Christian Manifesto - Francis Schaeffer

Why do women think they are entitled to an opinion on male circumcision?

Where exactly do women get off opining on male circumcision? After a heated banter, resorted to this:
Videos showing intra-uterine development of male and female genitalia & detailed anatomy
http://www.doctorsopposingcircumcision.org/video/../video/Circumcision_WM7NTSC_256k_D.wmv

Infant circumcision with anesthesia
http://www.samkuninmd.com/docinfo/circvid2.php

Pre-adolescent circumcision with anesthesia
http://vimeo.com/6443101

Anatomy of the Penis
http://www.cirp.org/pages/anat/

Parkinson's Law - work expands so as to fill the time available for its completion

I heard this back in 2008 on a NPR segment but until today had been unable to recall the law's namesake. C. Northcote Parkinson first set forth the elements of "Parkinson's Law," as it is known, in the November 1955 issue of The Economist.

Microsoft actually explains something well

Microsoft normally explains things in terms of "you're an idiot so we can't really explain this in a way that will make sense" but this one struck me differently. I came upon it by accident. Here goes.

What is a homograph attack?
A homograph is a word with the same spelling as another word but with a different meaning. In computers, a homograph attack is a Web address that looks like a familiar Web address but is actually altered. This occurs when the domain name was created by using alphabet characters from different languages, not just English. For example, the following Web address looks legitimate, but what you can't see is that the "i" is a Cyrillic character from the Russian alphabet.

www.microsoft.com

Phishers spoof the domain names of banks and other companies in order to deceive consumers into thinking that they are visiting a familiar Web site. Special software is needed to detect these kinds of spoofed domain names in Web addresses. See the next section to learn more about how The 2007 Office release helps protect you from links that attempt to lead you to suspicious Web sites.

A company that banned email on Fridays. Food for thought

Heard this story on NPR this morning. Made me think about declaring my own email-free days.
http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=91724075

internet speed

So I was having a discussion the other day with someone who was some years younger and whose experience with the internet has largely been broadband. The discussion actually started with, "in my day, the web was too slow for porn." So then I had to explain how it could be too slow.

My first computer didn't even come with a modem. When I did get one, it was 2,400 bps. That meant nothing to my non-technical interlocutor. So I explained that my current broadband connection is 3 million bps. I think that got the point across. But then I realized how obsolete those memories are and how it would make a good blog entry to memorialize it. So how much has changed? Well, my connection is currently about 1,250 times faster than it was back in the day. So if my math is correct, a 1MB file back then would have taken 58min 15 sec to transmit under optimal conditions. Today, it would take about 3 seconds.

Turning the other cheek

The noting of "turning the other cheek" stems from Matthew 5:39 (also Luke 6:29 in some translations). Not too long ago, I was thinking about the phrase "turn the other cheek." I don't think that Jesus intended for us to subject ourselves to wanton abuse. He did, after all, instruct his disciples to shake the dust from their sandals if a town does not receive them. He didn't tell them to retaliate, but he didn't tell them to remain in a hostile situation.

So what does this have to do with turning the other cheek? Maybe the idea is that we should deflect the blow, but not retaliate. Instead of standing there in defiance to the punch, why not turn your head in the direction opposite the blow. If you are about to be hit on the right cheek, turn your left cheek away from the blow. Deflect the brunt, absorbe the rest. Be at peace with yourself, knowing that you did what you could do and do not allow yourself to be provoked to negative actions. So, turn the other cheek away from the attack. Maintain the peace and do not retaliate so that you may act in love and turn away wrath with your soft response.