The Arachnids of Richmond

Following the spirit of Aristophanes, this comedy combines ancient Greek and contemporary elements to point to the inspiration that nature can provide to the solution of human problems. Istotle speaks to Diktyophanes about three problems that threaten to destroy the world – the extinction of acrobats, the nightmares babies are having, and the staggering amount of information produced daily. Spiderman presents himself as deux ex macbina claiming that he can solve all three problems. Answering Istotle and Diktyophanes’ questions, he informs them that he runs a shop on Acharnnon street, where his workers (the Spiders) work tirelessly for the good of humanity. Spiderman goes to the shop and interrupts the Spiders, who are talking about their amorous adventures during the weekend. He asks them to get to work for a great cause. For their part, they weave three objects designed to solve all three problems – a safety net, a dream-catcher, and the World Wide Web

For surely I know the plans I have for you

Jer 29:1-14. Preached at Waterloo, Ont, Jl 4 2001

The Hebrew prophets and Sodom and Gomorrah

Genesis 19; Judges 19:16-2

Boston University Chorus, April 23, 1988

This is the concert program of the Boston University Chorus performance on Saturday, April 23, 1988 at 8:00 p.m., at Marsh Chapel, 735 Commonwealth Avenue. Works performed were the following by Ludwig van Beethoven: Mass in C major, Op. 86 and No. 11, No. 13, No. 15, and No. 16 from Act II of "Fidelio," Op. 72. Digitization for Boston University Concert Programs was supported by the Boston University Humanities Library Endowed Fund

The Discourse of Digital Deceptions and ‘419’ Emails

This study applies a computer-mediated discourse analysis (CMDA) to the study of discourse structures and functions of ‘419’ emails – the Nigerian term for online/financial fraud. The hoax mails are in the form of online lottery winning announcements, and email ‘business proposals’ involving money transfers/claims of dormant bank accounts overseas. Data comprise 68 email samples collected from the researcher’s inboxes and colleagues’ and students’ mail boxes between January 2008 and March 2009 in Ota, Nigeria. The study reveals that the writers of the mails apply discourse/pragmatic strategies such as socio-cultural greeting formulas,self-identification, reassurance/confidence building, narrativity and action prompting strategies to sustain the interest of the receivers. The study also shows that this genre of computer-mediated communication (CMC) has become a regular part of our Internet experience, and is not likely to be extinct in the near future as previous studies of email hoaxes have predicted. It is believed that as the global economy witnesses a recession, chances are that more creative and complex ways of combating the situation will arise. Economic hardship has been blamed for fraud/online scams, inadvertently prompting youths to engage in various anti-social activities. K E Y W O R D S : computer-media communication, deceptions, discourse, email, ‘419’, fraud, hoax

What if God commanded something horrible? A pragmatics-based defence of divine command metaethics

The objection of horrible commands claims that divine command metaethics is doomed to failure because it is committed to the extremely counterintuitive assumption that torture of innocents, rape, and murder would be morally obligatory if God commanded these acts. Morriston, Wielenberg, and Sinnott-Armstrong have argued that formulating this objection in terms of counterpossibles is particularly forceful because it cannot be simply evaded by insisting on God’s necessary perfect moral goodness. I show that divine command metaethics can be defended even against this counterpossible version of the objection of horrible commands because we can explain the truth-value intuitions about the disputed counterpossibles as the result of conversational implicatures. Furthermore, I show that this pragmatics-based defence of divine command metaethics has several advantages over Pruss’s reductio counterargument against the counterpossible version of the objection of horrible commands

'Islamic fatalism': life and suffering among Bangladeshi psychiatric patients and their families in London--an interview study 2

An interview study of 44 Bangladeshi patients and relatives in eastern London demonstrated frequent appeals to God and deprecation of personal agency. This paper offers an interpretation of this apparent 'fatalism', which argues for the logical downplaying of human agency and ambition in archaic Arabia, contemporary rural Sylhet and among first generation Sylheti migrants in London