gregladen | November 30, 2007In Genesis 4, we see specific reference to herdsmen and farmers as distinct groups, represented by Abel and Cain, respectively. God indicates a preference for the results of herding over planting, and the sibling troubles that ensue result in the world becoming a difficult place to farm, and humans becoming more nomadic, as herders. This is interesting, because it seems like a dramatic shift from reference to irrigation agriculture to herding. Given the usual role of origin stories, we may be seeing a layering of blame in this case. If this is the origin story of cattle keeping nomadic…
gregladen | November 30, 2007Headline: Poll finds more Americans believe in devil than Darwin
DALLAS (Reuters Life!) - More Americans believe in a literal hell and the devil than Darwin's theory of evolution, according to a new Harris poll released on Thursday.
It is the latest survey to highlight America's deep level of religiosity, a cultural trait that sets it apart from much of the developed world.
It also helps explain many of its political battles which Europeans find bewildering, such as efforts to have "Intelligent Design" theory -- which holds life is too complex to have evolved by chance -- taught in schools…
gregladen | November 30, 2007
Hot off the presses from PNAS, we have a paper on ancient jade exchange in Southeast Asia. From the abstract:
We have used electron probe microanalysis to examine Southeast Asian nephrite (jade) artifacts, many archeologically excavated, dating from 3000 B.C. through the first millennium A.D. The research has revealed the existence of one of the most extensive sea-based trade networks of a single geological material in the prehistoric world. Green nephrite from a source in eastern Taiwan was used to make two very specific forms of ear pendant that were distributed, between 500 B.C. and 500…
gregladen | November 30, 2007PZ Myers at Pharyngula examines this question in an entirely different case. This is the case of 14 year old Jehovah Witness Dennis Linberg. Dennis died on Wednesday night at a Seattle area hospital because he refused to accept a life saving transfusion on religious grounds.
This is, indeed, a parent's worse nightmare. Your child finds religion, in this case from some crazy religious aunt, and that religion leads the child to his death.
[ADDED: Go see this commentary by Orac]
Doctors diagnosed the boy's leukemia in early November. They began chemotherapy at Children's Hospital, but…
gregladen | November 30, 2007This is the tag line for an article in yesterday's Minneapolis Star Tribune:
Where punishment drifts into abuse is the issue in the case of a father who hit his son 36 times.
In this case, the "drifting" occurred because...
When Shawn Fraser's discipline failed to rein in his 12-year-old son, he turned to his religion...
Fraser use a wooden implement, apparently designed for spanking, to strike his 12 year old child several times. He also posted Bible verses on the refrigerator.
after 36 blows, delivered in 12-blow increments, the 195-pound boy called authorities. Now the state Supreme…
gregladen | November 29, 2007Morons are so annoying. Even the ones that are just passing by, the ones you don't really have to talk to.
These days I often have lunch in a public dining area where most of the patrons are scientists or geeks, or students learning to become scientists or geeks. The other day two geeky scientist guys were walking by my table talking to each other too loudly for me to ignore. So one guy, he says: "You know we can solve this problem. I have a lot of faith in our Open Source solutions." (hmm, cool, I thought). The other guy responded:
"Yea, well, I guess it all depends on how much…
gregladen | November 29, 2007The blog Afarensis brings us an amusing yet at the same time disturbing discussion of the Discovery Institute's Casey Luskin concerns about the reliability of Wikipedia as a source of information for students.
This is hysterically funny because of the fact that Casey Luskin and all the others at the Discover Institute are a pack of bald faced liars.
Or is it simply the case that the Discovery Institute does not fare well on Wikipedia.
The Discovery Institute is a think tank based in Seattle, Washington, best known for its advocacy of intelligent design and its Teach the Controversy…
gregladen | November 29, 2007Genesis 2 ends with Adam and Eve being naked yet not ashamed. In Genesis 3, the Serpent, who is wiser than average, tricks Eve into partaking of the forbidden fruit of one of god's two magic trees. This results in Adam and Eve recognizing their own nakedness, and compelling them to produce the first clothing. The word "naked" in the original Hebrew is either eromim or arumim. The former means naked (no clothes) and the latter means exposure as in exposing lies. The original Hebrew for the "clothing" that they put together, "chagowr" probably means "belt." The parallel (and probably…
gregladen | November 29, 2007One of my best friends, who shall remain nameless for the present, a scientist, an atheist, a heavily decorated soldier in the war on Christmas, raised two wonderful, brilliant children, on of which being a devote catholic now in training to be a very devote catholic. Like a priest or something.
I am a committed and fairly activist atheist, but I find it astounding that both my wife and daughter are much more militant than I am... I come from a long line of priests and nuns, and have a lot of exposure to religious stuff, I was an alter boy planning to be a priest when I grew up ... in other…
gregladen | November 29, 2007There are still climate change deniers out there, and if you are one, I'd like to take a moment to annoy you with the following story:
Nearly 300 cases of chikungunya fever, a virus that previously has been common only in Africa and Asia, were reported in Italy - where only isolated cases of the disease had been seen in the past.
"We were quite surprised," said Stefania Salmaso, director of Italy's Center for Epidemiology at the National Health Institute. "Nobody was expecting that such an unusual event was going to happen."
While the outbreak was largely the result of stronger trade and…
gregladen | November 29, 2007I have a lot of problems with some of the verbiage he uses. But it is all done with a nice English Accent, so he must be a smart guy...
gregladen | November 29, 2007HELLO
GREETINGS
I NEED YOUR URGENT HELP TO DISTRIBUTE 12.5M USD.TO HUMANITARIAN AND OPHANS.AS I'M WIDOW AND CANCER WOMAN. THIS MY MAIL MIGHT COME TO YOU AS A SURPRISE ANDTHE TEMPTATION TO INGORE IT AS UNSEROUS COULD COME INTO YOUR MIND BUT PL'S CONSIDER IT AS DIVINE AND HELP OUT.
THANKS
SERENA
What do you think?
gregladen | November 29, 2007"His cell phone was found in his shirt pocket with its battery severely melted and his chest burned and fractured."
Ouch. Details here.
gregladen | November 29, 2007As New York mayor, Rudy Giuliani billed obscure city agencies for tens of thousands of dollars in security expenses amassed during the time when he was beginning an extramarital relationship with future wife Judith Nathan in the Hamptons, according to previously undisclosed government records.
The documents, obtained by Politico under New York's Freedom of Information Law, show that the mayoral costs had nothing to do with the functions of the little-known city offices that defrayed his tabs, including agencies responsible for regulating loft apartments, aiding the disabled and providing…
gregladen | November 28, 2007
Genesis 1 and Genesis 2 (5 - 25) are distinctly different and contradictory origin stories. The biblical origin story represented in this text has long been known to resemble a set of Sumerian stories that mainly deal with a multitude of gods interacting (some of these gods are converted to humans in the biblical version). What is consistent about all of these stories is the relationship between status and labor, in the context of a labor-intensive agricultural system.
Genesis 1 is very systematic, resembling a post-hoc construction of events, and its main practical purpose may be to…
gregladen | November 28, 2007Are there really open source colleges?
Not really, but there are regular colleges that offer some degree of OpenSource learning.
For instance, you can take a LOT of science courses from MIT, or Physics from Tufts, or Molecular Computing from Tokyo. Here is a list of OpenSource college opportunities.
And if you want to brush up on your math, go here.