Flat3D

Sharing…

I have two things to share today.

The first is that Paul worked very hard and there is the nice shiney new GCD Technologies Homepage!

The second is the musical comedy genius that is Bill Bailey…

Progress

Well I have downed two more exams since I last wrote on here. Greek and then New Testament.
Greek went well, similar to hebrew, but a bit more difficult.
New Testament went pretty well two, I feel like I nailed my first two questions (Richard Bauckham’s argument that the gospels were written to a general audience and how Jesus would have been viewed by a first century Jew) however my third choice didn’t go so great. I chose to study for the Pharisees. The question was to analyse the role the pharisees played in the first century. My study had been oriented around how the pharisees had been portrayed in the gospels (comparing with other sources on their beliefs and laws etc)… So I gleaned what I could about their role and put it down on paper, but gradually my coherence dwindled and I just wrapped it up and got out of there before I went nuts! I think I got the guts of a page and a half or two pages out that might be vaguely relevant and show I at least know something about the Pharisees! Anyways I reckon I will get enough out of the first two to see me right. At least I hope so!

The next test of strength of mind and wit, and also the last, is History of Christian Doctrine. I have been doing reading for this over the year, but it has taken a back seat since easter really, mostly due to a bit of panic about the languages. The result is that I haven’t really done much exam preparation for it. So I started yesterday (exam is Saturday) and have covered Pascal and despite the stress, thoroughly enjoyed learning about him (we covered him after easter…)
I thoroughly recommend reading up on Pascal to anyone who has a scientific mind and an interest in theology and philosophy.

Next is the doctrine of the trinity, a constant question through past papers, and then I am not sure whether to go for a more historical aspect or to dig into more modern theology such as Bonhoeffer or Liberation Theology (more likely Bonhoeffer)…

One down three to go

Today was my first exam of the season.
At 2:30pm my Biblical Hebrew exam began due to finish three hours later at 5:30pm. At 4:30pm I left the hall with some other folk who were doing a 2 hour exam as I had done the required 4 questions out of the options and had given them a decent stab.
I chose to do the first grammar based question, then question 5, the one on Genesis chapter 13:1-9 followed by question 6 on Ruth 1:14-22.
My plan from then on was to try and translate some english into unpointed hebrew. This question is interesting. Hebrew is truely written with only the consonants, however, through methods we won’t go into a system of “pointing” was developed to outline the vowels for us lessers to read… But writing is the opposite. It’s easier to write hebrew without the pointing (the detail of the grammar is mostly in the vowels, the basic meaning in the consonants) and so in this question you have the choice of translating 5 sentences into unpointed hebrew, or 3 sentences into pointed hebrew.
My plan was to do as much as possible unpointed and see if I can point any of it.
But when I arrived at my final question with time to spare I had a quick look at an unseen translation question, and as I looked at it I realised I could understand it, so I did it instead…

Sorry about the boring post, but its nice to have one down.

I celebrated by helping lyle take high street youth club kayaking down at the lough shore. I’ve never seen so many people tip out of boats for no reason at all other than they are in a boat! :lol_tb:

Tommy Flowers - the Genius

Tommy who?
Tommy Flowers.
Tommy Flowers should have gone down in history. Born in 1905 and died in 1998 he lived to see some amazing things in engineering and lived with the smug grin of someone who was there at the beginning, neigh, WAS the beginning.

We know Charles Babbage (I hope) and know of his genius that was recognised almost 80 years after he was laughed into his grave. The technology that was recognised in desperation in the second world war by other geniuses such as Alan Turing (who we also have heard of) to crack german military codes in mere months.

Well, Tommy Flowers was the man that Alan Turing (the well known genius) went to for help when he realised his work with (the other genius) Charles Babbage’s machine couldn’t cut the mustard.
Thomas Flowers was a post office engineer, the son of a brick layer who’d done an apprenticeship in mechanical engineering then studied a bit of electrical in London University. He looked at Babbage-based machinery and thought “Valves”. He brought forth a design to the british military for a machine that could memorise one datastream while comparing it to the other (rather than the then current system of using synchronised ticker tapes). The british military told him that he was wasting his time. So he went and built it on his own time with help from his mates at the Post Office research labs. 10 months later he had completed designs prototyped and built a final working machine that could take the codes Turing had been struggling with for months and crack them in hours. The military ordered 10.

Tommy Flowers designed and built the first (ever) electronic programmable computer. Tommy Flowers was the man to thank for every electronic computation device we have had since. Tommy Flowers, genius, engineer and unknown to all but the real geeks.

God’s big nose

Right now I’m taking a break from going through Jonah 3 as preparation for a hebrew class test on Thursday night and I came across a hebrew idiom that one of my hebrew teachers pointed out a while back.
In English we might say someone has a short fuse or quick temper if they are easily angered. But in Hebrew temper is associated with the nose. In particular the nostrils (אַפַּיִם - “apayim”).

In Jonah 3:9 when it talks about God’s anger it uses this word. But a more interesting example is in Exodus 34:6.
“The LORD, the LORD, a God merciful and gracious, slow to anger…”
Here “Slow to anger” is a translation of the hebrew “אֶרֶךְ אַפַּיִם” (erek apayim) which literally means he has long nostrils.

The origin of this (or an extension of the theme…) may be linked to the sacrificial system where sacrifices were seen to be either a pleasing or displeasing aroma rising up to God. If it was displeasing God was angered. However he is slow to anger, his nostrils are long and it takes some time for the displeasing aroma to get up there, time enough for the sacrificer to repent and make a worthy sacrifice.

So the next time you realise you have displeased God, remember that He has a big nose and there is time to repent before the smell gets right up there!