The Year of Living Biblically is about my quest to live the ultimate biblical life. To follow every single rule in the Bible – as literally as possible. I obey the famous ones: The Ten Commandments Love thy neighbor Be fruitful and multiply But also, the hundreds of oft-ignored ones. Do not wear clothes of mixed fibers. Do not shave your beard Stone adulterers [From A.J. Jacobs - The Year of Living Biblically]
Mar 252008
India TV, one of India’s major Hindi channels with national outreach, invited Sanal Edamaruku for a discussion on “Tantrik power versus Science”. Pandit Surinder Sharma, who claims to be the tantrik of top politicians and is well known from his TV shows, represented the other side. During the discussion, the tantrik showed a small human shape of wheat flour dough, laid a thread around it like a noose and tightened it. He claimed that he was able to kill any person he wanted within three minutes by using black magic. Sanal challenged him to try and kill him.
[From Rationalist International]
Mar 252008
Nice recap of the McCain Press free-ride from one of my must-reads:
McCAIN’S CRED….Via Steve Benen, MSNBC analyst Chuck Todd tells us why John McCain can get away with routine demonstrations of abject ignorance, like his recent proclamation that Iran is supporting al-Qaeda in Iraq:Even if he gets dinged on the experience stuff, “Oh, he says he’s Mr. Experience. Doesn’t he know the difference between this stuff?” He’s got enough of that in the bank, at least with the media, that he can get away with it. I mean, the irony to this is had either Senator Clinton or Senator Obama misspoke like that, it’d have been on a running loop, and it would become a, a big problem for a couple of days for them.
Italics mine. Let’s recap. Foreign policy cred lets him get away with wild howlers on foreign policy. Fiscal integrity cred lets him get away with outlandishly irresponsible economic plans. Anti-lobbyist cred lets him get away with pandering to lobbyists. Campaign finance reform cred lets him get away with gaming the campaign finance system. Straight talking cred lets him get away with brutally slandering Mitt Romney in the closing days of the Republican primary. Maverick uprightness cred allows him to get away with begging for endorsements from extremist religious leaders like John Hagee. “Man of conviction” cred allows him to get away with transparent flip-flopping so egregious it would make any other politician a laughingstock. Anti-torture cred allows him to get away with supporting torture as long as only the CIA does it.
Remind me again: where does all this cred come from? And what window do Democrats go to to get the same treatment the press gives McCain? [From The Washington Monthly]
Mar 182008
If someone on the national stage can’t make a speech like this and get elected, then it’s a real shame.
Click the link below to go to the page…
Mar 172008
Mar 162008
One thing about us is we are very self-congratulatory. Other Christians compromise. Their theology is deficient, their morality is weak, their methods are compromises with the world. To be EWFR is to be in a small circle of those who have it right while so many others (even fellow Christians) have much of it wrong. We can see their shortcomings. We praise our own thinking. We praise our own methods. We praise our own moral code. [From IDEAS]
The human brain requires about 25 watts of electricity to operate. Markram estimates that simulating the brain on a supercomputer with existing microchips would generate an annual electrical bill of about $3 billion . But if computing speeds continue to develop at their current exponential pace, and energy efficiency improves, Markram believes that he’ll be able to model a complete human brain on a single machine in ten years or less. [From Seed: Out of the Blue]
Mar 062008
Have you ever wondered why the Audi in front of you has a logo of four interlocked rings? [From Neatorama » Blog Archive » Evolution of Car Logos]
