Rotundus.com

If you hear of someone speaking ill of you, instead of trying to defend youself, you should say:
"He obviously does not know me very well, since there are so many other faults he could have mentioned."

- Epictetus (Stoic Philosopher)

According to projections by the National Center for Education Statistics, in 2017 half again as many women as men will earn bachelor's degrees. In the early 1990s, six women graduated from college for every five men who did so; today, the ratio is about 4-to-3. A decade from now, it will be 3-to-2—and rising, on current trends.

- Jonathan Rauch in The Coming American Matriarchy

My primary area of study is in Computer Science, and I'll admit that this area still has relatively few women involved. Yet, both where I did my undergrad and where I'm doing graduate studies the school has invested a fair bit of time and money trying to recruit women into the program.

However, the same cannot be said for the arts and humanities as far as I can tell. As an undergrad I came relatively close to fulfilling the requirements for a history major (4 courses off). History is disproportionately female but I never heard of any attempts made by the history department, or any money spent, to recruit more men.

(HT: Albert Mohler)

... Today everyone in the world is writing to everyone else, making instant contact across every border and across every time zone. Bloggers are saturating the globe.

On one level the new torrent is good news. Any invention that reduces the fear of writing is up there with air conditioning and the lightbulb. But, as always, there's a catch. Nobody told all the new computer writers that the essence of writing is rewriting. Just because they're writing fluently doesn't mean they're writing well.

- William Zinsser, p. xii, On Writing Well: 30th Anniversary Edition

the blood of the martyrs is the seed of the Church - Tertullian

To those in recent days who've asked about "keeping things real", might consider the Voice of the Martyrs weekly email newsletter a good way to start. To hear of blood being shed around the world, the tears that fall, and yet the continuing hope that is present seems a good antidote to the mentality of "fun" present in so many North American churches.

VOTM is an organizations to whom I fork out a chunk of change on a monthly basis. I have to admit that sometimes some of the beliefs of those being persecuted makes me cringe. Yet, at the same time, I'm happy to admit to a common core and disagree over non-core issues. For a person to stand as a Christian when this means that they face the possibility of getting arrested/stabbed/bombed/etc. makes their faith in many ways more credible than the faith of those who may hold closer views on some points to myself.