Merry Christmas. Let us celebrate the birth of the child that god has given us so he can be slaughtered as a (semi)human sacrifice to propitiate god so that god can lift the punishment for the original sin—the punishment we had and deserved for stealing an apple when reasonably ordered not to. God loves you.
Stay tuned. Human-ish sacrifice scheduled for an upcoming Good Friday.
By the By, where is the War on Christmas this year? Has it just not started yet? I kind of miss it. It just doesn’t seem like Christmas without the War on Christmas.
Centre-embedded? ‘Language Instinct’ p210 “Bulldogs Bulldogs Bulldogs Fight Fight Fight” is triply centre embedded. Apparently. As it’s in neither index nor glossary, it’s hard to tell.
Curious Observer: If you read the whole article, it is pretty clear that, if Christians are not already a minority in the UK, they are moving in that direction quite rapidly.
Personally, I would rather celebrate the winter solstice (20 or 21 December), as it actually means something real.
Ugh… I’m commenting way too much for my handle. Oh well. Kinda like my speeling mistakes. Oh well.
From the article:
“””
The May 2019 Special Eurobarometer found that 50% were Christians (14% Protestants, 13% Catholics, 7% Orthodox and 16% other Christians), 37% non-religious (9% atheists, 28% ‘nonbelievers and agnostics’),
“””
Also, “The wording of the question affects the outcome of polls” with the result being,
“””
the question “Which religion do you yourself belong to?” with a response of 64% stating “Christian” and 26% stating “none”. In the same survey, 63% claimed they are not religious with just 33% claiming they are
“””
So yeah, the UK is haemorrhaging christians, but even if they become an /actual/ minority (<50%), they have a *long* way to go before they are not the largest minority. However, the "religion not stated," or "atheist/agnostic" slate is the fastest growing group(s) so it's not like the christians are going to have to fear persecution.
Eddie Be: thanks for the linguistic note 🙂
Forteatwo: I think the War has been put on hold until we can finish the War on Democracy here in the U.S. (insert snarky grin)
MattR:
Ah. Godel, Escher, Bach. By Douglas Hofstadter. WHAT a book!
Although, I once saw it described as “The Pulitzer Prize book that everybody wanted. 10% did get it. 10% of those got past the first chapter, of whom 10% got halfway true. Again 10% finished it, then 10 % say they understood most of it.”
I reread it about every decade, am currently on my 4th turn. And enjoying it again.
Hofstadter really was one of a kind. I learned to loved his columns in Scientific American in my student days way back when.
I got about halfway through GEB and lost interest — which is unusual for me, because I’m a completist, and always try to finish books that I start. The last time I remember just giving up on a highly respected and “difficult” book was James Joyce’s Ulysses, which disabused me of any notion that I was smart enough to read modernist literature for casual enjoyment.
Anyway, GEB just came across as meandering speculation and wordplay. It was never clear to me exactly what Hofstadter was trying to say, and there are so many other interesting books to read that I’ve never been tempted to try again. But since you’re on your fourth read, I guess you feel that it still holds up? Do you feel it’s telling you anything useful about the world, helping you understand it better, or are you just rereading it for pleasure? (I reread The Lord of the Rings after the movies came out, and I felt it held up pretty well).
JB. Insert the name of nearly every book on my compulsary reading list for the two years I was at sixth form college. When I arrived at the college a new principle had been appointed. She was an archetype humanities graduate. Man hating, boot and dungarees wearing diesel dyke. She mandated that all science only students (physics,chemistry,maths) like me had to do english lit for three hours per week….I feckin hated it and I’m sure our tutor miss beaman hated having to teach us long haired metalhead scientists….
jb:
I really LOVE the way DH made mathematics interesting; and the convolutions he used to explain plain-world concepts as mathematical.
And he finally was able make me able to at least follow most of Goedel’s work.
(and yes, the name is Goedel, not Godel. German oe is a diphtong sound of which I have no English example. Its normal spelling is the single letter o-Umlaut; which I regrettably do no know how to enter into this textbox.
M27:
Like you, I consider myself a plain beta, maybe a bit nerdy.
But (I guess) unlike you, I am fond of literature also.
For Highschool graduation, we had some obligatory reads plus a minimum number of extra. My Dutch, English, French and German teachers were not really pleased with MY lists. All of them had bundles specified as one title, which should have forced them to read a lot. They circumvented by not asking anything out of those, but later they convened to check I really DID read all of them.
My response was that it had been difficult to leave so much out.
^ you clearly never had to read D.H.Lawrence, Hardy, any Bronte or heaps of steaming romantic horseshit…mind you I bet I would be fond of dickens…had I been invited to any…
Ha, I never noticed Character Map, which I really should have be aware of. Unless you have the numeric codes right at your fingertips, Character Map is better than the keyboard method. It also let’s you select fonts that have arbitrary Unicode characters like ? and ?, and unlike the keyboard trick it works with MS Word (although Word has it’s own Insert –> Symbols method for inserting arbitrary characters).
Hofstadter came to Concordia University in Montreal, where I attended, and gave a talk. It was 1983 (I think). The talk was very well attended, probably by about 300 people. He autographed my copy of GEB, which now is falling apart.
The talk he gave was the most boring monotonous lecture I’ve ever been to. He read from notes in a monotone, making corrections to the notes as he went. I guess those were notes for his next book, or something.
Where I work, some young people are still reading that book. Great book, terrible lecturer.
Today, 21 December, is the day of the Winter Solstice (10:02 GMT), the shortest day, the longest night, Midwinter Day, the turn of the year, whatever. I’m sure you will all agree with me in hoping that the coming year will be better than the year which has just come to an end. (Or is about to end in ten days time, if you insist on the Gregorian Calendar!)
I wish all of you, and of course Author in particular, everything you would wish for yourselves, in the coming year. And I look forward to sharing another year of funny cartoons, erudite remarks, wise comments, obscure references, pertinent quotes, silly jokes, rude insults, almost poetic verse, and incomprehensible gibberish.
Here’s raising a glass of single malt Scotch to you all.
Just won that hoffstadter book on ebay…probably won’t arrive in time fir chrimbo…Raising a glass of triple hopped beer to you all and as one of my heroes (Roine Stolt) wrote….”Love is the only answer…Love sets you free”….
Speaking of Saturnalia, I did see Saturn & Jupiter close together just after sunset last night. It is expected to be cloudy & snowing this evening, so that was my opportunity to see the conjunction.
I’m glad the summer solstice was a cold and rainy one on this part of the continent. The west can have their hot and dry weather. Though it would appear that we’ll be getting similar conditions on the holiday weekend.
Though given the news this morning, better here I guess than the UK, the US, Sydney, etc.
BTW, the Scottish (ie Gaelic) toast is “Slàinte Mhath!”, pronounced similar to “Slanjy Vah!”. Exact correct pronunciation available on You Tube (Google it). In Irish Gaelic, it is the same spelling, slightly different pronunciation. As in many other languages, it simply means “Good Health!”.
For most present-day Scots, that is about the limit of their knowledge of Gaelic.
* Of course, I would say the same of any single malt Scotch whisky! I must also admit Irish whiskeys are pretty good too.
Jesus & Mo (the characters) are absurd, blinkered, and oddly very sweet. J&M (the cartoon) is brilliant: sharp, delicious, irresistible. Salman Rushdie
Jesus and Mo cartoons are wonderfully funny and true. Richard Dawkins
Jesus and Mo make the world a better place, bless their little hearts. Ophelia Benson
In a world defined by outrage and offence and liberal spinelessness, Jesus and Mo is a treasure, whose value we should never fail to recognize. Read them. Laugh. And think. Kenan Malik
The brilliant, celebrated, freaking hilarious atheist comic strip ... Greta Christina
...rays of sanity in a befuddled world. Keri Hulme
The liveliest depictions of Muhammad currently available... Malise Ruthven
J & Mo is the funniest and most consistently thought-provoking cartoon strip on the Net. In a saner world, it would run in a major newspaper. Nelson Jones, Heresy Corner
Consistently amusing, frequently thought-provoking and often heart-warming. New Humanist
Jesus & Mo is one of the most wonderful things on the internet.. JT Eberhard
Wittily captures much of the absurdity of religious apologetics. Mano Singham
I love jesusandmo.net cartoons - witty and sharp! Katha Pollitt
Often hilarious, frequently wry, these cartoons do what all the best cartoons do: they tell the truth through humour. Terry Sanderson, NSS President
...a wonderfully acid British cartoonist... Nick Cohen
I love the scrappy mockery of Jesus and Mo. Freedom of speech
includes the freedom to mock any person, any thing, any activity, and
any belief -- and J&M stands up for this unflinchingly Richard Stallman
...empowering, important and deeply progressive, not to mention hilarious... Council of Ex-Muslims
January 16, 2009
Seasons Greetings, folks! Happy Holidays!
“Well I think it’s funny.”
We have a saying: “On n’est jamais si bien servi que par soi-même.”
I think it’s appropriate here. ?
Merry Christmas. Let us celebrate the birth of the child that god has given us so he can be slaughtered as a (semi)human sacrifice to propitiate god so that god can lift the punishment for the original sin—the punishment we had and deserved for stealing an apple when reasonably ordered not to. God loves you.
Stay tuned. Human-ish sacrifice scheduled for an upcoming Good Friday.
The sentence structure is called recursion.
For a non-religious version (except for the Vicar being present), go here:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=37ficiqoE6U
I for one am not afraid of saying Merry Christmas.
I just don’t want to say it because fuck Christmas and fuck being merry.
“Bah, humbug!” is my go to.
By the By, where is the War on Christmas this year? Has it just not started yet? I kind of miss it. It just doesn’t seem like Christmas without the War on Christmas.
After checking the call back, it seemed worth pointing out that ‘christians’ aren’t even a minority in the uk. Source:
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Religion_in_the_United_Kingdom
Caveat: that lumps catholics and others all in together. ymmv as to the truth of that assertion.
The persecuted christmas crowd are probably busy attending rallies to celebrate the victory of the one who actually lost… like 60+ times now.
I think it’s funny, too. Have a merry Christmas, with or without gods.
Score another one for the barmaid…and she doesn’t even appear in this strip. 🙂
Centre-embedded? ‘Language Instinct’ p210 “Bulldogs Bulldogs Bulldogs Fight Fight Fight” is triply centre embedded. Apparently. As it’s in neither index nor glossary, it’s hard to tell.
Curious Observer: If you read the whole article, it is pretty clear that, if Christians are not already a minority in the UK, they are moving in that direction quite rapidly.
Personally, I would rather celebrate the winter solstice (20 or 21 December), as it actually means something real.
Merry Christmas! Now let’s chop down a tree and eat a bird.
Donn,
I always say “HA! BUMBUG!!”
I often refer to holidays of any sort as arbitrary demarcations of time.
Happy arbitrary demarcation of time to all of you. May the bluebird of happiness make a nest in your eaves, and may all your dreams come true.
Ugh… I’m commenting way too much for my handle. Oh well. Kinda like my speeling mistakes. Oh well.
From the article:
“””
The May 2019 Special Eurobarometer found that 50% were Christians (14% Protestants, 13% Catholics, 7% Orthodox and 16% other Christians), 37% non-religious (9% atheists, 28% ‘nonbelievers and agnostics’),
“””
Also, “The wording of the question affects the outcome of polls” with the result being,
“””
the question “Which religion do you yourself belong to?” with a response of 64% stating “Christian” and 26% stating “none”. In the same survey, 63% claimed they are not religious with just 33% claiming they are
“””
So yeah, the UK is haemorrhaging christians, but even if they become an /actual/ minority (<50%), they have a *long* way to go before they are not the largest minority. However, the "religion not stated," or "atheist/agnostic" slate is the fastest growing group(s) so it's not like the christians are going to have to fear persecution.
Eddie Be: thanks for the linguistic note 🙂
Forteatwo: I think the War has been put on hold until we can finish the War on Democracy here in the U.S. (insert snarky grin)
Me really like it. Was it Bach, Escher, Godel? No? Godel, Escher, Bach it was. It like, really me.
MattR:
Ah. Godel, Escher, Bach. By Douglas Hofstadter. WHAT a book!
Although, I once saw it described as “The Pulitzer Prize book that everybody wanted. 10% did get it. 10% of those got past the first chapter, of whom 10% got halfway true. Again 10% finished it, then 10 % say they understood most of it.”
I reread it about every decade, am currently on my 4th turn. And enjoying it again.
Hofstadter really was one of a kind. I learned to loved his columns in Scientific American in my student days way back when.
I got about halfway through GEB and lost interest — which is unusual for me, because I’m a completist, and always try to finish books that I start. The last time I remember just giving up on a highly respected and “difficult” book was James Joyce’s Ulysses, which disabused me of any notion that I was smart enough to read modernist literature for casual enjoyment.
Anyway, GEB just came across as meandering speculation and wordplay. It was never clear to me exactly what Hofstadter was trying to say, and there are so many other interesting books to read that I’ve never been tempted to try again. But since you’re on your fourth read, I guess you feel that it still holds up? Do you feel it’s telling you anything useful about the world, helping you understand it better, or are you just rereading it for pleasure? (I reread The Lord of the Rings after the movies came out, and I felt it held up pretty well).
JB. Insert the name of nearly every book on my compulsary reading list for the two years I was at sixth form college. When I arrived at the college a new principle had been appointed. She was an archetype humanities graduate. Man hating, boot and dungarees wearing diesel dyke. She mandated that all science only students (physics,chemistry,maths) like me had to do english lit for three hours per week….I feckin hated it and I’m sure our tutor miss beaman hated having to teach us long haired metalhead scientists….
jb:
I really LOVE the way DH made mathematics interesting; and the convolutions he used to explain plain-world concepts as mathematical.
And he finally was able make me able to at least follow most of Goedel’s work.
(and yes, the name is Goedel, not Godel. German oe is a diphtong sound of which I have no English example. Its normal spelling is the single letter o-Umlaut; which I regrettably do no know how to enter into this textbox.
M27:
Like you, I consider myself a plain beta, maybe a bit nerdy.
But (I guess) unlike you, I am fond of literature also.
For Highschool graduation, we had some obligatory reads plus a minimum number of extra. My Dutch, English, French and German teachers were not really pleased with MY lists. All of them had bundles specified as one title, which should have forced them to read a lot. They circumvented by not asking anything out of those, but later they convened to check I really DID read all of them.
My response was that it had been difficult to leave so much out.
^ you clearly never had to read D.H.Lawrence, Hardy, any Bronte or heaps of steaming romantic horseshit…mind you I bet I would be fond of dickens…had I been invited to any…
Have a happy Christmas, and a merry New Year!
” ” “This sentence structure is called recursion” is called recursion” is called recursion” is called recursion.
How to write Umlaut ä, ü, ö, ß without a German keyboard
(Note that on a PC you need to use the keypad numerals on the right hand side of the keyboard rather than the alphanumeric numerals along the top).
jb:
Thanks for that!
When appropriate, I will be using it gladly.
jb and Dr John, you can also use the Character Map in Windows 10. Just search “Character Map”. I keep it handy on my task bar.
Ha, I never noticed Character Map, which I really should have be aware of. Unless you have the numeric codes right at your fingertips, Character Map is better than the keyboard method. It also let’s you select fonts that have arbitrary Unicode characters like ? and ?, and unlike the keyboard trick it works with MS Word (although Word has it’s own Insert –> Symbols method for inserting arbitrary characters).
(Oh interesting. Unicode characters are rendered properly in the comment entry box but not in the comment itself).
Dr. John, I loved Gödel, Escher, Bach.
Hofstadter came to Concordia University in Montreal, where I attended, and gave a talk. It was 1983 (I think). The talk was very well attended, probably by about 300 people. He autographed my copy of GEB, which now is falling apart.
The talk he gave was the most boring monotonous lecture I’ve ever been to. He read from notes in a monotone, making corrections to the notes as he went. I guess those were notes for his next book, or something.
Where I work, some young people are still reading that book. Great book, terrible lecturer.
MattR, I appreciate the tiny crab-canon.
Today, 21 December, is the day of the Winter Solstice (10:02 GMT), the shortest day, the longest night, Midwinter Day, the turn of the year, whatever. I’m sure you will all agree with me in hoping that the coming year will be better than the year which has just come to an end. (Or is about to end in ten days time, if you insist on the Gregorian Calendar!)
I wish all of you, and of course Author in particular, everything you would wish for yourselves, in the coming year. And I look forward to sharing another year of funny cartoons, erudite remarks, wise comments, obscure references, pertinent quotes, silly jokes, rude insults, almost poetic verse, and incomprehensible gibberish.
Here’s raising a glass of single malt Scotch to you all.
Just won that hoffstadter book on ebay…probably won’t arrive in time fir chrimbo…Raising a glass of triple hopped beer to you all and as one of my heroes (Roine Stolt) wrote….”Love is the only answer…Love sets you free”….
Merry solstice everyone, and have one of your favorite!
M27, I will join your choice.
Happy (early) pancake day, to one and all!
By Jove! I believe Saturnaliae are close now. Or so say Stars, according to teh Newts. Or was it Sun?
Anyway, first time for a month with clear skies, but only half a Moon visible. No sign of The Sign (collinearity).
Speaking of Saturnalia, I did see Saturn & Jupiter close together just after sunset last night. It is expected to be cloudy & snowing this evening, so that was my opportunity to see the conjunction.
I’m glad the summer solstice was a cold and rainy one on this part of the continent. The west can have their hot and dry weather. Though it would appear that we’ll be getting similar conditions on the holiday weekend.
Though given the news this morning, better here I guess than the UK, the US, Sydney, etc.
Raises an imaginary glass of Ardbeg. “skål”
Curious Observer: Good choice!*
BTW, the Scottish (ie Gaelic) toast is “Slàinte Mhath!”, pronounced similar to “Slanjy Vah!”. Exact correct pronunciation available on You Tube (Google it). In Irish Gaelic, it is the same spelling, slightly different pronunciation. As in many other languages, it simply means “Good Health!”.
For most present-day Scots, that is about the limit of their knowledge of Gaelic.
* Of course, I would say the same of any single malt Scotch whisky! I must also admit Irish whiskeys are pretty good too.