BBC News - Kung fu empowers Nepal nuns
Maybe the dwindling number of Catholic nuns is all to do with the lack of martial arts training. Introduce it and we can get them back into schools again as scarier-than-ever disciplinarian teachers.
Friday, April 16, 2010
Some habit he's got going there
Broadcaster Larry King seeks 8th divorce | Reuters
I can't find it, but I did turn up this Letterman Top 10 Complaints of Larry King's new wife.
King has been married to seven different women, but this is his eighth divorce, because he remarried one of his former spouses and then divorced her again.I remember, years ago, that David Letterman had a funny video segment that was a "guide" to being a new wife for Larry King. I wonder if it is around on the net somewhere.
I can't find it, but I did turn up this Letterman Top 10 Complaints of Larry King's new wife.
Tracking heat
'Missing' heat may affect future climate change | e! Science News
This'll turn up on AGW skeptic sites before long, but it is an interesting detailed explanation of Kevin Trenberth's email comment on the "missing heat" problem in climate science which came to light in the "climategate" email leak.
It occurs to me too that the Icelandic volcano may have a cooling effect for a year or so, as may a spotless Sun. (Although it still seems no one really understands the Sun's cycle properly, and sunspots have been appearing again this year.)
Both of these will presumably affect Europe and the Northern Hemisphere, which may mean some cold winters there to come, despite the fact that as soon as those factors go, AGW could kick back in with a vengeance.
This is not what we need to convince politicians of a need for action.
This'll turn up on AGW skeptic sites before long, but it is an interesting detailed explanation of Kevin Trenberth's email comment on the "missing heat" problem in climate science which came to light in the "climategate" email leak.
It occurs to me too that the Icelandic volcano may have a cooling effect for a year or so, as may a spotless Sun. (Although it still seems no one really understands the Sun's cycle properly, and sunspots have been appearing again this year.)
Both of these will presumably affect Europe and the Northern Hemisphere, which may mean some cold winters there to come, despite the fact that as soon as those factors go, AGW could kick back in with a vengeance.
This is not what we need to convince politicians of a need for action.
A worrying comment
Is Japan hurtling toward a debt crisis? - The Globe and Mail
Japan's budget, announced last week o kick off the fiscal year, promises to spend a record trillion dollars, and the government must issue a record ¥44.3-trillion of new bonds this year.
The heavy spending and financing are raising worries in Japan about the country's long-term fiscal health, amid concern that Japanese government
bonds are turning into an asset bubble fuelling a public debt that is the highest among advanced economies.Japan's debt, mostly owed to creditors within the country, is more than 200 per cent of annual gross domestic product, compared with 113 per cent in Greece, 50 per cent in Spain, and 69 per cent in the United States, according to the New York-based ISI Group.
This is the part that really caught my eye:
“I'm actually envious of the Greek situation,” said Masaaki Kanno, chief economist at J.P. Morgan in Tokyo, and a former senior official of the Bank ofJapan . “They have market pressure forcing them to take action sooner than later. In Japan, even if the government tries to cut spending, social security costs will likely grow ¥1-trillion every year. The government deficit is likely to grow forever, in a sense.”
Near fiction
Accused murderer Des Campbell allegedly said he couldn't have sex with "filthy rich" and "pig ugly" Jenny Fisicaro | The Daily Telegraph
It's rare that you get a murder trial in which the claims are so much like a story you'd find unlikely on a cheap TV police show. (If the characters were richer, it could be a movie.)
It also appears to be an entirely circumstantial case, as (I assume) there are no witnesses to the fall off the cliff, and forensic evidence of a shove in the back is probably hard to come by.
Here's today's report on yesterday's evidence. Fascinating.
It's rare that you get a murder trial in which the claims are so much like a story you'd find unlikely on a cheap TV police show. (If the characters were richer, it could be a movie.)
It also appears to be an entirely circumstantial case, as (I assume) there are no witnesses to the fall off the cliff, and forensic evidence of a shove in the back is probably hard to come by.
Here's today's report on yesterday's evidence. Fascinating.
Dubious trips to no where
Obama aims to send astronauts to Mars
OK, so maybe getting rocket development more directly into private hands is not a bad idea. (Emphasis on maybe.) But I still can't believe that any sane person would think that the long, confined and radiation ridden rocket trip to Mars would be worth it simply to orbit the planet. Yet this what Obama is suggesting:
A trip to an asteroid, provided the astronauts can actually get onto it, may be worthwhile. But orbiting Mars so as to send back holiday pics from orbit that any robot probe could do? I don't think so.
If you want to test on a long term basis whether your rocket's life support system works for 12 months at a time, just do it near the Earth.
OK, so maybe getting rocket development more directly into private hands is not a bad idea. (Emphasis on maybe.) But I still can't believe that any sane person would think that the long, confined and radiation ridden rocket trip to Mars would be worth it simply to orbit the planet. Yet this what Obama is suggesting:
"So, we'll start by sending astronauts to an asteroid for the first time in history. By the mid-2030s, I believe we can send humans to orbit Mars and return them safely to earth, and a landing on Mars will follow."
A trip to an asteroid, provided the astronauts can actually get onto it, may be worthwhile. But orbiting Mars so as to send back holiday pics from orbit that any robot probe could do? I don't think so.
If you want to test on a long term basis whether your rocket's life support system works for 12 months at a time, just do it near the Earth.
South America gets all the good parasites
BBC News - New species of nose-dwelling leech discovered
It must be "New South American Parasite" week:
Yuck, again.
It must be "New South American Parasite" week:
A new species of leech, discovered by an international team of scientists, has a preference for living up noses.
Researchers say the leech can enter the body orifices of people and animals to attach itself to mucous membranes.
They have called the new blood-sucking species Tyrannobdella rex which means tyrant leech king.
The creature was first discovered in 2007 in Peru when a specimen was plucked from the nose of a girl who had been bathing in a river.
The creature lives in the remote parts of the Upper Amazon and has a "particularly unpleasant habit of infesting humans", the scientists say.
Studies also revealed that it had "a preference for living up noses". The research published their findings in the online scientific journal PLoS One.
Thursday, April 15, 2010
Germans just don't get cupcakes
Colbert's long-ish segment on fast food last night had many funny bits, but the German trying the cupcake really had me laughing:
| The Colbert Report | Mon - Thurs 11:30pm / 10:30c | |||
| Thought for Food - Mentally Ill Advertisers & German Cupcakes | ||||
| ||||
Wednesday, April 14, 2010
New parasitic news
BBC News - Parasite 'a growing stroke risk'
Just what we need: news of a parasite that I haven't heard of before that is gaining global popularity:
Just what we need: news of a parasite that I haven't heard of before that is gaining global popularity:
They don't actually explain what bugs can give you the disease, apart from having a photo of some unnamed blood sucker. Wikipedia explains that it is usually via a bug with particularly unpleasant habits:Some 18m people worldwide have Chagas disease, caused by an infection with the parasite Trypanosoma cruzi.
Recently, researchers discovered having this disease puts the individual at increased risk of stroke due to heart complications and blood clots.
Chagas disease is endemic in Latin America. But emigration of millions of people to Europe, North America, Japan and Australia over the past 20 years has also made Chagas disease an emerging health problem in these countries with the potential to cause a substantial disease burden, say the investigators.
In Chagas-endemic areas, the main mode of transmission is through an insect vector called a triatomine bug.[1] A triatomine becomes infected with T. cruzi by feeding on the blood of an infected person or animal. During the day, triatomines hide in crevices in the walls and roofs. The bugs emerge at night, when the inhabitants are sleeping. Because they tend to feed on people’s faces, triatomine bugs are also known as “kissing bugs.” After they bite and ingest blood, they defecate on the person. Triatomines pass T. cruzi parasites (called trypomastigotes) in feces left near the site of the bite wound. Scratching the site of the bite causes the trypomastigotes to enter the host through the wound, or through intact mucous membranes, such as the conjunctiva.Yuck.
"Hot" tourist spot
Wonder lust: Chernobyl - environment - 13 April 2010 - New Scientist
There's a short item here about what you can do as a tourist in the Chernobyl area. It's still not high on my wish list, no matter how many birds, bears and other assorted wildlife may have moved into the town. (For all we know, some of them may have gained mutant super powers. That would be my concern.)
There's a short item here about what you can do as a tourist in the Chernobyl area. It's still not high on my wish list, no matter how many birds, bears and other assorted wildlife may have moved into the town. (For all we know, some of them may have gained mutant super powers. That would be my concern.)
Fixing NASA
Findings - NASA, We’ve Got a Problem. But It Can Be Fixed. - NYTimes.com
There's some interesting comment in this article about how NASA and space exploration has not followed the usual economies of new transport systems:
There's some interesting comment in this article about how NASA and space exploration has not followed the usual economies of new transport systems:
Since Obama announced his changes to NASA, which include abandoning the current return to the moon rocket development, some have argued that this may work out better in the long run. I don't really know enough to know, but I can certainly see the argument that NASA needed shaking up in some major way.The main problem with NASA is not lack of money. Its current budget is about the same size, when adjusted for inflation, as the average during the 1960s and early 1970s. But space exploration has become so costly that this level of financing won’t even pay for a return to the Moon anytime soon, which is what prompted the White House to cancel the Bush administration’s lunar mission.
Normally, once a pioneer makes the first trip somewhere, the cost goes down as others follow and technology improves. That’s why so many colonists could follow Columbus to the New World, and why the masses today can afford to fly in Lindbergh’s path back to Europe. The real costs of shipping freight by rail and air have declined by an order of magnitude since locomotives and airplanes were invented.
In space transportation, though, many costs have actually risen since the days of Apollo.
Local drama
A fairy tale gone wrong - latimes.com
This South East Asian version of an international celebrity marriage gone wrong should have attracted some Australian media interest, I would have thought. Instead, it appears in the LA Times. Odd.
This South East Asian version of an international celebrity marriage gone wrong should have attracted some Australian media interest, I would have thought. Instead, it appears in the LA Times. Odd.
Death for mingling
Cleric's support for men and women mingling in public sparks furor in Saudi Arabia
The Christian Science Monitor notes in the above report:
The Christian Science Monitor notes in the above report:
....Sheikh Ahmed al-Ghamdi recently declared that nothing in Islam bans men and women from mixing in public places like schools and offices.The article goes on to give some examples of Saudi segregation which shows how extreme it is:Supporters of the status quo responded harshly. Anyone who permits men and women to work or study together is an apostate and should be put to death unless he repents, said Sheikh Abdulrahman al-Barrak.
Men and women enter government offices and banks through different doors. Male professors teach female university students from separate rooms using closed-circuit television. Companies must create all-female rooms or floors if they hire women. And the Jeddah Chamber of Commerce just announced different work hours for male and female employees so the two don't mix on arrival and departure.I wonder what outdoor events women attend there. 'Cos I am thinking, if ever there is a brave man in Saudi Arabia, it would be the first male streaker at a women's only sporting fixture.
A specialised conference
34th Annual Larval Fish Conference
Who knew that larval fish scientists had their own conference. I assume the venue does not need to be especially big!
Anyhow, the story at the link is about research indicating that lower ocean water pH may not affect the growth of some reef fish, but it does appear to affect larval fish behaviour, quite possibly in a way that let more of them perish.
Ocean acidification - it's just one big gamble.
And by the way, Andrew Bolt deserves special criticism for posting a Youtube video from pro CO2 site CO2 Science showing how much better a cowpea plant does with CO2 at 1270 ppm compared to one at 470 ppm.
First, we aren't yet at 470 ppm, and it would take many, many decades to ever reach 1270 ppm.
But more importantly, when we start deciding that the planet should be ideally adjusted to suit plants rather than humans, then he may have a point.
Who knew that larval fish scientists had their own conference. I assume the venue does not need to be especially big!
Anyhow, the story at the link is about research indicating that lower ocean water pH may not affect the growth of some reef fish, but it does appear to affect larval fish behaviour, quite possibly in a way that let more of them perish.
Ocean acidification - it's just one big gamble.
And by the way, Andrew Bolt deserves special criticism for posting a Youtube video from pro CO2 site CO2 Science showing how much better a cowpea plant does with CO2 at 1270 ppm compared to one at 470 ppm.
First, we aren't yet at 470 ppm, and it would take many, many decades to ever reach 1270 ppm.
But more importantly, when we start deciding that the planet should be ideally adjusted to suit plants rather than humans, then he may have a point.
Tough sentencing
Man convicted of stealing 2.5 yen worth of electricity › Japan Today
An unemployed man in Osaka City was sentenced to one year in prison suspended for three years on Tuesday for stealing electricity worth 2.5 yen from a shared electric outlet at his apartment building.
Not so anti-religion?
Are Top Scientists Really So Atheistic? Look at the Data | The Intersection | Discover Magazine
Maybe scientists are not as anti-religion, and as uniformly politically left wing, as blogs such as those grouped under Science Blogs indicate. (Really, sometimes it seems that the majority of posts on blogs linked there are more about the science/religion culture wars than actual science findings.)
Expect much criticism of the book at Science Blogs in the near future.
Maybe scientists are not as anti-religion, and as uniformly politically left wing, as blogs such as those grouped under Science Blogs indicate. (Really, sometimes it seems that the majority of posts on blogs linked there are more about the science/religion culture wars than actual science findings.)
Expect much criticism of the book at Science Blogs in the near future.
Talking celibacy
The Future of Catholic Celibacy May Be in Doubt - Newsweek.com
This article on the cultural unpopularity of clerical celibacy in Africa was of interest.
There have also been some recent articles (including one at Newsweek) arguing that if you look at child abuse overall, you can't really say that celibacy is at the heart of the Catholic Church's problem. The suggestion that, as a lot of abuse cases involve teenage boys, it is really a "homosexual problem" has also been raised. I can't find his source, but CL at Catallaxy claims:
Yet surely the issue of who the victims are is heavily influenced by availability and (I guess) an older male having an expectation that teenage boys are more likely to enjoy a sexual experience of any kind than a teenage girl (and hence be more likely to keep it a secret). To suggest it's all about gay clergy seems somewhat akin to arguing that opportunistic sex in prisons is a homosexual problem.
[UPDATE: on the other hand, it would seem logical that the priesthood could have attracted young men who were embarrassed about homosexual attraction and hoped to avoid it by promising celibacy. So it would not be surprising if the priesthood had proportionally more than your average number of homosexually inclined men in it, and no doubt some of them have been caught up in sex abuse cases. On the third hand, given that a gay priest who had personally reconciled himself to only ever wanting occasional flings is almost certainly going to find it easier to find a sexual outlet anonymously than a heterosexual priest, maybe such gay priests are less likely to resort to abuse of power for sexual release! But overall, maybe it's all swings and roundabouts (sorry but that probably counts as an unintended poor taste pun) and the rate of approaches to male teens may be the same between self identifying gay and straight priests.]
There is some value, however, in keeping in mind the actual rates of sexual abuse compared to society in general. On the other hand, it is also undeniably the case that it is very scandalous when purported moral leaders fail in this way.
I still consider as a matter of common sense that an adult male with his one and only wife (bearing in mind that a very high proportion of sexual abuse cases are within families by stepfathers) is more likely to have a normalised attitude towards sex which would make sexual abuse much less likely.
As I have argued before, the Eastern Churches position as to celibacy would seem to be a very sensible reform of the Catholic Church. Your average local priest can have his family and give up career progress, so to speak. Those priests for whom celibacy works can keep it and gain the advantage of career progression too.
This article on the cultural unpopularity of clerical celibacy in Africa was of interest.
There have also been some recent articles (including one at Newsweek) arguing that if you look at child abuse overall, you can't really say that celibacy is at the heart of the Catholic Church's problem. The suggestion that, as a lot of abuse cases involve teenage boys, it is really a "homosexual problem" has also been raised. I can't find his source, but CL at Catallaxy claims:
Speaking clinically, 75+ percent of abuse cases are not paedophilia but crimes of a homosexual nature involving clerics and boys in upper adolescence.[UPDATE: I see a Cardinal is copping a lot of criticism for making the homosexual link too.]
Yet surely the issue of who the victims are is heavily influenced by availability and (I guess) an older male having an expectation that teenage boys are more likely to enjoy a sexual experience of any kind than a teenage girl (and hence be more likely to keep it a secret). To suggest it's all about gay clergy seems somewhat akin to arguing that opportunistic sex in prisons is a homosexual problem.
[UPDATE: on the other hand, it would seem logical that the priesthood could have attracted young men who were embarrassed about homosexual attraction and hoped to avoid it by promising celibacy. So it would not be surprising if the priesthood had proportionally more than your average number of homosexually inclined men in it, and no doubt some of them have been caught up in sex abuse cases. On the third hand, given that a gay priest who had personally reconciled himself to only ever wanting occasional flings is almost certainly going to find it easier to find a sexual outlet anonymously than a heterosexual priest, maybe such gay priests are less likely to resort to abuse of power for sexual release! But overall, maybe it's all swings and roundabouts (sorry but that probably counts as an unintended poor taste pun) and the rate of approaches to male teens may be the same between self identifying gay and straight priests.]
There is some value, however, in keeping in mind the actual rates of sexual abuse compared to society in general. On the other hand, it is also undeniably the case that it is very scandalous when purported moral leaders fail in this way.
I still consider as a matter of common sense that an adult male with his one and only wife (bearing in mind that a very high proportion of sexual abuse cases are within families by stepfathers) is more likely to have a normalised attitude towards sex which would make sexual abuse much less likely.
As I have argued before, the Eastern Churches position as to celibacy would seem to be a very sensible reform of the Catholic Church. Your average local priest can have his family and give up career progress, so to speak. Those priests for whom celibacy works can keep it and gain the advantage of career progression too.
Tuesday, April 13, 2010
Fundamental problem solved (or not, as the case may be)
This transcript of a talk on arXiv by physics and astronomy professor Paul Howard Frampton combines plausible sounding solutions to dark matter, dark energy and the nature of the universe with some rather peculiar personal observations. It's worth reading for its eccentric observations alone.
But the physics first. Frampton argues that primordial black holes created by a double dose of early inflation of the universe could account for all dark matter. Doesn't sound wildly improbable.
Secondly, he argues that if you assume the universe is "approximated" or "is close to" to being a black hole, the maths show that there should be a cosmic acceleration of about the right speed for what is observed. Why this should be is not entirely clear to me; it's one of those cases where I really need a science populariser to decipher some formulae. It is also not entirely clear as to what he means when he says the result falls out of the universe being "close to" a black hole. Does this mean he isn't saying the universe isn't really the inside of a giant black hole? I'm not sure.
It's not the first time anyone has suggested the universe might be inside a black hole, but it might be the first time the suggestion has been made that it should give an acceleration of the kind observed.
The consequence of this theory being right would be very important for fundamental unification of physics:
Now for the eccentric passages. There are quite a few, but this is perhaps the highlight, explaining his feeling when he had his insight (only earlier this year):
But the physics first. Frampton argues that primordial black holes created by a double dose of early inflation of the universe could account for all dark matter. Doesn't sound wildly improbable.
Secondly, he argues that if you assume the universe is "approximated" or "is close to" to being a black hole, the maths show that there should be a cosmic acceleration of about the right speed for what is observed. Why this should be is not entirely clear to me; it's one of those cases where I really need a science populariser to decipher some formulae. It is also not entirely clear as to what he means when he says the result falls out of the universe being "close to" a black hole. Does this mean he isn't saying the universe isn't really the inside of a giant black hole? I'm not sure.
It's not the first time anyone has suggested the universe might be inside a black hole, but it might be the first time the suggestion has been made that it should give an acceleration of the kind observed.
The consequence of this theory being right would be very important for fundamental unification of physics:
The aforementioned solution, of the dark energy problem, not only solves a cosmological problem, it casts a completely new light, on the nature of the gravitational force. Since the expansion of the universe, including the acceleration thereof, can only be a gravitational phenomenon, I arrive at the viewpoint, that gravity is a classical result, of the second law of thermodynamics. This means that gravity cannot be regarded as, on a footing with, the electroweak and strong interactions. Although this can be the most radical change, in gravity theory, for over three centuries, it is worth emphasizing, that general relativity remains unscathed.
My result calls into question, almost all of the work done on quantum gravity, since the discovery of quantum mechanics. For gravity, there is no longer necessity for a graviton. In the case of string theory, the principal motivation17,18 for the profound, and historical, suggestion, by Scherk and Schwarz, that string theory be reinterpreted, not as a theory of the strong interaction, but instead as a theory of the gravitational interaction, came from the natural appearance, of a massless graviton, in the closed string sector. I am not saying that string theory is dead. What I am saying is, that string theory cannot be a theory of the fundamental gravitational interaction, since there is no fundamental gravitational interaction.
Now for the eccentric passages. There are quite a few, but this is perhaps the highlight, explaining his feeling when he had his insight (only earlier this year):
There was an indescribable feeling of personal fulfillment, that the 66 years and 98 days, so far, of my life, had a significance. This was/is a totally individual experience which, unlike money or fame, involves no other person, and is therefore different. Because the visible universe is much bigger than the Solar System b, I had vindicated my claim, as a four-year-old, to be cleverer than Newton. Because, in my opinion, time travel into the past will forever be impossible, I cannot return to Isaac Newton in 1686 and forewarn him that a cleverer person will be born on October 31, 1943; nor can I return to 1948 and tell the four-year-old on a tricycle that he is right to say he is cleverer than Newton. The first reaction is to want to achieve the personal fulfillment again, and again.Hmm. Paul Frampton looks quite normal, and appears to have had a long career in physics. He sure doesn't seem to write about himself a very "normal" way, though.
Limp musical
Porn the Musical | Theatre review | Stage | The Guardian
Get the feeling that the people who write musicals are having trouble finding inspiration these days? (Andrew Lloyd Webber hit that wall about 25 years ago, I guess.) Don't lyricists and composers read newspapers or books anymore?
Get the feeling that the people who write musicals are having trouble finding inspiration these days? (Andrew Lloyd Webber hit that wall about 25 years ago, I guess.) Don't lyricists and composers read newspapers or books anymore?
Interesting for some
Under the volcano, Iwate's capital keeps its rich history alive | The Japan Times Online
Having visited Morioka quite a few times, this travel piece about the town and its history is of interest to me. Maybe not so much for my readers, but hey it's my blog.
Having visited Morioka quite a few times, this travel piece about the town and its history is of interest to me. Maybe not so much for my readers, but hey it's my blog.
Germ watch
Two items of interest regarding germs in hospital:
* Keep that lotion away from me. In Barcelona in 2008, there was a case of an intensive care unit making its patients sick through its use of a body lotion. Apparently, skin care products in the European Union do not need to be sterile, and tests confirmed that the bug in the hospital was coming from the sealed lotion.
* And while you're at it, get off my bed. A letter recently published in the BMJ notes this:
* Cats driving us mad, continued: I hadn't read anything about toxoplasma gondii (carried by your cat) causing schziophrenia for a while, and in fact I thought some recent studies indicated it may not account for many cases. But it's grouped with 2 other forms of infections looked at in a recent paper that argues:
* Keep that lotion away from me. In Barcelona in 2008, there was a case of an intensive care unit making its patients sick through its use of a body lotion. Apparently, skin care products in the European Union do not need to be sterile, and tests confirmed that the bug in the hospital was coming from the sealed lotion.
* And while you're at it, get off my bed. A letter recently published in the BMJ notes this:
A comprehensive drive to get staff to decontaminate hands before and after touching patients or contaminated surfaces is useless if they then sit on consecutive beds on a ward.You can't be too careful.
* Cats driving us mad, continued: I hadn't read anything about toxoplasma gondii (carried by your cat) causing schziophrenia for a while, and in fact I thought some recent studies indicated it may not account for many cases. But it's grouped with 2 other forms of infections looked at in a recent paper that argues:
“While replication in independent samples is warranted, the data from our sample suggest that up to approximately 30 percent of schizophrenia cases could be prevented in the offspring of the pregnant population [in the review appearing in AJP in Advance] if we were to completely eliminate three of the infections we studied—influenza, elevated Toxoplasma antibody, and peri-conceptional genital-reproductive infections,” Brown told Psychiatric News.
Monday, April 12, 2010
Heaven & Hell noted
Paul Johnson gives us a short but informative review of a book "After Lives: A Guide to Heaven, Hell and Purgatory". Lonely Planet mustn't have gotten around to those regions yet.
Apart from telling us about the hellfire sermons of the Redemptorists (an order which specialised in that service), Johnson reminds us that:
Certainly, Hell is given very light weight in Catholic sermons these days compared to my youth, despite its prominent mentions in the New Testament. I don't care much for the idea of constant fear as being an incentive for moral behaviour; but on the other hand, never talking about it tends to downplay the reality of the supernatural and importance of personal responsibility, which are aspects of Catholic teaching which are now somewhat lacking.
Apart from Hell, the concept of Heaven, and the issue of what a resurrected body is meant to be like, gets covered in a book extract appearing recently in Newsweek.
Lisa Miller, the author of "Heaven", seems to suggest that the more commonly believed existence of a mere soul in an afterlife doesn't actually give us the idea of a solid Heavenly experience:
I'm not sure that it really is a problem, especially with the advent of cyberspace as a concept that soon every adult who spent a childhood playing computer games will understand. And you also get scientists seriously speculating on the entire universe being a simulation. It's easier than ever to believe that a disembodied mind could be made to feel embodied, surely. I think this was the point made by Margaret Wertheim's book "The Pearly Gates of Cyberspace", and it sounds as if Millar may not have read it.
But if one expects that Heaven is just a simulated version of life with better ground rules, I guess you could also argue that a bodily resurrection of Jesus would not have been necessary to prove that type of reality. Yet it seems clear from the New Testament that the writers wanted to be sure that people understood the post resurrection experiences as something different from a ghostly presence. Who knows; maybe a bodily resurrection of Jesus was really necessary to prove his special status. A mere claimed appearance of a ghost a couple of times might be considered unremarkable.
Anyhow, this is all just speculation. The fact that Christianity is a kind of unexpected religion, with mystery at its heart, is one of the reasons it makes a fascinating life long study and interest, even if you don't fully have faith.
Finally, I have also been meaning to mention Daniel Dennett's small scale study of clergy who no longer believe in God, but still don't give up their positions. I think I have noted here before that this is not a new concern, as CS Lewis in one of his essays from (I think) the 1940's to a group of Anglican priests said that congregations often had a firmer belief in some fundamental Christian doctrines than the priests leading them. Still, the problem may be even worse now, for all I know.
Apart from telling us about the hellfire sermons of the Redemptorists (an order which specialised in that service), Johnson reminds us that:
Belief in hell began to decline in the eighteenth century. Boswell relates that when Dr Johnson dined with Dr Adams, head of Pembroke College, Oxford, in 1784, Johnson said, 'looking dismally', that he was afraid he would be damned. Dr Adams: 'What do you mean by damned?' Johnson, 'passionately and loudly': 'Sent to Hell, Sir, and punished everlastingly.' Dr Adams: 'I don't believe that doctrine.' A discussion followed, in which Johnson appeared to be in a minority of one, until he said, 'in gloomy agitation', 'I'll have no more on't.' The decline of hell was the reason why the Redemptorists were founded, and in Britain, why Parliament replaced fear of damnation by a huge increase in capital punishment.Interesting. But was Dr Adam's problem with Hell the idea that it is permanent? The idea that purgatory is just Hell that any soul can leave (at least until the Final Judgement) is one that has more appeal to the modern mind, and if the idea of a permanent, immediate judgement leading to Hell leads people to disbelieve in it entirely, I would rather the Catholic church did go back to talking about other possible understandings of Hell, rather than just ignoring it.
Certainly, Hell is given very light weight in Catholic sermons these days compared to my youth, despite its prominent mentions in the New Testament. I don't care much for the idea of constant fear as being an incentive for moral behaviour; but on the other hand, never talking about it tends to downplay the reality of the supernatural and importance of personal responsibility, which are aspects of Catholic teaching which are now somewhat lacking.
Apart from Hell, the concept of Heaven, and the issue of what a resurrected body is meant to be like, gets covered in a book extract appearing recently in Newsweek.
Lisa Miller, the author of "Heaven", seems to suggest that the more commonly believed existence of a mere soul in an afterlife doesn't actually give us the idea of a solid Heavenly experience:
...a disembodied soul attaching itself to God in heaven offers no more comfort or inspiration than an escaped balloon. Consolation was not the goal of Plato's afterlife. Without sight or hearing, taste or touch, a soul in heaven can no more enjoy the "green, green pastures" of the Muslim paradise, or the God light of Dante's cantos, than it can play a Bach cello suite or hit a home run. Rationalistic visions of heaven fail to satisfy.The post at First Things about Millar's book agrees.
I'm not sure that it really is a problem, especially with the advent of cyberspace as a concept that soon every adult who spent a childhood playing computer games will understand. And you also get scientists seriously speculating on the entire universe being a simulation. It's easier than ever to believe that a disembodied mind could be made to feel embodied, surely. I think this was the point made by Margaret Wertheim's book "The Pearly Gates of Cyberspace", and it sounds as if Millar may not have read it.
But if one expects that Heaven is just a simulated version of life with better ground rules, I guess you could also argue that a bodily resurrection of Jesus would not have been necessary to prove that type of reality. Yet it seems clear from the New Testament that the writers wanted to be sure that people understood the post resurrection experiences as something different from a ghostly presence. Who knows; maybe a bodily resurrection of Jesus was really necessary to prove his special status. A mere claimed appearance of a ghost a couple of times might be considered unremarkable.
Anyhow, this is all just speculation. The fact that Christianity is a kind of unexpected religion, with mystery at its heart, is one of the reasons it makes a fascinating life long study and interest, even if you don't fully have faith.
Finally, I have also been meaning to mention Daniel Dennett's small scale study of clergy who no longer believe in God, but still don't give up their positions. I think I have noted here before that this is not a new concern, as CS Lewis in one of his essays from (I think) the 1940's to a group of Anglican priests said that congregations often had a firmer belief in some fundamental Christian doctrines than the priests leading them. Still, the problem may be even worse now, for all I know.
Short notes
* Hot, hot, hot: Locally, Brisbane has been very unusually hot and humid the last week or so. (I heard somewhere that the maximum the other day was four degrees above average, and last night seemed particularly sticky.)
And in fact, although you wouldn't know it from the mainstream media, average global satellite temperatures for March were very hot; very nearly at the 1998 peak caused by that year's super El Nino. Normally, Andrew Bolt at least copies into his blog the chart for the UAH global average readings, but he didn't do it for March. (I'll be generous and assume it's because he's getting ready to start a radio career, not because the temperatures don't suit his warming scepticism.) Anyway, here it is, from Roy Spencer's blog:
If you ask me, there's been a distinct air of diversionary tactics about Roy Spencer's posts lately. He seems very keen to justify his scepticism against the evidence being produced by his very own satellite work.
Yet where is the mainstream media on all this? Yes, winter was cold in the populated parts of the northern hemisphere, but can't journalists read the internet and report that it was in fact a local phenomena, with parts of the far north very unusually hot, and now 2010 is on track to be the hottest year on record? Instead, they would rather report on parliamentary enquiries as to why scientists got irked about too many FOI requests over the last decade or so ago. Pretty pathetic, really.
* Scientists want you to have faith: I recently made a comment about how scientific materialists sometimes suggest that, although free will is an illusion, it's important to pretend it isn't. Well, there's a whole column about that attitude in Scientific American now. Interesting reading.
* Isn't there a law against it? Britain seems to have a nanny State law against every possible form of annoying behaviour, except for being a stupid media arrest tart. First it was Monbiot wanting a citizens arrest of Tony Blair; now its Dawkins, Hitchens and Geoffrey Robertson who are going to rugby tackle the Pope as soon as he lands in Britain. Twits. They are good candidates to remedy the problem in my next story:
* Help your local lesbian or lonely heart:
And in fact, although you wouldn't know it from the mainstream media, average global satellite temperatures for March were very hot; very nearly at the 1998 peak caused by that year's super El Nino. Normally, Andrew Bolt at least copies into his blog the chart for the UAH global average readings, but he didn't do it for March. (I'll be generous and assume it's because he's getting ready to start a radio career, not because the temperatures don't suit his warming scepticism.) Anyway, here it is, from Roy Spencer's blog:
If you ask me, there's been a distinct air of diversionary tactics about Roy Spencer's posts lately. He seems very keen to justify his scepticism against the evidence being produced by his very own satellite work.
Yet where is the mainstream media on all this? Yes, winter was cold in the populated parts of the northern hemisphere, but can't journalists read the internet and report that it was in fact a local phenomena, with parts of the far north very unusually hot, and now 2010 is on track to be the hottest year on record? Instead, they would rather report on parliamentary enquiries as to why scientists got irked about too many FOI requests over the last decade or so ago. Pretty pathetic, really.
* Scientists want you to have faith: I recently made a comment about how scientific materialists sometimes suggest that, although free will is an illusion, it's important to pretend it isn't. Well, there's a whole column about that attitude in Scientific American now. Interesting reading.
* Isn't there a law against it? Britain seems to have a nanny State law against every possible form of annoying behaviour, except for being a stupid media arrest tart. First it was Monbiot wanting a citizens arrest of Tony Blair; now its Dawkins, Hitchens and Geoffrey Robertson who are going to rugby tackle the Pope as soon as he lands in Britain. Twits. They are good candidates to remedy the problem in my next story:
* Help your local lesbian or lonely heart:
A leading IVF specialist is calling for men to start donating sperm because of growing demand from single women and lesbian couples.I am slightly pleased if this shows a slightly conservative view towards the importance of fathers actually being present for their kids. But in fact, it's probably just men worried that somehow they'll be made financially liable in future.
Sunday, April 11, 2010
Tuesday, April 06, 2010
Monday, April 05, 2010
What I've been saying
Phillip Coorey's article from a few days ago about Tony Abbott basically says what I have been arguing at other blogs for the last few weeks: Tony Abbott strikes me as a policy flake.
"Flake"in this context: n. An unreliable person; someone who agrees to do something, but never follows through.
Tonight's appearance by Abbott on Q&A seemed terribly dull: I fell asleep for much of it, would come to briefly, then doze off again. Rudd's appearance a couple of months ago signalled he was in some trouble. In the sense that it seemed he was not openly ridiculed (much), Abbott's appearance might not hurt him, but may not advance his cause either.
"Flake"in this context: n. An unreliable person; someone who agrees to do something, but never follows through.
Tonight's appearance by Abbott on Q&A seemed terribly dull: I fell asleep for much of it, would come to briefly, then doze off again. Rudd's appearance a couple of months ago signalled he was in some trouble. In the sense that it seemed he was not openly ridiculed (much), Abbott's appearance might not hurt him, but may not advance his cause either.
Easter religion posts continue...
Hey, Easter is almost over, and so is the run of religious articles on death and resurrection.
Slate has re-run a 2008 short article on resurrection which is of interest. Chances are that I did read it back then but have forgotten. It seems to contradict the book I noted a couple of posts back which argues that Jesus would not have understood resurrection in a corporeal sense.
(By the way, I now see that the Vermes book came out in 2008. The Biblical Archaeology Review must be an Easter reprint.)
In other Christian themed articles, I see that Philip Pullman's novel on Jesus has this plot:
Unsurprisingly, Rowan Williams (an old admirer of Pullman) offers his review in The Guardian, and it is more or less positive. Of course, Williams seems to be a philosopher who ended up a Church's world leader by accident. He's a nice enough sounding man, but one suspects he has helped more people out of his Church than into it.
Slate has re-run a 2008 short article on resurrection which is of interest. Chances are that I did read it back then but have forgotten. It seems to contradict the book I noted a couple of posts back which argues that Jesus would not have understood resurrection in a corporeal sense.
(By the way, I now see that the Vermes book came out in 2008. The Biblical Archaeology Review must be an Easter reprint.)
In other Christian themed articles, I see that Philip Pullman's novel on Jesus has this plot:
As he tells the Gospel story, Mary did not have one son but twins—a gifted but pious and humble one called Jesus and his more calculating and sophisticated brother, Christ. Observing his modest sibling, Christ concludes that the story needs to evolve in certain ways if the wandering faith-healer’s work is to become the basis of a world religion. In the end Christ colludes with his brother’s death and helps, directly and indirectly, to construct a new narrative about his resurrection. When the disciples meet their risen master, it is really Christ they are encountering, not his twin, Jesus.There was an extract of Pullman's book in The Guardian recently, and the writing style certainly has no appeal to me. It is, as the reviews tell us, to be read as fable; not a realistic telling of what might have happened.
Unsurprisingly, Rowan Williams (an old admirer of Pullman) offers his review in The Guardian, and it is more or less positive. Of course, Williams seems to be a philosopher who ended up a Church's world leader by accident. He's a nice enough sounding man, but one suspects he has helped more people out of his Church than into it.
Saturday, April 03, 2010
An unlikely proposition
Regular readers will know that I don’t like the hyperfast-edited action sequences that have taken hold of the movies over the last decade or two. Director Paul Greengrass is a famous exponent of the style.
So, it is kind of funny to read that he is supposed to be making a 3 D version of Fantastic Voyage. This has led to some funny comments following the article:
"Grainy Pallets"? That's an understatement! The "Green Zone" looked liked it was shot in PixelVision or 8mm. Hands down had to be one of the most grainy films in recent years. Can't wait for awful grain in 3D! I bet it will look awesome!
And this:
The PRINCIPAL RULE OF 3D EDITING: the main thing one needs to consider while editing in 3D is that no single shot can be shorter than 2 seconds (and Paul Greengrass hasn't seen a 2-second shot he ever liked).
Actually, the guy who wrote the second comment goes on to explain how Avatar understood this rule, and the new Clash of the Titans does not, making it hard to watch. He says of the new 3 D process:
There is a real, honest to god reason people like Michael Bay are resistant to 3D – because it changes the way you are allowed to make movies. You have to frame them differently; color them differently; edit them differently.
Sounds about right. I’ll be happy for this fad-ish phenomena to go away.
Remembering Mockingbird
The Age has a very lovely article today in which former child actress Mary Badham, who played Scout in To Kill a Mockingbird, reminisces about the experience of filming it and the life long effects it has had on her.
She sounds like a thoroughly decent person, just as you would hope a real life “Scout” would turn out.
More Easter talk
Jason Koutsoukis in the Sydney Morning Herald points out that being in the River Jordan these days is not quite the purest of experiences:
For the fabled tributary that flows from the Sea of Galilee to the Dead Sea … is now little more than an unholy brew of raw sewage, chemical run-off and brackish agricultural leftovers.
No matter, say the hordes of Christian pilgrims who have been flocking this week to Qasr al-Yahud, purported to be the exact site of Jesus' baptism.
Before stripping down to his underpants, John Ferraro, 30, a Romanian engineer, told the Herald of his firm belief that this was the cleanest water in the world. ''This is the water that Jesus was washed in,'' he said. ''This water belongs to God. Why would God want to make anyone sick with this holy water?''
Watching a euphoric Mr Ferraro splash around the River Jordan as if it was his bathtub, few could doubt his sincerity. But when he started gargling the muddy concoction, some might reasonably have questioned his mental health.
Further down we read:
After the diversion of 90 per cent of the 1.3 billion cubic metres of water that would normally flow down the river each year by the governments of Syria, Jordan and Israel, Ms Edelstein said all that is left is basically 100 million cubic metres of untreated sewage.
Oh dear. And here I thought Hindu Indians who jumped into the Ganges were unwise.
Friday, April 02, 2010
An Easter post
There are some interesting articles at Biblical Archaeology Review relevant to Easter.
Let’s start with the Last Supper. There’s a long article here by scholar Jonathan Klawans looking at all of the arguments for and against the meal being the actual Passover ritual meal (or Seder) as the synoptic Gospels seem to indicate. He concludes that it was probably wasn’t, arguing that in fact we don’t know how Jews in Jesus’ day would have actually celebrated Passover. (That seems a pretty surprising suggestion.) He thinks that the Gospel writers presented the Last Supper as a Passover meal for a few different possible reasons.
I don’t know. I’m pretty suspicious of exegesis that appears to end up being “too clever by half.” Lots of comments follow the article too, giving other explanations as to why he might be wrong.
Does this matter much theologically? Maybe not; the connection between Jesus and the Paschal lamb is clear enough whether or not the meal itself was exactly a Seder.
Moving on to the crucifixion, in a book review we find this comment:
Jesus, the Final Days begins with two chapters by Craig Evans that offer a thorough review of ancient sources describing Roman execution practice and Jewish burial practices. Taken together, these discussions suggest that the gospel accounts of Jesus’ trial, execution and burial represent remarkably authentic descriptions. A seeming omission from Professor Evans’s otherwise comprehensive catalogue is Dio Cassius’s account of the flogging and crucifixion of Antigonus, the last Maccabean king, who had attempted to overthrow Roman rule and reestablish an independent Jewish state two generations before Jesus.1
Then, in the same article, they review “The Resurrection” by an Oxford professor of Jewish Studies (so he ought to know his topic). Here we get this potted history of Jewish thought regarding an afterlife:
He finds that, on the whole, Jews considered death to be a final state (cf. Job 14:10–12; Ecclesiastes 4:2–3). Nevertheless, perhaps in response to extreme adversity in life, some Jews began to imagine a reward beyond life, initially in a metaphorical sense (cf. Ezekiel 37:5–6) and subsequently, during the Maccabean era, in a more literal sense (cf. 2 Maccabees 7:1–41, esp. verses 7–11).
By the time of Jesus, the aristocratic Sadducees continued to maintain the finality of death and this, Vermes argues, was the mainstream Jewish belief. However, certain sectarians, notably the Pharisees, advanced the notion of bodily resurrection at the end of time. On this point, Vermes’s discussion becomes somewhat blurred, because none of the sources provide a satisfactory definition of resurrection. Also, his failure to consider the beliefs of John the Baptist is a puzzling omission. Clearly John the Baptist and probably Jesus himself were among those Jews who foresaw a new era in which the pure would be rewarded with eternal happiness and the sinful condemned to eternal suffering.a But the key point that Vermes makes is that, for Jesus, resurrection meant spiritual survival, while corporeal resurrection “played no significant part” in his thinking.
Thus, the perceived fact of Jesus’ bodily resurrection came as a huge surprise to his disciples and became, indeed, a transforming event in which his previously cowardly followers became bold and eloquent witnesses.
I am curious as to how Vermes makes the claim that Jesus understood resurrection to be spiritual survival only. Would that mean the his Father gave him a big surprise?
And finally, for less scholarly reflections, you can always read the somewhat rambling Easter thoughts of lapsed Catholic ABC journalist Chris Uhlmann. He seems a very likeable fellow, even if his attitude towards global warming indicates that science is not his strong point.
From the garden today
Top marks if you know what the yellow flowers are. (My wife is responsible for the arrangement.)
Thursday, April 01, 2010
The mysterious death of British culture
I've touched on these issues before in many posts, but tonight, after watching some British TV, I have a strong urge to rant about the state of British culture.
* British TV isn't always like this. But strangely, it usually has to have someone who was popular in the 1970's or 80's for it to be worthwhile. I've thoroughly enjoyed Griff Rhys Jones paddling about the pretty (and sometimes not so pretty) Rivers of England, which finished this week on ABC. And who in their right mind hasn't liked Michael Palin's travel shows? Parkinson was still a decent enough interviewer 'til the end, but the level of interest one could muster in his guests did suffer a severe downturn in his last couple of series.
Can you imagine in 20 years time wanting to watch "Jonathan Ross goes Up the Khyber", or whatever twaddle he would think witty? Graham Norton making witty but interesting cultural comment about some far flung country? I don't think so.
* British public art seems to have become a huge, vacuous joke:
Of course, it could just be me reaching a premature "things were so much better when I were a lad" stage of my life. But no, it's not me: it's you, formerly great Britain, I am sure. For example:
* Britain's "celebrity culture" is shallow, as it is in all countries, but for some reason the bar seems set especially low in England. I've seen a couple of episodes of "Hestons Feasts" recently. It's a mildly diverting, if over-produced, show in which you learn something interesting about the history of exotic feasts. But it also involves the chef serving his strange, tricky food to a room full of six alleged celebrities. Usually I know one of them who became famous in the 1960's: the rest just seem so, well, incredibly uninteresting. Mind you, their job is just to go "ooh, ahh, what's this I am supposed to eat?" But still...
And as a service to the community, I warn you: if ever a television near you is showing "I'm a celebrity...Get me out of here" run a mile, and don't look back. It's the most excruciating TV ever to blight the medium.
It's like a new definition for horror: "B Grade British celebrity".
* Britain's "celebrity culture" is shallow, as it is in all countries, but for some reason the bar seems set especially low in England. I've seen a couple of episodes of "Hestons Feasts" recently. It's a mildly diverting, if over-produced, show in which you learn something interesting about the history of exotic feasts. But it also involves the chef serving his strange, tricky food to a room full of six alleged celebrities. Usually I know one of them who became famous in the 1960's: the rest just seem so, well, incredibly uninteresting. Mind you, their job is just to go "ooh, ahh, what's this I am supposed to eat?" But still...
And as a service to the community, I warn you: if ever a television near you is showing "I'm a celebrity...Get me out of here" run a mile, and don't look back. It's the most excruciating TV ever to blight the medium.
It's like a new definition for horror: "B Grade British celebrity".
* British sitcoms and British movies, with very rare exceptions, have both been in a death spiral for the last 20 years. (Mind you, Australia has never made a completely convincing sitcom, but that's a different story.)
* British TV isn't always like this. But strangely, it usually has to have someone who was popular in the 1970's or 80's for it to be worthwhile. I've thoroughly enjoyed Griff Rhys Jones paddling about the pretty (and sometimes not so pretty) Rivers of England, which finished this week on ABC. And who in their right mind hasn't liked Michael Palin's travel shows? Parkinson was still a decent enough interviewer 'til the end, but the level of interest one could muster in his guests did suffer a severe downturn in his last couple of series.
Can you imagine in 20 years time wanting to watch "Jonathan Ross goes Up the Khyber", or whatever twaddle he would think witty? Graham Norton making witty but interesting cultural comment about some far flung country? I don't think so.
* British public art seems to have become a huge, vacuous joke:
Only last year, exhibitionism was elevated to "art" when people got to do their "thing" on a plinth in Trafalgar Square.
The Turner Prize (which I see only started in 1984) sets international benchmarks for the trivial, stupid, and/or grotesque in the genre, and at the same time seems to suck any sense of fun from the enterprise.
Further evidence this week of the nation's aesthetic judgment having mysteriously evaporated: the gigantic Olympic rollercoaster-after-the-apocalypse tower was not an April Fool's Day after all. It was also the winner of a competition. The winner had previously won the Turner Prize. Maybe the Turner Prize is the black hole through which British artistic taste has been sucked and eviscerated. It's as good a theory as any...
* Is there any current widely recognized British playwright whose works are anticipated by the populace? Not as far as I am aware. All the great playwrights are dead or at the end of their careers, leaving in their wake those who are only interested in social commentary from the perspective of left wing world view.
The Turner Prize (which I see only started in 1984) sets international benchmarks for the trivial, stupid, and/or grotesque in the genre, and at the same time seems to suck any sense of fun from the enterprise.
Further evidence this week of the nation's aesthetic judgment having mysteriously evaporated: the gigantic Olympic rollercoaster-after-the-apocalypse tower was not an April Fool's Day after all. It was also the winner of a competition. The winner had previously won the Turner Prize. Maybe the Turner Prize is the black hole through which British artistic taste has been sucked and eviscerated. It's as good a theory as any...
* Is there any current widely recognized British playwright whose works are anticipated by the populace? Not as far as I am aware. All the great playwrights are dead or at the end of their careers, leaving in their wake those who are only interested in social commentary from the perspective of left wing world view.
And, of course, Britain also seems to be the home of the pop song medley masquerading as theatre, which has promptly been exported internationally.
That's a pretty convincing line up of evidence, don't you think?
Just in time for Easter
Eating chocolate 'can cut heart attack and stroke risk'
Eating just one square of chocolate a day can cut the risk of heart attack and stroke by 39%, researchers said today.That's a tiny amount of chocolate for an effect. Further down it notes:Eating 7.5g of chocolate daily also leads to lower blood pressure, a study found.
Researchers in Germany followed 19,357 people aged between 35 and 65 for at least a decade.
Those who ate the most amount of chocolate - an average of 7.5g a day - had lower chances of heart attacks and stroke than those who ate the least amount (1.7g a day on average).
The difference between the two groups amounted to 6g of chocolate - less than one square of a 100g bar.
The study, published in the European Heart Journal, concluded that if those people who ate the least chocolate increased their intake by 6g a day there would be fewer heart attacks and strokes.
Frank Ruschitzka, from the European Society of Cardiology (ESC), said: "Basic science has demonstrated quite convincingly that dark chocolate particularly, with a cocoa content of at least 70%, reduces oxidative stress and improves vascular and platelet function.70% cocoa chocolate is not that nice, in my experience, so I'll eat twice as much 40% chocolate instead.
No Kindle for me
Elizabeth Farrelly has a somewhat eccentric column in the Sydney Morning Herald today, with its main point being problems with getting books through an Australian Kindle.
I definitely think it is worth waiting for the new generation of e readers to start being available.
I definitely think it is worth waiting for the new generation of e readers to start being available.
Wednesday, March 31, 2010
More religion talk. (Hey it is almost Easter)
Christian faith: Calvinism is back / The Christian Science Monitor
Here's a really good article on an alleged revival of Calvinism in the United States. In short, it's said to be a reaction against the "Jesus is your friend," mega-church style of Protestantism that's been the dominant model of late. Well, even if it takes a dose of depressing predestination to get those churches to stop being purely entertainment based worship, maybe that's not so bad?
The question of how one should react to the theological/philosophical issue of predestination is pretty similar to the question of whether we are really just meat robots who don't really have free will at all. Those materialists who say free will is an illusion argue that for society to really work, we still have to act as if we do. (So we don't, for example, let criminals run free because they don't really control their will.) I suppose Calvinists can argue the same - even though you may be pre-destined for Hell, you need to act as if you might get to Heaven. Maybe they argue that lack of knowledge of your predestination means you don't need to feel fatalistic about it. If everyone acted on the fatalistic reality that your eternal home is already determined, the whole damn system just doesn't work.
There, I've found a connection between Calvin and the likes of William James, Hume etc. Well, sort of, and even if I have, no doubt someone else has said this before.
At the end of the CSM article, we read this:
Are the liberal Christian denominations which are happy with marrying same sex partners and who think (like priest Peter Kennedy of "St Mary's in Exile") that it doesn't really matter whether or not Jesus Christ even existed an example of "Emergence Christianity"? Possibly, I suppose, but I remain deeply convinced that any essentially non-realist way of thinking about a religion like Christianity is only a way to ultimately decrease its significance, influence and longevity. For that reason, I can't help but feel some empathy with a revival of a thoroughly realist strain of Christianity as in Calvinism.
Here's a really good article on an alleged revival of Calvinism in the United States. In short, it's said to be a reaction against the "Jesus is your friend," mega-church style of Protestantism that's been the dominant model of late. Well, even if it takes a dose of depressing predestination to get those churches to stop being purely entertainment based worship, maybe that's not so bad?
The question of how one should react to the theological/philosophical issue of predestination is pretty similar to the question of whether we are really just meat robots who don't really have free will at all. Those materialists who say free will is an illusion argue that for society to really work, we still have to act as if we do. (So we don't, for example, let criminals run free because they don't really control their will.) I suppose Calvinists can argue the same - even though you may be pre-destined for Hell, you need to act as if you might get to Heaven. Maybe they argue that lack of knowledge of your predestination means you don't need to feel fatalistic about it. If everyone acted on the fatalistic reality that your eternal home is already determined, the whole damn system just doesn't work.
There, I've found a connection between Calvin and the likes of William James, Hume etc. Well, sort of, and even if I have, no doubt someone else has said this before.
At the end of the CSM article, we read this:
Bestselling religion writer Phyllis Tickle sees the interest in
Calvinism as the first phase of a backlash against the dominant
religious trend of today: the rise of "Emergence Christianity."
Emergence Christianity, which she identifies as a once-every-500-years
religious shift, is less a doctrine or a movement than a postmodern attitude toward religion itself. Loosely organized, it values experimentation over traditional rules and Christian practice. "When things go through this upheaval," Ms. Tickle says, "there's always those who absolutely need the assurance of rules and a foundation."
Or, as Ms. Hagopian puts it with uncompromising Calvinistic clarity: "The
dominant philosophy of American Christianity is so far removed from
biblical truth. Life is not hunky-dory."
Are the liberal Christian denominations which are happy with marrying same sex partners and who think (like priest Peter Kennedy of "St Mary's in Exile") that it doesn't really matter whether or not Jesus Christ even existed an example of "Emergence Christianity"? Possibly, I suppose, but I remain deeply convinced that any essentially non-realist way of thinking about a religion like Christianity is only a way to ultimately decrease its significance, influence and longevity. For that reason, I can't help but feel some empathy with a revival of a thoroughly realist strain of Christianity as in Calvinism.
All about modern nuns
How the health care bill made nuns rad. - By Noreen Malone - Slate Magazine
This is a pretty interesting article on the current state of nun-ship (sorry) in America. They just helped get the Obama health plan passed, against the wishes of the American bishops. (There is another version of that story here.)
As I suspected, it seems to be the more conservative orders (such as the contemplative ones) attracting newcomers at the moment, and "progressive" leadership is actually coming from the older nuns who have been around a while.
Update: for another unusual take on Catholicism, this article in the Guardian about the writer's experiences as an aide at Lourdes ten years ago is quiet interesting, and a little amusing. For example:
Update 2: for those who like to check out nun blogs (and who doesn't from time to time*) here's a list. And here's an order that looks very conservative, yet just held their first "nun run".
* What? Really?
This is a pretty interesting article on the current state of nun-ship (sorry) in America. They just helped get the Obama health plan passed, against the wishes of the American bishops. (There is another version of that story here.)
As I suspected, it seems to be the more conservative orders (such as the contemplative ones) attracting newcomers at the moment, and "progressive" leadership is actually coming from the older nuns who have been around a while.
Update: for another unusual take on Catholicism, this article in the Guardian about the writer's experiences as an aide at Lourdes ten years ago is quiet interesting, and a little amusing. For example:
There was fierce, sometimes violent, competition between aides from different tour groups, which could make even the simplest tours treacherous. The candlelit procession and mass was notoriously difficult to get into, and hundreds of pilgrims lined up in the evening to be part of it. Instead of queuing, the Italians endeavoured to skip in front of us by burning our arms with their candles. Lining up for blessings in the Basilica of the Rosary, aides from other pilgrimages would kick our shins to get in there first.It was, she says, quite the party town for the young aides after their hard day's work, but she doesn't paint experience with complete cynicism.
Update 2: for those who like to check out nun blogs (and who doesn't from time to time*) here's a list. And here's an order that looks very conservative, yet just held their first "nun run".
* What? Really?
A multi faith approach
BBC News - India holy man quits after sex claim
Well, as I like to point out how Islam can be, shall we say, overly legalistic about sexual scandal (especially when it concerns Dubai), it's only fair that I note that the Indians (of the other than Muslim variety) also get a bit carried away:
Well, as I like to point out how Islam can be, shall we say, overly legalistic about sexual scandal (especially when it concerns Dubai), it's only fair that I note that the Indians (of the other than Muslim variety) also get a bit carried away:
A Hindu holy man in India has quit as head of a religious organisation after police launched a probe into allegations of obscenity against him.Nithyananda Swami's announcement came weeks after a video emerged apparently showing him engaging in sexual acts with two women.
The guru has said he had done nothing illegal and the video scandal was "a false campaign".
Nithyananda Swami has a huge following in southern India.
The video shocked his devotees and angered locals - his ashram near the southern city of Bangalore was vandalised after TV channels broadcast the video.
Police have launched an investigation into the incident - a senior detective told the BBC that they were investigating whether the guru had "outraged religious feelings" of his devotees.
Ocean acidification and poison seas
CO2 and phosphate availability control the toxicity of the harmful bloom dinoflagellate Karlodinium veneficum
I have commented here before that additional CO2 in the ocean may make some algae grow better, but my guess was that algal blooms are not necessarily something you want to encourage. The article above indicates that this is true, especially for toxin producing algae:
Here's a good Australian article by a Tasmanian professor on the expected increase in harmful algal blooms. The conclusion:
I have commented here before that additional CO2 in the ocean may make some algae grow better, but my guess was that algal blooms are not necessarily something you want to encourage. The article above indicates that this is true, especially for toxin producing algae:
Growth rates or toxicity of K. veneficum could increase substantially in the future with high CO2 levels in the ocean, depending on P availability, and so interactions between rising CO2 and eutrophication could cause major shifts in present day patterns of harmful algal toxin production. These results suggest that over the coming decades, rising CO2 could substantially increase karlotoxin damage to food webs in the often P-limited estuaries where Karlodinium blooms occur.Eutrophication is additional nutrients in the water, typically from coastal run off. In other words, it would appear that coastal areas near cities that already have occasional toxic algal blooms can expect it to get worse with more CO2 in future.
Here's a good Australian article by a Tasmanian professor on the expected increase in harmful algal blooms. The conclusion:
We can expect: (1) Range expansion of warm-water species at the expense of coldwater species which are driven pole wards; (2) Changes in the abundance and seasonal window of growth of selected HAB species; (3) Earlier timing of peak production of some phytoplankton; (4) Knock-on effects for marine food webs, notably when individual zooplankton and fish grazers are differentially impacted by climate change (“match-mismatch” disturbances). Some harmful algal bloom phenomena (e.g. toxic dinoflagellates benefiting from land runoff and/or water column stratification, tropical benthic dinoflagellates responding to coral reef disturbance) may become worse, while others may diminish in areas currently impacted. The greatest problems for human society will be caused by being unprepared for significant range extensions or the increase of algal biotoxin problems in currently poorly monitored areas, thus calling for increased vigilance in seafood biotoxin monitoring programmes. Predicting the impact of climate change on algal blooms presents a formidable challenge!
Stem cells and snake oil
UK - Stem Cells & Miracles - Foreign Correspondent - ABC
There was an excellent BBC Panorama show on the ABC last night on the fetal stem cell therapy being promoted by shonky doctors and money making clinics in China and other countries.
The interview towards the end with the doctor who was secretly filmed during a high pressure consultation is especially worth watching. The only way he could have sold his therapy harder would be if he had said "you have to take the injection now, right now, as I have another patient outside who'll buy them if you don't."
There was an excellent BBC Panorama show on the ABC last night on the fetal stem cell therapy being promoted by shonky doctors and money making clinics in China and other countries.
The interview towards the end with the doctor who was secretly filmed during a high pressure consultation is especially worth watching. The only way he could have sold his therapy harder would be if he had said "you have to take the injection now, right now, as I have another patient outside who'll buy them if you don't."
Tuesday, March 30, 2010
Suburban failure
From bucolic bliss to 'gated ghetto' - latimes.com
In this story of a new estate near Los Angeles which has suffered badly from the recent financial woes comes this surprising claim:
I see his name was Jeb Brugmann, and he also noted that Australia seems to lack the wide range of urban housing that people find attractive in famous cities. I think he's right.
In this story of a new estate near Los Angeles which has suffered badly from the recent financial woes comes this surprising claim:
There are dozens of places like Willowalk, and they are turning into America's newest slums, says Christopher Leinberger, a visiting fellow at the Brookings Institution. With home values at a fraction of their peak, he said, it no longer makes sense to live so far from the commercial centers where jobs are concentrated.A family that bought a house there in 2006 has seen its value drop dramatically:
"We built too much of the wrong product in the wrong locations," Leinberger said.
Thanks to overbuilding, demographic changes and shifts in preferences, by 2030 there could be 25 million more suburban homes on large lots than are needed, said Arthur C. Nelson of the University of Utah. Nelson believes that as baby boomers age and as younger generations buy real estate, the population will abandon remote McMansions for smaller homes closer to shops, jobs and the other necessities of life.
The Lopez family plans to stick it out, knowing they can't sell their house for anywhere near the $440,000 they paid for it. Based on comparable prices in the neighborhood, the place is probably worth about $170,000 now, and maybe less. They're petitioning their bank for a loan modification.There was someone on Radio National Breakfast this morning making the same point: a lot of America's housing crisis has been caused by building the wrong type of houses in the wrong locations.
I see his name was Jeb Brugmann, and he also noted that Australia seems to lack the wide range of urban housing that people find attractive in famous cities. I think he's right.
Monday, March 29, 2010
An unlikely solution
Bright water proposal to cut global warming
Harvard University scientist Russel Seitz’s proposal is to use ships to pump tiny “microbubbles,” about 0.05 mm in diameter, into the sea as they travel, in a strategy he terms “Bright Water”. Seitz said the bubbles would, in effect, act as tiny mirrors containing air, and could be created by mixing water supercharged with compressed air with swirling jets of water. This would emulate and amplify a naturally occurring phenomenon.I'm not even sure I should have blogged this, the idea sounds so silly.Using computer modeling, Seitz discovered that a concentration of only one part per million of microbubbles can double the reflectivity of water, and could cool Earth by up to 3°C if the system could be deployed. Adding microbubbles to a square kilometer of ocean is feasible, but Seitz admitted that scaling it to cover an entire ocean would be technically difficult, not because of the energy requirement, which he said would be equivalent to about 1000 windmills, but because of the fact that the bubbles may not last long enough to effectively spread over large areas.
Gypsy stories
Four Corners - 29/03/2010: Gypsy Child Thieves
Four Corners had an interesting BBC documentary tonight about the urban gypsies of Europe. It's amazing that their situation seems to change so slowly over time.
The first section was about a Gypsy camp near Madrid, and the conditions were extremely third world, especially for the children. The ineffectiveness of the Spanish government social services in dealing with child thieves the police bring to them was almost laughable.
The fact that fathers get good money for marrying off their 13 year old daughters got a mention too.
I didn't really get to watch the rest of the show carefully, although I did catch some of the segment in Italy, where some charity was making a difference, but a right wing Italian noted that they deserved to killed, and seemingly felt it was a pity that that would be illegal now!
Four Corners had an interesting BBC documentary tonight about the urban gypsies of Europe. It's amazing that their situation seems to change so slowly over time.
The first section was about a Gypsy camp near Madrid, and the conditions were extremely third world, especially for the children. The ineffectiveness of the Spanish government social services in dealing with child thieves the police bring to them was almost laughable.
The fact that fathers get good money for marrying off their 13 year old daughters got a mention too.
I didn't really get to watch the rest of the show carefully, although I did catch some of the segment in Italy, where some charity was making a difference, but a right wing Italian noted that they deserved to killed, and seemingly felt it was a pity that that would be illegal now!
Firefox issue
For those of you using Firefox on an XP computer, have you noticed it slowing down? Over the weekend, I checked and the amount of CPU it is taking up was just continually fluctuating, often up to the 90% range.
It appears to be a problem with the latest version (3.6.2), although I also had the same problem in the 3.6 version before I updated it. I see that people have been complaining about it since 3.5 too.
The specific thread on Mozilla on the problem with 3.6.2 has been marked as "solved", but the answer it refers to is no such thing.
This page talks about the problem generally, but I am bit puzzled why it has only come to light on my computer now.
UPDATE: I seem to have solved the problem by updating both Flash and Java, as some website suggested.
I am tempted to try Chrome now though, as I understand it is starting to provide extensions.
It appears to be a problem with the latest version (3.6.2), although I also had the same problem in the 3.6 version before I updated it. I see that people have been complaining about it since 3.5 too.
The specific thread on Mozilla on the problem with 3.6.2 has been marked as "solved", but the answer it refers to is no such thing.
This page talks about the problem generally, but I am bit puzzled why it has only come to light on my computer now.
UPDATE: I seem to have solved the problem by updating both Flash and Java, as some website suggested.
I am tempted to try Chrome now though, as I understand it is starting to provide extensions.
Sunday, March 28, 2010
Rare medical condition noted
Schizophrenia in Children: Families Grapple With Costs, Emotional and Financial - ABC News
Tonight I happened to see the ABC news magazine show 20/20 featuring 3 American families with children with schizophrenia.
I knew schizophrenia most commonly was a young adult onset disease; it had never really occurred to me before that there would be some cases of young children suffering with it.
What a horrible disease for parents to face in a child. Oddly, all three featured in this show were girls. I would have expected it to be more common in boys. (Certainly, the average onset age for men is considerably younger than for women.)
It certainly makes for a strong reminder, if one is needed, of the blessings of a routine domestic life.
Tonight I happened to see the ABC news magazine show 20/20 featuring 3 American families with children with schizophrenia.
I knew schizophrenia most commonly was a young adult onset disease; it had never really occurred to me before that there would be some cases of young children suffering with it.
What a horrible disease for parents to face in a child. Oddly, all three featured in this show were girls. I would have expected it to be more common in boys. (Certainly, the average onset age for men is considerably younger than for women.)
It certainly makes for a strong reminder, if one is needed, of the blessings of a routine domestic life.
Racking up the deaths
BBC News - China flooding 'traps 152 miners'
This is a very brief report of yet another coal mining accident in China.
The number of Chinese miners killed every year is simply amazing. In Australia or the US, an accident killing a dozen people is huge news and is viewed as a great tragedy for virtually all of the nation. In China, with (as this article notes) thousands of deaths in the mines every year, it's hard to imagine any but the largest incidents getting much coverage. Some years in the last decade have had close to 7,000 deaths.
Strange how a communist nation manages to do the least to protect its workers.
This is a very brief report of yet another coal mining accident in China.
The number of Chinese miners killed every year is simply amazing. In Australia or the US, an accident killing a dozen people is huge news and is viewed as a great tragedy for virtually all of the nation. In China, with (as this article notes) thousands of deaths in the mines every year, it's hard to imagine any but the largest incidents getting much coverage. Some years in the last decade have had close to 7,000 deaths.
Strange how a communist nation manages to do the least to protect its workers.
Yay for John
A Physics Maven’s Take on Skeptical Science - Dot Earth Blog - NYTimes.com
I've been a fan of Skeptical Science for quiet a while, and have wondered about its creator John Cook.
Now that his fame has spread world wide, it takes Andrew Revkin of the New York Times to publicise him.
He is not quite what you would expect: studied physics and astrophysics at University, has serious concerns about the environment and AGW, yet is a serious enough Christian to mention it in this interview. This is not exactly a common combination, I'm sure.
He also appears to been born earless, if the crook photo (which I assume he supplied) is anything to go by. I take it as a sign he does not suffer from vanity.
I've been a fan of Skeptical Science for quiet a while, and have wondered about its creator John Cook.
Now that his fame has spread world wide, it takes Andrew Revkin of the New York Times to publicise him.
He is not quite what you would expect: studied physics and astrophysics at University, has serious concerns about the environment and AGW, yet is a serious enough Christian to mention it in this interview. This is not exactly a common combination, I'm sure.
He also appears to been born earless, if the crook photo (which I assume he supplied) is anything to go by. I take it as a sign he does not suffer from vanity.
Saturday, March 27, 2010
That's big of him
Cleric: Don’t cut too much female genital to avoid sexuality loss | The Jakarta Post
A Nahdlatul Ulama (NU) cleric said on Friday that circumcision on women was not supposed to cause the loss of their sexuality.
“Don’t cut too much. Just cut the small skin on the tip of the clitoris. Otherwise, a woman would lose her sexuality, and you males don’t like that to happen, do you?” prominent cleric Mohammad Masyhuri told a press conference.
Masyhuri, also a member of NU Suriah (lawmaking body), said that a proper female circumcision should not cause any damage to woman genitals. “No bleeding, if you do it properly.”
He suggested that circumcision was conducted on a female baby at the age
of 7 days.
Sort of good news
NASA Study Finds Atlantic 'Conveyor Belt' Not Slowing
Another study finds that the Atlantic conveyor (the current that keeps Europe warmer than it would otherwise be) is not slowing down. I suppose it's good for North Atlantic bordering countries that there's no imminent ice age; but then again it's not so good that global warming in those regions won't be moderated by cooler ocean water.
Another study finds that the Atlantic conveyor (the current that keeps Europe warmer than it would otherwise be) is not slowing down. I suppose it's good for North Atlantic bordering countries that there's no imminent ice age; but then again it's not so good that global warming in those regions won't be moderated by cooler ocean water.
Friday, March 26, 2010
Promising
How to Train Your Dragon Movie Reviews, Pictures - Rotten Tomatoes
I see that How to Train Your Dragon is receiving very strong reviews. Good news for those of us who like good kids films.
I see that How to Train Your Dragon is receiving very strong reviews. Good news for those of us who like good kids films.
Thursday, March 25, 2010
An old debate
The Moral Equivalent of the Parallel Postulate | Cosmic Variance
It's an old topic, the question of the exact nature of morals. Cosmic Variance, which always takes an atheist/scientific take on things, nonetheless has an interesting post (and comments following) debating the issue of the subjectivity of morals and related topics.
It's an old topic, the question of the exact nature of morals. Cosmic Variance, which always takes an atheist/scientific take on things, nonetheless has an interesting post (and comments following) debating the issue of the subjectivity of morals and related topics.
Looks good, but a bit small?
Samsung Announces eReader Launch For The US Market
You can write notes on this one, and this feature sounds interesting:
You can write notes on this one, and this feature sounds interesting:
Samsung eReader users will also be able to take advantage of breakthrough Barnes & Noble features, such as the industry-first LendMe technology which enables consumers to lend a wide selection of eBooks to friends free of charge for up to 14 days. Just choose the book you want to share and send it to your friend’s Samsung eReader or a host of other computer and mobile devices with free Barnes & Noble eReader software.
Wednesday, March 24, 2010
The boy Ellen
Constance McMillen case: proms as gay-rights battleground
So, the ACLU sued a school district to try to force it to re-instate a prom cancelled so as to avoid a lesbian bringing her girlfriend. Where exactly does the ACLU gets its funding for such crucial legal cases?
But the main point of the post is indicated in the title: I sometimes see bits of Ellen DeGeneres' show when channel surfing at night, and I had been meaning to note the fact that she has had a "makeover" which has moved her image unambiguously into the androgynous zone. (Yes, that's a pleasingly contradictory sentence, no?) You can see a photo of her interviewing the miffed Prom-less teenage lesbian at the link above.
I always used to think DeGeneres had a likeable sort of face, even though I pretty much can't stand her chat show for more than 5 minutes. As a figurehead for the gay and lesbian political movement, her image was at least non-confrontational, and her self-deprecating comedy routines perhaps helped too. She was bearable in small doses, unlike the other famous TV lesbian Rosie O'Donnell, who is (good Lord no) going to be back on TV soon.
But with this boyish haircut and even more manly dress than before, well, she's moved well out of the "girl next door who just happens to like girls" vibe that she used to represent. To me, she now looks kind of mean and humourless; but that's how I interpret nearly all short haired butch lesbianism. (Sorry, all you nice and sweet examples of the genre out there, somewhere.)
I wonder if it will hurt her crossover appeal somewhat with the heterosexual viewers. (Mind you, her audiences always appear to be simply adulatory, for reasons I don't grasp.)
So, the ACLU sued a school district to try to force it to re-instate a prom cancelled so as to avoid a lesbian bringing her girlfriend. Where exactly does the ACLU gets its funding for such crucial legal cases?
But the main point of the post is indicated in the title: I sometimes see bits of Ellen DeGeneres' show when channel surfing at night, and I had been meaning to note the fact that she has had a "makeover" which has moved her image unambiguously into the androgynous zone. (Yes, that's a pleasingly contradictory sentence, no?) You can see a photo of her interviewing the miffed Prom-less teenage lesbian at the link above.
I always used to think DeGeneres had a likeable sort of face, even though I pretty much can't stand her chat show for more than 5 minutes. As a figurehead for the gay and lesbian political movement, her image was at least non-confrontational, and her self-deprecating comedy routines perhaps helped too. She was bearable in small doses, unlike the other famous TV lesbian Rosie O'Donnell, who is (good Lord no) going to be back on TV soon.
But with this boyish haircut and even more manly dress than before, well, she's moved well out of the "girl next door who just happens to like girls" vibe that she used to represent. To me, she now looks kind of mean and humourless; but that's how I interpret nearly all short haired butch lesbianism. (Sorry, all you nice and sweet examples of the genre out there, somewhere.)
I wonder if it will hurt her crossover appeal somewhat with the heterosexual viewers. (Mind you, her audiences always appear to be simply adulatory, for reasons I don't grasp.)
Triumph of social networking
Internet casual sex is blamed for rise in syphilis
People using social networking sites for casual sex are to blame for a four-fold increase in syphilis, a director of public health said today.
Tuesday, March 23, 2010
Important date noted
Happy birthday, William Shatner | Hero Complex | Los Angeles Times
He's just turned 79. When he finally dies, I hope he's prepared some bizarre video to be played at his funeral.
He's just turned 79. When he finally dies, I hope he's prepared some bizarre video to be played at his funeral.
Science news of note
* "cold fusion" still getting some research, including in China, it seems. When it will produce enough heat at reasonable cost to be useful, though, still seems anyone's guess.
* another book on the universe as giant quantum computer gets a good review. Not entirely sure what the implications of that are.
* The Economist's long article on climate science last week was very good, arguing that the uncertainties still existing are no reason not to take action. Hear hear.
* Don't worry, you may as well keep eating meat even as you argue against the coal being burned.
* One day, I expect to be able to catch a scramjet to space. Australians are still working on it.
* another book on the universe as giant quantum computer gets a good review. Not entirely sure what the implications of that are.
* The Economist's long article on climate science last week was very good, arguing that the uncertainties still existing are no reason not to take action. Hear hear.
* Don't worry, you may as well keep eating meat even as you argue against the coal being burned.
* One day, I expect to be able to catch a scramjet to space. Australians are still working on it.
Sunday, March 21, 2010
Interesting reasoning
Minister calls anti-smoking edict ‘unwise’ | The Jakarta Post
Religious Affairs Minister Suryadharma Ali has criticized Indonesia’s
second-largest Muslim organization for its anti-tobacco edict, calling
on it to “act more wisely” and not “cause public restlessness”.The organization, Muhammadiyah, which has around 30 million followers
across the country, last week declared smoking to be haram, or forbidden
under Islamic law.The edict has sparked protests, particularly from the country’s tobacco industry and groups protesting the perceived meddling by religious groups in private affairs....
Suryadharma added he did not agree with Muhammadiyah’s branding of smoking as haram, saying he believed Islam’s original stance on tobacco was makruh (frowned upon) but not haram.“Unless it poses a direct threat to human health, such as by causing heart disease, then smoking should not be haram,” he said.
Wish I was there
My stressful fortnight begins at work. Not sure how often I will post.
Meanwhile, I've been fiddling with 2 ways to blog better. One is Scribefire, a Firefox add on that would be good if it always worked properly. At first, it was adding unwanted tracker code (until I realised how to turn that feature off.) Then it started stuffing up the formatting of indented quotes, requiring me to log into Blogger and fix up the edits there. It did, however, allow me to post larger sized pictures than what appears when adding a photo with Blogger. (Hence the larger the normal photo of the dog and the roses last week.)
Getting sick of its recent formatting issues, today I've loaded Windows Writer, which also allows posts like this one to be prepared and then published. It seems to specialise in giving more options with photos, such being able to add the photo and then crop and adjust it quite a bit within the unpublished post. That’s quite clever, I think, and lets me easily tart up an old photo on my hard drive like this:
It seems pretty clever software, but as often happens, I actually would like some combination of features from both Scribefire and Writer to be in the one software. Oh well.
Saturday, March 20, 2010
Bad figures
Bubble prophet fears new disaster | The Japan Times Online
Quite a lengthy article here on the shaky looking future for Japanese public debt. The pessimists suggest government bankruptcy and hyperinflation in the not so distant future:
Also in The Japan Times, land values dropped pretty substantially last year throughout the country.
Quite a lengthy article here on the shaky looking future for Japanese public debt. The pessimists suggest government bankruptcy and hyperinflation in the not so distant future:
Japan's present debt-to-GDP ratio is only comparable with what it was at the end of World War II. At that time, the only way the government could reduce the debt was through hyperinflation, which wiped out much of the people's wealth with skyrocketing prices.The answer, some suggest, is a serious increase in sales tax now, but it's a country not exactly known for having brave politicians.
"I can't tell exactly what will happen (this time), but what actually happened after the war was that the price level surged 60 times in just over four years," Noguchi said.
"If the same thing happens again, a ¥10 million bank account will have the same net value of just ¥100,000 today. It's actually possible," he warned.
Also in The Japan Times, land values dropped pretty substantially last year throughout the country.
Friday, March 19, 2010
Evil in pearls
The ABC News website today came up with this cracker of a photo of you-can-see-who, looking like Hitler's nastier grandmother, or something.
Thursday, March 18, 2010
The problem with iced tea
Drug accused woman freed after substance found to be iced tea
Now for a problem in the Australian legal system. The poor woman:
Now for a problem in the Australian legal system. The poor woman:
A Filipina arrested last weekend at Melbourne Airport and charged with drug importation was freed today after the substance was found to be iced tea....
I see she got $5000 costs awarded to her. I hope her lawyers, who surely didn't have a hell of a lot to do, aren't taking it all.She had been charged with importing a commercial quantity of a border control drug and had been in custody since Saturday.
The court heard the three 800-gram packages of iced tea bought in the Philippines, tested positive on Saturday to a swab and again, in a presumptive test.
A drug dog also indicated a positive result for narcotics when it checked the packages.
But defence barrister Michael Penna-Rees told the court final analysis of the substance by the Australian Federal Police found it was lemon-flavoured iced tea.
He said there had previously been incidents of the tea being wrongly identified as a drug, which in this case was wrongly identified as methylamphetamine and then amphetamine.
Jail for thought crimes
BBC News - Dubai jails Indian pair for 'sexy texts'
What a joke of a legal system.Steamy text messages have resulted in a three-month jail sentence for an Indian man and an Indian woman in Dubai.
Judges ruled that they had planned to "commit sin", a reference to an extramarital affair - which is illegal in the United Arab Emirates.
The unnamed pair, aged 47 and 42, were working as cabin crew for Dubai's Emirates airline....
The court said there was not enough evidence to determine whether the man and the woman had actually had an affair, which could have brought a harsher sentence.
Small market
American space firm seeks professional astronauts - Telegraph
As opposed to those shonky, backyard operating, fly-by-night kind you see on A Current Affair all the time.
As opposed to those shonky, backyard operating, fly-by-night kind you see on A Current Affair all the time.
Wednesday, March 17, 2010
Let the Scientologists deal with it
Rogue star set on collision
I'm a bit slow posting on this one, but here it is anyway:
I'm a bit slow posting on this one, but here it is anyway:
There is a high probability our solar system will feel the effect of a close encounter from a nearby star, according to a new study.The only people alive today who'll need to worry about this are the Scientologists in Sea Org who have signed the billion year contract. Suckers.The star, known as Gliese 710, could disrupt planetary orbits and send a shower of comets and asteroids towards the inner planets when it passes in 1.5 million years time.
Why impossible here?
Study: Daylight saving time a waste of energy
I didn't know this:
Anyway, Indiana shows that it doesn't save energy there. As you expect, the problem is airconditioning:
I didn't know this:
The US state of Indiana has 92 counties, but until 2006 only 15 ofThat's exactly what people have suggested for Queensland: the South East Corner do daylight saving, but not the rest of the State. The line could easily be drawn through the lightly populated rural stretch between Ipswich and Toowoomba, from the border up to just north of Noosa.
them adjusted their clocks for daylight saving time, with the remainder
keeping standard time all year, at least partly to appease farmers who
did not want the change.
Anyway, Indiana shows that it doesn't save energy there. As you expect, the problem is airconditioning:
Kotchen and Grant's work reinforces the findings of an AustralianJust give us solar panels to run our airconditioners, and we'll be OK.
study in 2007 by economists Ryan Kellogg and Hendrik Wolff, who studied the extension of daylight saving time for two months in New South Wales and Victoria for the 2000 Summer Olympics. They also found an increase in energy use.Daylight saving was initially introduced, and has been extended,
because it was believed to save energy, but the studies upon which this
idea was based were conducted in the 1970s. A big difference between
then and the present is the massive increase in the take-up of air
conditioning. In hot periods daylight saving time means air conditioners tend to be run more when people arrive home from work, while in cooler periods more heating is used.
Tuesday, March 16, 2010
Reason to be sceptical
Iron Fertilization In Ocean Nourishes Toxic Algae - Science News
It's a pity that an idea that initially sounded like a good candidate for geo-engineering to reduce CO2 in the atmosphere now seems to have many potential adverse consequences.
Just shows the importance of actually reducing the production of CO2 in the first place.
It's a pity that an idea that initially sounded like a good candidate for geo-engineering to reduce CO2 in the atmosphere now seems to have many potential adverse consequences.
Just shows the importance of actually reducing the production of CO2 in the first place.
Blog added
I'll be adding a new blog to the blogroll (under "the meaning of life" category): Neuroskeptic. Found via Mind Hacks, it contains so many fascinating and well written posts that I wanted to bring it to people's attention. This latest one about quitting tobacco is a good example.
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