Get Cynical

The Chaldean Flood Tablets from the city of Ur in what is now Southern Iraq, describe how the Bablylonian God Ea had decided to eliminate humans and other land animals with a great flood which was to become “the end of all flesh”. He selected Ut-Napishtim, to build an ark to save a few humans, and samples of other animals.

The Babylonian text “The Epic of Galgamesh” 1,8 and the Hebrew story are essentially identical with about 20 major points in common. Their texts are obviously linked in some way. Either:

• Genesis was copied from an earlier Babylonian story, or
  
• The Galgamesh myth was copied from an earlier Hebrew story, or
  
• Both were copied from a common source that predates them both.
  

The Coffee Room Monitor is a working class toy, or a useful big-brother tool. Pegs on the mugboard are assigned to various employees, and these pegs are then monitored. The results of this monitoring are patched to seemingly innocuous StarWars figurines, as well as a screen display. If someone’s has their peg off the shelf, they’re on coffee break: if you’re avoiding them, you can make sure not to go on break when they are; if you’re seeking them, you know where you can find them; if you’re the boss and they’ve been breaking for more than 15 minutes, you can give them the heck that they deserve.

After having conquered some of the Russian lands, Batu Khan heard of Kitezh and ordered his army to advance towards it. The Mongols soon captured Maly Kitezh, forcing Georgy to retreat into the woods towards Bolshoy Kitezh. One of the prisoners told the Mongols about some secret paths to the Lake Svetloyar. The army of the Horde followed Georgy and soon reached the walls of the town. To the surprise of the Mongols, the town had no fortifications whatsoever. Its citizens didn’t even intend to defend themselves and were engaged in fervent praying, asking god for their redemption. On seeing this, the Mongols rushed to the attack, but then stopped. Suddenly, they saw countless fountains of water bursting from under the ground all around them. The attackers fell back and watched the town submerge into the lake. The last thing they saw was a glaring dome of a cathedral with a cross on top of it. Soon, there were only waves.

Usually watching CNN with one eye as we blog from our undisclosed location doesn’t give us much new fodder, except for the occasional “stuck landing gear” crisis. But today we are aghast at the coverage of Chinese President Hu Jintao at the White House.

At an outdoor ceremony, Bush told Hu:

China has become successful because the Chinese people are experience the freedom to buy, and to sell, and to produce — and China can grow even more successful by allowing the Chinese people the freedom to assemble, to speak freely, and to worship.

Seconds later, one of the people assembled on the White House south lawn actually tried to speak freely right here in America — about both the lack of free speech and religious freedom in China.

That free-speaking woman was promptly hauled off and arrested:

Language experts are amazed TOM CRUISE and KATIE HOLMES have named their baby daughter SURI – because there is no record of the name meaning “Princess” in Hebrew. According to Hebrew linguists, Suri has only two meanings – one is a person from Syria and the other “go away” when addressed to a female.

The parable describes a shopkeeper whose window is broken by a little boy. Everyone sympathizes with the man whose window was broken, but pretty soon they start to suggest that the broken window makes work for the glazier, who will then buy bread, benefitting the baker, who will then buy shoes, benefitting the cobbler, etc. Finally, the onlookers conclude that the little boy was not guilty of vandalism; instead he was a public benefactor, creating economic benefits for everyone in town…

The fallacy of the onlookers’ argument is that they considered the positive benefits of purchasing a new window, but they ignored the hidden costs to the shopkeeper and others. He was forced to spend his money on a new window, and therefore could not have spent it on something else. Perhaps he was going to buy bread, benefitting the baker, who would then have bought shoes, etc., but instead he was forced to buy a window. Instead of a window and bread, he had only a window. Or perhaps he would have bought a new shirt, benefitting the tailor; in that case the glazier’s gain was the tailor’s loss, and again the shopkeeper has only a window instead of a window and a shirt. The child did not bring any net benefit to the town. Instead, he made the town poorer by the value of one window.