Paul ⁽³³⁹⁾

[Candida] Moss, professor of New Testament and early Christianity at the University of Notre Dame, challenges some of the most hallowed legends of the religion when she questions what she calls “the Sunday school narrative of a church of martyrs, of Christians huddled in catacombs out of fear, meeting in secret to avoid arrest and mercilessly thrown to lions merely for their religious beliefs.” None of that, she maintains, is true. Surprised? You can read…

BETTER PREVENT THAN REGRET! Please read: I went to the party and remembered what you said. You asked me not to drink alcohol, so I drank a Sprite instead. I felt proud of myself, as you said I should feel. You said I should not drink and drive, contrary to what some friends told me. I made a healthy choice and your advice was correct, as it always is. When the party finally ended, people…

Just now I found this on Slashdot: CNN reports that at least for now we may be able to set aside the question of whether and under what authority the U.S. should intervene militarily in Syria, a question that's dominated the news for the last few weeks. From the report: "Facing the threat of a U.S. military strike, the country's leaders Tuesday reportedly accepted a Russian proposal to turn over its chemical weapons. ... The…

I found a very interesting piece about (Transcendental) Meditation: When adversity strikes, meditation can be our best friend. Not as an escape, but as a secret weapon to fortify our minds and bodies, to create resilience and perspective. In his new book, The Gift of Adversity, world-renowned researcher, psychiatrist and author Dr. Norman Rosenthal tells us, “If you are unhappy with your life, consider changing it first from within. Meditation is a powerful tool for…

The mistake of Monday is that it stopped being part of the weekend. Same thing with Friday. In other words: weekends are too short. You may not agree, but this is my blog and my opinion. People in the Netherlands are required to work until they're 65. Or 67. Or wherever it will end by the time it ends. No excuse that there are many unemployed people who can do a few days of work…

Allegedly, this is an actual letter sent to the DFAT (Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade) Immigration Minister. The Government tried desperately to censure the author, but got nowhere because every legal person who read it couldn't stop laughing! Dear Mr Minister, I'm in the process of renewing my passport, and still cannot believe this. How is it that K-Mart has my address and telephone number, and knows that I bought a television set and…

Yes, it's that time again. I was thinking of something, looked around and found a very beautiful celtic cat image, drawn by someone. I contacted her and asked if I could use her image for a tattoo. She allowed it, provided I send her an image when it's all done. Of course, that's no problem! This is the original image: The tattoo artist is going to make a few changes to it so it's better to…

ZDnet reported about a sort of successful Linux Trojan. It looks like a real threat, even Engadget mentioned it. It's not a trojan that needs you to go into immediate lock-down; before it works you will need to click a link so a malicious website can do its job, but still the Linux Desktop must be gaining popularity when someone goes through the trouble to actually do this. As ZDNet reports: Here the name of the…

IKR. I recently found out that this stands for "I Know, Right?". I think this is an odd expression, when the person claiming to know asks if s/he indeed knows in the same few words. Or does this signify the insecurity of the famed 'next generation'? Perhaps I'm too odd/old for modern acronyms and expressions, because I quite often run into several of those that hardly make sense unless they are based on insecurity. One of…

Via TM.ORG: The Beatles' visit to India in 1968 to study with Maharishi Mahesh Yogi brought the world’s attention to the Transcendental Meditation technique. This recent article in Great Britain’s newspaper, The Telegraph is a look at how the Fab Four were indeed ahead of their time. Below are excerpts from science correspondent, Richard Gray’s June 11th article in The Telegraph. ———————– It may have seemed simply a phase in pop history, but it seems the Beatles may have been…