Glossolalia, or simply ’speaking in tongues’ is a phenomenon interested me for some time now. It does, of course, refer to the phenomenon of supposedly speaking some unknown language, especially during religious worship. Explanations as to why people suddenly burst into glossolalia range from divine intervention (a popular one among Pentecostal Christians) to blunt mental illness.

Comparative studies seem to indicate that glossolalia somewhat resembles ordinary language, in so far as it demonstrates some degree of phonological structure, rhythm and accent, yet studies in neuroscience claim that it shows brain activity which differs from everyday speech when it is being uttered.

Finding a video which sufficiently demonstrated the tara ba rumeso kare mapoti shalafa ‘ sound but which doesn’t spill over into religious instruction proved difficult. This is the best I could come up with:

The ‘meaning’ of these utterances is an interesting topic in its own right. Glossolalists believe that ‘tongues’, or whatever you want to call it, actually constitutes a real language, one with its own lexicon and grammar. Yet if asked to repeat what they say or translate it into their native language, most are unable (or are unwilling) to do so. The ability to speak in tongues is, according to them, a divine gift from their deity.

The consensus from the viewpoint of linguistics seems to be that is that glossolalia does not constitute a truly meaningful language. Rather, the seemingly random speech sounds serve as a sort of tool to express deep belief in and attachment to a higher being. Nonetheless, speaking this pseudo-language is generally a deeply significant and emotional experience for the person involved.

Somewhere in the middle there are believers who do think that the descriptions of ‘tongues’ in the new testament (notably in Acts, apparently), refer to the God-given language which modern-day worshippers describe. They do not, however, believe that the utterances of modern-day worshippers, such as those in the following video, relate to this language, dismissing them on-the-spot and meaningless.

I definitely fall into the ‘pseudo-language’ category, but I find the whole thing fascinating nonetheless. I am still amazed at the effect religious belief has on people’s minds, and sit here wondering whether the glossolalists consciously make themselves behave this way, or whether it’s a sort of out-of-body experience.

In the past week or so we have witnessed two extraordinary interruptions.

First, some background information:

The first interruption occurred when Barack Obama delivered his healthcare reform speech to a joint session of Congress. As he once again confirmed that his proposed health plan would not cover illegal immigrants, Obama was childishly and loudly interrupted by GOP congressman Joe Wilson, from South Carolina. You could see the shock and anger on Nancy Pelosi’s face as she heard ‘You lie!’ from the opposite chamber. Presumably after being smashed about by his party whip, the congressman came out afterwards and apologized.

The second interruption, while in rather different circumstances, was equally inappropriate and laughable. As Taylor Swift stood up to accept her first Video Music Award, the gold-plated imbecile who is Kanye West burst in to declare that ‘Beyoncé had one of the best videos of all time’, then stormed off the stage. Again, he calmed down, and issued an apology to minimize the media carnage.

What unites these two events? While it’s true that Obama commented on Kanye’s temper tantrum, calling him a ‘jackass’, I think this video sums it up more eloquently:

And that’s all I have to say.

Following on from my recent look at Mike Cammarano’s huge World Trade Center site aerial photograph, I discovered The Gigapxl Project which is, according to its website:

Defining the upper limits of large-format film photography, digital scanning and image processing, custom-built Gigapxl™ cameras capture images with unprecedented resolution.

It would take a video wall of 10,000 television screens or 600 prints from a professional digital SLR camera to capture as much information as that contained in a single Gigapxl™ exposure.

The Project’s near-term goal is to compile a coast-to-coast Portrait of America; photographing in exquisite detail the cities, parks and monuments of the USA and Canada.

A longer term goal is to create for future generations a world-wide archive of vanishing cultural and archaeological sites.

The image gallery contains some of the most mind-boggling detailed photographs I have ever seen. Take this example, a wide shot of New York’s Times Square.

We come from this:

to this:

to this:

Unnecessarily detailed photography seems to be turning into a bit of an obsession for me…

I’ve been trying out the new and improved Google image search which offers, among such fancy things as face and colour recognition, a ’search by size’ function.

I searched for the letter ‘c’, and one of the first results was this stunning aerial view of the World Trade Center site, hosted by Mike Cammarano, a Ph.D student at Stanford University’s Computer Graphics Laboratory.

Below I offer a 680×680 preview. The actual image is somewhat larger, weighing in at a hefty 9372×9372 pixels. This translates to a 14 megabyte download.

Click for a closer look

Be sure and zoom in as far as you can!

I’m a bit late with these, especially since they were taken right after my week in San Francisco. Nonetheless, here are some of the 633 photos I took this summer in the boroughs of New York City.

EDIT: Viddler seems to have taken down its mirror of Jesus Camp. I guess you’ll have to find it elsewhere!

‘MR. PRESIDENT! ONE NATION UNDER GOD!’ cry the children in front of the cardboard cut-out of George W. Bush. Disturbed yet?

Directed by Rachel Grady and Heidi Ewing and released in 2006, Jesus Camp is a documentary film about a Charismatic Pentecostal summer camp, which aims to teach children how to ‘take back America for Christ’. A classic example of thought reform at its most deadly, it is a worrying snapshot of the hardline conservative bible-thumpers of 21st century America.

As it dips in and out of the lives of a handful of evangelical christian families, we see that both inside and outside the home, what can only be described as brainwashing is taking place. We meet a sickeningly content boy watching ‘Creation Adventures’, a cartoon which happily tells him that God made the earth 6000 years ago. We meet a jubliant young girl who loves to dance, and would be having a ball if not for her sin of dancing ‘for the flesh’ (everything has to be done for the Lord).

While this certainly infuriated me, I soon found out that it barely tips the iceberg. Keen to save their souls, pastor Becky Fischer scorns children as young as seven and eight who are on their knees, hysterically upset about their supposed ’sins’. She yells that they are ‘phonies’ and ‘hypocrites’, before stepping in with ‘the water of your [God's] word’ to ‘cleanse’ them (it’s really just a bottle of the finest Nestlé spring water. I wonder who settled that sponsorship deal?).

Later on, a ‘pro-life’ activist comes to speak to the campers. Armed with a roll of red duct tape, a box of anatomically-incorrect plastic foetuses (you can buy your very own set here if you’re interested), and the most condescending tone of voice in existence, he explains that ‘God formed you in your mother’s womb. You’re not just a piece of protoplasm’. He then delivers his punch-line: ‘whatever that is!’ His joke certainly is funny, if only because it illustrates perfectly that he clearly has no business discussing matters of biology. ‘You’re not just a piece of tissue in your mother’s womb. You were created intently by God. Isn’t that incredible!’. Yes, it certainly is incredible. Incredible that a grown man has convinced himself that this unsubstantiated religious rhetoric is fact.
The most disturbing part of this episode is the pastor’s bizarre ’symbolic gesture’ of taping the children’s mouths shut with his big strips of red tape. It sums up the aim of the camp: to silence the individual voices of the most impressionable people in society, whilst (quite effectively) convincing them that they’re better for it.

I challenge you to watch this without wanting to cry out in anger. Perhaps the only good to come of this profoundly sad tale is that after the film’s release, the camp’s organizers were so innundated with complaints that they had to shut it down.

I am actually speechless. You MUST watch this video.

After a brief hiatus, I bring a selection of photos from my recent trip to San Francisco.

from creationmuseum.org:

The state-of-the-art 70,000 square foot museum brings the pages of the Bible to life, casting its characters and animals in dynamic form and placing them in familiar settings. Adam and Eve live in the Garden of Eden. Children play and dinosaurs roam near Eden’s Rivers. The serpent coils cunningly in the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil. Majestic murals, great masterpieces brimming with pulsating colors and details, provide a backdrop for many of the settings.

Wax Adam catches up with wax Eve in the wax garden of Eden.

Located in Petersburg, Kentucky, the Creation Museum purports to showcase the history of the natural world, through such ‘engaging’ exhibits as ‘Men in White’, ‘Six Days of Creation’, ‘The Last Adam’, and ‘Dinosaurs and Dragons’.

Now I have no problem with fantasy theme parks; Disney World has always provided a wealth of entertainment. But when you make such ludicrous claims as ‘[...] natural selection allows organisms to possess characteristics most favorable for a given environment—but it is not an example of evolution in the molecules-to-man sense.’, it goes beyond entertainment, and becomes deplorable.

Having paid a ludicrous $21.95 to see this rubbish, stupid men and women (and usually their brainwashed children) travel along roads lined with rational people (atheists and moderate christians alike) who protest against the museum’s existence, decrying its denial of scientific evidence to support creationism.

Are you enraged by this? I sure am!

Founded in 1947, the Foreign Service Institute is a facility of the US military which trains diplomats and officers to operate overseas, which tends to involve speaking different languages. To this end, since the ’60s it has been producing and publishing loads of audio language courses, designed to deliver quick results, which as government works are in the public domain (so they’re free).

Most of them are quite old, and there are probably better commercial ones out there, but it’s worth a look nonetheless, if only for a bit of cold-war-era nostalgia. You can download dozens of them here.