*A* *R* Please Post FEET OF CLAY Annotations *HERE ONLY*

William James Booth

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Jun 16, 1996, 3:00:00 AM6/16/96

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On Sat, 8 Jun 1996, Jean Lamb wrote:
> >David Radford <dmr...@york.ac.uk> wrote:
> >On Sun, 2 Jun 1996, Mike wrote:
>
> >> Isn't the word "robot" Czech/Romanian/Hungarian/Whatever for servant?
>
> >I thought it was an accronym? Doesn't it stand for Remote Operated
> >something-or-other? But I could be wrong, I usually am.
>
> I thought it was a made-up word from a Czech author, Karl Capek, who
> wrote R.U.R. (Rossem's Universal Robots).

Yes, Capek did coin the word in its modern sense ... but there was an
earlier term 'robota' (which is sometimes anglicised to 'robot'). This
referred to the labour which Central European peasants used to have to
perform for the aristocracy. It was abolished in the Austrian Empire
during the revolution of 1848.

Even though I know about the double meaning of the word, I still find it
slightly strange when I read about calls for the 'abolition of the robot'
in the mid nineteenth century!

I don't think that the post-Capek usage is supposed to be an acronym, but
I don't have a copy of 'R.U.R' to hand to check. The University Library
does have one, so I could check - if anyone is really that interested...

William

(Who feels he really ought to go away and write some job applications
now...)

--
"The lunatic, on the other hand, doesn't concern himself with logic ...
You can tell him by the liberties he takes with common sense, by his
flashes of inspiration, and by the fact that sooner or later he always
brings up the Templars." (Umberto Eco, Foucault's Pendulum)

Terry Pratchett

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Jun 20, 1996, 3:00:00 AM6/20/96

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Development of Omnianism: The way I like to think of it, Brutha's influence flipped the religion from Old Testament to New Testament mode. No doubt he was that rare thing, a thoroughly good person --unfortunately, though, a lot of things started by good people are continued by people like us. The Omnians now spread the Word with pamphlets, door-knocking and monotonous conversation instead of fire and the sword. It's an up, on the whole. Terry Pratchett

Joe Slater

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Jun 22, 1996, 3:00:00 AM6/22/96

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Terry Pratchett <Ter...@unseen.demon.co.uk> writes:
>The way I like to think of it, Brutha's influence flipped the religion
>from Old Testament to New Testament mode.

Do you mean from:
"Nation will not take up sword against nation, nor will they study war
any longer. But every man shall sit under his grape vine and under his
fig tree without fear" (1)

to:
"[They] shall drink of the wine of the wrath of God, which is poured out
without mixture into the cup of his indignation; and he shall be tormented
with fire and brimstone in the presence of the holy angels, and in the
presence of the Lamb. And the smoke of their torment ascendeth up for ever
and ever."

jds

(1) Micah, Ch. 4. Old Testament.
(2) Revelations Ch. 14. New Testament.
--
j...@yoyo.cc.monash.edu.au | `You SHOULD have said "It's extremely
T: +61-3-95258728 F: +61-3-95620756 | kind of you to tell me all this" -
If all else fails try Dialix: | however, we'll suppose it said.'
j...@melb.dialix.oz.au | (The Red Queen)

Terry Pratchett

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Jun 22, 1996, 3:00:00 AM6/22/96

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In article <joe.83...@yoyo.cc.monash.edu.au>
j...@yoyo.cc.monash.edu.au "Joe Slater" writes:

> Terry Pratchett <Ter...@unseen.demon.co.uk> writes:
> >The way I like to think of it, Brutha's influence flipped the religion
> >from Old Testament to New Testament mode.
>
> Do you mean from:
> "Nation will not take up sword against nation, nor will they study war
> any longer. But every man shall sit under his grape vine and under his
> fig tree without fear" (1)
>
> to:
> "[They] shall drink of the wine of the wrath of God, which is poured out
> without mixture into the cup of his indignation; and he shall be tormented
> with fire and brimstone in the presence of the holy angels, and in the
> presence of the Lamb. And the smoke of their torment ascendeth up for ever
> and ever."
>
> jds
>
> (1) Micah, Ch. 4. Old Testament.
> (2) Revelations Ch. 14. New Testament.

Oh, come *on*. Revelation was a mushroom dream that belonged in the
Apocrypha. The New Testament is basically about what happened when God
got religion.

Terry Pratchett

John Wilkins

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Jun 24, 1996, 3:00:00 AM6/24/96

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In article <joe.83...@yoyo.cc.monash.edu.au>,
j...@yoyo.cc.monash.edu.au (Joe Slater) wrote:

| Terry Pratchett <Ter...@unseen.demon.co.uk> writes:
| >The way I like to think of it, Brutha's influence flipped the religion
| >from Old Testament to New Testament mode.
|
| Do you mean from:
| "Nation will not take up sword against nation, nor will they study war
| any longer. But every man shall sit under his grape vine and under his
| fig tree without fear" (1)
|
| to:
| "[They] shall drink of the wine of the wrath of God, which is poured out
| without mixture into the cup of his indignation; and he shall be tormented
| with fire and brimstone in the presence of the holy angels, and in the
| presence of the Lamb. And the smoke of their torment ascendeth up for ever
| and ever."
|
| jds
|
| (1) Micah, Ch. 4. Old Testament.
| (2) Revelations Ch. 14. New Testament.

Yeah, but the difference is that in the OT they talk a lot about peace,
but the Israelites commit mayhem on an Omnian scale[1]. In the NT they
talk a lot about mayhem, but they only have the numbers to be peaceful.
Religions with an army talk about peace a lot more than those with only
downtrodden followers without state support, who wish for better days (ie,
the blood of their oppressors in small bottles)...

--
John Wilkins, Head of Communication Services, Walter and Eliza
Hall Institute of Medical Research
<http://www.wehi.edu.au/~wilkins/www.html><mailto:wil...@wehi.edu.au>
If a chicken could talk, we would not be able to understand why it
crossed the road... [apologies to Wittgenstein]

1. Except against the Assyrians, Babylonians and Egyptians, who are much more peaceful than the Israelites (ie, have bigger armies). Now, the Moamites, Phillistines post-David, and other smaller (= less divinely favoured) ethnic groups. Plus ça change...

John Wilkins

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Jun 24, 1996, 3:00:00 AM6/24/96

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In article <835462...@unseen.demon.co.uk>, Ter...@unseen.demon.co.uk wrote:

| In article <joe.83...@yoyo.cc.monash.edu.au>
| j...@yoyo.cc.monash.edu.au "Joe Slater" writes:
|

| Oh, come *on*. Revelation was a mushroom dream that belonged in the
| Apocrypha. The New Testament is basically about what happened when God
| got religion.

Well, there goes the Church of England and Baptist readerships, Terry...

Midnight Tree Bandit

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Jun 24, 1996, 3:00:00 AM6/24/96

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Sometime in the last week or so, John Wilkins was seen stating:

>Well, there goes the Church of England and Baptist readerships, Terry...

Who says they'd be missed?

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Colin Rosenthal

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Jun 25, 1996, 3:00:00 AM6/25/96

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On Mon, 24 Jun 1996 13:05:43 +1100, John Wilkins <wil...@wehi.edu.au> wrote:
>In article <joe.83...@yoyo.cc.monash.edu.au>,
>j...@yoyo.cc.monash.edu.au (Joe Slater) wrote:
>

>Yeah, but the difference is that in the OT they talk a lot about peace,
>but the Israelites commit mayhem on an Omnian scale[1]. In the NT they
>talk a lot about mayhem, but they only have the numbers to be peaceful.
>Religions with an army talk about peace a lot more than those with only
>downtrodden followers without state support, who wish for better days (ie,
>the blood of their oppressors in small bottles)...

Well, if you really want to get into the subject of the intervening 2000
years, and who
did more Omnian-style mayhem then lets go to it - but I wouldn't advise it.
I mean, it's the Jewish bible that says "an eye for an eye", but only
christians have ever interpreted that literally.

--
--Colin Rosenthal | ``Don't smell the flowers -
--rose...@obs.aau.dk | They're an evil drug -
--http://www.obs.aau.dk/~rosentha | To make you lose your mind''-
--Aarhus University, Denmark | Ronnie James Dio, 1983 -

LI Endell

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Jun 27, 1996, 3:00:00 AM6/27/96

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Midnight Tree Bandit (mtba...@mindspring.com) wrote:
: Sometime in the last week or so, John Wilkins was seen stating:

: >Well, there goes the Church of England and Baptist readerships, Terry...

: Who says they'd be missed?

Well, *I'm* not going anywhere. Mind, I'm half Methodist. Not the
drinking half. That's the Anglican half...

Lindsay