That's one good-looking bird
And yes, friend-who-will-go-unnamed, good-looking is hyphenated. :)
I'm a pastor and blogger from Connecticut who enjoys writing and keeping up on current events, tech issues, and theology.
Personal Site (a little more reflection):
http://www.NickUva.com
Daily Spurgeon devotional blog:
http://www.TheDailySpurgeon.com
My church:
http://www.HTchurch.com
Pray Connecticut blog:
http://www.PrayCT.org
Moving my personal blog off Posterous and onto a WordPress solution soon. Need some greater functionality than what Posterous can provide. I still intend to play in the Posterous garden...
More from the Price of Progress department. Click through to see the other pictures, many of which defy belief.
This has been an odd week. I suspect that my overtly Christian posting and end-times ruminations, however mild, are costing me friends.
Approaching fall rainstorms mean mandatory gutter checks here in the woods but Junior was kind enough not to toss the crud on my head. Still, it was close.
On a lighter note, today marks the beginning of the end of birthday season at the World Headquarters. Little sister and parents delivered funny phone calls to the twins. Now, post pizza, just about to settle in with the brood and watch a movie of dubious lasting significance, but I am a sucker for FX.
Few things are as alarming as the trend towards adopting Muslim sensibilities (read: theology) on freedom of speech. Jonathan Turley decries the Administration's acceptance of Muslim blasphemy concerns in USA Today. And with good reason.
While attracting surprisingly little attention, the Obama administration supported the effort of largely Muslim nations in the U.N. Human Rights Council to recognize exceptions to free speech for any "negative racial and religious stereotyping...."
Blasphemy prosecutions in the West appear to have increased after the riots by Muslims following the publication of cartoons disrespecting prophet Mohammed in Denmark in 2005. Rioters killed Christians, burned churches and called for the execution of the cartoonists. While Western countries publicly defended free speech, some quietly moved to deter those who'd cause further controversies through unpopular speech.
In Britain, it is a crime to "abuse" or "threaten" a religion under the Racial and Religious Hatred Act 2006. A 15-year-old boy was charged last year for holding up a sign outside a Scientology building declaring, "Scientology is not a religion, it is a dangerous cult. "In France, famed actress Brigitte Bardot was convicted for saying in 2006 that Muslims were ruining France in a letter to then-Interior Minister (and now President) Nicolas Sarkozy. This year, Ireland joined this self-destructive trend with a blasphemy law that calls for the prosecution of anyone who writes or utters views deemed "grossly abusive or insulting in relation to matters held sacred by any religion, thereby causing outrage among a substantial number of the adherents of that religion; and he or she intends, by the publication of the matter concerned, to cause such outrage."
Actually, lots of people are aware of this and talk about it but they are routinely derided as "Islamophobic."
Hat tip: Christopher Fountain.
Harvard author and professor with the really cool Scottish name Niall Ferguson talks about debt, the rise of China and the end of the American Empire here.
On first listen, some things grab you for their off-kilter novelty. Like the story of a company that has hired a bunch of “musicologists,” who sit at computers and listen to songs, one at a time, rating them element by element, separating out what sometimes comes to hundreds of data points for a three-minute tune. The company, an Internet radio service called Pandora, is convinced that by pouring this information through a computer into an algorithm, it can guide you, the listener, to music that you like. The premise is that your favorite songs can be stripped to parts and reverse-engineered.
I have a friend we call Pandora, but this isn't about her. It's a great NY Times story about the other Pandora. It's enjoyable on a couple of levels, including the way the Times writes when it's trying to explain newfangled geegaws to people. for example:
"The company, an Internet radio service called Pandora, is convinced that by pouring this information through a computer into an algorithm, it can guide you, the listener, to music that you like."
Do tell. Hearing that Tim Westergren comes off like the head of a fan club is also funny.
In any event, I'm glad that Pandora and other "Internet radio services" did not die a horrible death-by-copyright as was feared not long ago. Viva!
