Archive for October, 2004

Celebrant: Owa

Allen October 31st, 2004

Group: Owa
Celebrant: Taygoo
Group: Taygoo
Celebrant: Siam
Group: Siam
(now repeat faster and faster)

As a converted Epsicopalian, I read Strange Episcopalians with a sense of bemusement and shame.

According to Christianity Today, the Women’s Ministries is promoting a pagan rite worshiping the Mother Goddess:

The plate of raisin cakes is raised and a woman says,

“Mother God, our ancient sisters called you Queen of Heaven and baked these cakes in your honor in defiance of their brothers and husbands who would not see your feminine face. We offer you these cakes, made with our own hands; filled with the grain of life—scattered and gathered into one loaf, then broken and shared among many. We offer these cakes and enjoy them too. They are rich with the sweetness of fruit, fertile with the ripeness of grain, sweetened with the power of love. May we also be signs of your love and abundance.”

The plate is passed and each woman takes and eats a cake.

The rite has since been taken down with this response offered as to why. They were apparently delighted with the response the page raised (snort!), but have since taken it down because of copyright issues. They then defend themselves with these words:

The resources listed on our website are not approved liturgies of the Episcopal Church. These liturgies are intended to spark dialogue, study, conversation and ponderings around women and our liturgical tradition. There is quite a difference in presenting resources for people’s interest and enlightenment and promoting resources as official claims of the Episcopal Church. Only General Convention has this authority.

Ah, yes. These aren’t approved liturgies so it doesn’t really count. And besides, we were just promoting dialogue. Yeah, that’s it. We just wanted for everyone to discuss this further.

How’s this for further discussion? Your hands were caught in the cookie jar and you hope to make light of it.

While I love the Episcopal Church in detail (individual priests and churches in Oklahoma), I truly, strongly feel that the National Church is staffed by a bunch of apostate loons. I fully expect the world Anglican community to break with the English and American branches within 10 years.

Just a closing note: I have heard from my mother-in-law that she has served on boards where some members were concerned that we had too much “Jesus” in our liturgy and programs.

The Episcoal Church used to be seen as Catholic Lite. Sometimes I think we are changing into Univeralist Unitarians with high rites.

100 Scariest Movies

Allen October 31st, 2004

Still have lots to get done, but I wanted to blog this before I forgot about it. Database problems at work are still pressing, but the family is watching The Nightmare Before Christmas, a family tradition, and I thought I would write about this while we are watching.

Bravo TV recently ran a series of documentaries about the 100 Scariest Movie Moments. I’ve never been a big fan of the ‘gruesome gore’ style of scary movies, I found out that I have seen quite a few more than I realized.

So from the accompanying website, I present my selection from their list, some from their list I would like to see that I have yet to see as well as some other favorites.

100. 28 Days Later Haven’t seen this one yet, but it sounds like a good one.
99. Creepshow Never did like that one, but the final sequence with E. G. Marshall is a classic scene. Still bugs me.
96. The Birds One of Hitchcock’s weakest feature movies, still pretty good for a thrill.
95. Jurassic Park Excellent movie with excellent special effects. Wished they would have stopped with this one.
88. Invasion of the Body Snatchers. I don’t remember if they highlighted the remake or the original. Most film critics like the original while I’ve seen the remake.
80. Poltergeist Excellent movie with some classic scary scenes.
79. Dracula They highlighted the old, classic version with Bela Lugosi. Scared the pants off me when I was young. I also like the version with Frank Langella. I would like to see Fracis Ford Coppola’s version.
77. Signs Fairly good M. Night Shyamalan movie, but I wouldn’t call it a scary one. Creepy perhaps.
74. Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory Freaky during the tunnel scene, but not scary.
71. The Sixth Sense Now that was a scary movie. This one is probably one of Shyamalan’s best.
65. Marathon Man Is it safe? Still get shudders from that drill and being asked a question you can’t answer.
59. Fatal Attraction While some of the critics sited the ending as what they loved the best, for me it turned a psychological thriller into a boogie man movie — one step down in my estimation. I’m more frightened of what could happen than what can’t happen.
50. The Last House on the Left I remember hearing about it when I was young and was simply frightened by the thought of this movie. I’m still not sure if I ever want to see it, but the scene that I sampled didn’t look too appealing. Of course, if it did seem appealing, I might need to check myself into a mental hospital.
48. The Thing The John Carpenter remake. Excellent film with great special effects.
47. Nosferatu Still haven’t seen it, but I’ve seen samples from it. I think this might be one of those films that I would like to have seen, but not sure I want to see it. Kind of like a classic book — you want to have read it, but don’t want to read it.
42. American Werewolf in London Love the movie, but I keep expecting the main character to break into a Dr. Pepper song.
39. Dawn of the Dead Great movie, but my wife hates it. We went to see it before we started dating with a group. She kept diving into my arms — perhaps one of the reasons I’ve always liked it.
35. Aliens Never seen it all the way through. Would like to some day.
34. The Hitcher Looks to be a good psycho-type movie.
33. The Fly The remake with Jeff Goldblum. Again, I’ve never seen it all the way through. Not from lack of trying, but it just never seems to happen.

I’ll finish this when they have posted 31-1 films. They didn’t have on (as far as I can tell): Interview with a Vampire (the scene in the sun chamber and the feast are excellent) and Rear Window. I’ll think of others when I finish up.

Preserve The Moonbat Habitat!

Allen October 29th, 2004

Liberal Larry warns in I See a Bush Moon Rising:

As we know, all ecological disasters can ultimately be traced back to Bush’s refusal to ratify Kyoto. Sunspots. Earthquakes. The extinction of the dinosaurs. Even that funky business going on with the moon last night. Indeed, the timing of this whole moon thing seems especially suspicious – coming practically on the eve of our elections and all.

Despite what the fundamentalist biblethumpers will have us believe, lunar eclipses are not a “sign from God”, nor are they caused by planets magically moving around in space. Obviously, there’s a more scientific explanation. Caused by a high density of pollutants in the air – i.e. SMOG – a lunar eclipse is like a canary in the coal mine, signaling an ecosystem on the verge of collapse thanks to years of Bush’s reckless environmental policies.

My favorite quote is:

[D]esperate times call for hysterical screeching.

If we don’t act now and follow the guidance of Algore and our secret-master-robot-overlords, millions of moonbats will perish in the cold, dark shadows of a permanently darkened moon. And bunny rabbits. Millions and millions of bunny rabbits. Baby bunny rabbits. Twitching stiffly on the harsh lunar landscape.

Do you want that on your conscience? If not, join Larry in voting for Kerry.

A Servant Cannot Serve Two Masters

Allen October 28th, 2004

Having serious problems at work and thus will not be blogging much over the next few days. I’ve got some stuff bookmarked, so I’ll have an enforced 48-hour delay.

Health issue with my mother precludes me from blogging from home tonight. Perhaps over the weekend — a rarity for me.

I Shot Paul

Allen October 27th, 2004

Read The Science of Hiding in Plain Sight for an excellent primer on steganography — the science of hiding one message inside another message.

Steganography is more subtle than cryptology — sending a hidden message inside a jumble of data.

A message encrypted signals intent to communicate via hidden means. A message steganed (??) hopefully masks the intent to communicate.

For example: Compare this image with this image (new windows will pop up). No difference? One has a hidden message encoded with the StegPng program.

Wired also has an article on steganalysis — the detection and prevention of steganographic messages.

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Financial Mensas

Allen October 27th, 2004

As it turns out maybe Hillary’s proficiency with cattle futures wasn’t so unusual.

I remember reading this once, but I couldn’t find it in my weblog, so I’ll note it here.

During the boom years of the 1990s, senators’ stock picks beat the market by 12 percentage points a year on average, according to the study. Corporate insiders, meanwhile, beat the market by about six percentage points a year, while U.S. households underperformed the market by 1.4 percentage points a year on average. The final details of the study will be published in the December issue of the Journal of Financial and Quantitative Analysis. …

Looking at the timing of cumulative returns, the senators also appeared to know exactly when to buy or sell their holdings. Senators would buy stocks just before the shares suddenly would outperform the market by more than 25%. Conversely, senators would sell stocks that had been beating the market by about 25% for the past year just when the shares would fall back in line with the market’s performance.

Ellipses in Bainbridge’s quote from the WSJ article.

Perhaps we should have a SenatorScoop.com instead of a InsiderScoop.com.

[Via Instapundit]

But Kerry Is Leading In The Faux-Cappuccino Sub-Group

Allen October 27th, 2004

Most polls use approximately 1,000 respondents (example: Zogby) to get a feel for the entire nation’s pulse. Supposedly balanced scientifically to account for various demographics, this always struck me as a small number.

Online polls, I’ve felt, have always been partisan affairs. A poll goes up and the cry goes out to create a tidal wave in the poll.

But who would game coffee? Are there thousands of coffee drinkers lining up at 7-11 to “stuff the coffee cup poll”? I doubt it.

Having said that, 7-11 is reporting the coffee cup poll is (currently) running in favor of Bush: 51.11% to 48.89%

This poll is not broken down by state (but not every state is represented) and thus may have no bearing on the electoral college (which is how we really elect the President).

But there you have it. Bush wins the popular vote in a recent poll.

A recent poll with millions of respondents.

Kind of like an election.

[Via INDC Journal]

Update: State-by-state results are available.

A Phrase To Remember

Allen October 27th, 2004

The Law of the Instrument: If you give a child a hammer, everything looks like a nail.

Tully’s Corollary to the Law of the Instrument: When you really want to drive a nail, everything starts to look like a hammer.

As we read pro/anti Bush/Kerry news, keep this corollary in mind.

Perhap’s I’ve defended Bush too much, but I see a lot of people really needing to drive a nail into Bush.

Updates to the Explosives Story

Allen October 27th, 2004

This story is still developing, just wanted to point you to two new articles over at Captain’s Quarters regarding this issue:

Insurgents Hauling 380 Tons Of Explosives Not Exactly A Covert Act: It would take approximately 100 men two weeks to haul it away. Occam’s Razor: Which is more likely? That this occured during the war or before the war?

The Agenda: When the US government opposed [El Baradei's] bid for a third term under the premise that heads of international organizations should not serve more than two terms, ElBaradei penned his 1 Oct 2004 memo pressing Iraq to account for nuclear-related materials once supervised by the IAEA. He has supposedly known that these explosives have been missing for a long time now? Why the sudden rush to press this issue?

Read both thought-provoking articles.

Return to Sender

Allen October 26th, 2004

Orisinal is one of my favorite game sites and they have a new one brought to my attention by Justin Katz.

Called High Delivery, you must collect flowers in a bottle. You use a fan to blow a balloon around to collect the flowers and then eventually drop them off at their intended destination.

The “competition” of placing the balloon the optimal location coupled with the wonderful soundtrack is what sets this game apart. Of course, noting the wonderful soundtrack in an Orisinal game is rather redundant. The intended destination is the final graceful note to the game.

In the end, the game notes how may flowers were delivered. I would have perhaps said that the flowers were returned, not delivered. After all, from where were the flowers coming in the first place?

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