Beware of flammable printers

Greetings.

Jewish date:  12 Tishri 5770.

Worthy cause of the day:  “Increase Funding to Fight Heart Disease and Stroke” and “Upgrade Aid”.

Today’s news and commentary:

• “Wild Meat Raises Lead Exposure”
• “Observations: Are Torosaurus and Triceratops one and the same?”
• “Girl dies shortly after vaccine shot”

Today’s weird thing is the error message “lp0 on fire”.  Enjoy and share the weirdness.

Aaron

Beware of Micro Cat

Greetings.

Jewish date:  11 Tishri 5770.

Worthy cause of the day:  “Help Halt Logging in Our Forests”.

Today’s news and commentary:

• Rixstep is announcing a piece of software which I have no use for, but which has a great name:  Happy Mac Command Line Phobia Defeater.
• “Tweeting Ugandan gorillas make friends online”

Today’s weird thing is “Micro Cat”:

Enjoy and share the weirdness.

Aaron

Beware of fancy cubes

Greetings.

Jewish date:  9 Tishri 5769 (‘Erev Yom Kippur).

Today’s quasi-holidays:  World Tourism Day, Ancestor Appreciation Day.

Worthy cause of the day:  Give blood.  I cannot say this enough.  Just do not do on a day when you are fasting or the day before, which is just asking for trouble.  Also:  “Sierra Club:  Help Us Reach Our Goal of 100,000 Champions for National Parks by October 4th!”

Today’s news and commentary:

• “What Happened to Channel 1?”
• “Did Cooking Give Humans An Evolutionary Edge?”
• “Rare Space Object Discovered by High Schooler”

Today’s weird thing is the Rubik's Cube Passion with Plush Pink Case.  This is something bizarre Barry dug found out about, and I am not really clear on what the point of this is, given it is only the same puzzle as Rubik’s Cube, only flashier.  Enjoy (or be puzzled) and share the weirdness.  And may all of you who are fasting have an easy and meaningful fast, and may you all be sealed in the book of life for a good year.

Aaron

Beware of dogcows

Greetings.

Jewish date:  7 Tishri 5770.

Today’s quasi-holiday:  International Grab Hand Day.

Worthy cause of the day:  “Protect Yellowstone/Greater Rockies”, “Repeal telecom immunity and roll back PATRIOT ACT abuses”, “Break Up Insurance Monopolies”, “Divided We Fail:  Tell Congress that they can't stop now!”, and “Go to Africa”.

Today’s news and commentary:

• NASA Images:  OK, it is neither news nor commentary, but it is a cool resource.
• “WIN”:
  
  Submitted by Barry.  There is definitely some wisdom in this.

Today’s weird thing, also submitted by Barry, is “Dogcow Cutout Page”.  The dogcow is something of an unofficial Apple mascot, and this page lets you create one of your own.  Enjoy and share the weirdness.

Aaron

Beware of ants

Greetings.

Jewish date:  6 Tishri 5770.

Today’s quasi-holidays:  National Punctuation Day.

Worthy cause of the day:  “Save Orphan Bears: End Cruel Den Hunts” and “Sierra Club:  Add Your Voice and Help Us Reach Our Goal by October 4th!”  Also:  “Video: Will Ferrell stands up for the real health care victims”.

Today’s news and commentary:

• “It's Official: Water Found on the Moon”
• “Student-Built Space Camera Photographs Earth, Costs $150”:  Be surprised.  Be very, very surprised.
• “Pew Science Knowledge Quiz”:  I got all 12 questions right.
• “Positions of Genes Inside the Cell Nucleus Exert Biological Effects”
• “Surprising, Huge Peaks Discovered in Saturn's Rings”

Today’s weird thing is “The Search”.

Enjoy and share the weirdness.

Aaron

Today’s weird thing, should you choose to accept it...

Greetings.

Jewish date:  5 Tishri 5770.

Today’s quasi-holiday:  Checkers Day.

Worthy cause of the day:  THAT Big Book Sale 2009 (a book sale of the Charleston County Public Library System; the need volunteers), “American Jaguars Need Your Help to Survive”, and “Health Care for America NOW!”

Today’s news and commentary:

• “Inside the Apocalyptic Soviet Doomsday Machine”

Today’s weird thing, which I heard about in synagogue after morning services yesterday, is “Alarm Clock Defuses a 'Bomb' Every Morning to Wake You Up”.  The product described therein is the perfect gift for fans of Mission:  Impossible.  Enjoy and share the weirdness.

Aaron

Beware of false positives

Greetings.

Jewish date:  4 Tishri 5770.

Today’s quasi-holidays:  Elephant Day, Dear Diary Day, International Car Free Day, International Dadaism Month.

Worthy cause of the day:  Urge your Senators to Protect the EPA’s Ability to Curb Global Warming Pollution.

Today’s news and commentary:

• “COBOL turns 50”:  Be afraid.  Be very, very afraid.  COBOL is a language which gets only a bit more respect than BASIC.
• “Neil Armstrong isn't worthy of Texas textbooks?”
• “How torture may inhibit accurate confessions”
• “Mooo-ve that manure: Agricultural runoff a spreading public health issue”
• “Cursive writing may be fading skill, but so what?”
• “Animal Oddities”:  Submitted by Barry.  Anything which can go wrong in biology will go wrong.  This includes the genes in snakes which suppress the development of limbs.
• “Thesis comes to life in cardboard computer case”
• “Shirtmaker designs tie for your iPod”
• “How to read articles about health and healthcare”
• “Lack of insurance causes more than 44,000 U.S. deaths annually, study says”
• “Tiny tyrannosaur had all the trappings of T. rex”

Today’s weird things are “Scanning Dead Salmon in fMRI Machine Highlights Risk of Red Herrings” and “The Story Behind the Atlantic Salmon”.  The story made short is that a dead salmon put in a functional MRI returned (false) signs of brain activity.  This was not even a recently dead salmon.  It was a dead salmon sold in a supermarket.  Enjoy, share the weirdness, and beware of false positives.

Aaron

Only worthy causes today due to the Fast of Gedhalyah

Greetings.

Jewish date:  3 Tishri 5770.

Today’s quasi-holidays:  Elephant Appreciation Day, Miniature Golf Day, International Banana Festival, World Gratitude Day, International Day of Peace, National Woman Road Warrior Day.

And yes, I do realize that the United Nations having an International Day of Peace is ironic.

Worthy cause of the day:  My brother Barry has asked me to post this:

I am asking everyone to participate in ARC of Indian River County's 6th Annual Divine Dining Drawing.  In these tough times, state funding to help people with developmental disabilities has been cut, and donations are more important than ever.  Your donation will help support ARC's group homes, work supports, and behavioral services for people with developmental disabilities.  For every $2.00 ticket you buy, you will get a chance of winning many fabulous prizes including dining at a number of wonderful restaurants, gift cards for Publix, and a pie a month from Bob Evans for a year.  The drawing will be held on November 20th, so time is running out.  You can get tickets from me personally, or you can call (772) 562-6854 x217 or write to sandyg@arcir.org.  You can learn more about this fundraiser athttp://www.arcir.org/sales.html or about ARC in general at http://www.arcir.org.  Thank you for attention and hopefully your support.

Also:  “Payment Cuts for Medicare Physicians are Bad News for Older Americans”, “Stand with Dawn”, and “September is Hunger Action Month -- Fight to End Hunger!”

There will not be a weird thing today due to the Fast of Gedhalyah.  May you have an easy fast.

Aaron

Beware of undocumented machine code instructions

Greetings.

Jewish date:  29 ’Elul 5769.

Today’s quasi-holidays:

Worthy cause of the day:  “AmericaCantWait.com” and “Take Action: Colorado's pristine forests need your help today!”

Today’s news and commentary:

• “Underwater Suffering: Do Fish Feel Pain?”
• “Old Operating Systems Don’t Die…”:  CP/M still alive?  Who knew?

Today’s weird thing is the machine code instruction “Halt and Catch Fire”.  Enjoy, share the weirdness, Shabbath shalom, and may you be written and sealed for a good year.

Aaron

The post that never ends

Greetings.

Jewish date:  28 ’Elul 5769.

Today’s quasi-holidays:  Constitution Day.

Worthy causes of the day:  “Help us hold the line:  All major advertisers have left Beck:  Help us keep them from returning” and “Send a Message to The New York Helmsley Hotel”.

Before discussing anything today, I would like to note that the Days of Awe, Ro’sh hashShanah (one of the Jewish new years; we have 4) and Yom Kippur (the Day of Atonement) will be here very soon.  One of the themes of these holidays is repentance.  In that spirit, I would like to apologize to anyone I have inadvertently offended.  I am human and have my own share of faults, and I make my fair share of stupid mistakes to try to avoid repeating in the coming year.  (YHWH help me, please!)  I also grant forgiveness to all of those who have inadvertently sinned against me, whether or not they apologize; there are enough problems in this world, and I do not want to make them any worse by bearing a grudge which will seem stupid and pointless in the long run.

Today’s news and commentary:

• “iSniff: Pocket-Size Pollution Sensors Promise Big Improvement in Monitoring Personal Environment”
• “FDA approves H1N1 swine flu vaccines”
• “An Influenza Primer”:  Note:  This would be a good time to go out and get vaccinated.
• “Maori legend of man-eating bird is true”:  No, this is not as crazy as it sounds.
• “First Detailed Photos of Atoms”

Today’s weird thing is “The Song That Never Ends”.  Enjoy and share the weirdness.

Aaron

Beware of miniature furniture

Greetings.

Today’s quasi-holidays:  National Play-doh Day, Collect Rocks Day, Wife Appreciation Day, International Day for the Preservation of the Ozone Layer, and Mayflower Day.

Worthy cause of the day:  I got a flu shot earlier today.  Please consider getting one yourself and save someone else the inconvenience (or death) from getting the flu.  Thank you.

Furthermore:  “Speak Up for Our Oceans: Oppose Offshore Drilling”, “Oil and Ice Don't Mix: Protect the Arctic Ocean”, “Mining Plan Threatens Lake Clark and Katmai National Parks”, “Take Action: Add your voice - don't forget Darfur”, and “NO MORE LEHMAN BROTHERS”.

Today’s news and commentary:

• “Longest Lightning Storm: Saturn Sets Record”
• “Insurers Shun Multitasking Speech Devices”:  Yes, someone making rules has done something mindbogglingly stupid.  They would rather pay several times more for a bigger, deliberately crippled device when a less expensive, fully-functional device would do just as well.  Is it any wonder that medical insurance in this country costs way too much?
• “Physical Dexterity”

Today’s weird thing is “iff U mak”:

Enjoy and share the weirdness.

Aaron

Open letter re implausible unsolicited job offers

Greetings.

This is an open letter to everyone sending me implausible unsolicited job offers.  If a job offer is sent for any kind of position for which I do not have the background, e.g., being an accountant or salesman, I am not interested.  If the job offer requires me to transfer money in any way, shape, or form, I am not interested.  If the alleged sender’s name sounds at best improbable, I am not interested.  If the alleged sender’s name bears no obvious relation to his or her E-mail address, I am not interested.  If the job offer was allegedly sent from a free E-mail server (e.g., Hotmail) rather than a company’s private E-mail server, I am not interested.  If I am supposed to reply to an address other than that the offer was allegedly sent from—especially when neither address is on a private E-mail server—I am not interested.  If the job offer is written in bad English or has any suspiciously bad punctuation, I am not interested.  If the job offer is in a boring sans serif or monospaced font, I am not interested.

And if any spambot writers out there are reading this, stop foisting this garbage on the rest of us, please.  We are not stupid enough to fall for such obvious fakes, and we have better things to do with our bandwidth and clock cycles.  And if you must send us spam, then at least have the decency to impress us by making it look genuine; we would still hate you, but at least we would not think you take us for a bunch of idiots.

Thank you for your attention and letting me get this out of my system.

Aaron

Beware of breaking news

Greetings.

Jewish date:  26 ’Elul 5769.

Today’s quasi-holiday:  Felt Hat Day.

Worthy cause of the day:  “ColorOfChange.org:  Help us hold the line:  All major advertisers have left Beck:  Help us keep them from returning” and “Divided We Fail:  Real people, real stories”.

NOTE:  Divine Misconceptions now has its own blog.  Please go on over and see it for yourself.

Today’s news and commentary:

• “Recession layoffs may threaten blood bank reserves”:  Consider giving if you can.  This is a serious problem.
• “Tree Electricity Runs Nano-Gadget”
• “Gotcha! Jupiter Turned Comet into a Moon”

Today’s weird thing is “Breaking News”:

Enjoy and share the weirdness.

Aaron

Greetings.

Jewish date:  25 ’Elul 5769.

Today’s holidays:  Triumph of the Cross, Exaltation of the Holy Cross.

Today’s quasi-holiday:  National Boss/Employee Exchange Day.

Relevant to Divine Misconceptions:

1. “angels”:  Bringing peace to the Middle East is fraught with serious religious difficulty, given Islamic and Arab state-endorsed anti-Semitism.  Given that the previous several presidents of the United State—both Republicans and Democrats—have tried through trying to get Israel to do stupid things (as opposed to, say, dealing with the problem of anti-Semitism), with at best neutral results, and that Obama has already started down this well-worn path, I do not expect him to do any better.
2. Setting up the Divine Misconceptions blog has been coming along nicely, and I may really start posting them sometime this week.
3. See today’s weird thing below.

Today’s news and commentary:

• “Single Vaccine Dose, Even One from 1976, Could Protect against the H1N1 Swine Flu”

Today’s weird thing is “Statistically, How to Make it into the BOOK of LIFE”.  This is Jewish humor and relevant to the upcoming holidays of Ro’sh hashShanah and Yom Kippur.  Enjoy and share the weirdness.

Aaron

Greetings.

Jewish date:  24 ’Elul 5769.

Today’s holidays:  Twenty-Fourth Sunday of Ordinary Time, Feast of Leila Waddell.

Today’s quasi-holidays:  National Grandparent’s Day, Fortune Cookie Day, Helicopter Day, Defy Superstition Day.

Worthy causes of the day:  “Inspire America to End Mountaintop Removal” and “Go to Africa”.

Relevant to Divine Misconceptions:

1. “Buddhist Bhutan warns felling trees a threat to happiness”:  Thus it is written:
   
   
   

   Bhutan has warned its citizens over cutting down thousands of young trees every year to make prayer flags, a threat to the tiny kingdom's lush scenery and the government's duty to bring "Gross National Happiness."
   
   Himalayan Buddhists put up prayer flags for good luck or to help the dead find the right path to their next life. The more flag poles put up for the departed the better, and Buddhist monks say fresh poles must be used each time.

   Thus there is a dilemma between preserving trees and putting up prayer flags, and rather than hide from the problem the government of Bhutan is trying to find a solution which is both religiously and ecologically acceptable.  (They could always ignore the problem, but reality has a stubborn habit of not conforming to the way we want things to be.)  Steel flag poles have been rejected because they take the effort out of the ritual.  The solution the government is trying now is bamboo, which is more easily renewable than trees.
2. “Archaeologists find early menorah depiction near the Kinneret”
3. “Those Children of Israel”
4. See today’s weird thing below.

Today’s news and commentary:

• “The Problem with Risk Aversion for NASA Manned Space Flight - Augustine Commission Analysis”
• “Hispanics Face Higher Cancer Risk from Breathing Household Chemicals”
• “Mice Levitated in Lab”:  No, I am not making this up.

Today’s weird thing is “I need a new minion…”:

And, yes, I will have to keep posting pictures of Basement Cat until someone tells me how this equation of black cats with evil got started.  Enjoy and share the weirdness.

Aaron

Beware of Scrooge

Greetings.

Jewish date:  22 ’Elul 5769.

Today’s holiday:  Friday of the Twenty-Third Week of Ordinary Time

Today’s quasi-holidays:  World First Aid Day, Patriot Day.

Worthy cause of the day:  “Help us hold the line:  All major advertisers have left Beck:  Help us keep them from returning”, “Free Your Cell Phone!”, “Change We Can Believe In”, “Shame On You, Joe Wilson”, “Pass Obama's health care plan” and “Take Action: Tell Your Senators: Make Our Food Safe!”

Today’s news and commentary:

• “Crystal Cave of Giants - Naica, Mexico”:  Submitted by Barry.  Very unusual place.  I had no idea that there was any place like this on Earth.
• “Why Do We See the Moon in Daylight?”
• “Why People Believe in Conspiracies”
• “the Tricky Part (1999)”
  

Today’s weird thing is “A Facebook Carol”, which is a well-deserved attack on certain tactics of the healthcare debate.  Enjoy and share the weirdness.

Aaron

I have no idea what to title this one so as to not spoil today’s weird thing

Greetings.

Jewish date:  21 ’Elul 5769.

Today’s holiday:  Thursday of the Twenty-Third Week of Ordinary Time.

Today’s quasi-holiday:  Swap Ideas Day.

Worthy causes of the day:  “Take Action: Defend America's Arctic and all of its precious wildlife”, “Stop the trophy hunting of polar bears”, “Stop the race baiting”, and “No punitive fines in health care bill”.

Relevant to Divine Misconceptions:

1. “FDA panel approves Gardasil HPV vaccine for males, and competing Cervarix might hit shelves soon”:  This is not an article on religion.  It is an article on a vaccine against human papillomavirus (HPV) specifically for males.  I mention it here to preempt an objection which was made by serious Christians when the female version of the vaccine came out, namely that HPV vaccines promote promiscuity, something which is frowned upon by many religions.  A vaccine against HPV reduces the incidence of cancer and genital warts, but it does nothing to reduce the incidence other any other sexually transmitted diseases.  HPV vaccine does nothing to prevent unintended pregnancy either.  Considering that humans have engaged in illicit sexual intercourse for thousands of years (at least), long before there were vaccines against any disease or any scientific medicine at all, it is unlikely that anyone has needed any artificial encouragement to do so.  And even for someone who is sure that he/she will never commit any sexual indiscretions, HPV vaccination may be worth it.  Unless one knows for certain that one’s current and future sexual partners are not carrying HPV—and few of us really have such a luxury—getting vaccinated as a means of self-dense may well be worthwhile.
2. “France: Muslim woman presses panel for burqa ban”:  France again is being pressed from within to restrict Islamic women’s clothing, specifically the burqa and other highly covering garments.  Without a question, this runs into trouble with the concept of freedom of religion, including the fact that (strange as it may sound) women may actually chose to wear the burqa.  Considering what those for banning the burqa are really complaining about, i.e., use of the burqa as a form of oppression, perhaps instead of focusing on externalities, perhaps they should be focusing on the oppression itself.  How about penalizing anyone forcing a woman to wear a burqa and thus violating her freedom of religion?  How about doing something to protect anyone who freely chooses to leave Islam?
3. See today’s weird thing below.

Today’s news and commentary:

• “Pigeon transfers data faster than South Africa's Telkom”
• “Create a font from your own handwriting - fontcapture.com”:  Not news or commentary, but something which may prove useful.
• “The Singularity and the Fixed Point”
• “Robot Teacher”
• “Success: Facebook Recognizes Israeli Golan Residents”

Today’s weird thing is “DEVINE ORDER OF CATZ”.

This is the first time I have seen them make a joke on a religious order for Ceiling Cat.  Enjoy and share the weirdness.

Aaron

Greetings.

Jewish date:  20 ’Elul 5769.

Worthy cause of the day:

Relevant to Divine Misconceptions:  “H1N1 flu stops Italians kissing saint's blood”:  Thus is it written:

Fear of H1N1 flu will stop devout Neapolitans from performing the time-honored ritual of kissing the blood of their patron Saint Gennaro when the city's annual festival begins later this month.

The decision to forbid kissing of the glass vial containing the saint's blood was taken reluctantly by ecclesiastical and city authorities Monday, and has brought protests from local politicians.

In a time when a popular stereotype is to equate religion with irrationality and secularism with rationality, this situation turns the cliché on its head.  The church leaders have suspended kissing of the blood vial, thus lessening the chances that all their parishioners who might otherwise kiss the vial will be infected.  (Religious people in many religions are supposed to be worried about the welfare of others, including their health.)  Kissing the vial of what is purported to be Saint Gennaro’s blood may be a pious practice, but the church leaders have decided reducing the risk of H1N1 transmission is more important.  The politicians, or at least the one quoted in the article, at any rate, seem to be more worried about public panic, as it is written:  “Marco Di Lello, national co-ordinator of the Socialist Party, said the ban would "fuel the psychosis (over flu) which risks becoming unstoppable," and appealed to the archbishop of Naples to try to have the ban revoked.”   Granted, public panic is something to worry about, but so is the virus.  The question is what is the best course of action to take to minimize H1N1 infections.  The approach of the church and city authorities is to do something to prevent infections; though people may not be happy with this measure, the authorities can always make announcements discussing why they think their decision is for the best.  The politicians in question, on the other hand, seem to consider public panic more of a worry.  However, not taking this easy step to prevent infections gives the virus a new chance to spread to everyone who kisses the vial.  It probably would be possible to disinfect the vial between kisses (e.g., using chemicals or boiling), but this would make for a constant interruption of display of the vial and might be seen as disrespectful to the saint relic.  (Any Catholics out there who care to comment on this?)  And while doing without disinfection might make some people feel better, feeling better does nothing to stop the virus.  Viruses can only be stopped by doing things to prevent their transmission, and if that requires a little “psychosis”, so be it.  Kudos to whoever in Naples decided to stop the kissing of the blood vial.

Today’s news and commentary:

• “New genetic associations for Alzheimer's disease”
• “Nominate Mr. William (Bill) Shatner as an Honourary Captain (Canadian Navy)”:  (Facebook page.)  Not really news or commentary.  Not quite sure what to make of it.
• “Mighty microbes might help clean up oil extraction and radioactive wastes”

Today’s weird thing, suggested by Barry, is the geoduck.  Enjoy and share the weirdness.

Aaron

Beware of Basement Cat

Greetings.

Jewish date:  19 ’Elul 5769.

Today’s holidays:  Birth of Mary, Nativity of the Theotokos, Feast Day of Robertus de Fluctibus.

Today’s quasi-holidays:  International Literacy Day, World Rabies Day, Star Trek Day.

Worthy cause of the day:  Give blood.  I did yesterday.  It is not fun, but we are not producing blood in laboratories from stem cells yet.  Consider it a way to be a hero without having to run into a burning building.

Relevant to Divine Misconceptions:

1. “The Flagellum Unspun” by biologist Kenneth R. Miller.  This is a demolition of the creationist (“intelligent design”) idea of irreducible complexity, which turns out to be not so irreducible as creationists would like to have us believe.
2. My own religion, Judaism, like every other has its own share of people with a poor grip on reality.  And I do not enjoy talking about such people, even though it is necessary at times.  Both Rabbi Yakov Horowitz and Rabbi Steven Pruzansky have some negative commentary on the current Ḥaredhi rioting and incivility occurring in Jerusalem and what has gone horribly wrong.
3. See today’s weird thing, which is a form of religious humor.

Today’s news and commentary:

• “Retrovirus Linked to Aggressive Prostate Cancer”
• “A copyright black hole swallows our culture”
• “Milky Way Expected to Survive a Beating”:  We have a collision with Andromeda in a few billion years to worry about.
• “Evil Ink: A Robot Impersonator Opens a Blog to Post Spam From the Future”

Today’s weird thing is “BASEMENT CAT VS JESUS”:

And still I have no idea why black cats are associated with evil.  Enjoy and share the weirdness.

Aaron

Beware of humans

Greetings.

Jewish date:  18 ’Elul 5769.

Today’s holiday:  Monday of the Twenty-Third Week of Ordinary Time.

Today’s quasi-holidays:  National Thylacine Day, Neither Snow Nor Rain Day, International Dadaism Month, Labor Day.

Worthy cause of the day:  “Re-authorize the Ryan White Act - Care for People Living with HIV/AIDS”.

Relevant to Divine Misconceptions:

1. More religious intolerance:  “Hamas Fights Over Gaza’s Islamist Identity” and “Malaysia Muslim protest derails Hindu temple plan”.
2. I have begun putting together a separate Divine Misconceptions blog, which can be found here.  There are no posts up yet, just infrastructure.  That includes adding the new blog to my list of recommended blogs here.

Today’s news and commentary:

• “Are inaccurate media reports hurting U.S.-Israel relationship?”:  Interesting question.  Good reminder that not everything in the media is necessarily true.

Today’s weird thing is “HOMO SAPIENS”:

Arguably this is very accurate.  Enjoy and share the weirdness.

Aaron

Beware of strange comparisons

Greetings.

Jewish date:  17 ’Elul 5769.

Today’s holidays:  Twenty-Third Sunday of Ordinary Time.

Today’s quasi-holidays:  Read A Book Day.

Worthy causes of the day:  “Enough Unemployment!”, “Tell Your Senators: Make Our Food Safe!”, “Tell Obama's Antitrust Czar: Investigate Monsanto”, “Health Care for America NOW! | We're behind Obama for real change”.

Relevant to Divine Misconceptions:  See today’s weird thing for some religious humor.
Today’s news and commentary:

• “Divide to Conquer: Infection-Specific T Cells Multiply to Fight Infection”
• “Not every cloud has a silver lining”
• “Record Pfizer $2.3 billion fraud settlement, windfall payout to states”
• “Lockerbie, the Anger”

Today’s weird thing, which I heard about at shul yesterday, is “Top Ten Ways Woodstock was like Mt. Sinai”.  Enjoy and share the weirdness.

Aaron

Beware of strange parodies

Greetings.

Jewish date:  15 ’Elul 5769.

Today’s holidays:  Friday of the Twenty-Second Week of Ordinary Time, Feast Day of the Magi: Mosheh.

Today’s quasi-holiday:  Newspaper Carrier Day.

Worthy causes of the day:  “President Obama: We're Counting on You” and “Change We Can Believe In”.

Relevant to Divine Misconceptions:

1. “The Twin Myths of Eurabia”:  There is a whole system of pseudohistory being propagated about Islam in the name of politics in Europe in order (for the Arabs involved in the deal, at any rate) to allow for Islamic conquest and Islamization of Europe.  Shocking details of Islamic occupation as it has affected individuals and whole cultures are listed.
2. “New school year puts French on forced marriage alert”:  I am not clear whether this is a practice which is approved of by Islam or not.  The article claims not, though clarification on this issue might be nice; Islam is known to have lenient views on child marriage, even though people in general do not seem to consider small children legally competent.  Either way, one has to be amazed at the sheer irrationality of the practice.  Someone forced into marriage against (in these cases) her will is not likely to be happy with the arrangement.  Considering that people are usually around their spouses frequently, even if the arrangement is nonviolent, it is difficult to imagine that  the unwilling party is going to be anything but uncooperative and hostile.  What sort of fool wants to go home every night to someone who does not want to see him?
3. “Whats Wrong with the I Ching? Ambiguity, Obscurity, and Synchronicity”:  I have not read the I Ching/Yì Jīng myself (yet), so I will let this article on it stand for itself.

Today’s news and commentary:

• “Common good is best achieved through rewards, not punishment”
• “College prank elevates flamingo's status”
• “Summer's End (1999)”

Today’s weird thing is “If Dr. Seuss wrote for Star Trek: The Next Generation”.  Enjoy, share the weirdness, live long and prosper, and Shabbath shalom.

Aaron

Greetings.

Jewish date:  14 ’Elul 5769.

Today’s quasi-holiday:  Skyscraper Day.

Relevant to Divine Misconceptions:

1. “Hitler's Children”:  (Submitted by Dad.)  This is on a documentary being produced on the children of high-ranking Nazis.  To their great merit, these people with accursed ancestry were not doomed to repeat the mistakes of their parents; rather, many went to extremes to be good despite their origins.  This should be a warning to everyone not to take moral and logical shortcuts based on origin (the genetic fallacy) and instead judge people on their own merits.
2. “German court lets boy be named 'Djehad' — holy war”:  The parents do not seem to be doing anything strictly fallacious.  However, the objection raised that the name “could be harmful for the child given the associations with Islamic terrorism” is dead-on.  Despite attempts to emphasize non-violent forms of jihad, one of the major meanings—and the first one that will come to mind for many—is war mandated by Islam.  Among non-Muslims not enamored with the idea of holy war, “Jihad” in any variation as a name is likely to be controversial at best and may be taken (or mistaken) as a sign that the parents who bestowed such a name are not big on tolerance and equality.
3. “Mich. church enlists Satan in advertising campaign”:  Interesting tactic.
4. “Bible politics: Every word counts in faith & culture wars”:  This article deals with the New International Version of the Christian Bible and variations on it.  The last revision, Today’s New International Version, drew a lot of criticism over issues of treatment of gender, and they are now discussing the next version in which they hope to avoid a lot of the same mistakes.  However, there is an inherent flaw in the politics of this discussion:  they are dealing with translations.  Except maybe under strictly defined conditions, translations never mean exactly the same thing as the original text.  It does not matter how good a job they do and how few people want to burn them at the stake; whatever they produce is not going to mean quite the same thing as the original. And since the original text is scripture, meaning is of paramount importance.  Why are they putting so much effort into translations?  Why do they not instead put effort into making sure every Christian knows Hebrew and Greek so he/she can read the Christian Bible in the original languages and not have to read an inherently imperfect translation?
5. “Eurabian Safari”:  Major rule:  Wishful thinking and one-sided tolerance does not work.

Today’s news and commentary:

• “Singular Simplicity”

Today’s weird thing is “Wile E. Coyote’s Budget”.

Enjoy and share the weirdness.

Aaron

Beware of typos

Greetings.

Jewish date:  13 ’Elul 5769.

Today’s holiday:  Wednesday of the Twenty-Second Week of Ordinary Time.

Today’s quasi-holidays:  Calendar Adjustment Day, National Beheading Day.  (Don’t ask me about the latter.  I have no clue where such a quasi-holiday comes from.)

Relevant to Divine Misconceptions:

1. “Taiwan: China cancels events over Dalai Lama visit”:  Essentially the government of People’s Republic of China is throwing a snit over the fact that the Dalai Lama is visiting Taiwan.  The atheistic government of China has the idea that it should have complete control over religion in China, completely against the notion of freedom of religion, not to mention that it is not within the purview of any government to dictate truth.  Since the Dalai Lama does not submit to their control and remains outside of China where they cannot control him, the Chinese government tends to collectively act like an unhappy spoiled brat who yells and screams and tries to get everyone else to do what he/she wants.
2. “Iranian Journo 'Validates' Medical Impossibility?”:  More on the anti-Semitic libel from Sweden.  The claims keep getting harder and harder to believe.  General rule:  If you are going to lie, do serious research first to make sure you say something credible.
   
3. I am still planning (hoping?) to spin off a separate Divine Misconceptions blog by (around?) Ro’sh hashShanah.  Someone please poke me with a sharp object a few times to motivate me into making progress along these lines.

Today’s news and commentary:

• “Recession: Just What the Doctor Ordered?”:  There is a bright side to the recession:  people have less money to spend on things which are bad for them.
• “Sick mobile app tracks H1N1, other outbreaks near you”:  Interesting approach.
• “Gilad Shalit”

Today’s weird thing is “CHANCES I’LL CATCH MY TYPOS”.

Enjoy and share the weirdness.

Aaron

PS:  Where’s that sharp object?

Never drink anything you find in a laboratory

Greetings.

Jewish date:  12 ’Elul 5769.

Today’s holidays:  Tuesday of the Twenty-Second Week of Ordinary Time, Beginning of the Indiction.

Worthy causes of the day:  “No snowmobiles in Yellowstone!” and “Tell Verizon Wireless: Get out of bed with anti-environment extremists.”

Relevant to Divine Misconceptions:

1. “Band shirts hit wrong note with parents”:  Parents in Missouri complained about band shirts which lightheartedly reference evolution.  (Go to the article and see the picture.  The graphic used is nowhere near serious.)  Creationist parents were not happy.  The shirts were then pulled, with people treating it as an issue of separation of church and state.  This overlooks the fact that whether evolution is true is not a religious issue any more than any other scientific fact, and the public schools are not supposed to be a free-for-all when it comes to science.
   
2. “Swedish Blood Libel: The Aftermath”:  More on the latest anti-Semitic scandal, including correctly noting that organ-harvesting is logistically unworkable.  Whenever someone makes a controversial claim, one has to ask whether it is true.  Falling for a lie which is not even halfway credible is a very bad sign.
3. See today’s weird thing below.

Today’s news and commentary:

• “Conspiracy theory: Could the president take over the Internet?”:  Do not believe everything pundits claim.
  
• “Mariachis set world record in Mexican city”
  
• ““There must be a reason,” or how we support our own false beliefs”
  
• “'Plasmobot': Scientists To Design First Robot Using Mould”:  I cannot make something like this up.  If it were April 1, I would think this was a joke.
  
• “W.Va. dad makes son cannon to fulfill birthday wish”:  I am not making this up either.
• Mandelbrot Screensaver:  Not news or commentary, really.  Just something every computer needs.
• “Prisoner Release (1999)”

Today’s weird thing is yet another variation on Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde, the Inspector cartoon “Sicque! Sicque! Sicque!”.

Enjoy and share the weirdness.

Aaron