Random Playlist Song: Asian Prince - Untitled
"I really know how to work up a crowd. This is yet again, another sold out concert. I was bored, so I decorated the picture with computer graphics. There is no live recording of this concert, but you can play the song I sang. The song is untitled. I really like the reggae beat, don't you?" (Official music site)
With this piece, the Asian Prince displays his versatility. He is not confined only to rap, he is also capable of songs with reggae beats such as this.
I like the backup singers, who sing lines like: "Let's do it", "You feel alright". This song is upbeat and this dynamism comes across in the recording - you can sense the cheeriness of the performers.
***
One paper down, 3 papers (and 1 essay) to go.
***
Slippery Nipples (which has lost the old picture of nipples and switched to a boring template) reports:
Spotted!
"Asian Prince *Agagooga's website has his pic* look-a-like at NUS SRC!!
He's one of those contractor guys who hang around often to fix this and that.
Too bad I don't have my phone with me, or else would've snapped a pic of him. *damn*"
!!!!!!!!!!!!!
SHOW ME THE WO-HEN LOOKALIKE!!!
Anyone who can show me a real-life Wo-hen lookalike will be lavishly rewarded.
***
Robot sex dolls
"A German inventor claims to have created the world's most sophisticated robot sex doll.
The sex androids developed by aircraft mechanic Michael Harriman from Nuremberg have 'hearts' that beat harder during sex.
They also breathe harder and have internal heaters to raise the body temperature - but their feet stay cold "just like in real life", according to Harriman.
He said: "They are almost impossible to distinguish from the real thing, but I am still developing improvements and I will only be happy when what I have is better than the real thing."
The dolls sold under the Andy brand name are on offer for £4,000 each for the basic model, with extra charges for adaptations like extra large breasts.
Underneath the silicon skin, developed for use in medical surgery, is an electronic heart that beats faster during sex.
The model can also be made to move by remote control, wiggling her hips under the bedclothes and making other suggestive movements - all at the touch of a button.
Harriman said his design was an improvement on the popular 'real dolls' sold in the USA."
Wah. Finally the technology for males has caught up with that for females.
***
I knew it was only a matter of time before someone used the following cheap trick on me. Lucky I anticipated this beforehand (call it a premonition):
Someone: why do you refer to 'god' as an exclamation if you feel the concept has no relevance to life today? Wouldn't some other word be more appropriate, like "*gnash teeth furiously*"? : )
Me: why do you use the words "wednesday" and "thursday" if you do not worship the pagan gods?
despite your professed religion, in your daily life, in word and in deed you pay homage to the true gods of the north!
Someone: haha - no, there is practical use in that - objecting to that would be like you objecting to your living in a society with laws broadly based on judeo-christian moral values if you believed there was no judeo-christian God - you do not, I presume, because you still think there is value in at least some of these legally imposed obligations.
Me: I use the english language
so do you
and the laws society has are based more on universal values than so-called judeo-christian values
such values appear in most societies
and some appear in all
Someone: our particular interpretation of the law tends towards Roman, in the formulation imposed after the formation of the Roman Catholic church - but I think that we've strayed from the original point made. : )
Me: yeah that you're using your cheap tricks again
don't worry. I have cheap tricks too
[Ed: Someone suggests that I try:
Perhaps you could say something like "You know, you're right! I never thought of it that way before. From now on when I need to exclaim I'll say 'Oh Satan, Lord and Master!'. That's much more relevant for today. Thanks."
Another idea: if you can get a Christian to say, or make reference to "you shall not take/use the Lord's name in vain.", you can simply remind them that, "It's only in vain if He doesn't exist!"]
[later - on Pagan Origins of the Christ Myth]
Someone: (: I've heard these allegations before, and am unconvinced.
Me: (: the flat earth society has heard evidence that the world is flat, and is unconvinced
Someone: I'd point to the Old Testament firstly, and secondly say that I believe because I see God working today in many ways. : )
Me: the oldest parts of the old testament dates from 650bc I believe
then we have nothing to discuss, for people see Elvis too
in the end, it all comes down to faith, doesn't it?
despite the reams of apologetic texts and dissembling
it's faith
Someone: true, perhaps. : )
well, I think the core of Christianity is about having a relationship with a living God - even here and now, and always has been.
Me: ie it's faith
So why bother discussing this with me?
Someone: because I wish you would know God too.
Me: believe it or not, I discuss this with you for similar reasons
I want to share the good news with you
the good news that there isn't a vengeful, petty, psychopathic divine being watching your every move
that innocent people do not get condemned to burn in hell for all eternity, suffering infinite punishment for a finite crime (if indeed it can be called a crime)
Pagan Origins of the Christ Myth has been updated! And now it has an updates page, so I know what to look for when it's updated.
And there's a new page to counter a common fudge: Them varmint Pagans done stole from us!
"The majority of evidence for Near Eastern dying and rising deities occurs in Greek and Latin texts of late antiquity, usually post-Christian in date.
[Smith, Jonathan Z. Dying and Rising Gods (in Encyclopedia of Religion, M. Eliade ed.),1988, volume 4, pg. 522]
Defense of the Faith #3: Christian and Pagan ideas are similar, but Christian ideas came first—Them varmint Pagans done stole from us!
Don't forget that for the overwhelming majority of Christian-Pagan similarities Paganism undisputedly got there first, generations before Jesus. That means that for all those theologies and sacraments, Pagan borrowing is impossible. The points of similarity available to TVPDSFU theory are few: Mithras' taurobolium baptism, Adonis' resurrection, Attis' resurrection, and a few others.
What I hope you notice is neither author talks about how his version of the 'Paganism is late' reasoning fits into a larger theory of Christian origins. The don't ask, "Well, OK how do I know who borrowed from whom?", or "How come the Pagans, who were busy killing Christians on account of their religion, thought it was a good idea to copy the religion of the people they were killing for their religion?", or any stuff like that. They just toss up the Them varmint Pagans done stole from us argument and quick like a bunny scamper off to other stuff."
"Agenda driven "scholars" start with an opinion and pick a methodology that gives the answer they want." - On Reverend Bruce Manning Metzger
Also of interest: Drudgery Divine: On the Comparison of Early Christianities and the Religions of Late Antiquity
"In this major theoretical and methodological statement on the history of religions, Jonathan Z. Smith shows how convert apologetic agendas can dictate the course of comparative religious studies. As his example, Smith reviews four centuries of scholarship comparing early Christianities with religions of late Antiquity (especially the so-called mystery cults) and shows how this scholarship has been based upon an underlying Protestant-Catholic polemic. The result is a devastating critique of traditional New Testament scholarship, a redescription of early Christianities as religious traditions amenable to comparison, and a milestone in Smith's controversial approach to comparative religious studies.
"An important book, and certainly one of the most significant in the career of Jonathan Z. Smith, whom one may venture to call the greatest pathologist in the history of religions. As in many precedent cases, Smith follows a standard procedure: he carefully selects his victim, and then dissects with artistic finesse and unequaled acumen. The operation is always necessary, and a deconstructor of Smith's caliber is hard to find."--Ioan P. Coulianu, Journal of Religion"
***
One of the most amusing denunciations of theodicies that I've come across:
"For if the cosmos is the effect of an immanent, omnipotent, and infinitely beneficent cause, the existence in it of real evil, still less of necessarily inherent evil, is plainly inadmissible. Yet the universal experience of mankind testified then, as now, that, whether we look within us or without us, evil stares us in the face on all sides; that if anything is real, pain and sorrow and wrong are realities.
It would be a new thing in history if a priori philosophers were daunted by the factious opposition of experience; and the Stoics were the last men to allow themselves to be beaten by mere facts. 'Give me a doctrine and I will find the reasons for it,' said Chrysippus. So they perfected, if they did not invent, that ingenious and plausible form of pleading, the Theodicy; for the purpose of showing firstly, that there is no such thing as evil; secondly, that if there is, it is the necessary correlate of good; and, moreover, that it is either due to our own fault, or inflicted for our benefit. Theodicies have been very popular in their time, and I believe that a numerous, though somewhat dwarfed, progeny of them still survives. So far as I know, they are all variations of the theme set forth in those famous six lines of the "Essay on Man," in which Pope sums up Bolingbroke's reminiscences of stoical and other speculations of this kind–
"All nature is but art, unknown to thee;
All chance, direction which thou canst not see;
All discord, harmony not understood;
All partial evil, universal good;
And spite of pride, in erring reason's spite
One truth is clear: whatever is is right."
Yet, surely, if there are few more important truths than those enunciated in the first triad, the second is open to very grave objections. That there is a 'soul of good in things evil' is unquestionable; nor will any wise man deny the disciplinary value of pain and sorrow. But these considerations do not help us to see why the immense multitude of irresponsible sentient beings, which cannot profit by such discipline, should suffer; nor why, among the endless possibilities open to omnipotence–that of sinless, happy existence among the rest–the actuality in which sin and misery abound should be that selected. Surely it is mere cheap rhetoric to call arguments which have never yet been answered by even the meekest and the least rational of Optimists, suggestions of the pride of reason. As to the concluding aphorism, its fittest place would be as an inscription in letters of mud over the portal of some 'stye of Epicurus'; for that is where the logical application of it to practice would land men, with every aspiration stifled and every effort paralyzed. Why try to set right what is right already? Why strive to improve the best of all possible worlds? Let us eat and drink, for as today all is right, so to-morrow all will be."
- Thomas H. Huxley, Evolution and Ethics (1893)
***
of depression.
"i never thought i'll lose you so soon, after all we've been through.
you've given me the courage to pull through those sleepless nights and those days my face was drenched in tears; you were the only motivation i could muster to get past these horrid days.
and you are everything i've been working towards all these while. i wanted to build us something good, i wanted to make you happy and i wanted to leave a lasting good memory. but you left. silently and painfully, you left.
now you've left me aimless. lost. and i don't know where i'm heading to or what's installed for me.
it's merely a week of hiatus, of hurt and depression, and you can't take it already? what does that leave me? why do i have to retrace your steps and mitigate reality all by myself?
bye examinations."
Twill be 2 weeks before I can say the same!
***
The Cockroach FAQ
"Q41: Alejandro from the Phillipines asks:
... I have observed that cockroaches in my house get "wild" before any earthquake occurs. They start running and getting out from their niches. ... I have the impression that cockroaches can "feel" some of the very early vibrations of an earthquake, small or big, and can be a very good help to give "early warnings" of earthquakes. Can you confirm this?
A: Alejandro,
If you have done a careful experiment to demonstrate the phenomenon you should publish it. There have been newspaper articles professing to demonstrate that point (perhaps 20 years old) but I have never seen confirmation of earthquake prediction by cockroaches in the scientific journal literature."
***
Chick.com is down again. Maybe the Powers That Be read my description of the site.
Huichieh collection of reactions to the casino verdict - Interesting collection. I'd contribute too if not for impending exams. But I particularly like Bloggers Against Reverse Discrimination (BARD).