http://www.joelnothman.com/blog Hobbily blogging Thu, 31 Jul 2008 12:07:19 +0000 http://backend.userland.com/rss092 en After an extensive discussion with a friend involving belief, rationality, numerology, science, psychology and all other sorts of big picture matters, we have concluded that there are three types of believers (at least within the context of Judaism): The one that does not challenge his beliefs The one that challenges and finds ... http://www.joelnothman.com/blog/2008/07/14/believers/ I think I'm probably stating the obvious here. If we take a single trace of an article such as Tom Cruise through the category hierarchy in Wikipedia, we find out that he is merely a theory... Tom Cruise → 1962 births → 1960s births → 20th century births → Births by ... http://www.joelnothman.com/blog/2008/06/22/wikipedia-categories-ontology/ After a few articles about "Al-Naqba" in the AJN, I wrote to suggest that they should be using a k and not a q: There is no q in "Al-Naqba". The Arabic spelling includes the equivalent of a Hebrew kaf, not their quf. It seems 'q' is used, often by Jewish ... http://www.joelnothman.com/blog/2008/05/29/no-q-in-nakba/ I've updated the chart linked from my previous post to include an English translation. Thought that might help some people. http://www.joelnothman.com/blog/2008/04/24/memorial-prayer-now-in-english/ I will be singing next week at one of the communal commemorations for the Holocaust next Wednesday night. At first I was going to only be singing with the Sydney Jewish Choral Society (my usual Wednesday night entertainment), but they invited me also to sing El Male Rachamim (the memorial ... http://www.joelnothman.com/blog/2008/04/24/memorial-prayer/ I just remembered that I'm now well past page 123 of The Surgeon of Crowthorne (I'm well past the book's end). Unfortunately, I can't say that the 6th, 7th and 8th sentences on the page (see the meme) are the most exciting: Each and every time he found a word that ... http://www.joelnothman.com/blog/2008/04/23/anticlimax/ I should read Simon Holloway's blog more often. Not only do I enjoy his clearly-put insights, but I managed to miss by over a month the one time he was tagged in a blog meme and decided to tag me in turn. As he puts it: Pick up the nearest book ... http://www.joelnothman.com/blog/2008/03/23/tagged-in-turn/ First, Keren became USyd's sample student. Now this: Trudi told me he was everywhere. But it was hard to avoid a full-page in Honi Soit... http://www.joelnothman.com/blog/2008/03/18/famous-faces/ strong { font-size: 1.5em; color: #330 } The last two to three weeks have been pretty trying for Israel. But I happen to want to talk about the two weeks before then, just to give a few highlights (fairly extensive highlights?) from my trip to Israel for my brother's wedding. http://www.joelnothman.com/blog/2008/03/14/two-weeks-in-israel-a-summary/ The Third Commandment ((Or possibly the first or second after an introduction, depending on how you count.)) ((ref:dibrot)) treats the matter of mistreating God's name quite bluntly: Do not take the name of the Lord your God in vain; for the Lord will not acquit one who takes His name ... http://www.joelnothman.com/blog/2008/01/29/on-swearing-and-swearing-sociolinguistics-and-the-third-commandment/