My wife just blew my mind. I thought I knew the basics of the story of Sodom and Gomorrah. I’ve always cottoned to it because you have to like a religion in which people get to argue with their god. But I thought it was obvious that Abraham was arguing to save the innocent.

Nope. My wife, who is a scholar about these things (although she denies it), says that on the contrary, the traditional Jewish commentators take it for granted that G-d will save the innocent. And, indeed, He brings Lot out, even though Lot is only semi-innocent. In fact, Abraham is arguing that the presence of the innocent ought to save the guilty.

Why would having ten righteous people in a city be reason enough to save the guilty, given that either way, the innocent were going to be saved? That’s where the Jewish discussion of this passage begins. And maybe it’s where everyone’s discussion begins. But not me. I had it quite backwards.

[Tags: sodom gomorrah religion judaism ]

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I just watched Mike Wesch’s talk at Library of Congress about YouTube. Mike, as you undoubtedly know, has made some astoundingly lucid and compelling videos that explain the Web that takes away the last excuses for not “getting” it. Brilliant stuff. This talk is not one of those videos. It’s a 55 minute lecture, with lots and lots of examples, explaining the importance of YouTube. And, like his own videos, it’s compelling, brilliant, and moving.

[Tags: mike_wesch youtube ]

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Yesterday afternoon, my assorted nieces and nephews clustered around the ol’ laptop, googling their name + the word “needs,” and reading aloud the amusing results.

Amusing!

[Tags: google games ]

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Slow motion lightning

This explanation comes from Lenski the comments section of the Huffington Post where I found the video:

The search for a path proceeds through the treelike process that shows early in the video, finding the thin trails that are of somewhat lower resistance than clear air. Basically, a slightly higher density dust particles or raindrops allows enough current to flow to keep looking for more path. These tendrils of ionization last a little while, long enough to present a temptingly lower resistance for the main strike. It’s a race to see which one completes the circuit first.

Once a path between the sky and ground has been found, that’s when the action really kicks in: A surge of current flows through the slightly lower resistance pathway, blasting the outer electrons from the atoms of atmosphere in its path forming a plasma arc. The dramatically lower resistance causes it to continue passing the surge current. The electrons stripped from the atoms of the atmosphere are “free electrons” that carry the current until the lightning strike dissipates the electrical charge that started the whole process in the first place.

Here’s something that was only discovered recently: Lightning strikes are such high energy events that they produce x-rays! (It makes sense, once we think about it… The process of stripping electrons away from the atoms of the atmosphere and subsequent recovery of the electron shells as the event ends would produce electromagnetic radiation, at energy levels all the way into x-rays.)

[Tags: lightning ]

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In two separate reports of the eleven deaths in the K2 disaster, I’ve seen a version of this sentence:

The reported toll from the avalanche was the highest from a single incident on K2 since at least 1995, when seven climbers perished after being caught in a fierce storm.

If eleven is still more than seven, then that sentence is incoherent. (It comes from an AP report by Stephen Graham.)

And, yes, I do understand that grammatical errors are less important than mountaineering deaths. And, yes, I do seem to having a crotchety day :(

[Tags: k2._grammar ]

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Chris Brogan recounts the scary tale of Nick Saber getting locked out of his Google accounts for no apparent reason. Did I say “his” accounts? That’s just the problem. Technically, all your accounts are belong to Google.

I am heavily invested in Google as a user (although totally not invested as a shareholder…maybe I got that backwards). A lockout would be a disaster for me. If Google wants us to love it enough that we’ll unite our data in holy matrimony, Google really really needs a way to let us regain and re-own our data. All of it all at once. A big red “Export up everything onto my hard disk button” would be great, although I understand that Google doesn’t want me re-downloading 800,000 emails every night. Some reasonable limits would be reasonable. Even authorizing a third party or two to mirror data for those of us who choose to subscribe to that service would give us some measure of reassurance.

If it’s going to be ’til death do us part, Google should not be allowed to decide exactly when it thinks we’re dead.

[Tags: google ]

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I’m on a working vacation for the next few days — who’s counting? — in the lovely but rain torn Berkshires, in my family’s ramshack (is that the noun form of ramshackle?). My wife is away for the day, returning tomorrow, so I’m alone.

I spend a lot of time alone. I’m an introvert, so I like it, perhaps too much. But, like you, I’ve gotten used to being alone in a sea of clicks. Click and I can browse. Click and I can see what my friends are doing. Click and I can respond to what’s being written. But here we have no Internet. I am alone and clickless. And feeling it more than I would have thought.

Relax? I’m not tense. Take it easy? I’ve been reading all day. If I’m going to be alone, I’d at least like some reading that I can talk back to…

[Tags: vacation ]

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This was passed along by Jacob Kramer-Duffield, a summer intern at the Berkman Center, for no reason other than that its a summer Friday.

Tags: bunnies pancakes

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PC Mag has a bunch of Google tips. Some are familiar, but some were new to me. E.g., I didn’t know Google could give us transit directions.

[Tags: google ]

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As Bill Gates moves on from Microsoft, let us not forget one of his lesser-sung skills:

[Tags: bill_gates ]

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