On that darkened springtime morn,
No trumpet, lute, lyre, or horn,
Announced our savior had been born,
To She through whom Redemption comes.

The labor, quick then was done,
The Mother held her infant son;
Our redemption would soon be won,
Through She by whom Salvation comes.

Foster father, joyous for his gain,
And that of all the world, for pain,
Was soon to end, His wondrous reign,
Dawned when She gave birth unto a son.

Only shepherds, who came from the field,
Came to praise and they beheld,
Our Lord, as he was gently held,
By She through whom Forgiveness comes.

The world lay quietly, unknowing,
But soon the graces would be flowing,
And all in heaven would be bowing,
To Our Lord and She through whom He comes.

* * *

The authors and contributors of Franciscan University News would like to wish you all a most joyful Christmas.

Astronomy Picture of the Day/Week/Month.

From Space.com

<<The Moon passes less than a degree from very bright Mars. In fact, observers in northern Canada, Alaska, the Arctic and parts of Europe may see an occultation (basically, an eclipse) of Mars by the Moon. For a map and more information on the occultation, see the International Occultation Timing Association page: http://www.lunar-occultations.com/iota/planets/1224mars.htm>>



I took that picture a couple hours after the closest approach. It should be noted that It would have missed the event altogether if The Observant Murloc hadn't noticed it as we were driving home from mass.

In a little more cosmic terms, it would look something like this.



(Screenshot courtesy Celestia. What? You don't have Celestia? Go get it now!)

It's interesting to note that any picture with an exposure long enough to capture Mars automatically means the Moon is whited out. If you want a picture of the Moon, here's one.



Note that was taken without the aid of a tripod at a 1/1600" shutter speed.

Today was a slow work day. How slow? While trying to explain Tuvan throat singing to my co-worker, I stumbled across this website.

That slow.

Merry Christmas from [that company I work for].

India Sierra Oscar Golf Romeo Alpha Papa Hotel sent out a Christmas e-mail to its clients, wishing them happy holidays and all that blah blah blah. But that's not what I'm really blogging about. There was a certain fault tree included in the e-mail which I wished to share with you, plural, which you, singular, might find funny.




Yep, guess who put that together? Note this is actually a good introduction to the software that [that company I work for] writes.

LinkDump.

The histomap of evolution.
Ok, so they were off on the age of the Earth by, oh, 5.5 billion years, but give them a break. It was published in 1932.

Key quote: "Evolution does not, as so many assume, teach that man is descended from an ape or monkey. Modern evolutionists teach only that man and the apes had a common ancestor of whose characteristics they know little and who may have approached in structure and appearance modern man more than modern ape. Neither does evolution pretend to explain the origin of life, or that the development of man has been entirely mechanical or accidental.... The Histomap merely summarizes the more generally accepted views, recognition of which engenders a philosophy of life capable of inspiring a faith of the highest order." (Emphasis mine.)

When did the theory of evolution change to "Evolution teaches that the development of all life is entirely accidental and mechanical, and recognition of these views prohibits a faith in any higher order"?

Mathematics in Futurama. Ok, half the page is in Spanish, but the other half is still interesting. I think much of that was written by Dr. Sarah Greenwald, professor of mathematics at Appalachian State University. At least, I think so because most of that appears in the special feature "Mind-bending Futurama math lecture by Professor Sarah Greenwald (Teachers: use it for exciting and educational classroom viewing!)" on the Bender's Big Score DVD. That feature alone makes the DVD worth getting, especially since the episode itself isn't all that funny.

It's also worth noting that there was a similar article in Math Horizons a few years back about math in The Simpons. I have a suspicion it was written by the same person.

Pixar Easter Eggs.

Interesting article on atomic clocks. I thought it was interesting how they had to recalibrate the clock because they moved it to a different floor and the gravitational force of the Earth was different.

3³

Yeah! Pat and Dianna are married!!!

There was much rejoicing!




Our reporters were on the scene:

and so were the Harolds!!!! Woo hoo!

F.U. News Tuesday Game

Exactly as much fun as herding cats, it's Chat Noir.



















If you get frustrated after playing it for a few minutes, I should let you know that there is a winning strategy which will enable you to trap the cat nearly every time.

What I Want for Christmas.

http://www.amazon.com/Uranium-Ore/dp/B000796XXM

Be sure to read the reviews.

(You can find links to what I really want for Christmas in the sidebar, down a bit.)

TechRepublic has a cool article about taking little R2 apart. And some guy in the comments section posted a link to R2 easter eggs!




Sorry about the bad image link before... Don't know how I screwed that up.