Jesus ‘n’ Mo ‘n’ amputees

February 8, 2017 • 8:15 am

The new Jesus and Mo strip, “limb2” is actually recycled from a decade ago, and refers to a website familiar to many of us (see below):

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From the email:

This one’s ten years old. The only difference is Mo speaking a little bit of French (I don’t know why I think that’s funny), and the flip-take pigeon at the end.

I know, we’re early. Normal service will resume next week.

(Comic inspired by an old website which hasn’t been updated in a while)

I’ll add one bit from p. 117 of Faith Versus Fact; I was quite proud of having tracked down the Anatole France quote:

More convincing forms of healing [compared to the usual medical “miracles”] are simply never seen. Anatole France brought this up in his book Le Jardin d’Épicure:

“When I was at Lourdes in August, I visited the grotto where innumerable crutches had been put on display as a sign of miraculous healing. My companion pointed out these trophies of illness and whispered in my ear: “One single wooden leg would have been much more convincing.”

Indeed. The question, “Why won’t God heal amputees?” is almost a cliché of atheism, but isn’t it reasonable to ask why wooden legs and glass eyes aren’t on exhibit at Lourdes? France had a response:

“That seems sensible, but, philosophically speaking, the wooden leg has no more value than a crutch. If an observer with true scientific spirit witnessed the regrowing of a man’s severed leg after immersion in a sacred pool or the like, he would not say ‘Voilà—a miracle!’ Rather, he would say, ‘A single observation like this would lead us to believe only that circumstances we don’t fully understand could regrow the leg tissues of a human—just like they regrow the claws of lobsters or the tails of lizards, but much faster.'”  [JAC translation]

Here France rejects the supernatural in favor of natural laws that we haven’t yet discovered. Such healings, for example, could be the work of altruistic space aliens with advanced abilities to regrow tissue. But it doesn’t matter. If we consider the regeneration of limbs or eyes not as absolute evidence for God, but—as a scientist would—provisional  evidence, then it points us toward the divine. And if these miracles occur repeatedly, are documented carefully, and occur only under religious circumstances, then the evidence for a supernatural power grows stronger.

Readers’ wildlife photos

February 8, 2017 • 7:30 am

Reader Kevin, who tells me that he sometimes posts under the name “LittleBoyBrew” (he brews fine ales), sent some pictures of Aussie animals, and several of his cat. His notes are indented:

You have mentioned the need to keep pictures coming. I humbly submit my own.
Last June my wife and son and I traveled to Australia, a wonderful trip.  We spent a few days in Tasmania, and we visited the Bonorong Wildlife Center outside of Hobart.  They have a variety of indigenous Australian animals, and in particular they have been raising Tasmanian Devils (Sarcophilus harrisii) to maintain the population until the face cancer problem can be hopefully solved.

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In addition to the Devils, I am sending photos of Eastern Rosella parrots (Platycercus eximius), a Wombat, a Tawny Frogmouth (Podargus strigoides), and Randall the Echidna, all taken at Bonorong. Randall is a particularly sad/happy story, as he was mauled by a dog and had to have one front leg amputated. As such, he must remain at Bonorong. But he was so cute.

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The other odd photo I took while driving the Great Ocean Road outside of Melbourne. Have you ever been there? Absolutely spectacular. Anyway, I think I caught some cormorants on the rocks.  Sounds like a drink, no?

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There are several of Simba, our funny black cat who is now about 14 years old.  He is almost 100% black, and he is very difficult to take good pictures of, as every single photon of light seems to become entangled in his jet black fur.  I sent one photo of him and his tail, a weapon he will yield to ‘accidentally’ knock items off the coffee table when he is ready to be fed for the night. “Did I knock that glass of beer from the table? Certainly not, it was this tail that follows me around which must be blamed…”. Here’s Simba in his box:

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Simba and his weapon:

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Simba, the Essential Cat:

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Wednesday: Hili dialogue

February 8, 2017 • 6:30 am

Good morning! It’s Hump Day: Wednesday, February 8, 2017, and that means that it’s both National Molasses Bar Day (I have no idea what that is, unless it’s a dive where you can get a glass of bourbon and molasses) and National Potato Lover’s Day. I’ll take the spuds. In India it’s Propose Day—the second day on Valentine’s week, and on which you’re supposed to give roses to your intended as a way of proposing marriage. (Or so Wikipedia implies: the real language is “On this day large number of youngsters give roses to propose their girlfriend, boyfriend, relative and friend.”  Relative?)

On this day in 1587, Mary, Queen of Scots, was executed at the age of 44 on suspicion of having plotted to murder her cousin, Queen Elizabeth I. And it’s a big day for me, for on February 8, 1693, The College of William and Mary, my alma mater, was chartered by William III and Mary II, making it the second oldest college in America, after Harvard (my other alma mater). In 1915, D. W. Griffith’s film “Birth of a Nation” opened in Los Angeles, and, in 1952, Elizabeth II was proclaimed Queen of the United Kingdom.

Notables born on this day include Jules Verne (1828), Martin Buber (1878), Lana Turner (1921), Neal Cassady (1926, ♥), James Dean (1931), and Brooke Adams (1949). Those who died on this day include Peter the Great (1725), Del Shannon (1990), and Iris Murdoch (1999). Meanwhile in Dobrzyn, Hili is making not-too-veiled hints about getting fed:

Hili: I’m full of expectations.
A: What for?
Hili: For what you should do now.
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In Polish:
Hili: Jestem pełna oczekiwania.
Ja: Na co?
Hili: Na to co powinieneś teraz zrobić.

And way out in the wilds of Winnipeg, Gus was sleeping in the sun yesterday:

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Amazing music machine with marbles

February 7, 2017 • 2:30 pm

This stunning machine was invented and produced by Martin Molin, a Swedish vibraphone player. It’s fricking stupendous: a tour de force of imagination, technology, and mesmerizing sound.

Makery describes its inception (excerpts from the article are indented):

The good thing about Sweden in winter is that the sun sets early—which gives you plenty of time to lock yourself in the garage and do whatever you want. This is exactly what Wintergatan band member Martin Molin did for 16 months in order to build his musical sculpture.

“At the time, I was a perfectionist about music. I had 2,000 demos on my computer, but I couldn’t finish them. I had built up resistance,” he recalls during our meeting at Music Tech Fest in Berlin. Building his machine motivated him. “When you solve a problem, the more complex it is, the more fun it is.”

The result was a programmable lead marble machine measuring 2 meters high, with a complex and well-oiled mechanism. The sound engineering was just as refined, with microphones recording each individual instrument for a super slick production. The process is based on gears that rotate a wheel, which releases marbles (a total of 2,000), which play different notes as they fall on various instruments (drum and snare with a coaster and rice, bass, vibraphone, etc). Or 22 songs that can be played using a complicated formula that he explains in a video.

Watch this thing!

Martin Molin’s Marble Machine is not the first of its kind. On the Internet, it’s a sort of subculture, kind of like perpetual motion machines. One of the most popular inventors (after Martin Molin and his 21 million views) is Matthias Wandel, the same engineer who inspired the musician [JAC: see one of his machines here]. “He plays with gravity, marbles fall with a chaotic and magnificent sound,” Molin swoons. “I wanted to see if I could do it,” he says, before admitting that he was “a bit naïve… I thought it would be easier than that.”

And here are two videos explaining how Molin’s machine works. It’s extremely complicated, and I have nothing but admiration for this guy’s skills—and ambition.

The first time, it was an improvisation. Now I know what the problems are and what didn’t work,” reflects Molin. Because behind the magic of video editing, the Marble Machine doesn’t quite work as well as its creator had hoped. “It took several takes to get that result on video… I used rubber bands. When they dry out, they stop working.” In perfect conditions, the machine “works at 95%”. But if he wants to tour with it, V2 “must work in the worst conditions… That will be more of an engineering job.”

Once the festival season is over (the group is currently on tour in Sweden and Germany until at least November), Martin Molin will present the machine’s major problems that need solving to makers on YouTube in the hopes that they will offer some help: “I hope that people will suggest a solution and I’ll have a facepalm moment.” Meanwhile, it’s an open source project made on YouTube in which everyone is invited to participate. Stay connected.

h/t: Taskin

Betsy DeVos wins confirmation

February 7, 2017 • 1:00 pm

As predicted, there was a 50-50 tie in the Senate over the confirmation of the rich and totally unqualified Betsy DeVos to be Trump’s education secretary. And also as predicted, Vice-President Pence broke the tie, confirming DeVos. If only a single additional Republican had some integrity! But that, I suppose, is too much to ask. This is the first time in the history of Cabinet nominations that the VP had to break a Senate tie.

Here’s a tw**t provided by Matthew Cobb, showing how much money Devos (who’s a billionaire) gave to all the Republicans who voted for her.  After all, they want to keep the dosh flowing. . .

HuffPo: Showing Muslim terrorists on t.v. dramas is “Islamophobic”

February 7, 2017 • 12:00 pm

PuffHo has a new editor to replace Arianna, but the beat goes on, and that clickbait cesspool is still doing what it does best: risible left-wing outrage. Here’s a headline from today’s entertainment section (click on screenshot if you must);

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“24: Legacy” is a spinoff of the “24” television drama, in which each episode depicted 24 hours in the life of an antiterrorist agent (played by Kiefer Sutherland), with each season having 24 unified episodes. That first show ran for 8 seasons and was, I’m told, immensely popular. It’s now given rise to “24 Legacy,” which has aired only two episodes. Sadly, according to PuffHo, the first episode, which aired on Sunday after the S*perbowl, was “unacceptably Islamophobic” because it depicted an episode of Islamic terrorism. Never mind that its predecessor show depicted terrorism of all stripes, including Russians, Mexicans, Chinese, and Americans. Nope, the producers are now “Islamophobic” because they showed a Muslim terrorist right after the Superbowl (so lots of people watched it) and in the first episode!

PuffHo:

Millions of Americans watched the New England Patriots beat the Atlanta Falcons on Sunday. Afterward, the next bit of programming they saw depicted an unidentified Middle Eastern man murdering a white American family in the name of someone called Sheik Bin-Khalid. The terrorist shoots the father in the head, and the camera pans to reveal the bloodied bodies of a mother and child as he exits the home to coordinate a devastating attack on American soil. This reductive depiction of Muslims wasn’t the only one in the episode, but it was certainly the most explicit. And it was first.

. . . That’s why it matters that the show’s producers chose to peddle the same fuzzy representations of Muslims we’ve come to associate with the franchise in the premiere of “24: Legacy,” which continues Monday night. Executive producer and showrunner Manny Coto addressed concerns by stating Sunday’s episode brought an intentionally “inflammatory” start to the series, hinting that future episodes will reveal new truths that complicate our perception of events.

“If we didn’t know the way the entire season went and how it came out the other side, we might be concerned,” Coto told The Hollywood Reporter. “But here’s the thing: The story of this season deliberately starts on an image that you might call jingoistic, expected and possibly inflammatory. We weren’t trying to be inflammatory, but it’s what the story itself called for.”

Yet for many Americans ― likely millions ― that violent first image will be part of the only episode they’ll see. However the show develops over the season is inconsequential. [JAC: PuffHo to Americans: “you’re morons with short attention spans”]

Social media users immediately took issue with the decision to center the terrorist plot around extremist Muslims, as both “24” Season 2 and 4 hinged on similar threats. Some rejected what they saw as an “old and tired” stereotype seen on FOX too often, while others said the show made for “Islamophobic” and even dangerous TV.

. . . Every presumably Muslim character in “24: Legacy” is either directly involved in terrorist acts or accused of being complicit in some way. Accepting a show where Muslims are American-killing terrorists as casual entertainment runs the risk of legitimizing the all-too-real discrimination Muslim people face in and outside U.S. borders. Now more than ever, vigilance is necessary when it comes to consuming media, regardless of intention. “24: Legacy” might have only just begun its season, but for many watching at home its clock has already run out.

And I guess PuffHo has appointed itself the Curator of Television Vigilance.

So here we see the self-censorship of the Regressive Left, which implicitly maintains that while it’s okay to show diverse kinds of terrorists, it’s a no-no to show a Muslim terrorist, because that’s Islamophobia. I guess it’s okay to show Mexican or Russian terrorists, though Mexicans are seen as “people of color”, but PuffHo is on its usual campaign to worship all things Muslim. (They particularly love fetishizing the hijab.)  That’s simply an overreaction to real Islamophobia: bigotry against Muslims, and also the kind of virtue signaling in which PuffHo specializes. The fact is that there is Islamic terrorism, and it’s happening worldwide. To leave out one particular group because it’s  seen as “Islamophobia” is ridiculous.

What’s next: the demonization of “Orange is the New Black” because it shows women as criminals, when we all know that they’re supposed to be victims?

Why do I dislike PuffHo so much? I suppose it’s because they’re supposed to be progressive, but they’re actually regressive. Stupidity from someone who’s supposed to be on our side sometimes rankles more than stupidity from the right wing—and Lord knows I call that out often enough. I suppose it’s a matter of intellectual honesty: it’s the reason why I sometimes prefer honest Biblical literalists like Ken Ham over mealymouthed metaphorizers and accommodationists who want to have their Jesus and their Darwin, too. Give me Fox News (which I don’t watch) over the Pecksniffian moralizing of PuffHo and its branding of certain television shows as “unacceptable.”