June snippets

I am a bit late with this, but congratulations are due to Redeemer's class of 2009, which graduated a week ago saturday. May the Lord guide them as they seek to serve God and neighbour to his glory. Congratulations are also due to Redeemer itself, as indicated in this news item, dated friday, 29 May:

In a joyous ceremony in Redeemer’s Commons, David Sweet, Member of Parliament for Ancaster-Dundas-Flamborough-Westdale announced today that Redeemer University College will be receiving a $2.9 million investment from the federal government’s Knowledge Infrastructure Program (KIP).

Unfortunately, plans for the construction of a new political science building were not included in the grant.

Mixolydian Knight has caught the Associated Press in a rather careless error: AP misinformed. The Church of Scotland will be surprised — not to mention disconcerted — to hear that it is part of the Anglican Communion.

The lituus? What's that? The BBC's Pallab Ghosh tells us: 'Lost' music instrument recreated.

The 2.4m (8ft) long trumpet-like instrument was played in Ancient Rome but fell out of use some 300 years ago. Bach's motet (a choral musical composition) "O Jesu Christ, meins lebens licht" was one of the last pieces of music written for the Lituus. Now, for the first time, this 18th Century composition has been played as it should have been heard.

Listen for yourself here. This would seem to put to rest the urban legend that the lituus fell out of use due to parents' inability to fit it in the family car when driving the children to their music lessons.

More often than not my home state of Illinois makes headlines due to some questionable activity on the part of its politicians. Now we learn, courtesy of the Chicago Tribune, that admissions staff have been pressured by trustees, state legislators and other powerful people to admit specific academically unqualified students to the state's best-known public university: University of Illinois admits it bowed to clout on admissions. Perhaps it's time to admit that, after nearly two centuries, Illinois is a failed experiment and that its territory and people should be distributed among the surrounding states.

Just when it seemed that there was nothing left to discover, meteorologists are reporting the discovery of a new type of cloud. It's being called the asperatus, and it's the first new cloud to be named since the well-known argentonimbus, which is distinguished from other clouds by its conspicuous silver lining.