Author: Glen

Cougar Trumps Cardinal

Stanford gets stomped by Wazzu, 36–11.

Wow–the Cardinal was just trounced by the ignobly-named Wazzu, with a final score of 36–11.

Paula and I were able to attend because I did the morning devotional for the Wazzu team (the team chaplain is the Steve Barke, the Chi Alpha director up in Pullman, and he asked me to fill in for him while his team was on the road).

In any event, they gave me a pair of comp tickets right in the middle of the fan Cougar section. Not only did we see Stanford get spanked up and down the field, but we did it while sitting in front of a former cheerleader and her slightly inebriated companions who let the whole world know what they thought of Stanford’s lack of prowess.

It was a sad, sad day for Cardinal fans, but the Cougar fans must be ecstatic.

On the up side, the opposing coach had a nice comment to make after the game: I feel like this Stanford team is about ready to explode and do really well on offense, so I think our defense did a nice job of keeping them at bay. It won’t be too long before Stanford gets their offense going. I think their penalties were a result of a lot of frustration on their part. They’re going to spoil somebody’s Saturday real soon, and I’m just glad it wasn’t ours. (source)

Talk About Having No Stones To Throw

UPDATE: this is an urban legend! Read the debunking.

A man suffered a heart attack when he hired a prostitute from an agency and his daughter showed up at his door. His wife was quite upset when he got home and explained the whole sordid affair. Read it online: “Hi Dad, Says Call-Girl At The Door”.

Broadening out from the immediate story; remember, it’s always someone’s daughter (or son).

UPDATE: this is an urban legend! Read the debunking.

Never Bite The Hands You Feed

In a very bizzarre story, some zookeepers have been caught eating the animals under their care.

When I read it, my mind flashed to Cain and Abel in the Garden of Eden. Cain killed his brother, and when asked about his brother said, “Am I my brother’s keeper?”

I can just see these guys, “Are we the animals’ keepers? Oh wait, yeah…”

Stanford: What An Amazing Campus!

Yesterday Paula and I had the chance to get together with Stanford Law Prof Jeff Strnad (who’s quite a swimmer).

Anyway, we were walking through White Plaza on our way to meet him, when all of a sudden we were confronted by a clipboard-wielding graduate student asking us if we wanted to ‘talk to a robot.’ We looked around and saw a Dalek-like construct sitting outside, apparently engrossed in conversation with a student. I was extrememly interested, but we were almost late for our meeting with Jeff and so we passed.

We had a great lunch at the Stanford Faculty Club, which has great food a cheap prices (but you have to be a member or the guest of a member to eat there).

As we were leaving, Jeff mentioned that the guy at the table next to us was a Nobel laureate in the field of economics. I didn’t catch the name, but I figured it would be easy to go online and figure out which prof at Stanford had won a Nobel in the economic sciences–I didn’t count on 8 laureates in one field!

Overall, Stanford lays direct claim to 23 laureates (14 of whom are still living), and indirect claim to many more, among them novelist John Steinbeck, who attended Stanford but got a C in his freshman English class and dropped out before graduating.

Wow–what a school!

What Celebrities Think About God

Hmmm… The Onion has an article collecting the comments that many celebrities have made about God over the course of their interviews. 

Some were articulate, some were stupid, most were puzzled. A few were humorous, in a sad sort of way:

Chuck Palahniuk wrote Fight Club and four other novels, including the new Lullaby.
The Onion: Is there a God?
Chuck Palahniuk: Yes.
O: Care to elaborate?
CP: Boy. Let me get back to you when I’m dead.

and

Stand-up comedian Steven Wright is known for his deadpan delivery and absurdist one-liners.
The Onion: Is there a God?
Steven Wright: Ahhh… You’ll have to ask Jesus.

and the kicker

America’s greatest living writer, Neal Pollack is the author of The Neal Pollack Anthology Of American Literature.
The Onion: Is there a God?
Neal Pollack: God does not exist, unless you are my mother-in-law and are reading this, in which case I definitely do believe that He exists, and will raise my children accordingly. But if you’re not my mother-in-law, and she’s not reading this, then He does not exist.

Read them all.

Some People Have Entirely Too Much Free Time

Three Lego pages have caught my eye with their outlandish display of ingenuity.

The achieving the impossible award goes to the Andrew Lipson’s Lego Page, which features clever engines and reproductions of M. C. Escher works. That’s right–he’s recreated those impossible drawings in 3D.

The we could make beautiful music together award goes to Henry Lim’s Lego sculptures for his functional Lego harpsichord. Wow!

Finally, the service to humanity award goes to the Cool Lego Site Of The Week. Get your need for geeky Lego ideas met here!

Nobel Laureate Graduated Last In His Class

Masatoshi Koshiba, who just won 25% of this year’s Nobel Prize in physics (I didn’t even know you could be a 25% winner), graduated last in his class at Tokyo University over 50 years ago.

He only made two A’s in his last two years of college, both of which were in lab classes where the grade was based on attendance.

Hmmm.… makes you think, doesn’t it?

Evidently he took the Teacher’s words to heart: “Of making many books there is no end, and much study wearies the body.” (Ecc 12.12b, NIV)

The Fellowship: Serving Jesus In The Capitol

The LA Times has the most interesting article I’ve seen in quite a while. It’s about a secretive group called The Fellowship, a Christian organization that has had massive influence in the public sphere.

For the last two decades, a Virginia mansion has been a private hideaway for world leaders, members of Congress, and even pop star Michael Jackson…

The Fellowship was a behind-the-scenes player at the Camp David Middle East accords in 1978, working with President Jimmy Carter to issue a worldwide call to prayer with Israeli Prime Minister Menachem Begin and Egyptian President Anwar Sadat. During the Cold War, it helped finance an anti-communism propaganda film endorsed by the CIA and used by the Pentagon overseas.

Last year, the Fellowship helped arrange a secret meeting at Cedars between two warring leaders, Democratic Republic of Congo President Joseph Kabila and Rwandan President Paul Kagame–one of the first of a series of discreet meetings between the two African leaders that eventually led to the signing of a peace accord in July.

Incidentally, they’re also the ones who sponsor the National Prayer Breakfast. There’s much more, and I encourage you to read all about it. (Thanks to Christianity Today for the link!)

Now THAT’s A Course in Microeconomics

With stories of corporate scandal and greed stealing headlines across the country, Presbyterian College hunt for eagle one the free download president John Griffith wanted to prove people still have a social conscience. 

So he randomly gave 100 freshmen $50 bills they could spend any way they wanted, with the requirement that the students report back on how they spent the money.

One freshman wound up paying for a dozen Haitian girls to go to school for a year.

Read the rest of this amazing story.

What would you do if you received $50 and were just told to steward it?

“And if you are untrustworthy about worldly wealth, who will trust you with the true riches of heaven?” (Luke 16.11, NLT)