Links for the week.
1. New Discovery: The Earliest Manuscript of Justin Martyr
3. Shame and the Schisms of the Church
4. Habit
6. Halloween: Its Creation and Recreation
7. Study Theology, Even If You Don’t Believe in God
8. On the Relevance of Theology
11. America’s Most Popular Boys’ Names Since 1960
12. C.S. Lewis: “Failure On This Paper Should Mean Failure On The Whole Exam”
14. The Porch
17. Some Varieties of Bullsh*t
18. Wikitongues
19. We’ve Reached “The End of Antibiotics, Period”
20. Russell Brand on Revolution and Newsnight: Paxman vs Brand
21. GUYS, Some Evangelicals Want a Pullback from the Culture Wars, and the WSJ is ON IT
23. The Jubilee and Land Ownership
24. The Adventure of Orthodoxy
25. Greek Ontology, Jewish Christology, and Ecumenism and Are the Creeds Distracting Us From NT Christology?
26. The Teenager Who Saved a Man With an SS Tattoo
27. This May be the Ocean’s Most Horrifying Monster
28. School is no Place for a Reader
29. ‘Nominals’ are the Church’s Hidden Strength
30. Diversity is the Basis of Society
32. Marriage Makes Our Children Richer—Here’s Why
34. Why Hot Water Freezes Faster Than Cold
37. Lady Mary Needn’t Worry—Britain’s Elite Will Survive
38. Expressions Banned From Use in New Zealand Parliamentary Debate
39. Long-form Youtube: Videos of Entire Long-Distance Train Journeys
40. Why First-Born Kids Do Better in School
41. Protestantism, Aristotle, and the Godly Commonwealth
42. Wanted: Adoring Female Students
43. Brain Can Trick Us into Seeing in the Dark
44. Meet “badBIOS,” the Mysterious Mac and PC Malware that Jumps Airgaps
46. College Rape and the Importance of Measuring Success
47. Frederick Taylor and the Quantified Self
49. The World’s Most Powerful People 2013
50. The Girl in the Closet – This is a fairly harrowing read.
51. ‘Let Me Stress How Shocking These NSA Revelations Are’: A View From Inside the Defense World
52. NSA Files Decoded: What the Revelations Mean For You
54. The 50 Greatest Breakthroughs Since the Wheel
57. Stages of Procrastination and A Field Guide to Procrastinators
59. Left or Right Tail Wags Elicit Different Emotional Responses From Dogs
60. The Myth of ‘I’m Bad at Math’
61. N.T. Wright – Paul and the Faithfulness of God at Wycliffe Hall
62. Drawing an Empty Potato Chips Bag
63. The First 100 Days of Two Pandas’ Lives
64. True Facts About the Cuttlefish
Alastair's Adversaria 
Love these. You always tend to scour the best of the web and are quite the resource. Thank you!
Thanks, David!
Lots of good stuff there. The birth order story looks a lot like the one you posted earlier. I’ll just post my single anecdote. Among my three boys, our oldest is without a doubt the one who is doing the most in academic pursuits. He was a very early (and enthusiatic) reader and is now 3-4 years ahead of his age level in math(s)(an s just for you). The other two are pretty close to normal academically. We also pushed our oldest much harder, at least early on, so at least on those two metrics we seem to line up with this account. Of course our boys have very different personalities from each other which have affected how we’ve approached them.
Also, in general, I got better grades and stayed out of more trouble than my older brother, so there’s that.
I also really enjoyed the “lifestyle rigidity” piece. It reminds me of Brian Fawcett, whom I imagine you haven’t read. Fawcett is another highly original cultural critic. His book Public Eye: An investigation Into the Disappearance of the World is on my (poorly defined) list of best books ever. In any case, Fawcett has a fictional character propound the theory that a person’s soul can only move at walking speed, and that when we travel (especially by air), it takes a long time for our soul to catch up again. That particular bit of foolishness has lodged in my brain ever since and I’ve come to almost believe it.
I haven’t heard of that book. I will have to locate a copy.
I just finished reading Spufford’s Unapologetic on Rod Dreher’s recommendation, and have to say that I don’t really think it is at all representative of Christianity. The first couple chapters, with one tweaking the New Atheism and the other on prayer, were quite good, but the rest of it was, I thought, a pretty goofy and idiosyncratic mixture of materialism and Christianity. I believe he says at one point, “I am a very this worldly Christian.” And I totally believe him! Anyway, there is some good mixed in with the bad, but even that wasn’t particularly exceptional.
There might be some use in the prayer chapter for helping people understand what it is like to pray, but the rest seems to give a pretty misleading impression of the faith.
Thanks for the feedback! So far, Wright’s tome is a very worthwhile read. Sarah Coakley’s God, Sexuality, and the Self also arrived this morning. Knowing Coakley, I am expecting it to be an extremely stimulating read, but one which leaves me unpersuaded.
I second what DavidA wrote. Thanks for collecting and sharing these.
Thanks!