Abnormal Interests: November 2006 Archives

November 2006 Archives

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November 29, 2006

On the Preposition of Ownership and Transfer

As I've noted a couple of times, I'm working my way through a fairly large number of texts that use the West Semitic preposition / to mean "for" or "belonging to" or the like. Believe it or not, this is...

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November 28, 2006

Anything for Science

Acephalous is conducting an experiment on the propagation of artificial memes across the internet. To participate, provide a link from your blog to this post on Acephalous. Via Gentleman's C, A Blog Around the Clock, Adventures in Ethics and Science,...

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But Why Try to Con Me In French?

Like many of you, I often get emails that tell some sad story and offer me a fortune if I will only help the author in some way or another. They are all variations on an old theme. If such...

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November 27, 2006

Why Do They Make It So Hard?

I wasn't going to rant about this here. I've spent too much time today ranting about it already. But the more I've thought about it the more I thought writing about it might be therapeutic. Like many people my age...

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November 26, 2006

In Which I Confess to Aiding and Abetting

Jim West and Jim Davila call our attention to an article in the San Francisco Chronicle on tomb robbing in Israel and Palestine. Here's a sample from the article, but, as usual, the whole thing is worth reading. At least...

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November 25, 2006

USC 44 - Norte Dame 24

I normally don't do sports but I thought I'd make an exception in this case....

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Where Did You Learn Your Errors?

Pew Research has just published a new study entitled "The Internet as a Resource for News and Information about Science." It has a lot of information and Coturnix at Blog Around the Clock has some abnormally interesting comments on the...

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November 24, 2006

Filling in the Blanks

I continue to work my way through texts that contain the preposition l in formulae having the general form of a noun (sometimes implied) plus the preposition l plus a proper name or title. Aside for some cleanup, I've completed...

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November 23, 2006

Some Thoughts for Thanksgiving

Take a few moments and listen to a talk (in two parts) given by Neil deGrasse Tyson, Astrophysicist and the Frederick P. Rose Director at the Hayden Planetarium. The talk is not on Thanksgiving but it will enrich any day...

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November 22, 2006

An Average Weather Report: On the Role of the Media in Science Education

The above graphics come from two different weather reports by two different reporters on our local CBS affiliate. I'm not showing these to cause envy among those of you from less temperate climes. I have something else in mind....

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November 21, 2006

I Have a Word for That

From New Kid on the Hallway: The one word meme. You can only type one word. No explanations. Yourself: Curious Your boyfriend/girlfriend.....: Remembered Your hair: Thinning Your mother: Strong Your Father: Smart Your Favorite Item: Jar Your dream last night:...

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November 20, 2006

What Did You Do in the Last Six Years?

Digital Orient.com has just posted a list of the works and presentations of André Lemaire between 2000 and the present. Take a look at it. Sure, there are some repeats and some rehashed older stuff but this body of work...

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Settling Theological Debates

Benjamin Myers at Faith and Theology tells the story of a couple of theological debates between Francis Gomarus and Matthias Martinius at The Synod of Dort (1618-19). Gomarus challenged Martinius to a duel. The argument was over the pressing problem...

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November 19, 2006

And You Thought It Was In Jerusalem

I spent a good deal of my professional life traveling back and forth to Japan but I never made it to the Christ Grave. In fact, I never heard that it was actually in Japan. Are you surprised that...

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Friday Pot Blogging on Sunday

Today I want to share the most studied object in my study collection. Why is it the most studied? Because I really have no idea what it is other than a rather large potsherd. For reference, the longest dimension...

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November 17, 2006

Muslims and Hindus and Christians, Oh My!

Two posts caught my eye this morning. Both should be read in full. The first is on Dispatches from the Cultural Wars. Ed tells us of the outrage of one Christian writer at the thought that a Muslim would place...

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November 16, 2006

Problems of Using Linguistic Evidence to Date Texts

Simon at דבר אחר has an interesting post on his Honours Thesis. In fact, my post started as a comment on his post but it kind of grew beyond reasonable comment size. Simon studied the locative h in Chronicles and...

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November 15, 2006

Gigantic Tsunami 4,800 Years Ago?

Yesterday a friend sent me an email about this story in the New York Times. It seems a group of scientists have suggested that several large "chevron" deposits at the southern end of Madagascar that contain deep ocean microfossils are...

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November 14, 2006

Latrines at Qumran

As far as I know, Tyler Williams of Codex is the world's leading authority on urinating and defecating in the ancient Near East. He has a whole series on the subject. Of the several discussions of the recent discovery of...

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November 13, 2006

Bowing, Scraping and Scribal Traditions

In my most recent mega-post, now a couple of months old, on scribal schools, I argued that there was a scribal school in Jerusalem during the Amarna Age. But the argument was not definitive. You may remember that Moran has...

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November 12, 2006

Report of a Very Bad Teacher

Jim Lippard of The Lippard Blog tells us of a very bad and dangerous history teacher. Among his remarks in open class were statements that a being must have created the universe, that the Christian Bible is the word of...

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November 11, 2006

Archaeology, Evolution and Fundamentalism

Christopher O'Brien of Northstate Science has some very interesting things to say about Biblical Archaeology in the context of the exchange between James K. Hoffmeier of Trinity International University and Ronald Hendel of UC Berkley in the last couple of...

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November 10, 2006

Friday Pot Blogging

Today I want to turn to another type of pot that is not in the study collection. This is the lmlk jar or Iron Age II oval-shaped storage jar. Here are two examples from Timnah. They are both from...

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November 8, 2006

The Second Edition of The Four Stone Hearth is Up

The second edition of The Four Stone Hearth is up at afarensis. Thanks! If you're at all interested in anthropology give it a look. Among the most interesting links is to a post by Razib at Gene Expression on introgression...

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The Election: It's a Start

It seems that the Democrats will have a significant majority in the House of Representatives and it is possible that in coalition with two independents (Lieberman and Sanders) they may yet control a majority in the Senate. The electorate clearly...

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November 7, 2006

Don't Laugh, This is Serious

I've had a head cold for more than a week and it has further limited my already limited attention span. Research has ground to a halt. I hope I will have something of value to share in the next day...

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November 6, 2006

Tomorrow's Election

If you want to recover our country and begin the process of moving us back into the fellowship of moral nations and of reinstituting the constitutional basis of our democracy, get to the polls and vote. Vote for those who...

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November 5, 2006

"I Am a Deceiver and a Liar."

The words of Ted Haggard are no doubt true. The question is, "Who did he deceive and to whom did he lie?" His wife, his congregation and the public are the all too obvious answers. But had he been true...

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November 4, 2006

If You're Tortured, Don't Tell Anyone

According to today's New York Times, In papers filed in the case of Majid Khan, a Pakistani who is among 14 so-called “high-value detainees” recently transferred to the Guantánamo Bay detention camp in Cuba, Justice Department and C.I.A. officials argued...

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Table of Contents for Friday Pot Blogging Posts

After over 18 Friday Pot Posts and an award nomination, I thought it was time to get organized. Below is a list of all the pots discussed in my Friday Pot Blogging Series listed in more of less chronological order....

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November 3, 2006

The Ugarit Library

Jim West calls our attention to The Ugarit Library on CD-ROM to be published by Logos Bible software. Check it out. Look at these two sample pages of the table of contents of one of the works to be included...

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