The furniture store next to this McDonald's across the street from my parents' house burnt down last night/early this morning. I tried to convince my dad to don a suit, put a hot dog on a stick and wander around asking: "Can you spare a dime for a brother just lost a furniture store?" The economic recovery is nigh!
Monday, July 27, 2009
Green Shoots
The furniture store next to this McDonald's across the street from my parents' house burnt down last night/early this morning. I tried to convince my dad to don a suit, put a hot dog on a stick and wander around asking: "Can you spare a dime for a brother just lost a furniture store?" The economic recovery is nigh!
Tuesday, March 24, 2009
Tianyulong
This is a picture of lagosuchus, a close relative of dinosaurs, not the newly discovered Tianyulong, an ornithschian dinosaur covered in protofeathers. (Click here for a picture of Tianyulong by Lida Xing.) I drew this picture years ago to illustrate the idea that dinosaurs are descended from fuzzy warm-blooded creatures with elevated metabolisms. 20 years ago it was a reasonable idea, but there was no evidence for (or against) fuzz on small dinosaurs. (Scaly skin was known for some large dinosaurs, but large mammals are also often naked.) Greg Paul's comments on the Dinosaur Mailing List add some important information missed by the news stories covering this new discovery.
Tuesday, March 17, 2009
Intelligent Designs
I have uploaded some pictures of the intelligent species along with theories about their origins - specifically their own theories in their own words. One theory based on religious tradition claims that all living things share a common ancestry while the other theory - based on information available to scientists in the Squawk setting - is skeptical about this claim and suggests that complex machines like animals were probably created by simpler machines.More pictures and controversy...
Tuesday, January 20, 2009
Obamanation Day
Conservative megachurch pastor Rick Warren provided the invocation for the inauguration of the 44th president of the United States. In his prayer, Warren testified that the Lord is One, pleaded for forgiveness when we fight each other, and closed the name of "the One who changed my life, Yeshua, Isa, Jesus [prounounced 'hay-sooss' as in Spanish], Jesus [prounounced 'jee-zuss' as in English]"
"Yeshua" is a hebrew name popularly believed to be equivalent to the name Jesus. (Actually the correct hebrew name for Jesus is probably closer to "Yehoshua" which is often translated into English as Joshua.) "Isa" is the Arabic name for Jesus. So with these names Warren specifically addresses Jews and Muslims.
By using the spanish pronunciation of Jesus (though the compound name "jesucristo" is probably more common when referring to Jesus Christ as opposed to other people named Jesus,) Warren is reaching out to latinos, perhaps especially Roman Catholics. About 70% of the US hispanic population identify themselves as Catholic.
John Williams provided a musical composition entitled "Air and Simple Gifts" performed by Yo-Yo Ma (cello), Itzhak Perlman (violin), Gabriela Montero (piano) and Anthony McGill (clarinet). This instrumental peice is based on religious themes: The main theme is easily recognized as Elder Joseph Brackett's Shaker dance song "Simple Gifts", but before this theme was introduced I'm pretty sure I also heard the tune "Old 100th" which is used in several hymns, but which I most associate with the single verse "Praise God, from Whom All Blessings Flow."
Obama, in his address explicitly mentioned the usual trinity of American religions: Christians, Muslims and Jews, adding Hindus and a slightly mumbled recognition of nonbelievers. It would be difficult to properly express the diversity of American religion in a 20 minute speech, but with so much press attention on the problems of Israel and the Muslim world, at least we can remember that people are not defined only by which side they are expected to take in each violent conflict.
"Yeshua" is a hebrew name popularly believed to be equivalent to the name Jesus. (Actually the correct hebrew name for Jesus is probably closer to "Yehoshua" which is often translated into English as Joshua.) "Isa" is the Arabic name for Jesus. So with these names Warren specifically addresses Jews and Muslims.
By using the spanish pronunciation of Jesus (though the compound name "jesucristo" is probably more common when referring to Jesus Christ as opposed to other people named Jesus,) Warren is reaching out to latinos, perhaps especially Roman Catholics. About 70% of the US hispanic population identify themselves as Catholic.
John Williams provided a musical composition entitled "Air and Simple Gifts" performed by Yo-Yo Ma (cello), Itzhak Perlman (violin), Gabriela Montero (piano) and Anthony McGill (clarinet). This instrumental peice is based on religious themes: The main theme is easily recognized as Elder Joseph Brackett's Shaker dance song "Simple Gifts", but before this theme was introduced I'm pretty sure I also heard the tune "Old 100th" which is used in several hymns, but which I most associate with the single verse "Praise God, from Whom All Blessings Flow."
Obama, in his address explicitly mentioned the usual trinity of American religions: Christians, Muslims and Jews, adding Hindus and a slightly mumbled recognition of nonbelievers. It would be difficult to properly express the diversity of American religion in a 20 minute speech, but with so much press attention on the problems of Israel and the Muslim world, at least we can remember that people are not defined only by which side they are expected to take in each violent conflict.
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