One of the clear signs that various Who’s Who organizations that I’ve mentioned before on this blog are scams is the fact that every day my spam filter usually contains at least one “final notice” from them about my “opportunity” to be included in their Who’s Who directory. All the ones I’ve come across thus far simply take money from anyone willing to give it to them and in exchange include that person in their directory. Is “Strathmore’s Who’s Who” the... Read more

Out of curiosity as to where the 2012 International Meeting of the Society of Biblical Literature might be held, I typed “SBL International 2012” into a search engine. This quickly led me to a site which informed me that “According to the SBL project director, the extra functions of SBL include “defending/attacking anti-space-based fights (i.e., anti-satellite missions); “preventing enemy use of space (such as destroying enemy launching); preventing information input/output of satellites (likely to use low-energy beams to jam satellites... Read more

Mark Goodacre shared this video earlier today, but I didn’t find the time to watch it until this evening. It explains why most scholars think the Gospel of Mark was the first of the canonical Gospels to be written – using Mr. Potato Head! Read more

Mark Goodacre has pointed out that the long lost and much missed blog Apocryphicity has in fact been continuing its existence at a new location. When I went to pay a visit, I was immediately struck to find a recent post entitled “Prayer of John the Baptist.” Tony gives a longer and shorter version of the prayer that he came across in Syriac sources: Longer version: Now, the first prayer of John to his disciples: “Father, show me your son. Son,... Read more

I’ve been thinking about an assignment idea for a freshman class. Has anyone ever given students an assignment that asks them to plagiarize? I’m seriously thinking about it, although I’m also conscious of some potential pitfalls and issues. My thinking is that students could get the following out of an assignment of this sort: Students who are unclear on the concept of plagiarism will need to learn what it is in order to complete the assignment. Students who think plagiarism... Read more

In the video below, Ken Miller, the renowned Roman Catholic biologist, explains one example of evidence for evolution, and ends with a theological point about why he rejects Intelligent Design: HT Hemant Mehta Read more

Not everyone has the time or skill necessary to make Italian tomato sauce from scratch. Most of us eat sauce from a jar most of the time. But you can certainly improve even store-bought sauce with relatively little effort. Grow your own basil in your garden, or if necessary in a pot or box on a window sill. Add fresh basil to your sauce from a jar, and you’ll be amazed at how much it improves the flavor – and... Read more

Jim West has taken it upon himself to revive the languishing tradition of the Biblical Studies Carnival, and asks for posts to be submitted, particularly ones related to Old Testament/Hebrew Bible. I hope that Jesus: The Video Game will be included… Read more

Chad at the Political Jesus blog is reading, and has started a blog series reviewing, James Dunn’s book Did the First Christians Worship Jesus?: The New Testament Evidence Read more

I’ve been trying some new templates, layouts, color schemes and other style modifications on the blog. The header is now more “Matrixesque” than it was. I thought about putting a LOST background behind the blog title, but having given the blog a title which mentions the Matrix, it seems appropriate to stick with it, however much that leads to the blog having a distinctively “retro” feel. Of course, one of the themes of the Matrix movie series was that the world that humans think of... Read more