The Ark and The Dove

Brain Sex Differences Quiz

The BBC put up and online quiz that's supposed to figure out whether you have male or female brain. My results are below the fold.

Reader appeal

Anyone out there who speaks Japanese (I am pretty sure this is Japanese) - perhaps Tim or Stephen, if you're around - would you be interested in telling me what this says?

My mother got it some time ago from an aunt who traveled to Japan (if I remember correctly what this is) and I am curious as to what it says.  Inside the box that this is the label of is a small scroll.

Resistance is Futile

Take a guess at what the following is:

If you guessed Borg cube, well you're wrong, it's actually a tabernacle. I'm not sure what the symbolism is, maybe the superiority of the Catholic faith? The idea that you can run but can't hide from the Church of Christ? The best interpretation of what this can symbolize in the comments wins a prize.

via The Cafeteria is Closed

The Association of Religion Data Archives

I found poking around this site to be interesting. I have no idea why random facts about religion amuse me. But I am glad to see that only 13.6 percent of people never ask for God's help.

http://www.thearda.com/

Job Hunting

The letter that Peter won't have to send:

Herbert A. Millington
Chair - Search Committee
412A Clarkson Hall, Whitson University
College Hill, MA 34109

Dear Professor Millington,

Thank you for your letter of March 16. After careful consideration, I
regret to inform you that I am unable to accept your refusal to offer me
an assistant professor position in your department.

This year I have been particularly fortunate in receiving an unusually
large number of rejection letters. With such a varied and promising field
of candidates, it is impossible for me to accept all refusals.

Despite Whitson's outstanding qualifications and previous experience in
rejecting applicants, I find that your rejection does not meet my needs at
this time. Therefore, I will assume the position of assistant professor
in your department this August. I look forward to seeing you then.

Best of luck in rejecting future applicants.

Sincerely,
Chris L. Jensen

Huh?

For a long, long time my personal email account enjoyed a spam-free existence - the few solicitors who somehow learned my address were filtered out by the built-in spam filters.  But lately a few have been getting through.  They typically consist of stock tips followed by these bizarre non sequitur-loaded blocks of text.  They are probably getting through the filters because the spammers have started to catch on that they are less likely to trip spam filters if they use normal people-sounding names and have innocent-sounding subject lines.

I don't get the text blocks, though.  They're not totally random; they have some semblance of Englishy-ness, but not enough to be definitely meaningful sentences.  Some of them sound like rather like modern poetry.  In the extended post is an example with my own commentary.  I didn't want to clutter up our site with this silly text.

Merry Christmas to all

I hope all of you out there had a very happy and blessed Christmas.  Best wishes for the same for the whole Christmas season.  Happy Feast of St. Stephen, Feast of St. John the Evangelist, and Childermas as well.

I'm going to watch the Terps play in the bowl game, so I don't know if I'll get near a computer between tomorrow and New Year's.  I may, but probably the posting is up to Al and Peter if they are not too busy with festivities.

Wait! Don't go away!

It's not the end of the blog, though, even if we didn't post for four days.

No bizarre calamities occurred at the last second, so Peter's long years of tireless intellectual labor have been rewarded with a doctor's hood.  You should go congratulate him if you haven't already. 

The End of the World as We Know it...

There's about two hours left to go before the big ol' graduation ceremony. I'm trying not to get too maudlin or overly-sentimental about the thought of closing this seven-and-a-half-year long chapter of my life. I'm trying not to second guess the choices I've made, or the paths I've followed, or the number of carbs I ate when everyone else seemed to be going on Atkins diets. I'm trying not to think about the myriad of tasks which I never got around to accomplishing, or my growing collection of rejection letters from employers and/or academic journals. I'm trying not to think about the logistics of post-graduation celebrations. I'm trying not to think about whether the gastroenterological consequences of the mildly exotic dinner I had last night will strike me while I'm trapped on stage.
And, above all, I'm not trying to think about the future.

I suppose all that sounds pessimistic.

I'm not really afraid of the future, though. Pretty much throwing caution to the wind and relying on God's grace (often through the generosity of others) has worked well for me this far.
The only really burning question for me is whether or not I'm doing what I'm meant to be doing. But I imagine that is a fairly universal question for all soon-to-be-hooded PhD's.

Anyway, the next time you hear from me, it will be official...
Unless I find something really funny or interesting to say in the next two hours.

Time Wasters Part 1 -- The Lists

As time winds down for Christmas break I'm sure a lot of you are spending time in your offices trying to look busy while you read our blog, so here are a few links for your amusement.

50 Tools to help you writing
The Origin of Words and Names
God's Yellow Book -- If you don't think this is for you read the doubt section
Rules to remember while partying
Fourteen Things That It Took Me Over 50 Years To Learn—by Dave Barry
How to Win Friends and Influence People