Coffee Klatch

There’s a commercial for Checkers, a hamburger chain with drive-thrus on both sides, that they ran last year sometime. They’ve set it up so they can put different specials in the right places and still use the commercial, so they’ve just released it again. I saw it this morning while watching the news and it still makes me laugh.

The basic deal is that the right side and the left side “compete” for customers and there’s a guy on each side, saying why you should use THEIR side drive-thru. That’s what most of the Checkers commercials are about. In this commercial, the Right Side says they’ve got the same deals, but they’ve also got Rap Cat! Check out the video:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Xr1K2du4nJA

Checkers has even given Rap Cat his own WEBSITE! Okay, it’s not particularly funny or anything, but the more you listen, you just can’t help laughing!

[tags]commercials, television, humor, rap cat[/tags]

While there have been people for ages theorizing that Jesus was married and had children (some Gnostic gospels (not accepted as inspired or part of the Bible) claimed this and the Merovingians even claimed to be descended from Jesus), the whole Da Vinci Code craze has brought it to mainstream thought. Even though it was written as fiction and is full of research errors, many people take the Da Vinci Code as truth. That topic has been discussed ad nauseum by bloggers, theologians, newspaper reporters, and the general public, mostly being disproven, so I’ll let that lie.

The big news today was that somebody is claiming to have found Jesus’ “real” tomb, complete with tombs of his mother, wife, and at least one child. James Cameron (of Titanic infamy) has produced a documentary movie called The Lost Tomb of Jesus, which accompanies a book called The Jesus Family Tomb. They’re based on the discovery of this tomb that has similar names to people in the life of Jesus. It is quite the controversy and has been discredited by eminent archaeologists, but the contronversy continues.

The claim is based on there being a 2,000-year-old cave with tombs with the names of “Jesus, son of Joseph,” Mary, Mariamne (supposed to be Mary Magdalene), and “Judah, son of Jesus.” They’ve even tried to link this tomb through forensic “evidence” to the one of Jesus’ supposed brother, that turned out to be a fake.

Problem: Jesus, or Yeshua or Joshua, was the 6th most common name in Israel at that time. But “Jesus, son of Joseph” alongside a tomb of someone named Mary is supposed to raise the certainty to near-fact. Except for the actual fact that “Joseph” was the 2nd most common name then and Mary was also one of the most popular girl names. (See Ilan, Tall. (2002). Lexicon of Jewish Names in Late Antiquity: Part I: Palestine 330 BCE-200 CE. Tubingen: Mohr.)

That would be like saying that a grave in England with the name William, son of William, found alongside a grave named Mary conclusively would have to be William of Orange.

The spouse and child information would be relevant IF THERE WERE ANY RECORD OF JESUS BEING A HUSBAND AND FATHER. But there isn’t because he wasn’t and so this movie and book are simply another example of shoddy research attempting to capitalize on the success and popularity of other fictional stories.

Here are some external links of interest:

• Reuters: Filmmaker shows relics from disputed Jesus tomb
• Jerusalem Post: Israel may open ‘Jesus tomb’ to public
• Associated Press (via mlive.com): NewsFlash - Scholars criticize new Jesus documentary
• Singing in the Reign: A Titanic Claim: Jesus’ Body Found?
• Kath.Net: Jesus’ Family Tomb Discovery is a Titanic Fraud

[tags]Jesus, Talpiot, Da Vinci Code, archaeology[/tags]

Looks like there’s another Google application that I haven’t particularly blogged about before. It’s Google News. It’s been around for a while now–so long, in fact, that it doesn’t say BETA underneath the logo any more!

This is another one of those cool Google sites where you can just use it the way it is, with selected headlines and browsing and searching capabilities, or you can personalize your news page. Just like for your Google home page or the Google calendars or groups, you’ll need an account with Google, but if you don’t already have one, it’s worth your while to Create a Free Google Account since you get access to so many cool and customizable things.

And of course you can also set up RSS and Atom feeds for anything you want in Google News. Again, you can take advantage of the news categories that Google already set up, or you can create your own categories (with corresponding feeds) by just doing a search within Google News and then clicking the RSS link on the resulting page. Want something more complicated? Do an Advanced Search to create complicated searches or even to limit your results to news from a particular country or news source.

Since Google News references 4,500 news sources and is constantly updated, this is an excellent way to get the latest news from around the world on whatever topic you want.

And because Google products are always developing and evolving, there’s a new feature available: the News Archive Search, where you can search for news stories through history and see how the stories developed. They even have timelines that are created based on your search!

[tags]news, Google, Google News, technology[/tags]

Boy, I’m really starting to be a Blog Slacker! Seems like every week I’m missing at least one day. Then again, the Marketing Profs offer a Top Ten list of reasons why blog post frequency doesn’t matter any more. Michael Stephens, on Tame The Web, says that the mentality of blogs requiring daily posts is a “Web 1.0 mindset.” The focus, instead of being on daily updates and quantity, should be on decent, quality posts. Less than daily if that’s what it takes. The end result, then, will be a more mature blogging environment.

So there you go. It’s not that I’m too busy and can’t come up with stuff. I’m choosing to be a more mature blogger!

Anybody who uses the Internet or pays attention to the news has at least heard about YouTube. The basic function of the site is allowing people to upload videos and share them with others. There are more complicated features, of course, but that’s the basics.

Here are a few cool and interesting videos that I’ve found on YouTube lately (besides Tunak):

• The Raleigh Ringers playing Wizards in Winter (from Trans-Siberian Orchestra)
• World Freehand Circle Drawing Champion
• Funny “Street Magic”
• MXC
• White & Nerdy (Weird Al and Donny Osmond)
• White & Nerdy - The Very First Take
• Weird Al - Bob (song is all palindromes!)
• Weird Al - The Saga Begins
• Star Wars Kid
• Numa Numa
• New Numa (yes, a sequel. not as good, but you’ll still want to see it)

Lots of Weird Al on there, if you like his music/videos. [tags]YouTube, videos, comedy[/tags]

Want to see some of those commercials again? Visit http://cbs.sportsline.com/nfl/postseason/superads

Next week begins a dreaded yet necessary road construction project in Indianapolis. It involves repairing much of a six-mile stretch of I-70, which is one of the main highways running through town. Specifically it will close the east side, from downtown to the ring highway (I-465). This is half of my daily trip to work! Which means I’ll be looking for new ways to work for the next 8-9 months.

They’ve put together a really nice website, anyway, that lets you know exactly what’s getting closed when: super70.in.gov. They have a timeline, fact sheet, and maps of everything.

The highlights of the project include:

• Replace 75 lane miles of pavement (inside and outside shoulders and travel lanes)
• Replace 28 bridge decks
• Widen inside shoulders
• Reconstruct I-70 over Sherman Drive
• Add new signs and lighting
• Add new pavement markings

There’s also a cool video clip that shows how the movable road barrier system will work. It’s amazing how that work, although I suppose we shouldn’t be surprised. Technology should allow this kind of thing already. Glad to see them using it.

Since it’s been over 30 years since this highway was built and it hasn’t ever been rebuilt, it’s quite due. From the sounds of things, and the information they’re providing on the website and through local TV news, this promises to be as smooth a project as possible. At least they’ve planned well, provided alternate routes, and made sure that communication is prolific and widespread. That really helps.

[tags]construction, highway, Indianapolis, road construction[/tags]

You may have noticed that I haven’t posted much in the last week. Part of that is because of health issues and part is because of technology issues. Okay, MOST of it is technology issues. Last Wednesday morning, my laptop wouldn’t boot. I blogged about this last week, but I’m just today getting a new hard drive. What a long weekend to NOT have my laptop. And, no, I still haven’t gotten it to boot off a boot disk or anything, so it looks like I’ll lose anything that I hadn’t backed up already. >:o

But at least I’ll have a new hard drive after today. And at no additional cost to me. I guess that part’s okay. Could have been much worse. And after I get everything restored, which will take a day or two, I’ll be more easily able to maintain my blogs.

To leave you with SOMEthing worthwhile (besides the value of extended warranties for laptops), here’s a quote from G.K. Chesterton:

The Byzantines hammered away at their hard and orthodox symbols, because they could not be in a mood to believe that men could take a hint. The moderns drag out into lengths and reels of extravagance their new orthodoxy of being unorthodox, because they also cannot give a hint– or take a hint. Yet all perfect and well-poised art is really a hint.

Okay, this is funnier the more you watch it. The song, called “Tunak” for short, is performed in this video by Daler Mehndi of India. The music is fun and the video is light, fun, and kinda funny. But this YouTube version has a “transliteration” where somebody has taken the original Punjabi lyrics and treated them as English, showing them on the screen. The more you listen to the song, the more you’ll think these ARE the actual lyrics.

What’s also interesting is that his dance from this song was used in World of Warcraft for a particular race’s dance “emote.”

This could easily be the 2007 version of All Your Base Are Belong to Us!

And if you want to watch the original video, where the sound and video are clearer and better synced, visit http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-bAN7Ts0xBo. It’s actually a lot of fun and I can see myself enjoying his music. This video is apparently the first music video coming out of India that used blue-screen technology. Visit his official website for more info.

Just make sure you watch the parody first. Then when you watch the original, you’ll laugh as you hear the words you THINK he’s saying!
(You may need to turn up the volume. This parody has really low audio.)

[tags]youtube, tunak, daler mehndi[/tags]