The Israeli's are testing a new airport security device that avoids the privacy concerns of full-body scanners. It's an armored booth that will not x-ray you, but will detonate any explosive device you may be wearing. Israel sees this as a win-win for everyone, with none of the issues attached to racial profiling. It will also eliminate the costs of long trials. So if you're in the Tel Aviv airport terminal and you hear a muffled explosion, and shortly thereafter, the following announcement, "Attention to all standby passengers, El Al is pleased to announce a seat is now available for Flight 406 to London" - you know their security system is working.
Today I got the main wiring harness installed in Ilsa. It runs in a channel along the driver's side of the roof, from front to back. Wasn't an easy task, but it's done. Tomorrow I'll install the engine compartment insulation and seals and get the supplies for putting in the padding and headliner.
I also ordered the kit for rebuilding the Rambler's carburetor. It's a Holley model 1931, with a design like nothing I've ever seen before. The float bowl cover is vertical, along the front side of the carb. That gasket leaks. When I mentioned this to the guy at the company in Missouri that makes and sells these rebuild kits for old carbs he said, "That's not surprising. 'Holley' is French for 'leaks.'"
But he agreed that driving down the highway with a gas leak over a hot engine probably isn't a good idea.
Yesterday I read an article on CNN.com about a newly published book on the NT Book of Revelation. In it the author, Elaine Pagels, says that the standard interpretation of that last book of the Bible is all wrong. First, it wasn't written by the Apostle John, and it isn't about the end of human history. It was written by another guy named John, a small-time writer who opposed Christianity, and the book is about his struggles and personal suffering, nothing bigger. Furthermore, there are dozens of books like Revelation that didn't make it into the Bible but are just as significant.
I don't know what to do with articles like this, or more accurately, the books they profile.
Any second-year Bible college student could put a smack-down on several of Ms. Pagels' assertions. For example, the statement that the Apostle John is not the author was dispensed with almost a century ago when it was first made. Not only is the tradition for Johanine authorship unbroken from the early second century, but a statistical analysis of the vocab and style align with John's Gospel and epistles after allowing for entirely different literary genre. There's no reason - or evidence - to say it wasn't authored by the Apostle John unless you want to sell a book.
The news that there are other period pieces like Revelation will come as a shock to anyone who has never heard about apocalyptic literature, a genre dating back to the 4th century B.C. and well represented in both Jewish lit (e.g. Daniel & Ezekiel) and Christian lit (Revelation). There are many examples in both Jewish and Christian lit of the genre both inside and outside of Scripture. Cf. the Dead Sea Scrolls. Saying that there are other books like Revelation that aren't in the Bible is a little like saying there are other tissues not named Kleenex. Or that other people in the first century wrote letters that aren't in the Bible. Wow! I had no idea!
How does this happen? How does someone write a book of assertions long since dispensed with and statements demonstrating a failure to grasp even the most basic data in the field, and then get featured in a CNN article? And which is worse, the ignorance of the book's author or the doofocity of the article's author, who obviously didn't do a bit of fact checking. Probably just read the publisher's press release.
But I tilt against windmills.
I am curious, however. Do economists and biologists have similar thoughts when the read about some of what's published in their field?
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