August 2008 Archives
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August 30, 2008
Meet Bunny the Cat
This is one well-traveled cat. His formal name in Luna Angelats but those who know him best call him Bunny. I'm not sure why. He was born in Columbus Ohio. At the age of three or four, he moved to...Read all of "Meet Bunny the Cat"
Posted by Duane Smith at 10:30 AM
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August 29, 2008
Friday Loanword: māḫāzu
[If you see squares, rectangles or something else that doesn't look right, please install the Charis SIL font.] Akkadian māḫāzu ranges in meaning from a small enclosure, often with a well or pond, serving a cultic purpose to a town...Read all of "Friday Loanword: māḫāzu "
Posted by Duane Smith at 7:20 PM | TrackBack (0) | Abnormal Archive Link |
August 28, 2008
A Few Strange Letters
N. T. Wrong is back and telling us of The Lost Treasure of Ugarit, the first film of the Jack Hunter series. Run over to the Wrong site and learn more about the movie. He points out the rather strange...Read all of "A Few Strange Letters"
Posted by Duane Smith at 4:13 PM
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August 27, 2008
Did Any Sane Person Notice This?
[Body language expert and former FBI agent Joe Navarro] explained to Early Show co-anchor Maggie Rodriguez Wednesday, "We need non-verbal (cues) to tell us what is important, what is significant, and what should we be looking for." And Clinton's non-verbals,...Read all of "Did Any Sane Person Notice This?"
Posted by Duane Smith at 12:45 PM
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August 26, 2008
Latest City of David Car Park Excavation Report
The latest report on the excavations associated with the Giv‘ati Car Park in Jerusalem is now available in English at Hadashot Arkheologiyot. If you're wondering where in Jerusalem this car park excavation is, the article gives a good indication and...Read all of "Latest City of David Car Park Excavation Report"
Posted by Duane Smith at 12:33 PM | TrackBack (0) | Abnormal Archive Link |
August 24, 2008
Climate, Agriculture and the Fate of Nations
I've been prowling around ABZU and found an open access journal, Climate of the Past, that may align with some of your abnormal interests. It does touch on some of mine. The paper that struck me, and frankly, the only...Read all of "Climate, Agriculture and the Fate of Nations"
Posted by Duane Smith at 8:11 PM
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August 23, 2008
Bill Mann - A Mann That Changed the World
If you ever used a fax machine or a computer with a modem, it is likely that Bill Mann touched your life. This evening about eighty of us will help Bill celebrate his 65th birthday. I could use this space...Read all of "Bill Mann - A Mann That Changed the World"
Posted by Duane Smith at 1:09 PM | TrackBack (0) | Abnormal Archive Link |
August 22, 2008
Friday Loanword: maddattu
The Akkadian word maddattu has a range of meaning from "work assignment" to "rent" but its most common meaning is "tribute," tribute paid to a king or overlord. It is related to the Akkadian verb nadānu, "to give," "to make...Read all of "Friday Loanword: maddattu"
Posted by Duane Smith at 7:30 PM | TrackBack (0) | Abnormal Archive Link |
August 20, 2008
Aydin Örstan Tries His Hand at Christian Hermeneutics
and no matter how wrong it is, he gets it right. If he plans to make a career of this, I suggest he invest in a Bible. If he can't raise the capital, perhaps he could just take one from...Read all of "Aydin Örstan Tries His Hand at Christian Hermeneutics"
Posted by Duane Smith at 7:09 PM
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More Horsing Around
Late last week Dr. Martin Heide of Philipps-Universität, Marburg, emailed me. He cordially noted my series on the Ugaritic hippiatric tablets and introduced me to his forthcoming two volume work on ibn ahi Hizam's Kitab al-Bayatara ("The Book on Hippiatrics")...Read all of "More Horsing Around"
Posted by Duane Smith at 2:44 PM | TrackBack (0) | Abnormal Archive Link |
August 19, 2008
So This is an Improvement
I made my occasional pilgrimage to UCLA today. I had accumulated several things I wanted to look into at their library. Parking is always a bit of an experience. In the past, you purchased a one-day parking permit at a...Read all of "So This is an Improvement"
Posted by Duane Smith at 7:23 PM
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August 18, 2008
2012 Sells Better Than 2060
Jim West called our attention to an overview of Temple at the Center of Time: Newton's Bible Codex Deciphered and the Year 2012, by David Flynn on World Net Daily. If half the claims in the World Net Daily, or...Read all of "2012 Sells Better Than 2060"
Posted by Duane Smith at 8:18 PM | TrackBack (0) | Abnormal Archive Link |
August 16, 2008
A Place For Indifference
The upcoming interviews at the "Saddleback Civic Forum on the Presidency" remind me of this quotation from Mark Twain: So much blood has been shed by the Church because of an omission from the Gospel: "Ye shall be indifferent as...Read all of "A Place For Indifference"
Posted by Duane Smith at 2:07 PM
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August 15, 2008
Friday Loanword: libbātu
Or is this Friday's word just part of a loan idiom? Akkadian libbātu means "anger," "wrath." The word is often coupled with the verb malû, "to be filled," in expressions like šarrum li-ib-ba-ti-im im-ta-la, "the king was filled with anger"...Read all of "Friday Loanword: libbātu"
Posted by Duane Smith at 7:05 PM
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August 14, 2008
The Latest Four Stone Hearth Is Up
Four Stone Hearth #47 is up at Almost Diamonds. Stephanie Zvan's blog is new to me but I'll sure be adding it to my reading list. Those who share my abnormal interests will find several links worth perusing. Among them...Read all of "The Latest Four Stone Hearth Is Up"
Posted by Duane Smith at 7:18 PM
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August 13, 2008
Reflections on a Few Caveats
Alan at Bible and Ancient Near East posted the Introduction and the first section of his work on šiptu ul yuttun, "the incantation is not mine." This is an abnormally interesting post and I await the publication of his complete...Read all of "Reflections on a Few Caveats"
Posted by Duane Smith at 7:40 PM
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August 11, 2008
A Small Rant About the Book that Wasn't There
Peter Bekins at בלשנות posted an abnormally interesting three part series "In his דמות and צלם." In his last number, he discussed the Tell Fakhariyeh Aramaic-Akkaidan bilingual inscription. While Peter mentioned the Akkadian text, his focus was on the Aramaic....Read all of "A Small Rant About the Book that Wasn't There"
Posted by Duane Smith at 7:49 PM
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August 10, 2008
A Proper Start In Life
Welcome to Brooklyn Ayden Crisostomo, the newest member of the ever growing Ancient Near East blogging world. I assume she will blog at MU-PÀD-DA awhile before getting a proper blog of her own. Drop by MU-PÀD-DA, welcome Brooklyn and congratulate...Read all of "A Proper Start In Life"
Posted by Duane Smith at 3:28 PM
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Quotation of the Day
"Real men don’t think things through." - parody line from Paul Krugman Well, it's actually a quotation from a few days ago....Read all of "Quotation of the Day"
Posted by Duane Smith at 8:27 AM
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August 9, 2008
Middle Bronze Age Tel Kabri and the Aegean
Here is a portion of Assaf Yasur-Landau and Eric H. Cline's conclusion from their just posted "Preliminary Report on the Results of the 2008 Excavation Season at Tel Kabri." Additional insights into the interactions between the rulers of Tel Kabri...Read all of "Middle Bronze Age Tel Kabri and the Aegean"
Posted by Duane Smith at 7:11 PM | TrackBack (0) | Abnormal Archive Link |
August 8, 2008
Friday Loanword: kayyamānu
In Neo-Babylonian, kayyamānu, when written dUDU.IDIM.SAG.UŠ (d.udu.idimkayyamānu), refers to the planet Saturn. Otherwise, it means "normal," "regular," "usual" or the like as it had from Old-Babylonian times. The Masoretic Text (MT) of Amos 5:26 reads: וּנְשָׂאתֶם אֵת סִכּוּת מַלְכְּכֶם וְאֵת...Read all of "Friday Loanword: kayyamānu "
Posted by Duane Smith at 7:13 PM
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August 6, 2008
Our Distant Cousins Many Times Removed
I have some mixed feelings about the report of the Wildlife Conservation Society's discover of two large, previously unknown, populations of Western Lowland Gorillas (Gorilla gorilla gorilla). On the one hand, it is great that such large populations exist seemly...Read all of "Our Distant Cousins Many Times Removed"
Posted by Duane Smith at 7:57 PM
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August 5, 2008
4000-Year-Old Canaanite Warrior Found
He's dead now of course. This new discovery comes from the excavations at Sidon. According to [Claude Doumet] Serhal, the remains go back to 2000 B.C., with a British archeologist saying the warrior had been buried at the age of...Read all of "4000-Year-Old Canaanite Warrior Found"
Posted by Duane Smith at 10:14 AM | TrackBack (0) | Abnormal Archive Link |
August 4, 2008
The More Important of the Two
The other day, some blogger, I can't remember who and, to my regret, I didn't bookmark it at the time, said he or she thought the Gedalyahu ben Pashhur bulla discovery was considerably more important than the new Zincirli inscription...Read all of "The More Important of the Two"
Posted by Duane Smith at 7:17 PM
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August 3, 2008
A Note on the Name Gedalyahu
In the light of the recently announced bulla from Jerusalem with the inscription, "Belonging to Gedalyahu ben Pashhur," I thought I'd collect all the ancient occurrences of the name Gedalyahu I could find. As Claude Mariottini noted the other day,...Read all of "A Note on the Name Gedalyahu"
Posted by Duane Smith at 7:19 PM
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August 2, 2008
3D Printing and Clay Polymer Tablets
Back in June, I wrote about a three dimensional imaging project to record clay tablets. The technology generates files of digital models of the clay tablets. A prototyping system can then do three dimensional polymer printing using the files to...
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Posted by Duane Smith at 10:00 AM
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SiteMeter Crashes Windows Explorer
SiteMeter was crashing Windows' Internet Explorer yesterday afternoon and evening. It looks like they have fixed the problem. But if you tried to access Abnormal Interests, which uses SiteMeter, with Windows' Internet Explorer, Windows' Internet Employer would crash. Wired has...Read all of "SiteMeter Crashes Windows Explorer"
Posted by Duane Smith at 9:20 AM
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August 1, 2008
Friday Loanword: kamānu
Kamānu is likely a derivative of Akkadian kamû meaning "to bake." But it quite clearly has a more specific meaning than simply something baked. Here is what CAD, K, 110-111, concludes about kamānu, Baked in ashes, the k.-cake seems to...Read all of "Friday Loanword: kamānu"
Posted by Duane Smith at 2:35 PM | TrackBack (0) | Abnormal Archive Link |
Biblical Studies Carnival XXXII is Up and Up and Up
John Hobbins has published this month's Biblical Studies Carnival in three abnormally interesting posts. Check out this extensive roundup of academically oriented blog posts on things Biblical from July. Great job, thanks John....Read all of "Biblical Studies Carnival XXXII is Up and Up and Up"
Posted by Duane Smith at 7:10 AM | TrackBack (0) | Abnormal Archive Link |