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MAR SBL Regional Proposal Deadline Looms

December 6, 2009

Abstracts for proposed papers to the SBL Mid Atlantic Regional Meeting are due on December 7th. The conference will be held March 11-12, 2010 at the Hyatt Regency Hotel in New Brunswick, New Jersey. For more info, including where to send your proposals, check the official call for papers.

Stroll Ancient Pompeii Virtually

December 4, 2009

Google Street View now allows you to virtually tour the ruins of Pompeii in 3D. Check it out here.

According to this BBC story:

Italy’s culture ministry says it hopes the move will boost tourism to the site, state news agency Ansa reports….

“Giving people a chance to take a virtual stroll through Pompeii will give an extraordinary boost to Italian tourism,” Ansa quoted Mario Resca of the culture ministry’s heritage promotion department as saying.

Very cool.

(HT: AWBG)

Biblical Studies Carnival XLVIII is up

December 1, 2009

It’s that time again.

Biblical Studies Carnival XLVIII is being hosted by Doug Chaplin at Clayboy. I’d like to point out that why I am delighted to see posts about Ugaritic, I would be even more delighted by posts — something I’d be working on myself, if not for all these pesky student papers I have to grade…

Additionally, the Biblioblogs Top 50 for November is also posted. I’ve inched up to 23rd this month, based largely off of a lot of searches on the Epic of Kirtu. (Who ever is looking this up all the time, please drop me a line!)

Happy Thanksgiving

November 26, 2009

There’s an article by Michelle Tsai at Slate on the origins of turkey as the dish du jour at Thanksgiving day feasts. Personally, I will be eating tofurkey; but have a wonderful day regardless of your choice in comestibles.

Grammar Is Dangerous

November 22, 2009

Bad grammar, dangerous and possibly explosive:

Schizophrenic Abraham

November 20, 2009

Image by BEattitude.com

Top 8 Ways Students are Cheating Today

November 19, 2009

Carin Ford at HigherEdMorning.com has compiled a list of the Top 8 ways students are cheating today. This is the list (in no particular order):

  • Copying — Whether it’s eyes roving during a test or a so-called “study group,” it’s still copying.
  • Buying papers online — It doesn’t get much easier than this. Papers on just about any topic you can think of are available — and most can be downloaded instantly.
  • Cheat sheets — This perennially popular form of cheating is made even easier with today’s electronic devices.
  • Take a picture — If a professor leaves a test on his desk, all it takes is the click of a student’s cell phone camera to steal it.
  • “Can I go to the bathroom?” — Once there, a student can call or text friends for answers during a test.
  • MP3 players — Students can put anything on their iPods — including lecture notes. And with many professors letting students listen to their MP3s during tests in order to focus and relax …
  • Cell phones — Is there a better — or easier — way to store data?
  • When is a candy bar more than a candy bar? — Believe it or not, some students have peeled off the wrapper, scanned it, edited the nutritional info into test answers and rewrapped the candy bar — where it sits on the student’s desk during an exam.

I encourage folks to follow the link and read the comments for more of the sneakiness of our technological age.

Graph of Paper Buzzwords

November 18, 2009


From PHD Comics.

Meditating on the Dao

November 17, 2009

My favorite line of the Daodejing:

不欲琭琭如玉
珞珞如石

Do not desire what jingles like jade,
but what rumbles like rock!

Text via Wengu, translation by Philip Ivanhoe.

SBL Regional Proposals Deadline Dec 7th

November 13, 2009

Just a reminder, Dec 7th is the deadline to submit proposals for the 2010 Mid Atlantic Regional SBL meeting in New Brunswick, NJ. Instructions on how to submit can be found at SBL’s website:

http://www.sbl-site.org/assets/pdfs/2010MAR_CALL.pdf