I will say then that I am not, nor ever have been, in favor of bringing about in any way the social and political equality of the white and black races; I am not nor ever have been in favor of making voters or jurors of negroes, nor of qualifying them to hold office, nor to intermarry with white people.

I will say in addition to this that there is a physical difference between the white and black races which I believe will forever forbid the two races living together on terms of social and political equality. And inasmuch as they cannot so live, while they do remain together there must be the position of superior and inferior, and I, as much as any other man, am in favor of having the superior position assigned to the white race.

Abraham Lincoln

16th President of the United States and a racist bastard

From my Introduction to Astronomy textbook:

“The celestial sphere is an example of a scientific model … Notice that a scientific model does not have to be true to be useful. You will encounter many scientific models in the chapters that follow, and you will discover that some of the most useful models are highly simplified descriptions of the true facts.”

I think there are lots of “theological models” in Christian Scripture and Tradition that are misunderstood to be exact explanations of true facts, rather than highly simplified descriptions of the true facts. The first few chapters of Genesis, for instance.

Food for thought.

minimalmac:

By now I am sure you know everything there is to know about the iPad. It is a stunning device. I am at a loss for words on where to begin or what I can add that others have not. That said, I am going to try to make some observations and, hopefully, add some new things to think about:

• There is no way you can have any idea of how amazing this thing is by looking a pictures and reading sound bytes and blogs. You have to watch the video on the official site. Seriously, stop reading right now and go watch it. I’ll wait… Back now, good. As you can see, every single built in app has been re-imagined for this device. Now, here is something to think about… What if every Mac had applications designed specifically to exploit the capabilities, screen size, etc. of the device? What if the SDK’s allowed a developer to support these nuances in a single app (i.e if it’s an iPhone - look and feel this way, iPad - That way). Now, what if you had a large display that you could slide the iPad right into the side? If the software is built right it could adjust (If iPad in display – do this…).

• It was not mentioned but the thin and light new Apple Wireless Keyboard is supported.

• Very interesting how Mr. Jobs pushed the fact that Apple is a mobile devices company so hard.

• Pair the iBook store with Amazon’s Kindle.app and you not only have one killer book selling device, you also have witnessed the death of the Kindle itself. That’s OK though since Amazon likely does not make a profit (I say likely because they refuse to talk about those numbers) on the device, it is simply a way to sell more books.

• The publishing industry has been aching for a way to make money off of the content in the internet age. It’s simple, make great “iTouch” apps and make them free through the app store, then charge your normal subscription rates. I can thing of several publications I would subscribe to here for a richer experience, ads and all (Wired, Vanity Fair, New York Times, etc.)

I am sure I will have more thoughts and may update this post as they come. Until then, I can say that I could easily see this being a main computer for a lot of people, especially if you have apps as robust as the iWork ones demoed at the event. Seems like it would fit a large number of people’s “enough”

Nature produced common property. Robbery made private property.

St. Ambrose (4th Century) (via creedminusgun)