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.

Beware of dahus

Greetings.

Jewish date: 19 Nisan 5769.

Today’s holidays: Ḥol hamMo‘edh Pesaḥ, Smigus Dyngus/Dyngus Day/Wet Monday/Easter Monday.

Today’s quasi-holidays: Blame Somebody Else Day.

Worthy cause of the day: “Reinstate Moratorium on Outer Continental Shelf Oil Drilling”.

Relevant to Divine Misconceptions:

1. More problems with freedom of religion: “ABKHAZIA: 'We'll kick out anyone'”, “Sikhs protest against knife rules”, “Protestant clergyman arrested again in Beijing”, and “Jumoad: Protect Christian community in Lantawan”.
2. A problem with freedom of speech: “Rights lawyers decry magazine's closure for "blasphemy"”.
3. I have no idea what to make of this: “Swedish parishioners unveil Lego statue of Jesus”.
   
4. “Jordanian man accused of stabbing pregnant sister in 'honor killing'”: This is a very unpleasant story of a man in Jordan who murdered his sister because he “believed that she had… started seeing other men”. Now, it is conceivable that his belief was correct, but nothing substantial in the way of evidence is presented. As such, this man may have killed an innocent woman. This is why in well-designed systems of laws extrajudicial killings are limited to emergencies: so that guilt or innocence may be calmly, objectively determined, thus reducing the probability of mistakes which can never be undone. Today I find myself especially puzzled why killings like this ones are called “honor killings”. Suppose that the accused woman really was guilty. Should this be accounted a blot on the family honor? Arguably yes: she did something wrong, and there is the implicit question of whether how she was raised contributed to this. But suppose the accused woman really was innocent. If adultery should be accounted a stain on the family honor, why should murder be no less disgraceful? Unlike the adultery, which was only suspected, the murder definitely happened—and who would ever consider a real crime any less serious than one that may not have happened? I have no clue why the murderer is considered honorable while his victim is considered dishonorable. I suspect “honor” in this case is a mistranslation.

Today’s news and commentary:

• “Pirate Gangs”
  
• “What is a megamouth shark? Is it still a scientific mystery?”
  
• “Pssst: Gossip hurts--but friends can protect you from the worst of it”
  
• “Knowing Your Chances: What Health Stats Really Mean”
  
• “Food-borne illnesses hold steady in U.S.”
  
• “Congo forces politicians to pay their taxes”
  

Today’s weird thing is the “dahu”. Enjoy, share the weirdness, and happy Pesaḥ.

Aaron

10 Kislew 5769: Pearl Harbour Remembrance Day/2nd Advent/International Civil Aviation Day

Greetings.

Worthy causes of the day: “End U.S. Ownership of Sharia Business Now”, “Repower America: 100% Clean Electricity Within 10 Years”, and “Debt Relief for Impoverished Nations”.

Relevant to Divine Misconceptions:

1. “Religion today” 2008-12-03: In short, Muslims in Egypt are regularly rioting over Christians practicing their own religion, even in private. While this unfortunately makes sense in terms of Islam—the Christians have dared to complain, and they are a convenient target for Muslim frustration—I am baffled that the United States is still giving money to a country where this sort of thing happens.
   
2. “Sectarian tensions simmer over a pig in Cotabato City”:  Yet another instance of Muslims, in this case in the Philippines, going crazy over something Christians are doing:  selling pork publicly, despite no one seems to be advocating that Muslims buy or eat it.  Also worrying is the setting up of a special Muslim autonomous region in the Philippines and attempts to expand it, allegedly to help bring peace to a country suffering from a civil war.  Note that this sort of thing has not helped Israel.
   
3. “Falun Gong follower's rights not breached by deportation: court”:   Thus is it written:

   A follower of the Falun Gong religious group and a failed asylum seeker did not have his human rights breached when Russian authorities deported him to China, the European Court of Human Rights ruled Thursday.

   Considering that China is no friend of human freedom or Falun Gong, the hypocrisy of this decision should be obvious to even the most dim-witted reader.
   
4. “Can menorah builds on old tradition”: This is beautiful: a creative way to promote the celebration of Ḥanukkah coupled with the practice of ṣedhaqah (denotatively “charity”, connotatively “justice, righteousness”).
   

Today’s news and commentary:

• “Plan Your Holiday Trip the Greenest Way Possible”
  
• “Climate change is old news: Scientists predicted global warming more than a century ago”
  
• “Global warming's first mammal victim?”
  

Today’s weird thing is this picture:

Enjoy and share the weirdness.

Aaron