Prominent Australians Have Obviously Been Watching Terminator

The Australian has awakened to the implications of making robots completely autonomous and then giving them lots of guns. Professor Noel Sharkey of the University of Sheffield raised the red flag recently, and gets the official Apoloblogology "Wait Up, My Scientific Friends, Let's Stop And Think About This For A Second" award for discussing the implications that these technologies could have on both the War on Terror and the War on Skynet:

Captured robots would not be difficult to reverse engineer, and could easily replace suicide bombers as the weapon of choice.

"I don't know why that has not happened already,'' he said.

But even more worrisome, he said, was the subtle progression from the semi-autonomous military robots deployed today to fully independent killing machines.

"I have worked in artificial intelligence for decades, and the idea of a robot making decisions about human termination terrifies me,'' Prof Sharkey said.

My guess is that before a fellow like Professor Sharkey can start programming Asimov's Three Laws of Robotics into these things, he will have already been killed by some robot made by a less ethical and more money driven scientist than himself. Professor Sharkey, consider yourself welcome in my bunker when the Cylons come.

C.S. Lewis Appears On "Lost"

Alongside Locke, Rousseau, Hume, Austen, Dawson, Faraday, etc...

Sorry about the lateness of my pickup on this... Thanks to Narniafans.com for opening mine eyes.

There are now a series of theories about Lost paying homage to the works of C.S. Lewis, especially since the second episode of season 4, when it was revealed that anthropologist and island newcomer Charlotte's full name was "Charlotte Staples Lewis." The only other "Staples Lewis" we all know has the first name of "Clive."

Further, when Hugo turned over Sayid and Kate to Locke a couple of weeks ago, the writers admitted that the sequence was structured to pay homage to The Empire Strikes Back, with Hugo as the unenviable parallel to Lando Calrissian. Obviously the writers of Lost have an appreciation for the classics. But I digress.

Here are a few of the Lewis-inspired elements that people have suggested are present in Lost:

1. The island setting, "Adam and Eve" references, whispering voices, and good versus evil dialogues conjure images of Perelandra, the second book in Lewis' Space Trilogy.

2. Narnia has been described as a place that you can only get to if Narnia "wants you to come." The Island has been described using the same language on a number of occasions.

3. Time in Narnia is different than time in other places. Daniel Faraday's rocket arrives with a clock that has obviously gone through some type of 31-minute time warp, indicating that time on the island also works different than time in other places.

4. Numerous parallels to The Great Divorce abound, including the fact that the survivors are visited by their past and afforded opportunities to change, some never want to leave the island, and that whole "purgatory" thing.

5. Children seem to have a special importance on the island, as they also do in the Narnia books.

6. In The Last Battle the friends of Narnia die in a train crash, but are simlultaneously found in Narnia. This season, the survivors learn that the wreckage of Oceanic 815 has been found, and that all passengers have been confirmed dead.

7. Ben Linus masquerades as the balloonist, Henry Gale. Jadis, the White Witch, masquerades as queen of Narnia. Both characters have been in these alternate worlds long before their guests. Both characters invoked some tragedy to kill all of the island's previous inhabitants. Both have a paranormal connection with their respective environments, and yet both seem to be in some way in confict with their setting, which happens to be personified in both cases.

I'm sure there are many more which I merely have yet to determine. Suffice to say, there is certainly a measure of Lewis' influence, especially as Lost continues. We intend to keep you all posted as we discover new parallels. Feel free to contribute your own discoveries.

Upon The Feast Of St. Robert Southwell

Made the Sign of the Cross repeatedly while hanging by the neck until dead.

I know it's slightly out of season, but his poem, "The Nativity of Christ" is still good:

Behold the father is his daughter's son,
The bird that built the nest is hatch'd therein,
The old of years an hour hath not outrun,
Eternal life to live doth now begin,
The word is dumb, the mirth of heaven doth weep,
Might feeble is, and force doth faintly creep.

O dying souls! behold your living spring!
O dazzled eyes! behold your sun of grace!
Dull ears attend what word this word doth bring!
Up, heavy hearts, with joy your joy embrace!
From death, from dark, from deafness, from despairs,
This life, this light, this word, this joy repairs.

Gift better than Himself God doth not know,
Gift better than his God no man can see;
This gift doth here the giver given bestow,
Gift to this gift let each receiver be:
God is my gift, Himself He freely gave me,
God's gift am I, and none but God shall have me.

Man alter'd was by sin from man to beast;
Beast's food is hay, hay is all mortal flesh;
Now God is flesh, and lies in manger press'd,
As hay the brutest sinner to refresh:
Oh happy field wherein this fodder grew,
Whose taste doth us from beasts to men renew!

Top 25 Rankings Are Now Out

The Christian Post has released the latest statistics on the numbers of adherents to various Christian groups, ranking them in order of attendance. The stats are as follows:

1. The Catholic Church – 67,515,016
2. Southern Baptist Convention – 16,306,246
3. The United Methodist Church – 7,995,456
4. The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints – 5,779,316
5. The Church of God in Christ – 5,499,875
6. National Baptist Convention, U.S.A., Inc. – 5,000,000
7. Evangelical Lutheran Church in America – 4,774,203
8. National Baptist Convention of America, Inc. – 3,500,000
9. Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) – 3,025,740
10. Assemblies of God – 2,836,174
11. African Methodist Episcopal Church – 2,500,000
12. National Missionary Baptist Convention of America – 2,500,000
13. Progressive National Baptist Convention, Inc. – 2,500,000
14. The Lutheran Church - Missouri Synod (LCMS) – 2,417,997
15. Episcopal Church – 2,154,572
16. Churches of Christ – 1,639,495
17. Greek Orthodox Archdiocese of America – 1,500,000
18. Pentecostal Assemblies of the World, Inc. – 1,500,000
19. The African Methodist Episcopal Zion Church – 1,443,405
20. American Baptist Churches in the U.S.A. – 1,371,278
21. United Church of Christ – 1,218,541
22. Baptist Bible Fellowship International – 1,200,000
23. Christian Churches and Churches of Christ – 1,071,616
24. The Orthodox Church in America – 1,064,000
25. Jehovah’s Witnesses – 1,069,530

Those J-dubs barely made the list at #25. I'd be interested to see who number 26 is, seeing as how Jehovah's Witnesses are only slightly more complimentary of Jesus than Muslims are. Also, this blogger is a little shocked that Progressive Baptists outnumber American Baptists, and that the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A) ranked pretty high, but the Presbyterian Church in America didn't even make the list. I remain fascinated by The Wonder That Is American Religion.

Carl Olson, I tip my hat to you.

Re-Education

China, our bestest ever trade buddy, has sentenced 21 protestant "house church" leaders to labor camps for an Orwellian "re-education" that will last 15 months to three years, depending on how long it takes to break the ministers.

Is anybody listening yet?

"We Don't Want The Olympics, We Want Human Rights!"

Too bad, pal. Go to jail. Go directly to jail. Do not pass go, do not collect housing reimbursement.

"I Didn't Kill My Wife!"

Attack of the Show has some rather hysterical outtakes from Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull. Flip of the fedora to theraider.net.