Idealogian

So Bad It's Good

It's always funny when lots of effort goes into making something intentionally, profoundly and painfully bad.
At least I hope it was intentional.

Going to the chapel and we're / Gonna wreak ha-a-avoc

Why can't I ever get invited to an interesting wedding?

They Shalt Not Steal

"An orthodox rabbi in Brooklyn was charged yesterday with stealing about $700,000 in federal grant money that was supposed to go toward building a school for disabled children." Horrible thing, if it did indeed happen, and worthy of discussion in its own right. But right now I'm more interested in the headline the New York Post placed above the story: "Thou Shalt Not Steal."

I'm not an avid reader of the New York Post (I happened to see someone reading it on the subway), but I'd bet they don't use that headline for every article about theft. Granted, there's a certain hypocrisy when a member of the clergy does something like this. But I suspect (though I could be wrong) that they wouldn't even use that headline if a priest or minister were accused of the very same crime. Current events in Alabama notwithstanding, I wonder if there's a perception by Christians that the Ten Commandments are "owned" by or relevant to the Jews in particular.

It brought to mind the time a Catholic co-worker asked me to explain the meaning of the holiday of Shavu'ot. After checking that he had a basic familiarity with Bible, I explained (in an admittedly simplified answer) that Shavu'ot is the anniversary of the day Moses received the Ten Commandments on Mount Sinai. He thought for a moment and responded, "Oh. So how come we don't do that? We believe in that too! At least I think we do."

What do most Christians do with the Ten Commandments? If they consider the other laws of the Old Testament to be no longer binding, are these any different? (I'm not suggesting good Christians think it's OK to steal; I know they don't. I'm simply wondering whether that's on the authority of the Ten Commandments or not, and why.)

Comments are invited.

Days of Wine and Chocolate

The latest research shows that dark chocolate can have significant health benefits:

A German study published Wednesday in the Journal of the American Medical Association suggests that eating dark chocolate can lower blood pressure. Other experiments show cocoa flavonoids may reduce harmful blood clotting properties and decrease low-density-lipoprotein (LDL), known as the "bad cholesterol."

However, the results differed for milk chocolate:

Lead author Mauro Serafini said the subjects' antioxidant potential did not rise noticeably when they consumed a glass of whole milk with the dark chocolate, or when they ate milk chocolate. He said it's possible that antioxidants bind with milk proteins making absorption more difficult.

I suppose that means it's better to drink chocolate syrup straight up.

And now, through the wonders of selective quotation, I can disregard all the skepticism expressed in the rest of the article and conclude with this partial authoritative quote:

"I guess this means to be healthy you should eat chocolate with red wine," said Andrew L. Waterhouse, a nutrition professor at the University of California at Davis.

Ignorance is Bliss

Mike May was blinded at the age of 3, but thanks to an experimental stem cell transplant has been able to learn to see 43 years later. Fascinating story (as is his online journal), but what really struck me as interesting was this:

May was a champion skier when he was blind (a guide skied in front of him and shouted directions), but he had to close his eyes the first time he skied as a sighted person because the experience was so terrifying.

Evite's Day of Atonement

Sent last Friday:

Dear Evite Newsletter Subscriber,

Yesterday we mailed a newsletter to our subscribers with incorrect dates for three important holidays. Please accept our sincerest apologies for these errors and note the following corrections:

    Labor Day, September 1st
    Rosh Hashana, September 27th
    Yom Kippur, October 6th

In addition, we also wish to apologize for having listed Yom Kippur as one of our "Reasons To Party." We understand and respect that Yom Kippur is a Day of Atonement, a day to be taken seriously to reflect and fast, and as such, one of the most important Jewish holidays in the year.

Again we deeply apologize for the error and thank you for allowing us to make this correction.

Very Best,
The Evite Team

And besides, a party just isn't a party without some chips and salsa!

Weather "Forecast"

The AccuWeather "Local Forecast" on my Palm this morning:

Today
A shower cannot be ruled out in the morning; times of clouds and sun

And the rest of the 5-Day Forecast:

Tuesday
Umm, sunny, maybe. No, wait, cloudy. OK, mostly sunny... with a slight chance of hail?

Wednesday
Hey, your guess is as good as mine.

Thursday
What do I look like, a prophet?! How am I supposed to know?

Friday
C'mon, gimme a break. Just look out a window or something.

There's Always Room For JELL-O^®

Scans Show Why We Always Have Room for Chocolate

"You sit down to your eight-course meal for your birthday and you have gone though all the appetizers and entrees and just as you feel you can't fit one more thing in your tummy, then they bring the dessert menu or the dessert cart rolls by and suddenly you discover you have room for the chocolate fondant," [Dr. Jay Gottfried of the Wellcome Department of Imaging Neuroscience at University College London] said in a telephone interview.

"This is specific satiation -- you are full of one thing but not another."

This only confirms what my younger sister used to insist (back when she was still my "little sister") when she had been too full to finish her vegetables but was eager to have some cookies: "There's still some room in my dessert stomach!"

None of this, however, is anything new:

Abaye said, "...Room for sweets can always be found."
        -Babylonian Talmud, Tractate Megilah, 7b

Hello! My Name Is _Reuven_

I thought I'd start off by introducing myself and my blog. My name is Reuven Weiser; I'm 25 years old. I grew up in New Jersey, but I now live and work (as a computer programmer) in Manhattan. You can find out a bit more about me at my other home page, though I don't update that site all that often any more.

As you can see there, I have somewhat of a flair for graphics not yet reflected on this page. I do hope to redesign this site eventually, both graphically and functionally. A comments system would be nice. I'm pretty sure I could program a blog system better than what Blogger/BlogSpot provides, but for now this is free and quick and easy. Maybe I'll check out MoveableType.

I'm not yet sure what form this blog will take. I don't think it will be as single-minded as some other blogs out there, so it probably won't win any Bloggies for "Most Humorous Weblog," "Best Weblog About Politics" or "Best Computers or Technology Weblog," but hopefully it will be a nice blend of those and other topics that matches my eclectic tastes.

And finally, a note about the name of the blog. Yes, I know it's not a word. But then neither is "InstaPundit" or "OxBlog." I wanted to call it "IdeaLog," but that was already taken (by a complete waste of space, I might add), as were a bunch of other good names, so I decided to make up a word. I'm not yet sure what it means, though I do I have a vague idea. Maybe I'll try to come up with a formal definition later on; for now, I just like the way it sounds.

Why I Hate Blogs

Listed below, in no particular order, are a few reasons I hate blogs:

1. They're pompous. Look no further than the term "blogosphere" for indications of that.
2. They're boring (and I'm not even talking about this one). I don't particularly care what you had for dinner last night (unless it happens to be relevant to the current state of the cosmos).
3. They're too personal. I really don't need to know how things are going with your girlfriend.
4. They're bloated. When the blog you used to like reading reaches twenty postings a day, you should seriously reconsider whether it's worth the time and effort.

That being said, I think blogs have a lot to offer. For example, without them I never would have learned of the dangers of Dihydrogen Monoxide, nor would I have been enlightened by the Fellowship Baptist Creation Science Fair (in which, among other exhibits, Cassidy Turnbull, grade 5, "has conclusively shown that her uncle is no monkey" after she "tried to feed her uncle bananas, but he declined to eat them"). (The former site is intentional satire; the latter, astoundingly, isn't.) And some bloggers even have interesting things to say in their own right, or at least elicit interesting comments.

So I'm starting a blog, in the hopes that I'll have something to offer without commiting any of the above offenses. It's a tough balance to strike, but that doesn't seem to have stopped anybody else; why should it stop me?

(Speaking of me, perhaps I'll write a little bit about myself in an upcoming post.)

Enjoy!