Carl Trueman on bad sermons or bad listening

How many of us, I wonder, when we hear what we think is a bad sermon first ask ourselves if the problem is with how we listened rather than with the man who spoke?

-- Carl Trueman, http://www.reformation21.org/blog/2010/03/slouching-to-bethlehem.php

Open source aids for Classical Greek & Latin

The Alpheios Project has released the first beta version of a set of free reading aids and learning tools for Classical Greek and Latin. The source code is also freely available to developers. The tools are intended to provide unusually convenient lexicographical and grammatical support for anyone wishing to read HTML versions of original Greek and Latin texts, whether online or on a local computer. Pedagogical modules are currently being added for those who wish to learn the language. We are also making available prototypes of several related tools, including a graphical interface for treebank editing that can easily be adapted to different annotation schemes. The reading tools and the initial pedagogical modules can be downloaded from http://alpheios.net The other resources and prototypes currently in development can be accessed at http://alpheios.net/content/resources-under-development It is hoped that these tools can facilitate consultation of original texts by scholars in other fields, provide customized options for students who wish to learn the language through the study of specific texts, and generally promote appreciation of the unique legacy of the classical world. An important feature of the tools is that their architecture was designed to facilitate the rapid addition of other resources, such as lexicons, grammars, and reference materials, and even other languages, especially highly inflected ones where the value of such tools seems especially compelling. To illustrate this flexibility we are also making modules available for Arabic and Chinese; but our design goal was to create an infrastructure that would make the creation of similar tools for any language as easy as possible. We would greatly appreciate comments, suggestions and criticism because the tools are still in active development Yours very truly, The Alpheios Team

Great quote: "Lord of the Rings" and "Atlas Shrugged"

I don't know the source of this quote, but it's great:

 

"The Lord of the Rings and Atlas Shrugged: one is a childish fantasy that often engenders a lifelong obsession with its unbelievable heroes, leading to an emotionally stunted, socially crippled adulthood, unable to deal with the real world. The other, of course, involves orcs."