Linkfest

I was incommunicado for the last week and a half. Here are a few tidbits.

1. It's looking more official: Voyager 1 may have left the solar system.

2. Congratulations to my Catholic friends. They lost a man of great humility and gained a man of great humility.

3. This drives me nuts. Sarah Hoyt, science-fiction author, had taught her son how to read and do basic arithmetic before he ever started school. When he started first-grade, at the first parent-teacher meeting, the teacher told Hoyt that her son was learning disabled and would never learn to read. When she told him he was already reading fifth-grade level books, she refused to believe her. The evidence the teacher gave is that on a math test page, where all the questions were what is 1 + 0? what is 2 + 0? what is 3 + 0?, the son had written at the top of the page "This is dumb. Any number plus zero is that number." That was the evidence against him, the fact that he had understood the principle before the teacher had actually explained it to the class. Hoyt and her husband had their son tested and he turned out extremely gifted. When they brought the results of the test to the school, the teacher and principle were not humbled and deeply apologetic, they felt betrayed.

4. Happy belated St. Patrick's Day. Here's an excellent article on him and here's a video.

5. Mars may have been able to support primitive life millions of years ago, and some scientists say it may even be possible today, although I don't see how: the claim is that parts of Mars may have seasonal flowing water, but the atmosphere is so thin there that the boiling point is lower than the melting point -- meaning, water goes directly from ice to steam. At any rate, I really need to get off my duff and continue writing my series on whether life elsewhere in the universe would present any problems for Christianity.