May 2006 Archives
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May 31, 2006
How to Recognize a Scribal School
Part 1: Formal Scribal Training Several weeks ago, I was talking with Loren Fisher about the possibility of there having been a scribal school in Jerusalem in the late Iron Age I or early Iron Age II periods. While we...Read all of "How to Recognize a Scribal School"
Posted by Duane Smith at 1:37 PM
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May 30, 2006
Why Tolerate Religion?
Brian Leiter has a draft of a very interesting paper online in which he discusses the subject "Why Tolerate Religion?" from a philosophical and legal perspective. The following is from the abstract to the paper, While the historical reasons for...Read all of "Why Tolerate Religion?"
Posted by Duane Smith at 7:24 PM
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May 29, 2006
The Very Best Memorial Day
Last night Andy Rodney ended his touching remembrances of his own friends lost to war with these words. Remembering doesn’t do the remembered any good, of course. It's for ourselves, the living. I wish we could dedicate Memorial Day, not...Read all of "The Very Best Memorial Day"
Posted by Duane Smith at 8:18 AM
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May 28, 2006
Playing the Illegal Alien Card Against Library Improvements!
California will be holding a primary election on June 6. The big issue involves choosing who will run for governor on the Democratic ticket against Arnold Schwarzenegger. But in addition to selecting candidates for many other state offices and for...Read all of "Playing the Illegal Alien Card Against Library Improvements!"
Posted by Duane Smith at 1:18 PM
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Just for Fun
If you need a little laughter in your life take a look at "A Note on Iconography of “Yarmukian” Neolithic Figurines" recently published in The Journal of Unproductive and Non-reproducible Knowledge Vol. .43/13. Thanks to Jim West for bringing this...
Posted by Duane Smith at 11:47 AM
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Testing a Hypothesis
While waiting for the book I bought in order to save money, I've been working on the post that will follow the post for which that book was purchased. I'm looking at the so called literary texts in Akkadian from...Read all of "Testing a Hypothesis"
Posted by Duane Smith at 11:42 AM
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May 27, 2006
Plotting Abnormal Interests
A little applet, which referenced Abnormal Interests' front page before this post was added, made this graph. It looks about right to me: a few well-rounded thoughts on several unrelated topics and a lot of loose ends. Truthfully, it has...Read all of "Plotting Abnormal Interests"
Posted by Duane Smith at 6:48 PM
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Two Good Pieces On Enron
The best blog post I've seen on the aftermath of Enron's Lay and Skilling convictions was written by Mike the Mad Biologist. Here is a sample of Mad's post. The real story of the Enron convictions is not that there...Read all of "Two Good Pieces On Enron"
Posted by Duane Smith at 8:55 AM
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May 26, 2006
Ken Lay, Still Playing the Christian Card
In an impromptu news conference Ken Lay, founder of Enron, had this to say about his convictions on six counts of conspiracy and fraud by the jury and four separate additional counts of fraud and making false statements by the...Read all of "Ken Lay, Still Playing the Christian Card"
Posted by Duane Smith at 9:10 AM
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May 25, 2006
ETANA and Abzu
Chuck Jones left the following comment on yesterday's post on old books. I am moving it up here because I thought it would be helpful to readers that were not familiar with ETANA or Abzu. Most of the volumes you...
Posted by Duane Smith at 9:36 AM
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May 24, 2006
Great Collection of Old Scholarly Books
Perhaps I'm the last to know about this but I found a great collection of scholarly books whose copyrights have expired. It's online at Case Western Reserve University's Kelvin Smith Library. There are hundreds of books in PDF format ready...Read all of "Great Collection of Old Scholarly Books"
Posted by Duane Smith at 7:36 AM
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May 23, 2006
The Role of "Literature" in Scribal Training
While working of the second installment of my series on how one might identify a scribal school, I came across an interesting paper by Laurie Pearce. Yeah, Yeah, I haven't posted the first installment. But I will as soon as...Read all of "The Role of "Literature" in Scribal Training"
Posted by Duane Smith at 9:31 AM
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May 22, 2006
They Explode in Your Mouth
Shirley has a box that started with twelve chocolates from the "Collection Mascletà" by Oriol Balaguer. Our daughter-in-law, who is from Barcelona, gave them to her for her birthday last week and today she got around to offering me one....Read all of "They Explode in Your Mouth"
Posted by Duane Smith at 8:15 PM
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May 21, 2006
Some Good Advice to Conservatives
The current record of Washington Republicans is so bad that, without a drastic change in direction, millions of conservatives will again stay home this November. And maybe they should. Conservatives are beginning to realize that nothing will change until there's...Read all of "Some Good Advice to Conservatives"
Posted by Duane Smith at 6:29 PM
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Defining Science by Political Process
On Friday afarensis pointed out a disturbing piece of legislation working its was through the U. S. Senate, S. 2802. I have delayed writing about this in the hope that repeating the message from various points of view over a...Read all of "Defining Science by Political Process"
Posted by Duane Smith at 11:21 AM
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May 20, 2006
Save Money; Buy a Book
As part of the same project that has already cost me $58.20 ($40.00 in parking fines), I was thinking of going to UCLA to take a look at the ever popular Civil and Kennedy, "Middle Babylonian Grammatical Texts," in Materials...Read all of "Save Money; Buy a Book"
Posted by Duane Smith at 10:49 AM
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Is Being an Ape Always a Bad Thing?
Those of you that lack a life may remember that a few weeks ago I wrote a post on the place name Ashdod in various tablets form Ugarit. An even smaller minority may remember that I, somewhat tongue in cheek,...Read all of "Is Being an Ape Always a Bad Thing?"
Posted by Duane Smith at 9:51 AM
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May 19, 2006
The Hobbit is Back in the News
I'm a little late by blogoshere standards but LB1, sometimes called the Hobbit, sometimes called Homo floresiensis and sometimes called something else, is back in the news. Science has two articles (I link to the abstracts) on the ongoing controversy...Read all of "The Hobbit is Back in the News"
Posted by Duane Smith at 3:02 PM
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May 18, 2006
Our Life Together - With Our Primate Ancestors
Carl Zimmer and John Hawks and others report on an interesting article that appeared in Nature's advanced on line publication on the possibility of hybridization between the common ancestors of chimpanzees and our human ancestors over a very long period...Read all of "Our Life Together - With Our Primate Ancestors"
Posted by Duane Smith at 9:15 AM
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May 17, 2006
News on the Forged Artifacts, Well, at Least News on Objects of Interest
Professor Wolfgang E. Krumbein, of the University of Oldenburg, Germany has just published his finding in regard to three artifacts that are considered forgeries by many, including the Israeli prosecutor. I have had my own doubts about them but I...
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Posted by Duane Smith at 1:13 PM
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Why I Seldom Make Predictions
In the light of the fact that Patrick Fitzgerald has not as yet called a news conference for today or otherwise made an announcement, I have asked Shirley to prepare this guy for my evening meal. She tells me that...Read all of "Why I Seldom Make Predictions"
Posted by Duane Smith at 8:27 AM
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May 16, 2006
Shame on the Hunter Who is Fooled by His Own Decoy
Chip Hardy at Daily Hebrew has responded to my rant about his four Propositions and in so doing invited a further rant. There are two opposing temptations in any effort to navigate issues in the neighborhood of the definition of...Read all of "Shame on the Hunter Who is Fooled by His Own Decoy"
Posted by Duane Smith at 2:36 PM
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May 14, 2006
There Are Some Things You Just Can't Let Pass
H. H. Hardy at Daily Hebrew is taking on the discussion and thought process of Michael V. Fox on the Society of Biblical Literature Forum. I haven't commented on this discussion or the one that proceeded it for several reasons....Read all of "There Are Some Things You Just Can't Let Pass"
Posted by Duane Smith at 9:13 AM
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Thoughts on Mother's Day
In one of Loren Fisher's novels, Keziah, the wife of David's uncle, a scribe at the Jerusalem Academy, is also an author. She is compiling The Minority Report from which the title of the novel comes. The Minority Report is...Read all of "Thoughts on Mother's Day"
Posted by Duane Smith at 9:04 AM
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May 13, 2006
In Which I Engage in Wild Poorly Founded Speculation
I don't normally do this kind of thing. In fact, I don't normally approve of it when others do it. But it being a slow blogging day and there being a lot of unfinished business in the news that will...Read all of "In Which I Engage in Wild Poorly Founded Speculation"
Posted by Duane Smith at 3:48 PM
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May 12, 2006
The Report of the Quotation is an Exaggeration
Yesterday a friend of mine who is constantly looking for jokes and quotations to use in his many presentations and conferences asked me, "Who said, 'The report of my death was greatly exaggerated?'" I followed the example of Mark Twain,...Read all of "The Report of the Quotation is an Exaggeration"
Posted by Duane Smith at 9:41 AM
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May 11, 2006
On Building a Phone Call Database
As I reflect on the latest revelations concerning the NSA's domestic activity, I do not ask myself if it is currently legal. I do not ask myself if it is effective. On the question of legality I am unqualified to...Read all of "On Building a Phone Call Database"
Posted by Duane Smith at 9:15 PM
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A Report on Reports
Aydin of Snails Tails reports on the reports on the annual Excavation and Survey Results Meetings in Turkey. As Aydin says, Most reports are in Turkish, but there are quite a number in English, German and French. Check it out,...Read all of "A Report on Reports"
Posted by Duane Smith at 7:19 PM
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May 10, 2006
It Must Have Sounded Good in Akkadian
Chuck Jones of ABZU informs me via a comment to a previous post (thank you) that Shlomo Izre'el has transliterations of most of the Amarna Akkadian material online. Izre'el includes all of the letters beginning with EA 60 and the...Read all of "It Must Have Sounded Good in Akkadian"
Posted by Duane Smith at 1:27 PM
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May 9, 2006
By the Numbers
Over the last several days, Dave at Balashon has been running a series on numbers in Hebrew. I commented on his Shesh (6) post that the number six in Egyptian was śiśw (also śrśw). I mentioned here that there is...
Posted by Duane Smith at 7:32 PM
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A Draft Reply for President Bush's Consideration
I read with interest a translation of the letter that President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad of Iran sent to President Bush. It really is offensive and disingenuous. During my business career, I remember receiving two very offensive and disingenuous letters. They were...Read all of "A Draft Reply for President Bush's Consideration"
Posted by Duane Smith at 4:22 PM
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May 8, 2006
The Other Amarna Tablets
The Amarna letters are well known, but not so well known are other tablets from Amarna, tablets ranging from simple scribal exercises to literary and religious texts. There are twenty-nine such tablets. There's even an Egyptian/Akkadian bilingual vocabulary text (EA...Read all of "The Other Amarna Tablets"
Posted by Duane Smith at 1:26 PM
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May 7, 2006
Protection from Bad History is Not a Fundamental Human Right
I think Cardinal Francis Arinze is more than a little confused. Reuters reports on what he told a filmmaker concerning how Christians should respond to The Da Vinci Code. "Christians must not just sit back and say it is enough...Read all of "Protection from Bad History is Not a Fundamental Human Right"
Posted by Duane Smith at 10:40 AM
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Spanish is in the United States Legally
Spanish has been here for a long time. From time to time one hears the claim that Spanish is being imported into the United States on the backs of illegal emigrants. Bill Poser on Language Log has some interesting data...Read all of "Spanish is in the United States Legally"
Posted by Duane Smith at 10:33 AM
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May 6, 2006
My Mona Lisa
I have the real Mona Lisa hanging on the wall in my living room. It is the very one that Leonardo da Vinci painted in oil on wood likely between 1503 and 1505 and is also called La Gioconda. The...
Posted by Duane Smith at 9:36 AM
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May 4, 2006
van Soldt on Scribal Training at Ugarit
Since I paid $58.20 for the privilege, I thought I'd provide a top level summary of van Soldt's "Babylonian Lexical, Religious and Literary Texts, and Scribal Education at Ugarit and its Implications for the Alphabetic Literary Texts" today. In this...Read all of "van Soldt on Scribal Training at Ugarit"
Posted by Duane Smith at 3:42 PM
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May 3, 2006
The Cost of Research
I've been wanting to get hold of van Soldt's "Babylonian Lexical, Religious and Literary Texts, and Scribal Education at Ugarit and its Implications for the Alphabetic Literary Texts," in Ugarit: ein ostmediterranes Kulturzentrum in Alten Orient: Ergebnisse und Perspektiven der...Read all of "The Cost of Research"
Posted by Duane Smith at 9:25 PM
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May 2, 2006
Let's Try to Keep Focused on the Real Issues
There are important and difficult issues surrounding US policy toward immigrates, legal or otherwise, from Mexico and elsewhere. A Spanish version of the National Anthem is not one of them. But in 1919, the U.S. Bureau of Education commissioned a...Read all of "Let's Try to Keep Focused on the Real Issues"
Posted by Duane Smith at 9:38 PM
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May 1, 2006
Why Does Writing Have The Shapes It Has?
I ran across an abnormally interesting article on natural influence on the frequency of shapes of the writing topology in some 115 nonlogographic writing systems. The burden of the article by Mark A. Changizi of Cal Tech and his team...Read all of "Why Does Writing Have The Shapes It Has?"
Posted by Duane Smith at 3:30 PM
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Writing in Indus Script Found on Neolithic Hand Axe
Anyone who is interested in writing will find this discovery interesting. The discovery of a Neolithic stone celt, a hand-held axe, with the Indus script on it at Sembian-Kandiyur in Tamil Nadu is, according to Iravatham Mahadevan, "a major discovery...Read all of "Writing in Indus Script Found on Neolithic Hand Axe"
Posted by Duane Smith at 9:47 AM
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