January 2012 Archives
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January 31, 2012
Claremont McKenna College Caught
Claremont McKenna College, a liberal arts school near Los Angeles, said a college official had reported inaccurate SAT entrance exam statistics since 2005. The SAT scores for critical reading and/or math were generally inflated by an average of 10 to...Read all of "Claremont McKenna College Caught"
Posted by Duane Smith at 7:14 PM
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January 29, 2012
New Images of Cuneiform Tablets
One of the most welcome trends of the last decade or two has been the acceleration in the availability of good quality photographs of tablets and inscriptions. With an increasing number of orthographically useful photographs online those of us with...Read all of "New Images of Cuneiform Tablets"
Posted by Duane Smith at 8:10 PM
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January 28, 2012
Who? Me?
I need to return Koch-Westenholz’ Babylonian Liver Omens to the library on Monday, so I thought I’d take another quick look at a couple of things that interested me in passing but to which I hadn’t paid careful attention. Well,...
Posted by Duane Smith at 4:03 PM
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January 27, 2012
In Your Mouth And In Your ????
Claude Mariottini reminded me of an abnormally interesting paper by Nathan Wasserman and Michael Streck, "Dialogues and Riddles: Three Old Babylonian Wisdom Texts,” Iraq 73, 2011, 117-26. There are a lot of fun and colorful things on these tablets and...Read all of "In Your Mouth And In Your ????"
Posted by Duane Smith at 4:08 PM
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January 25, 2012
The Semantics of Good (And Evil)
One of the many temptations in the high science fine art guess work of identifying intertextuality between ancient literatures involves cognate words. But cognate words seldom have the exact semantic range and occasionally they don’t even have obvious overlapping semantic...Read all of "The Semantics of Good (And Evil)"
Posted by Duane Smith at 12:13 PM
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January 24, 2012
Philosophy In Brazil: An Experiment In Democracy
While we in the US are cutting back on the humanities including philosophy at all levels, philosophy is a requited subject in Brazil’s high schools. The official rationale for the 2008 law is that philosophy “is necessary for the exercise...Read all of "Philosophy In Brazil: An Experiment In Democracy"
Posted by Duane Smith at 10:37 AM
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January 22, 2012
Two Thoughts On The Commedia
I mentioned the other day that Shirley and I were rereading Dante’s Divine Comedy while we listened to a lecture series on it. The relationship between reader and literature is extremely complex. Except by committing what I think is a...Read all of "Two Thoughts On The Commedia"
Posted by Duane Smith at 10:29 AM
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January 20, 2012
Holy (Unsupported?) Snakes
I’ve been struggling to figure out if Greek ἱερά ever meant snake omen or even just some kind of snake. The exact focus of my concern is a passage in Xenophon’s Cyropaeodia that reads, Παρὰ γὰρ ἱερὰ καὶ οἰωνοὺς μήτε...Read all of "Holy (Unsupported?) Snakes"
Posted by Duane Smith at 8:03 PM
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January 19, 2012
A Slackers Apology Online
Morris Raphael Cohen’s near century old A Slacker's Apology still teaches. It begins, Dear Friend: Your letter gently but unmistakably intimates that I am a slacker, a slacker in peace as well as in war; that when the World war...Read all of "A Slackers Apology Online"
Posted by Duane Smith at 4:08 PM
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The Soncino Babylonian Talmud Online
If you haven’t read about it elsewhere a new very attractive PDF version of the Soncino English Babylonian Talmud is now online. If you need to consult the Aramaic/Hebrew version try Mechon. I’m sometimes surprised how often I need to...Read all of "The Soncino Babylonian Talmud Online"
Posted by Duane Smith at 3:23 PM
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January 17, 2012
No New Post For Wednesday, January 18, 2012
While I am not exactly blackingout today, Abnormal Interests is otherwise on strike to protest the so-called “Stop Online Piracy Act” (SOPA) and “Protect IP” or “Preventing Real Online Threats to Economic Creativity and Theft of Intellectual Property Act of...Read all of "No New Post For Wednesday, January 18, 2012"
Posted by Duane Smith at 9:58 PM
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January 16, 2012
When You Have to Go All the Way Back To The Bible For Your Philosophical Underpinning . . .
your argument has issues. I make serious fun of Jim West. I’m gathering my thoughts on Kenneth Atkinson’s paper from our Secular Biblical Criticism session at the SBL (now available on the Bible and Interpretation Website). Unfortunately, I was unable...
Posted by Duane Smith at 6:48 PM
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January 15, 2012
Synthesizing Gods
Alasdair Livingston, 101, calls attention to the following lines from a hymn to Ninurta, Your teeth are Sibitti, who fells the evil ones. The area of your cheek, lord, is the appearance of the stars of [. . . Your...Read all of "Synthesizing Gods"
Posted by Duane Smith at 8:49 PM
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January 14, 2012
A Small Step In The Right Direction
The Chronicle of Higher Education reports that JSTOR plans to make 70 journals from their far larger collection available to unaffiliated individuals on a very limited basis. Here’s how it will work, All users have to do is to sign...Read all of "A Small Step In The Right Direction"
Posted by Duane Smith at 8:39 PM
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January 13, 2012
Late Babylonian – Yuck!
I’m working my way through a Late Babylonian omen tablet and I spent the better part of four hours today trying to figure out how to read a single sign. Or is it two signs? I’m still not sure. Yes,...Read all of "Late Babylonian – Yuck!"
Posted by Duane Smith at 8:08 PM
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January 12, 2012
The Rabbis On מנחש
The other day I asked, among other things, about the meaning of מְנַחֵשׁ in Deuteronomy 18:10 and I threaten you with a post on the Rabbinic understanding of that word. So here goes. In B. Talmud Sanhedrin 65b we read,...Read all of "The Rabbis On מנחש"
Posted by Duane Smith at 9:33 AM
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January 11, 2012
“Snakes, Why Did It Have To Be Snakes”
(With apologies to Indiana Jones) This guy is a Pseudocerastes persicus, a Persian Horned Viper. While it may appear that this individual lives on a mattress, his species normally lives over a rather large range from the Sinai to Pakistan...Read all of "“Snakes, Why Did It Have To Be Snakes”"
Posted by Duane Smith at 12:58 PM
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January 9, 2012
How Did Laban Do It?
נִחַשְׁתִּי וַיְבָרֲכֵנִי יְהוָֹה בִּגְלָלֶךָ I have learned by divination that YHWH has blessed me because of you. (Genesis 30:27) After all Laban was an Aramean from Paddan-aram in Mesopotamia so he likely knew about these things. The fact that Laban...Read all of "How Did Laban Do It?"
Posted by Duane Smith at 8:05 PM
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January 8, 2012
Remembering Their Lessons
For the last couple of years I’ve been worrying about exactly what was forbidden in places like Leviticus 19:26, “. . .You shall not practice divination. . .,” . . . לֹא תְנַחֲשׁוּ . . ., and Deuteronomy 18:10, “Let...Read all of "Remembering Their Lessons"
Posted by Duane Smith at 1:13 PM
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January 7, 2012
Visit Yasemin's Kitchen
My friend Yasemin Ari has a relatively new blog. At Yasemin's Kitchen: Mediterranean Recipes with a Turkish Flair Yasemian stirs up a wonderful mixture of Turkish food and lore. When I first met Yasemin, she was a key member of...Read all of "Visit Yasemin's Kitchen"
Posted by Duane Smith at 2:31 PM
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January 6, 2012
Quotation Of The Day
“[I]n a sane world, a public intellectual (even a low-level one like a newspaper writer) would be as ashamed to admit to innumeracy as to illiteracy.” - Chad Orzel at Uncertain Principles...Read all of "Quotation Of The Day"
Posted by Duane Smith at 11:15 AM
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January 4, 2012
If Your Teacher Asks You
Since I have it at hand, I thought I’d better take a little time and browse the whole of Koch-Westenholz’s compilation of Mesopotamian extispicy texts. Even among the ancient commentaries, there is a somewhat boring repetitiveness. This is true of...Read all of "If Your Teacher Asks You"
Posted by Duane Smith at 3:30 PM
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January 3, 2012
And Now For Something Completely Different – Extispicy
The follow is from the Bārûtu: Manzāzu Commentary 1, tablet 2 according to the colophon on Rm 2, 103 i:17. BE SILIM MÁŠ ina UGU MÁŠ e.ṣir šá ana SIG5 u ḪUL DUG4-ú IGI.MEŠ-šá ana 15 šá GAR.MEŠ-ma SIG5 ana...Read all of "And Now For Something Completely Different – Extispicy"
Posted by Duane Smith at 12:18 PM
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January 2, 2012
The Most Abnormal Biblical Studies Carnival Is Up
Well he did it. Jim Linville has posted the most unusual, colorful and best illustrated Biblical Studies Carnival ever. Oh yeah, it’s funny too. Head over to Dr. Jim’s Thinking Shop and take a look. And after you’ve looked and...Read all of "The Most Abnormal Biblical Studies Carnival Is Up"
Posted by Duane Smith at 7:00 AM
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January 1, 2012
New Old First Temple Period Bulla
Ma'ariv is reporting the discovery of a First Temple period bulla with an inscription reading גבעון למלך which I guess means, “Gibeon, for the king.” Gabriel Barkay suggests that it represents taxes paid by the residents of Gideon to...Read all of "New Old First Temple Period Bulla"
Posted by Duane Smith at 6:31 PM
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Mating Snakes
Far into her life, Shirley has decided to become a Late Medievalist. And apparently I must join in this advanced pursuit. So we are both reading Dante’s Divine Comedy and listening to a lecture series on it. This is not...
Posted by Duane Smith at 11:06 AM
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