Friday, December 30, 2011

Mark D. Roberts: Thoughtfully Christian Reflections on Jesus, the Church, and the World - Mark D. Roberts

http://blog.beliefnet.com/markdroberts/god-is-not-great-by-christopher-hitchens-a-response.html


---SPSmith

U.S. debt was a better investment than gold this year - The Washington Post

http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/ezra-klein/post/us-debt-was-a-better-investment-than-gold-this-year/2011/12/30/gIQA0vhdQP_blog.html


---SPSmith

Article: What is Scientism? : EvolutionBlog

Empirical facts (facts about reality) and mathematical facts are very different sorts of facts. Mathematical facts are pure abstractions. They tell us the logical consequences of a formal system. But our system of mathematics is not just an arbitrary formal system. We've adopted this particularly formal system because it's proven so useful in modelling reality. However a mathematical fact tells us nothing about reality except in conjunction with a mathematical model of reality. And those mathematical models must be based on empirical observation.

(Sent from Flipboard)


---SPSmith

Council for Secular Humanism

http://www.secularhumanism.org/index.php?section=fi&page=index


---SPSmith

TeacupTrail - Maps and Information for Hiking

http://www.sedonatrails.org/trail_map/1324244543/Teacup/


---SPSmith

Saturday, December 24, 2011

Irony

The definition of irony: Joseph Aloisius Ratzinger, the ex-nazi Pope,
decries superficial glitter of Xmas while wearing gold embroidery hat
http://www.nydailynews.com/news/world/pope-benedict-xvi-urges-faithful-superficial-glitter-christmas-find-true-meaning-article-1.996592

---SPSmith

Pope Laments Christmas Consumerism, Urges People To Look Beyond 'Superficial Glitter'

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/12/24/pope-laments-christmas-co_n_1169142.html

You've got to love the irony...

---SPSmith

Article: Remembering Christopher Hitchens - Lawrence Krauss - RDFRS


Remembering Christopher Hitchens - Lawrence Krauss - RDFRS
http://richarddawkins.net/articles/644326-remembering-christopher-hitchens

Just before leaving his company the last time I saw him, in one of those poetic accidents that makes life so unexpectedly enjoyable, I was reading a newspaper piece at his kitchen table about an emerging effort to ensure that young people at elite institutions preserve their Catholic upbringing during and after College. When describing the temptations to depart from piety, the author wrote: "Exposed to Nietzche, Hitchens, co-ed dorms and beer pong, such students are expected to stray."

I reflected on what a remarkable tribute to the man this simple sentence represented. To be so overpowering in one's cultural impact that one can be mentioned without explanation is one thing, but to be sandwiched between Nietzche and beer pong is an honor that very few of us can so hope to deservedly achieve.


(Sent from Flipboard)


---SPSmith

Friday, December 23, 2011

USA TODAY: Fact Check: Many attacks on Gingrich are true

Check out this article that I saw in USA TODAY's iPad application.

Fact Check: Many attacks on Gingrich are true
http://usat.ly/rUfgbp

To view the story, click the link or paste it into your browser.

To learn more about USA TODAY for iPad and download, visit:
http://usatoday.com/ipad/


---SPSmith

Article: Does Airport Security Really Make Us Safer? | Culture | Vanity Fair


Does Airport Security Really Make Us Safer? | Culture | Vanity Fair
http://www.vanityfair.com/culture/features/2011/12/tsa-insanity-201112

It's infuriating," he said, waving my fraudulent boarding pass to indicate the mass of waiting passengers, the humming X-ray machines, the piles of unloaded computers and cell phones on the conveyor belts, the uniformed T.S.A. officers instructing people to remove their shoes and take loose change from their pockets. "We're spending billions upon billions of dollars doing this—and it is almost entirely pointless. Not only is it not done right, but even if it was done right it would be the wrong thing to do."


---SPSmith

Thursday, December 22, 2011

How atheists celebrate Dec. 25 – USATODAY.com

http://www.usatoday.com/news/religion/story/2011-12-16/atheist-christmas-newton/52013908/1

"25 December is the birthday of one of the truly great men ever to
walk the earth," Dawkins wrote. "His achievements might justly be
celebrated wherever his truths hold sway. And that means from one end
of the universe to the other. Happy Newton Day!"

---SPSmith

Article: The Cambrian Conundrum: Fossils vs Genes



---SPSmith

Wednesday, December 21, 2011

On Christopher Hitchens’ Jewishness – Tablet Magazine

Hitch-22 has at its heart almost something of a mystery plot, and it goes like this: How can Hitchens absolutely believe in the wrongness of absolute beliefs—chiefly theism and totalitarianism? How does he square that circle? Like any good mystery, a clue is under the reader's nose all along (the title), and the answer is not revealed until the final page. There, Hitchens explains:

It's quite a task to combat the absolutists and the relativists at the same time: to maintain that there is no totalitarian solution while also insisting that, yes, we on our side also have unalterable convictions and are willing to fight for them. After various past allegiances, I have come to believe that Karl Marx was rightest of all when he recommended continual doubt and self-criticism. … To be an unbeliever is not to be merely "open-minded." It is, rather, a decisive admission of uncertainty that is dialectically connected to the repudiation of the totalitarian principle, in the mind as well as in politics. But that's my Hitch-22.

The dialectic—the ability of opposites to feed off of each other and eventually produce a synthesis that assimilates the best aspects of both into an overpowering Truth—is the answer to the riddle of Hitchens' career, particularly of what many saw as his rightward turn later in life. If he did not quite add up, perhaps that is because Marx is not "right" but rather "rightest," and Hitchens achieved not "synthesis" but rather "Hitch-22," his personal variation on Joseph Heller's famed construct wherein two mutually exclusive premises are bound to co-exist. Belief in unbelief, certainty in uncertainty: These are the Scylla and Charybdis through which Hitchens skillfully steered his ship.


---SPSmith

Intel's First Android Smartphone Plays Blu-ray Quality Video Without Breaking a Sweat

http://gizmodo.com/5869995/this-is-the-first-intel+powered-smartphone


---SPSmith

Tuesday, December 20, 2011

Article: 7 Free eBooks Neil deGrasse Tyson Thinks Every Intelligent Person Should Read


7 Free eBooks Neil deGrasse Tyson Thinks Every Intelligent Person Should Read
http://www.mediabistro.com/galleycat/neil-degrasse-tyson-lists-books-every-intelligent-person-on-earth-should-read_b44212

(Sent from Flipboard)


---SPSmith

Egyptian Ideas of the Future Life: Chapter VI: The Judgment of the Dead


Introduction to Chapter CXXV., mentions less than forty sins. Incidentally we may notice that the forty-two gods are subservient to Osiris, and that they only occupy a subordinate position in the Hall of Judgment, for it is the result of the weighing of the heart of the deceased in the balance that decides his future. Before passing to the description of the Hall of Judgment where the balance is set, it is necessary to give a rendering of the Negative Confession which, presumably, the deceased recites before his heart is weighed in the balance; it is made from the Papyrus of Nu. 1

1. "Hail Usekh-nemtet (i.e., Long of strides), who comest forth from Annu (Heliopolis), I have not done iniquity.

2. "Hail Hept-seshet (i.e., Embraced by flame), who comest forth from Kher-âba, 2 I have not robbed with violence.

3. "Hail Fenti (i.e., Nose), who comest forth from Khemennu (Hermopolis), I have not done violence to any man.

4. "Hail Âm-khaibitu (i.e., Eater of shades), who comest forth from the Qereret (i.e., the cavern where the Nile rises), I have not committed theft.

5. "Hail Neha-hra (i.e., Stinking face), who comest forth from Restau, I have slain neither man nor woman.

6. "Hail Rereti (i.e., Double Lion-god), who comest forth from heaven, I have not made light the bushel.

p. 157

7. "Hail Maata-f-em-seshet (i.e., Fiery eyes), who comest forth from Sekhem (Letopolis), I have not acted deceitfully.

8. "Hail Neba (i.e., Flame), who comest forth and retreatest, I have not purloined the things which belong unto God.

9. "Hail Set-qesu (i.e., Crusher of bones), who comest forth from Suten-henen (Heracleopolis), I have not uttered falsehood.

10. "Hail Khemi (i.e., Overthrower), who comest forth from Shetait (i.e., the hidden place), I have not carried off goods by force.

11. "Hail Uatch-nesert (i.e., Vigorous of Flame), who comest forth from Het-ka-Ptah. (Memphis), I have not uttered vile (or evil) words.

12. "Hail Hra-f-ha-f (i.e., He whose face is behind him), who comest forth from the cavern and the deep, I have not carried off food by force.

13. "Hail Qerti (i.e., the double Nile source), who comest forth from the Underworld, I have not acted deceitfully.

14. "Hail Ta-ret (i.e., Fiery-foot), who comest forth out of the darkness, I have not eaten my heart (i.e. lost my temper and become angry).

15. "Hail Hetch-abehu (i.e., Shining teeth), who comest forth from Ta-she (i.e., the Fayyûm), I have invaded no [man's land].

16. "Hail, Âm-senef (i.e., Eater of blood), who comest

p. 158

forth from the house of the block, I have not slaughtered animals which are the possessions of God.

17. "Hail Âm-besek (i.e., Eater of entrails), who comest forth from Mâbet, I have not laid waste the lands which have been ploughed.

18. "Hail Neb-Maât (i.e., Lord of Maât), who comest forth from the city of the two Maâti, I have not pried into matters to make mischief.

19. "Hail Thenemi (i.e., Retreater), who comest forth from Bast (i.e., Bubastis), I have not set my mouth in motion against any man.

20. "Hail Anti, who comest forth from Annu (Heliopolis), I have not given way to wrath without due cause.

21. "Hail Tututef, who comest forth from the nome of Ati, I have not committed fornication, and I have not committed sodomy.

22. "Hail Uamemti, who comest forth from the house of slaughter, I have not polluted myself.

23. "Hail Maa-ant-f (i.e., Seer of what is brought to him), who comest forth from the house of the god Amsu, I have not lain with the wife of a man.

24. "Hail Her-seru, who comest forth from Nehatu, I have not made any man to be afraid.

25. "Hail Neb-Sekhem, who comest forth from the Lake of Kaui, I have not made my speech to burn with anger. 1

p. 159

26. "Hail Seshet-kheru (i.e., Orderer of speech), who comest forth from Urit, I have not made myself deaf unto the words of right and truth.

27. "Hail Nekhen (i.e., Babe), who comest forth from the Lake of Heqât, I have not made another person to weep.

28. "Hail Kenemti, who comest forth from Kenemet, I have not uttered blasphemies.

29. "Hail An-hetep-f (i.e., Bringer of his offering), who comest forth from Sau, I have not acted with violence.

30. "Hail Ser-kheru (i.e., Disposer of Speech), who comest forth from Unsi, I have not hastened my heart. 1

31. "Hail Neb-hrau (i.e., Lord of Faces), who comest forth from Netchefet, I have not pierced (?) my skin (?) and I have not taken vengeance on the god.

32. "Hail Serekhi, who comest forth from Uthent, I have not multiplied my speech beyond what should be said.

33. "Hail Neb-âbui (i.e., Lord of horns), who comest forth from Sauti, I have not committed fraud, [and I have not] looked upon evil.

34. "Hail Nefer-Tem, who comest forth from Ptah-het-ka (Memphis), I have never uttered curses against the king.

35. "Hail Tem-sep, who comest forth from Tattu, I have not fouled running water.

p. 160

36. "Hail Ari-em-ab-f, Who comest forth from Tebti, I have not exalted my speech.

37. "Hail Ahi, who comest forth from Nu, I have not uttered curses against God.

38. "Hail Uatch-rekhit [who comest forth from his shrine (?)], I have not behaved with insolence.

39. "Hail Neheb-nefert, who comest forth from his temple, I have not made distinctions. 1

40. "Hail Neheb-kau, who comest forth from thy cavern, I have not increased my wealth except by means of such things as are mine own possessions.

41. "Hail Tcheser-tep, who comest forth from thy shrine, I have not uttered curses against that which belongeth to God and is with me.

42. "Hail An-â-f (i.e., Bringer of his arm), [who comest forth from Aukert], I have not thought scorn of the god of the city."


---SPSmith

Jon Bon Jovi has fun with Twitter’s fake reports of his death | Technology News Blog - Yahoo! News

http://news.yahoo.com/blogs/technology-blog/jon-bon-jovi-fun-twitter-fake-reports-death-155218971.html

Heaven looks a lot like New Jersey.

---SPSmith

Egyptian Hell: Visions, Tours and Descriptions of the Infernal Otherworld from Hell-on-Line.org PDF eBook by Eileen Gardiner | eBookMall.com

http://www.ebookmall.com/ebook/egyptian-hell-visions-tours-and-descriptions-of-the-infernal-otherworld-from-hell-on-line-org/italica-press-inc/pdf-drm-download


---SPSmith

Monday, December 19, 2011

The Story of the Bible, by Frederic G. Kenyon

http://www.bible-researcher.com/kenyon/sotb3.html

If therefore we look back over the earliest generations of
Christianity, from the time of our Lord to the date (somewhere about
A.D. 325) when Christianity became the accepted religion of the Roman
Empire, we see first of all a period of some forty years when the
narrative of our Lord's life and teaching circulated orally, in the
preaching of His disciples, or in written records which have not come
down to us; and when St. Paul was writing his letters to various
Christian churches which he and his companions had founded. Then,
about the years 65 to 75, we have the composition of what are known as
the three Synoptic Gospels, Mark, Luke and Matthew, Mark's being the
earliest, and Matthew and Luke using him and also other narratives and
collections of sayings. The Book of Acts belongs to the same period,
being the second part of Luke's history. Revelation is now generally
assigned to the time of the persecution of Domitian, about A.D. 95;
and St. John's Gospel also must be late in the century. Then we have a
period of rather over two hundred years, when the various books
circulated, either singly in separate papyrus rolls or combined into
small groups in papyrus codi
---SPSmith

Death Quotes - Literary Quotes About Death and Practically Everything Else


For those who believe in God, most of the big questions are answered. But for those of us who can't readily accept the God formula, the big answers don't remain stone-written. We adjust to new conditions and discoveries. We are pliable. Love need not be a command or faith a dictum. I am my own God. We are here to unlearn the teachings of the church, state, and our educational system. We are here to drink beer. We are here to kill war. We are here to laugh at the odds and live our lives so well that Death will tremble to take us.

Charles Bukowski, In Religion


---SPSmith

Article: What Christians Owe Hitch





---SPSmith

USA TODAY: Editorial: What Hitchens and Tebow shared

Check out this article that I saw in USA TODAY's iPad application.

Editorial: What Hitchens and Tebow shared
http://usat.ly/vDKKZK

To view the story, click the link or paste it into your browser.

To learn more about USA TODAY for iPad and download, visit:
http://usatoday.com/ipad/


---SPSmith

Sunday, December 18, 2011

Article: Good Minus God



---SPSmith

Why men like Larry Craig continue to court danger in public places. - Slate Magazine

http://www.slate.com/articles/news_and_politics/fighting_words/2007/09/so_many_mens_rooms_so_little_time.html?onswipe_redirect=no

Next time you hear some particularly moralizing speech, set your
watch. You won't have to wait long before the man who made it is
found, crouched awkwardly yet ecstatically while the cistern drips and
the roar of the flush maddens him like wine.

---SPSmith

Laurence Hope's Poem: Deserted Gipsy's Song: Hillside Camp

http://www.readbookonline.net/readOnLine/34384/

Beauty maddens the soul like Wine

Compare to hitch's line


---SPSmith

The Blog : Hitch : Sam Harris

http://www.samharris.org/blog/item/hitch/

One of the joys of living in a world filled with stupidity and
hypocrisy was to see Hitch respond. That pleasure is now denied us.

---SPSmith

Friday, December 16, 2011

The 20 Best Christopher Hitchens Quotes | Unreasonable Faith

http://www.patheos.com/blogs/unreasonablefaith/2011/12/the-20-best-christopher-hitchens-quotes/


---SPSmith

Drink is the feast of reason and the flow of soul.


 Alexander Pope quotes
 Drink is the feast of reason and the flow of soul. 
 Alexander Pope quotes 


---SPSmith

New Statesman - Christopher Hitchens, 1949-2011

http://www.newstatesman.com/blogs/the-staggers/2011/12/hitchens-cancer-war-religion

To a Christian who insisted that God had given him "throat" cancer in
order to punish the "one part of his body he used for blasphemy", he
replied: "My so-far uncancerous throat . . . is not at all the only
organ with which I have blasphemed." And to those who insultingly
suggested that he should embrace religion, Hitchens's flawless
riposte: "Suppose there were groups of secularists at hospitals who
went round the terminally ill and urged them to adopt atheism: 'Don't
be a mug all your life. Make your last days the best ones.' People
might suppose this was in poor taste."

---SPSmith

Christopher Hitchens has died: Fighter, doubter, provocateur - latimes.com

http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/nationnow/2011/12/christopher-hitchens-death-reaction.html


---SPSmith

Monday, December 12, 2011

1112.1645v1

http://arxiv.org/pdf/1112.1645v1


---SPSmith

Thai Floodwaters Sink Intel Chip Orders | Wired Enterprise | Wired.com


The hard disk drive shortage has boosted prices for solid-state drives (SSDs), but hasn't increased orders for Intel's SSD products. "So far we haven't seen a big uptick in demand for SSDs," said Smith. But the company expects demand to rise, especially for SSDs for the new thin, lightweight ultrabook laptop computers, he said.

---SPSmith

Sunday, December 11, 2011

Tuesday, December 06, 2011

Dreams Los Cabos Suites Golf Resort & Spa: Unlimited Luxury Defined

http://www.dreamsresorts.com/drelc/


---SPSmith

The Charitable Atheist | Politics & Media | SPLICETODAY.com

http://www.splicetoday.com/politics-and-media/the-charitable-atheist


---SPSmith

Article: A Club of Liars, Demagogues, and Fools—By Scott Horton (Harper's Magazine)


A Club of Liars, Demagogues, and Fools—By Scott Horton (Harper's Magazine)
http://www.harpers.org/archive/2011/11/hbc-90008328


"Africa is a country. The Taliban rule in Libya. Muslims are terrorists. Immigrants are mostly criminals, Occupy Wall Street protesters are always dirty. And women who claim to have been sexually molested should kindly keep quiet."

Welcome to the wonderful world of the Republican Party. Or rather: to the distorted world of its presidential campaign. For months it has coiled through the country like a traveling circus, from debate to debate, from scandal to scandal, contesting the mightiest office in the world — and nothing is ever too unfathomable for them… These eight presidential wannabes are happy enough not only to demolish their own reputations but also that of their party, the once worthy party of Abraham Lincoln. They are also ruining the reputation of the United States.

They lie, deceive, scuffle and speak every manner of idiocy. And they expose a political, economic, geographic and historical ignorance compared to which George W. Bush sounds like a scholar. Even the party's boosters are horrified by the spectacle…

---SPSmith

Article: Astonishing accident involving eight Ferraris 'world's most expensive car crash' - Telegraph


Astonishing accident involving eight Ferraris 'world's most expensive car crash' - Telegraph
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/motoring/news/8934718/Astonishing-accident-involving-eight-Ferraris-worlds-most-expensive-car-crash.html
...
 and a Toyota Prius


---SPSmith

Thursday, December 01, 2011

ShowDocument.aspx

http://www.sedonaaz.gov/Sedonacms/Modules/ShowDocument.aspx?documentid=5119


---SPSmith

Article: topbrewerfeatures - Scanomat





---SPSmith

Article: Final Indicator, if You Needed One, of a Looming China Crash



---SPSmith

Four reasons why the quantum vacuum may explain dark matter

http://www.physorg.com/news/2011-11-quantum-vacuum-dark.html


---SPSmith

Andy Stern: China's Superior Economic Model - WSJ.com

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052970204630904577056490023451980.html

Andy Grove, the founder and chairman of Intel, provocatively wrote in
Businessweek last year that, "Our fundamental economic beliefs, which
we have elevated from a conviction based on observation to an
unquestioned truism, is that the free market is the best of all
economic systems—the freer the better. Our generation has seen the
decisive victory of free-market principles over planned economies. So
we stick with this belief largely oblivious to emerging evidence that
while free markets beat planned economies, there may be room for a
modification that is even better."

---SPSmith

Loading Ramps, Hauling, Transport, & Skateboard Ramp Superstore - Discount Ramps.com

http://www.discountramps.com/


---SPSmith

How to password protect your PDF documents for free? - Review Of Web : Review Of Web

http://reviewofweb.com/how-to/password-protect-pdf-documents-free/


---SPSmith