Old Shows Kind of Back Again, NSA Doing Questionable Things, Ghosts (Maybe), Batman, and Jesus’ Wife (Also Maybe)

This entry is part [part not set] of 100 in the series Today's Tidbits

One of my absolute favorite iterations of Batman was the 90s cartoon version produced by Bruce Timm and voiced by Kevin Conroy. It managed to capture both the dark and light sides of Batman in stories that were well written, entertaining, and drawn with such an amazing, unique style that nothing has really ever come close since. Batman turns 75 this year and Timm and company put out one short (hopefully one of many) to celebrate. The fact that it’s done in the style of an old movie serial episode is just brilliant.

Speaking of blasts from the past, the other really neat news bit today was about a tiny bit of papyrus with some Coptic writing on it. It refers, in the fragment that’s readable, to the wide of Jesus Christ and has, apparently, been certified to at least be really old. What kind of weight the announcement carries kind of depends on how you feel about such things. A lot of scholars out there have no problem with the idea of Jesus having a wife. Some other people, though, get a bit… bent out of shape… at the suggestion. Personally, I just find it interesting.

Finally, there was mention in one story in my feed of one of my absolute favorite classic parapsychological experiments: The Phillip Experiment. Wherein a group of experimenters wondered if they could conjure a completely made up spirit. In short, they kind of did. What did it prove? Well, that’s a bit up for grabs. They weren’t even sure exactly how it worked… just that it did. It’s that bit of ambiguity that really makes me want to try to repeat their experiment. Someday…