A “WTF is this publication?” moment

While reading various conservative political web sites, I stumbled on a link to this Ignatiuis book/DVD/CD called “The Da Vinci Hoax.” The summary in the ad where I saw this indicated this publication would “…expose the many errors and fabrications found in The Da Vinci Code.”

Naturally, I couldn’t skip finding out all the factual errors in a fictional work, so I clicked the link. And to my surprise, I find out that this looks to be intended as a serious work.

Now the insights and arguments of the best selling exposé, The Da Vinci Hoax, are available on DVD. Apologist Carl E. Olson, historian Sandra Meisel, and Jesuit biblical scholar Fr. Mitch Pacwa, S.J. join forces to expose the myths of Dan Brown’s popular novel, The Da Vinci Code.

Using top-notch graphics and outstanding art, this powerful, in-depth documentary gives an inspiring visual and intellectual presentation on the real truth about Christianity, and a devastating critique of the numerous errors and deceptions in The Da Vinci Code about Jesus, Mary Magdalene, the early Christians and the Catholic Church.

This was almost to comical to stand. I spoke to some family members. I asked if any of them felt the need to read a rebuttal of a fictional work released years ago. None of them thought any book pointing out the factual errors and fabrications of such a book was necessary.

Try as I might, I couldn’t find the expected 6 book set which would point out the factual errors and fabrications in the Harry Potter books which have been released so far. Thinking perhaps the amount of fabrications in these books combined with their relatively recent releases was sufficient to hinder the publication of such a book, I decided to look further back. Astonishingly, there is also no book written to point out the errors and deceptions in J. R. R. Tolkien’s The Lord of the Rings books either. I’m not certain how much further back I will have to look to find a sufficiently old fictional work which will have a Hoax book to rebutt it.

Once I get done with The Da Vinci Hoax I think I’m going to petition for books to cover Tolkien’s works – I’m almost certain there is no creature like the so-called “Gollum” in his books. Were there such a creature, I’m almost certain we would have found proof of its existance by now. Similarly, I am not sure I believe that a ring can grant invisibility to its wearer, nor that any such ring can only be destroyed by dropping it into lava – especially the claim that only the lava from one particular mountain will melt the ring really pushes that claim into the suspect category. The rest of the books might be real – I can’t tell. But I’m pretty sure those other things are just made up. Now I need to find a book to prove this for me.

[tags]The Da Vinci Hoax, The Da Vinci code, Books you think are satire but are serious, A WTF publication[/tags]

Today in history – Harry Houdini dies

October 31, 1926:

Harry Houdini, the most celebrated magician and escape artist of the 20th century, dies of peritonitis in a Detroit hospital. Twelve days before, Houdini had been talking to a group of students after a lecture in Montreal when he commented on the strength of his stomach muscles and their ability to withstand hard blows. Suddenly, one of the students punched Houdini twice in the stomach. The magician hadn’t had time to prepare, and the blows ruptured his appendix. He fell ill on the train to Detroit, and, after performing one last time, was hospitalized. Doctors operated on him, but to no avail. The burst appendix poisoned his system, and on October 31 he died.

And that, dear friends, is people are stupid.  Who the hell thinks that punching someone unprepared in the stomache is a clever thing to do?  Idiots.  That’s who.

[tags]Today in History, Harry Houdini dies, Stupid human tricks[/tags]

Worth1000 Star Wars celebrities contest

I just spent a little bit of time catching up on Worth1000 contests. I didn’t like many of the recent ones, honestly, but going back about a week came on a winning contest with scads of entries – Star Wars scenes with other celebrities in them. There are 10 pages of entrants, and the first has a good handful of really cool pictures. Here’s a new Yoda that just twists the character a touch. Continue reading “Worth1000 Star Wars celebrities contest”

50 worst game names ever

You see them, and you wonder WTF the marketing folks were thinking. For example:

wild_woody.jpg#45 – Wild Woody – Wild Woody was also the the star of this game, a bright yellow No. 2 pencil that threw sticks of dynamite. Welcome to the mascot graveyard.


and

princess_tomato.gif#43 – Princess Tomato in Salad Kingdom – And then pretty much just skip the salad course, because this vegetable-themed adventure game had no meat. On the other hand, you gotta see the melons on that tomato.


Just a small taste of all the horrible goodness that is bad gaming naming.  Some more possibly unintentional p0rn names made the list for the games.
[tags]Worse games names, Bad names for games[/tags]

Scott Adams, man of the perfect comparison

A friend recently shared with me the link to Scott Adams’ (of Dilbert fame) blog post discussing regaining his voice after 18 months being unable to converse in a normal tone.  Recently, Scott posted another article which included a comment about all the traffic and feedback he’s gotten on that article.  Going from 25,000 hits a day to around 180,000 hits a day had a profound effect on him.  So profound, in fact, that he made one of the best quotes ever on how this reaction has affected him.

I am more touched than a congressional page.

That’s quality writing you just won’t get from the big networks.

[tags]Scott Adams, Congressional pages[/tags]

Slow swimmers

Here’s a comic I got from a co-worker.  I don’t know where he got it.  If someone points the way, I’ll be glad to throw out a link to the original location.

slow_sperm.jpg

[tags]Slow swimmers, How much further, Are we there yet?, Just past the tonsils[/tags]

Tetrahedron rotation symmetry group

No, I don’t actually know what it means. Yes, I have the words to accompany it. No, they don’t help me understand it. Yes, I understand the words individually. No, I don’t comprehend the words in the sentences given. Yes, I posted this because it’s shiny.

250px-Tetrahedral_group_2.svg.png Symmetry is a foundational concept in several sub-disciplines of mathematics, particularly geometry and abstract algebra. The rotation symmetry group of the tetrahedron (shown here) associates the 12 different orientations of a tetrahedron with two kinds of spatial rotation that rearrange those orientations: a 120° rotation around each of the 4 vertices (reddish arrows), and 180° rotation through opposite edges (blue arrows). Diagrams illustrating the symmetries of a mathematical object in this format are called cycle graphs.

Oh, and yes – it is something I picked up from Wikipedia – possibly the greatest resource in the known universe.

[tags]Tetrahedron rotation symmetry group, Shiny picture with mathematical explanation[/tags]

Burning Crusade delayed

News to exactly zero of the people who have ever waited on a game from Blizzard to ship is this release that World of Warcraft: The Burning Crusade has been delayed until January 2007. Over the past 17,000 years, Blizzard has shipped, I believe all of NO games on time. I could be wrong about that, but if any have shipped on time, the number is a sufficiently small percentage of their releases to be considered a statistical sampling anomoly and not an actual indication that Blizzard can ship games at a date in the vicinity of the announced ship dates.

Blizzard Entertainment(r) today announced that the release date for World of Warcraft(r): The Burning Crusade(tm), the highly anticipated expansion for World of Warcraft, will be in January 2007. By adding a few extra weeks to the development cycle beyond its original target date, Blizzard will be able to extend the closed beta test and further refine the new content that will ship with the game.

Oh, and throw in a couple of TMs or Registered trade mark, or some other fancy legal symbols up there in my post. I’m sure someone somewhere might think for just a moment that my posting about the company Blizzard, which has produced mediocre console games, excellent PC games, and a number of vaporware titles over the past 20 or so years, will somehow be mistaken as talk for the company Blizzard which I own or some crap like that. Likewise for the game title – it ain’t my game, so throw in some official looking legalese markers of some sort there. Bleh.

[tags]Oh surprise – Blizzard delays a product launch, Burning Crusade delayed[/tags]

Pluto’s planetary status was long in doubt

More from the way-back archive that is Modern Mechanix, we see this November 1934 article from Science and Mechanics in which Pluto’s status as a planet was already in question.

mm-sml_little_pluto.jpgSINCE his discovery, the planet Pluto has been a good deal of a disappointment to his sponsors. Now Dr. Baade, of Mt. Wilson observatory, estimates that Pluto’s mass is something like that of Titan, the largest satellite of Saturn. But the mass of Titan, though the diameter is 2,600 miles, is but l/50th that of the Earth, or less than twice that of the moon. So that Pluto ranks as the largest asteroid, rather than the smallest planet; and it may be necessary to look farther for unknown planets.


I never before realized that Pluto was referred to as “he” either. Hmmmmm.

[tags]Pluto’s planetary status has long been in doubt, Pluto as a planet back in 1934[/tags]