"Remove Sandals" by Penny Arcade

From Penny Arcade.

Dear Colleagues,

The 2011 Mid-Atlantic Regional SBL call for papers is now available on the SBL website. The meeting will be held jointly with the Mid-Atlantic and New England/Maritimes Regions of the American Academy of Religion (AAR) on March 17-18, 2011 at the Hyatt Regency Hotel in New Brunswick, New Jersey. The call contains dates, locations, deadlines, guidelines for preparing and submitting proposals, hotel and registration information, and other important details regarding the meeting. Please follow the link below to access the call:

http://www.sbl-site.org/assets/pdfs/2011_MARcall.pdf

We are excited to announce that Dr. Lawrence H. Schiffman, Ethel and Irvin A. Edelman Professor of Hebrew and Judaic Studies and Chair of the Skirball Department of Hebrew and Judaic Studies at New York University, will serve as our plenary speaker and Dr. Maxine Grossman, Associate Professor of Religious Studies and Jewish Studies at the University of Maryland, will deliver our presidential address.

Feel free to post this call on department bulletin boards, blogs, websites, etc. Encourage your colleagues to participate. Please note the submission deadline is Dec 6, 2010.

Sincerely,

Jeremy Schipper

For our Late Night program last week students were asked to fill out cards with their questions for the dean. I was only able to answer a few and we have hundreds! So I thought I would begin answering a few here on the blog. I will start with something easy.

Would you rather go to Dunkin Doughnuts or Starbucks? DD, no question. I no longer drink coffee and the donuts at Starbucks, well, that just isn’t their forté is it?

What do you think is the best thing about Penn State (aside from the Honors College)? I could cite many things including our culture of winning with honors, but it has to be THON. I regularly tell prospective students that they should come to Penn State for THON alone. The fact that we have a top-rate, second-to-none education is a plus as well.

What’s your favorite flavor in Dr. Pepper, out of the 23? You have to know that my father is a die-hard Dr. Pepper man. He went to college around the corner from where it was invented. I have often argued that it is nothing more than carbonated prune juice to which he would reply with a soliloquy about the 23 flavors. I would have to say that, if you make me drink it, it would be the cherry flavor.

Ketchup or mustard? Mayonaise.

Peter Griffin (Family Guy) once let a bird nest in his beard; would you consider doing this? No, personal hygiene is important to me and I am not a cartoon character.

If you were a steak, how would you be cooked? Medium rare, hot on the outside but cool on the inside.

Do Gateway Scholars receive the Schreyer medal at graduation? ABSOLUTELY!

How was your day? So far so good!

This is just a start, I will post more as we go through the semester.

Of the semester things are always a bit frantic. This semester I am teaching a mere 1 credit course, “Genesis 1-3.” The reason for the topic is because it usually takes me a month to get out of chapter 3 even when I am teaching Intro to Hebrew Bible. The reason for 1 credit is because I simply do not have enough time to teach a full 3 credit course. And the reason I am teaching it at all is because I love to teach in my field! I just don’t have as much time to do it nowadays since I am a full time administrator and teach courses in leadership.

For those interested, I have posted a number of entries on Genesis and particularly on the first three chapters. You can follow my tag link and work backwards from there.

Finally, Jame McGrath,in a happy moment of coincidence, posted this wonderful quote from Adele Berlin.

“Above all, we must keep in mind that narrative is a form of representation. Abraham in Genesis is not a real person any more than a painting of an apple is a real fruit. This is not a judgment on the existence of a historical Abraham any more than it is a statement about the existence of apples.”

– Adele Berlin, Poetics and Interpretation of Biblical Narrative, p.13

Enter the Griffin Reveal Etch. This is a very nice, slim case that has a polycarbonate back and, according to Griffin, the “Reveal Etch adds just a little over a millimeter in thickness to the sides and back of your iPhone.” I can attest that it is indeed very thin and the polycarbonate backing is very attractive and the rubber edges are thin yet wide enough to allow your third-party connector and headset to connect without any difficulties. At the same time, however, the thinness of the surround makes it feel a bit cheap. Still, it is attractive and relatively inexpensive, especially if Apple is going to pay for it.²

More and more options are hitting the market for the iPhone 4. Personally, I am still waiting for a nice compact window mount like the Griffin WindowSeat. They have come out with the WindowSeat HandsFree that looks promising, but I would have been a happier customer if they had simply made an iPhone 4 adapter available. The Satechi SCR-31 is also very promising…I thought it was just a generic holder, but looking again it appears to have an adapter specifically for the iPhone 4. Once I find a solution, I will let you know.

1. The story of this material is really very interesting. Corning invented it back in 1962, but it is only now becoming widely used and a valuable commodity. Being a smart company, however, they held on to it over all these years.
2. NB: You have to buy your iPhone 4 by September 30, 2010 to qualify for the free case.

Today I was reading a story about the legality of using your iPhone to record a conversation without notifying the other parties. I added a few comments along with the link and it occurred to me that no one may read them, stuck over in the sidebar. So here is how it appears on my Shared Google Reader page:

Court OKs Covert iPhone Audio Recording | Threat Level | Wired.com

via www.wired.com on 8/19/10

Targuman:

Very interesting ruling. With the iPad note apps capable of recording I have wondered how to legally and ethically use this in lectures and meetings. (Lectures are considered “public” so fair game, but departmental meetings, for example?)

Using an iPhone to secretly record a conversation is not a violation of the Wiretap Act if done for legitimate purposes, a federal appeals court has

So please feel free to check the sidebar, go directly to my Shared Google Reader page, or comment here about the items you see there.

Application process now open

For scholarships from The Episcopal Church

Deadline is October 15

[August 17, 2010] Applications are now being accepted for the Fall awarding of more than 60 scholarships from The Episcopal Church. Specific scholarships are available for ethnic communities along with other particular wide-ranging eligibility for education and training.

“Besides ethnic ministries, there are scholarships available to children of missionaries, foreign students studying for ministry in the Church, foreign students training in the fields of medical, sanitation, nursing or hospital work in their own country and for the children of bishops and clergy of The Episcopal Church,” explained Antoinette (Toni) Daniels, Co-director of Mission and Chair of the Scholarship Committee.

Daniels reported that, in the spring 2010 cycle, a scholarship was awarded to the first Hmong seminarian in The Episcopal Church. Compared with last year, both the Latino/Hispanic Ministries and Native American Ministries saw the number of applicants double and Asian-American Ministries accepted three more applicants.

“The scholarships are addressing educational funding needs in this down economy,” Daniels added.

The list of trust funds and scholarships is here: http://www.episcopalchurch.org/documents/ScholarshipTrustFunds121609.pdf

All materials including the application form and the instructions for filing are available online here:   http://www.episcopalchurch.org/109539_110675_ENG_HTM.htm

Process

Applications are reviewed by scholarship subcommittees comprised of representatives from throughout the Church. Their recommendations are then reviewed and announced by the Scholarship Committee of The Episcopal Church.

Funding for the scholarships is derived from numerous trust funds. The amounts of the scholarships vary according to the availability of payouts from the funds. Annual payouts from the funds are determined by the Executive Council upon recommendation of its Investment Committee.  Principal amounts of each fund are always maintained.

Deadline for applications is October 15, 2010.

Requirements

Daniels cited the requirements for applying: the applicant must be an Episcopalian, must be a member of The Episcopal Church, and must have the endorsement of his/her bishop.

She stressed that only complete applications will be considered.

For information contact Terry Foster, Mission Office Associate, tfoster@episcopalchurch.org.

The Episcopal Church welcomes all who worship Jesus Christ in 109 dioceses and three regional areas in 16 nations.  The Episcopal Church is a member province of the worldwide Anglican Communion.

Scholarships: http://www.episcopalchurch.org/109539_110675_ENG_HTM.htm