February 2008 Archives
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February 27, 2008
Another Ugaritic Ritual Text By A Semiliterate?
KTU 1.48 was among the earliest Ugaritic tablets excavated. In 1929, shortly after Claude Schaeffer excavated it from the royal palace at Ugarit, Charles Virolleaud published a picture and a drawing of the fragmentary tablet. At that time, Virolleaud...Read all of "Another Ugaritic Ritual Text By A Semiliterate?"
Posted by Duane Smith at 1:02 PM
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February 26, 2008
Michelle Obama Meet Mark Twain
This is a little belated and a somewhat off target but some of you may find it interesting. Pulitzer Prize-winning author Edward Bok once interviewed Mark Twain and, being interested in accuracy, sent a copy of his report of the...Read all of "Michelle Obama Meet Mark Twain"
Posted by Duane Smith at 7:33 PM
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February 25, 2008
While I'm Deeply Honored, This Seems Like Déjà Vu All Over Again
James F. McGrath is not only busy Exploring Our Matrix he is also passing out awards. He even gave Abnormal Interests one. I am a recipient of the 'E for Excellent' award. In a comment where he informed me of...Read all of "While I'm Deeply Honored, This Seems Like Déjà Vu All Over Again"
Posted by Duane Smith at 7:55 PM
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February 24, 2008
BAR, Controversy and Quote Mining
During a period of nearly thirty-five years Biblical Archaeology Review (BAR) and the Journal of Biblical Literature (JBL) sustained my interests in the ancient near east and in the Hebrew Bible. I read nearly every article in both. On a...Read all of "BAR, Controversy and Quote Mining"
Posted by Duane Smith at 10:01 AM
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February 23, 2008
Creature Comforter
Between numerous recent trips to doctors and two nights in the hospital, Shirley made this. It looks like Soc is already enjoying it. Here is how it all began a couple of weeks ago. She worked on it every evening...Read all of "Creature Comforter"
Posted by Duane Smith at 2:15 PM
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February 21, 2008
Vandalizing Blogs Is Not A Sport
Because of the continuing saga I partially described the other day, I did not even look at the internet from about Monday evening until an hour or so ago. So I missed the vandalism against Jim West's blog as it...Read all of "Vandalizing Blogs Is Not A Sport"
Posted by Duane Smith at 7:35 PM
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February 18, 2008
Liu Fang Yuan
Today Shirley and I went to the Huntington Library to see the new Chinese Garden. There was a special viewing for members. I think it will open to the general public February 23rd. Don't get too excited. Members are people...
Posted by Duane Smith at 7:02 PM
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February 16, 2008
Bart Ehrman and the Hypothesis of God
Reflecting on an article about New Testament scholar Bart Ehrman in the San Diego Union-Tribune, Jim West says of Ehrman's agnosticism, Things aren’t rendered untrue simply because our finite intellect cannot grasp them. Jim's concern is that Ehrman's growing agnosticism...Read all of "Bart Ehrman and the Hypothesis of God"
Posted by Duane Smith at 3:29 PM
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February 15, 2008
Spring Public Lectures at IAC
Readers in Southern California may be interested in the Institute for Antiquity and Christianity of the Claremont Graduate University's Spring public lecture series: Thursday, 28 February, 7:30 p.m. The Secret Gospel of Mark: Find or Forgery? PANEL DISCUSSION: Dennis R....Read all of "Spring Public Lectures at IAC"
Posted by Duane Smith at 7:03 PM
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February 14, 2008
Not a Hiatus Just a Slowdown
Some of you may have noticed a lack of original content here at Abnormal Interests over the last few weeks. A couple of abnormal health related things have produced a nearly infinite time and emotion sink in our abnormal household....Read all of "Not a Hiatus Just a Slowdown"
Posted by Duane Smith at 8:47 AM
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February 13, 2008
Four Stone Hearth Is Up, Number 34 This Time
The 34th edition of Four Stone Hearth is up at Our Cultural World. The Linguistic Anthropology section is very strong in this edition with several posts of abnormal interest....Read all of "Four Stone Hearth Is Up, Number 34 This Time"
Posted by Duane Smith at 7:16 PM
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February 12, 2008
Proto-Semitic Language and Culture
If you haven't seen John Huehnergard's "Proto-Semitic Language and Culture" entry in The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language it is now online. Be sure to checkout the charts and the guide to Semitic roots. Be sure to click...Read all of "Proto-Semitic Language and Culture"
Posted by Duane Smith at 8:03 PM
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Darwin Day
Today would have been Charles Darwin's one-hundred and ninety-ninth birthday. I'm a little leery about celebrating such a day. I worry that it reinforces the mistaken idea of a Darwin cult rather than celebrates an on going scientific enterprise that...
Posted by Duane Smith at 7:44 PM
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February 11, 2008
Still Another Opinion Against the Wall
Like Darrell Pursiful and Suzanne McCarthy, I'm not sure if this is for real or a parody. But then it's often hard to tell genuine belief from parody. Darrell, correctly noting that this preacher has strayed more than a little...Read all of "Still Another Opinion Against the Wall"
Posted by Duane Smith at 12:06 PM
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Obama and Clinton on 60 Minutes
Kevin Drum of Washington Monthly got this one right And speaking of the Democratic race, did you catch 60 Minutes tonight? Talk about a contrast. Barack Obama got quizzed by Steve Kroft, who conducted a fairly ordinary softball interview, while...Read all of "Obama and Clinton on 60 Minutes"
Posted by Duane Smith at 9:38 AM
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February 8, 2008
Cyprus Points to It
Alun Salt, writing the other day on both Archaeoastronomy and Ancient World Bloggers Group, suggested an abnormally interesting approach to blog carnivals. He suggested that they be "permanent" and subject to "light review." Please read Alun's post to find out...Read all of "Cyprus Points to It"
Posted by Duane Smith at 7:32 PM
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February 7, 2008
A Queen and A Goddess at Ebla
Back in October of last year, I noted a report of new discoveries from Ebla. Among those discoveries were two statues of women. At the time, I complained that there weren't even pictures of the statues in the report. Well,...Read all of "A Queen and A Goddess at Ebla"
Posted by Duane Smith at 4:15 PM
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February 5, 2008
House Cleaning
Today I did a little house cleaning on the side bar of the front page of Abnormal Interests. Among other things, I significantly modified the blogroll. If I left your blog out, please let me know. I'll be happy to...
Posted by Duane Smith at 8:21 PM
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Continue to Follow the Money
The other day I quoted Peter van der Veen on the influence of financial donators on the way archeological evidence is sometimes interpreted. Actually, van der Veen's remarks were quite restrained. The remarks of Raphael Greenberg in the recent edition...Read all of "Continue to Follow the Money"
Posted by Duane Smith at 4:49 PM
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February 4, 2008
He's Back
Well, Christopher O’Brien will be back on Wednesday. Christopher's Northstate Science is one of those blogs from which I learn something of abnormal interest in nearly every post. And I've been missing his insights in anthropology, archaeology, evolution, the culture...
Posted by Duane Smith at 7:43 PM
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February 3, 2008
Building A Semitic Tree
I'm thinking of attempting to construct a phylogenetic tree for a set of Semitic languages using Markov chain Monte Carlo methods. This is the same statistical approach that Atkinson et al used in the paper I discussed yesterday. It is...Read all of "Building A Semitic Tree"
Posted by Duane Smith at 8:42 AM
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February 2, 2008
How Are New Languages Formed?
While one can often trace the evolution of a given language over long periods of time, individual languages like Hebrew and Aramaic seem to have come into history like Athena, full grown from the head of Zeus. With only a...Read all of "How Are New Languages Formed?"
Posted by Duane Smith at 3:38 PM
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