I’m going to miss Dark Sky. It was one of those important iOS apps that made a generation of early adopters into lifelong users.
As a reminder, Apple says it will be shutting down Dark Sky on January 1, 2023. The popular weather app was already removed from the App Store in September and it will stop functioning for existing users starting tomorrow.
I’m constantly on the fence about pre-planning or pre-scheduling too many marketing posts ahead of time on social media. It’s handy, for sure. However, given that events happen without warning, there are real risks that could make whatever you’re trying to do look incredibly out-of-touch.
However, there is a benefit to having a month (or week) long agenda of posts to help keep you or your team on track. Social media is a platform that often rewards spontaneity, and you should be building that into marketing efforts. But it would be best if you had a foundation on which to grow, and a good plan can get you there.
For example, I stumbled upon a free monthlong planner for social media posts in January 2023 from Plann. There is any number of these out there. Still, the benefit is that these calendars take away the guesswork and produce dozens of content pieces that can be used across social networks, promotional materials, videos, recaps, etc.
So spend some time thinking and planning while allowing your marketing efforts to remain responsive and flexible in 2023!
How Angels Found their Wings | History Today:
The angels of the Bible were not winged. (The winged Cherubim and Seraphim are figures derived from the Near Eastern tradition of winged zoomorphic guardian figures and are not angels since they perform none of the angelic functions.) In fact, in the Old Testament angels are often not clearly distinguished from humans at all. The New Testament letter to the Hebrews recommends: ‘Do not forget to show hospitality to strangers, for by so doing some people have shown hospitality to angels without knowing it.’ When angels are clearly identified in the New Testament, they are distinguished from ordinary humans by markers first found in Old Testament books, such as gleaming white robes, or a countenance like lightning – but no wings.
One of my favorite Bible studies to lead every year is the “Imagining Jesus” series, where we look at historical, theological, and entertainment (movies, music videos, cartoons, etc.) depictions of Jesus. The ultimate point is to help the participant realize that we “imagine” Jesus’ appearance, demeanor, and personality based on a number of our cultural influences and personal ideas (and perhaps reading the Gospels and New Testament more closely can help us expand our preconceptions). As a Baptist, I heavily emphasize reading the Bible rather than taking someone else’s word for it.
When we get to the end, people often ask me, “ok, ok, this is all good… but what did Jesus really look like?”. To answer, I usually turn back to this explanation from my beloved Dura Europos and how the closest conception we can get to what Jesus might have looked like actually comes from a depiction of Moses in the Synagogue there (or Abraham / Nehemiah in the second image here… there’s still debate there).
Good read during this Christmas Season, nonetheless!
“For all that may be done with modelling on ancient bones, I think the closest correspondence to what Jesus really looked like is found in the depiction of Moses on the walls of the 3rd Century synagogue of Dura-Europos since it shows how a Jewish sage was imagined in the Graeco-Roman world. Moses is imagined in undyed clothing, and in fact, his one mantle is a tallith since in the Dura image of Moses parting the Red Sea, one can see tassels (tzitzit) at the corners. At any rate, this image is far more correct as a basis for imagining the historical Jesus than the adaptations of the Byzantine Jesus that have become standard: he’s short-haired and with a slight beard, and he’s wearing a short tunic, with short sleeves, and a himation.”
https://www.bbc.com/news/magazine-35120965?fbclid=IwAR0ID4z37__bKAucGub_cjBuuDq6IHJ04XgXxsYnHdq2Xu7CGKJYcSBnHVA
One of my bucket list 🪣✅ items finally got checked off! Asia Has Claims Upon New England is in the Smithsonian!
Smithsonian Libraries and Archives
Go check your grades and Happy Exam Week!
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Finishing up on assignments, exams, and semester thoughts!
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I’ve been hesitant (for some reason) to hop too deeply into Wilco’s newest album, Cruel Country. As a long long long time fan of the band, I can’t explain it really.
However, this album is definitely growing on me lately. Go give a listen….
“If I didn’t know exactly what it was, which is this computer program we built recently, I’d think it was a 7-year-old, 8-year-old kid that happens to know physics,” said Lemoine, 41.
Source: Google engineer Blake Lemoine thinks its LaMDA AI has come to life – The Washington Post
I wasn’t particularly sure how my teaching year would go this year. I knew I was teaching Physics and Physical Science. Both of those are right in my wheelhouse and I enjoy teaching both of those immensely, and I’m incredibly passionate about the topics in those subject areas. However, the big question was Earth Science (and teaching 6th grade, which I’ve never done for an entire year).
Turns out, I fell in love with my 6th-grade classes and Earth Science has become something of a new passion of mine. I did not see that coming.
Lately, I’ve been reading books on geology and geologic time scales and catastrophic events and listening to audiobooks on plate tectonics and seabed composition, and subscribing to Apple News topics about geophysics, and hydrology… weird.
I’ve always been somewhat interested in Earth Science adjacent topics, obviously. I remember enjoying my own time in an Earth Science class in 8th grade and then in basic geology in college. But having to plan out an entire year and helping to motivate 11, 12, and 13-year-olds to get interested in the water cycle helped me realize just how incredible the topic can be.
Reminding young people that Earth, as we know it, is an incredibly and rapidly ever-changing system and not some static immovable rock where things have always been the same has been such a joy and a privilege. Plus, it’s a humbling reminder of our own human place in the Creation and the Cosmos!
I can’t wait to explore some of these topics with our Upper Schoolers next year in our new Earth & Space Science class that we’re launching next year at TSA!