Gilgamesh four thousand years later

Classics / Culture / Fables / Legends & Myths / Literature / Translations & translatingOne Comment

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Gilgamesh continues to enthrall us, even after more than 100 years of translations and interpretations. The story continues to be told and retold and even re-imagined. There’s even a children’s version of the tale. You can read a version here, in PDF format or an online version here.Translations and transliterations (if you know your Akkadian…) are here. There was likely an oral version shared even before writing was invented – if you really want to know what that might have sounded like, listen to some modern recordings of old Babylonian poetry here. Gilgamesh is not simply humankind’s earliest written legend ……… click below for more ↓

The slow death of reading

Behaviour & Psychology / Books & Reviews / Learning & Education / Science & Technology / What I'm Reading NowOne Comment

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To me, one of the most depressing stories to come out of 2018 was posted in The Guardian, last August. Its headline read, “Skim reading is the new normal. The effect on society is profound.” Its subhead reads, “When the reading brain skims texts, we don’t have time to grasp complexity, to understand another’s feelings or to perceive beauty. We need a new literacy for the digital age.” As an avid reader who has a dozen books or so on the go at any time, this is a troubling trend that bodes ill for our collective future and our collective ……… click below for more ↓

2018 in review

Blog & Blogging / Musings / My Writing / Personal ReminiscencesLeave a comment

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As the year 2018 closes, it’s time for my customary review of what I wrote. It’s also time to thank every reader for participating, for reading my humble musings, for sharing my posts and sending me emails about them. I appreciate your presence and your comments. Twenty eighteen was another good year for my blog. I wrote almost 180,000 words  and saw one-two percent more visitors than last year (although not quite as many as my best year, 2016). My best month for visitors was May; the slowest was November. Since Jan. 1, 2012, I’ve written close to two million ……… click below for more ↓

Natural selection simplified

Books & Reviews / Creationism / Critical Thinking / Evangelicals / Evolution & Paleontology / TheocracyLeave a comment

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I was startled by the simplicity of the forumla. Stephen Jay Gould, the late eminent paleontologist, biologist and historian of science, summed up Darwin’s basic theory of natural selection so eloquently and so succinctly that it rocked me back on my heels. It was something even a diehard creationist could understand (assuming he or she wanted to try…) First there are three basic facts Gould states about life and living creatures: All organisms produce more offspring than can possibly survive; All organisms within a species vary from one another; At least some of these variations will be inherited by offspring. ……… click below for more ↓

Misquoting Shakespeare. Again.

Books & Reviews / Language & Grammar / Memes; Internet & Social / Quotes & Mis-quotesLeave a comment

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Let me begin with a digression on memes. Like a virus, a meme can spread uncontrollably in the right environment and infect millions with an idea or goal. This, of course, is good for such advocates of social ideals as Greenpeace or PETA, but like viruses, there can be bad memes that do more damage than good. More, it seems, than good or socially constructive memes. A meme is the self-propagating cultural equivalent of a virus*, but rather than spreading its DNA, a meme spreads ideas, cultural practices, thoughts, symbols, ideals, aesthetics and icons of popular imagination. Like a virus, ……… click below for more ↓

How capitalism has failed us

International politics / Politics / US PoliticsLeave a comment

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We meet in the midst of a nation brought to the verge of moral, political, and material ruin… our homes are covered with mortgages, labor impoverished; and the land concentrating in the hands of the capitalists… The fruits of toil of millions are boldly stolen to build up colossal fortunes for the few, unprecedented in the history of mankind; and the possessors of these, in turn, despise the republic and endanger liberty. From the same prolific womb of governmental injustice we breed two great classes … tramps and millionaires.* You might be forgiven for thinking that was something that came ……… click below for more ↓

Council’s financial follies part 1

Collingwood / Council / deception & secrecy / Financial folliesLeave a comment

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This is the first in what I expect will be a long series of posts about the financial follies and shenanigans of our council. Our council begins its term not with a bang but a groan and the shaking of heads. To quote Oliver Hardy, “Well, here’s another fine mess you’ve gotten us into.” I’m sure it won’t be the last time I get to say that to this council. To be fair, the debacle is not the responsibility of everyone at the table – that falls squarely on the shoulders of the four re-elected incumbents. However, since most of ……… click below for more ↓

One Million B.C.(E.)

Creationism / Culture / Film & ReviewsLeave a comment

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You can’t help but chuckle when Tumak runs down the rocky slope to battle the baby Triceratops (about the size of a Sheltie) and ends up rolling in the dirt with the all-too-obvious rubber model. I half-expected it to squeak like a dog toy. It’s just one of the many scenes in the 1940 version of One Million BC that make makes it fun to watch. Corny, yes, cheesy, perhaps. But mostly fun. And it was the top-grossing film of the year; that’s no small accomplishment. The film is basically a Romeo-and-Juliet love story with a happier ending. Throw in ……… click below for more ↓

Another bad year for ‘psychics’ and quackery

Balderdash & Hoaxes / Conspiracy Theories / Critical Thinking / New Age Codswallop / Predictions and prophecies / Pseudoscience & QuackeryLeave a comment

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The year 2018 was another bad year for so-called ‘psychics,’ astrologers and others in the prediction business – and yes, it is a business – because nothing they predicted came true. Nothing specific or meaningful, that is. Sure lots of general “predictions” and vague lifestyle comments phrased as “predictions” were made – many which echoed what others have been saying in real news. But that wasn’t because of some astrological or ‘psychic’ effort. When you read these sites you find a lot of that bloviated nonsense like “The main astrological indications of 2018 are those of releasing the past and ……… click below for more ↓

The slow death of media credibility

Collingwood / Culture / Local media / Media / Municipal Politics / Social Order & DisorderLeave a comment

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A story in the recent issue of New Republic opens: “A decade of turmoil has left a weakened press vulnerable to political attacks, forced into ethical compromises, and increasingly outstripped by new forms of digital media.” This points to the continuing erosion of public confidence in traditional media. While this piece refers to national (American) and international media, it applies equally to local media – all types. Traditional media has been disappearing under the waves of digital media for the past two decades. In its fight to stay afloat and retain audience, a lot of media outlets have tried to ……… click below for more ↓

The towering heights of the SVJI

Collingwood / Council / Saunderson's Vindictive Judicial Inquiry / TaxesLeave a comment

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Four hundred and twenty seven thousand, two hundred and sixty five. That’s how many documents have been submitted to the Saunderson Vindictive Judicial Inquiry (SVJI) to date, according to a story in Collingwood Today.* There is no indication if more are expected after that, but it wasn’t ruled out, either. More than 425,000 documents. The sheer volume is gobsmacking. Let’s take a look at what that might mean. It isn’t specified if these are single or multiple page documents. We have to assume at least some are more than a single page. For the sake of easy calculations, let’s say ……… click below for more ↓

Baby, It’s Politically Correct Outside…

Conspiracy Theories / Critical Thinking / Culture / Memes; Internet & Social / Poetry & Lyrics / Political correctness gone wild / Political fads / Pop Culture / Social Order & DisorderLeave a comment

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I must have travelled to another universe because when I awoke, the world had gone mad. Radio stations were pulling a popular, rather over-played, 74-year-old, playful holiday song because some folks thought it was about rape. Sexual assault. Or at least non-consensual sex. The media was full of Chicken Littles screaming that the cultural sky was falling if radio stations continued to play it. The song was subject of weighty opinions on editorial pages. What is going on in this strange, politically correct and apparently unhinged universe? Let me back up. Two items appeared simultaneously on my Facebook timeline this week: ……… click below for more ↓

Astrology: millennials in search of woo hoo

Critical Thinking / New Age Codswallop / Pop Culture / Pseudoscience & QuackeryLeave a comment

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“Astrology is not a science; there’s no evidence that one’s zodiac sign actually correlates to personality.” I was disappointed to read that line in a story in The Atlantic, a piece titled, “The New Age of Astrology: In a stressful, data-driven era, many young people find comfort and insight in the zodiac—even if they don’t exactly believe in it.” Disappointed not because it isn’t true – it is: astrology is woo hoo – but rather that writers still feel the need to state the obvious. It’s like a movie reviewer starting with “There’s no evidence that Batman is actually a ……… click below for more ↓

The Mummy, the remake and the re-imagining

Culture / Film & Reviews / Pop CultureLeave a comment

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Nineteen thirty-two. The year Aldous Huxley’s novel, Brave New World, was published. The Great Depression was at its worst. Franklin D. Roosevelt defeated Republican Pres. Herbert Hoover to become the American president in a landslide win. Gandhi went on a hunger strike. Amelia Earhart became the first woman to fly non-stop solo flight across the Atlantic Ocean. Eighty-four-year-old Paul von Hindenburg was re-elected president in April, defeating Adolf Hitler. Charles Lindbergh’s 20-month-old son was kidnapped from his New Jersey home. Buck Rogers in the 25th Century, the first scifi radio show was first aired. Irving Berlin, Cole Porter, Fats Waller, ……… click below for more ↓

Dictionary vs Dictionary.com

Books & Reviews / Daily life / Internet & Social Media / Literature / Musings / Personal Reminiscences / Reading & Literacy / Style & usage / TV / What I'm Reading Now / Words & etymologyLeave a comment

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Did you know that doxastic is a philosophical adjective relating to an individual’s beliefs? Or that doxorubicin was an antibiotic used in treating leukemia? Or that doxy is a 16th century word for mistress and prostitute? That drack is Australian slang for unattractive or dreary? Drabble means to make wet and dirty in muddy water? A downwarp is a broad depression in the earth’s surface? Drail is a weighted fish hook? Dragonnade means quartering troops on a population while dragonet is a small fish but a dragoman is an interpreter? That a dramaturge is a literary editor on a theatre ……… click below for more ↓

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