- #593. Being a Christian Culture Snob
- Literals
- Use Wolfram Alpha as a Writing Tool [Writing]
“If you’ve ever been stuck trying to fill out a trio of words ending in “ation,” looking for the transliteration of a foreign script, finding proper pronunciation or hyphenation, or other nerdy word tasks, Wolfram Alpha can often pull off the job with a few key words. Enter word before your term to get an overview of what Wolfram knows about a phrase, or words starting with or words ending with to fit a certain phrase into your text.” - 50 Fresh Portfolio Websites for Your Inspiration
- A coin flip isn#39;t random
Yet recent research into coin flips has discovered that the laws of mechanics determine the outcome of coin tosses: The startling finding is that they aren’t random. Instead, for natural flips, the chance of a coin landing in the same position as it started is about 51 percent. Heads facing up predicts heads; tails predicts tails. - From the interwebs part 2
A bunch of links – August 3, 2009
Scamorama
I mentioned the other day that I was going to pull the scambaiting posts off my main page. They were too long for anybody not interested in reading through pages and pages of my interactions with random Africans.
Well, today I did it – so from now on you can get your scam fix here – or subscribe to my scam posts here – for the time being these posts will still appear in my full RSS feed…
You’ll see a link to the Scambaiting category in the far right column, and the headings of the last five posts to appear there.
To whet your appetite – here’s a wordle of all of Dr Paul’s correspondence to me…
Teenage Mutant Siamese Turtles
I’ve seen a few pictures floating around the interwebs of this siamese turtle…
It looked like a photoshop job. So I googled it. And it’s not.
It’s rare, but thanks to the Internet – all too common.
A pet shop even purchased a siamese turtle a couple of years ago to keep on display – and there’s this YouTube video too…
Lucky nobody gave them a set of nun chucks and a bo staff – that would have been majorly problematic to synchronise.
A bunch of links – August 2, 2009
- For the frustrated musician
- Favorites from the Feeds #02
- 10 Words I Would Love To See Banned From Press Releases
- Top 10 Computer Hardware Fixes and Upgrades [Lifehacker Top 10]
- Convert PowerPoint to YouTube Video- PPT2YouTube
- NSFW: Trust me on the sunscreen (and the future of journalism)
- Dr. Valerie Tarico- Non-theists and Evangelicals: The IM Interview
- An Atheist Responds to a Christian’s Questions
“Children are hard wired to be credulous, to believe what they are told by adults who have authority over them and who nurture them. It’s the only efficient way for them to pick up all the information they need. They can’t afford to question and test when we tell them stoves burn you or cars squish you, so they’re built to trust us. Because they are vulnerable in this way, we have a particular responsibility not to exploit or abuse that trust. If you believe the exclusive salvific claims of Christian orthodoxy, then the end justifies the means. That, I think is at the heart of children’s ministries. But it’s only fair to admit that children are being offered metaphorical candy – and the ultimate goal of conversion isn’t always up front.”brbrFrom the Friendly Atheist’s review of the Internet Monk article also shared…
On death do us part
Two death post in one night. This isn’t some morbid fixation (though I am watching Bones as I write)…
I have appreciated elements of the Pyromaniacs writing. They call a spade a spade. And I appreciate that. I’ve never really engaged in commenting on their posts – even though there have been some I disagreed with.
Until this post – where one of the “Team Pyro” guys wrote a long post about the death penalty on his personal blog. I hope the comments around this site never reach the sycophantic levels of rabid agreement that go on over there…
Now, I’m not against the death penalty. I’ve argued for it on previous occasions. But I think we should be encouraging a government that is careful, considerate and merciful. I agree that the law needs to pursue justice – and that that looks like retribution, rather than rehabilitation. But this post doesn’t hit that balance.
It also falls into the trap, in my opinion, of equating America with God’s kingdom.
Ben, from bathgates.net, led the way into the fray and I followed to see what had happened in his wake. It’s not really pretty. But feel free to join the fun.
After this experience, and having read through thoughtful analysis of the “ministry” of the Pyromaniacs on Ben’s blog, I’m much less interested in what the Pyros have to say about anything.
Pacman Punk’d
I haven’t really been excited about the whole “steampunk” thing. Attaching brass and copper plating to current technology to make it look like you’re from some Back to the Future prequel isn’t that cool… unless you’ve built a pacman arcade game out of cogs and levers…
Now, that’s cool.
Science hurts
Mythbusters has a lot to answer for. They really should append “don’t try this at home” to anything to do with soft drink and mentos.
From bits and pieces…
Pop tart
Oh Pepsi, you’re so cheap. You’ve always tried so hard to impress us. But you’re a floozy. We can see right through you… you and your cheap tricks…
Here’s a diagramatic representation of the evolution of two popular cola’s logos over their history…
Death becomes you
I probably don’t write enough about death. Mostly because it’s one of those topics you don’t talk about in polite company.
But I can’t let these advances in post mortem technology go by without comment.
Finding the right, dignified, treatment for your loved ones is an important choice…
Firstly, you could turn your loved one’s ashes into a rather smart casual diamond… from LifeGem. Here’s a testimonial…
“Dear Mr. VandenBiesen,
Thank you, Thank you, Thank you. The Archie Life Gem is so beautiful. I received it on Wednesday last week, had it mounted into a ring the same day, and have been wearing it ever since. The color is so amazing.(so is the size-Thank you) I am thrilled. What a wonderful service your company performs. Thank you for making my heart smile again.
Angie McKinnon”
If that’s not your thing, you could always choose to keep your loved one’s ashes in a purpose built urn – reproduced in the image of the recently departed. From PersonalUrns.
Doctored emails
I know I said I was going to stop putting my conversations with Dr Paul on the main page. They’re getting too long.
But I have an excuse – there’s this cool new “text to video” platform – xtranormal – that is worth mentioning all by itself. The fact that I’ve used it to animate our current email conversations is neither here nor there… the German accent I gave him makes him just as hard to understand as he is in real life. I’ve updated the video to give him a nice clear British accent…
Dialogue with Atheists
I love my atheist friends. Not only do they brighten up my work days with interesting emails, the also get me thinking quite a bit about what we do right and wrong as Christians.
The Internet Monk has entered into his own little dialogue with an atheist – it’s interesting reading.
That old “morality” chestnut comes up. One of the things atheists seem to find profoundly annoying (apart from being generalised and slandered as a bunch, and references to Hitler) is the idea that you can’t be a moral person without God.
This is a communication breakdown. When I say “you can’t be good without God” it’s because I believe in God, believe humanity to be totally and naturally sinful, and believe that God graciously allows sinful people to act morally. Other people mean something different – they mean that you can’t be moral without “believing” in God. They’re different. And I think we need to be careful to express the difference in meaning. Non-theists are capable of moral behaviour. Theists believe that’s because God lets them, atheists don’t feel that compulsion because they don’t believe God is there to do it.
The internetmonk article also brings up the question of indoctrinating children and whether or not this constitutes “child abuse” – which it can’t possibly, if God is there. And I believe he is.
Butter Chicken
I’ve been a bit inspired by my mum’s cooking blog (that doesn’t get updated very often) to put some of my recipes online occasionally.
It saves trying to write them down in a book somewhere to keep track of them.
Today’s recipe is for Butter Chicken – my Butter Chicken Recipe is deceptive – it contains no butter.
Ingredients
- 2 tins of Tomato Soup
- 1 medium size tub of natural yoghurt
- 1 dollop of cream
- 2 tablespoons almond meal
- 2 tablespoons garam masala
- 1 tablespoon turmeric
- 2 tablespoons Hungarian sweet paprika
- 1 tablespoon cumin
- Curry powder (to taste – I used about a table spoon)
- 2 teaspoons of coriander
- Chicken (I used about 4 thighs – but this could probably be safely increased)
- Onions
Method
- Combine tomato soup and yoghurt in a pot on low heat, add almond meal and spices, stir.
- Brown the onions in a separate saucepan/wok, add the chicken (cut into chunks) on medium heat.
- Once the chicken has started to seal add the sauce.
- As the sauce starts to bubble add the cream, stir in. Cover.
- Simmer on medium heat with a lid for 30-40 minutes.
Serve with rice and naan/roti/flat bread of some description/pappadams.
Leave any suggested improvements in the comments…
Wind break
Three nights of Chamber Music done and dusted. I’m feeling as cultured as one of those Yakult yoghurt drinks…
I can tell my bassoons from my oboes… So I thought I’d share that culture with you.
Meet Bruce
This is Bruce. He is my new scambaiting alterego. I have decided that rather than boring all those not interested in my scambaiting exploits I will set up a category that is excluded from the main page and the RSS feed – but available from a nice, easy to find, link. Which I will add when I’ve set it up. For now, this is Bruce. He’s pleased to meet you. And to help you with any foreign banking dramas you might have…
