Augustine: Would have been a Blogger

I’ve been plowing through Augustine’s “On Christian Teaching” for an essay. While some of his stuff is just loopy – eg an explanation of the recurrence of the number forty in the Bible that crops up at one point – a lot of it is just plain awesome. You can check out some of the quotes on the “whatnathanreads” Twitter account, and if you’re too lazy to do that, I’m going to do a series of posts from Augustine’s point of view. Stay tuned.

He writes pithy, controversial, polemics that would have been ideal for blogs – and most of his chapters seem to be of an almost perfectly acceptable blog length. He was prolific. He would have been right at home behind a computer publishing his opinions to the world in the 21st century.

October 24, 2010

A comparitive analysis of Kindle’s KJV and ESV users

I love our kindle. I’m playing with some of its features as I use it to study today. I’ve set up a new Twitter account for the passages I highlight in the books I’m reading. You can keep tabs on it in the sidebar (on my actual blog for you feed readers). One of Amazon’s nifty features (which I’ve mentioned before somewhere) is displaying paragraphs other people have highlighted on their devices. I thought it might be fun to look at the different interests of people who have self selected as ESV readers and KJV readers of the Bible. The ESV is the fifth most highlighted book on the Kindle, the most popular KJV version comes in at 109.

Here are the popular ESV passages.

“…and we [3] rejoice [4] in hope of the glory of God. 3 More than that, we rejoice in our sufferings, knowing that suffering produces endurance, 4and endurance produces character, and character produces hope, 5 and hope does not put us to shame, because God’s love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit who has been given to us. 6 For while we were still weak, at the right time Christ died for the ungodly – Highlighted by 100 Kindle users

“…because [6] the Spirit intercedes for the saints according to the will of God. 28 And we know that for those who love God all things work together for good, [7] for those who are called according to his purpose. 29 For those whom he foreknew he also predestined to be conformed to the image of his Son… – Highlighted by 97 Kindle users

“37No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us. 38For I am sure that neither death nor life, nor angels nor rulers, nor things present nor things to come, nor powers, 39 nor height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord. God’s Sovereign Choice ROMANS 9 I am speaking the truth in Christ—I am not lying… – Highlighted by 113 Kindle users

“12Therefore let anyone who thinks that he stands take heed lest he fall. 13No temptation has overtaken you that is not common to man. God is faithful, and he will not let you be tempted beyond your ability, but with the temptation he will also provide the way of escape, that you may be able to endure it. 14 Therefore, my beloved, flee from idolatry. 15 I speak as to sensible people; judge for yourselves what I say. – Highlighted by 73 Kindle users

“19 For through the law I died to the law, so that I might live to God. 20 I have been crucified with Christ. It is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me. And the life I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me. 21 I do not nullify the grace of God, for if righteousness [2] were through the law… – Highlighted by 92 Kindle users

“…as I warned you before, that those who do such things will not inherit the kingdom of God. 22 But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, 23gentleness, self-control; against such things there is no law. 24 And those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires. – Highlighted by 112 Kindle users

“in the coming ages he might show the immeasurable riches of his grace in kindness toward us in Christ Jesus. 8 For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God, 9 not a result of works, so that no one may boast. 10 For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them. One in Christ 11 Therefore remember that at one time you Gentiles in the flesh…” – Highlighted by 126 Kindle users

“…again I will say, Rejoice. 5 Let your reasonableness be known to everyone. The Lord is at hand; 6 do not be anxious about anything, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God. 7And the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus. 8†Finally, brothers, whatever is true, whatever is honorable, whatever is just, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is commendable… – Highlighted by 178 Kindle users

In any and every circumstance, I have learned the secret of facing plenty and hunger, abundance and need. 13 I can do all things through him who strengthens me. 14 Yet it was kind of you to share [3] my trouble. – Highlighted by 122 Kindle users

…which are able to make you wise for salvation through faith in Christ Jesus. 16 All Scripture is breathed out by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness, 17 that the man of God [2] may be competent, equipped for every good work. Preach the Word 2 TIMOTHY 4 ‡†I charge you in the presence of God and of Christ Jesus… – Highlighted by 69 Kindle users

Here are the KJV mob’s favourites:

“…and shall declare his righteousness unto a people that shall be born, that he hath done this. 23:1 The LORD is my shepherd; I shall not want. 23:2 He maketh me to lie down in green pastures: he leadeth me beside the still waters. 23:3 He restoreth my soul: he leadeth me in the paths of righteousness for his name’s sake. 23:4 Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil: for thou art with me; thy rod and thy staff they comfort me. 23:5 Thou preparest a table before me in the presence of mine enemies: thou anointest my head with oil…
Highlighted by 46 Kindle users

…3:4 So shalt thou find favour and good understanding in the sight of God and man. 3:5 Trust in the LORD with all thine heart; and lean not unto thine own understanding. 3:6 In all thy ways acknowledge him, and he shall direct thy paths. 3:7 Be not wise in thine own eyes: fear the LORD, and depart from evil. 3…
Highlighted by 37 Kindle users

…for your Father knoweth what things ye have need of, before ye ask him. 6:9 After this manner therefore pray ye: Our Father which art in heaven, Hallowed be thy name. 6:10 Thy kingdom come, Thy will be done in earth, as it is in heaven. 6:11 Give us this day our daily bread. 6:12 And forgive us our debts, as we forgive our debtors. 6:13 And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil: For thine is the kingdom, and the power, and the glory, for ever. Amen. 6:14 For if ye forgive men their trespasses, your heavenly Father will also forgive you: 6… Highlighted by 37 Kindle users

…lest they trample them under their feet, and turn again and rend you. 7:7 Ask, and it shall be given you; seek, and ye shall find; knock, and it shall be opened unto you: 7:8 For every one that asketh receiveth; and he that seeketh findeth; and to him that knocketh it shall be opened. 7:9 Or what man is there of you, whom if his son ask bread, will he give him a stone? – Highlighted by 29 Kindle users

…24:53 And were continually in the temple, praising and blessing God. Amen… – Highlighted by 36 Kindle users

…3:15 That whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have eternal life. 3:16 For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life. 3:17 For God sent not his Son into the world to condemn the world… – Highlighted by 77 Kindle users

…because he maketh intercession for the saints according to the will of God. 8:28 And we know that all things work together for good to them that love God, to them who are the called according to his purpose. 8:29 For whom he did foreknow, he also did predestinate to be conformed to the image of his Son… – Highlighted by 33 Kindle users

…wherein ye were also careful, but ye lacked opportunity. 4:11 Not that I speak in respect of want: for I have learned, in whatsoever state I am, therewith to be content. 4:12 I know both how to be abased, and I know how to abound: every where and in all things I am instructed both to be full and to be hungry, both to abound and to suffer need. 4:13 I can do all things through Christ which strengtheneth me. 4:14 Notwithstanding ye have well done, that ye did communicate with my affliction. 4:15 Now ye Philippians know also… – Highlighted by 11 Kindle users

And here they are as wordles.

The ESV one.

And the KJV one.

Farbeit from me to make judgments about people’s theology based on which translation they choose. There are a few similarities there, that cancel each other out for the purposes of comparison – what’s really interesting is the outliers. The KJV texts have a bias to quotes from Jesus, and seem to be predominantly about prayer. Intecessory prayer in fact. The ESV texts are predominantly Pauline, and if you had to pick a few themes they’d be the Spirit, suffering, and God’s grace.

Let the reader understand.

October 23, 2010

New entry to the Dictionary of sporting idioms: Doing a Rooney

Doing a Rooney (idiom): The act of very publicly voicing one’s opinion against something, and then acting to the contrary to your statement within days.

Etymology:

The curse of Manchester United’s Fergie looked like it was going to smite Wayne Rooney as it had myriad players before – players like Jaap Stam, Ruud Van Nistelrooy, and David Beckham were all golden children who moved from hero to an integer followed by seven or eight zeroes in a matter of weeks. Fergie has no real qualms about selling anybody who thinks they are bigger than the club. And it looked like Rooney was on his way out of the Old Trafford revolving door this week when it was revealed that he, and the manager, disagreed on his level of fitness (Fergie said Rooney was injured, Rooney said he wasn’t), this followed a pretty public revelation of some pretty extreme sexual misconduct on Rooney’s behalf, which was sure to put Fergie’s nerves on edge. He’s spoken pretty publicly about players with an overdeveloped sense of entitlement. Then it turned out that Rooney wanted out, and had ceased negotiations on a new contract weeks ago. Then Fergie said he could go. And everybody thought he was gone, many suggesting he had played his last game in a Man Utd shirt.

Until, in a pretty massive backflip, Rooney committed himself to the club for a further five years. Signing a new contract today. Bizarre.

My inner conspiracy theorist thinks they may have signed him to such a long term deal so that they can extract a greater transfer fee now that the sharks are circling.

October 23, 2010

Instant coffee: First you snip it, then you dip it

Actually, to slightly misquote Carl Sagan, if you want to make instant coffee from scratch, you must first create the universe, and then you have to make a pot of coffee, and then you have to dry it out and add a bunch of chemicals in the process. And then you put it in a tin. And then you add water. So it’s not really instant at all. It’s only instant if you assume that the coffee process is all about having other people do the work for you. But despite this slightly more passionate than normal introduction, Instant coffee isn’t something I spend a lot of time thinking about (except when I suggest that it’s a sin). Why you’d want to drink the rehydrated dregs of old coffee is beyond me. But if it’s your cup of tea, then this instant coffee/straw/stirrer combo is probably right up your alley.

Via Yanko Design

October 22, 2010

Bacon Kevin Bacon

So Kevin Bacon has never played Bond, James Bond, but doubtless he’s connected within six degrees to all the guys who have. I did almost call this post 360 degrees of Kevin Bacon. That may have been cleverer.

But his claim to fame1 is his name – and here he is being represented as only a man named Bacon can be.

1Other than being at the heart of the six degrees of Kevin Bacon experiment.

October 22, 2010

The Burger Experts

This is a fantastic ad.

But you know who are the burger experts. Fergburger, Queenstown, New Zealand.

Since my year of no fast food ended on the first of July I have had the chance to try several of the Grand/Mighty Angus burgers, and I’ve got to say, they are pretty fantastic.

But not as good as the McRib. Which I tried in Singapore. The McRib is a menu enigma. There’s even a web page devoted to its appearance around the globe.

October 22, 2010

Stereotyping Starbucks customers by the power of infographic

A Starbucks Barista apparently made this little chart profiling his customers and their orders:

I’ve got a more accurate profile for all of them:

Lacking in discernment and too eager to part with their money for low quality burnt coffee.

So there.

Via Yasrsly.

October 22, 2010

Evolution of a Geek

Here’s a helpful flowchart that will help you understand the geeks in your life.

From Flowtown.

October 22, 2010

Third Eagle of the Apocalypse: Is he the beast?

Well. World War Three didn’t kick off last week, as predicted by the Third Eagle of The Apocalypse. AKA William Tapley, AKA The Co-Prophet of the End Times.

He explains (you’ve probably already seen this video on Simone’s blog):

I love the use of a ballpoint pen to help us chart where he’s up to in the text he’s reading. That’s production values right there… he advertises a book in each of his videos. I’ve sent him a message asking if I can get hold of a copy.

“As you know. SATAN CONTROLS THE NEWS MEDIA.”

They’re covering up a story of a bomb blast in Iran. Which prevented full scale war.

That’s possible, but I would argue that it’s more plausible that William Tapley is actually the beast from Revelation.1

Here is my reasoning. Were he one of the co-prophets of the end times you would expect him to be one of two witnesses mentioned in Revelation 11:3. If that were the case he would be prophesying for 1,260 days wearing sackcloth. I haven’t seen him wearing sackcloth in any of his end times prophecies. Therefore he is a false prophet. If he is not, then by saying this, I have bought myself a nasty date with fire:

5And if anyone would harm them, fire pours from their mouth and consumes their foes. If anyone would harm them, this is how he is doomed to be killed.

Also, it has been raining quite a bit during his days of prophesying.

6They have the power to shut the sky, that no rain may fall during the days of their prophesying, and they have power over the waters to turn them into blood and to strike the earth with every kind of plague, as often as they desire.

And flowing rivers feature quite prominently in his videos – yet none of them feature blood red water. Explain that Third Eagle!

More concerning is the possibility that he is actually the prostitute predicted in Revelation 17:

1Then one of the seven angels who had the seven bowls came and said to me, “Come, I will show you the judgment of the great prostitute who is seated on many waters, 2 with whom the kings of the earth have committed sexual immorality, and with the wine of whose sexual immorality the dwellers on earth have become drunk.”

He is often seated by water (see the video above), and the water often looks different, and he does sound a bit like a drunk, jilted lover when he talks about politicians.

This conspiracy stuff is easy, and fun. You should also check out the comments on the Third Eagle’s videos. They are worrying and entertaining.
1 Please note, I don’t think this is very plausible at all.

October 22, 2010

Crocs on a Plane

What a bizarre story.

A rogue crocodile, in the process of being smuggled in a passenger’s carry on luggage, escaped mid flight. And caused the plane to crash. And killed 20 people.

A stampede of terrified passengers caused the small aircraft to lose balance and tip over in mid-air during an internal flight in the Democratic Republic of Congo.

The unbalanced load caused the aircraft, on a routine flight from the capital, Kinshasa, to the regional airport at Bandundu, to go into a spin and crash into a house.

The crocodile, and one passenger, survived the crash. The crocodile was killed by a salvager with a machete. The full story is here, at the Courier Mail. So it must be true.

October 22, 2010

YouTube Friday: Mumford and Sons sing Not in Nottingham

If you’re like me and you:

a) grew up watching Disney’s animated and animalated version of Robin Hood.

and

b) think Mumford and Sons are pretty awesome…

Then you’ll doubtless enjoy this video.

The musical goodness starts 23 seconds in.

October 22, 2010

Listening to: Whitley

I’m really enjoying Whitley’s Go Forth Find Mammoth at the moment. You should check it out.

Here’s one particular song that is almost constantly in my head.

October 22, 2010

Knowing when to fold them…

This story of an addictive personality manifesting itself in the form of degenerate gambling and the lure of the poker table is quite incredible. It has the hallmarks of gonzo style essay writing where the writer is the story, and a few insights into the mind of the gambler, and society more broadly. Check it out.

As a literary society, we have long since gotten over our modesties. The literature of addiction, once the exclusive territory of imbalanced, suicidal poets, has now come to dominate the market. We no longer recognize self-indulgence as self-indulgence. The term itself has fallen out of use, relegated mostly to protests from bitter Amazon.com reviewers and the curmudgeons of the weekly book reviews. Stylish women in New York write chatty columns about how much of their paycheck they spent on the latest “must have” designer handbag. The bestseller shelves are flooded with the memoirs of 30-year-old alcoholics. Sex addicts write 200-page books, complete with sex-cougar dust jacket photos.

Pain in poker comes in many forms. There is the loss you feel about living off of the dregs of a societal illness. There is the gambler’s moment of clarity when you realize you have become just like the old, sad men that you ridiculed in your younger, luckier days. There is the tedium of sitting at a filthy felt table for hours, sometimes days, feigning a studied intensity. There is the anxiety over explaining to a loved one exactly how you lost $30,000 in the course of a weekend. There is searing unease that comes from watching that same loved one twist uncomfortably whenever you give them a gift bought with the spoils of gambling. But none of poker’s daily pains are deadly or instructive, really. What’s more, all of guilt’s iterations can be cleansed by one monster score. Hit a set of 6s on a J-6-2 rainbow flop against the Donkey at the table, the one who is wearing a fake Versace rayon shirt whose outrageous patterning is the only thing taking attention away from his Dolce and Gabbana sunglasses and the poor, doting, usually underage girlfriend who sits behind his right shoulder, awash in the illusion that her boyfriend is Paul Newman from The Hustler—well, win $5,000 off a guy like that and you stop worrying about ethics and your misspent youth.

October 21, 2010

Wifi as meme

Have you ever been somewhere, like an airport or public spot, and turned on your wifi only to discover a computer-to-computer network called “Free Public Wifi”?

It almost never gives you internet. Because it’s a phantom network (basically) created by a quirk of Windows XP.

“When a computer running an older version of XP can’t find any of its “favorite” wireless networks, it will automatically create an ad hoc network with the same name as the last one it connected to -– in this case, “Free Public WiFi.” Other computers within range of that new ad hoc network can see it, luring other users to connect. And who can resist the word “free?””

Windows, when it looks for networks, goes through the following steps:

1. It looks for preferred networks to connect to from the networks available.
2. If that fails, Wireless Auto Configuration attempts to connect to the preferred networks that do not appear in the list of available networks.
3. Failing that, if there is an ad hoc network in the list of preferred networks that is available, Wireless Auto Configuration tries to connect to it.
4. If that fails, and there is an ad-hoc network in the list of preferred networks that is not available, Wireless Auto Configuration configures the wireless network adapter to act as the first node in the ad hoc network.

So here’s what happened:

“At one time or another somewhere out there someone connected to a real ad-hoc WiFi network that had the SSID “Free Public WiFi”. They added this network to their preferred network list. They then traveled to a location where this WiFi SSID didn’t exist (airport, airplane, and/or hotel). They powered on their laptop with the wireless card on and Wireless Auto Configuration took over and starting searching for WiFi networks. After trying steps 1 through 3 above, Windows gave up and configured WiFi card to ad hoc mode with the SSID “Free Public WiFi” (since it was a preferred network).”

And a meme/harmless virus was born:

“A second person in close proximity to the user above also has a wireless enabled laptop and is looking to connect to a WiFi network. They scan to see what is available and notice an SSID called “Free Public WiFi”….they connect to it not knowing that it is an ad hoc network. After a few seconds of wondering why they can’t surf the web they disconnect from the SSID, shrug their shoulders and move on with life. Now they have the viral SSID in their preferred list too. The next time they power on their laptop it starts to look for the “Free Public WiFi” SSID. This process is repeated in many locations across the US and world again and again. Soon this SSID is in preferred wireless networks lists everywhere spreads like a virus.”

October 21, 2010

The Wire: Monopoly Edition

This board game version of The Wire doesn’t have enough “go to jail” squares for my liking, though perhaps they’re in the Chance pile. Community Chest should probably have been renamed “Community Service”… but they’re replaced with “The Game” and “Re-Up”…

What other popular TV series needs a board game?

October 21, 2010