July 2011
1 post
Michael Jackson, Back from the Dead. (Virtually)
Janet Jackson revives brother’s memories with virtual duet
By Samuel Burke, CNN
July 3, 2011 9:36 a.m. EDT
London (CNN) — Janet Jackson is opening up for the first time about a duet with her brother that she’s reviving two years after his death.
Jackson took to the stage in London on Thursday and performed their 1995 song Scream as video of Michael Jackson played and...
May 2011
1 post
HUMANITY ON TRIAL, 'FOR BREACHING RELATIONS WITH...
Nobel laureates in Stockholm climate ‘trial’
Published: 17 May 11 13:52 CET | Double click on a word to get a translation Updated: 17 May 11 16:18 CET Online: http://www.thelocal.se/33826/20110517/
Around 20 Nobel prize winners will preside over a mock courtroom in Stockholm on Tuesday, with the Planet Earth and humanity on opposing sides of the case, as part of a...
April 2011
8 posts
Corpse Disposal and the 'Imago Dei'
Calif. Lawmakers Seek Liquefaction as Alternative to Cremation
Apr 28, 2011 – 5:20 PM By Tori Richards
It sounds like the stuff of horror movies — placing a body in a steel tube and then covering it with a mixture of water and acid until most of the remains are liquefied. But it’s actually a scientific process called alkaline hydrolysis that is on track toward becoming an alternative...
Simulacrum Symmetry
The Real, The Unreal, The HyperReal.
Along the lines of several of my earlier posts http://profetcetera.tumblr.com/post/4268450329
http://profetcetera.tumblr.com/post/3946206062
And this exceedingly creepy video which I posted on March 7:
http://www.youtube.com/embed/eZlLNVmaPbM
….Comes yet another example of the ‘Uncanny Valley Effect.’
Read the...
Quiet.
Too Loud, Too Old
By Christopher Orlet on 4.14.11 @ 6:07AM ‘The American Spectator’
Saturday morning I was rocketed out of bed by the usual wake-up screech of a car alarm. For a moment, I was poised to reach for my Louisville Slugger and do a “Rectifier” on the offending automobile (if you don’t get the reference, it’s from the Henry Bean film Noise). In...
Government Food, Government Schools, and Nietzsche
From the Chicago Tribune
Chicago school bans some lunches brought from home
To encourage healthful eating, Chicago school doesn’t allow kids to bring lunches or certain snacks from home — and some parents, and many students, aren’t fans of the policy
By Monica Eng and Joel Hood, Tribune reporters
3:42 a.m. CDT, April 11, 2011
A Little Village Academy student cringes at an enchilada...
wachaoddaknow.... →
No comment on this one.
Too dangerous.
This is a 45 minute talk...
My Recent Interview with 'Christianity Today'
A while back I was interviewed about my book “Meaning at the Movies” by CT. This is the online version of the print issue from last month.
I will warn you: I *hate* print interviews, and while most of this one was fine, by the time the editors were done with it, there were a few statements attributed to me that are simply fictional! For example, shockingly enough, my...
How Many Dimensions is Too Many Dimensions?
Unsatisfied with reality, unfulfilled by genuine life experience, yet driven by our love of narrative and of visual attraction, we created the simulacrum ‘reality’ of movies. And there were movies. And we saw that they were good. (Well, some of them…)
But movies were not enough. Because, as much as movies were, they were ‘flat’ —...
March 2011
16 posts
A Threefold Cord Is Not Quickly Broken: Solomon,...
SEE ABOVE VIDEO
Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and Rolling Stone both call Aerosmith’s 1973 smash hit power ballad “Dream On” one of the 500 greatest rock songs of all time. I agree. I can recall hearing it for the first time when I was hardly 13 years old having recently discovered Rock and Roll by listening secretly at night under my covers to my tinny clock radio. The music was fabulous — but...
Yes -- we DEFINITELY need push-up bikinis for 8... →
Watch the first video in the story linked here (assuming you can stomach the dancing sequence). Just click the title above^. Then put that in the context of this news from the LA Times:
Final suspect arrested in gang rape of 11-year-old
March 28, 2011 |
Moreno Valley police arrested the final suspect Monday in the gang rape of an 11-year-old girl.
Michael Sykes, 19, was arrested about noon...
A Few Thoughts on Europe .....
Last Spring I taught Art History in Europe, travelling through Germany, Austria, and Italy. A few brief observations …. How do all those women walk in high heels on cobblestones all day long? Are they genetic mutants? The only thing I saw the locals drink were coffee and alcoholic drinks — both highly diuretic. No water — ever. You can spot the Americans — they carry water bottles. Isn’t the EU...
Talk about the...
A Single Shepherd. Is he Gay?
FROM THE NEW YORK TIMES comes this interesting little article ……
Unmarried Pastor, Seeking a Job, Sees Bias
By ERIK ECKHOLM
Published: March 21, 2011
Like all too many Americans, Mark Almlie was laid off in the spring of 2009 when his workplace downsized. He has been searching for an appropriate position ever since, replying to more than 500 job postings without success.
But Mr....
Glass: Window or Mirror?
For now we see through a glass, darkly; but then face to face: now I know in part; but then shall I know even as also I am known.
Stephen Glass, The New Republic
You may or may not be familiar with the story of Stephen Glass, which was retold more or less accurately in the excellent film ‘Shattered Glass.’ It is highly...
The Connected World is about to get a LOT more...
Who runs the Internet?
Editor’s Note: Nao Matsukata is senior policy adviser to the Coalition Against Domain Name Abuse (CADNA) and to Alston & Bird, LLP.
By Nao Matsukata – Special to CNN
Decisions made this week in the meeting rooms of a San Francisco hotel could dramatically change how the world experiences the internet.
Few of us realize that many important decisions...
Hells' Bells
http://www.livestream.com/lovewins/video?clipId=pla_9997e760-b88d-4294-91a8-142e5ed1c619
You’d get about as accurate a picture of the biblical doctrine of Hell from Rob Bell’s new book “Love Wins” as you would get an accurate picture of heaven by looking at a Thomas Kinkade painting of some miserable purple kitsch-cottage.
I have watched the 1-hour interview (linked...
“Imagining the Unimaginable”
A talk...
Vegan Dogs and Ideological Repression
Vegan diet for dogs: A question of thriving vs. surviving
By Emanuella Grinberg, CNN
Atlanta (CNN) — It began when Shelley Boyle’s veterinarian recommended she stop feeding meat and dairy to her beloved mutt, Cleo, to determine whether a food allergy was to blame for the dog’s chronic ear infection.
Boyle’s interest was immediately piqued. She had been a vegan for...
”God,...
" ... if any man offend not in word, the same is a... →
Free speech, purpose, and charity.
Watson Still Can’t Think
FOLLOWING is a fascinating guest piece (on Stanley Fish’s regular column) on the possibilites and limitations of AI — Artificial Intelligence.
My commentary will be up shortly, but this is a great read to get you thinking!
Many who responded to last week’s column about the relationship (if any) of Watson the computer’s performance on “Jeopardy!” to actual human thinking cited...
February 2011
14 posts
Boy-Girl Wrestling: Why it will never be popular
Caryn Rivadeneira, guest blogger at ChristianityToday.com
The Argument for Girl-Boy Wrestling
Joel Northrup cited his Christian faith for refusing to wrestle Cassy Herkelman in last week’s Iowa state championship. I say his Christian faith should have taken him to the mat.
When my friend posted a link to the story of Joel Northrup — the 16-year-old Iowa wrestler who defaulted rather...
Bono, Karma, Grace, and our upcoming duet
Bono Interview: Grace Over Karma
(Excerpt from the book Bono: In Conversation with Michka Assayas )
Bono: My understanding of the Scriptures has been made simple by the person of Christ. Christ teaches that God is love. What does that mean? What it means for me: a study of the life of Christ. Love here describes itself as a child born in straw poverty, the most vulnerable...
Movies, Memory, Man -- and the Suppression of...
The End of the Matter:
Movies and Meaning, Memory and Man
Memory is a mirror.
It reflects the past forward to us. Memory is inextricably tied up with consciousness and with both knowledge and belief. You only know what you remember. The same can be said of belief. You can’t believe anything you’ve forgotten.
Strangely enough, the earliest memory I can recall and...
National Radio Interview with Janet Parshall →
Link to the audio for my one-hour discussion of movies and theology with Janet Parshall yesterday on “In the Marketplace,” February 21!
Topics: 2001: A Space Odyssey, Double Indemnity, Scarlet Street, film noir, Memento, and others!
Valesquez’s Venus, and the Mirror of Painting
Diego Valesquez’s “Venus at Her Mirror” (circa 1650) is one of humanity’s most lovely artistic representations of God’s most lovely design: the female form.
Spanish nudes were quite rare in the seventeenth century, though they were not so elsewhere in Europe during the Renaissance. The Office of the Inquisition made it a point to strongly discourage...
Ramadan in Your Church?
Why We Opened Our Church to Muslims: A response to “Muslims in Evangelical Churches.” Steve Stone | posted 1/27/2011 09:59AM
(From Christianity Today)
In a recent article on Christianity Today’s website, Jason Hood raised issues about inviting Muslims to share worship space with Christians. Hood, who is a scholar in residence at Christ United Methodist Church in Memphis,...
They'd like to saw this man's head off, I'm... →
Brutally accurate and acerbic commentary. Serious fatwa material, this.
(Click the post title above to watch this amazing video.)
It never ceases to amaze me … the power of human depravity, usually in the name of some ‘higher good.’ In strict Islam, women are garbage. I read Ayaan Hirsi Ali’s book “Infidel” on an airplane last Fall, and at one point screamed...
Is this for Real?
THE STORY, as reported:
http://gawker.com/5751707/americas-worst-drug-dealers-swap-fake-cocaine-for-fake-money
America’s Worst Drug Dealers Swap Fake Cocaine for Fake Money
Two Brooklyn and Long Island drug crews probably thought they had one-upped each other in a deal last month when the Brooklyn guys sold the Long Island guys crushed-up sheetrock as cocaine for $16,000 in...
Valesquez’s Venus, and the Mirror of Painting
Diego Valesquez’s “Venus at Her Mirror” (circa 1650) is one of humanity’s most lovely artistic representations of God’s most lovely design: the female form.
Spanish nudes were quite rare in the seventeenth century, though they were not so elsewhere in Europe during the Renaissance. The Office of the Inquisition made it a point to...
January 2011
16 posts
SPAM KILLS
Happy New Year text prematurely blows up suicide bomber
SMS of death
By Dan Goodin in San Francisco • Get more from this author
Posted in Crime, 27th January 2011 23:42 GMT
A suicide bomber’s plan to detonate explosives in Central Moscow on New Year’s Eve was foiled when she received an unexpected text message that caused her deadly payload to blow up too early, according to...
This is a HIGHLY RECOMMENDED and truly marvellous...
Prof Horner on 'Beauty' for the latest edition of... →
Well, oddly enough, I don’t actually watch television, but I have been interviewed on a number of shows, and am a regular weekly comentator on “CrossExamine.” This program has been broadcast since September 2010, and is a theology and worldview program based around real-life stories interspersed with commentary. In this edition, I talk about the issue of ‘beauty’ from...
This op/ed piece was solicited by the Signal Newspaper and was published Sunday January 23 2011.
http://www.the-signal.com/section/33/article/39511/
“Sivilizing Huck”
If satire needs to be explained to you, you do not deserve its riches.
The raw wounds of American racism may never heal entirely; editing the past will not help....
100huntley.com - Finding Meaning At The Movies --... →
My recent one-hour interview with all the ladies of 100 Huntley Street, a very popular live show based in Toronto. This one was a lot of fun … I was definitely outnumbered, gender-wise!
The Inception of Our Waking Dreams
When Saito, laying on his carpet early on in Christopher Nolan’s film Inception, interprets the polyester and says, “….which means I’m still dreaming …” he knows what he’s talking about. He knows he is in a dream within a dream. And he might as well be speaking to the audience. Movies are the poetic images of our waking dreams.
Humans, created in the image of God, are image...
Whitewashing Huck
I have been asked to write an op/ed piece for an LA paper about the new edition of Mark Twain’s classic “The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn.” I have been teaching Twain for about 17 years and have read the novel about seventy times. I can quote any section at will.
This ‘scholarly’ edition has succumbed to the worst that PC culture has to offer: it will eliminate all...
Wholesomeness = Hotness
Donna Reed, aka ‘Mary Hatch’ (you know, crazy about George Bailey, of Bedford Falls?) is so much a hotty that she’s even gorgeous as the frumpy, classic librarian-spinster in the alternate George-less universe near the end of the film. I’d be screaming “GIVE ME BACK MY LIFE!” too, George – and not just so I could give Zuzu back the petals in my pocket.
Wholesome...
