Yeah. This is a good idea. You’ll make heaps more friends at the pub if you can listen to everything they say because you’re wearing one of these speech bubbles…
You know what we need chief. A ball of silence.
Via here.
Author: Nathan Campbell
Nathan runs St Eutychus. He loves Jesus. His wife. His daughter. His son. His other daughter. His dog. Coffee. And the Internet. He is the pastor of City South Presbyterian Church, a church in Brisbane, a graduate of Queensland Theological College (M. Div) and the Queensland University of Technology (B. Journ). He spent a significant portion of his pre-ministry-as-a-full-time-job life working in Public Relations, and now loves promoting Jesus in Brisbane and online. He can't believe how great it is that people pay him to talk and think about Jesus. If you'd like to support his writing financially you can do that by giving to his church.
iHallelujah
Just what your iPhone ordered. A hallelujah button. So that you can break out in non-spontaneous praise.
One among millions: Blogging infographics
It’s surprising how many of these apply…
The St. Eutychus Guide to First Year Greek – Part Ten
Nouns of the Third Declension
Greek nouns, like the verbs, have a stem, a connecting vowel and an ending. The ending indicates case (and declension).
Third declension nouns have no stem vowel. They just whack the ending onto the noun’s root. The stem is easies to identify by removing the “ος” from the genitive. Third declension genitives receive an ος in every singular genitive and an ων in every plural genitive (regardless of gender).
Nominatives mostly either have just an ς or nothing, datives always end in ι (singular) or σι(ν) (plural), and accusative plurals always end in ς (either ας or ες).
Third declension nouns are categorised on the basis of whether the stem ends with a consonant or a vowel. Consonantal stems are split into categories based on the last phoneme of the stem.
The gender of third declension nouns is not readily apparent – in order to spot them in the wild we need to learn the nominative and genitive singular versions, and the article, as always, will be our greatest ally in figuring out what the noun is doing.
Because there is no stem vowel the dative plural σι(ν) often comes across letters that σ hates. So:
- ξ, κ, γ, χ + σι(ν) = ψι(ν)
- ψ, π, β, φ + σι(ν) = ξι(ν)
- ζ, τ, δ, θ + σι(ν) = σι(ν)
If the stem ends in αντ, εντ, or οντ in the dative case the ντ drops out and the leftover vowel lengthens.
eg: αντ + σι(ν) = ασι(ν)
εντ + σι(ν) = εισι(ν)
Adjectives, pronouns and numerals of the First and Third Declension
πας (meaning all) has a sibilant stem, so it follows δοξα, the stem of the third declension is παντ (from παντος).
πας has four uses:
- In the predicate it means “all”
- In the attributive it means “whole”
- With a noun without an article it means “every”
- When it stands by itself it’s substantive.
πας can have many different meanings (sometimes full or pure).
εις, ουδεις, and μηδεις
εις (“heis” not eis (which is into)) is the nominative masculine form of one. μια is the feminine nominative, while εν (“hen”, not en (which is in)) is the neuter.
The declension of εις, ουδεις, and μηνδεις is as follows
- N: εις
- G: ενος
- D: ενι
- A: ενα
- N: μια
- G: μιας
- D: μιᾳ
- A: μιαν
- N: εν
- G: ενος
- D: ενι
- A: εν
εκαστος εισ means “each one” and occurs commonly.
Greek double negatives don’t cancel each other out. So ουδεις and μηνδεις (no-one, no-thing) can reinforce a negative .
ουδεις is used in the indicative mood. μηνδεις in the others.
πολυς, μεγας and αληθης
- πολυς = much, many
- μεγας = great
- αληθης = true, and is declined using third declension end.
Comparison of Adjectives
Adjectives in Greek have three degrees – positive (normal) (beautiful, hard, good), comparitive (harder, more beautiful, better), and superlative (hardest, most beautiful, best).
Comparative adjectives take the forms: -τερος, -τατα, -τατον
Superlative adjectives take the forms: -τατος, -τατη, -τατον
So:
δικαιος (positive), δικαιοτερος (comparitive), δικαιοτατος (superlative)
There are a bunch of irregular comparatives:
- αγαθος (good) -> κρεισσων (better)
- κακοσ (bad) -> χειρων (worse)
- μεγας (great) -> μειζων (greater)
- πολυς (much) -> πλειων (more)
Adjectives may be used to express a comparison. This happens in two ways:
- By placing the noun (or pronoun) to be compared in the genitive. This is called the genitive of comparison.
- By using the particle η (than) and nouns in the same case.
The comparative form is often used with a superlative function “but the greatest of these” or the elative sense “very great”…
The St. Eutychus Guide To First Year Greek – Part Nine
Now. If only I understood all of this regurgitated garbage…
Perfect Middle, and Passive Indicative
The perfect middle and passive indicative takes the same suffix as the present middle and passive, with a reduplicated first syllable and no connecting vowel.
- First person singular = λελυμαι
- Second person singular = λελυσαι
- Third person singular = λελυται
- First person plural = λελυμεθα
- Second person plural = λελυσθε
- Third person plural = λελυνται
The perfect middle and passive deals with a present state resulting from a completed action (O <à>). As a middle λελυμαι is “I have released myself” or “I have released for myself,” or “I myself have released”… these translations are approximate and sometimes for the sake of English clarity the simple past is chosen – “so Christ died (aorist) and was raised (perfect passive)” – but the “raised” – like Archimede’s Eureka – places the impact on the current risen state.
The Future Middle Indicative
The future middle indicative takes the same suffix, with the future time morpheme (σ), and a connecting vowel, added to the stem.
It also, like the present middle, has an irregularity in the second person singular. This can be explained. With the suffix and future morpheme in place this would be λυσεσαι, it would seem that in order to be less complicated the second σ drops out, and the ε and α combine into an η and the ι drops into the subscript position.
So, the future middle looks a little something like this:
- First person singular = λυσομαι
- Second person singular = λυσῃ
- Third person singular = λυσεται
- First person plural = λυσομεθα
- Second person plural = λυσεσθε
- Third person plural = λυσονται
The middle voice can be translated as: I will loose myself, I will loose for myself, I myself will loose…
The Future Indicative of ειμι
ειμι in future form takes the same endings as λυσομαι (except for a rogue ε). It uses ε as its stem.
- First person singular = εσομαι
- Second person singular = εσῃ
- Third person singular = εσται
- First person plural = εσομεθα
- Second person plural = εσεσθε
- Third person plural = εσονται
Adverbs
Adverbs qualify verbs (and adjectives, and other adverbs).
In Greek, adverbs are formed by substituting ς for an ν at the end of the genitive plural (eg καλων (good) becomes καλως (well)).
Most adverbs just need to be learned as vocab…
μεν and δε
The conjunctions μεν and δε are used to contrast two ideas – μεν means “on the one hand” while δε means “on the other hand.” In translation this often works best as “…, but…” – dropping the μεν and expressing the contrast with a conjunction.
In the plural the μεν…δε construct translates as “some… others…
Imperfect Middle and Passive
The past middle suffixes used for the imperfect middle and passive, the aorist middle, and the plu-perfect middle and passive.
The Imperfect Middle and Passive is formed by attaching the augment (past time morpheme ε), a connecting vowel, and the secondary middle suffixes (past, middle suffix)…
For λυω the Imperfect Middle Passive looks like this:
- First person singular = ελυομην
- Second person singular = ελυσο
- Third person singular = ελυετο
- First person plural = ελυομεθα
- Second person plural = ελυεσθε
- Third person plural = ελυοντο
ελυομεν translates in the imperfect middle to: “I was releasing myself,” “I was releasing for myself,” “I myself was releasing.” In the imperfect passive it’s “I was being released.”
In the second person singular the form ελυου comes from ελυεσο – the σ drops out and the vowels contract.
Again, which voice you use is determined by context.
First Aorist Middle
The First Aorist Middle is conjugated as:
- First person singular = ελυσαμην
- Second person singular = ελυσω
- Third person singular = ελυσατο
- First person plural = ελυσαμεθα
- Second person plural = ελυσασθε
- Third person plural = ελυσαντο
Instead of a connecting vowel it features the aoristic aspect morpheme.
The second person singular is irregular for the same reason as the Imperfect middle/passive – the σ of the suffix drops out, and the vowels contract.
Because the aorist tense deals with a completed action the middle aorist translates as “I released myself” or “I released for myself” or “I myself released”
Second Aorist Middle Indicative
The second aorist in middle indicative does pretty much the same as the second aorist active indicative. It drops a vowel form the stem.
The Pluperfect Middle and Passive Indicative
The pluperfect middle and passive feature reduplication of the consonant, the past time morpheme, the secondary middle suffixes (with no connecting vowel).
So:
- First person singular = ελελυμην
- Second person singular = ελελυσο
- Third person singular = ελελυτο
- First person plural = ελελυμεθα
- Second person plural = ελελυσθε
- Third person plural = ελελυντο
It can be translated as: “I had released myself,” “I had released for myself,” “I myself had released,” as a passive it should be translated “I had been released.”
Aorist Passive Indicative
The first aorist passive indicative is obtained by adding the augment, the passive morpheme (θε or θη), and the secondary active endings.
- First person singular = ελυθην
- Second person singular = ελυθης
- Third person singular = ελυθη
- First person plural = ελυθημεν
- Second person plural = ελυθτε
- Third person plural = ελυθησαν
The first person singular aorist passive is translated “I was released.”
Second Aorist Passive Passive Indicative
Loses the θ from the morpheme. Keeps the same suffixes as the first aorist passive indicative.
Future Passive Indicative
Obtained by adding the passive morpheme, then the future time morpheme, and removing the final ν, and adding the primary middle endings
So:
- First person singular = λυθησομαι
- Second person singular = λυθηςῃ
- Third person singular = λυθησεται
- First person plural = λυθησομεθα
- Second person plural = λυθσεσθε
- Third person plural = ελυθησονται
The first person singular translates “I will be released.”
Second Future Passive Indicative forms, like the second aorist, lose the θ from the morpheme.
Irregular Passive Forms
Chucking a θε (or θη) into a word causes trouble if the stem ends in a consonant. Mainly if the consonant is one of those ones that doesn’t really play nice with others.
This time the changes can be summarised as:
- ξ, κ, γ, χ + θ = χθ
- ψ, π, β, φ + θ = φθ
- ζ, τ, δ, θ + θ = σθ
Examples are:
- αγω in the aorist is ηχθην and in the future passive is αχησομαι.
- βαπτιζω in the aorist is εβαπτισθην and in the future passive is βαπτισθησομαι.
- πειθω in the aorist is επεισθην and in the future passive is πεισθησομαι.
The St. Eutychus Guide to First Year Greek – Part Eight
Demonstrative Pronouns
Demonstrative pronouns are like pointing at something. If there is a table in the room and I want to draw attention to it – I’d say “this table.” If, however, the table is outside the room I’d say “that table”… we all know the difference between this and that instinctively – but I hadn’t really analysed this instinct before in terms of proximity…
This in Greek is αυτος. At least in the masculine nominative singular. There are a couple of grounds for confusion in the below declensions because I’m not typing accents… αυτη is both the feminine nominative singular demonstrative pronoun this (woman – if used substantively) and the feminine nominative singular personal pronoun – the only difference is in the accenting.
Masculine
Singular
- N: ουτος
- G: τουτου
- D: τουτῳ
- A: τουτον
Plural
- N: ουτοι
- G: τουτων
- D: τουτοις
- A: τουτους
Feminine
Singular
- N: αυτη
- G: ταυτης
- D: ταυτῃ
- A: ταυτην
Plural
- N: αυται
- G: τουτων
- D: τουταις
- A: τουτας
Neuter
Singular
- N: τουτο
- G: τουτου
- D: τουτῳ
- A: τουτο
Plural
- N: ταυτα
- G: τουτων
- D: τουτοις
- A: ταυτα
The nominative singular and plural masculine and feminine all being with rough breathing.
For more remote objects the demonstrative pronoun is εκεινος (that). Its declension is identical to αυτος.
Masculine
Singular
- N: εκεινος
- G: εκεινου
- D: εκεινῳ
- A: εκεινον
Plural
- N: εκεινοι
- G: εκεινων
- D: εκεινοις
- A: εκεινους
Feminine
Singular
- N: εκεινη
- G: εκεινης
- D: εκεινῃ
- A: εκεινην
Plural
- N: εκειναι
- G: εκεινων
- D: εκειναις
- A: εκεινας
Neuter
Singular
- N: εκεινο
- G: εκεινου
- D: εκεινῳ
- A: εκεινο
Plural
- N: εκεινα
- G: εκεινων
- D: εκεινοις
- A: εκεινα
Uses of the Demonstrative
There are three main uses of the demonstrative:
- To modify a noun. In this instance the pronoun agrees with the noun in gender, number, and case. The noun in this instance is always definite, and the pronoun sits in the predicate position. The syntax is therefore: pronoun + article + noun. λεγω τουτοις τοις ανθροποις is “I speak to these men.”
- Substantive Use – they carry their own noun based on case. So αυτος is “this man” or “this person” when there is no other noun to work with… eg ουτος βλασφημει = This man is blaspheming. If the noun is not definite (ie doesn’t have an article) the demonstrative does not modify the noun. So ουτος κλεπτης εστιν και λῃστης is “that man is a thief and a robber” not “that thief and a robber”
- Can function as personal pronouns if they immediately follow a proper noun – in which case they are translated he, she, or they.
Present Middle and Passive Indicative
All our verbs up until now have been active indicative – the subject has been doing the action. Greek has a middle voice – where the subject acts for its own interest, and a passive voice, where the subject receives the action of the verb.
So the passive of “I release” is “I am being released,” or “I am released.”
The forms of the passive and the middle are identical. And only context determines which one is used.
The forms of the present middle and passive indicative are:
- First person singular = λυομαι
- Second person singular = λυῃ
- Third person singular = λυεται
- First person plural = λυομεθα
- Second person plural = λυεσθε
- Third person plural = λυονται
The Middle Voice
The middle voice can be translated as “I am releasing myself,” or “I am releasing for myself,” or “I myself am releasing.
The middle has three uses:
- The reflexive middle – refers the result of the verb directly to the subject “Judas hanged himself” in the Greek does not have the word “himself.”
- The intensive middle – emphasises the agent’s role in the action – “he himself secured eternal redemption” – once again, the “himself” comes from the verb.
- The reciprocal middle – is the use of a plural subject engaged in an interchange of action. I don’t really get this one, but apparently it’s as rare as hen’s teeth.
Deponent Verbs
Deponent verbs are verbs that have middle or passive forms but that have lost their active form. The middle/passive verb has taken the active verb’s place, eg ερχομαι means “I go,” it is middle in form but active in meaning.
Deponent verbs tend to involve:
- Reciprocity – Describe situations that require two parties (eg I redeem, Ι welcome).
- Reflexivity – The verbal idea turns back on the subject (eg I imitate, I put on, I abstain).
- Self-involvement – Describe processes that only the subject can experience (eg I ponder, I consider, I go)
In some verbs the active form has one meaning and the deponent another – αρχω means “I rule” but αρχομαι means “I begin” – these are rare.
A lot of deponent verbs form compound verbs with prepositions.
Agency
A verb in the passive voice will often come with an agent – the person or thing producing the action.
- The direct agent (the agent by whom the action is performed) is expressed by υπο and a genitive noun.
- The intermediate agent (through whom the action is performed) is expressed by δια and the genitive
- Impersonal agency (an action being performed by or through a non-person) – is expressed by the dative case (sometimes with εν).
- The divine passive occurs when no agent is expressed to avoid naming God directly (eg “they will be comforted [by God]”)
Vocab and Memory Hooks
- εκεινος = (ekeinos) that
- ουτος = (houtos) this
- αμνος = (amnos) Lamb = An l-amnos is a little lamb
- αρτος = (artos) bread = Good bread is art
- διαβολος (diabolos) devil = El Diablos is the Spanish devil
- εχθρος = (exthros) enemy =
- ηλιος = (helios) sun = there used to be a heliocentric view of the world, the idea that the earth
- θρονος = (thronos) throne = I sit my bottomos on the thronos
- καιρος = (kairos) time = I’ve got nothing
- καρπος = (karpos) fruit = karpos are not fish, but fruit
- λαος = (laos) people = The people of laos are friendly people
- ναος = (naos) temple = Jews say “temple” we say “naos”
- ουρανος = (ouranos) heaven = Uranus is in the heavens.
- οφθαλμος = (ophthalmos) eye = When my eyes aren’t working I go to see the ophthalmologist.
- Πετρος = (Petros) Peter: The apostle.
- σταυρος = (stauros) cross = The southern cross is four stars that make a stauros.
- τοπος = (topos) place = If you win first place you’re on topos the world.
- τυφλος = (tuphlos) blindman = If something pokes out your eyes it’s a tuph-los and you’ll be a blindman
- φιλος = (filos) friend = Philos
- φοβος = (phobos) = phobia.
- χρονος = (chronos) time = Time passes chronoslogically.
- βιβλιον = (biblion) books = Bibliographies are lists of books
- δαιμονιον = (daimonion) demon = sounds like what it is
- ιματιον = (Imation) cloak/garment = I wear my cloak Imation the latest fashions
- μυστηριον = (musterion) mystery = It’s a musterion to me.
- παιδιον = (paidion) child = You don’t paidion children very much to work
- πλοιον = (ploion) boat = Pirates make their ploys on a boat.
- σαββατον = (sabbaton) Sabbath = It sounds like what it is
- σημειον = (semeion) sign = Apparently semantics is meant to remind you of signs…
- αρχω = (arxo) I rule (takes a genitive) = Noah ruled the arxo
- υπαρχω = (uparxo) I am, I exist = I have nothing…
Deponent Verbs (I can’t think of hooks for these yet)
- δεχομαι = I welcome
- λυτροομαι = I redeem
- χαριζομαι = I forgive
- ιαομαι = I heal
- μαχομαι = I fight
- ψευδομαι = I lie
- ασπαζομαι = I greet
- αποκρινομαι = I answer (takes the dative)
- τυφλοομαι = I am conceited
- επενδουμαι = I put on
- μιμεομαι = I imitate
- εκρατευομαι = I abstain
- ερχομαι = I go
- διαλογιζομαι = I ponder
- ηγεομαι = I consider
- οργιζομαι = I am angry
- βουλομαι = I wish
- λογιζομαι = I consider
- αρχομαι = I begin
- γινομαι = I become (takes a complement)
- εκπορευομαι = I come out, I go out
- εργαζομαι = I work
- ευαγγελιζομαι = I preach the gospel
- πορευομαι = I come
- προσευχομαι = I pray
- ερχομαι = I come
If Mario were created today
Once upon a time you picked up a game and figured out how to play it all by yourself. These days the first ten levels end up functioning as a tutorial and you only get about four levels of actual gameplay with all your moves. Here’s what Mario, an incredibly simple game, would have looked like if it were designed today:
Segway Soldiers
I’ve never been so proud to be an Australian. Our army is employing Segway robot soldiers. At this stage the Segway robots are only being used for training exercises as target practice:
“Australia based Marathon Robotics have taken Segways and turned them into human-shaped autonomous robots capable of moving around streets and buildings just like people in a crowd! The Marathon bots can act like insurgents, hostages, or civilians, letting armed soldiers practice before being exposed to the real thing. The Australian Department of Defense already has a training camp using the robots, and the US Marine Corps will be establishing one this year. You’ve got to see these robots in action in the video below – this puts all other shooting ranges to shame!”
Here they are in action:
What Disney Teaches your Children
I copped some flak for posting a similar look at Disney’s unhelpful life lessons… but here are some more.
Via BoingBoing.
Here are the old ones:
Get your kid’s claws into the alphabet
Alphabet charts are so passe. If you want your kidlet to learn the alphabet, and learn it fast, let Wolverine and friends teach them…
Sticking around: the disproportional impact of a stick figure cartoon
I <3 XKCD. It’s my regular dose of geeky humour rendered in high definition stick figurey goodness. Millions of other people like it too. In fact, XKCD is arguably the world’s most influential blog. The forum 4Chan might cause more havoc, but XKCD readers tend to use their powers for good. Remember Tetris Hell? That was an XKCD comic. Within hours a reader had made it playable.
In this comic ninjas visit an open source software guru:
Shortly afterwards… ninjas confronted the guy at a conference.
After this comic:
This guy created a ball room in his house using this calculator that another reader created.
Here’s an article tracking XKCD’s influence.
Colour me “tickled pink”
The XKCD man, Randall Munroe, conducted a big survey on colour identification and gender. He found that the difference between men and women on colour recognition has been greatly exaggerated.
Contrary to this DogHouse Diaries Comic:
He also gives a nice guide to common colours and their hex codes based on the survey results.
He created a colour map too, which is helpful for colourblind people like me.
