The Peaceful Gnome

HT to Father Hollywood for this: The Athanasian Creed, what you MUST believe to be saved: Posted via email from The Angry Gnome

of stars and clouds over Cotopaxi Volcano Posted via email from The Angry Gnome

Today is Towel Day, where fans around the world celebrate the works of beloved author Douglas Adams, a master of witty prose and observational humour. Consider his description of money: “This planet has – or rather had – a problem, which was this: most of the people living on it were unhappy for pretty much of the time. Many solutions were suggested for this problem, but most of these were largely concerned with the movements of small green pieces of paper, which is odd because on the whole it wasn’t the small green pieces of paper that were unhappy.” Adams was right to highlight the perceived link between money and happiness. Many people dream of the life they could lead if they won the lottery, a world of mansions, fine restaurants, and first-class travel. But few consider the costs. These fineries could lead to enjoyment overload, compromising our ability to savour life’s simpler pleasures, whether it’s a walk on a sunny day or the taste of a bar of chocolate. This idea o...

Hey, I remember these kids from elementary school! Ah if only I'd had the laser eyes :-( Helping Johnny Remember from ashleigh nankivell on Vimeo . Posted via email from The Angry Gnome

via sciencedaily.com New research shows a possible explanation for the link between mental health and creativity. By studying receptors in the brain, researchers at Karolinska Institutet have managed to show that the dopamine system in healthy, highly creative people is similar in some respects to that seen in people with schizophrenia. So, turns out that they were right when they said that there is a fine line between genius and madness :-) http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2010/05/100518064610.htm Posted via web from The Angry Gnome

That unpronounceable Icelandic volcano is even hard for Icelanders to say :-) Posted via email from The Angry Gnome

Dan Cagle sent: Here are some pictures I took in Astoria.The bridge is what I see setting at kitchen table.The river is 5 miles accross and about 1 mile from the ocean.The Columbia bar is one of the worst in the world,so they say,they being the Coast Gaurd...Its back to work tomorrow.The big tan building is what I am working on.Its the Clatsop county college.                            Dan See and download the full gallery on posterous Posted via email from Our Family Blog

Tonight Lora took Serenity and I out to dinner to celebrate life in general :-)  Oh my!  I'm pretty sure we committed several sins by eating here tonight... Not knowing what we wanted to eat we wandered down 1st Street in Livermore and finally wound up at a place called "Simply Fondue."   Sound harmless enough, right?  Well, we decided to have the Fondue Feast.  We started out with a bottle of local Livermore Valley Bent Creek Petite Syrah .  The first course was salad, I had the Greek salad with feta and kalamata olives, Lora had baby spinach with sliced strawberries and Serenity had her usual Caesar's.  In the center of the table are two burners where they put fondue pots.  Second course was the fondue, melted Swiss cheese in one pot, mixed with white wine and cheddar mixed with beer in the other pot.  For dipping we had various types of bread and fruits and vegetables.  Yummy!  Then the third course of meat and fish, si...

I received the following video via email.  I'll respond below it so you can watch it before you start yelling at me :-) Cute video right?  Sure it is.  It's also mostly nonsense. To solve all of the problems in the video I advocate totally open borders, or better yet, no borders at all.  All of us here in the Southwestern part of the USA are sitting on ground that was once Mexico.  It was first overrun by hordes of semi-legal immigrants from the USA, then stolen outright using force of arms.  We hardly have the moral high ground to whine about Mexicans coming here!  As to all of the supposed problems they bring with them, well I can fix all of that in no time flat!  1.  Abolish the INS, there would be no such thing as an illegal person anymore, so the employers won't have the leverage to force low wages and crappy conditions by threatening them with "La Migra!"  ( Illegal people ?  Just how silly can you be, next thi...

Father Hollywood linked to this short video from B5 as a way of saying no to Nancy Pelosi.  I like it as an inspiration to all freedom lovers to say NO to the government over most everything, from schools that are NOT "better than nothing" to government imposed "health-scare" and the drug war that does far more harm to society than drugs could ever do, just say NO. Posted via email from The Angry Gnome

Anyone who knows me knows I really can't stand so-called contemporary worship or worshitainment.  I'm all about the ancient liturgy of the orthodox evangelical catholic [Lutheran ;-)] church, so this video strikes me as especially funny and right on.  They have a formula, a recipe.  In fact they have a liturgy in these churches, they just don't like to admit it!   Unlike the real traditional liturgy, which is 90% + scripture quotes and the rest time tested and carefully crafted prayers and meaty theologically sound hymns, this stuff is made up on the fly week by week , which makes it weak .  What makes them think they can do better than than what the church has found useful for the last 2000 years?  Enjoy :-) Posted via email from The Angry Gnome

Just click here to see it. Posted via email from The Angry Gnome

Wow! The Garden of Earthly Delights by Hieronymus Bosch is amazing stuff. I had no idea they were using such strong hallucinogenics in the 1400's. Check out the scenes in the right hand panel especially, what a bizarre mind :-) Of course I love the whole thing, very cool stuff. Posted via email from The Angry Gnome

Tad Williams (author of great SciFi and Fantasy) linked to this on his Facebook page... very cool combination of good music and neat video of Eyjafjallajökull Volcano in Iceland .  "http://vimeo.com/moogaloop.swf?clip_id=11673745&server=vimeo.com&show_title=1&show_byline=1&show_portrait=0&color=&fullscreen=1" /> "http://vimeo.com/moogaloop.swf?clip_id=11673745&server=vimeo.com&show_title=1&show_byline=1&show_portrait=0&color=&fullscreen=1" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowfullscreen="true" allowscriptaccess="always" width="400" height="200"> <p><a href= "http://vimeo.com/11673745" >Iceland, Eyjafjallajökull - May 1st and 2nd, 2010</a> from <a href= "http://vimeo.com/sstieg" >Sean Stiegemeier</a> on <a href= "http://vimeo.com" >Vimeo</a>.</p> Posted via email from The...

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And yet "Social Security" is legal... go figure :-) By PAUL ELIAS, Associated Press Writer Friday, May 14, 2010 (05-14) 16:55 PDT San Francisco, CA (AP) -- As more than 100 distraught and angry victims looked on, a federal judge on Friday sentenced a seemingly small-time neighborhood accountant to 20 years in prison for operating a $50 million Ponzi scheme for three decades. Roberto Heckscher, 56, pleaded guilty in October to a single fraud count. His massive fraud was uncovered in June when he ran out of money, was unable to recruit any new investors and could no longer hold off his creditors. Heckscher turned himself in after attempting suicide by overdosing on pills. His sentencing hearing lasted for more than three hours while U.S. District Court Judge Susan Illston listened to several of his victims tell her about lost nest eggs, college funds and homes. "My days are bleak," said Evelyn Fahnbulleh, who lost $187,000. "I'm destitute. Penniless. I...

Cool, what I am convinced is Lora's number one goal in life:  "Going back to sleep after the alarm goes off every single day." has been immortalized by Malki on Wondermark ... -- Larry Devich http://larry-devich.blogspot.com/ It is more blessed to ask forgiveness than permission Posted via email from The Angry Gnome

to Last week I mentioned a story about scientists having now detected evidence that Homo sapiens sapiens ( Us ) interbred at some point in the past with Homo sapiens neanderthalensis ( Them , specifically DNA obtained from several Neanderthal individuals discovered in Croatia, thus the "My" in the title.) This would have occurred as humans were leaving Africa on their way out to populate Europe, Asia, Oceania, and the Americas, since all of these peoples have the Neanderthal gene trace (1-4% of the genome) while those groups that remained in sub-Saharan Africa do not have this trace at all. I was quite pleased to hear this as it introduced all sorts of interesting possibilities for wild speculation, and if there is one thing I love it's wild scientific speculation. :-) This does present some difficulties for the Reasons to Believe theory of Old Earth Creationism, where humans are considered to be a special creation, not evolved from previous hominids...

How I listen to music has changed over the years.  When I was a kid I listened to AM radio then FM radio and records of course, from the stack of old classical 78 rpm records my parents had, to 45's and eventually to an extensive collection of several hundred LP albums.  I missed out on the age of 8 track tapes because that was such a short period of time and I didn't have any money then.  I had many cassette tapes, mostly recorded from my LPs.  I listened to the records on a number of record players or "stereos" as we called them back then.  Cassettes were perfect for the "Walkman" that I used for several years.  I listened to radio on the stereo and on a black plastic mono transistor radio, so very high tech! :-) My vinyl album collection vanished in two waves, the first in the mid 70's when I heard a fire and brimstone preacher at Evergreen Christian Center in Olympia Washington preaching about how evil they were and how you couldn't b...

With so much going on in the world I am sorely tempted to post some political screeds about Our Glorious Leader and his choice for the Supreme Court or the Greek financial crisis or any number of similar things. But I'm not going to do it! What amazing restraint! ;-) Sent from my Verizon Wireless BlackBerry Posted via email from The Angry Gnome

See and download the full gallery on posterous Posted via email from Our Family Blog

Long delayed, here are some photos from the SFBUN campout at DelValle a couple of weeks ago, fun was had by all :-) See and download the full gallery on posterous Posted via email from Our Family Blog

Yoda (aka Serenity) was feeling blue tonight... It's sidewalk chalk btw. :-) See and download the full gallery on posterous Posted via email from Our Family Blog

via news.bbc.co.uk How cool is this? I always suspected I was "part Neanderthal" :-) Posted via web from The Angry Gnome

Amusing but... but? Well it seems to me that you only continue to ask the "Huge Existential Questions®" if you didn't get really satisfactory answers the last time around. I feel like the Gospel pretty much answers those questions, when rightly understood of course. You CAN be a Christian and believe in the gospel without really "getting" it, then you will probably continue to struggle with the HEQ's. Anyway, enjoy :-) dave@davekellett.com?subject=Sheldon" shape="rect" coords="236,7,344,30" /> Sheldon for Friday, May 7, 2010 || Share a laugh: forward this strip to friends! First Strip | Previous Strip | Jump to a Random Strip! | Full Strip Archives | Buy the Original Art for this Strip Posted via email from The Angry Gnome

Of course if this was Oakland they would have pumped 20 or 30 rounds into it and called it a day after ten minutes or so. Growling sea lion pup pulled from under police car AP – This Wednesday, May 5, 2010 photo released by Jim Grant shows Kevin Robinson, senior animal care specialist … Wed May 5, 9:26 pm ET SAN DIEGO – A sea lion pup has been captured after hiding under a San Diego police car for four hours in the middle of a road. Police Sgt. Jack Knish says officers got a call about 4 a.m. Wednesday that the pup was crossing a street in the Ocean Beach area. Knish says an officer parked his car in the middle of the road and went to investigate. That's when the sea lion came out from under another car and scuttled under the patrol car. SeaWorld experts retrieved the growling pup at about 8 a.m. Rescuer Kevin Robinson grabbed it by the tail and put it in a net. Robinson says the pup, who's less t...

I know the police are not selected for their intelligence but this is simply pathetic... and crappy shots too, 7 shots to kill bambi? http://abclocal.go.com/kgo/video?id=7421089 Sigh... Posted via email from The Angry Gnome