The Theology of Les Miserables

I cannot think of any work of fiction that conveys the contrast between Law and Grace as vividly and profoundly as?Les Miserables.? As a long-time fan of the novel and the musicals, I went to see the movie recently and enjoyed it immensely. ?With minor variations, it?s a rendering of the musical, and the musical does an extraordinary job of capturing the major moral and theological themes of the novel. ?With a harrowing performance from Anne Hathaway and fantastic range and power from Hugh Jackman (I felt a bit bad for Russell Crowe, who is a fine Javert in pure acting terms but hardly a singer), and strong performances also from those playing Cosette (young and old), Eponine, Marius and the Thenardiers, this is a movie worth your time.

Leah Libresco gets to the theology of the work when she writes about Inspector Javert:

?Javert loves God, in his own way, because Divine Law is the source of order in the world. ?For Javert, the absense of mercy is the greatest mercy of all, because it allows Javert to perfectly understand the world around him. ?Grace is a miracle, a dirty word, a motion to suspend the rules.

?Mercy unmoors the moral stars Javert navigates by, and, as an agent of the Law, he?needs some kind of unfailing light to steer by. ?The more?precisely?he understands the world, the less margin for error he needs to leave. ?But, if God can break the rule that, if Lucifer falls, he will be in flame, how can Javert trust that the promise to the righteous will be kept? ?Perhaps he lacks faith in God?s goodness, but I think he?s also afraid he?d have to give up a little faith in Javert.

After all, if the moral universe is as mechanical as Javert dreams, he can save himself through his own efforts. ?If the rules are fixed and known, then all he has to do is follow them. ?If there are no miracles and no mercy, then everything is within Javert?s understanding, and his mastery is only limited by his self-control. ?God sets the rules, and Javert gets to play a fair game.?

You can read the rest here.

I think she has the Javert part right. ?What I love is the contrast between Javert and Valjean. ?Both are creatures of the gutter (Javert was born in a prison), but their paths from a common origin are strikingly different. ?With a serious SPOILER WARNING for those who have neither read the novel nor seen the musical, here are some of the key contrasts:

  • JAVERT has risen to the heights of his current position through unyielding will and meticulous discipline, by virtue of his own efforts. ?VALJEAN rises even farther, but through the decisive intervention of a Bishop who shows him a thoroughly unmerited grace that changes Valjean forever. ?Valjean is, almost literally, born again, as he lets go of his former identity and begins a new identity and a new life.
  • JAVERT insists that every person without exception should be judged and punished according to his or her deeds. ?He?s genuinely irritated with Valjean when Valjean refuses to punish him for what Javert perceives to be a misdeed. ?He would agree with Socrates in Plato?s Gorgias?that it is better for a perpetrator to be caught and punished. ?VALJEAN extends to others the same grace that was given him. ?He shows an extravagant grace to Fantine, the woman who worked in his factory and fell into prostitution after she lost her job, and an even more remarkable grace to Javert himself, when he lets the inspector go free from the student rebels? camp.
  • For JAVERT, God is essentially Deistic and explicable, even mathematical. ?As Leah illustrates, the celestial mechanics of divine judgment are, in Javert?s philosophy, as brilliantly clear and timelessly predictable as the paths of the stars. ?For VALJEAN, God is personal. ?When he prays to God, God is not merely the source of moral order and truth but a source of passionate love and intimate solace.
  • JAVERT is incapable of compassion. ?He is unmoved by Fantine?s protestations regarding her daughter?s need, unmoved by Valjean?s plea to let him care for Cosette before he apprehends him. ?He watches, not hateful but simply unmoved, when a man is pinned underneath a cart, before Valjean lifts the cart to save him. ?Legalism ultimately devolves into something like the Law of Karma: everyone always, in the end, gets what he deserves. ?VALJEAN understands that people are more than their actions. ?Divine grace and mercy is inexplicable apart from ? indeed confers ? the sacred value of each individual.
  • Finally, JAVERT does not believe that people can change. ?Once a thief, always a thief. ?Even when all the evidence shows that Valjean is a transformed man, Javert cannot even contemplate it. ?In a world without grace and rebirth, everything must proceed organically from that which precedes it. ?There is nothing new, nothing truly transformative, no dying-to that leads to a new being. ?VALJEAN knows that there is re-creation, a Second Adam, because he has experienced it personally. ?Hugo?s portrait of Valjean?s conversion and reformation is one of the greatest in western literature. ?It?s the difference between ?there is nothing new under the sun? and ?all things are made new,? the difference between the Law of Sin and Death and the Grace of God in Christ.

Have you seen the flick? ?What did you think? ?Let me know in the comments.

Source: http://www.patheos.com/blogs/philosophicalfragments/2012/12/29/the-theology-of-les-miserables/

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Asian shares up with eye on U.S. 'fiscal cliff'

TOKYO (Reuters) - Asian shares rose on Thursday amid caution as U.S. lawmakers prepared to resume negotiations to avoid a fiscal crunch by December 31, while the yen hit a 21-month low against the dollar on the prospect of drastic monetary easing and massive state spending.

European shares were seen returning from the Christmas holiday break with a fall, financial spreadbetters predicting London's FTSE 100, Paris's CAC-40 and Frankfurt's DAX would open down as much as 0.6 percent.

A 0.1 percent gain in U.S. stock futures suggested a firm Wall Street start.

MSCI's broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan was up 0.3 percent, with Australian shares also adding 0.3 percent. Hong Kong shares rose 0.4 percent to a near 17-month high, although Shanghai steadied after earlier touching their highest level since July.

In a sign that there may be a way to break the deadlock in the U.S. Congress, Republican House of Representatives Speaker John Boehner urged the Democrat-controlled Senate to act to pull back from the cliff and offered to at least consider any bill the upper chamber produced.

U.S. President Barack Obama will try to revive budget crisis talks which stalled last week when he returns to Washington on Thursday after cutting short his Christmas holiday in Hawaii.

"There is no easy way to resolve the U.S. fiscal cliff, but there should be a compromise at some point and that's what the market is looking for," said Tetsu Emori, a commodity fund manager at Astmax in Tokyo.

Economists warn that the "fiscal cliff" of higher taxes and spending cuts worth $600 billion could hurl the world's largest economy into recession, dragging other economies with it.

Such concerns underpinned the dollar as the fiscal impasse continues to sap investor appetite for risky assets, raising the dollar's safe-haven appeal.

"Most risk assets will probably remain range-bound until we get a clearer indication of what to expect from the fiscal cliff negotiations," said Stan Shamu, a strategist at IG Markets.

There were some signs of economic improvement in the Asian region, with data showing profits earned by China's industrial companies jumped 22.8 percent in November from a year earlier, accelerating from October's 20.5 percent.

London copper rose 1.7 percent to a one-week high of $7,932 a tonne on the positive data from China, the world's top copper buyer.

U.S. crude futures inched up 0.2 percent to $91.14 a barrel on hopes the new Japanese government's policies would spur demand. Brent crude steadied at $111.03.

However, South Korea warned on Thursday of only a modest recovery in the economy next year. India's economic growth could get stuck at 5-5.5 percent if a policy logjam continues, said Montek Singh Ahluwalia, a key policy adviser to Prime Minister Manmohan Singh.

YEN SALES ACCELERATE

Against the yen, the dollar at 85.87 yen reached its highest since September 2010, with investors accelerating their yen sales after new Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe said his government would pursue bold monetary policy, flexible fiscal policy and a growth strategy to encourage private investment.

Abe has pledged to make his top priority beating deflation and taming the strong yen, which are dragging down the world's third biggest economy.

The yen is on track for a drop of more than 10 percent this year, its steepest since 2005. It also fell to a 16-month low against the euro at 113.65 yen on EBS on Thursday.

The weaker yen, a boon for Japanese exporters, lifted the benchmark Nikkei stock average 0.9 percent to close at its highest since March 2011. It is on track to log its best yearly gain since 2005.

"People are putting on some positions based on what we saw after the cabinet appointment and LDP policy decision," a dealer at a foreign brokerage said, referring to the ruling party.

The yen is expected to stay under pressure given the new government's clear resolve to prevent it rising. Japan's top government spokesman said recent yen declines were a reversal of past "one-sided" gains in the Japanese currency.

"I'm still bullish on the dollar/yen quite a bit," said a trader for a U.S. bank in Singapore. "In this thin market, I think anything can happen. But definitely I wouldn't go against the trend. The trend is quite clear at this point in time."

New Japanese Finance Minister Taro Aso said the prime minister had ordered him to compile a stimulus package without adhering to the previous government's 44 trillion yen cap on new bond issuance.

The benchmark 10-year Japanese government bond yield rose to three-month highs of 0.80 percent, while lead 10-year JGB futures hit a three-month low of 143.48.

(Additional reporting by Dominic Lau in TOKYO, Miranda Maxwell in MELBOURNE and Masayuki Kitano and Ramya Venugopal in SINGAPORE; Editing by Paul Tait)

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/asian-shares-eye-fiscal-cliff-yen-slips-more-032649972--finance.html

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New method for collagen scaffolds: Slice, stack, roll

Dec. 27, 2012 ? Tufts University School of Engineering researchers have developed a novel method for fabricating collagen structures that maintains the collagen's natural strength and fiber structure, making it useful for a number of biomedical applications.

Collagen, the most abundant protein in the body, is widely used to build scaffolds for tissue engineering because it is biocompatible and biodegradable. Collagen is, however, hard to work with in its natural form because it is largely insoluble in water, and common processing techniques reduce its strength and disrupt its fibrous structure.

The Tufts engineers' new technique, called bioskiving, creates collagen structures from thin sheets of decellularized tendon stacked with alternating fiber directions that maintain much of collagen's natural strength.

Bioskiving does not dilute collagen's natural properties, says Qiaobing Xu, assistant professor of biomedical engineering, and inventor of the new technique. "Our method leverages collagen's native attributes to take advantage of the well-organized micro/nanostructures that nature already provides," he says.

Xu and Kyle Alberti, a Ph.D. student in Xu's lab, describe their technology in a paper published online in Advanced Healthcare Materials on December 12, 2012.

Slice, Stack, and Roll

In their research, Xu and Albert cut small sections of collagen from bovine tendons. Using a specialized detergent, the researchers decellularized the sections, leaving intact only the extracellular collagen matrix made of bundles of aligned collagen nanofibers.

Xu and Alberti sliced the sections into ultra-thin sheets using a microtome, and then stacked 10 slices, crisscrossing the sheets so that the fibers in one ran perpendicular to those above and below it. This process produced a scaffold material with tensile strength stronger than constructs made using common processing techniques, Xu notes.

The researchers also created tubular scaffolding by rolling layers of collagen sheets around Teflon-coated glass rods. The sheets were layered so that fibers ran along the length and the circumference of the rods. This process yielded tubes that were found to be stronger than similar tubes made of reconstituted collagen. They also maintained their highly aligned fiber structure.

"Alignment gives the scaffold the ability to guide the direction and orientation of cell growth," says Xu, who also has a faculty appointment at Tufts School of Medicine, "This capability is beneficial for tissue engineering applications where biocompatibility and the ability to guide unidirectional nerve growth are both desired, such as prosthetic or tissue engineering-based blood vessels or nerve conduits."

The work was supported by funding from a Tufts Faculty Research Award, the Charlton Award from Tufts School of Medicine, and a Tufts Neuroscience Institute Pilot Grant. It utilized facilities at the Harvard University Center for Nanoscale Systems(CNS), a member of the National Nanotechnology Infrastructure Network (NNIN), which is supported by the National Science Foundation under NSF award no. ECS-0335765.

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Story Source:

The above story is reprinted from materials provided by Tufts University, via Newswise.

Note: Materials may be edited for content and length. For further information, please contact the source cited above.


Journal Reference:

  1. Kyle A. Alberti, Qiaobing Xu. Slicing, Stacking and Rolling: Fabrication of Nanostructured Collagen Constructs from Tendon Sections. Advanced Healthcare Materials, 2012; DOI: 10.1002/adhm.201200319

Note: If no author is given, the source is cited instead.

Disclaimer: This article is not intended to provide medical advice, diagnosis or treatment. Views expressed here do not necessarily reflect those of ScienceDaily or its staff.

Source: http://feeds.sciencedaily.com/~r/sciencedaily/~3/UP_IPNdeOLw/121227110724.htm

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Lightbank Aims To Change The VC Game As It Expands Its Investements Beyond Chicago

lightbankThere's a lot of talk about disruption in the venture capital world. We've?discussed?at length the shift that many VCs are making from simply writing a check to serving as a hands-on, end-to-end service driven by seasoned operators and former founders. Chicago-based Lightbank, the VC firm started by Groupon seed investors Eric Lefkofsky and Brad Keywell, have a similar approach but with one major difference: the firm's fund, which is around $200 million, is composed of mainly Keywell and Lefkofsky's personal money, not that of LPs (NEA has put a small amount in the firm, but is not considered an L.P.).

Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/Techcrunch/~3/JQYoYRZw_oc/

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Coastlal Scent Hot Pot Amaretto (MAC Sable Dupe)

Like I said in my last swatch post of 30 coastal scent hot pots??that we are going to come up with lot of dupes of MAC ?eye shadows so here we are with ?Coastal Scent Hot Pot Amaretto which is a very Close dupe of MAC Sable. Sable is considered to be one of a must have of MAC?eye shadows.

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  • Price - $1.99
  • Dimensions:??? 1? (2.5cm) [26mm] in diameter
  • Net Weight:???? 1.3g / 0.04oz

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Coastal Scent hot pot Amaretto is a every day wearable shade which can be worn alone and will look good on almost all skin tone.One can use it in the crease to add depth .It?s a warm shade which has frosty finish but it still is wearable during the day.

A?beautiful?must have shade to have for those who are looking for light frosty shades.

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Coastal scent hot pot Amaretto +MAC Sable dupe

Coastal Scent Hot Pot Amaretto Swatch

It?s a brown shade with plum undertone .It?s a satin finish shade with shimmer to them.Texture is super smooth and is highly pigmented.

I have swiped it once here and you can judge ?how pigmented it is.It?s a kind of a shade which you will like to wear every day to work .

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Coastal scent hot pot Amaretto Swatches

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I wore this yesterday night while going out for a movie.

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Eye makeup coastal scent hot pot Amaretto

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What I liked about Coastal Scent Hot Pots:-

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  • A mac dupe which is?decently?priced
  • Good staying power & highly pigmented with negligible fall out.

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What I do not like about Coastal Scent Hot Pots:-

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  • Not available in India and high shipping charges

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Rating:4.5/5

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Have you tried Coastal Scent Hot Pot Amaretto ?

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You might like reading these also:-

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Source: http://www.wiseshe.com/2012/12/coastlal-scent-hot-pot-amaretto-mac-sable-dupe.html

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