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A La Carte (5/26)

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Memorial Day 2009
Boston.com has another one of their great photo essays, this one commemorating Memorial Day 2009.


A Mother’s Heart for Two Brave Children
A year after the tragic death of Maria Chapman, her mother, Mary Beth Chapman, reflects on all that the last year has brought.


Ida: Humankind’s Earliest Ancestor! (Not Really)
TIME Magazine offers some perspective on Ida (though they do so from an evolutionary perspective). “All of which renders the press release touting a ‘revolutionary scientific find that will change everything’ absolutely true — as long as by ‘everything,’ you mean ‘whether the branch of the primate family that includes monkeys, apes and humans comes from the suborder strepsirrhinae or the suborder haplorrhinae,’ according to the PLoS One paper. And by ‘change,’ you mean ‘adds information that may or may not help settle the question, but whose implications won’t be known for a long time in any case.’”


Two Inches of Providence
John Ensor, writing in WORLD, offers a real-life perspective on providence. “Baby Jack, our 3-month-old grandson, was rocking away peacefully when terror struck. Our daughter-in-law thought a tornado was hitting them. What she really heard was a multi-ton, mighty tall oak tree cracking and crashing onto their old, wooden house, directly and immediately above baby Jack.”


Amusing Ourselves to Death
Stuart McMillen has written up a comic of sorts that conveys the introductory chapter to Neil Postman’s Amusing Ourselves to Death (HT).


Humility: The Heart of Righteousness
Doug Groothuis offers a good post on the always-relevant subject of humility.


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    A La Carte (December 9)

    A La Carte: Reforming generosity / Let the young man come to church / Your wife is beauty / Combating imposter syndrome / Be known, not impressive / Dan McClellan / and more.

  • AI Slop

    The Rise of AI Book Slop

    We often hear these days of “AI slop,” a term that’s used to refer to the massive amounts of poor-quality AI-created material that is churned out and unceremoniously dumped onto the internet. This was once primarily artistless artwork and authorless articles, but has now advanced to much bigger and more substantial forms of content.

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    A La Carte (December 8)

    A La Carte: A plea to older women / Let someone serve you in suffering / Why AI writing can’t compete / Influencers / The hidden danger in online sermons / Discipling young people / Excellent Kindle deals / and more.

  • Hymns

    Pitch Perfect and Tone Deaf

    God commands us to sing. Yet while some of God’s people are gifted singers, the plain fact is that others are not. In any congregation, it’s likely that some have near-perfect pitch while others are functionally tone-deaf. Those who struggle to sing may be self-conscious, tempted to stay quiet or to do no more than…

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    Weekend A La Carte (December 6)

    A La Carte: Rightly ordered desires / Ordinary wonders / For my good, not my comfort / Make room for special-needs families / Christmas spirit / Wisdom rarely makes you famous / and more.