Friday, January 01, 2010
Thursday, December 24, 2009
Interesting
How December 25 Became Christmas - Biblical Archaeology Review
Found this via First Things. It's quite an interesting article on the origins of the celebration of Christmas, and points that there is another explanation for the date other than it simply being a Christian take over of the Roman mid-winter Saturnalia festival.
Found this via First Things. It's quite an interesting article on the origins of the celebration of Christmas, and points that there is another explanation for the date other than it simply being a Christian take over of the Roman mid-winter Saturnalia festival.
There is another way to account for the origins of Christmas on December 25: Strange as it may seem, the key to dating Jesus’ birth may lie in the dating of Jesus’ death at Passover. This view was first suggested to the modern world by French scholar Louis Duchesne in the early 20th century and fully developed by American Thomas Talley in more recent years. But they were certainly not the first to note a connection between the traditional date of Jesus’ death and his birth.
Around 200 C.E. Tertullian of Carthage reported the calculation that the 14th of Nisan (the day of the crucifixion according to the Gospel of John) in the year Jesus died was equivalent to March 25 in the Roman (solar) calendar. March 25 is, of course, nine months before December 25; it was later recognized as the Feast of the Annunciation—the commemoration of Jesus’ conception. Thus, Jesus was believed to have been conceived and crucified on the same day of the year. Exactly nine months later, Jesus was born, on December 25.
Annabel Crabb's charitable column
ABC The Drum - Why I like politicians
It's true what she says about politicians and the hours they work, if you take into account all of the party and electorate stuff they have to attend.
I said this to a family member once, who is in the public service, and he pointed out that while it may be tedious to someone like us, for politicians there is an ego stroking aspect of being asked to attend every local shindig.
He could be right.
It's true what she says about politicians and the hours they work, if you take into account all of the party and electorate stuff they have to attend.
I said this to a family member once, who is in the public service, and he pointed out that while it may be tedious to someone like us, for politicians there is an ego stroking aspect of being asked to attend every local shindig.
He could be right.
Charity and the homeless
Local gov'ts to lease 500 rooms for homeless people during year-end
The Japanese government is getting a bit more involved in providing support for the homeless, but as the articles notes, they are still falling well short of the need:
I also get the distinct impression that there is little in the way of charities assisting the homeless in Japan, as there are here. I could be wrong; any reader from there can correct me. But the impression I have is that those countries with a history of monotheistic faith have a larger enthusiasm for providing charity, rather than those countries based on Eastern religions.
The Japanese government is getting a bit more involved in providing support for the homeless, but as the articles notes, they are still falling well short of the need:
The impression you get of the homeless when you visit Japan is that they are economic victims who still have some pride. Hence their cardboard box shelters set up in corners of a big train station will be neat, with shoes still taken off and left outside. I can't say that I have ever seen a drunk, rambling or obviously mentally disturbed looking homeless person around such a shelter, as you readily find in certain parts of the inner cities of Australia. (Mind you, I could just not be going to the equivalent areas of urban Japan.)Tokyo and nine other prefectural governments have decided to lease about 500 rooms from places like inns and company dormitories to accommodate homeless persons during the year-end and new year holidays, Kyodo News learned Wednesday.
But the number falls significantly below the welfare ministry’s initial target of securing 2,700 rooms nationwide, apparently because local governments feared too many rooms might lure jobless or homeless persons from surrounding areas, ministry sources said.
I also get the distinct impression that there is little in the way of charities assisting the homeless in Japan, as there are here. I could be wrong; any reader from there can correct me. But the impression I have is that those countries with a history of monotheistic faith have a larger enthusiasm for providing charity, rather than those countries based on Eastern religions.
Your Christmas present from Opinion Dominion
Oceanography: Current Issue
Wow. Oceanography has an entire special issue devoted to ocean acidification with all articles available for free at the link above.
I haven't had time to read it yet, but they are clearly very detailed articles from some of the biggest names in the field.
Wishing you a well informed, if somewhat depressing, Christmas!
Wow. Oceanography has an entire special issue devoted to ocean acidification with all articles available for free at the link above.
I haven't had time to read it yet, but they are clearly very detailed articles from some of the biggest names in the field.
Wishing you a well informed, if somewhat depressing, Christmas!
Distressing holiday news
Alvin and the Chipmunks 2 is about to be released at the cinema. (And my kids know about it.)
Wednesday, December 23, 2009
Christmas in Space
NASA - NASA-International Space Station
It's nice to think of those far away from family at Christmas, and you can't get much further away than off the planet. The link above shows the current international crew of 5 on the ISS in silly Santa hates, and has lots of stuff to click on. I should send them a greeting I suppose.
It's nice to think of those far away from family at Christmas, and you can't get much further away than off the planet. The link above shows the current international crew of 5 on the ISS in silly Santa hates, and has lots of stuff to click on. I should send them a greeting I suppose.
Some cure
BBC NEWS | Health | Tinnitus cure 'is a step closer'
From the above report:
From the above report:
Studies show hearing loss can go hand-in-hand with over-excitable nerves within brain areas that process sound.
This uncontrolled nerve activity causes the noises that plague people with tinnitus and appears to be down to gene changes, Neuroscience reports.
And it raises the hope of treatment by silencing nerve activity, experts say....
Indeed, Belgian neurosurgeon Dirk De Ridder has tried implanting electrodes directly into the brain of sufferers to permanently normalise the overactive neurons.
He has had some successful results, although one of his patients repeatedly reported an out-of-body experience as a side effect.
Post mortem on Copenhagen
BBC News - Why did Copenhagen fail to deliver a climate deal?
There's lot of interesting detail in the BBC's analysis of what went wrong at Copenhagen. For example, this had escaped my attention:
There's lot of interesting detail in the BBC's analysis of what went wrong at Copenhagen. For example, this had escaped my attention:
China's chief negotiator was barred by security for the first three days of the meeting - a serious issue that should have been sorted out after day one. This was said to have left the Chinese delegation in high dudgeon.Mind you, I'm probably in the group that is inclined to think that a bad binding international agreement might have ultimately been worse than the current outcome.
More bathing history
Filth: The joy of dirt | The Economist
I know I have posted on the history of cleanliness and bathing before (perhaps I have mentioned reviews of this book some time ago?) but The Economist review seems to note things I didn't know before. Such as the importance of linen if you didn't bathe:
Regular all-over bathing, elaborated in ancient Greece and Rome and celebrated in luxurious contemporary ensuite bathrooms, was distrusted for about 400 years in the second millennium. Water was thought to carry disease into the skin; pores nicely clogged with dirt were a means to block it out. In the 17th century the European aristocracy, who washed little, wore linen shirts in order to draw out dirt from the skin instead, and heavy perfumes and oils to mask bad smells.
And:
Throughout the 17th century, writes Georges Vigarello, in “Le Propre et le Sale”, it was thought that linen had special properties that enabled it to absorb sweat from the body. For gentlemen, a wardrobe full of fine linen smocks or undershirts to enable a daily change was the height of hygienic sophistication. Racine and Molière owned 30 each.
As for the gradual end of the "water is dangerous" idea:
The myth of the danger of water was long-lived, and its demolition during the 18th and 19th centuries protracted. Louis XIV had sumptuous bathrooms built at Versailles but not, explains Mathieu da Vinha in “Le Versailles de Louis XIV”, in order to clean the body. Valets rather rubbed his hands and face with alcohol, and he took therapeutic baths only irregularly. Yet a century later Napoleon and Josephine both relished a hot bath, and owned several ornate bidets. In “Clean: An Unsanitised History of Washing”, Katherine Ashenburg notes that bathing was tied to diplomacy: the more tense the moment, the longer the soak. As the Peace of Amiens fell apart in 1803, Napoleon lay in the tub for six hours.
And let's hear it for the Japanese, who never went through the fear of water fad that the West did:
As Orwell goes on to ponder the question, “do the ‘lower classes’ smell?”, he points out that: “the habit of washing yourself all over every day is a very recent one in Europe, and the working classes are generally more conservative than the bourgeoisie. But the English are growing visibly cleaner, and we may hope that in a hundred years they will be almost as clean as the Japanese.”
I know I have posted on the history of cleanliness and bathing before (perhaps I have mentioned reviews of this book some time ago?) but The Economist review seems to note things I didn't know before. Such as the importance of linen if you didn't bathe:
Regular all-over bathing, elaborated in ancient Greece and Rome and celebrated in luxurious contemporary ensuite bathrooms, was distrusted for about 400 years in the second millennium. Water was thought to carry disease into the skin; pores nicely clogged with dirt were a means to block it out. In the 17th century the European aristocracy, who washed little, wore linen shirts in order to draw out dirt from the skin instead, and heavy perfumes and oils to mask bad smells.
And:
Throughout the 17th century, writes Georges Vigarello, in “Le Propre et le Sale”, it was thought that linen had special properties that enabled it to absorb sweat from the body. For gentlemen, a wardrobe full of fine linen smocks or undershirts to enable a daily change was the height of hygienic sophistication. Racine and Molière owned 30 each.
As for the gradual end of the "water is dangerous" idea:
The myth of the danger of water was long-lived, and its demolition during the 18th and 19th centuries protracted. Louis XIV had sumptuous bathrooms built at Versailles but not, explains Mathieu da Vinha in “Le Versailles de Louis XIV”, in order to clean the body. Valets rather rubbed his hands and face with alcohol, and he took therapeutic baths only irregularly. Yet a century later Napoleon and Josephine both relished a hot bath, and owned several ornate bidets. In “Clean: An Unsanitised History of Washing”, Katherine Ashenburg notes that bathing was tied to diplomacy: the more tense the moment, the longer the soak. As the Peace of Amiens fell apart in 1803, Napoleon lay in the tub for six hours.
And let's hear it for the Japanese, who never went through the fear of water fad that the West did:
As Orwell goes on to ponder the question, “do the ‘lower classes’ smell?”, he points out that: “the habit of washing yourself all over every day is a very recent one in Europe, and the working classes are generally more conservative than the bourgeoisie. But the English are growing visibly cleaner, and we may hope that in a hundred years they will be almost as clean as the Japanese.”
Tuesday, December 22, 2009
Christmas reading suggestion
The Japan Times has a short article on a new book entitled: "Suisen Toire wa Kodai ni mo Atta — Toire Kokogaku Nyumon" ("Flush Toilets Existed in Ancient Times — An Introduction to Toilet Archaeology").
The author "was first captivated by toilet archaeology when he excavated the late seventh century toilet remains at the Fujiwara Palace in Kashihara, Nara Prefecture, in 1992.."
Not quite Indiana Jones, but it's a living.
The author "was first captivated by toilet archaeology when he excavated the late seventh century toilet remains at the Fujiwara Palace in Kashihara, Nara Prefecture, in 1992.."
Not quite Indiana Jones, but it's a living.
Inspirational, strange or both?
Two-legged dog gives hope to disabled Army vets -- latimes.com
You really ought to look at the video of the two legged walking dog.
You really ought to look at the video of the two legged walking dog.
Sounds reasonable
Faster, NASA, Faster - NYTimes.com
The concluding paragraphs:
The concluding paragraphs:
There is no reason American companies could not build a similar, but modernized, medium-sized, economical workhorse of a rocket that is simple enough to sustain frequent launching. If NASA were to promise to buy one such rocket a week, the manufacturers could also profitably sell copies for launching commercial spacecraft and satellites — at much lower than current prices — and this would spur the development of space-based industries in fields like telecommunications, earth imaging and even space tourism.
To maintain a vibrant, innovative program, NASA needs to step up the rate of rocket launchings. It should set a requirement that any new launching system fly once a week, then put out contracts for private companies to design and build rockets that can operate this frequently. By launching early and launching often, NASA could get back in the business of exploring space.
Dawkins' limits
Elders with Andrew Denton - episode 6: Richard Dawkins (21/12/2009)
Last night's Andrew Denton interview of Richard Dawkins was pretty fascinating. It seemed to me that Dawkins was quite defensive and almost ludicrously cautious; seemingly worrying all the time that Denton was setting him up for some sort of trap. For example, this exchange:
And then this part where he seems unwilling to talk about emotions:
ANDREW DENTON: Is it possible to explain love?
RICHARD DAWKINS: I think it in principle can be explained but I don't actually have the internal wherewithal to explain it. I just experience it.
And this:
I found this avoidance of the personal and emotional a strange contrast with his aggressiveness and apparent confidence in attacking belief in God.
Last night's Andrew Denton interview of Richard Dawkins was pretty fascinating. It seemed to me that Dawkins was quite defensive and almost ludicrously cautious; seemingly worrying all the time that Denton was setting him up for some sort of trap. For example, this exchange:
ANDREW DENTON: What's your definition of success?
RICHARD DAWKINS: ...Oh dear, I don't really answer that kind of question...
ANDREW DENTON: Why not?
RICHARD DAWKINS: ...I'm just trying, well, because I just think of it as a dictionary word, which has a dictionary definition and you can go and look it up. I don't have a personal...
ANDREW DENTON: Well, you don't have a marker in your life for what would be achievement?
And then this part where he seems unwilling to talk about emotions:
ANDREW DENTON: Is it possible to explain love?
RICHARD DAWKINS: I think it in principle can be explained but I don't actually have the internal wherewithal to explain it. I just experience it.
And this:
ANDREW DENTON: When do you laugh at yourself?
RICHARD DAWKINS: ...Are all the questions going to be like this?
ANDREW DENTON: Not all... do you find these very difficult?
RICHARD DAWKINS: Yes.
ANDREW DENTON: Well, why is that?
RICHARD DAWKINS: Um ... because they're about me, I suppose.
ANDREW DENTON: Some of the questions are about you and some are about your observation of other people.
I found this avoidance of the personal and emotional a strange contrast with his aggressiveness and apparent confidence in attacking belief in God.
More entertainment than expected
Taking the kids to a Christmas season bit of theatre seems to be a riskier exercise than it used to be. First, you have to hope that Amy Winehouse is not in the audience:
During a production of Cinderella at Milton Keynes theater in Bucks, Winehouse, who was in the audience with parents and children, heckled the cast and kept shouting, “He’s f…ing behind you”, The Sun reported.And even in New Zealand the kids might get more of an education that you expected:Winehouse allegedly refused to be seated as she blocked the view of families by standing up in the stalls and walking along rows.
She called out for more than half an hour in the first act, yelling: "F… Cinders, Prince Charming, marry me" and branding the ugly stepsisters characters "bitches", sources said.
She refused to be ushered to a box after the interval and allegedly launched herself at front-of-house manager Richard Pound - allegedly pulling his hair, punching him and kicking him between the legs.
About 130 foster children went along to see a performance of An Adagio Christmas put on specially for the young group.
Most of the children in the group were under 10, and some were as young as six.
But the government service that arranged the free Christmas play had not seen the script, which contained swearing and sexual references.
One character in the show swore: "He called me fat. You can talk you fat f**k."
Then another character talked about losing her virginity and pretended to have an orgasm.
"She loses her virginity! She shuddered and he lifted her higher, higher!"
The deputy chief executive of the Child, Youth and Family service, Ray Smith, has released a statement saying the play was a generous gift from a Wellington theatre.
He says he is disappointed the event has been tarnished by what he calls less-than-fair media coverage.
He said while small sections took everyone a little by surprise, they did not detract from what was an amazing show.
Monday, December 21, 2009
Lowering expectations
I forgot to link last week to this post at the First Things blog, about how low an author's expectations should be. It quotes a publisher, and then adds its own comment at the end:
"Here’s the reality of the book industry: in 2004, 950,000 titles out of the 1.2 million tracked by Nielsen Bookscan sold fewer than 99 copies. Another 200,000 sold fewer than 1,000 copies. Only 25,000 sold more than 5,000 copies. The average book in America sells about 500 copies. (Publishers Weekly, July 17, 2006). And average sales have since fallen much more. According to BookScan, which tracks most bookstore, online, and other retail sales of books, only 299 million books were sold in 2008 in the U.S. in all adult nonfiction categories combined. The average U.S. book is now selling less than 250 copies per year and less than 3,000 copies over its lifetime."
Alternative: Start a blog. You’re likely to reach more readers in a year you will with your bookWell, that makes me feel better about being a low-ranking blogger.
A fair summary
Phillip Coorey in theSydney Morning Herald gives a fair enough summary of the political mess that Australia (and indeed the world) is in regarding a response to AGW.
Sunday, December 20, 2009
Christmas consciousness in the Many Worlds
Here's an interesting paper I found on arXiv: "Quantum features of consciousness, computers and brain".
I haven't heard of author Michael Mensky and his ideas before, and it remains unclear what his science qualifications are. Here's his home page.
He calls his idea the Extended Everett's Concept (EEC). (That's referring to Hugh Everett's "many worlds" interpretation of quantum mechanics.)
This paper is rather frustrating. His explanation of the background debate of the role of consciousness in quantum physics, and Hugh Everett's many worlds theory, seems all quite reasonable and (as far as I can tell) accurate. But his own EEC idea seems poorly explained. For example, we get this:
But when he gets to the consequences of the idea, it starts to sound a bit New Age flaky:
Anyhow, this is just the sort of stuff that I find pretty intriguing. I may be enjoying the coming Christmas not just in this world, but in many others too, and while I sleep I may catch a glimpse of them. It's a good thing I don't have many nightmares.
On a final note: given that "many worlds" is pretty popular amongst scientists now, has any theologian considered its implications for Christianity? (I know Frank Tipler believes in it, and is a Christian, but I am not sure he has much dwelt on the theological implications.)
I mean, Christianity can live with the idea that God may have had incarnations in alien species in the universe we can see, but can you expand that to include his necessary incarnation in all of a spectacular number of branching universes? Just wondering...
Update: here's a recent internet forum in which the question about Christian theology and Many Worlds was asked, and some useful contributions follow. I also see that there was a 1998 seminar on the whole topic, with the likes of Paul Davies, Lee Smolin, a Vatican scientist and even Richard Dawkins attending! I'm betting nothing was resolved.
I haven't heard of author Michael Mensky and his ideas before, and it remains unclear what his science qualifications are. Here's his home page.
He calls his idea the Extended Everett's Concept (EEC). (That's referring to Hugh Everett's "many worlds" interpretation of quantum mechanics.)
This paper is rather frustrating. His explanation of the background debate of the role of consciousness in quantum physics, and Hugh Everett's many worlds theory, seems all quite reasonable and (as far as I can tell) accurate. But his own EEC idea seems poorly explained. For example, we get this:
Although consciousness in EEC is directly connected with quantum features of our world, no structure in brain of the type of quantum computer is suggested. Rather the whole quantum world is a sort of quantum computer supporting the phenomenon of consciousness and superconsciousness.I need more meat on those bones. Here is another interesting line, apparently the crucial feature of EEC:
It is accepted in EEC that not only consciousness separate the alternatives but consciousness is nothing else than the separation of alternatives.I should note that this paper is not the first he has written on his EEC idea; he came up with it in 2000, apparently. So I am not suggesting that this paper is inadequate for not explaining it well enough.
But when he gets to the consequences of the idea, it starts to sound a bit New Age flaky:
....the separation of alternatives disappears in the unconscious regime so that one obtains access to all alternatives. Therefore, in unconscious regime one obtains super-consciousness having access to all classical alternatives. This not only predicts ‘supernatural’ capabilities of consciousness but also explains why these capabilities reveal themself when (explicit) consciousness is turned off or weakened, for example in dream or meditation (the fact well known in all strong psychological practices).Hmm. Mensky has been published in the grandiosely titled journal "NeuroQuantology." (I wish I had come up with that name.) I see now that he has had an earlier paper up on arXiv, but I don't have time to read tonight. The abstract notes that:
This explains not only parapsychology but such well known phenomena as intuitive guesses including great scientific insights. In fact superconsciousness is a mechanism of direct vision of truth.
The brain serves as an interface between the body and consciousness, but the most profound level of consciousness is not a function of brain.So our individual consciousness is all just a subset of the the universal super-consciousness that is accessed via the brain? I'm not sure if that's what he means, but I am interested enough to read some more. (It also sounds consistent with some Eastern religious beliefs, too.)
Anyhow, this is just the sort of stuff that I find pretty intriguing. I may be enjoying the coming Christmas not just in this world, but in many others too, and while I sleep I may catch a glimpse of them. It's a good thing I don't have many nightmares.
On a final note: given that "many worlds" is pretty popular amongst scientists now, has any theologian considered its implications for Christianity? (I know Frank Tipler believes in it, and is a Christian, but I am not sure he has much dwelt on the theological implications.)
I mean, Christianity can live with the idea that God may have had incarnations in alien species in the universe we can see, but can you expand that to include his necessary incarnation in all of a spectacular number of branching universes? Just wondering...
Update: here's a recent internet forum in which the question about Christian theology and Many Worlds was asked, and some useful contributions follow. I also see that there was a 1998 seminar on the whole topic, with the likes of Paul Davies, Lee Smolin, a Vatican scientist and even Richard Dawkins attending! I'm betting nothing was resolved.
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