Interesting Things

Some pictures of the dedication of "True Vine," the newest public art on Biola University's campus and second piece installed this year as part of a public arts initiative. Dedicated on Monday, March 9, 2015 at the Talbot East Building.

The artist, Theodore Prescott, was inspired by teachings in Scripture that reference vines that reveal a life dependent on Christ, particularly John 15, in which Jesus calls Himself the True Vine. That verse appears in the top window on the building behind the sculpture.

The unveiling and dedication of Biola's new sculpture "The Spirit of Christ" by sculptor Tom Tsuchiya. September 18, 2014.

Introducing the 2015 IKEA catalog: the coolest, sleekest new gadget on the market

Here's a link to the article I wrote to go along with a talk I did at Biola on April 4, 2014. Basically, I use the analogy of eating food to talk about the media we consume. We know we should be avoiding junk food and instead being intentional about consuming healthy food. I think we should be doing the same kind of thing with the media we consume.

The CIA joined Twitter today. Their first tweet is generating a lot of attention because it's funny.

I also like what @SandraRose tweeted about it:

In 1942, Walter Hart and William Hart published a book called "Plane Trigonometry Solid Geometry and Spherical Trigonometry." Someone bought the book, maybe it changed hands a few times, then it was discarded. It eventually made its way to the Pan Pacific Fiber recycling company in Santa Fe Springs, waiting to be recycled.

But then yesterday, a huge fire broke out at the recycling plant and burned for 10 hours (story). A small part of a single page was blown hundreds of feet into the air, then fluttered down to the Biola parking lot, a mile away, and landed in the parking space where we parked last night. Here's what it looks like:

The Google Books site helped me figure out what book it was:

I find this stat on a web page about dangerous cities:

While no large city is immune to violence, Distrito Central has surpassed the usual amount of violence. There are around 100 homicides per capita, which is one of the highest murder rates around the globe.

Does that mean the entire population dies every three days? (If that’s an annual number)

Ben Bratton describes TED talks as a sort of infotainment, where the presenter gives some ideas that are basically placebo politics or placebo economics. These talks all follow a similar pattern with a epiphimony (epiphany + personal testimony) as the main structure.

A bizarre instrument combining a piano and cello has finally been played to an audience more than 500 years after it was dreamt up Leonardo da Vinci.

You want a world-class conversation about the future of global health, the vanguard of philanthropy, and the divide between ignorance and data-driven knowledge? Bring in the Bills. Gates and Clinton, that is.

Alan Jacobs wrote this article about how Christians read God's Word. First it was on scrolls, then on a codex (a regular book), and now lately on electronic devices, cell phones, and on huge screens in worship services.

Here's an odd sentence, but completely correct grammatically:

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