Beware of a bad memory

Greetings.

Jewish date:  22 Tammuz 5769.

Today’s holiday:  The Three Weeks.

Today’s quasi-holiday:  Bastille Day.

Worthy cause of the day:  “Start torture investigation with Cheney and Addington”.

Today’s news and commentary:

• “How Divorce Scars Children”
  
• “Middle East Nukes (1989)”
  
• “Manipulative meow: Cats learn to vocalize a particular sound to train their human companions”
  
• “The Next Hacking Frontier: Your Brain?”
  
• This Modern World 2009-07-14
  

Today’s weird thing is “CHANCE OF REMEMBERING TO TAKE OUT THE TRASH”:

Enjoy, share the weirdness, and don’t forget to take out the trash tonight.

Aaron

Greetings.

Jewish date:  21 Tammuz 5769.

Today’s holidays:  The Three Weeks, Synaxis of the Arch Angel Gabriel.

Today’s quasi-holiday:  Embrace Your Geekness Day.

Worthy cause of the day:  “Help California Save Its State Parks”.

Relevant to Divine Misconceptions:

1. “Netanyahu's "Nazi Language"?”:  The logical fallacy known as the Nazi card is an attempt to get the reader/listener to condemn something by associating it with Adolph Hitler or the Nazis.  The point of this is to generate such a negative emotional response that the reader/listener does not think rationally about the subject.  Usually this is done by claiming that Hitler or the Nazis were somehow for or did something, e.g., “Sugar is bad. Sugar rots your teeth. Sugar makes you hyper. Hitler ate sugar.” from the Daria episode “Pinch-Sitter”.  This HonestReporting report documents a new variant on the Nazi card, with Binyamin Nethanyahu being condemned because he used the term Judenrein to describe how the so-called “Palestinians” want a state of their own to be.  The (anti-Semitic) people attacking him are trying to invoke a negative emotional response and totally ignoring whether this description is accurate or fair.
   
2. More religious intolerance:  “Churches and Envoy Attacked in Iraq”.
3. The latest episode of Kings, “Javelin”, draws to some degree on Sha’ul’s attempts to kill Dawidh.  Silas puts David on trial for treason—he is very, very angry that David did not tell him of his affair with Michelle, not to mention he views David’s popularity as a danger to his own—with Jack as the prosecutor.  The evidence is false testimony and faked video footage.  Silas plays on David and Jack’s sense of loyalty to get them to play along with this travesty of justice.  David’s loyalty is so strong that he refuses an attempt to break him out of custody and to overthrow Silas.  Furthermore, Michelle finds out she is pregnant with David’s child, and Rose is also not above playing politics to keep Michelle from testifying on David’s behalf.  Eventually Jack, finding his job unconscionable, refuses to accede to Silas’s scheme, and he, too, is arrested for treason.  This is not how the events in Samuel unfolded, but Silas’s irrational jealousy for David is a decent reflection of Sha’ul’s for Dawidh.  This episode ends leading us to believe further turmoil ahead in the next episode.

Today’s news and commentary:

• “Why the #$%! Do We Swear? For Pain Relief”
  
• “Druse News”
  

Today’s weird thing is “Things to Do Without Access To The Internet”.

Enjoy and share the weirdness.

Aaron

Beware of the form police

Greetings.

Jewish date:  20 Tammuz 5769.

Today’s holidays:  The Three Weeks, Fifteenth Sunday of Ordinary Time, Feast of Grady Louis McMurtry.

Today’s quasi-holidays:   Christmas in July, International Town Criers Day.

Worthy cause of the day:  “Tell Congress: Stand with Senator Kennedy to Reform Health Care” and “"Whites only" pool in 2009?”.

Today’s news and commentary:

• “Sweet smell of success follows reintroduction of stinking hawk's-beard to U.K.”
  
• “What about the Jewish refugees from Arab lands?”
  
• The Mannahatta Project (Submitted by Barry.)
  
• “Birth Defect Study Casts Doubt on Phthalate Fears”
  
• “11 Places With a Worse Economy Than Ours” (Submitted by Barry.)

Today’s weird thing is “Form”:

Enjoy and share the weirdness.

Aaron

Beware of exotic silverware

Greetings.

Jewish date:  18 Tammuz 5769.

Today’s holiday:  Friday of the Fourteenth Week of Ordinary Time.

Today’s quasi-holiday:  Don’t Step on a Bee Day.

Worthy cause of the day:  “Guarantee Every Child Has Access to the Services They Need” and “Urge the chief of the Forest Service to end the policy of hazing and killing buffalo.”

Relevant to Divine Misconceptions:

1. “now would be a good time to call :”
   
   and “Apparently, Basement cat felt that 4”
   
   I really have no idea how black cats ended up as symbols of evil.  If anyone knows, please tell me.
2. “Plan to ban Uluru climb sparks debate”:  Uluru is a mountain sacred to Australian aborigines.  It is understandable that some would prefer that people did not treat it as a mere tourist attraction and challenge in mountain climbing.
   
3. More religious oppression:  “UZBEKISTAN: Banned from meeting fellow-believers”, “Malaysia Sikhs lose fight against man's conversion”, “Hamas tries to detain woman on beach in feared imposing of strict Islamic law”.
   
4. “Syria Increases Penalty for Honour Killings”:  This article is remarkable for two reasons.  The first is that the title is misleading, given that the increase in penalty is to a mere two years in jail.  (Bernie Madoff got 150 years, and he did even kill anyone.)  The second is that the article completely fails to mention anything about the, shall we say, provenance of honor killings.  Syrians are predominantly Muslim, and Muslims are the group most associated with honor killings.  They do occur occasionally among other groups, but Syria is not record as having appreciable numbers of Sikhs or Hindus.  Nowhere in the text is there any mention of Islam, Muslims, or Arabs at all.  I smell whitewashing.
   
5. “Pope orders reform after Holocaust denial flap”:  Took him long enough.
   
6. “Hindus demand removal of 'offensive ad' by Burger King”:  People do not usually approve of their deity being used to sell food.  Not to mention the idea is tackier than climbing a sacred mountain.
   

Today’s news and commentary:

• “Blog based on Time Magazine’s cover story on Divorce”
  
• “Michael Jackson”
  
• “Orchestra plays live soundtrack to horse race”
  
• “Bottled up: Data on contaminants in bottled water still lacking, government says”
  
• “Frenemy, locavore among new words in Webster's”
  
• “Presidential Commandments (1989)”
  
• “Debunking the Domino Theory”
  
• “Anonymous Sources on Resettling Refugees”
  
• “Turtles crawl on runway, delay flights at JFK”
  
• “Did China's Nuclear Tests Kill Thousands and Doom Future Generations?”
  

Today’s weird things have been prompted by “Silverware in Conjunction”:

Given enough humans and enough time, they will invent practically anything.  I was aware before this of sporks, but now I have discovered that people have gone to the trouble of inventing and even selling spifes, knorks, and what this quasi-Venn diagram calls “knipoonorks”:  Splayds.  Enjoy (or wonder why such things were invented in the first place), share the weirdness, and Shabbath shalom.

Aaron

Beware of people speaking fake Latin

Greetings.

Jewish date:  16 Tammuz 5769.

Today’s holiday:  Wednesday of the Fourteenth Week of Ordinary Time.

Today’s quasi-holidays:  Video Games Day; Savor the Comic, Unplug the Drama (SCUD) Day.

NOTE:  Due to the observance of the fast of the 17th of Tammuz, there will be no weird thing tomorrow.

Relevant to Divine Misconceptions:

1. “Vatican Radio starts carrying ads”:  This is sad.  During this economic downturn, even religious organizations (e.g., the Roman Catholic Church) are suffering.
   
2. “What countermissionaries believe”:  This is an insider perspective from Jewish countermissionaries.  This includes the idea that we do not have to pretend that we all agree, but rather we can get along and respect each other while disagreeing.  Keep in mind that almost any two people will disagree about something.  If we needed to agree to get along, then no one would get along.
   
3. Yes, I am late again in commenting on the latest episode of Kings, this time “Chapter One”.  Here we return to something vaguely resembles something out of Samuel.  The Charter of Gilboa is stolen.  Silas, still angry over David hiding his affair with Michelle, sends David to retrieve it, with the promise that if he does so he can marry Michelle—only he gives David very little in the way of resources to do it.  This resembles to some extent the task which Sha’ul set for Dawidh in order to be able to marry Mikhal:  to bring him the foreskins of a large number of Pelishtim (Philistines) (I know:  Ew!)—a task fraught with danger since Dawidh had to risk getting killed in battle.  David, despite many hardships and to the shock of Silas, manages to complete his mission.  Silas soon afterwards has David arrested on charges of treason.  This is reminiscent of the fact that Sha’ul on multiple occasions tried to kill Dawidh—and if anyone doubts the resemblance, do keep in mind that governments are not famous for preserving the lives of traitors.  Less resembling anything in Samuel is more of this business of trying to read “signs”, which is pointless in Samuel due the presence of prophets who give clear messages.  Nevertheless, I am looking forward to finding out what happens in the next episode.

Today’s news and commentary:

• “Social Security Numbers Can Be Guessed From Data, Study Finds”:  This is scary.
  
• “Police foil radio control zeppelin jailbreak”:  This is creative.
  
• “Iranian Repression”
  

Today’s weird thing is Dog Latin.  Enjoy and share the weirdness.

Aaron

The meaning of life

Greetings.

Jewish date:  15 Tammuz 5769.

Today’s holiday:  Tuesday of the Fourteenth Week of Ordinary Time.

Today’s quasi-holiday:  Father and Daughter Take a Walk Day.

Worthy cause of the day:  “A NUCLEAR FREE WORLD”.

Relevant to Divine Misconceptions:

1. “ISNA's Reform Hasn't Shed It of Radical Ideologues”:  Whether or not the “true” Islam, is pro-terrorism, people who are pro-terrorism are not our friends and should not be treated as such.
   
2. “World's oldest Christian Bible digitized”:  (Submitted by David.)  The Codex Sinaiticus, a copy of the Christian Bible in Greek from the 4th century, has now been made freely available on-line.  This should be a boon to scholars.
   
3. “TV gameshow offers atheists 'salvation'”:  This is at best in poor taste.  Religion is about the truth, not a contest for followers.
   
4. More intolerance:  “Three die in Karnataka violence” and “Faisalabad, a Christian tortured and detained on false charges of blasphemy”.
   
5. For those of you who were wondering about the Ethiopian Orthodox Church revealing the Ark of the Covenant, they claim they were not going to do that.  See  “Ethiopian Ark of the Covenant Not To Be Revealed After All”.

Today’s news and commentary:

• “Collision Course (1989)”
  
• “10 Business Lessons I Learned from Playing Dungeons & Dragons”
  
• “No Holds Barred: The Eulogy you won't hear for Michael Jackson”
  

Today’s weird thing is a little religious humor:  “LOLZ, Cheezebugers and Naps?”.

Enjoy and share the weirdness.

Aaron

Beware of fine musical robots since 2000

Greetings.

Jewish date:  14 Tammuz 5769.

NOTE:  This Thursday is 17 Tammuz, a major fast day in Judaism.  For info on it, please see the site of the Orthodox Union.

Today’s holidays:

Today’s quasi-holiday:  National Fried Chicken Day.

Worthy cause of the day:  “Regulate Shipping to Protect Arctic Wildlife”.

Relevant to Divine Misconceptions:

1. More religious oppression:  “China: Office Becomes New Force For Religious Repression”, “Two shot at Ethiopia church site”, and “Hundreds of Muslims attack about a hundred Christian homes in Punjab”.
2. “Pedophiles, Hebephiles, and Ephebophiles, Oh My: Erotic Age Orientation”:  Yes, this article is sort of creepy.  But it has a point.  Things people often label as “unnatural” often aren’t; things that people do wrong are often natural and have some logic to them.  Also, things that we consider evil are not necessarily a sign of something medically wrong; if people misbehave due to illness, then they belong in a hospital and not a prison.
   

Today’s news and commentary:

• “Star Trek - What You Missed”:  WARNING!  Spoilers!
  
• “From predator to plant in one gulp”
  
• “Electromagnetic Leak”
  

Today’s weird thing is “LEMUR: Purveyors of Fine Musical Robots Since 2000”.  (Think of something like real-life Animusic robots.)  Enjoy and share the weirdness.

Aaron