While searching for the article on the recent SETI signal, I ran across a couple of articles in which the folks at Project SETI (the Search for Extra-Terrestrial Intelligence) estimate that, with their current methodology, they’ll find an alien civilization within twenty years . . . if there is one nearby to find.
Some of the stories are pitched as “If we don’t find it within 20 years, it doesn’t exist,” but that claim seems too strong and not what the SETI folks are claiming.
While searching for the article on the recent SETI signal, I ran across a couple of articles in which the folks at Project SETI (the Search for Extra-Terrestrial Intelligence) estimate that, with their current methodology, they’ll find an alien civilization within twenty years . . . if there is one nearby to find.
Some of the stories are pitched as “If we don’t find it within 20 years, it doesn’t exist,” but that claim seems too strong and not what the SETI folks are claiming.
Okay, this post has nothing at all to do with Star Trek. I just wanted to play off the title of Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country (arguably the best Star Trek movie thus far; it was the one where the Federation and Klingons had a warming as a sci-fi metaphor for the end of the Cold War).
This post has to do with a discussion I was having with Bill down yonder about Indonesian phonology (i.e., how Indonesians pronounce their words).
The weirdest thing I’ve noticed about Indonesian phonology so far is that K (of all letters) tends to be altered when it is word-final (i.e., at the end of a word). It isn’t simply dropped (like my Gs in “-ing”) but is replaced with a distinct glottal stop, so the word “bapak” (masculine “you”) is pronounced /bapa’/ and the word “tidak” (“no, not”) is pronounced /tida’/.
For folks who aren’t familiar with the term, a glottal stop is when, as you speak, you interrupt the airflow by closing the glottis, or the hole between your vocal chords. You can hear a glottal stop very distinctly when it’s substituted for the Ts in the Cockney pronounciation of “a little bottle” as “a li’le bo’le.”
We use glottal stops all the time in English (even those of us who aren’t Cockneys), we just don’t recognize it because we don’t have a letter for it in our alphabet. (The Arabic alphabet does have a letter for the glottal stop, however. It’s called a hamza.)
You yourself use a glottal stop whenever you pronounce distinctly a word that begins with a vowel. For example, if you aren’t talking and then say the word “apple,” you’ll have a glottal stop before the A because your vocal cords are tensed up.
You also say it in the middle of every time you say “Uh-oh!”
Betcha didn’t know that there’s a consonant in English that we all use but that is completely unnoticed by most of us!
A reader writes:
I am trying to find the answers about having a Eucharistic service without a priest. Our local parish provides Eucharistic Adoration but lay people bring out the host and set it up in the Monstrance. Then they knee and go through the songs and prayers as if it were a Benediction. Then, they sit and pray. 12+ hours later the same is repeated to put the Eucharist back into the tabernacle for evenings when the church closes.
The second situation is for a lay person to take the large Eucharist (with priest permission again) from Mass to another church for a lay Adoration for the day during a silent retreat. Again the entire Benediction prayers are said at the beginning and again at the end of the afternoon.
I am very uncomfortable with this process as it seems that the lay ministers are going beyond the role of Eucharistic Minister. Isn’t that supposed to be Extraordinary Minister?
It doesn’t sound to me like there is an intrinsic problem here based on what you’ve said. I’ll explain why, but first a clarification: The practices you are describing are better described as Eucharistic exposition rather than only adoration. Adoration is something that individuals can do even if the Eucharist is reposed in the Tabernacle. It is simply the act of adoring Christ in the Eucharist. When the Eucharist is exposed for the adoration of the faithful (what you are talking about), it is Eucharistic exposition, and it is Eucharistic benediction when the priest or deacon blesses the people by making the sign of the Cross over them with the Eucharist.
Also, the term “Eucharistic Minister” without qualification does not exist in the Church’s documents. Lay persons distributing or exposing the Eucharist are always acting in an extraordinary capacity, though they may or may not be formally installed as extraordinary ministers.
Terminology quibbles aside, here is what the rite of Eucharistic Worship Outside Mass says about who can perform Eucharistic exposition:
The ordinary minister for exposition of the Eucharist is a priest or deacon. At the end of the period of adoration, before the reposition, he blesses the congregation with the sacrament.
In the absence of a priest or deacon or if they are lawfully impeded, an acolyte, another extraordinary minister of Communion, or another person appointed by the local Ordinary may publicly expose and later repose the Eucharist for the adoration of the faithful.
Such ministers may open the Tabernacle and also, as required, place the ciborium on the altar or place the host in the monstrance. At the end of the period of adoration, they replace the blessed Sacrament in the Tabernacle. It is not lawful, however, for them to give the blessing with the sacrament [no. 91].
I would assume that the people who are doing this in your parish, even if they are not extraordinary ministers, have been appointed to do this by one of the local ordinaries (each diocese usually has several) unless you have reason to think otherwise.
As the text indicates, such individuals are authorized to do everything provided in the rite of exposition aside from giving the blessing (benediction). Turning to the rite itself, one finds that in the section on adoration (preceding benediction), the rite provides:
During the exposition there should be prayers, songs, and readings to direct the attention of the faithful to the worship of Christ the Lord.
To encourage a prayerful spirit, there should be readings from Scripture with a homily or brief exhortations to develop a better understanding of the Eucharistic mystery. It is also desirable for the people to respond to the word of God by singing and to spend some periods of time in religious silence [no. 95].
It doesn’t sound to me that your parish is doing any activities during exposition that are prohibited, and by not having lay faithful perform benediction, they are thus in compliance with the law.
The only issue raised that goes beyond what is in the text of the rite is the transportation of a Host from one place to another for purposes of adoration. The relevant law on this point is found not in the rite of exposition but in the Code of Canon Law, which provides:
Canon 935
No one is permitted to keep the Eucharist on one’s person or to carry it around, unless pastoral necessity urges it and the prescripts of the diocesan bishop are observed.
If, therefore, the diocesan bishop has authorized the transportation of the Eucharist in the case you describe, it is permitted, the diocesan bishop being the arbiter of whether pastoral necessity urges its transportation in this case.
Drudge is carrying an item headlined “Mysterious signals from 1000 light years away,” which links to an article at NewScientist.Com.
The problem is that New Scientist, having been Drudged, has now Popularity Crashed. Their server is either so overloaded that it has shut down completely or is so swamped that it can’t respond effectively to all the hits it’s getting.
Been like that for hours.
I’ve been using Google and other search engines to try to turn up information on this story, but all I’ve been able to get thus far are some tiny scraps of data, not the complete text of the article.
If anyone can get the latter, you copy and paste it to me via e-mail?
Here’s what I’ve found out thus far: It appears that the Project SETI (Search for Extra-Terrestrial Intelligence) have found a signal coming from the area between the constellations of Pisces and Aries that appears to be artificial and appears to be about a thousand light years away.
Now, the great likelihood is not a genuine transmission originating from an alien civilization. Previously unknown signals have been found for decades, and they (thus far) have always turned out to either be natural phenomena (some objects in space emit radio signals naturally) or local artificial phenomena (like signals from Earth-orbiting satellites). One of tiny scrap o’information sites I found even mentioned that this one might be a telescope error.
In all likelihood, researchers will soon figure out what the signal is and that it falls into one of the above non-EBE categories. That’s what happens to most such signals in no time at all. This one has remained unresolved long enough for New Scientist to run a story about it, which means its origin is harder to track down than most.
I just with I could track down some signals originating from New Scientist’s web site.
UPDATE! I just got the text. Click the comments link to read it.
American astronomers have announced the discover of two more “super-earths”–planets which are 14-18 times the size of Earth but much smaller than gas giants like Jupiter and Saturn.
Interestingly, one of the old explanations for part of Superman’s strength was that he came from a planet (with a solid surface) that was much heavier than Earth, and its gravity led its inhabitants to be stronger.
Maybe one day scientists will find a rocky super-earth orbiting a red sun and name it . . . Krypton.
I’m stunned! I can’t believe it!! It’s HORRIBLE!!!
Actress Bitty Shramm, who plays the long-suffering, tough-as-nails psychiactric nurse Sharona, is leaving Monk!
For those who haven’t yet caught Monk fever, the program stars Tony Shalhoub and is an absolutely hilarious, intelligent, and life-affirming program about a detective who suffers from Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder. It airs on USA Network and is WELL worth your time.
But now Bitty Shramm–the ideal sidekick and sparring partner for Tony Shalhoub–is leaving the show!
It’ll be like Holmes without Watson!–only Holmes didn’t need Watson to give him handy-wipes to control his germophobia!
Whatever is Monk going to do without Sharona???
I just know I’m going to obsess about this.
UPDATE: Welcome Google visitors! More information has been revealed about the Sharona situation since the time this post was written. Basically, Sharona and her son, Benjy, moved back to the East Coast to reunite with her former husband. (This was not shown on screen but was talked about.) Subsequently, Monk hired a new assistant, a former bartender named Natalie Teeger (Traylor Howard), who has a daughter. Thus far, Natalie seems to be doing as good a job at standing up to Monk as Sharona did, but we’ll always have a special place in our hearts for Sharona. Hopefully she’ll guest star in the future.