Sunspots 526

Things I have recently spotted that may be of interest to someone else:

The Arts: The History Blog tells us about the return of the best-known (and almost the only) picture of J. S. Bach to Leipzig
 
Christianity: An article on the errors the so-called Prosperity Gospel makes in interpreting the Bible.


Benjamin L. Corey thinks that John Calvin either didn't understand Christ's teaching, or deliberately disobeyed it, and explains his thinking.

Health: (or something) As of June 11, 2015, Amazon was offering a free book, in Kindle format (the price may go back up in the future) entitled How to Survive by Eating Insects and Learning Entomophagy [eating insects]. I didn't download it, but it caught my attention.


Science: Wired points out that the wings of the dinosaurs in Jurassic World aren't large enough.


The courtship display of a peacock spider, in a 3 minute 2 second video.


Wired also has an essay about dinosaurs in general. If we did produce one now, would it be like the extinct ones? How would we know? and other interesting questions.

Image source (public domain)

Sunspots 100

Things I have recently spotted that may be of interest to someone else:

Science: (also Literature, and Christianity) my own post on Green, from March 17, 2005, part of a series on the colors of the rainbow. (St. Patrick's Day occurred since the last Sunspots.)

The Conservapedia's article on Baramin (the equivalent, the article says, of "kind," which is used in the King James Version of the Bible.)

Politics: (sort of) American Women Through Time

Christianity Today says that the National Association of Evangelicals has endorsed a statement condemning torture.

Article claiming that, even if there were no moral reason not to torture, torture is counterproductive, anyway -- first, because information obtained that way is suspect, and second, because it encourages torture of our own troops.

Music: Today is the birthday of Johann Sebastian Bach, arguably the greatest composer of all time. According to The Writer's Almanac, he said (in German, no doubt): "There's nothing remarkable about [making music]. All one has to do is hit the right keys at the right time and the instrument plays itself." (Thanks to one of our daughters for the links.)

Computing: Zotero is a Firefox extension (free, of course) for capturing bibliographic information.

This week's Christian Carnival is here. (For information on locating these Carnivals, see here.)

When I don't tell where I found an item above, I either found it directly, or was probably pointed to it by the Librarian's Internet Index, SciTech Daily, or Arts and Letters Daily. All of these sources are great.

Thanks for reading! Keep clicking away.

Image source (public domain)

Happy Birthday, Bach; ogg files

March 21 is the birthday of J. S. Bach, who is right up there in most lists of "most important composers." Bach was born in Eisenach, Germany, in 1685. In checking the Wikipedia article on him, I discovered that there are several sound files of his music that are part of the article. (Bach's compositions, of course, are now public domain. Individual performances may not be. The clips in the article are freely usable.)

Bach was a Lutheran. Most of his music was written to be performed in church. There are a number of web pages dealing with his religious beliefs, and how they affected his art, or listening to it. Here's a one-paragraph statement on this matter. Mark Galli, of Christianity Today, went so far as to call him the Fifth Evangelist.

The Wikipedia uses, for this article, a sound file format I had not seen before, with the .ogg extension. In checking, I discovered that this format has an open source player (Which is why the Wikipedia, an open source encyclopedia, uses it). Other articles in the Wikipedia, including at least the ones on Mozart and Vivaldi, also use this file format. I have no ability, nor wish, to tweak a media player, and you probably don't, either, but the player, for Windows, Unix, and Macintosh operating systems, is available here. (Well, sort of. There is a link from that page to this one, which has a downloadable filter for Windows Media Player. I downloaded that. Then, when I opened an .ogg file from the Wikipedia article on Bach, I had to open it with the Other option, so as to change the program I wanted to open the file with. I browsed to the Windows Media Player, which was in the folder of the same name, in the C: \Program Files folder. Got all that? After that, my computer was "smart" enough to open an .ogg file with WMP without prompting.)

Warning: Like other music files, some of the .ogg files linked to the Wikipedia article on Bach are a few megabytes in size.

There are other sources, besides the Wikipedia, that provide .ogg files. Here's a link to some of them. I haven't explored any of these, and probably won't, as most of them seem to be current popular music, which (sorry) I have little interest in.

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Added later: The Wikipedia article on Beethoven includes the entire 5th Symphony, the "Moonlight Sonata," and the 1st movement of his 4th piano concerto, a real treasure! The Handel article includes "And the glory of the Lord," "For unto us a child is born" and "Hallelujah" from Messiah. There are, no doubt, other treasures available.

O Sacred Head, Now Wounded

In honor of Holy Week, and J. S. Bach's birthday, 1685 (Also our younger son-in-law's, quite a few years later).

O sacred Head, now wounded, with grief and shame weighed down,
Now scornfully surrounded with thorns, Thine only crown;
How pale Thou art with anguish, with sore abuse and scorn!
How does that visage languish, which once was bright as morn!

What Thou, my Lord, hast suffered, was all for sinners’ gain;
Mine, mine was the transgression, but Thine the deadly pain.
Lo, here I fall, my Savior! ’Tis I deserve Thy place;
Look on me with Thy favor, vouchsafe to me Thy grace.

Men mock and taunt and jeer Thee, Thou noble countenance,
Though mighty worlds shall fear Thee and flee before Thy glance.
How art thou pale with anguish, with sore abuse and scorn!
How doth Thy visage languish that once was bright as morn!

Now from Thy cheeks has vanished their color once so fair;
From Thy red lips is banished the splendor that was there.
Grim death, with cruel rigor, hath robbed Thee of Thy life;
Thus Thou hast lost Thy vigor, Thy strength in this sad strife.

My burden in Thy Passion, Lord, Thou hast borne for me,
For it was my transgression which brought this woe on Thee.
I cast me down before Thee, wrath were my rightful lot;
Have mercy, I implore Thee; Redeemer, spurn me not!

What language shall I borrow to thank Thee, dearest friend,
For this Thy dying sorrow, Thy pity without end?
O make me Thine forever, and should I fainting be,
Lord, let me never, never outlive my love to Thee.

My Shepherd, now receive me; my Guardian, own me Thine.
Great blessings Thou didst give me, O source of gifts divine.
Thy lips have often fed me with words of truth and love;
Thy Spirit oft hath led me to heavenly joys above.

Here I will stand beside Thee, from Thee I will not part;
O Savior, do not chide me! When breaks Thy loving heart,
When soul and body languish in death’s cold, cruel grasp,
Then, in Thy deepest anguish, Thee in mine arms I’ll clasp.

The joy can never be spoken, above all joys beside,
When in Thy body broken I thus with safety hide.
O Lord of Life, desiring Thy glory now to see,
Beside Thy cross expiring, I’d breathe my soul to Thee.

My Savior, be Thou near me when death is at my door;
Then let Thy presence cheer me, forsake me nevermore!
When soul and body languish, oh, leave me not alone,
But take away mine anguish by virtue of Thine own!

Be Thou my consolation, my shield when I must die;
Remind me of Thy passion when my last hour draws nigh.
Mine eyes shall then behold Thee, upon Thy cross shall dwell,
My heart by faith enfolds Thee. Who dieth thus dies well.

Words: Attributed to Bernard of Clairvaux, 1153 (Salve caput cruentatum); translated from Latin to German by Paul Gerhardt, 1656 (O Haupt voll Blut und Wunden), and from Latin to English James W. Alexander, 1830. (My source: The Cyberhymnal)

Music: “Passion Chorale,” Hans L. Hassler, 1601; harmony by Johann S. Bach, 1729