hochmann-y goodness

Mark 3:28-30: “Truly I tell you, people will be forgiven all their sins and all the blasphemies they utter. But whoever blasphemes against the Holy Spirit will never be forgiven, but is guilty of an eternal sin.

Matthew 12:30-32:…But the blasphemy against the Spirit will not be forgiven. Anyone who speaks a word against the Son of Man will be forgiven, but anyone who speaks against the Holy Spirit will not be forgiven, either in this age or in the age to come.

Really anything else can be forgiven in some form. Once you have denied the Holy Spirit though, you are fucked. Game over. You are 100% for a fact going to Hell... Even if you have “saved” an atheist and converted them to Christianity, aren’t they still damned? It seems to me once anybody declares themself an atheist they deny God’s existence. It’s a waste of time, because once somebody has commited the “eternal sin” there is no going back.

A reader sent in links to two identical Microsoft marketing sites. One is a standard U.S./English version, the other in Polish.

The image is identical, except Microsoft has removed the head of the black man in the U.S. version and photoshopped in a white guy’s head instead.

The list below currently includes items containing High Fructose Corn Syrup from the following fast food restaurants: Arby's, Blimpie, Burger King, Chick-fil-a, Dairy Queen, Jack in the Box, KFC, McDonald's, Subway, Taco Bell, and Whataburger.

Remember, while Subway has "fresh" sandwiches loaded with veggies, those veggies are put on bread containing HFCS. Though this list may be incomplete or some items may no longer have HFCS in them these days, I think the point is this -- if you're going to eat out, even at a "healthier" place like Subway or Blimpie, you should assume that you're getting some HFCS with every bite.

Almost half of tested samples of commercial high-fructose corn syrup (HFCS) contained mercury, which was also found in nearly a third of 55 popular brand-name food and beverage products where HFCS is the first- or second-highest labeled ingredient, according to two new U.S. studies.

HFCS has replaced sugar as the sweetener in many beverages and foods such as breads, cereals, breakfast bars, lunch meats, yogurts, soups and condiments. On average, Americans consume about 12 teaspoons per day of HFCS, but teens and other high consumers can take in 80% more HFCS than average.

HFCS is scary stuff, people. When I came back to the USA after living in China for 2 years, if I had a Coke or anything with lots of HFCS in it, I would get stomach pains. China uses mostly real sugar, so my body was no longer used to HFCS, and it was now reminding me just how bad that stuff can be! Even without mercury, this crap can't be good for you.

I think it’s unfortunate that Flickr would embark upon yet another act of censorship when an image was so clearly parody and fair use. What bothers me even more is that this is still another example of Flickr censoring users who are critical of President Obama and his policies. In June Flickr deleted the entire account and photostream of Flickr user Shepherd Johnson after he posted comments critical of the President on the Official White House Photostream. Now I’m actually a Democrat who voted for President Obama and am super happy to see the President using Flickr. But while Flickr’s staff is obviously proud of the fact that they have President Obama’s official photostream on Flickr, I don’t think that this fact ought to be the impetuous for them to censor and delete users who are critical of the President.

(via Thomas Hawk on flickr.com)

This kind of boneheaded censorship really smacks of hypocrisy and a kind of paranoia reminiscent of the Chinese government. There have been TONS of similar mocking images of President Bush -- did Flickr take THOSE down because of "copyright infringement"? I'm curious to know if that ever happened. Regardless, this is an idiotic move by Flickr and Yahoo.

It's a shame I recently re-upped my annual membership with Flickr. I believe it is time to seriously rethink in whose hands I put my content. Even if Flickr never censored one of my own photos, the fact that they have repeatedly pulled this kind of crap is enough to make me want to get my stuff off there and stop giving them extra exposure or traffic by way of my content. And I certainly won't be sticking around to renew my Flickr account next year, that's for sure.

Ramadan commemorates the month in which the Qur'an, the word of God (or Allah), was first revealed to the Prophet Muhammad... Fasting during Ramadan means more than abstaining from food and drink. During Ramadan, one must also avoid sexual activity, arguing, gossip, expressions of anger and envy. The purpose of these restrictions is to encourage self-discipline and devotion to prayer, elevating attunement with the divine.

This is a very well-written, short & sweet overview of what Ramadan is all about and how it is observed. Though I am not a Muslim, I do have great respect for Islam and the Qur'an, and feel that a month-long fast like Ramadan is perhaps one of the most noble practices you will find in any religion.

 BEIJING, Aug. 20 (Xinhua) -- A star-studded television fundraiser on the Chinese mainland raised more than 310 million yuan (about 45 million U.S. dollars) for victims of Taiwan's deadliest typhoon in half a century.

I'm rather proud to see a fundraiser work on this scale in China. I know that fundraising and social outreach are still rather new for the Chinese, especially given the fact that only recently are families discovering disposable income that allows them to be generous.

In summer 1969, UNIX was born. And thank the geeky gods for THAT! If not for UNIX, there'd be no Linux. And if not for the two of them, a lot of geeks like myself would be stuck using mediocre crap like Windows -- not to mention that a lot of outdated hardware would be useless, because Microsoft can't optimize their code!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY UNIX!