Category: Of Random Interest

On a more frivolous note, there’s a new Strongbad email with four video games at the end!

Photos from the crab boil are now in the photo gallery.

We’ve got some pretty good shots this time, if I do say so myself.

By the way, you can call Nathaniel “Freddy” from now on.

Tolkien fans might be interested in this news story about the complex simulation program that created the climactic battle scene in the Return of the King.

“For the first two years, the biggest problem we had was soldiers fleeing the field of battle,” Taylor said.

“We could not make their computers stupid enough to not run away.”

Now that’s artificial intelligence!

There are some new photos in the Chi Alpha photo gallery.

Also, the software has been recently updated so there are a few new features in the gallery.

Feel free to play around!

The Boston Globe has a neat article that references the Boston area Chi Alphas:

“When I came to MIT, I was expecting it to be full of nerds — people who don’t really put together science and religion,” says Benjamin Brooks, a senior from Paterson, New Jersey, who belongs to the MIT chapter of the evangelical group Chi Alpha. “I was really surprised — and still am — by the volume of Christian fellowship here.”

and later The Boston University chapter of Chi Alpha holds regular “The Gospel According to The Simpsons” gatherings.

The article is called God on the Quad and talks about the evangelical presence on the Boston campuses.

FYI: I just tried to upgrade our photo gallery software, and something went horribly awry. All the photos are still there, but something weird is happening with them.

UPDATE: I fixed it. Check out the new photos.

Halloween is upon us once again.

Three random links for your viewing pleasure:

* Extreme Pumpkins shows us the pumpkins that deep-down inside we’ve always wanted to carve…

* In a true story, a tough sailor saves his crew by killing a 600 pound shark in 1–1 combat.

* The Home Star Runner Halloween series:
   2000: The HomeStarLoween Party
   2001: The House That Gave Sucky Treats
   2002: A Pumpakin Carve-nival
   2003: 3 Times Halloween Fun-job!

Time magazine has an interesting article on the idea that one’s religion is better than another’s. The author paints a more nuanced picture than you might guess based on the title.

As a devout believer, Boykin may also wonder why it is impermissible to say that the God you believe in is superior to the God you don’t believe in. I wonder this same thing as a nonbeliever: Doesn’t one religion’s gospel logically preclude the others’? (Except, of course, where they overlap with universal precepts, such as not murdering people, that even we nonbelievers can wrap our heads around.) Although Boykin’s version of Christianity seems less like monotheism than the star of a high school polytheism tournament, his basic point is that Christianity is right and Islam is wrong. Doesn’t the one imply the other? Pretending that my religion is no better than your religion may make for fewer religious wars, but it seems contrary to the very idea of religion. For this, you take a leap of faith?

Read The Religious Superiority Complex (check out Christianity Today’s weblog for related info).

Bored at 3am trying to get a paper done? Divert yourself with this smattering of optical illusions.

My favorite is the biological motion illusion.

I just ran across a cool site: KwMap. In their own words KwMap.com is a complex keyword refining tool, aiming to help you discover new keywords. It is a fact that search engines can only help you in finding something if you know the right keywords.

The results look pretty neat. Here’s a search on Stanford and here’s one on Chi Alpha.

If you prefer a more timely search, here’s one on Iraq.