Posts Tagged ‘Easter’
“In the sphere of thought, absurdity and perversity remain the masters of this world, and their dominion is suspended only for brief periods”*…
From a (somewhat sarcastic) 1896 essay (“The Art of Controversy”) by that gloomiest of philosophers, Arthur Schopenhauer, advice that (sadly) feels as appropriate today as it surely was then…
1. Carry your opponent’s proposition beyond its natural limits; exaggerate it. The more general your opponent’s statement becomes, the more objections you can find against it. The more restricted and narrow his or her propositions remain, the easier they are to defend by him or her.
2. Use different meanings of your opponent’s words to refute his or her argument.
3. Ignore your opponent’s proposition, which was intended to refer to a particular thing. Rather, understand it in some quite different sense, and then refute it. Attack something different than that which was asserted.
…
The first three of “Schopenhauer’s 38 Stratagems, or 38 Ways to Win an Argument.” Via @TheBrowser.
[Image above: source]
* Arthur Schopenhauer, “The Art of Controversy“
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As we celebrate sophistry, we might recall that it was on this date (or near; scholars disagree) in 325 that Roman Emperor Constantine I convened a gathering in which all of Scopenhauer’s tricks were surely employed: the First Council of Nicaea. An ecumenical council, it was the first effort to attain consensus in the church through an assembly representing all Christendom. Its main accomplishments were settlement of the Christological issue of the divine nature of God the Son and his relationship to God the Father, the construction of the first part of the Nicene Creed, mandating uniform observance of the date of Easter, and the promulgation of early canon law.
“I’m not really a practising Jew but I keep a kosher kitchen just to spite Hitler”*…
We’re in the midst of Passover (Chag Pesach sameach!), a marvelous time to muse on the way in which kosher food has become important to non-observers…
While there are about 6 million Jews in the United States, according to World Population Review, [executive manager of certification organization OK Kosher, Rabbi Eli] Lando said Jewish people represent only 20% of the kosher product consumer base. By and large, consumers see a kosher certification as a verification that a product is healthy, clean and safe. And while the certification has roots in religious traditions that are thousands of years old, it now speaks directly to the modern consumer’s demand for wholesome foods…
Every day of the year, however, kosher is a hot market, period. Research in 2017 by Kosher Network International — commonly abbreviated KNi — found that the global market for kosher foods was worth $24 billion, and was projected to grow 11.5% by 2025. OK Kosher, which is one of the largest kosher certification organizations in the world, has certified around 700,000 products made by 4,000 manufacturers, Lando said. Its clients include Kraft Heinz, Kellogg and General Mills.
Kosher is one of the most popular certifications in the food industry today. According to one commonly cited estimate,the certification is on about 40% of all products in a U.S. grocery store.
“Everyone sees it almost as a necessary point of entry to the market to have this certification,” said Jamie Geller, founder of KNi…
While the “K” seal signifies that items meet Jewish dietary laws, it increasingly represents purity, good practices, and trustworthiness to non-observant consumers: “The ‘silent salesman’: How kosher certification went mainstream,” from Megan Poinski (@meganpoinski) in @FoodDive. TotH to @WaltHickey.
* Miriam Margolyes
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As we nosh, we might note that National Egg Salad Week begins today (as it starts on the first Monday after Easter each year)… a celebration of one of the favorite ways to use all of the Easter eggs that have been cooked, colored, hidden, and found.
Making history…
The folks at The Citizen Science Alliance, a transatlantic collaboration of universities and museums, are dedicated to involving everyone in the process of science. Readers may know their wildly successful Galaxy Zoo project, which lets volunteer astronomers crowd-source the classification of objects captured by the Hubble Space Telescope…
Now, in collaboration with Oxford University, CSA has launched Ancient Lives— which invites any and all to help transcribe papyri belong to the Egypt Exploration Society, the texts eventually to be published and numbered in the Society’s “Greco-Roman Memoirs” series in the volumes entitled The Oxyrhynchus Papyri.
Readers have but to click here, then (using the interface pictured above) begin re-writing history.
As we satisfy our Indiana jones, we might recall that this date in 31 AD was the first Easter– according to Dionysius Exiguus (Dennis the Small, Dennis the Little or Dennis the Short– any/all of which have traditionally been taken to mean Dennis the Humble). Dionysius invented the Anno Domini (AD) era (used to number the years of both the Gregorian and the [Christianized] Julian calendars); and at the request of Pope John I, calculated the date of the first Easter and created a table showing all future Easter dates.
D.E., the coiner of “AD” (source)
Say “Cheese”…
… or just don the Happiness Hat— a millinery creation of artist Lauren McCarthy:
“A wearable conditioning device that detects if you’re smiling and provides pain feedback if you’re not. Frowning creates intense pain but a full smile leaves you pain free! The first in a series of Tools for Improved Social Inter-Acting.”
…or we could just console ourselves that (as the BBC reports) feeling grumpy is good for you.
As we bare our teeth, we might note that it was on this date in 1215 that the Fourth Lateran Council was convened, at which (among other things) “transubstantiation” was formally recognized and defined by the Roman Catholic Church; from that point, Catholics have been “required” to receive the Eucharist at the least on Easter. (The Council had been called– convoked– by Pope Innocent III with the papal bull of April 19, 1213…)
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