Comments on: Comments on 4765

Post number 4765

lagado — Tue, 12 Dec 2000 21:02:52 -0800

When archaeology goes bad "For a nation that has always reveled in its cultural uniqueness, the discoveries were more than heartening; they were almost too good to be true. "

By: daveadams

daveadams — Wed, 13 Dec 2000 07:25:00 -0800

Shouldn't this be "When design goes bad"? That interface and three-column page is atrocious! But then, IANAD.

By: cCranium

cCranium — Wed, 13 Dec 2000 08:51:44 -0800

dave: We hashed out the IHT's design a few weeks back. Though I don't think consensus was reached. :-) (I like the 3 columns, BTW) "The devil made me do it." Jeepers, that devil really is everywhere! From the Apple farms to the archaeology digs. Man, I'll be people all over the world are thankful for the spread of the Judeo-Christian belief system, now they have an actual evil entity to blame their jealousy and stupidity on.

By: dhartung

dhartung — Wed, 13 Dec 2000 09:59:11 -0800

"Devil" is a reasonable translation of a pre-Christian Japanese concept. I think the idea of blaming mistakes on an evil entity is also a little older than Judeo-Christianity ...

By: Steven Den Beste

Steven Den Beste — Wed, 13 Dec 2000 10:36:11 -0800

It occurs to me that "The Devil made me do it" might be a collocquial translation into English of the actual Japanese phrase he really used, preserving the spirit though not necessarily the literal meaning of what he said.

By: cCranium

cCranium — Wed, 13 Dec 2000 11:08:05 -0800

Yeah, alright, I can accept and happily concede both those points. I'll still hide my mouth behind my hand while I snicker at the concept of blaming any evil force. How much praise was did said "archaeologist" heap upon the force of good, and how much did he keep for himself?

By: lagado

lagado — Wed, 13 Dec 2000 14:12:22 -0800

For the record the word "devil" (as in demon) is derived from the Zoroastrian religion which has a big influence on Judaism and is ultimately of proto-indoeuropean origin. "The ancient writings of the Persian Avesta and the Hindu Vedas share many gods and beliefs. Eventually they must have split, causing later authors to demonize the divinities of their adversaries. In early Hindu writings the asuras were respected gods, but later they became the demons most hated, while Ahura Mazda became the chief god of the Zoroastrians. (Persian often uses an h where Sanskrit uses an s, such as haoma for soma.) On the other hand the Hindu term for divinities, devas, was used by Zoroastrians to describe the devils from which even our English word is derived." http://www.san.beck.org/EC7-Vedas.html

By: lagado

lagado — Sun, 11 Mar 2001 23:19:11 -0800

For completeness: There's a sad ending to this story.