SBL International in Auckland starts next week, my last attempt here to get a group of people who are active online to meet face to face didn't exactly draw a crowd, so like Robert the Bruce (who my granny used to claim was an ancestor of ours) I'll try again ;-)
I'm proposing Wednesday evening, early (for those who are jetlagged), the last of the tours finishes at 5pm so maybe meeting for "tea" (i.e. an early informal evening meal) at 6pm... suggestions of better times/dates are welcome....
Accomodation
If there is anyone attending SBL who does not have accomodation booked, or who would prefer to stay in a home please ask as we have an empty spare room that we'd expected to be full, we live close to central Auckland.
Labels: sbl
¶ 6:12 AM
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Tim,
I can meet @ 6pm on Wednesday. Let me know for sure and where.
Thanks,
Joe Fleener
By 
Joe Fleener, at
June 30, 2008 10:37 AM
Tim,
I can also meet Wed at 6 pm, I think. My tour info says it goes from 1 pm to 3 pm and includes tea so I am not sure exactly how to understand that!!
Judy
By Judy Redman, at
June 30, 2008 11:32 AM
Joe, I'll put a final notice here, and probably (depending on time, energy and finding everyone's emails) email the info round too.
Judy, in NZ before 4pm "tea" will mean "afternoon tea" which means at most a light snack and might just mean biscuits. After 4ish it gets less clear becoming a meal at some point in the late afternoon, but lighter and less formal than "dinner".
By Tim, at
June 30, 2008 11:38 AM
Will check schedule. Should be able to be there for a bit though.
Some further clarification re:meals in NZ.
Biscuits = cookies (i.e. sweet)
Supper = a snack in the evening, typically a few hours after the regular evening meal.
For others see: American Versus New Zealand Vocabulary :-)
By Stephen G, at
July 1, 2008 8:18 AM
Teaching like Cats & Dogs Carl Sweatman (sporadic at best) offered - via Facebook, which I have only just yesterday joined - this brilliantly simple answer to the question:
Throw them some mice!Like I said, brilliant and simple ;-) So, a supplementary question for you all: What sort of wisdom-related "mice" might get a class of students going as cats?
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Well, it might help if there were using this Bible translation :-)
http://www.lolcatbible.com/index.php?title=Main_Page
By Stephen G, at
June 28, 2008 11:55 AM
This one claims that we are all either "Cats" or "Dogs". The description is fun, and I'm sure you can guess which you are!
Cat: Scratch my ear. Ex-cellent. May I use your leg as a scratching post? No? Hmm, how about I sit on you instead.You see, recognisably Dog and Cat, as we meet them in everyday life, but also recognisably roles we play in social contexts. Not necessarily actually as built-in personality, but at least roles we adopt in particular situations, and probably as preferences too?
Do not move. ... Well done. Now feed me.
Dog: Hello, let's do something. What should we do? ...
Yes, the stick fetching game would be acceptable.
... However I find that stick you are holding uninteresting. Try again. ... Ah, yes, yes! That stick I find quite exciting! Ok, I will fetch the stick. ... That was fun!
Paul Harrison links it to a more complex discussion of "dominance" about which I am less convinced, but he gets really interesting again when he talks about Dogs and Cats in education:
TeachingI know that frustration! The answer is to be sneakier in avoiding the Cat role:
When teaching a class, the teacher naturally takes the cat role. Therefore, the students are in the dog role, and adopt the dog cognitive style.Brian: "You are all individuals."Most of the time, this assignment of roles is correct. However when teaching a creative or assertive skill (for example, programming or feminism), it may be important for students to practice using the cat cognitive style: they will need to use this style when applying what you teach.
Crowd: "Yes, we are all individuals."
Simply asking questions of your students will not put them in the cat role, as it is still you that initiates action. Thus, asking questions is not a good strategy for waking students up and getting them engaged, something that causes much frustration to teachers.
I once had a lecturer called Damian Conway (yes, that Damian Conway) who avoided taking the cat role by making his students set the agenda. At the start of the lecture, he would ask for questions, which he would then write on the blackboard. This took a little coaxing, usually when you go to a lecture your brain has switched to idle before your bum hits the seat. He then ad-libbed the lecture from these questions. (It's no good to ask for questions at the end of the lecture, by then everyone is comfortably in dog mode.)I can't see me adopting the "act stupid" idea much - I guess I'm afraid they might not catch the irony ;-) but I've always been tempted by the idea of getting the students to design the class...
Another way to flip roles is to do something blatantly and obviously stupid, and hope someone points it out.Performer: "Where has it gone? Where-ever can it be?"
Audience: "Behind you! Behind you!"
Do any of you have ideas for
Labels: teaching
¶ 10:38 AM
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Do you have any suggestions?
Thanks!
Labels: narrative, teaching, video
¶ 10:10 AM
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The day was clear and sunny, not wintry at all. In fact I sat on the pavement in shirtsleeves and was almost too hot! They put up the sunshades just as we were leaving. The setting is stunning, at least on a good day, with views across the harbour to Rangitoto, and plenty of interesting people wandering by (even on a Friday) so that people-watching is fun. (I wonder why that wee girl seemed determined to throw herself under oncoming traffic, thank God her mother got her safely inside the large ATV before she succeeded ;-)
However, though we arrived well after the lunchtime rush, just as the cafe was turning from packed to empty, we waited over 25 minutes to get to the stage of cutlery and glasses of water arriving :( though to be fair the food was not far behind.
I had scallop and bacon salad with banana, the scallops and large chunks of bacon were satisfying after the wait, and the banana was an interesting addition. (I am still not quite convinced, but almost!) The salad was less impressive, supermarket mix with some rather chunky tomato, cucumber and capsicum added - I wonder if the chef was having a break after the lunch rush? I could have done with some carbohydrate, perhaps a nice slice of bread with the salad.
Barbara's seafood chowder was fine, though a bit thin and accompanied only by a small slice of white toast.
The coffees were fine. My long black came only slightly long but with a china jug of hot water to add to taste - well done!
Coffee: good.Service: slooow.
Food: OK, what could have been really good was spoiled by the details.
Overall: disappointing, slow service and disappointing food.
Riva Cafe
89 Tamaki Drive
Mission Bay
Auckland City
09-528 8566
Labels: auckland_cafes, review
¶ 5:53 PM
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Well done to Barbara. Getting through the oral defence with only small alterations to make is indeed worth a celebratory event. Though, it can take a while to recover from the experience.
By Stephen G, at
June 23, 2008 9:41 AM
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If you prefer a more experiential approach you could read about the Mae La refugee camp, or look at one of the photoblogs: Timelight @ Mae La - Weblog or through valleys of sorrow to rivers of joy which has more than photos. In particular you could read the rest of this post:
Whatever you do, do NOT just sit there, do something even if it is only to cry a little! ¶ 10:53 AMpray, yes, but we still can't eat your prayers
While the faith and the spirits of the people I met in Mae La were strong, their current physical conditions are matters of concern. Registration froze two years ago. People who come to the camp--four or five new families everyday--are not given food rations or materials to build huts because they are not registered. They must move in with other refugees and those who open their huts must share what they have with the new-comers. Already, cuts have been made in the amount of food they receive twice a month.
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The result is that I have updated the general manual and stylesheet: Writing for Hypertext Bible Commentary - which starts from the concept of a "hypertext" commentary and moves on to the details of format and working of the HBC_ series. I have added Using KompoZer to prepare HBC_ to explain how to do it in practice. Both can be accessed from the project opening page.
PS: I forgot to say, my reason for posting this here is to encourage you to look at one or both of these documents and make any comments that could help refine or improve them. If you would rather email than comment here please send to tim@carey.ac.nz
Labels: bible, biblical.studies.online
¶ 4:32 PM
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We've been eating less meat, since the kids are leaving home (they are all confirmed and voracious carnivores ;-) among the recipes I've found useful is this warm Noodle Salad from Burma. We watched it being prepared at Borderline in Mae Sot when we did a cookery course there. I wish I had taken a photo of the meal since their version looked a lot more appetising than the one I prepared over the weekend - in a hurry as we were reorganising the kitchen all afternoon :(Ingredients:
- wheat noodles (ideally from your local Asian store, not rice noodles, but almost Tagliatelle - which you could probably use if stuck, though it is not the same) enough for the number you are feeding I'll give quantities for 4 as a main.
- vegetables (ideally gourd, but corgettes work quite well and carrot is OK...)
- cabbage 1-2 handsfull
- spring onions a few
- beansprouts 1.5 cups
- hard tofu one block (depending on size)
- corriander 4-5 plants
- red onions 2 small
- yellow bean powder 0.5-1 teacup (a mix of 50/50 soya powder and ground up peanuts works fine)
- rice flour 5 tsp
- chilli powder 1-2tsp
- turmeric 1tsp
- garlic 4-5 cloves (or if you can find it packeted crispy fried garlic)
- oil for deep frying (in a wok is traditional) use 1/2 teacup of this later for the spices
Mix rice flour with water to make a creamy paste (if you use courgettes you should add extra rice flour to make the cream thick as courgettes are watery and risk going soggy not crisp in the salad).Slice the cabbage, spring onions thinly, slice the onions and garlic even thinner (keep the garlic separate), and chop the coriander (roughly as you want some whole or nearly whole leaves as well as some cut finer.
Cut the vegetable into small (finger size) pieces. Cut the tofu similarly. Coat in the rice flour cream and fry till crisp and golden.
Mix the chilli, garlic and turmeric and pour over 1/2 cup of hot oil (the mixture will fizz up and the spices will cook to perfection) to make a dressing.
Dry fry the bean powder till it darkens, do not burn it!
Cook the noodles and drain, washing in cold water so they stick less.
Assemble by mixing the noodles, dressing, bean powder and salad, use the gourd (carrot or courgette) and tofu to decorate. Eat ideally while still warm.
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135 Williamson Avenue
Grey Lynn
Auckland, 1002
Tel: +64 (0)9 378 0604
On a side street corner opposite Foodtown (with street parking nearby), the location is not impressive, though the venue is well designed and pleasant. The staff is friendly and efficient and the atmosphere is welcoming. Plenty of pavement seating is available, though we preferred to sit near the gas-log fire. Which all sounds ideal for a local cafe, and we "seemed to remember" it had got a good write-up in the NZHerald, too!
Sadly on Saturday, neither the food nor the coffee lived up to this promise. The coffee was bitter. The only good thing I can say about it was that it was good and strong. (I have read other reviews that praise the coffee, so we may have hit a trainee barrista, but I can only tell it as we found it, and both Barbara and I were slower than usual finishing our long black and soy cappuccino.) The food sounded good, basically the usual breakfast menu, but with some unusual touches. I chose herby hash cakes with poached eggs, wilted spinach and hollandaise. I imagined a crisp coat over aromatic potato mash, with the eggs and spinach to complete it. The eggs were fine, the spinach was good. The hollandaise was ladled on with a heavy hand, so that I had to act quickly to prevent the hash cake from drowning. A shame because the stack looked pretty. Yes, the hash cake was singular, and it made a stack. It was a tall pile of potato mash that had indeed seen the frying pan, though it was not crisp - even on its outside.
Barbara's corn fritters were cool inside, and got a cool reception. :(
So overall poor food that was not redeemed by either the nice presentation or the waiters with three foot pepper pots, and coffee that was disappointingly bitter. We do remember the Herald reviewers as liking Occam so if your experience was different to ours, please let me know and we will give it another try in a few week's time.
Till then:
- Coffee - Poor
- Food - Poor
- Ambience - Good
Labels: auckland_cafes, review
¶ 4:43 PM
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Tim
I am a great fan of your breakfast reviews and will check them out again when we are next on hol in Auckland.
It is disappointing that you don't seem to have had a good coffee for weeks, maybe not since that Canadian guy served you in Mae Sot.
My favourite place is the Sierra in Mt Eden Rd where I have downed numerous coffees and we make our pilgrimage there when we return. But please list the top coffee places in Auckland, so I won't be disappointed.
Cheers
Geoff
By Geoff Pound, at
June 16, 2008 4:13 PM
Oh, I've had good coffees, just not always with food, or when I can think about writing a review :(
Though here are some good ones from recent reviews:
Kings Garden Cafe behold, it was very good
Perk up good
Okra very good, excellent on first visit
I wouldn't dream though of trying to list the best coffees in Auckland, as I don't get the chance to try enough places often enough. I'd love to get feedback from others who try/have tried these places to compare notes, and like moderating marking give me a handle on whether I am being to strict or too lenient ;-)
By Tim, at
June 16, 2008 4:28 PM
This could be great news for projects like PodBible.mobi (making the PodBible audio Bible podcasts available to mobile phone users).
However, I have two questions you might be able to answer for me:
- What mobile phones can or can't play AMR files? So if you have a phone can you try downloading this AMR file and seeing if it plays, and report the make, model and result below, please!
- What exactly are the licensing issues with AMR there is a link on the Wikipedia site to an VoiceAge legal page, but I go cross-eyed trying to find out what that means for ordinary non-commercial users. Any comments on that would be helpful too!
Labels: audio, bible, mobile, podcast
¶ 8:06 AM
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Gsm format is worth a look. I think most mobiles support it and it could be converted on the fly on the server by using sox (providing your host has it installed).
What you need is an application that offers the user different file formats which are generated on the fly by the server, taking all the hard work away from conversion.
I imagine this is fairly straight forward, unfortunately I don't have the technical ability.
By 
Graham Doel, at
June 15, 2008 7:06 PM
I am a total beginner when it comes to audio formats for mobiles, as best as I can make out from:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Adaptive_Multi-Rate
and http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Audio_file
It sounds to me as if maybe AMR is a form of GSM??? For this project we do not really have any one who can easily organise clever file format conversion on the fly, so we are likely to have to do the conversions manually or using batch files, so I'm keen to get the "right" format when we start.
With AMR I can even use a the lowest quality setting, and get something that sounds better than a phone call where the chapter is only 160KB which would be a tiny download for 3.5 minutes of audio!
By Tim, at
June 15, 2008 7:34 PM
The Hebrew word for foot is רגל (regel). Like "hand," most of the time regel means exactly what you think it should mean, the things at the lower end of your legs that you put in shoes and stand on. For the record, at least in Rabbinic Hebrew, regel sometimes also means "leg."And begins his case with Ezekiel 16:25. Now, evidently this verse is concerned with sex, so obviously "feet" here do not mean what is at the bottom of ones legs, but rather what is between them ;-0
Or does it... If instead of assuming a euphemistic use of רגל why not just assume that רגל means "leg" here, as it does in 1 Sam 17:6 and as Rashi, and various later translators and commentators have thought it does here?
Having failed to convince me that his first example requires a euphemistic reading Duane passes on to Judges 3:24. I discussed this at some length in my first post, now I would just add that (as Rashi again noted) "Targum Jonathan renders עָבִיד צוֹרְכֵיה (doing his needs), i. e., moving his bowels" this does not require an equation of feet with anything other than "feet", but does seem to me to suggest possibly anachronistic forms of clothing. Actually, the more I look at this passage the more puzzled I become. Everyone seems agreed that the mention of "covering his feet" is a reference either to urination or to defecation. Yet the location in which Eglon is "covering his feet" is the (same?) "upper room" in which in v.20 he received Ehud - was the Moabite king in the habit of inviting guests into his toilet?
Duane's example from 2 Kings 18:27 is thoroughly convincing. Here the Hebrew text of the Bible reads that the besieged Judeans will be doomed:
לֶאֱכֹ֣ל אֶת חֲרֵיהֶם וְלִשְׁתּ֛וֹת אֶת־שֵׁינֵיהֶם
The Masoretic scribes found this a little too explicit, so for both terms they suggested alternative "readings":
"to eat their own dirt, and drink the water of their feet"
The trouble with this for my purposes is that all it demonstrates is that by the time of the Masoretes "feet" had possibly come to have a euphemistic meaning of the sort proposed. There is according to Duane no clear cut example in Ugaritic (which anyway uses a word that is not a cognate of רגל. And: "I was unable to find and did not look too diligently for examples in Akkadian or Egyptian."
It still seems to me that the case for a common euphemism רגל = sexual organs is simply unproven. Biblical scholars should stop appealing to this supposed euphemistic use until there is better evidence to support it for biblical Hebrew. (That it existed later I do not dispute. The example above is (almost) enough to convince me ;-)
Labels: 1 Kings, bible, biblical.studies, ezekiel, isaiah, judges
¶ 7:26 PM
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Tim
Thanks for the engaging discussion. If I were to write those posts again, I would no doubt see them differently in some details, but I do remain convened that feet/legs sometimes means something other than feet/legs. You have convinced me that my Ezekiel 16:25 example is weaker than I had thought at the time. And I'm a little more confused about what "covering his feet" means than I once was. As you might guess, I object to the use of the word "unproven." Rather, I take it that you think it unlikely that רגל was regularly used as a euphemism in Biblical Hebrew. I no doubt think that it is more likely that it was than you do. These days, I would much rather speak in terms of probability and synthesis of evidence and let the logicians and the mathematicians have their "proofs." I sometimes wonder if there is purposeful ambiguity in some of these passages. The Ruth example comes to mind. Anyway, one thing that you and Sean-the-Baptist will likely find, as I have, is that these post will become among the most often linked to from Google searches.
By Duane Smith, at
June 12, 2008 5:45 AM
If one understands it in the sense of mathematical "proofs" then the word was very badly chosen, sorry! I had in mind the image of a law court, which is where I come across the form "unproven" (I think). All I meant was that if instead of doing as generations of biblical scholars have done, and assuming there is a common euphemism feet = sex organs, but rather regards this as a novel reading whose probability has to be demonstrated then the case is (I think) still "unproven", that is there is not enough evidence to convict ;-)
Though if there was such a usage, then in the Ruth example it would certainly add to the general air of innuendo in that chapter!
By Tim, at
June 12, 2008 6:29 AM
The Hebrew has gone out of proper word order (at least on my computer screen).
By N T Wrong, at
June 13, 2008 9:14 AM
Hi, Milord Wrong, at a guess you are using Internet Explorer, at least to reproduce the problem I had to fire IE up as in Firefox everything was fine. At a guess FF is more tollerant and IE stricter or something about Unicode RTL. In any case I have - I hope - got it all orderly in both browsers.
Thanks for pointing it out. I also fixed the quote that had the line breaks as a bonus extra!
Now all it needs is someone using a Mac to still find problems to really make my day ;-) and I thought that Unicode would solve all this "problems with Hebrew on the web" stuff.
It does... BUT only when all the programs play nicely by the (same) rules.
By Tim, at
June 13, 2008 9:48 AM
It all looks good now (and I am using IE). Thanks.
I've just given up on the Aramaic (square script) font, and stick to transliteration. I'm sick of finding that words have changed places when I open up a Word doc that had been saved before. And if I save a Word doc as a pdf, often the Aramaic font flips around again. You don't get those problems with transliteration.
On a more substantial note, my interest was piqued by this topic - not only for the obvious and banal reasons - because I once tried to pursue the idea that one the sources in the David & Goliath story involved Goliath being struck in the goolies - a comic below-the-belt hit that fits well with David's general character in Samuel. I might revisit it.
By N T Wrong, at
June 14, 2008 10:47 AM
Let me be clear on what I am claiming; it is very modest indeed. The strongest thing I want to say is that the "hand" has been used as a euphemism or, perhaps better, metaphor for penis or phallus from time to time in human history. While I think that it was a widespread usage in the Northwest Semitic world, I have not proven that.I think this is a careful and accurate conclusion, each of the examples is a strong one, where almost any reader will suspect that the word is being used euphemistically. But they are too few to demonstrate a regular usage.
The follow-up post A Euphemism for Pudenda deals with the evidence for "feet" as a euphemism. I will return to that post when I next have time for blogging.
Labels: bible, biblical.studies, isaiah
¶ 9:08 AM
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Hi, I saw this on Goodacre's blogroll and thought I'd drop by.
There is a chapter about euphemisms in "Ancient Israel: The Old Testament In Its Social Context", Philip Esler being the editor. I read it many months ago so I can't provide any useful details; I only remember it taking on a couple of ANE laws about crushing testicles.
By J. Archer, at
June 11, 2008 12:49 PM
Thanks, our library doesn't have the book - on order I hope, but perhaps I missed it - so I'll get it on ILL. It is not (as I think I suggest at least in my reply a minute ago to Duane's comment above) that I am quite convinced that there was not such a euphemistic usage, rather that no one has taken the trouble to convince me there was, so I'd rather assume there was not till the case is made!
By Tim, at
June 12, 2008 6:42 AM
On Deut. 11.10: the point is exactly that the Promised Land will be naturally fertile and thus will not require irrigation by other means (of course the language is symbolic, irrigation is as necessary there as in Egypt in reality). Tim asks 'in Egypt is most irrigation done by peeing?' - well no, but neither is there literal milk and honey flowing in Israel-Palestine, and perhaps good deal more irrigation took place by this means than by carrying water on your foot (images of hopping with a bucket attached anyone?)But why interpret the language as "symbolic" whatever that means here, I had assumed that even read as a euphemism the use was intended literally.
Irrigating with the feet would then refer to the habit of opening and closing irrigation ditches using the feet. While I cannot really see how the euphemistic reading works, in the promised land water falls from the sky, while in Egypt humans had to pee to water the ground - presumably entailing frequent trips to the irrigation ditch to drink...
On Ruth we basically agree - except whether Boaz' "feet" are literal or euphemistic (I still wonder at the plural euphemism here?).
On Is 6:2 Sean brings up the topic of ANE iconography, as Jim Getz said in a comment on a post: Another "Feet" Euphemism in the Hebrew Bible? on this topic on Shibboleth I think I was convinced by Keel's identification of the Seraphim here with Egyptian uraus snakes, my copy of Keel is at college, so i can't check, but I do not remember these snakes as having prominent phalluses which might need covering to preserve Hebrew modesty! On Is 7:20 I am quite willing to agree thsat ritual humiliation is in view, and that a euphemistic reading is possible. But when the "head to foot" shaving seems to cover that pretty comprehensively I do not see the need to invent a new "euphemistic" reading. (And that is really my point, I believe that those who repeat conventional wisdom and claim a common euphemism in Biblical Hebrew "feet" = "phallus" need to provide some evidence to support this view. And where simply reading "feet" as "those two things we walk on that stop our legs fraying at the ends" works fine then they have NOT provided such evidence EVEN IF "phallus" works just as well.
Result, I am still unconvinced that this particular item of "popular wisdom" has a leg to stand upon! Sometimes in the Bible, when you read "feet" they do simply mean "feet", now on the basis of Ugaritic evidence one might I think (someone could ask Duane about the abnormally interesting uses of "finger" in those texts, and perhaps also look at Hebrew Bible texts like 1 Kings 12:10).
Labels: 1 Kings, 2sam, bible, biblical.studies, isaiah, ruth
¶ 6:08 PM
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Labels: children, internet, video
¶ 8:26 PM
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As I understand it, the post Britannica’s New Site: More Participation, Collaboration from Experts and Readers basically announces that the Wikipedia model has so much going for it that Britannica has to adopt elements from its greatest rival's method of working. By that I mean that the announcement clearly hopes that something of the incredible energy and diversity of the Wikipedia community involvement will be able to be harnessed into a more controlled and even attributed and peer reviewed environment. It is a grand dream. It looks well thought out.
Among many ideas, this one stood out for me:
Britannica will help them with research and publishing tools and by allowing them to easily use text and non-text material from Encyclopaedia Britannica in their work. We will publish the final products on our site for the benefit of all readers, with all due attribution and credit to the people who created them. The authors will have the option of collaborating with others on their work, but each author will retainIs this Britannica "getting" the commercial potential of Web 2.0, and like Google and YouTube planning to profit from it, or is it more?
control of his or her own work.
You can preview the new site, which is still in beta testing, at http://www.britannica.com/bps/home. A portion of the people who visit Britannica Online today are being routed to this site and are using it now; soon it will replace our current site at www.britannica.com entirely, and the new features we have described above will be introduced in the weeks and months ahead.I can't wait to see how this attempt to marry the best of the new with the best of the old works out, in the years and decades, rather than weeks and months ahead! One thing is for sure, at last the "old" is gone, buried and dead... I still wonder what the new will look like, and wonder at what it has already given us.
In the post that preceded the announcement and anticipated it a contributor, Jorge Cauz, three important principles:
- "ownership" - by which he means attribution and responsibility - about which none need fear or quibble
- "the voices and powers of experts" which is a much less attractive phrase than the Britannica's official "community of scholars" I hope the official version wins out, I would hate to be at the mercy of the power of experts, since the "experts" of the past become in the present fools
- "objectivity" which he claims is merely "difficult to attain", my view is that it is an impossible though perhaps desirable dream!
We believe that to provide lively and intelligent coverage of complex subjects requires experts and knowledgeable editors who can make astute judgments that cut through the on a topic.This reads to me dangerously like the tyranny of "experts" that every successful totalitarian regime in the 20th century ensured.Give me the "cacophony of competing and often
confusing viewpoints" over the bland, expert unitary point of view - but then I believe truth is more important than "standing" ;-)
Labels: digital, internet, open.access.scholarship, scholarship, web2.0
¶ 3:17 PM
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That is that the word for feet רַגְלָיו sometimes refers to what we might politely call 'other parts of the (male) anatomy'.I have never really been convinced by the claim. Sean cites the following passages as the best evidence for this supposed usage (the order is mine, as are the comments in straight type):
Exodus 4.25 But Zipporah took a flint and cut off her son’s foreskin, and touched Moses’ feet with it, and said, “Truly you are a bridegroom of blood to me!”
Now why on earth would one suppose that "feet" here is a euphemism - after all no euphemism was used for "foreskin" עָרְלַת seems explicit enough.
Deuteronomy 11.10 For the land that you are about to enter to occupy is not like the land of Egypt, from which you have come, where you sow your seed and irrigate by foot like a vegetable garden.
In Egypt is most irrigation done by peeing? No wonder they brewed so much beer! Or maybe the small earth dams on irrigation ditches are quite easily broken by foot?
If this one is a euphemism, does it not remove all the tension from the chapter where the most significant "gap" the hearer must fill is: "Did they or didn't they?" there is plenty of other innuendo in the chapter to build up the tension, without this (possible, maybe) one.
Isaiah 6.2: Seraphs were in attendance above him; each had six wings: with two they covered their faces, and with two they covered their feet, and with two they flew.
Really? Now why should face and feet not simply mean face and feet? Please explain!
Isaiah 7.20: On that day the Lord will shave with a razor hired beyond the River—with the king of Assyria—the head and the hair of the feet, and it will take off the beard as well.
Hairy feet or hairy [euphemism]? Which is more plausible? Though I suppose if the euphemism is for the whole genital area, this one might make sense.
Judges 3.24: After he had gone, the servants came. When they saw that the doors of the roof chamber were locked, they thought, “He must be relieving himself (literally 'covering his feet') in the cool chamber.” cf. 1 Sam. 24.3
At first sight, this one is good! In this sample I am almost convinced, there is a good case to answer, though why "covering his feet" should be a euphemism for peeing, and not merely another example of the rather gross schoolboy humour of the passage I am unclear.
2 Samuel 11.8 Then David said to Uriah, “Go down to your house, and wash your feet.” Uriah went out of the king’s house, and there followed him a present from the king.
Could be a euphemism, but then it could be that the sentence is euphemistic even if the "feet" are literal. "Wash your feet" = "make yourself at home"...
So, in the end, what evidence is there for this conventionally supposed common euphemism? Two cases where you might argue with some strength that reading euphemistically is the "best" reading, a couple more where it might just be possible but overall I'd say: No case to answer. In the Bible feet are just that. And Eglon as well as excessively fat, and greedy, also was known to his servants as having a poor aim. As the sign in our downstairs loo read for a while (we had teenage boys in the house) "We aim to please. You aim too, please!"
Labels: 2sam, bible, biblical.studies, deuteronomy, exodus, isaiah, judges
¶ 10:35 AM
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So how about a session at CARG devoted to recommending citations styles for e-texts, which could then go to the proper quarters to be included in the next edition (ten years is a very long time in scholarship in the 21st century ;-) of the SBL Handbook of Style.
Labels: biblical.studies, biblical.studies.online, bibliography, digital
¶ 9:25 AM
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In "Documents and Settings" under "Application Data" and hidden under "Mozilla" in the "Firefox/Profiles" directory is one for "Zotero" just COPY that to a CD or memory stick and you are safe(r).
Labels: bibliography, study-skills, zotero, zothelp
¶ 9:34 PM
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For those who use Mac OSX, the zotero folder is located, by default, inside your Firefox profile folder, which (be default) can be found at ~/Library/Application Support/Firefox/Profiles/xxxxxxxx.default/ . If you're using Spotlight for backup, as long as this directory tree is not excluded, your backup will include the Zotero db. See further: http://forums.zotero.org/discussion/1260/
By Tom Elliott, at
June 6, 2008 2:12 AM
Hi, Tim. Good reminder...
FYI, there is a way to sync Zotero across two computers using FolderShare. It's a bit awkward, but it's another way of keeping the data backed up.
For directions: http://bibleandtech.blogspot.com/2008/03/vertov-for-zotero-update-zotero-and.html
By mgvh, at
June 6, 2008 2:32 AM
Thanks Tom, my colleagues who use Mac OSX don't yet use Zotero so the information will be helpful for any Mac users reading.
Mark, yes synching is a good way to back up by the back door. My main backup synchs my Data folder and my Thunderbird profile I'll have to add Zotero to the mix - if only Windows and all programmers let ME choose what goes into my profile in "Documents and Settings" I could just back that up like MS wants, the trouble is it is 45GB with half my data still on the external drive only...
By Tim, at
June 6, 2008 5:47 AM
What happened to the video?
By Elizabeth, at
June 6, 2008 6:29 AM
The video looks OK to me, what did happen to it?
By Tim, at
June 6, 2008 6:57 AM
Great clip! In a recent update it became much easier to find your profile. If you open the advanced pane of your Zotero preferences pane you can click the "show data directory" button which will jump you directly to the Zotero directory on whatever platform you are using.
By trevor, at
June 7, 2008 3:40 AM
Thanks, Trevor, nice feature :) while we wait for the "Backup/Restore Zotero" button ;-)
Sorry I took a while replying, I wanted to try it first... Now I'll need to find a time to update the video :(
By Tim, at
June 16, 2008 4:55 PM
Re: the new feature for locating the files in Zotero (which IS a nice addition), I'd then like to drag the updated version of the files on my thumb drive into that directory, without closing Firefox. Does anybody know if it still causes problems to replace an sqlite file with Firefox running?
By Lynn / Ann, at
July 31, 2009 3:28 AM
This post has been removed by the author.
By Tim, at
July 31, 2009 5:52 AM
Hi, Lynn / Ann, the Zotero site recommends closing Firefox before backing up so that would probably be sensible. Though it sounds as if Zotero 2.0 is nearly ready, so perhaps not long to wait till manual backups are a thing of the past ;)
By Tim, at
July 31, 2009 5:54 AM
Blues CafeBuilding C, Ground Floor
602 Great South Road
(09) 579 2585
Get directions
Open Weekdays 7am-4pm (nb. this cafe is NOT open for weekend brunches)
The Carey staff were treated to breakfast at Blues this morning, a fine and fun sort of staff building exercise. Some of us got physical exedrcise as well, with a brisk (because of the cold frosty weather) walk there and back, Brian also got some extra exercise - parking is so difficult at Blues that he drove there and then almost back to Carey before he found a space ;-) on the return we walkers beat him home!
Setting: in the middle of an office park Blues does not feel industrial, it is open light and airey, with plenty of space around the tables. I'm told by a conniseur that they have a particularly good selection of magazines.
Overall: Good (but arrive on foot)
Food: here is good value, with the eggs Benedict coming out at $11, though the menu is fairly restricted and conventional. My eggs were a little cool and firm, but with a party our size this is not unexpected, cafe kitchens are not set up for 15-20 orders all at once.
Overall: Probably good (but do NOT arrive in a large party)
Coffee: full marks for offering large, medium and small, though lose a point for also offering double shot, which suggests that a "medium" long black just has one shot and extra hot water - I wish I'd seen the double shot upgrade before ordering. Though for the sake of all my colleagues who ordered "large" I'm glad or several would have developed the jitters during the following staff meeting ;-)
The Latte drinkers seemed happy, but my black was thin and a little bitter, with almost no crema.
Overall: Poor (unless you like milky coffee)
Labels: auckland_cafes, review
¶ 5:34 PM
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What if... we really used Moodle to the full
Some years ago at Carey we began to "move our distance teaching to the next level". Part of the plan was to install, and make good use of, an open source (means free) online "Course Management System" called Moodle.
Moodle allows:
- a central store of documentation for a course, which can be updated as soon as something changes
- students to be reminded of assignments that are due soon and other important dates
- one central place to email a whole class
- a place to store and deliver marked assignments
- a place to provide course related material like pictures, videos, links, PDF files of readings that did not get into the course anthology...
- teachers to set simple "quizzes" (with questions in various formats like multiple choice, short answer etc.) that can either count towards the course marks or simply provide feedback to students or check that they have done required reading
- cheap - no software costs, and even a professionally hosted option is not expensive
- easy - it takes very little time and instruction for even our less techie colleagues to work the basics, and usually not too long for someone to show you how achieve the less obvious goals
- scalable - anything from one course with one teacher to the whole British Open University (which with over 150,000 students is a but bigger than the average theological seminary ;-)
- fairly easy to manage, and there are plenty of people around with experience who can help.
Some courses at Carey really quickly began to make real use of the system. Brian Smith (our retired principal who had not used a computer before retirement) clocked up the most student contributions to a discussion simply by asking really thought -provoking leading questions. I used the tests to reward students with up to 10% simply by doing the "required reading" and as a result turned what I think before was 80% of the class in real life do about 20% of the reading, to 80% of the class do at least 80% of the reading.
But there are gaps. Some teachers hardly use Moodle - though not difficult it is one more thing to learn in a life that is too busy. Few of us actually get organised to post pictures and links relevant to our courses... So, implementation and take up of the possibilities are a bit hit and miss...
What if...
- We had a "Moodle consultant" (alias a technically minded senior student) who could spend an hour or two each week helping us to use Moodle more or better - guess how much more most teachers would achieve!
- We had a policy that all teachers and students in every class promised to take a serious look at the discussion forums for that class at least twice each week (maybe one or two hours of work to timetable in each week, but think of the greater communication with distance students and how much more time effective than individual emails replying one-on-one to questions)
- One of the Moodle consultant's jobs was to check what pictures and other resources we used in teaching the class onsite, and helped us make them available to distance students.
- A scattering of our courses set as an assignment to present readings online and then interact with other students presentations - I have seen such an assignment put a student in South-East Asia in contact with one in the South Island of NZ and "watched" the experience open the student's eyes to a wider world producing real formative change.
Labels: distance, internet, teaching, technology
¶ 1:59 PM
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Tim
This article is coming along well and I hope others add their penny's worth.
When I taught some online courses at Whitley College, one of the assignment tasks was to contribute to online discussion on the lecture--about 250 words each week with encouragement to interact with each other.
We did have classes each week but also distance students were part of the course.
Some people really got into the online discussion with enthusiasm. Others hung back. It was important to give sufficient marks for this to be deemed to be worthwhile and important.
One guy said that as an introvert he liked the opportunity to reflect on his contribution before posting it to the class discussion, whereas in the real class he often hung back.
As a lecturer, the first time I ran this I discovered there were more students and more work in posting lectures and resources online. I did not give the time to stirring the online discussion and interacting and I think online discussion requires this support from the teacher.
The next time around and subsequent times I did not employ a 'Moodle Consultant' or the like but simply a tutor, part of whose job was to stir the online discussion and to chase up the online tasks. I found this to be a great help and he did act as a consultant, especially for students who were emailing assignments for the very first time.
By Geoff Pound, at
June 4, 2008 6:10 AM
Geoff, yes, the time delay (and probably the quasi-anonymity) of online asynchronous "discussion forums" is great for us introverts, but teachers still have to watch for the non-participants and encourage them.
Your "tutor" sounds like a more upmarket version of my (grandly named ;-) Moodle Consultant. Perhaps different teachers would benefit more from each:
the low tech great teacher (like Brian Smith) could use a Moodle Consultant - assisting with some of the technical stuff, like reformating pictures to suitable size and uploading them;
the more techie could use a tutor to assist with the actual teaching (e.g. I am not good at "stirring the pot" as a peace maker I tend to try to calm it too much ;-) a "stirrer" like you describe would be great.)
By Tim, at
June 4, 2008 6:23 AM
