanal campaign. U.S. Marines successfully defeated attacks by the Imperial Japanese Army with heavy losses for the Japanese forces.
1987
Goiânia accident: A radioactive object is stolen from an abandoned hospital in Goiânia, Brazil, contaminating many people in the following weeks and causing some to die from radiation poisoning.
***
What did the Russian Marxists sacrifice when they made common cause with the nazis in WWII? What did the nazis sacrifice?
A major California school district is facing a potentially costly enrollment crisis after nearly 1,200 students unexpectedly vanished from its rolls.
The drop at San Juan Unified School District was nearly four times what officials anticipated for the new school year.
The sudden 2% drop could have serious financial consequences for the Sacramento County district; much of its state funding is tied to daily student attendance.
***
In Japan, the market for adult diapers is larger than the market for infant diapers
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Sunday/Utilitarianism and Spirituality
"It is old news that the practice of Christianity and the study of the humanities have been declining for decades. Their falls, however, are rarely considered together. One has not caused the collapse of the other. The two are suffering because the spirit of our age despises the goal they share – the shaping of the human mind and soul for transcendent goods.
Limitless technology has deepened and accelerated the trend that predated it.
This trend is utilitarianism, the belief that only things and ideas with practical application in “the real world” have value. With its supernatural orientation, Christianity has no purpose in this view. Nor do the humanities, with their focus on poetry, history, and literature, which distract from the pursuit of money, comfort, and prestige. Utilitarianism presents a truncated vision of the human person – whose value is measured by what he produces materially. Hence, it cannot understand religion and the humanities, as witnessed by the one question every liberal arts major must endure: “What are you going to do with that?”
Periods of spiritual and cultural rebirth have occurred where faith and the humanities rose together – the fourth century Church, the Carolingian renaissance, the high Middle Ages, the Catholic Counter-Reformation, the building of American Catholicism – overcoming a Dark Age, closed to faith and to learning."--culled from David G Bonagura, Jr. in Catholic Thing
What did the Russian Marxists sacrifice when they made common cause with the nazis in WWII? What did the nazis sacrifice?
***
An interesting little story. Springshot, in 2011, created a widely used proprietary platform that helps humans and AI systems improve airline efficiency and quickly solve logistics problems so flights can stay on time and airlines can operate as smoothly as possible. Hundreds of airports use it globally. Google just bought Spirit at auction, including a massive dataset and intellectual property (IP) that Springshot says it owns—not Spirit. In an email to Ars, Springshot summarized its fears as the court possibly creating “a precedent where startups see massive amounts of IP transferred to the world’s richest and most monopolistic companies via bankruptcy courts.”
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The idea of AI regulation has been suggested as "a cynical effort at 'regulatory capture.'" Using the law and the courts to advance yourself at the expense of the culture. What a concept!
***
A major California school district is facing a potentially costly enrollment crisis after nearly 1,200 students unexpectedly vanished from its rolls.
The drop at San Juan Unified School District was nearly four times what officials anticipated for the new school year.
The sudden 2% drop could have serious financial consequences for the Sacramento County district; much of its state funding is tied to daily student attendance.
***
In Japan, the market for adult diapers is larger than the market for infant diapers
***
Sunday/Utilitarianism and Spirituality
"It is old news that the practice of Christianity and the study of the humanities have been declining for decades. Their falls, however, are rarely considered together. One has not caused the collapse of the other. The two are suffering because the spirit of our age despises the goal they share – the shaping of the human mind and soul for transcendent goods.
Limitless technology has deepened and accelerated the trend that predated it.
This trend is utilitarianism, the belief that only things and ideas with practical application in “the real world” have value. With its supernatural orientation, Christianity has no purpose in this view. Nor do the humanities, with their focus on poetry, history, and literature, which distract from the pursuit of money, comfort, and prestige. Utilitarianism presents a truncated vision of the human person – whose value is measured by what he produces materially. Hence, it cannot understand religion and the humanities, as witnessed by the one question every liberal arts major must endure: “What are you going to do with that?”
Periods of spiritual and cultural rebirth have occurred where faith and the humanities rose together – the fourth century Church, the Carolingian renaissance, the high Middle Ages, the Catholic Counter-Reformation, the building of American Catholicism – overcoming a Dark Age, closed to faith and to learning."--culled from David G Bonagura, Jr. in Catholic Thing
Materialism generally refers to physical comfort and possessions, but, in political theory, it implies a conflict, a progression to a different form through the resolution of ancient antagonisms, specifically caste conflict and righteous homicide, in the view of the nineteenth century and the murderous Marxists. A foundational state. And, of course, it never speaks to its foundational law: that a closed system tends to a maximum level of disorder. Entropy. Cold and lifeless chaos. And, I would guess, despair.
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