Red Dawn redux!

Red Dawn is being remade! I loved that movie when I was a kid. This quote by the new director has me really excited:

''As Red Dawn scared the heck out of people in 1984, we feel that the world is kind of already filled with a lot of paranoia and unease, so why not scare the hell out of people again?''

Ha! Go ahead. Scare the heck and hell out of me.

Uh-oh

Obama: Swine flu 'No cause for alarm'

Now I'm really worried -

Like a narrator for a ride queue at Disneyland...

...was what Bobby Jindal sounded like tonight. I was hypnotized by his hands, which were perfectly synchronized with his speech. Oof.

Archaeologists unearth seal impressions from the time of Hezekiah

In May of 2007 I posted about some ancient seals that were discovered in Israel. Now the Jerusalem Post is reported on another stunning archaeological find: Seal Impressions Unearthed in Jerusalem. The impressions were made around the time of King Hezekiah (i.e., ~700 B.C.).

To give you an idea of what these seal impressions probably look like, I have posted a video below.


Related Post: Archaeologists Reveal Seals from the Time of David

Sometimes ideas are not just ideas

I've said it before, but I am compelled to reiterate: Michelle Malkin is a terrible writer. I return to her weblog on occasion, and each time I find myself navigating away with a queasy feeling in my stomach. No matter that I happen to be on the same side of the majority of issues she discusses, I think the spirit with which she conveys her positions is atrocious.

I'll stick with Powerline and my own take on the mainstream media narrative, thank you.

Google hacked?

Since I had to search a little too long to find this answer, I figured I'd post it to myself:

Yahoo Answers forum on Google reporting every site as being harmful to your computer

If you're having "This site may harm your computer" messages, have no fear. I'm going out on a limb and saying Google was hacked. Every site couldn't possibly have badware on it!

Update: It's fixed. Thothe Google geniuthes are THO amathing!

Another good one

...from my Mensa calendar.

Find the national capital hidden in each of these two sentences:

1. In Miami, Stan bullied us to quit our jobs.

2. The actor on "Today" sipped the Dewar's awfully slowly.

The answer is in the comments.

It's pronounced PENNIS-ton

Granted, I'm not sure I'm smarter than a 5th-grader, but I'm not sure I want to be after reading this article in the New York Times today. It gave me more than a little chuckle!

Good one

From my Mensa calendar today:

Guess the number. Bob guesses 20. Bob, jr. guesses 23. Jake guesses 25. John guesses 26. Samantha guesses 27. One was off by 1, two were off by 2, and one was off by 5. One person guessed correctly.

Who guessed correctly?

(The answer is in the comments.)

Linus is smarter than CNN

An archaeological dig near Jerusalem has uncovered gold coins from the 7th century A.D. As CNN reports the story, the coins were discovered in the "City of David" -

The 1,400-year-old coins were found in the Giv'ati car park in the City of David in the walls around Jerusalem National Park, a site that has yielded other finds, including a well-preserved gold earring with pearls and precious stones.

In the Christmas season, I would have thought CNN would make mention of Bethlehem being the City of David referred to in the famousest of Gospel accounts of the birth of Jesus Christ! I understand Jerusalem is also called the City of David, being King David's stronghold, but it is December 23, after all. Two days before we celebrate the birth of the Savior of mankind.

I will gladly admit I am writing this post with more than a little bit of pride, since I played a game yesterday with the kids in Sunday school, and this was one of the trivia questions I asked them. The kids got it right!

How many Christians - or Jews, for that matter - does CNN have working for them these days?

My thinking is that in the Christmas season, when everyone and their brother are reading Luke's account of the story of the birth of Jesus, you'd think somebody at CNN might have taken this opportunity!

Linus would have done it!

And there were in the same country shepherds abiding in the field, keeping watch over their flock by night. And lo, the angel of the Lord came upon them, and the glory of the Lord shone round about them: and they were sore afraid. And the angel said unto them, Fear not: for, behold, I bring you good tidings of great joy, which shall be to all people. For unto you is born this day in the City of David a Saviour, which is Christ the Lord. And this shall be a sign unto you; Ye shall find the babe wrapped in swaddling clothes, lying in a manger. And suddenly there was with the angel a multitude of the heavenly host praising God, and saying, Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace, good will toward men.

Click to hear let Linus tell us all what Christmas is really about!

I'll go ahead and say it: Jesus doesn't get the kind of respect he deserves!

Merry Christmas!

Jesus

I'm going to keep this at the top of my weblog for a while. I am moved each time I watch it, and I can't currently see how anything I could write could be more important. It is the most moving portrayal of the Gospel I have seen in a long time.

To watch it on full screen, click this text and then click the square on the lower-right of the YouTube TV window.

Two major collapses in 2008

John Hinderaker at Power Line writes:

2008 will be remembered, I think, as the year in which the collapse of traditional American media became irreversible.

I would only add that 2008 will be remembered as the year in which the collapse of economic capitalism in America became irreversible as well.

Those aren't complaints, by the way - just observations. There's no use in complaining!

Raising TAMI

Science Daily has picked up a news feed from Vanderbilt about a new decision-making instrument I created with two of my colleagues called the Test Accessibility and Modification Inventory (TAMI). I am in utter amazement at the extent to which modern news can be generated automatically - Vandy wrote the story in mid-September and then sent it to several news aggregators, and mere days later, out popped tons of links to the story.

We sent copies of TAMI (in reality, she is a double-sided trifold) to every state superintendent of education in the country and to every major testing company, as well as to assessment directors in all 50 states. God knows where all this will lead -

Update: Since its publication, EdWeek featured TAMI in the election week issue in a story about the work we're doing around the instrument and developing accessible tests... Very cool.

I had a dream...

...last night that I took a train ride from New York to London. Judging by the map I was using to mark my progress during the ride, the track went under the ocean.

There is a really cool idea called the Vactrain, which involves building train tracks in tunnels that have been "evacuated" - that is, all the air has been removed from them. The tunnels could be built deep enough to go under the ocean and in concept, trains riding on these tracks could travel at 4000-5000 MPH, making the trip from New York to London in less than an hour. About as long as my dream took. Intercontinental air travel would become obsolete!

Of course, fruition of this invention is prohibited by cost (tunnel-digging costs a lot...all those shovels and metal lunchboxes for the workers) but if anyone thinks of a way to dig a tunnel under the ocean on the cheap, leave a comment and I'll pass it along to Wikipedia. I'm sure he'll know what to do from there. (After all, Wikipedia knows everything.)

Need a pick-me-up? Watch -

Man saves ducklings from inadvertent suicide jump

Sorry I couldn't spare you from the obligatory CNN video advertisement, but if this doesn't bring a smile to your face, I don't know what will!