June 2009 Archives
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June 29, 2009
A Short Brutal Life
I normally don't post on medieval stuff. But this did catch my eye. Bone regrowth around a dent in the front of the skull suggested the man had recovered from a severe blow, possibly from an axe. The warrior had...Read all of "A Short Brutal Life"
Posted by Duane Smith at 1:18 PM
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June 28, 2009
A Slippery Soul
This post began life as a draft comment to a post by Chris Heard at Higgaion. But it outgrew what I think of as an optimum comment length. Chris' post is an opening salvo in review of S.T. Joshi's God’s...
Posted by Duane Smith at 10:16 AM
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June 27, 2009
4th Millennium Camel Cart From Turkmenistan
Back in the day, one could get up a lively debate on camel nomads vs. ass nomads in the Levant and various supposed implications for patriarchal history. Happily, I think this kind of discussion has mostly gone away in these...Read all of "4th Millennium Camel Cart From Turkmenistan"
Posted by Duane Smith at 10:44 AM
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June 26, 2009
My Impactful Five
John Hobbins thinks I should fess up to the books and scholars that have had the most impact on how I read the Bible. For me this is a lot harder than some might think. One approach would be to...Read all of "My Impactful Five"
Posted by Duane Smith at 1:46 PM
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June 24, 2009
On Why It Is So Important
Jay at mu-pad3-da provides a nice gentle rant on his issues with what he calls "maths." He also provides a link to Eleanor Robson's faculty page where one can find some abnormally interesting material on ancient Mesopotamian mathematics. While Jay...Read all of "On Why It Is So Important"
Posted by Duane Smith at 1:09 PM
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June 23, 2009
Library Adventures
Today I made one of my occasional pilgrimages to UCLA. And quite an adventure it was. I was looking for three titles, Ebeling, Erich, Quellen zur Kenntnis der babylonischen Religion I, Leipzig: Hinrich 1918 Maul, Stefan M., Zukunftsbewältigung: eine Untersuchung...Read all of "Library Adventures"
Posted by Duane Smith at 8:51 PM
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June 22, 2009
The Idiot's Guide To KAL DILI
Our word "idiot" derives from the Greek ἰδιώτης, meaning something in the range of private citizen, individual or someone with no professional training. With that in mind, let me tell how I spent part of my morning and most of...Read all of "The Idiot's Guide To KAL DILI"
Posted by Duane Smith at 8:13 PM
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June 21, 2009
Open Access Syria
Sometime ago JSTOR announced that they would provide back issues of the journal Syria. Well, now all Syria issues between 1920 and 1992 are available free online without the need to going through JSTOR. I am very happy to see...Read all of "Open Access Syria "
Posted by Duane Smith at 10:15 AM | TrackBack (0) | Abnormal Archive Link |
June 20, 2009
Fredrick Sontag Dies At 84
I just read in the Los Angeles Times that Fredrick Sontag, longtime Professor of Philosophy at Pomona College, died last Sunday of congestive heart failure. Sontag, who was planning to retire this month, taught at Pomona College for 57 years....Read all of "Fredrick Sontag Dies At 84"
Posted by Duane Smith at 9:13 AM
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June 19, 2009
What Next, Apple Pie?
Yahoo has the Reuters report. Nestle's U.S. baking division said on Friday that it was voluntarily recalling its Toll House refrigerated cookie dough products after the U.S. Food and Drug Administration warned of the risk of contamination with E. coli...Read all of "What Next, Apple Pie?"
Posted by Duane Smith at 3:23 PM
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June 18, 2009
Five Four Stone Hearth Is Up
The 69th edition of the anthropology carnival Four Stone Hearth is up at Wanna be an Anthropologist. Paul Wren, whose blog is new to me, offers the usual four categories plus a bonus category. Check it out. There's lots of...
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Posted by Duane Smith at 8:38 AM
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June 17, 2009
Who Exposes More?
My real question is which type of academic actively exposes more of him or herself when explaining the stuff of their discipline? For the purposes of this post I will entertain a somewhat false dichotomy and assume that mathematicians and...Read all of "Who Exposes More?"
Posted by Duane Smith at 9:01 PM
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June 15, 2009
But Don't Buy Anything On Shabbat
Are you afraid of what you might get if you Google "abnormal interests"? Well, try the ‘kosher’ search engine, Koogle. It's safe and its only available in Hebrew. The Telegraph has the story in English. Is a mixture of noodles,...Read all of "But Don't Buy Anything On Shabbat "
Posted by Duane Smith at 2:06 PM
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June 14, 2009
Tweeting Religion 101
It seems that Stephen Prothero of Boston University is experimenting with Tweeter to communicate the stuff of world religions. His first tweet was on Islam. If I were tweeting Religion 101, my first tweet would be something like, "Humans and...Read all of "Tweeting Religion 101"
Posted by Duane Smith at 10:50 AM
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June 13, 2009
Welcome to James Kennedy
James Kennedy of Baylor has a new blog, Seek and Read. He plans to post primarily on Hebrew poetry. This quotation from his welcome post sounds promising. I plan to use much of this home page exploring the literary artistry...Read all of "Welcome to James Kennedy"
Posted by Duane Smith at 9:55 AM
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June 12, 2009
A Short Rant
Don't waste your time with what follows. It's cheaper to write and post this than to check myself in for psychiatric care. Let me get this off my chest even if I can't be too specific as to my complaint....Posted by Duane Smith at 8:53 PM | TrackBack (0) | Abnormal Archive Link |
June 10, 2009
The Omen and I
John Hobbins wrote an interesting post on Psalm 26:1-3 providing several options for dealing with the complex, interrelated, parallelism of the passage. But there was something else that struck me about the passage that I had never noticed before. Understanding...
Posted by Duane Smith at 3:12 PM
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June 9, 2009
Just What I Always Wanted
Over at the Mark Twain Forum someone asked if Mark Twain had any patented inventions. The answer, "yes," came rather quickly. The claim was that he had four patents but I think there were only three: # 121,992, filed December...Read all of "Just What I Always Wanted"
Posted by Duane Smith at 7:44 AM
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June 8, 2009
Statistical Literacy - Sometimes A Life Or Death Matter
We may long for a world of certainties but we live in a world of probabilities. Gerd Gigerenzer and four others wrote "Knowing Your Chances: What Health Stats Really Mean" for Scientific American. In 1938 in World Brain (Methuen &...Read all of "Statistical Literacy - Sometimes A Life Or Death Matter"
Posted by Duane Smith at 8:43 AM
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June 7, 2009
The Latest Journal Of Near Eastern Studies
The latest edition of the Journal of Near Eastern Studies is now available. As usual, the latest edition is dated three months ago. Both papers seem abnormally interesting but for quite different reasons. Jeremy M. Hutton, "Avith (So to Speak):...Read all of "The Latest Journal Of Near Eastern Studies "
Posted by Duane Smith at 8:26 AM | TrackBack (0) | Abnormal Archive Link |
June 6, 2009
A Forty Five Year Conversation Continues
Today marks our forty-fifth anniversary. Shirley and I will be doing a little celebrating, nothing special, mostly just spending time together. I almost said "quality time together," but I can't remember any time with Shirley that wasn't quality time....Read all of "A Forty Five Year Conversation Continues"
Posted by Duane Smith at 7:47 AM
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June 5, 2009
Playing With Signs And Signs
The other day I wrote about a line in an Akkadian prayer that one might only understand fully in its written form. I didn't say it as the time, but it made me wonder if this prayer was ever really...Read all of "Playing With Signs And Signs"
Posted by Duane Smith at 8:27 PM
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June 3, 2009
King of Saudi Arabia Becomes Pope!
I never dreamed Obama's mission to bring people together would go this far. Picture copped and cropped from Huffington Post....Read all of "King of Saudi Arabia Becomes Pope!"
Posted by Duane Smith at 1:23 PM
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June 2, 2009
On Translations, Background Knowledge, And Acknowledgement
Benjamin Foster wrote these words in his introductory chapter to Before The Muses: An Anthology Of Akkadian Literature The standards of scholarly acknowledgement among translators are lower than in other areas of humanistic research . . . Since it is...Read all of "On Translations, Background Knowledge, And Acknowledgement"
Posted by Duane Smith at 3:55 PM
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June 1, 2009
Biblical Studies Carnival 43 Is Here
Well, it's not really here. It's over at Ketuvim. Jim Getz has done a great job pulling together last month's abnormally interesting posts. Don't Panic! You'll be able to get through all of it if you don't have anything else...Read all of "Biblical Studies Carnival 43 Is Here"
Posted by Duane Smith at 8:48 PM
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