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 Paul Erdős

Greetings.

Jewish date:  8 Tammuz 5769.

Relevant to Divine Misconceptions:

1. “Ky. pastor welcomes guns, their owners to church”:  Wait a minute...  Did Jesus ever promote the right to bear arms?  Whatever happened to pacifistically turning the other cheek?
   
2. More religious oppression:  “Al-Qaida claims it killed missionary from Cleveland” and “Egypt: Village Christians In Hiding After Clash”.
3. “‘Ark of the Covenant’ about to be unveiled?”:  The Orthodox Church of Ethiopia claims to have the Ark of the Covenant, and this Friday they are supposed to be showing it to the entire planet for the first time.  This is a huge change from their previous position, which was that they claim to have the Ark but refuse to show it to anyone—a warning sign suggesting that they do not really have it.  I am very curious as to what, if anything, they will produce on Friday and will patiently await to see what happens; this could end up as another Clonaid scandal.  I will also patiently await competent scholarly evaluation of whatever they produce and not automatically assume it is genuine.
4. “Philippine Catholic families promote daily reading of the Bible”:  An obvious yet excellent idea.
   

Today’s news and commentary:

• “Jewish Fundraising (1999)”
  
• “Duckbilled dinosaurs dined with an unusual bite”
  

Today’s weird thing is “Apocalypse”.  Enjoy and share the weirdness.

Aaron

PS:  For those of you who have no idea what this about, Paul Erdős is the mathematical equivalent of Kevin Bacon.

2 Marḥeshwan 5769: Halloween/Frankenstein Friday

Greetings.

Worthy cause of the day: “Support Responsible Energy Corridor Development!”

Relevant to Divine Misconceptions:

1. “Archaeologists report finding oldest Hebrew text”: (Submitted by Barry.) Summary: Archaeologists have found a 3,000-year-old Hebrew inscription 20 km away from Jerusalem. In case anyone (<COUGH> Arabs <COUGH>) wants to forget the fact, Jews have a very long history in Israel.
   
2. “Why Children Like to Share”: Maybe human nature is not as bad as people often make it out to be.
   
3. “Mills and Boon is more embarrassing than the Bible”: Not quite sure what to make of this.
   
4. “To Ethiopia, in search of The Ark”: The Ethiopian Orthodox Tewahedo Church claims that they have the Ark of the Covenant, only they refuse to show it to anyone. The excuse that anyone who actually sees it will “burst into flames” is not attested anywhere in the Hebrew Bible. The fact that they refuse to substantiate that they have the Ark in any way, shape, or form should be a warning sign that the claim is probably false.
   

Today’s news and commentary:

• “Trick or Treat”
  
• “Elvis ranked top-earning dead celebrity”
  
• “McCain’s and Obama’s Public Commitments to Address Global Poverty: Final Report”: Possibly useful for voters.
  
• “Messenger Finds Blue Goo on Mercury”: Great headline.
  
• “How to Keep Waste Oil Out of the Water Supply”
  
• “MTV Bleeps File Sharing Software Out Of Music Videos” with the unbleeped version of the cited video, “Don't Download This Song” by Weird Al Yankovic
  
• “32 Nearby Stars”: Cool thing done with Flash
  
• “Chocolate: Treat or Trick?”: This is VERY bad news.

Today’s weird thing, considering one of today’s (quasi-)holidays, is a bunch of masterfully carved pumpkins. Enjoy, share the weirdness, and Shabbath shalom.

Aaron