Banquets

I find banquets frustrating. The level of ambient noise from distant conversation makes conversing with anybody but the person next to you difficult, and almost everybody is quite some distance away. You catch a fragment of a conversation that sounds interesting, but too far away to join in.

Can you work out a seating arrangement for a banquet in Heaven?

If we weren't limited to 4 dimensions... How about a "Hilbert table" with as many dimensions as guests, everybody sitting next to Jesus and kitty-corner with every other guest?

Various notes

The study this morning was on Romans 4 and 5, and several rabbits got chased.

How come Adam gets the blame and not Eve? I've heard a several different explanations, which make assumptions about what was going on (Adam forgot to tell Eve the directions, Adam was standing right there, Adam was head-of-household responsible for what Eve did) that resolve into making Adam the main culprit. But if we're making assumptions, why not assume that Paul is rhetorically using the first man as a stand-in for us all, since the Romans passage goes on to say that all sin. That's been the implicit assumption in most discussion of Romans 5, might as well make it explicit.

In Romans 4:11-12 Abraham is described as the father of both the circumcised and uncircumcised believers. In 18-20 he is described as having unwavering faith that God would give him a child. If I read Genesis correctly, he, impatient, got part of that a little confused and tried a shortcut with Hagar (at Sarai's suggestion). So perhaps Abraham is also the father of those of us who believe but get things a bit confused sometimes.

Which, of course, leads into Zacharias vs Mary: "How will I know" vs "How can this be" aka "Can you show me some ID?" vs "What do I need to do?" With answers "OK, you'll be the proof" and "Nothing." Abraham might have done better to ask "How will this be?" and get details clear.

And somehow the question of whether there can be peace without freedom came up at table today. That reminded me of a famous song, which I may not be remembering entirely correctly...

The crown has made it clear
The climate must be perfect all the year

A law was made a distant moon ago here
July and August cannot be too hot
And there's a legal limit to the snow here
In Camazotz
The winter is forbidden till December
And exits March the second on the dot
By order summer lingers through September
In Camazotz

Christmas costume

The worship arts Christmas party invitation wanted us to show up in Christmas-themed, or at least winter-themed outfits. I didn't read it that closely, and wore the same sort of thing I used to wear to work.

I said that I dressed as one of the wise men.

Cartoon

An optical allusion?

Humor

I wonder how far that's true.

AVI has written a good deal on humor not aging well, and that may be related--the jester is putting together something temporary. That could get hard on you (as the title Treadmill to Oblivion suggests).

I generally do pretty well adding light humor to a conversation, and provide my share of Dad jokes, but if you corner me and say "Tell a joke" the headlights glare in this poor deer's eyes.

And I've found that after the conversation, no matter how many bon mots flew, I rarely remember any of them. They were things of the moment: yes, apples of gold in pictures of silver, but maybe more like unkeepable manna than actual gold.

I hesitate to draw conclusions from this: some people have written enduring humor. But a lot of times humor doesn't keep well, or translate well. In good conversation it doesn't have to, because for the moment it's alive. I wonder how much of our humor is taking these evanescent butterflies and tying windup motors to them to make them show up when I want them to.

I suppose it is, at that

"Buy used: $49.95"

Not brand new, anyway.

Live in Concert

The billboard advertised a performer I'd never heard of, but that headline brought something else to mind first.

"make my joy complete by being of the same mind, maintaining the same love, united in spirit, intent on one purpose."

Renaming

Renaming things is pretty easy in google maps--just change a name or two in a database--but there are so many things to rewrite...

Traditional sightings

At solstice the news had photos of the usual suspects circling the standing stones at Stonehenge and clambering around barrows--dreaming of a wight Christmas?

16 days early?

Platinum-crystal hydrogen fuel cells work more efficiently with caffeine. At least on the P(111) and P(110) crystal faces; on the P(100) face the caffeine molecules attach with a bad angle.

The coffee jokes write themselves.

Penances?

I should ask somebody why Christ Lutheran has lutefisk and meatball dinners.

Cautions

To keep seedlings from growing leggy and spindly, it helps to provide them with a gentle breeze. We have acquired some small fans.

1. This product is not a children's toy, for children under 10 years old, please use under the supervision of a guardian.
2. Please do not knock this product, otherwise it will cause internal damage.
3. Please do not occupy this product in a fire to avoid the risk of explosion.
4. If the product becomes abnormally hot or deformed during using, please stop charging immediately.
5. Please do not use this product in a twisted environment (such as a bathroom) to avoid short circuit damage.
6. If abnormal phenomena are found (such as burnt smell or abnormal sound, etc), please cut off the power supply immediately, please do not disassemble or modify it without authorization.
7. Please do not put the product into the fire to avoid the risk of explosion.
8. During the operation of the fan, do not insert your fingers and sharp objects into the mesh cover to avoid personal injury or damage to the fan.

It has apparently similar instructions in other languages, and yes, the French version expects the bathroom to be "twisted" as well. I am trying to picture that.

Learning

"Sometimes people ask me how I know all the random s-t I know (with varying degrees of politeness and belief in its veracity), and all I got is 'I have ADHD, an internet connection, really good research skills, and zero self-regulatory mechanisms' " @rahaeli on r/adhdmeme

Winter

It's 25F with a damp breeze, and every scraped windshield is framed with frozen slush. Their bumper-sticker reads "Life is better outdoors."

Tombstoning

You buy online space for your ad, but what will the headline be?

Jerusalem Post: "Nearly half of Israelis fear a second Holocaust is coming - poll"

The ad under it: "Full catering and beverage packages available."

It's an animated ad, of course, but by the time I'd scrolled down the bit about "The Brink Lounge" had vanished.

Does that explain them?

If taking a photograph steals a bit of your soul, what happens to movie stars?

Apparently I'm not the first to notice...

Is October difficult?

When Elijah taunted the prophets of Baal, he suggested that perhaps Baal was asleep, or taking a leak, or on a journey.

It seems that the Japanese tenth month is the month without gods, when all 8 million of them go on vacation (pilgramage?) to Izumo Shrine. I don't believe the wikipedia attempt to fiddle with the etymology--I'd guess that the spoken language's usage would dominate, not the spelling.

After the Japanese adopted the Gregorian calendar, October became the problematic month. Interpret as you please.

Why? It's hard to tell--the suggested "plausible" explanation suggests that it began as a family reunion and match-making discussion session, but the background info isn't enlightening.

Odd primes

We've probably all seen the "proofs that odd numbers are prime" as done by different professions:

Physicist: 3 is prime, 5 is prime, 7 is prime, 9 is an experimental error...

Engineer: 3 is prime, 5 is prime, 7 is prime, 9 is prime...

Modern physicist using renormalization: 3 is prime, 5 is prime, 7 is prime, 9 is ... 9/3 is prime, 11 is prime, 13 is prime, 15 is ... 15/3 is prime, 17 is prime, 19 is prime, 21 is ... 21/3 is prime...

Quantum Physicist: All numbers are equally prime and non-prime until observed.

Professor: 3 is prime, 5 is prime, 7 is prime, and the rest are left as an exercise for the student.

This site has the largest collection I've seen, together with a picture of a disputed calendar tool or list of primes?

---

The latter link is part of a Mathematicians of the African Diaspora set of web pages. A quick perusal suggests that they claim way too much--trying to infer non-euclidean geometry theorems from artwork, for example. It brings to mind an interesting question--is Egypt part of Africa? By geography and if you want an impressive history, obviously yes--but if the subject is politics and quotas, no.

Beating the house

How 4,000 Physicists Gave a Vegas Casino its Worst Week Ever .

Hint: the casinos bid for the convention business w/ extra-low rates.

State of Nature

Unsuspected agreement. (It's a series of comics based on philosophers--sometimes funny, sometimes bitter.)