Jimmy Akin – Page 719

Scientists To Make–And Kill–Stuart Little?

Stuartlittlechar HERE’S A STORY ABOUT SCIENTISTS CREATING ANIMAL-HUMAN HYBRIDS KNOWN AS CHIMERAS.

One of the planned experiments is to create a mouse with a brain made entirely of human neurons.

The scientist who wants to do it plans to abort the mouse before it is born, dissect it, and look for traces of human cognitive behavior.

And that’s only one of the freaky chimeras that’s been made or is on the drawing board!

Surprisingly, Canada has banned the creation of animal human chimeras!

Kudos to Canada for not rushing willy-nilly into this brave new world.

(NOTE: Catholic moral theology would not–as yet–say that all experimentation with combining human and animal cells or genes is automatically wrong, but it would caution that one needs to proceed carefully in this area and with a far more discretion than has been the norm among many experimenters.)

March 25, 2004 Show

LISTEN TO THE SHOW.

DOWNLOAD THE SHOW.

HIGHLIGHTS:

How
can the soul remember after death? Is the mind part of the soul or the brain?
Why
can’t an Episcopalian receive the Eucharist?
An
acquaintance is getting married outside the church, what should I do?
If the
priest mistakenly used the words for the consecration of the wine over the
bread, is that invalid?
What
are deacons responsible for and are there women deacons?
Is it
appropriate for women to represent the apostles during a last supper
reenactment?
Was
cannibalism practiced during the crusades?
Can
the congregation wash each others feet during the Mass of the Lord’s
Supper?
Is a
glass goblet an allowed container for the Precious Blood?
Why
are church authorities not more forceful with recalcitrant Catholic politicians
and what can the laity do about it?
My
sister is remarrying without a declaration of nullity, what should I do?

The Less-Big Bang Theory

Y’know how, if you accept the Old Earth theory the way the pope seems to, our solar system is supposed to have formed slowly out of a gently, congealing dust cloud somewhere?

Well, maybe it didn’t.

Maybe it formed in a really dense nebula in which there were big honking stars that blowed up . . . blowed up real good!

THIS THEORY HAS SOME NEW SUPPORT.

Scientists have found evidence from a meteoric mineral called ~~solarmanite~~ sodalite that the early solar system contained chlorine-36, ~~only one tablespoon of which is able to purify 36 gallongs of pool water,~~ which could support the nebular nova origin for the solar system.

Chlorine-36 can form in two ways: by a supernova
explosion, or by a nebular cloud being bombarded by radiation near the
forming Sun.

The researchers consider the latter explanation is unlikely since sodalite must have formed some distance away from our star.

"There is no ancient live chlorine-36 in the Solar
System now," said co-author Laurie Leshin, director of Arizona State’s
Center for Meteorite Studies.

"But this is direct evidence that it was here in the early Solar System."

This still all sounds pretty tentative, but who knows: If the universe began with a Bang, not a whimper, maybe the solar system began with a Less-Big Bang.

Mike Speaks!

Poe It was years ago when I heard my first computerized voice.

My father–a mechanical engineering professor–had always been uncommonly computer-literate and had encouraged the same in his family. (Incidentally, that’s Edgar Allen Poe in the picture; not my father, though they do look a bit the same.)

To that end, he bought primitive home computers for us when the technology was still in its infancy.

One of these had a primitive, robotic, computerized voice that could "read" texts on the screen.

It was awful.

At least by contemporary standards.

As part of my recent audiobooks quest, I realized that the computer voices that are now available were undoubtedly much better than the clunky computer voices I had known in real life or heard on radio and TV shows.

I had no idea.

The voices curently available are not just better, they are a world of difference.

Let me show you:

Currently the top-of-the-line voices are the NaturalVoices from AT&T and available for about $30. You can buy and download them for use with programs like TextAloud. Though they’re still not perfect, they are head and shoulders above what you’re probably familar with.

HERE’S NATURAL VOICE "MIKE" READING EDGAR ALLEN POE’S POEM "THE RAVEN." (.mp3 format)

I made this .mp3 file myself using "Mike," TextAloud, and the public-domain text of "The Raven."

Poetry is a particular challenge for artificial voices due to its atypical cadence, but you’ll be amazed at how well "Mike" does with "The Raven." Take a listen!

As good as computerized voices are now, I can imagine how good they’re goint to be in the future:

Already the voices that are available are staring to vary by accent. You can buy voices, for example, that have British or Indian accents. Soon you’ll be able to buy voices that have Texas, Boston, New York, or Georgia accents. (This is just a diversification of what is already happening.)
You’ll be able to input sheet music and have the voices sing to you in realistic fashion. (This is actually already being done, but is not yet commercially available to my knowledge.)
You’ll be able to read a prepared text and so reverse-engineer your own voice so that you’ll be able to read texts to yourself.
You’ll be able to plug your TiVo into your home computer and have it reverse-engineer voices from telvision so that, in no time, Captain Katherine Janeway will be reading you Jane Austen novels.

I can’t wait.

Podcast: Play in new window | Download

Adventures In Audiobooks #3

One of the ideas I got for how to get more audiobooks for my Christmas trip to Texas arose like this:

1. There’s a bunch of freely available, public domain texts online, such as those at Project Gutenberg.

2. I bet I could download a text-to-speech program that would read these to me. Years ago, I had speech-to-text software that could also do text-to-speech. I was never very pleased with this software, but I figured that it would be possible to get a simpler version that just does text-to-speech and have my computer read these texts to me.

3. I then went to hotfiles.com and found some downloadable programs that do just this.

4. Some of these progams would speak the text directly into .mp3s for you.

5. Therefore, I could use the freely available e-texts in conjunction with the software to produce my own audiobooks in .mp3 and burn them to CD for listening on the way to Texas.

Yee-haw!

Now, turns out that the Project Gutenberg folks have already figured this out, so they have been adding their own homestyle audiobooks to their inventory. (Sven pointed this out in the comments box a couple of days back, but I had to delete it as it was a spoiler for this post.)

Iff’n yew want to make your own, however, you can also use the technique described above.

After looking at different text-to-speech programs, I decided to go with TextAloud, which is inexpensive and has a feature combination that I like. (Among other things, it dosen’t try to integrate itself into every other text app you have; programs that grabby are generally bad news.)

Since my Christmas trip to Texas didn’t happen this year, I haven’t used it to produce audiobooks for my pickup, yet, but I’ve been very pleased with using it to listen to all kinds of downloadable e-texts.

One of the nice things about it is that it supports multiple different voices, and the voices have improved amazingly in the last few years.

But that’s the subject of my next post. (Don’t want to spoil myself.)

Friday Night TV Roundup

ENTERPRISE

"Babel One"

The Enterprise’s benign cooperation in a peace conference between
Tellarites and Andorians turns dangerous when a secret Romulan vessel
begins attacking ships on all sides. NOTE: A riff on the TOS episodes "Journey To Babel" and "The Balance of Terror."

STARGATE SG-1

"Prometheus Unbound",
Episode #812.

Daniel must face off against a powerful enemy when a search-and-rescue misson goes wrong. NOTE: Features a guest appearance by Gen. Hammond!

STARGATE ATLANTIS

"The Defiant One",
Episode #112.

While investigating a distress signal, Sheppard and McKay become the target of a hungry Wraith.

BATTLESTAR GALACTICA

"Act of Contrition",
Episode #104.

Starbuck is forced to admit her role in the death of Adama’s son Zak.

MONK

"Mr. Monk vs. The Cobra"

Monk tries to figure out how a person who has been dead for six years could have committed a murder.

CHECK YOUR LOCAL LISTINGS.

Amazing New Sub!

From yesterday’s Drudge Report:

This attack sub was apparently so equipped that it could travel not just underwater, but underground.

Apparently in this case, "sub" means "subterranean" rather than "submarine."

What I want to know is: What was the underground mountain made of that distinguishes it from the rock and dirt around it? Or is it a big mountain inside an even bigger underground cave?

This Week's Show (Jan. 27, 2005)

LISTEN TO THE SHOW.

DOWNLOAD THE SHOW.

HIGHLIGHTS:

Fornication clarification.
Prophecy of St. Nilus.
A JimmyAkin.Org reader challenges me on the legal obligation for Friday penance.
What sins cry out to heaven?
Is the Trinity mentioned in the Old Testament and did the Jewish people expect the Messiah to be God?
Does gaining an indulgence cut down on temporal punishment in this life or purgatory?
What do I think of the New American Bible?
Did John the Baptist hear the Voice from heaven at the Baptism of Jesus?
Is Masonry Satanic?
What about the Gospel of Thomas?
Nostradamus: Friend or Foe?
Tell me about the Greek Orthodox. (NOTE: This caller has a West Texas accent that you can contrast with my East Texas accent.)
Why do people only reference Vatican II documents and not prior councils?
Seder meals, the Last Supper, and did Transubstantiation happen at the Las Supper? Did Judas take Communion?
A Lutheran asks if he can become Catholic and be a good Catholic without praying to the saints himself as long as he acknowledges the practice in principle.
What is a commentator at Mass?
How to respond to one who claims that the Virgin Birth is an Egyptian myth and that the papacy was founded by Constantine?
Are we eating Jesus in the Eucharist?

This Week’s Show (Jan. 27, 2005)

LISTEN TO THE SHOW.

DOWNLOAD THE SHOW.

HIGHLIGHTS:

Fornication clarification.
Prophecy of St. Nilus.
A JimmyAkin.Org reader challenges me on the legal obligation for Friday penance.
What sins cry out to heaven?
Is the Trinity mentioned in the Old Testament and did the Jewish people expect the Messiah to be God?
Does gaining an indulgence cut down on temporal punishment in this life or purgatory?
What do I think of the New American Bible?
Did John the Baptist hear the Voice from heaven at the Baptism of Jesus?
Is Masonry Satanic?
What about the Gospel of Thomas?
Nostradamus: Friend or Foe?
Tell me about the Greek Orthodox. (NOTE: This caller has a West Texas accent that you can contrast with my East Texas accent.)
Why do people only reference Vatican II documents and not prior councils?
Seder meals, the Last Supper, and did Transubstantiation happen at the Las Supper? Did Judas take Communion?
A Lutheran asks if he can become Catholic and be a good Catholic without praying to the saints himself as long as he acknowledges the practice in principle.
What is a commentator at Mass?
How to respond to one who claims that the Virgin Birth is an Egyptian myth and that the papacy was founded by Constantine?
Are we eating Jesus in the Eucharist?

Yesterday Morning's Mondegreen

Yesterday morning I was driving to work when I experienced a mondegreen.

"What is a mondegreen?" you ask.

It’s a place where you mishear a song lyric.

The name "mondegreen" is itself a mondegreen.

The 17th century ballad "The Bonnie Earl O’Murray" ends with the line "They hae slain the Earl o’ Murray and laid him on the green." But this line was misheard as "They hae slain the Earl o’ Murray and Lady Mondegreen."

Hence the name.

A famous recent mondegreen is mishearing the Jimi Hendrix lyric "Excuse me while I kiss the sky" as "Excuse me while I kiss this guy." (Whoever heard that must have been in a purple haze.)

My all-time favorite mondegreen is one I read about where someone’s grandmother misheard the lyrics to the Beatles’ song "She’s Got A Ticket To Ride" as "She’s got a tick in her eye." Granny kept asking "But why would anyone want to sing about that?"

So yesterday, I was driving to work and listening to the album

THE BAND (by The Band)

which is a really great early 1970s album. (Greally toe tapping music with insightful, though not always fully moral lyrics; one song I refuse to listen to utterly.)

One of the songs on the album is haunting "Unfaithful Servant," and lately I’ve been trying to figure out the lyrics to it. This morning I mondegreened the first two lines as:

Unfaithful servant . . .
I hear you even sin in the morning.

"Wow," I thought. "That would be pretty unfaithful . . . not even waiting until afternoon to start sinning. What a great line."

Unfortunately, unless other people on the ‘Net are mondegreening it differently than me, the actual line turns out to be:

Unfaithful servant . . .
I hear you leavin’ soon in the mornin’ [SOURCE].

Which I must admit fits the theme of the song, which is of a servant leaving the country house where he has worked for many years after an unspecified act of betrayal against the lady of the household. The last stanza is:

Goodbye to that country home,

So long to a lady I have known,
Farewell to my other side,
I’d best just take it in stride.
Unfaithful Servant, you’ll learn to find your place;
I can see it in your smile,
and, yes, I can see it in your face.
The mem’ries will linger on,

But the good old days, they’re all gone,
Oh! Lonesome servant, can’t you see,
That we’re still one and the same, just you and me.