16 Jan 2004
Mormons Dipping Everybody

Over at Pagan Prattle there's a post on the propensity of Mormons to baptise folks who've "passed on", in the hope that they'll accept "the truth" (Mormon truth, of course) in the afterlife. It seems as though this is upsetting some Jews, who recently discovered that many Holocaust victims have been posthumously inducted into the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints.

I can understand why they're a bit upset, the Winter, 1995 issue of Vor Tru had the following:

Odin baptized in 1911 by the Mormons! ...In an act of inordinate presumptuousness, The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints baptized the Allfather and several other of the Aesir and Vanir. An Asatru Alliance member, while using the Mormon's ancestry files discovered this outrageous act.

They do this out of a desire to "seal" their family (living and dead) into their faith. Odin got on their list because somebody traced their ancestry back to a Scandinavian king, who traced his offical lineage to Odin. It's annoying, to be sure, but it's kinda funny too. As if they really expect heathen gods and dead orthodox Jews to become Mormons ...

00:00 /Asatru | 2 comments | permanent link

Proud to be a Hoosier

I'm not what anybody would classify as a huge sports fan - I kinda follow professional football, and root for the home team, of course, but mostly the antics of athletes just disgust me. It's drug dealing, wife beating, drunk driving - you name it. There's an old joke that the best way to get a National Football League team to stand up for the national anthem is to say "Will the defendant please rise."

But this years edition of the Indianapolis Colts seems to be somewhat different.

They're going to New England this weekend, to face what is arguably the best team in football right now, with the prize being a trip to the Super Bowl representing their conference. Of course, the Colts aren't doing too bad themselves: their offense has been noting short of remarkable in the two playoff games so far. And a big part of the late season offensive fireworks can be attributed to the emergence of Brandon Stokley.

This talented receiver spent the better part of the year recovering from injuries - he wasn't a serious part of the offense until December. Since then: he's caught touchdown pass after touchdown pass. But this week Mr. Stokley faces a bigger challenge than beating a defence to the end zone. His month old son is hospitalized with meningitis.

Stokley missed a practice this week to be with his son. He practiced some the following day as a break.

Coach Dungy will not say if he'll start in the championship game Sunday or not - nor even if he'll travel with the team. Rumor has it the Colts postponed leaving Indy until Saturday so as to give the situation time to shake itself out.

The only update Dungy gave was that Stokley's son was stable and doing fine.
Dungy was unsure whether Stokley's presence at practice Thursday was an indication he would practice again Friday or even if he would play in Sunday's AFC championship game at New England.
Dungy is leaving that decision up to Stokley, who has become a major contributor for the Colts in the past month.

In a sports mad world of "win at all costs", where one expects to read of the stars brushes with the law, the actions of these men and this team make me proud to be from the same state.

The headline over at Sports Illustrated says it all: Family First

00:00 /Home | 0 comments | permanent link

URLs Patented, Domain Registrars Sued

Absolutely unbelieveable! Every time I think I've seen it all in this area, something like this pops up to prove me wrong. This is from the CNet article referenced on Slashdot:

The suit accuses Network Solutions and Register.com of selling rights to Web URLs and e-mail addresses that infringe on a patent that was granted to Javaher and Weyer on Dec. 30, 2003. The patent covers the method of assigning URLs and e-mail addresses of members of a group such that the "@" sign is the dot in the URL. For example, if a group used a so-called third-level URL, www.john.smith.com, the e-mail address would be john@smith.com.

(link) [Slashdot]

00:00 /Copywrongs | 0 comments | permanent link

Heathens Have a Sense of Humor

Nor do we do the whole "blasphemy" thing... and it's a good thing, too! Otherwise, given our rather "barbarian" past, there's a few folks in Hollywood who'd discover the meaning of the terms "blood eagle" for this:

Holy Hoskins! : Becoming a Norse God Fri, Jan 16, 2004, 07:01 AM PT

LOS ANGELES (Zap2it.com) - Bob Hoskins is divine. Or, at least, he will ascend to a godlike state when he assumes the role of Odin, king of the Norse gods, in the upcoming "Son of the Mask," according to The Hollywood Reporter.

"Son" follows the original premise of a character-changing mask set by 1994's hit "The Mask", but this time centers on cartoonist Tim Avery (Jamie Kennedy) whose baby son dons the mask of Loki (Alan Cumming), god of mischief. Wackiness -- aided by plenty of CGI effects -- ensues.

"Son" is currently shooting and also stars Traylor Howard. Larry Guterman ("Cats & Dogs") directs. The 61-year-old Hoskins is perhaps best known for his role playing the foil to the hilarious hare in 1988's "Who Framed Roger Rabbit?"

The British actor was nominated for a best actor Oscar for 1986's "Mona Lisa." At the recent DVDX Awards, Hoskins, with his co-stars Jessica Alba and Brenda Blethyn, were honored for their acting in the straight-to-DVD "The Sleeping Dictionary", which will be released in February.

(link)[Zap2It]

00:00 /Asatru | 0 comments | permanent link

Give Us a Taste of Our Own Poison

Methings Mr. Lessig had best stick to his speciality of copyright and IP law ... or should at least read up on the subject he's addressing before he runs wild with it.

I'm no fan of farm subsidies. He's absolutely correct when he states that the majority of them do nothing but keep prices down and support large corporate farms.

The problem arises when he calls these bits of corporate welfare "our poison". They're not - they're the poison of the entire world.

European farm subsidies make ours looks trivial. Even French wine is government subsidized. Japan bars imports of many agricultural products, notably rice. In fact, so do most Asian countries.

Most nations keep a tight rein on their food supplies: and with good reason. In time of war or crisis, a national agricultural capacity is tantamount to national survival. The nation that cannot feed itself won't exist for long.

Of course, these farm subsidies in other nations hurt our exports - as ours hurt them. The debate over farm supports has been raging in the free trade community for a long, long time.

There is no sane reason to tie agricultural subsidies to Hollywood exports. If we're to negotiate free trade agreements, let these agreements at least address similar issues: you can't eat a movie, and it's not very entertaining watching the corn grow.

Countries that are balking at Hollywood imports are doing so primarily for reasons that have nothing whatsoever to do with free trade, and everything to do with the maintainence of cultural diversity. This may or may not be a good thing: in any event, it it completely irrelevent to any agricultural issue, and should stay that way.

Wired magazine columnist Lawrence Lessig offers some advice to the developing world: Hold Hollywood hostage till the United States kills farm subsidies.

(link) [Wired News]

00:00 /Agriculture | 0 comments | permanent link

Cow Brain Sandwiches Still On the Menu

When I was a kid we had [pork] brains and scrambled eggs for breakfast quite often. They were pretty yummy, too, but the wife just won't fix'em for me these days! Imagine that!

On a more serious side, this should tell us somethng about BSE:

The sandwiches trace their heritage to a time when immigrants to southern Indiana wasted little after arriving from Germany and Holland. Some families have their own recipes passed down through generations.

Since the human form of BSE (called VCJD) is a relatively new thing (only since the late 1960's, really), and our ancestors have been munching cow brains for generations without getting it, there's a clue here as to the origin of this malady.

The feedlot system, with it's attendent force feeding of meat to herbivores, came into use in this country in the 1950's, reaching the plateau it currently rests upon about 1963.

I think that's a BIG hint ...

Fear of mad cow disease hasn't kept Cecelia Coan from eating her beloved deep-fried cow-brain sandwiches.

(link) [CNN]

00:00 /Agriculture | 0 comments | permanent link