The Secret Lives of Bibliobloggers Revealed

As many of your blogging heroes ready themselves for New Orleans, they’re getting in the spirit. And their antics have been caught by, of all things, Google Street View! Prepare to be shocked!

Rob Kashow

Christian Brady

Chris Tilling

Daniel and Tonya

James Crossley

Jim Linville

Nick Norelli

I Don’t Make ‘Em Up, I Just Point ‘Em Out

Like this comment on Deane’s previously mentioned post with it’s photographic comparison.

Where In The World Is Jim Linville Now?

In Russia, doing research as a ‘homeless’ person for yet another new SBL section he’s thinking of putting together titled ‘Homelessness, Hunger, and The Bible: The Russian Experience (with a short side trip to Montreal)’. But it seems he’s gotten himself in a little bit of trouble that I hope he get’s out of before Friday!

Russian police have arrested three homeless people suspected of eating a 25-year-old man they had butchered and selling other bits of the corpse to a local kebab house. Suspicions were raised when dismembered parts of a human body were found near a bus stop in the outskirts of the Russian city of Perm, 1,150 km (720 miles) east of Moscow.

Yuck. That sure will cure you of kebab lust won’t it… Oh, and the other two with him were Scott Bailey and Tyler Williams (! I know, I was surprised about Tyler too!)

Uninsured? Go Ahead and Die

That’s the message the nation’s hospitals are sending loud and clear these days.  How?

Uninsured patients with traumatic injuries, such as car crashes, falls and gunshot wounds, were almost twice as likely to die in the hospital as similarly injured patients with health insurance, according to a troubling new study. The findings by Harvard University researchers surprised doctors and health experts who have believed emergency room care was equitable. “This is another drop in a sea of evidence that the uninsured fare much worse in their health in the United States,” said senior author Dr. Atul Gawande, a Harvard surgeon and medical journalist.

Thanks, health care industry. We appreciate your concern.  Still, I have to say I’m surprised that doctors and health care experts are surprised.  Apparently they don’t bother to look around.

Huh?

Maybe I’m tired.  But I didn’t understand this at all.  Anyone care to spell it out a bit please?  I’m eager to learn.  I’d hate for Deane to have spilled his seed on the ground for nothing.

Yet Another Reason Bing Stinks…

First, it promotes twaddle (ok I know loads of you use it- but that doesn’t hinder me from thinking it bollocks);  and second, God, ‘tweeting’?  And Bing bringing you those ‘tweets’?  And third, God on the same level as ‘Oprah the New Age Religionist Queen’ and ‘Lance The Atheist Steroid-er Armstrong’????  Triple gag.

My normally calm and peace-riddled disposition became more than a little disgruntled at the sight.  Bing stinks.  And it’s more than worthy of my new category, ‘disdain’, a category I will use quite liberally I think.

The Cline Strikes Back

In response to the report mentioned in the previous post, Eric writes (in comments, and elevated to the status of post itself here since some of you don’t read comments)

Jim —

I agree. Along those lines, I felt obliged to post a reply to that above article, as follows:

Chris — You might want to take a look at the book itself, for your posting above is riddled with errors. For one thing, you’ve got the name of the king wrong in your opening paragraph. For another, I don’t call Jerusalem a “cow town” — the exact quote is “While some scholars argued that it was indeed a mighty capital city, as described by the Bible, others believed that it was simply a small “cow town.”” The reference is to an article by Nadav Na’aman, who coined the phrase. My book is a summation of biblical archaeology, from its origins to the current debates today, with neutral statements as to the opposing sides, as opposed to what you state above. You might find it of interest. Cheers, Eric H. Cline

As Bad As The Times Caption Was, This Is Far Worse

I pointed Eric Cline to the Times photo caption and he replied with mention of this dreadful piece of misrepresentation.  Which is made worse, isn’t it, because it’s source of information about the Tel Dan stele is Wikipedia!  What ghastliness.

The ASOR Media Committee is really going to have its hands full.

For Those Who Pray

The Catholic Biblical Association has put together a new page on its website with requests for prayer for various of its members.  If you are the praying sort, add these members of CBA to your list:

11/6/09: Barbara Bowe has been recovering from surgery for a brain tumor.

11/6/09: Dan Harrington is responding very well to treatments for prostate cancer.

11/14/09: Larry Boadt was diagnosed with aggressive bladder cancer in April. Since then, he has received two major rounds of chemotherapy and the tumor has shrunk significantly, and the lymph nodes have cleared up so that the doctors are very positive on the treatment so far.

Remember these, then.

If You’re Going to Talk About tel Dan, Don’t Label it ‘Ten Dan’

It just makes you look ignorant.  (And I have a screenshot below for the inevitable moment when someone at the Times bothers to proof read their copy.  And hey, the ‘l’ and the ‘n’ aren’t close enough together on the keyboard that it could actually be an accident anyway).

I’m saddened by their lack of attention to detail precisely because the story is a look at Eric Cline’s new book on Archaeology.  I can assure you, he never calls the tel Dan inscription ‘ten dan’.  So don’t let the Times dissuade you from reading it.

(Report via the always vigilant Joseph Lauer).