Beware of zombies tonight! If you happen to run in to any tonight, HowStuffWorks.com has provided a guide to how zombies work. It could aide in your recognition and drestruction of unwanted zombies.
For a quick fix:
According to Haitian folklore, feeding salt to a zombie will return it to its senses. Often the zombie then attacks the bokor who created it or returns to its place of burial and dies.
You can also check out the Wikipedia article on zombies for further information, help, instruction, and guidance. Watching Dawn of the Dead (image at top) or other films of the like should also provide appropriate help and clue you in to common pitfalls.
Good luck and happy halloween!
-Matt Jones
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Visit hetemeel.com for more of Einstein’s chalkboard.
See? Einstein visits every day, it only makes sense that you do too. 
I somehow managed to find more pictures of Einstein’s chalkboard:
Who knew he was such a fan of my blog? I am honored.
-Matt Jones
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Sky and Telescope had an article about this, so I figure I could be a follower. For this week’s Space Saturday, I bring you Eta (?) Carinae.
Source: HST / Nathan Smith / Jon Morse / NASA
Eta Carinae is a star in the southern hemisphere about 10,000 light years distance in the constellation Carina:
Eta Carinae is one of the most massive stars in the universe, with probably more than 100 solar masses. It is about 4 million times brighter than our local star, making it also one of the most luminous stars known. Eta Carinae radiates 99 % of its luminosity in the infrared part of the spectrum, where it is the brightest object in the sky at 10-20 microns wavelength. [source]
Some have even estimated that Eta Carinae could be upwards of 150 solar masses. The star is surrounded by the aptly named Eta Carinae Nubula (NGC 3372). The two lobes of gasses were formed after an explosion that the earth “viewed” in 1843. Because the star is so massive it expends it fuel very rapidly (which makes it very luminous - Eta Carinae emits more light in 6 seconds than the sun does all year!), astronomers think that it will go supernova and ends its life (of approximately 1 million years, as opposed to a sun type star’s 10,000 million year typical life) in the next few 100,000 years. Another distinctive feature of Eta Carinae is its long term veriation of visual magnitude (see resource links for additional information).
Sky and Telescope recently published an article that suggests Eta Carinae Has a Neighbor.
Iping and her colleagues base their conclusion on spectra taken by NASA’s Far Ultraviolet Spectroscopic Explorer (FUSE) satellite. The team noticed that in June 2003, Eta Carinae’s far-ultraviolet flux suddenly disappeared, presumably because the companion star had swung behind the primary and was eclipsed by its thick wind. The timing of the disappearance coincided perfectly with the predictions of the binary model.
Of course there is always disagreement, but that is one thing that makes astronomy interesting.
Resources
Wikipedia - Eta Carinae
SEDS - Eta Carinae
SEDS - Super Sharp HST View of Eta Carinae
Hubblesite - Doomed Star Eta Carinae
Sky and Telescope - New Signs that Monster Star Has a Neighbor
My Space Saturday Archive - my (somewhat) weekly astronomy picture archive.
-Matt Jones
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It’s true, I’m tired of politics. This is most likely the case because I browse lots of random blogs via BlogExplosion or BlogClicker. No dialogue is being had. All I see is anger and hatred from the left and not much of anything new from the right. The left is especially pissing me off (although that could be because I generally fall on the right side of things). Hatred for the right, and Bush, complaining about the way everything is being handled, and on and on. But it doesn’t seem anything constructive is being done or said.
Do I support everything Bush has done? No, of course not. Do I still support Bush? Definitely. People are upset that we are still in Iraq and that 2000 of our service men and women have died. It seems those on the left have taken freedom seriously for granted. As much as we would like it to be, freedom (at least Eearthly freedom) is not free. Our sodiers have given their lives for the protection and freedom of those who have never had it. Those in Iraq are much better off now than they were. Democracy is spreading around the world in places that have previously rejected it. Humanity is a global thing and not localized to our own country. We need to look beyond our own “needs” (or more accurately “desires”) to the needs of those around the world. I will always stand up for freedom.
Just please stop whining, chances are, you have it pretty good, even if the “evil” Bush is your president. It is because of the help of Bush, and others, that people in Iraq might start to have it better.
-Matt Jones
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PS: I have changed the layout a bit, how do you like it? Any suggestions?
My name is Matthew (Matt) Jones, if you weren�t aware. Matthew come from ancient Hebrew, a Semitic language family from the Fertile Crescent (Akkadian and Arabic are two other examples of Semitic languages) the oldest of which used cuneiform. Biblical Hebrew has been passed down through various Jewish traditions. For much of the history of Hebrew, which is designed as an aural language, vowels were not used. The Masoretes (who preserved much of the reading tradition) essentially realized that people would not remember how the writing was supposed to be pronounced as time moved on so added vowel �points� which are largely dots written below (and some above) the consonants so the reading tradition could be preserved. This addition of vowel points occurred in the eighth and ninth centuries A.D.
The Hebrew alphabet consists of 23 letters, all of which are consonants. There are also eight vowels points. Some of the consonants were also used as vowel letters (this happened because there was a move to introduce vowels to the text before the Masoretes added the vowel points, but because it was already part of the tradition, they left them in along with their new vowel points). Hebrew is read from right to left and will always start with a consonant (although that consonant can be silent). Now for a few words (I apologize if you are not able to see the text, the transliteration is linked to an image of the Hebrew):
??????? shalom � peace, prosperity - blog post on Shalom
???????? elohim � God, gods
????? adam � Adam, man, humankind
?????? or ???? yhvh � was read �adonai� (which means Lord) � Now as Yahweh: the LORD, the personal God of Israel
???????????? mattithyahu � Matthew: literally �gift of Yah�, Yah being the abbreviated version of YHVH
Well there is a VERY brief introduction that probably hasn�t told you very much. But really, Hebrew is very interesting and is fun to speak (lots of throaty sounds). Pick up either Introducing Biblical Hebrew by Allen Ross or Basics of Biblical Hebrew Grammar by Gary Pratico.
If you have any questions, feel free to ask and I can attempt to answer!
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[UPDATE] Commentor WERBEH has a great daily Biblical Hebrew blog, check it out!
This week is “reading week” here at Regent College and since I have so much to do, I (naturally) decided to head down to Seattle for the weekend to visit some friends. I basically hung out, went to UCF, watched tv, made (and ate) lots of won tons, smoked Cuban cigars for the second time, played in a new Seattle park, and generally just had a good time with my friends. Thanks Dan and Stacey for letting me crash for the weekend!
If you want to see some pictures from the weekend…(clickable for larger versions)
The brand new Cal Anderson Park on Capital Hill near Seattle Central where Dan does his Chi Alpha of Seattle Central Community College. Cal Anderson Park used to be Lincoln Park Reservoir and didn’t look nearly as pretty - as evidenced by this Google Earth image:
Once again on a dark corner in the middle on the night on Capital Hill in Seattle, we partook in some fine Cuban cigars. This time the ladies even got involved:
Stacey and Meghan. This picture is going to your mother Stacey!
Greg and I.
Greg and Dan.
The guys: Me, Chad, Greg, Dan, and Dan.
Chad and I making Won Tons.
And finally, a picture montage in video clip format of Meghan being Meghan.
Now I am back in Canada and have a 5000 word research paper to write on John Calvin’s theology of justification, 2000 word paper on John Calvin’s spirituality, 1000 word book review of Hans Urs von Balthasar’s Theo-Drama Volume III: Theological Dramatic Theory: Dramatis Personae: Persons in Christ, and a 3000 word research paper on how Gordon Fee sees the Holy Spirit especially in his Listening to the Spirit in the Text with reference to his larger work God’s Empowering Presence: The Holy Spirit in the Letters of Paul. Oh, and study Hebrew and read more of Calvin’s Institutes and…and… Restful week, eh? Luckilly I don’t have to get it all done this week… Okay, enough whining.
God Bless
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