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From the kitchen of One Perfect Bite...When the Silver Fox and I first had children, we agreed not to call each other Mom or Dad. Father's Day was always a celebration planned and executed by the kids and that worked wonderfully well until we all scattered across the country. Now, while there are still telephone calls and silly cards, the celebration has become very low key. I've taken to preparing one or two of his favorite dishes to make the day a bit more special, but that is usually the extent of the celebration here. His request this year was for blueberry blintzes and Korean barbecue chicken. I want to share both recipes with you, but we'll only touch on one tonight. I'm not usually fond of my own recipes, but this one is special and it is an exception. I love it for lots of reasons. While it requires some effort to prepare, it is a great way to feed a crowd. The recipe can be doubled or tripled if you are so inclined, and it is a marvelous addition to a brunch buffet or special breakfast. There are three basic steps to the blintzes and they can be executed in stages that make the dish quite easy to prepare. The most difficult is the preparation of the crepes. If that is off-putting to you, buy crepes in the supermarket and carry on with the rest of the recipe. If you plan to make them, remember that your batter should be about as thick as heavy cream. Additional water or flour can be added to reach that consistency if needs be. If you want tender crepes, let the batter sit for at least two hours before cooking. The resting time allows the flour to absorb the liquid and the foam to dissipate. Cover and refrigerate the batter if it is to sit for longer than 1 hour. The filling and the blueberry sauce are really easy to do and you'll have no problem with either of them. The sauce used in this recipe is exceptional and it still makes my socks go up and down. I know those of you who try this recipe will be delighted with the result. Here's how the blintzes are made.
3 eggs
2 tablespoons butter, melted
2/3 cup all-purpose flour
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 package (3 ounces) mascarpone cheese, at room temperature
1/4 cup sugar
1/2 teaspoon finely grated orange zest
1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
1/2 to 1 cup sugar
2 cups frozen unsweetened mixed berries
1/2 cup port wine or grape juice
1 tablespoon cornstarch
2 cups fresh or frozen thawed blueberries
1) To make crepes: Combine milk, eggs and butter in a small bowl. Combine flour and
salt and add to milk mixture. Mix well. Cover and refrigerate for 2 hours. Heat a lightly greased 8-inch nonstick skillet. Pour 3 tablespoons of batter into center of skillet and lift and tilt pan to evenly coat bottom of pan. Cook until top appears dry; turn and cook 15-20 seconds longer. Remove to a wire rack. Repeat with remaining batter. When cool, stack crepes with waxed paper or paper towels in between. Wrap in plastic wrap or foil. Refrigerate.
2) To make filling: Process cottage cheese in a blender until smooth. Transfer to a small bowl and add mascarpone cheese. Beat until smooth. Beat in sugar, orange zest and vanilla.
3) To make sauce: Bring water and sugar to a boil. Add frozen berries and wine or juice; return to a boil. Reduce heat, simmer, uncovered for 5 minutes. Mash and strain berries, reserving juice. Return juice to pan. Bring to a boil; reduce heat and simmer until mixture is reduced to 1 cup. Combine cornstarch with 1 tablespoon water and mix until smooth. Stir into blueberry sauce and bring to a boil. Cook and stir until thickened, about 2 minutes. Remove from heat. Fold in berries. Set aside.
4) To assemble and cook: Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Spread about 1 rounded tablespoonful onto each crepe. Fold left side of crepe over filling. Fold bottom side up and top side down to encase filling. Finally, bring right side of crepe to center, forming a small package. Place seam side down in a greased 15 x 10 x 1-inch baking pan. Bake for about 10 minute, or until heated through.
5) To serve: Place 2 warm blintzes on each of 8 dessert plates. Top with warm blueberry sauce and serve. Yield: 8 servings.
This post is being linked to Stone Gable's On the Menu Monday feature.
One Year Ago Today: Linguine with Peas, Garlic and Ricotta Salata
Two Years Ago Today: Southwestern Cilantro Rice Salad
Three Years Ago Today: Ultimate Cheater's Pulled Pork

subset: commoncrawl


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Getting Control of the Application Portfolio at Your Bank
The many applications in use (or not in use) in a bank can be a lot like your cable TV channels at home. When is the last time you took stock of how many channels you have—and which ones you actually watch? Do you really need four stations dedicated to professional bowling? How much could you trim your monthly bill if you eliminated the channels you no longer watch, need or that are near-duplicates of other channels?
One recent report revealed that 75% of IT organizations have minimal portfolio oversight. Another survey found that as much as 20% of the average organization's applications are redundant, and CIOs believe as many as half of the applications in their portfolios should be retired. Here are a few steps you can follow to get the applications under control at your bank:
Take an application inventory. Think fast: How many applications is your bank IT organization currently supporting? If yours is like most businesses, you may have no idea. It's a stunning thought when you consider the licensing fees, rollout of updates, and maintenance to support these applications—many of which may have long ago outlived their value to the organization.
The first step to more proactively managing your applications is to conduct a complete inventory. Be sure to include the cost of the application, which projects it supports and the number of resources required for maintenance. Also, note any interdependencies it shares with other applications or projects. Seem overwhelming? Start by taking stock of applications only being used on current projects, then branch out to lesser-used applications from there.
Eliminate redundancies. A good inventory may uncover some glaringly obvious duplication in the functionality of applications. At this stage, in addition to identifying redundancies, this is an opportunity to take an honest look at legacy applications that could be retired. Perhaps the majority of their functionality has been taken over by newer, more efficient applications, yet the licenses have been allowed to linger on. Now's the time to make the final break. You'll realize some impressive cost savings for your department, as well as free up budget and resources for new, more productive applications.
Gauge the value of remaining applications. At this stage, you'll evaluate each application according to one simple question: "What value does this application deliver to the IT organization and to the bank?"
Score each application according to the criteria that make sense for your business's goals. A suggested matrix might measure value according to 1) Strategic Alignment, 2) Business Process Impact, 3) Architecture, 4) Direct Payback, 5) Risk and 6) Customer Impact/Revenue.
Match resources to applications. Now that you have a leaner application portfolio and a clearer view of the role each application plays in the success of your business, you can more effectively pair people with the work processes needed to support applications. Thanks to eliminating redundant applications, you can now reallocate staff from supporting retired applications, to working on maximizing usage of mission-critical applications. Your efforts will also free up resources to devote to innovating new projects that will drive the bank forward.
Researchers have found that IT departments typically spend 75% of their time, money and resources simply keeping things running on a daily basis, leaving only 25% of efforts dedicated to new strategic initiatives. It's a sobering fact, especially in today's world where agility and innovation are essential to survival; yet it's a scenario that many IT project managers would likely recognize as being familiar. After following the steps above, you will be able to manage your applications more efficiently and to better align them with the needs and priorities of your bank.
Kevin Kern is CEO of Innotas


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Subway Pledges to Make Every Footlong Sandwich Actually a Foot Long
If you thought Subway wasn't going to budge an inch on its stance regarding the scandal over how long its footlong sandwiches really are, you're wrong.
The restaurant chain has released a statement saying:
We have redoubled our efforts to ensure consistency and correct length in every sandwich we serve. Our commitment remains steadfast to ensure that every Subway Footlong sandwich is 12 inches at each location worldwide."
In a state of affairs that would have Jared shaking his head in disbelief, the chain has been accused of serving footlongs that are actually 11 inches long, thanks to a picture posted on Facebook by a man in Australia.
Well, instead of following the scent of sweet onion sauce, some people are now following the scent of money. Two men in New Jersey have filed a lawsuit over the fraudulent measurement, as has a fella in Chicago.
So, it seems that while Subway may be skimping out on the bread, patrons are trying to make sure they get their hands on as much bread as the restaurant has in the bank.
Quiznos better watch their back.


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After House action, Senate is working to avoid gov't shutdown
Published 10:08 am Thursday, March 7, 2013
WASHINGTON — Efforts to stave off a late March government shutdown shifted to the Senate after House Republicans swiftly passed legislation to keep federal agencies running, while also easing some effects of $85 billion in budget cuts.
The House legislation, approved Wednesday on a bipartisan vote, is the first step toward averting a possible fiscal showdown this month. If another budget crisis can be avoided, it could clear the way for lawmakers and President Barack Obama to restart talks on a longer-term deficit reduction plan.
That was Obama's focus during a rare dinner with a dozen Republican senators Wednesday night at a hotel near the White House and seemed certain to be Topic A Thursday when Rep. Paul Ryan, chairman of the House Budget Committee and last year's GOP vice presidential nominee, joined the president for lunch Thursday at the White House.
While no real breakthroughs appeared to emerge from Wednesday's two-hour meal, the mere fact that it happened was significant given the lack of direct engagement between Obama and rank-and-file Republicans over the past two years.
White House and congressional aides said the president and lawmakers had a good exchange of ideas centered on how they could work together to tackle the nation's fiscal problems.
Emerging from the dinner, Sen. John McCain jokingly said the meeting was "terrible," then added that the meal went "just fine" and flashed a thumbs-up.
"It was, I thought, a very sincere discussion," Sen. Bob Corker, one the dinner attendees, said in an interview Thursday with The Associated Press. "Everybody laid their cards on the table. I thought it was constructive."
"I do think it helped a lay a foundation that maybe sometime between now and when the debt ceiling hits, which is really around the first of August or that time frame, maybe we'll get to a much broader and deeper deal as it relates to solving our fiscal problems, " Corker, R-Tenn., said.
He said that while both sides emphasize different components of a long-term deficit reduction deal, "there is more commonality than people think."
It would take months for compromise talks on a broad deficit reduction deal to bear fruit, and there is little sign of shifts on the key difference that separates the parties. Obama is seeking higher taxes as part of his deficit-cutting approach, while Ryan, author of the House GOP budget, previewed a longer-term plan Wednesday to erase federal deficits without raising taxes.
"I think this whole thing will come to a crescendo this summer, and we're going to have to talk to each other to get an agreement about how to delay a debt crisis, how to save this country from a fiscal train wreck that's coming," Ryan said. He added that he had spoken with Obama in recent days but declined to provide details.
Obama's phone call with Ryan and other congressional Republicans, along with Wednesday's dinner, mark a shift in tactics for a president who has been reluctant to reach out personally to lawmakers. But White House efforts to compel Republicans to negotiate by mounting public pressure campaigns proved futile in the efforts to avert the automatic spending cuts that started taking effect Friday.
Corker said the group had a "frank discussion" about the confrontational tone and public rhetoric that has marked the debate.
"On the one hand, to sit down in a room and be sincere and talk about a problem in a real way, and then to go out the microphones and the cameras and put on the gloves, there was a strong acknowledgment last night that that's not a way of dealing with our nation's biggest issues," Corker said.
Lawmakers and the White House are now looking for ways to ease the impact of the "sequester," as the automatic cuts are called, at the same time they seek to prevent a shutdown of federal agencies on March 27.
The legislation that cleared the House on Wednesday on a bipartisan vote would do both, ensuring funding through the Sept. 30 end of the budget year while granting the Pentagon and the Veterans Affairs Department greater flexibility in implementing their share of short-term spending cuts.
The bill now goes to the Senate, where Democrats and the White House are deep in negotiations with Republicans on changes that would give the Homeland Security Department and other domestic agencies the same type of flexibility that the Pentagon would receive in administering the spending cuts.
As the president looks toward longer-term talks on deficit reduction, he is pointedly skipping over the Republican leaders of the Senate, Mitch McConnell, and of the House, John Boehner, both of whom insist Obama will get no further tax hikes from Capitol Hill. Instead, aides say, Obama is focusing his outreach on lawmakers with a history of bipartisan deal-making and those who have indicated some willingness to support increased tax revenue as part of a big deficit-cutting package.
Republicans have had mixed reactions to the outreach from the president, who has often preferred assigning those efforts to his staff and Vice President Joe Biden.
"He's never spent any time reaching out," said Sen. Tom Coburn, R-Okla., who spoke with the president this week about gun-control legislation. "The question is, is it starting to change because there is bad poll numbers, or is it because he really decided he's going to lead and solve some of the problems of the country?"
Sen. Lindsey Graham, a frequent critic of the White House on national security issues, said he was encouraged by Obama's efforts.
"This is how you solve hard problems," the South Carolina Republican said.
It was during a phone call with Graham this week that the president raised the prospect of a group dinner with Republican lawmakers, an Obama aide said. Graham agreed to put together a guest list.
Along with Graham, Coburn and McCain, the lawmakers in attendance at Wednesday's dinner were Sens. Kelly Ayotte of New Hampshire, Pat Toomey of Pennsylvania, Corker, Ron Johnson of Wisconsin, Saxby Chambliss of Georgia, John Hoeven of North Dakota, Dan Coats of Indiana, Richard Burr of North Carolina and Mike Johanns of Nebraska.
Obama advisers say they're hopeful that without the heightened pressure of an imminent fiscal deadline, the president and Republicans can have constructive conversations on a broad deficit-reduction bill that would include concessions from the GOP on tax increases and from Democrats on entitlement programs.
But unless Boehner and McConnell bend on taxes, prospects for a sweeping deficit deal remain dim.
The president will have an opportunity to make his case to GOP leaders next week when he heads to Capitol Hill for separate meetings with the House and Senate Republican conferences. McConnell announced that Obama would attend the GOP Senate policy lunch, while Boehner's office said it was still working on a date.
Obama will also meet on Capitol Hill next week with House and Senate Democrats.


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Welcome and Details for Fall 2013
Lecture: T/R 11-12 (16-220)
Lab: T/R 1-5 or W/F 1-5 (56-322)
People: Instructor and student web pages may be found at the linked People page.
Welcome to 20.109! For some of you this will be the first time in a research lab and for others it will not; either way, it is our goal to make this class a useful and fun introduction to experiments and techniques in biological engineering. There is not time enough to show you everything you'll need to know if you go on to do research, but after taking this class you should feel confident and familiar with some fundamental experimental approaches and lab protocols. You will develop good habits at the bench, ones that will increase the likelihood of success in your work and ensure the health and safety of you and those around you. By the end of the semester, you should also be aware of good scientific practice, having had some experience with report writing, notebook keeping, and publicly presenting data and your ideas. All of us involved in teaching 20.109 hope you will find it a satisfying challenge and an exciting experience that has lasting value.
Orientation and Safety Material
On the first day of 20.109, you will take an interactive tour to get up to speed on the basics of working in a lab. The lab tour is linked here. You should also carefully read the general lab policy, which broadly covers dos and don'ts specific to our class.
We will spend a lot of time together this semester and get to know each other well. Everyone in the 20.109 family needs the support of their peers and instructors. If you find yourself in a situation where more guidance would be appreciated, here are a couple places to get it.
Later in the semester, you will want to read guidelines for working in the tissue culture facility. Stay tuned!
At any time you can refer the guidelines on using personal protective equipment developed by the Environmental Health and Safety Office (EHS) at MIT: one on eye protection (PDF download) and one on wearing lab coats (PDF download).
Finally, you can learn how to best contribute to the class wiki at the linked OWW in 20.109 page.
- Research Proposal Office Hours
- Agi, Mon by apt, Tue 11am-noon office
- Shannon, Sun 7-9pm in lab, Mon 2-3pm 16-429b
- Note: Shannon will not have office hours Mon 7-8pm
- Hi, folks! We are back to regular office hours this first week of December.
- Shannon, Mon 2-3 pm, 16-429b
- Shannon, Mon 7-8 pm, lab
- Agi, Tue 4-5 pm, 16-319
- Thanksgiving week office hours:
- Shannon, Mon 2-3 pm, 16-429b
- Shannon, Mon 7-8 pm, lab
- (Agi, M/T by appointment)
- Shannon, Tue 1-3 pm, lab
- Agi, Wed 12-2 pm, lab
- Agi will have regular OH today from 4-5 pm. If they are as quiet as I expect (go ahead, prove me wrong!), I may head over to the lab to do some work, in which case I'll leave a note on my door. You'll certainly be able to find me one place or the other. AgiStachowiak 12:53, 19 November 2013 (EST)
- Shannon will NOT hold office hours tomorrow, Monday, Nov. 18th. But will be available for questions by email. Shannon
- Except for the FNT, M3D3 is fully updated for F13. AgiStachowiak 16:49, 15 November 2013 (EST)
- A few minor edits for clarity have been made to M3D2. Nothing that you *must* change in your notebook if you already started it, but you *may* do so for your ease of use. AgiStachowiak 14:27, 13 November 2013 (EST)
- W/F folks: (1) Agi will not hold her normal 4-5 pm OH today (as if anyone would come!), but will do so next week. (2) Feel free to submit your reflections on Stellar or else by sending an Ever/note.AgiStachowiak 10:21, 12 November 2013 (EST)
- Two minor edits were made to M3D1 this morning, in Part 1 step 2 and Part 1 step 6. Other edits were completed yesterday evening. AgiStachowiak 10:20, 12 November 2013 (EST)
- Several notes:
- No lecture Thursday, Nov 7th.
- Shannon's OH: Thurs (11/7) 2-5pm in lab, Fri by appointment, Not avail Saturday, Sunday (11/10) noon-5pm in 56-302 & lunch room
- Agi's OH: Friday (11/8) 1:30-4:30pm in lab, by email or appointment remainder of weekend
- Check the Reflections page -- there are two reflections due on M3D1
- Let me know if you have any questions Shannon
- Reminder: Agi has FNT pick up today from 4:15-4:30 in her office 16-319. (Methods and schematics only.) AgiStachowiak 12:13, 5 November 2013 (EST)
- Thank you, Tom, for adding previous/next day navigation links to the bottom of each Mod 2 wiki page! Folks, please let us know how these work out and if they should be a 109 wiki staple. AgiStachowiak 10:52, 31 October 2013 (EDT)
- The .tif files from W/F M2D6 Licor Scans have been unploaded to the talk page. Check them out!
- The .tif files from T/R M2D6 Licor Scans have been unploaded to the talk page. Check them out!
- Reminder: Agi's extended OH today (Tuesday 10/29) are from 3:45-5:15 pm in 16-319.
- Prof. Engelward will hold OH tomorrow (Monday, 10/28) from 3-5pm in her office (16-743). Shannon
- M2D6 is done -- M2D7 in progress. Thanks! Shannon
- Please note: the M2D6 wiki is not yet finished. I will send a class-wide email when it is ready for prime time. Very likely Friday or Saturday. Thanks for your patience. Shannon
- Please see your email for a link to the M2D4 pre-lab video. Also, Shannon will hold OH this week on Monday (10/21) from 2-3pm in 16-429b and Wednesday (10/23) from 7-8pm in the lab.
- And Agi will hold office hours from 2-3 pm the same day (Wed, 10/16) also in the lab.
- Shannon will have a rescheduled office hour on Wednesday (10/16) from 7-8pm in the lab. Shannon
- Lizzie: Let me know if I forgot to return anyone's notebook. Otherwise, good luck, class! It was nice meeting all of you :)
- You can find old announcements here


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Facts Summary:
The Malabar Grouper (Epinephelus malabaricus) is a species of concern belonging in the species group "fishes" and found in the following area(s): Africa, American Samoa, Asia, Australia, Middle East, Oceanic. This species is also known by the following name(s): Greasy Grouper.
Wikipedia Article Copyright Notice: This article is licensed under the GNU Free Documentation License. It uses material from the Wikipedia article "Malabar grouper". |
Featured ArticleOrphaned cougar cubs progressing well at Toledo Zoo
Back in October, the Toledo zoo received new additions to their creature family... two orphaned cougar cubs, rescued from Washington state when they were 3 weeks old.
Read More... |


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Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan has enraged families of the victims of the Soma mine disaster by characterizing mining accidents as "ordinary things."
In fact, the disaster appears to have ordinary causes familiar to mining experts, who note that well-known precautions exist to prevent the kind of explosion that killed so many in Turkey.
"The risk is constant," says Tom Hethmon, a professor of mine safety at the University of Utah and a consultant to mining companies around the globe.
The risk "has to be managed," Hethmon adds. "And the margins of error are low."
The first major risk apparent in the Soma mine is the concentration of workers underground.
"That can happen either because the mine lacks mechanization and requires a fair amount of human labor," Hethmon says, "or it's a very large operation requiring a large number of people."
Both appear to be true in the Soma mine according to miners there who have spoken with reporters. Hundreds worked underground and some sections of the mine didn't have mining machines, so more workers were needed for the digging. There's also the fact that the explosion rocked the mine during a change in shifts.
If mining continues during shift changes, workers from both shifts are underground simultaneously.
"It enhances productivity," says Davitt McAteer, a former federal mine safety chief who has investigated three major mine disasters in the United States.
"But what it does is double the number of people that are at risk," he adds. "You ... increase the number of fatalities in one fell swoop."
Reports from Turkey indicate the explosion originated in a power distribution center underground, which brings in electricity from the surface and sends it in cables throughout the mine. Every power center and cable, as well as all mining machines, vehicles and other equipment, are potential sources of ignition. Coal seams also contain explosive methane gas and coal dust, an accelerant that feeds explosions. So the world's coal mines, which supply 30 percent of global energy needs, are volatile places.
Even so, the risk can be minimized with the right tools and practices. That includes power distribution centers, says McAteer.
"They should be designed to encase an explosion," he says. "For about 100 years around the world, we've encased an explosion source [with] a metal box that keeps the explosion from entering the atmosphere of the mine."
An ignition entering the atmosphere of the mine can trigger methane and coal dust explosions, which "propagate very quickly underground, and there really isn't any place to hide," says Hethmon.
Survivors of a massive explosion may then be overcome by noxious gases, especially if escape routes are blocked. At the Turkish mine, the explosion cut power so elevators couldn't carry survivors to the surface. In the United States and elsewhere, mines are required to have alternate escape routes.
"If that's not being done," McAteer says, "then that's a violation of very basic safety practices that have existed in this country and ... around the world."
In the U.S. and many mining countries, regulations also require robust ventilation and other measures to control methane gas and coal dust. Government mine inspectors check for compliance and levy citations and fines for violations.
In Turkey, however, the rules appear to be lax and the inspections relatively infrequent, according to McAteer, who cites reports that the Soma mine had only five inspections since 2012.
"A mine of a similar size and conditions in the United States ... would end up with 40-plus inspections" in the same time frame, he says. "The failure to inspect on an ongoing basis means that complacency sets in and you don't have the kind of upkeep of your maintenance and upkeep of your safety precautions" to prevent accidents.
Turkey has an average of 100 mine fatalities a year, according to the International Labor Organization. Coal mines in the U.S. had a record low 20 deaths in 2012 and again in 2013, according to the Mine Safety and Health Administration. China is the deadliest mining country with more than 1,000 fatalities annually.
But major disasters continue to occur around the world despite tougher regulations and enforcement.
"We shouldn't spend too much time feeling superior to our brothers and sisters in Turkey," writes Ken Ward, a veteran mining industry reporter for The Charleston Gazette, in a blog post recounting weakness in mine safety regulation and enforcement in the U.S.
In fact, just this week, two miners died in a Patriot coal mine in West Virginia, which had persistent serious safety violations, targeted enforcement, extra inspections and a rare designation as a mine with a "pattern of violations." The mine had more scrutiny than most coal mines, and portions of it were closed temporarily dozens of times due to threatening conditions. But federal regulators couldn't close the entire mine for good, as NPR reported yesterday.
McAteer investigated the last major disaster in the U.S., which left 29 miners dead in 2010 in Massey Energy's Upper Big Branch mine in West Virginia. A common theme in accidents everywhere and in the last century, he says, is mining companies putting production before safety, and regulators unable or unwilling to stop them.
"Tragically," McAteer says, "the similarities are profound."
Copyright 2021 NPR. To see more, visit https://www.npr.org.


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Most of us take mathematical modeling for granted. After all, we're taught physics and calculus almost hand-in-hand. But we owe a lot to the early pioneers like Isaac Newton, who demonstrated and strongly promoted interpreting natural phenomena through equations. Differential equations are especially useful since most things change as time marches on. Since we live in 3D space, partial differential equations (i.e., equations that express change in more than one "direction") arise as the prominent tool to express continuum level physics for engineering purposes.
For or Against Equations
But not everyone likes equations. In fact, many become engineers in spite of equations. Common complaints are that equations are too abstract, too complicated, and just too dull. They have little to do with actually putting things together and making them work, which is a big part of engineering.
On the other hand, some engineers are theoretical experts who are more comfortable with equations than with the actual thing they're making or fixing. And in any engineering organization, you'll likely both sorts of professionals at least to some degree.
COMSOL Caters to Both Sides
With COMSOL, we're sympathetic to both points of view, and we believe we can satisfy both. You might be more comfortable describing things in terms of the physics: loads, constraints, fields, conductivity, currents, etc. For you, we use specialized terminology specific to the sort of your application. This goes for everything from the material properties to the boundary conditions and other model inputs.
Context menu for solid mechanics boundary conditions.
Or you might be like me, "just show me the equation and I'll figure it out…" We have a section in the settings window (hidden so as not to scare anyone) just for you. It opens the "black box" of simulation and reveals exactly the system of equations that is being solved.
Governing equations for thermal stress.
So how about you? What category would you place yourself in? We welcome your comments and discussion in the comment field below.
In either case, it is our aim to make multiphysics modeling accessible to all serious engineers from researchers to designers and manufacturing. We still have some work to do, and we'll continue to find new ways toward this goal. Your feedback is indeed important.
Note from the editor: A follow-up to this blog post titled Multiphysics versus FEA was published on 2/14/2013.
Comments (5)
Ivar Kjelberg
January 19, 2013How can you Validate and Verify (V&V) a model without being able to unambigously get back to the equations ?
Certainly for many rapid models, the "equation free" approach is easy and handy, but when you come to the V&V part, you need to get back to the equatins, also when you couple many physics.
The nice and unique approach of COMSOL is that they have manged to "unify" all physics, that traditionally have evolved in different direction over the years, with slightly different convention too.
Now we have a common way, and, for example, by looking closer to all the Frames used in "Solid" one will see the commonalities with CFD, two historically different appraoches to describe a rather common physical phenomena, the deformation of a body (solid or fluid) under external loads.
It will be interesting to see how COMSOL can provide us advanced mechanical and thermodynamical theory of deformation, including placticity. Most of the tensor theory required is already implemented today in COMSOL, the dedoubling of the tensors for elastic and plastic components is still to be done, then we will see another chapter of the unification of physics arriving. But again, to beable to follow a minimum of V&V here too, the "equations" are needed.
Personally I'rn running COMSOL with equation view all ON 😉
January 19, 2013Without knowing the equations there is no way one can really know what is going on.
I personally do not think it should even be a matter of discussion if equations are important or not – how can you model and simulate a physical system without knowing the "rules" governing it?
Personally I also think that COMSOL lacks of detailed information, any other software, like ANSYS or ABAQUS, has a manual which describes in a much more detailed way all aspects of discretization, solution, models and so on…
Apart from that I would like to stress the fact that I really like COMSOL and the philosophy behind it.
David Kan
January 23, 2013I like to use the analogy of the hood of your car. When was the last time you opened it? For most people, they might not even know where the release is. Autos are built so well these days, the majority of people experience cars just by driving/riding in them. BUT there is a community of people that can open the hood and make a big (positive) impact. That's what using equation view in COMSOL is like. It's not for everyone, but it is a big advantage for trained professionals.
Doctor_J: There is a fundamental difference between COMSOL and the products you mentioned when it comes to discretization. This is in fact patented and therefore public knowledge. The difference is that COMSOL discretizes AFTER the complete mathematical model is built. The other products build the discretization into each category of physics (which is why there is an emphasis on "elements".) For COMSOL, this makes it much more flexible. The reason I bring this up is that the place to look for details about our discretization is not in the individual module manuals, but in the COMSOL Reference Guide. There you can find a complete discussion of how COMSOL formulates the discretized system given the mathematical model, and then applies the solvers. See pages 276 to 674 for some fun!
February 14, 2013Hi David,
thanks for your reply!
Regarding the "details issue" we were discussing, I am still convinced that COMSOL manual is not up to par with other softwares's manual. Many details of the solver, for example, are missing, i.e. detailed info regarding the adaptive remeshing, detailed info regarding how the time step is calculated by the adaptive time stepper etc… It might be that I have been unable to find them in the manual, but then is a common issue to many users, just skim through COMSOL forum and you'll see many users with the same issue.
Also, COMSOL's manual lacks of info regarding the variables used in the discretization: many variables are not defined in the manual which makes it very hard to "decode" the weak forms presented in equation view.
Thanks again for your reply,
Nikita Kondratiev
March 27, 2013The "Equation" section is very essential. The word descriptions are sometimes not exact enough, especially for people with lack of English 🙂 Considering me, I usually use PDE interfaces, which would be very difficult to operate without seeing an exact form of equation. Sometimes there is just no appropriate interface module.
The thing I'm really missing is the ability to switch between the forms of view (general, coefficient, weak…). I thought the node "Equation View" should do the thing, showing the weak form that is produced by its parent node and assembling all weak contributions at the top, but it is empty for most of the time! The interface is ready, it is brilliant, it can, but it doesn't. I hope this will be improved in future versions.
It is very good to see the final problem that is actually solved. Not the description, but the exact expression. It makes feeling more comfortable. The fact that it can become unreadable for big models is an issue of another type.


text:
In the mid-1960s, Southland Corporation opened several new 7-Eleven convenience stores in Alexandria. Store No. 55 opened in 1965 at the corner of West Glebe Road and Commonwealth Avenue, but it closed down five years later after a violent incident there led to civil unrest.
On May 29, 1970, a white store employee shot and killed a black teenager inside the store, and claimed the young man had pulled a knife on him. Police arrested the employee and charged him with murder that night but he was soon released on bond.
A crowd gathered around the store and groups of people began expressing their anger by throwing rocks at nearby businesses and damaging cars. Vandals broke windows and set fires throughout the night. Five police officers were injured, and at least six people were arrested.
For the next three nights, during a time when race relations in the city were already strained, the unrest continued. Store No. 55 seen boarded up in this photo and other 7-Elevens were targeted, but fire bombs also damaged other businesses throughout Alexandria. City officials enacted emergency measures that banned the sale of guns, certain knives and gasoline in containers. Within the week, the disturbances subsided.
In mid-June, police stated the store employee admitted planting his own knife near the victims body. Later that year, his trial ended in a hung jury. He later pleaded guilty to manslaughter and served less than a year in prison before being paroled. Store No. 55 never reopened, and the building became home to at least two churches. In the early 1970s, the Peoples Choice AME Zion Church moved in, and today the Freedom Way Missionary Baptist Church occupies the old 7-Eleven.
Out of the Attic is provided by the Office of Historic Alexandria.


text:
Friday, December 30, 2011
If Mary is the Mother of Jesus, why isn't the Holy Spirit called his father?
40 comments:
- A Sinner said...
This is one interpretation.
I've seen another, which essentially suggests that (perhaps as would seem "obvious") it was the Father who was the father (ie, the active principle) in Christ's conception, and that "conceived of the Holy Spirit" (conceived "of" seems better than conceived "by") rather means that the Holy Spirit acted as the power of divine receptivity, indwelling in Mary, that allowed her to truly enter into a relationship of Divine Maternity with respect to the Father's Son.
This is not Aquinas's interpretation, and obviously in their ad extra activities...all the Persons actually work in concert. But in terms of what we attribute to what person, attributing the "active" role in the conception to the Holy Spirit seems somewhat confused. Especially given that "conceived of" usually does not indicate the active agent. - December 30, 2011 at 7:57 AM
- Father Ryan Erlenbush said...
@A Sinner,
Even if we were to attribute the active power of Christ's generation to God the Father (which, I think, would be a mistake and foreign to the Scriptural account - "she was found with child, of the Holy Ghost" [Matthew 1,18]), we would still never say that God the Father is Jesus' father in reference to his temporal generation.
This isn't merely a point of Thomism ... the Church never calls any of the persons of the Trinity the "father" of Jesus in relation to his temporal birth.
So, I don't think you are right to say "it was the Father who was the father (i.e., the active principle) in Christ's conception". - December 30, 2011 at 8:31 AM
- Irenaeus of New York said...
The Father is the originating font of Divinity. So this would make Him the Father of His Divine Son no matter how the act of conception was achieved by the Godhead. Since we confess Christ to be True Man, Mary must have cooperated in the same manner as any human birth. Anything less and He could not be confessed as such. Anything less, and He would not be fully human.
- December 30, 2011 at 8:33 AM
- Father Ryan Erlenbush said...
While you are certainly correct to say that Mary cooperated as any mother would in the conception and birth of her Son, still I would warn against saying that this is necessitated by Christ's humanity.
There reason why Mary must truly cooperate is because she is truly Jesus' Mother, not because Jesus is truly man.
Let me explain briefly ... whatever anyone says about the creation account, I don't think any can honestly claim that Adam would not be human on account of the fact that he was not born of a woman. Likewise, who would deny Eve's human nature simply because she came from Adam and not from a mother?
Moreover, if (somehow) scientists were able to create a human from some tissue other than a female egg - and I don't know if that would be possible - and then raise that human in a test-tube, that wouldn't make the child non-human.
Finally, even if the Word had formed a human nature for himself from dust (like Adam's) and descended from the heavens without being born of a woman ... this would not mean that he was not human.
To be human means to have a human nature, having a human mother is not required.
So ... we do not say "Anything less, and He would not be fully human" ... rather we say: "Anything less, and Mary would not truly be his Mother."
Peace and blessings to you! + - December 30, 2011 at 8:41 AM
Question: Mary supplied the matter, but did she supply all of it? For the ovum she supplied would only be 1/2 of a conception, and it would only have an x chromosome to supply. From where did the other half of the genetic makeup with the y chromosome come? Of course it is by the power of the Holy Spirit, but would His power not also have to provide the rest of the matter for human conception?
- December 30, 2011 at 8:45 AM
- Father Ryan Erlenbush said...
@John H,
Excellent question!
There is much room for freedom of opinion in this matter ... but I do believe that we must say that all of Christ's body came from the body of Mary.
How we get a y chromosome is a bit tricky ... I would suppose that the Holy Spirit could take an x chromosome and make it into a y ... or perhaps he took other matter and made it into a y chromosome ... what I do know for certain is that the matter of the y chromosome didn't come from any other source than from the body of Mary (and that she, of course, didn't have a y chromosome by nature).
As God can change stone into sons of Abraham, I suppose there is no reason to think he can't change some piece of flesh into an x chromosome.
Does that seem reasonable? It is a very interesting thing to think about! :-) - December 30, 2011 at 8:49 AM
Thank you Father, it is a very reasonable speculation. It is really no different than when God took the rib of Adam and fashioned Eve from it. Obviously He would have needed to form the other half of her genetic makeup from it somehow. So the Holy Spirit could have taken matter from Mary and modified it into a complimentary gamete that would have provided the other 23 chromosomes (including the y) to make a complete embryo. It still would have been matter from Mary, but changed into the necessary material to complete conception.
- December 30, 2011 at 9:00 AM
- A Sinner said...
"the Church never calls any of the persons of the Trinity the 'father' of Jesus in relation to his temporal birth"
Hm. An interesting (if hair-splitting) point. Of course, we speak of Christ's Father all the time, as did He, but I suppose we can only speak of the Father or mother of persons, not "natures," of course, and so Christ's Father is His father, period (ie, as applying to His person), just as Mary is His Mother, period (and thus can truly be called "Mother of God" though she did not generate the divinity).
Still, what I'm saying is that in terms of the generation of His humanity, it seems confused to attribute to some other divine person the father-ly role. The Angel Gabriel did not say, "The Holy Spirit will impregnate you." Rather, he said "the Holy Spirit will OVERSHADOW you"...and the child will be called Son of God (and "God" standing unqualified here means the Father).
So I still think it's possible to say that "conceived of the Holy Spirit" means that the Holy Spirit's role was constituting Mary in divine RECEPTIVITY to the Father's (temporal) active sending/"mission" of the Son, and thus that any analogy of the Holy Spirit to "father" is entirely confused (and not merely because the humanity conceived was not of the same nature).
This would not, mind you, exclude the Holy Spirit's role in forming Christ's body in her womb (as, in a certain sense, that function itself is done by the maternal receptivity of the mother's body once it receives the seed, and is not in fact a function of the "active force" of a father in giving or sending that seed.) - December 30, 2011 at 9:06 AM
- A Sinner said...
I've found Stratford Caldecott's article touching on this point intriguing, especially as regards the insights of St. Maximilian Kolbe and the connection of Pneumatology and Mariology:
"I would be inclined to defend Kolbe's phrase by arguing that 'Conception' here refers rather to the act of conception than to the one conceived or begotten in or through the act. The Holy Spirit is thus the one 'in whom' the Son is eternally begotten, the one 'in whom' the Father contemplates and loves his Son. The motherhood of the Mother of God then becomes an image of the active conceiving of this Word in the bosom of the eternal Trinity - the Word carried on the breath of the Spirit, the wings of the Dove. She is the earthly image of the 'hearing' or 'understanding' of the Eternal Word. For the Word generated by the Father is understood by the one in whom it is received perfectly - by that person, in fact, who is the Immaculate Conception. The Mother of God is thus the earthly image not of the Father's generation of the Son, nor of the Son's generation by the Father, but of the Holy Spirit's conception of the Son as a gift for the Father and for the world. This means also that the Mother of God is an image of the way the Son is loved in the eternal Trinity, since in God to understand is to love and to love is to understand."
You may find that formulation controversial. I like it though, and believe it has obvious implications for how we speak of the Holy Spirit's role (as the force of receptivity in Mary in Christ's conception, of the "act-ive conceiving"...rather than as the [i]generative[/i] force which is proper to a father and thus would seem more appropriate to the Father in terms of our attributions). - December 30, 2011 at 9:10 AM
- Father Ryan Erlenbush said...
@A Sinner,
I can't help but smile when you hint that I am splitting hairs by insisting that God the Father is the Father of Jesus in relation to his eternal birth rather than in relation to his temporal birth (for in this, he had no father), but then you quickly turn around and insist that the Holy Spirit ought not to be giving the attribution of being the active principle in Christ's conception (making intricate distinctions between "overshadow" and "impregnate").
Is the kettle or the pot more black? :-)
Well, I don't think I'm splitting hairs, because claiming that God is Jesus' father in relation to his humanity will almost certainly lead to the heresy of adoptionism.
Once again in defense of attributing the conception more to the Holy Spirit than to the Father, I will again quote Scripture -- "she was found with child, of the Holy Ghost" [Matthew 1,18] ... not 'found with child of the Father' nor even 'found with child of God'; but 'of the Holy Ghost' ... can you find a single passage where Scripture attributes the power of conception directly to the Father?
Finally, please stop speaking of a "father-ly" role ... it just confuses the issue ... neither the Father nor the Spirit have a father-ly role in Christ's conception -- I am quite certain that this thinking is what is leading to the confusion. - December 30, 2011 at 9:19 AM
- Sam said...
Father Ryan,
Your post raised a question I have wondered about. I have always understood that the nature and attributes of God are immutable, that they can undergo no change.
Yet, as you pointed out, in the incarnation God assumed something he previously did not have---namely, flesh and blood. Isn't this taking on of humanity a significant change in either the nature or attributes of God? Am I simply misunderstanding the immutability of God?
Please understand, I do not intend to question the incarnation in any way. I believe it wholeheartedly. I am in the position of "faith seeking understanding." Thank you. - December 30, 2011 at 9:27 AM
- Father Ryan Erlenbush said...
@A Sinner,
Any notion of the Holy Spirit conceiving the Son from eternity is very confused.
The Son is not generated through the Holy Spirit, but the Holy Spirit proceeds from the Father and through the Son (as the early Eastern Fathers also maintained, especially St. Gregory of Nyssa).
If the Son was eternally from the Father and the Holy Spirit, then we would say "Father, Holy Spirit and Son" ... but rather we say "Father, Son and Holy Spirit" because there is a proper order to the persons in the Trinity -- there is no before or after, no greater or less, but there is still an order and a logic of procession.
In any case, the tradition of the Fathers maintains that the birth of Jesus from Mary is an image of his eternal birth from the Father -- as Mary's virginal integrity was unharmed, so too is the Father's divine nature undivided.
Thus, Mary is more an image of the Father than of the Holy Spirit; when considering her role in conceiving and bearing a Son.
What does St. John say? "The only begotten Son who is in the bosom of the Father" ... not 'in the bosom of the Holy Spirit', but 'of the Father' ... thus, as he was in the womb of Mary in time, he manifested to us that from eternity he was in the bosom of the Father.
I think Caldecott is terribly confused. - December 30, 2011 at 9:33 AM
- Irenaeus of New York said...
Thank you for that excellent explanation. I have some doubts though with your example on Adam and Eve in discounting the necessity of parents for ones nature.
With Christ, I see a distinction between being born, rather than being created. Whereas Adam and Eve are an example of creation and not begetting through generation. Therefore, since Christ was not created, his humanity/nature would seem to be necessarily from a parent.
The test tube babies thing also seems more akin to creation than begetting. I hear they can even massage the dna and change eye color, or sex etc. The doctor has creative control(though not complete) over nature. If however, we are taking an unaltered and natural seed and egg, I see them still coming from a parent, though it may be anonymous.
Many thanks! - December 30, 2011 at 9:35 AM
- Father Ryan Erlenbush said...
I can see your good will and humility, with these you will certainly be aided by the Holy Spirit to come to something of an understanding of the mystery!
If the union brought about by the incarnation was in the divine nature, then there would be a change in God -- but the union was not in the nature but in the divine Person of the Word, hence the two natures remained whole and complete and undisturbed.
This is why there is no change in God, because the divine nature did not incorporate a human nature in a mingling or confusion, but rather the divine Person (the Son) assumed a human nature.
Thus, we may ask, was there a change in the Word?
According to his divine nature, there is no change and never has or will be any change.
According to his human nature, there is change -- for he began to exist as a man (though he always existed as God), he moved and was moved, he lived and died and lives again, etc.
I hope that this makes some sense ... let the Spirit of God instruct you further, for He will reveal all things. + - December 30, 2011 at 9:38 AM
- Father Ryan Erlenbush said...
@Irenaeus of NY,
Actually, I think we understand each other perfectly and are in complete agreement!
As you say, the distinction is between being born and being created (though I might use slightly different words, these are fine for now) ... insofar as Jesus was born, it is necessary that he had a true and natural Mother.
However, insofar as he is Man, it is not absolutely necessary that he be born ... hence, he would have been Man even if he had no mother.
In fact, he did have a Mother, and he was born. But, even without a mother and without a birth, he would still have been human (just as Adam and Eve are still human).
As you say, "since Christ was not created" [rather than simply, 'since Christ was human'] "his humanity/nature would seem to be necessarily from a parent" [i.e. from Mary his Mother].
Peace and blessing to you. + - December 30, 2011 at 9:43 AM
- Irenaeus of New York said...
There is nothing more beautiful than learning something new about God through this kind of reasoning:) Thank you for your shared wisdom Father!!!
- December 30, 2011 at 9:53 AM
- A Sinner said...
"The Son is not generated through the Holy Spirit, but the Holy Spirit proceeds from the Father and through the Son (as the early Eastern Fathers also maintained, especially St. Gregory of Nyssa)."
I don't think Caldecott is denying this at all.
"If the Son was eternally from the Father and the Holy Spirit"
No one is saying this.
Caldecott's point is to identify the person of the Holy Spirit with the "reception" of the Son generated by the Father, as it were. In this sense, his formulation affirms the "through the Son" aspect even more
"In any case, the tradition of the Fathers maintains that the birth of Jesus from Mary is an image of his eternal birth from the Father"
This is not excluded either by Caldecott's interpretation, it just would nuance it a little bit so that rather than identifying Mother with Father in the analogy, the emphasis would be on Mary's receptive role, more than her "generative" role. - December 30, 2011 at 12:46 PM
- Father Ryan Erlenbush said...
@A Sinner,
If the Holy Spirit receives the Son, then the logical order would be Father, Spirit, Son ... for the Father does not beget the Son into the Spirit, but Father and the Son spirate the Spirit.
Indeed, the Spirit is the wondrous exchange of love between the Father and the Son.
And to change the analogy so that Mary is an image of the Holy Spirit completely changes everything ... it does violence to the tradition. - December 30, 2011 at 1:08 PM
Father Ryan,
Thank you for the elegant exposition of the relationship of God the Father and God the Holy Spirit to the Incarnation, and for explaining that "Jesus is rightly called the Son of God, meaning the Son of God the Father – for the one Person (the Word) was begotten of the Father from all eternity." Happy Feast of the Holy Family, Father! - December 30, 2011 at 1:58 PM
Have you or will you post about Luke 2:41-45? Protestant claim that this is evidence of Mary's carelessness, which goes contrary to her being without sin due to the merits of Jesus Christ OR they claim that this is evidence of her having more than one child. Can you make an article about this topic? Thank you! - December 30, 2011 at 2:47 PM
- A Sinner said...
"If the Holy Spirit receives the Son, then the logical order would be Father, Spirit, Son ... for the Father does not beget the Son into the Spirit, but Father and the Son spirate the Spirit."
Caldecott's argument says these would be equivalent.
He is not proposing some sort of pre-existent (even in the order of logic) Spirit to receive the Son. Rather he is proposing that the very relation (and the divine persons are relations subsisting, after all) of receptivity proceeds from the Father and (and through) the Son, that receptivity logically FOLLOWS generation. - December 30, 2011 at 6:52 PM
I don't perfectly understand what the debate is touching, to tell the truth, but I think that the order of the three persons within the Holy Trinity isn't just a matter of "logic", as "A Sinner" wrote. The order is an ontological order. The Holy Spirit is actually proceeding from the Father and/through the Son, while the Son isn't dependent at all, in His divine nature, on the Holy Spirit.
I think (just to verify if I have it right), that the best description of Christ's "parents" to be like this: Jesus is the only begotten Son of the Father alone according to His divinity, and the only begotten Son of Mary alone according to His humanity, yet as a single Person in two natures we can and must say that Jesus is Son both of the Father and of Mary. We may summarize the role of the Holy Spirit in three ways:
1) The 3rd Person in the Holy Trinity was responsible for the creation of the gamete of Jesus' body out of Mary's genetic material, not in the same way as a male would provide semen and conceive, but by a new immediate creation out of Mary's DNA and egg. As it was said before, Jesus was formed out of Mary's egg in the same way that Adam was formed out of clay in the Garden of Eden - neither matter could actually conceive by natural means, so it must be called a new creation out of pre-existing matter.
2) The Holy Spirit breathed the newly formed soul of Jesus within the newly created gamete at the very same instant of conception.
3) The Paraclete was (I suppose) responsible for the realization of the Hypostatic Union.
I hope Father could confirm my interpretation, and if I'm wrong in any respect, I would like to know it... thanks! - December 31, 2011 at 2:45 AM
I second Iranaeus of New York's comment. Thank you so much for doing this. Wishing you every blessing for 2012.
- December 31, 2011 at 4:13 AM
Hello Father. I am just finishing up reading Blessed Newman's book Arians of the 4th Century. As a student of Athanasius, I have always found the topic of the Trinity to be fascinating and mysterious. I question one thing though that you stated. You say that the Son is not consubstantial with the Spirit. This can't be true. All of the persons (hypostasis) share the same substance (ousia). They would therefore have to be consubstantial sharing the divine substance of the Father...who begat the Son before all ages and sends His Spirit through the Son. Am I missing something there?
- December 31, 2011 at 6:39 AM
- Father Ryan Erlenbush said...
@Matt R,
The key words are "in his humanity" and "neither his body nor his soul" ... for the human nature of Jesus is not consubstantial with the Holy Spirit -- Jesus' body and soul are human, his humanity is human.
Yes, as you say, St. Athanasius (and the whole tradition) teaches that Jesus is consubstantial with the Father and Holy Spirit -- and this is according to his divinity.
However, by his humanity, he is not consubstantial with the Holy Spirit, but with us [that is the language of the council of Chalcedon].
Hope it makes sense now! + - December 31, 2011 at 9:37 AM
- Father Ryan Erlenbush said...
@Ellen an Michelangelo,
Thank you for your kind words. +
I don't have any immediate plans to write on Luke 2:41-45 ... but perhaps some day.
Thanks for the encouragement, it is an important topic to be sure! +
Yes, I think you are very much on the right track.
When using words like "ontological order" we also have to be careful to point out that the Father does not cause the Son and neither is the Holy Spirit caused -- for they are all the uncaused Cause.
And, to be clear, you didn't say this and you didn't make any error, but I'm just pointing it out so as to avoid any possible confusion in the future. :-) - December 31, 2011 at 9:42 AM
- Father Ryan Erlenbush said...
@A Sinner,
Would you please address the Scriptural text I have now cited a couple of times?
Matthew 1,18: "she was found with child, of the Holy Spirit."
For your ease ... the KJV and Douay-Rheims both say "of the Holy Spirit" ... the NRS says "from the Holy Spirit" ... Vulgate is "de" ... the Greek is "ek".
On this verse, Chrysostom says "It was the Holy Ghost that wrought this miracle."
Secondly, please respond to the fact that the whole tradition sees the virgin birth from Mary as a sign of the eternal birth of the Son from the Father -- such that Mary begetting is an image of the Father begetting (rather than of the Holy Spirit).
If we are not rooted in Scripture and Tradition ... then our speculative theology will be worth very little. - December 31, 2011 at 9:51 AM
- A Sinner said...
"Would you please address the Scriptural text I have now cited a couple of times?"
I've never denied Mary was with child "of the Holy Spirit." The question is how. The Spirit clearly had a big role, the question is which role, or what analogy should be applied to it. The "of" here clearly doesn't mean that the child is the Holy Spirit's in the manner of a father to a son (the whole point of your post), so then the question becomes in what sense should we speak of the Holy Spirit's involvement.
There is no doubt she was pregnant "of the Holy Spirit," but she was pregnant of the Holy Spirit with the Father's Son.
"Secondly, please respond to the fact that the whole tradition sees the virgin birth from Mary as a sign of the eternal birth of the Son from the Father -- such that Mary begetting is an image of the Father begetting (rather than of the Holy Spirit)."
Well, birth and conception are two different things as your own previous post on Christmas vs. the Annunciation points out. Begetting (ie, birthing) seems more associated with the Father-Son relationship in tradition, whereas the complex of ideas surrounding "Conception" (see St. Maximilian Kolbe on this) seems more associated with the Holy Spirit (hence we speak of the Spirit at the Annunciation, the conception, but emphasize the Father at the Nativity, the birth).
I don't know what this sort of parallel set of associations implies, but it's interesting. - December 31, 2011 at 10:26 AM
- Father Ryan Erlenbush said...
@A Sinner,
You didn't address Matthew 1:18 ... the point is that the Holy Spirit seems to be credited with the active generative power ... this is certainly what St. Chrysostom says.
Why didn't Matthew say "of the Father", if we out to attribute the work to the Father more than the Spirit? That is my question for you.
Regarding Christ's conception and birth ... yes, you are right, conception is often more associated with the Holy Spirit ... not (as you say) that Mary is an image of the Holy Spirit, but that Mary is the spouse of the Spirit and that the Child is conceived through the active power of the Holy Spirit.
Can you see that your hypothesis is very different from the tradition?
In being the Mother of Jesus, Mary is a sign of the Father -- not so much of the Holy Spirit.
And St. Maximilian Kolbe's primary sense of speaking of Mary as the "quasi-incarnation of the Holy Spirit" refers to her Immaculate Conception -- not so much to her role as Mother of God and the conception of Christ.
I'm sorry, but I just don't think our conversation is going anywhere ... with this, I will have to let my points stand and refrain from further comments. - December 31, 2011 at 10:37 AM
This post is predicated on an understanding of a very nuanced point. That point is the spousal relationship between Our Lady and the Holy Spirit. Referring to Our Lady as the spouse of the Holy Spirit is ancient; it goes back to Patristic times. That being said, she is not the spouse of the Holy Spirit in the same way that she was the spouse of St. Joseph.
I do not mean to put words in your mouth, so I wonder if you could speak to this distinction. I think that it goes to the very heart of this issue.
Kind Regards,
Father S. - December 31, 2011 at 8:54 PM
- Father Ryan Erlenbush said...
@Father S,
Yes, you are most certainly right to point out that Joseph is spouse of Mary in a way far different from that by which the Holy Spirit is Spouse of Mary ... Joseph is a spouse by virtue of betrothal and marriage, whereas the Holy Spirit is spouse by virtue of the most profound spiritual nuptials (and further insofar as Mary is the true Mother of God).
Thank you for pointing to this nuance! + - January 1, 2012 at 1:45 PM
- MaestroJMC said...
Father Erlenbush,
I have a question that is somewhat related to Matt R.'s question, above. You say that in His humanity, Christ is not of the same nature and consubstantial with the Holy Spirit, and you give that as a reason why we do not call the Holy Spirit the father of Jesus. So I was wondering, is Christ in His humanity equal in nature and consubstantial with the Father, then? This would mean that the Father also has a human nature, which seems rather absurd. So on what account do we call the First Person the father of Christ - not only in Christ's divinity, but also his humanity - if Christ in his humanity is not equal to the Father?
Similarly: you say that because The First person and the Second person are equal and coeternal in their divinity, Christ can be said to be the Son of the First Person (hence the Father). But is Christ not also equal and coeternal, in His divinity, to the Holy Spirit? If so, would it not also seem to follow that we could call the Spirit the father of Christ?
I hope I've expressed myself intelligibly. And by the way, in no way do I doubt what you are trying to defend; I am merely trying to understand more. :-)
In Christ,
Jonathan - January 1, 2012 at 3:22 PM
- Father Ryan Erlenbush said...
Good questions ... it is indeed a complex point.
What we must remember is that God the Father is the Father of Jesus in his divinity, not in his humanity ... as God, Jesus has only a Father (God the Father); as man, Jesus only has a mother (Mary) -- there is an ancient verse about this, but I don't have it readily available ... something like "God without mother and Man without father" (St. Thomas quotes it somewhere in his commentary on Hebrews ... on the passage "he is like Melchizedech, without mother or father, without generation".
So, Jesus, as man, is not equal to the Father -- this is why he says "The Father is greater than I".
But, as God, he is equal to the Father and of the same nature as the Father, hence he is the Son of the Father.
But, as God, the Word is not the Son of the Spirit because the Spirit does not beget the Word, nor does the Word proceed from the Spirit ... rather the Holy Spirit proceeds from the Father and the Son -- and this is not a "begetting", for the Spirit is not a son, but he is rather the "Breath" ("Spiritus") which proceeds from both the Father and the Son (and principally from the Father).
Thus, neither is the Spirit the father of the Son nor is the Son the father of the Spirit -- but there is only one Father, and one Son of the Father, and one Spirit of the Father and of the Son.
And, in his humanity, Christ is not equal or consubstantial with the Father or the Spirit ... but only in his divinity, for he is truly God.
Hope that it is clearer now! Peace and blessings to you ... and happy feast of Mary Mother of God! + - January 1, 2012 at 3:58 PM
- MaestroJMC said...
Thank you, Father, that does make it a bit clearer. So there are also the divine processions to be taken into consideration.
One more thing, however: You said that God the Father is the father of Jesus in his divinity, but not in his humanity. Why then does Ludwig Ott list the following as De Fide: "Not only as God but also as man Jesus Christ is the natural Son of God"? - January 1, 2012 at 4:17 PM
- Father Ryan Erlenbush said...
Maestro (Jonathan),
I mean to say that Jesus' humanity is not fathered by God the Father.
Of course, as you rightly point out, the one Person, Jesus, who is both God and Man, is the natural Son of God the Father -- and this was really a major point of my article (since, we do not say he is an adopted son in his humanity, but that there is only one filiation [sonship] in Christ, and this is his identity as eternally begotten of the Father).
So, yes, Jesus is the natural Son of God -- and he is not an adopted son, not even by his human nature; because he is already the natural Son by his divine nature.
Thus, though he has no father from his humanity (i.e. no one fathered his humanity), I suppose we may say that "in" his humanity he is still the natural Son of the Father (by virtue of the fact that he is one Person, God the Son).
Ok, hope I'm making it more clear ... and not muddying the waters! :-) - January 1, 2012 at 4:26 PM
- Father Ryan Erlenbush said...
Here is a quote from St. Augustine (Sermon 184.2):
"Natus est Christus et de patre et de matre; et sine patre et sine matre: de patre Deus, de matre homo; sine matre Deus, sine patre homo"
Christ has been born both of a Father and a Mother; and also without a father and a mother; God from the Father, Man from the Mother; God without mother, and Man without father.
It is also said: "Of the Father without a mother, of the Mother without a father".
Beautiful to meditate upon! + - January 1, 2012 at 4:32 PM
I have a question somewhat related to this post. Would it be appropriate to generally call Jesus "Father?" This came up when a window in my Advent calendar said (referring to Jesus) "He's a baby, but we can call Him Father!" (citing Jn 8:19). I suspected the answer is no, since the First and Second Persons of the Trinity are distinct (and Father seems to be a name for a person), but another Catholic I know suggested that it is okay since God is one. I also came across Isaiah 9:5: "For a child is born to us, a son is given to us; upon his shoulder dominion rests. They name him Wonder-Counselor, God-Hero, Father-Forever, Prince of Peace." Not sure how that fits in. Has this been addressed by the Fathers or Doctors? Thanks a lot. - January 2, 2012 at 8:24 AM
- Father Ryan Erlenbush said...
In his biblical commentaries especially, St. Thomas gives good support to the idea of calling Jesus "Father" ... indeed, several of the Church Fathers (no citation handy) say that the prayer "Our Father" refers primarily to God the Father, but also to the Trinity as a whole.
What is important to remember is that God the Father is the natural Father of God the Son ... but not our natural father. Rather, by grace, the whole Trinity is our Father.
Still, there is something to the fact that we are "sons in the Son" ... we are identified in a particular way as the Body of Christ, and this lends to the idea of calling God the Father "our Father" in a more specific sense (but only as a matter of appropriation).
So, yes, Jesus is most certainly our Father -- even in his humanity, he is the Father of those saved by grace.
Many modern theologians scoff at the whole idea of calling all three persons "Father" in relation to us (see especially Fr. Karl Rahner) ... the simple fact is that the Church does occasionally call Jesus "Father" -- especially when applying certain Old Testament prophecies to the Lord (as you mentioned). Also, the Holy Spirit is sometimes called "Father" -- as in "Veni Pater pauperum", Come, Father of the poor; from the Veni, Sancte Spiritus. - January 2, 2012 at 8:43 AM
Father Erlenbush,
When I think about the Incarnation, and the overshadowing of Mary by the Holy Spirit, I see it from the vantage point of Contemplative Prayer. More specifically, the Prayer of Union that takes place in what St. Teresa of Avila calls the Seventh Mansions-Spiritual Marriage. The Immaculate Conception of Mary was the ideal preparation for this Prayer of Union, and when joined with Mary's fiat, produced the conformity of wills that brought about the Incarnation and the Hypostatic Union of Jesus. To me the Incarnation is the highest form of the Prayer of Union that is possible for a purely human contemplative. Mary is called the patroness of contemplatives. Has Mary ever been given the title of the Queen of Contemplatives?
There has been some reference made in the postings as to the form in which Jesus is consubstantial with the other Two Persons of the Holy Trinity. To me this has a direct application as to the way that God created Eve and the generation of Christ's human nature. The importance of Eve being made from a rib of Adam, being bone of his bone and flesh of his flesh, is that she was consubstantial with Adam. Of all the creatures that God brought before Adam only Eve was consubstantial, and made in the image and likeness of God. In the same way Christ, being made from a part of Mary's body through conception and birth, took on a humanity that is consubstantial with Mary.
-GregB - January 3, 2012 at 12:02 PM
- Father Ryan Erlenbush said...
Yes, you have the consubstantial thing exactly right!
I don't know whether Mary is called Queen of Contemplatives ... as you mention, she is certainly the perfect model of contemplative prayer -- for she conceived Christ in her hear/soul/mind before she conceived him in her womb.
Peace and blessings to you! + - January 3, 2012 at 2:51 PM
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Hot Coffee Modification
In mid-June 2005, a file dubbed Hot Coffee was released that modifies Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas. After installing the patch/mod, users can enter the protagonist's girlfriends' houses and engage in a crudely rendered, partially clothed sexual intercourse mini-game.
This feature was disabled from the game before release, but not actually removed. This was discovered by several modders in 2004. Patrick W released a modification (the Hot Coffee mod) to enable it. This was made downloadable for the PC in June 2005 and was released for the PS2 and Xbox soon after.
Name's Reference
The name "Hot Coffee" refers to the way the released game alludes to the unseen sex scenes. In the unmodified game, the player takes his girlfriend to her front door and she asks him if he would like to come in for "some coffee." He agrees, and the camera stays outside, swaying back and forth a bit, while moaning sounds are heard.
Jack Thompson and other anti-gaming advocates denounced the Hot Coffee mod in the media, as if it were an existing feature of the game that children could easily stumble across. This led to the game being pulled from stores across the USA, and re-rated as AO (Adults Only) by the ESRB (already an 18 in the UK). Rockstar was forced to permanently remove this feature and they soon released a non-modifiable 2nd edition of GTA San Andreas, which regained the M rating.
In the middle of July 2005, the ESRB, as well as various politicians including Senator Hillary Clinton (D-NY), launched an investigation into the Hot Coffee mod. Initially, Rockstar released a statement that strongly suggested that the Hot Coffee content was entirely created by "hackers". However, this claim was undermined when codes were released on web forums for the PlayStation 2 Gameshark and AR Max CheatDevices that demonstrated that the controversial content was, indeed, built into the console versions.
Confusing the issue is a recent version of the Hot Coffee mod which replaces the semi-nude girlfriends' textures with unclothed bitmaps that cannot be seen without the mod.
On July 20, 2005, Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas was re-rated as "AO" (Adults Only) by the ESRB. Rockstar has halted production of all versions of Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas and plans to release a censored version of the game, which is intended to conform to the initial "M" rating, later this year. Due to the new AO rating, many major retail outlets, including Sears, Hollywood Video, Best Buy, Wal-Mart, Blockbuster Video, Target and GameStop, have pulled the PC and console versions of the game from their shelves.
On July 29, 2005, as a result of the newly-discovered scenes, the (OFLC) Office of Film and Literature Classification (Australia) revoked the game's "MA15+" classification (the highest currently available for computer games in Australia), and changed the game's status to "RC" (Refused Classification) meaning that the original version could no longer be sold in Australia. The patched version was given an "MA15+" classification on September 12, 2005.
As of July 23, 2005, however, the PEGI rating for the game has remained unchanged, although it is likely that the PEGI sexual content label will be added to the game cover. The effect on Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas sales is as of yet unknown, but Take Two Interactive has revised its projected financial statement for the quarter to reflect a further anticipated loss.
On August 10, 2005, Rockstar Games officially released a patch for Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas. Nicknamed the "Cold Coffee Patch" by some, the patch fixed many performance issues and bugs. However, the most major addition was that the patch disabled the controversial "Hot Coffee" scenes, even if the "Hot Coffee" mod was reinstalled.
The game has since been re-released with the "Hot Coffee" scenes removed (Grand Theft Auto:San Andreas 2.0), allowing the game to return to its "M" rating. However, the "Hot Coffee" mod dashed financial expectations for TakeTwo Games, which lost $28.8 million in its fiscal 3rd quarter of 2005 (May to July) partly because of the re-rating; the company lost $14.4 million in the same quarter in 2004.
In December, 2007 Take Two Interactive has approved class action settlement with an exchange or the refund for original game copies. According to final report only 2,676 people have returned game, compare to over twelve-million sales.
In September 2009, Take Two finally settled the class-action lawsuit brought against them for US$20m, of which 15m will be paid by insurers and 5m by the company itself.[1]
In November 11, 2005, FOX program Killer Instinct's latest episode focuses on a hit online video-game with explicit violence that can cause players to murder people. Other parts of it shows us that teenagers are playing it and the worst thing is unlocking sexually explicit scenes and mini-games (aka Hot Coffee Scandal) caused the detectives to find the creator of the game, get information and stop the murderer who's been playing the game for hours (ala-Devin Moore). The fictional game title was Murder One: San Fransisco and the box art looks similar to San Andreas and Vice City but with badly drawn art. Also, the fake game is actually pre-rendered with models from Poser. It is also combined with another upcoming controversial game, 25 to Life, a cops and robbers simulator.
Rockstar's Actions
Rockstar has since vowed legal action against any subsequent sources that reveal how to access this part of the game, mainly CheatDevice code sites.
- In GTA IV there are references to the Hot Coffee incident. An achievement/trophy called "Warm Coffee" can be unlocked. When coming back from a date with any girlfriend, Niko Bellic asks "Could I come in for some hot coffee?" Depending on how well the date went, the girlfriend can let Niko go to her apartment or refuse to let him in.
- If Niko Bellic "trys his luck" with Michelle on their second date (after the mission First Date) she will state that if shes going to let him in for some coffee, it will cost him "20mil", a direct reference to the case. They settle the deal with a kiss instead.
- The hot coffee incident is also referenced in Grand Theft Auto: Liberty City Stories and Grand Theft Auto: Chinatown Wars. In GTA Liberty City Stories, Maria Latore invites Toni during the final cutscene of a mission to join her for "coffee" at her house. Toni tells her that he'll pass. In GTA Chinatown Wars, Huang Lee asks Lian for "coffee" at the end of a mission but she rejects his advances.
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