Naming South Australia

Somebody was asking I was boring somebody about Adelaide names. Tim Blair attributes the observation of the peculiarities of the names of Adelaideans to Alex Buzo. Examples (some of them spoofs, d'uh): Bright Greene, Pullen Hare, Falkland Waugh, Clayvel Badcock, Steele Hall. Blair also passed on a method of creating your own name for when you move to that bright thrusting city of the late 1950s. All this comes up again because somebody thinks South Australia should change its name (note to non Australians, Adelaide is the capital of the state of South Australia). Naturally Blair is on the case.

Kyrie eleison ©

One of the things boring in an interesting way I would like to understand is how copyright law applies to the liturgical books. This post nibbles at the edges. The title says it all: The Catastrophe of Catholic Copyrights.

Hyperdox Herman

You need a Facebook account for this. (Yes yes, I know). He has an archenemy Cradle Christopher. Hilarious.

The last word in wills and testaments

Today's EelsDeals™ is a whopping 65% off a computerised Will programme. It is called the Will-O-Matic. Since we are dealing with lawyers we have to be careful, but it is a surprising choice of name. And that is all I will say.

From the email:

The Universe is 93 billion light years across

(That's 28 billion parsecs if you are Luke Skywalker.)

The size of the Universe, and all that it contains:


Copyright 2012. Magnifying the Universe by Number Sleuth.

Presumably they meet on Wednesdays

Vatican Insider, 6th  May 2012

The response sent to the Vatican on 17 April by Bishop Bernard Fellay will be examined in the next few days by the cardinal and bishop members in Ordinary Session of the Congregation of the Doctrine for the Faith, commonly known as Feria Quarta.

Living first and foremost as the beneficiary of a bounty

Joseph Cardinal Ratzinger, Introduction to Christianity, Ignatius (2004).

Part Two: Jesus Christ, Excursus: Christian Structures
4, The law of excess or superfluity, (p. 260).

…he who is always calculating how much he must do to be just adequate and to be able to regard himself, after a few casuistical flicks, as a man with a nice, white shirtfront, is still no Christian. And similarly, he who tries to reckon where duty ends and where he can gain a little extra merit by an opus superogatorium is a Pharisee, not a Christian. Being a Christian does not mean duly making a certain obligatory contribution and perhaps, as an especially perfect person, even going a little further than is required for the fulfillment of the obligation. On the contrary, a Christian is someone who knows that in any case he lives first and foremost as the beneficiary of a bounty and that, consequently, all righteousness can only consist in being himself a donor, like the beggar who is grateful for what he receives and generously passes part of it on to others.