Saturday, October 25, 2008

Behold, He is in the Desert

Wherefore if they shall say unto you, Behold, he is in the desert; go not forth: behold, [he is] in the secret chambers; believe [it] not. -- Matthew 24:26

I happened on to this Wiki entry and thought I would post it for your consideration. Only the introduction is here, read the full article at Wiki.

H.I.M. Emperor Haile Selassie I (Ge'ez: "Power of the Trinity"; 23 July 1892 – 27 August 1975), born Tafari Makonnen, was Ethiopia's regent from 1916 to 1930 and Emperor of Ethiopia from 1930 to 1974. The heir to a dynasty that traced its origins to the 13th century, and from there by tradition back to King Solomon and the Queen of Sheba, Haile Selassie is a defining figure in both Ethiopian and African history.

At the League of Nations in 1936, the Emperor's condemnation of the use of chemical weapons against his people was a pivotal moment in the onset of World War II, as well as a foreshadowing of the "barbarism" which was to come. His internationalist views led to Ethiopia becoming a charter member of the United Nations, and his political thought and experience in promoting multilateralism and collective security have proved seminal and enduring. His suppression of rebellions among the nobles (mekwannint), as well as what some perceived to be Ethiopia's failure to modernize adequately,[6] earned him criticism among some contemporaries and historians.

Haile Selassie is revered as the religious symbol for God incarnate among the Rastafari movement, the number of followers is estimated between 200,000 and 800,000. Begun in Jamaica in the 1930s, the Rastafarian movement perceives Haile Selassie as a messianic figure who will lead the peoples of Africa and the African diaspora to a golden age of peace, righteousness, and prosperity.

Wednesday, October 1, 2008

Bible Annotation and Research Tool

Back in the days of Windows 95/98 there was a great software application by Parson's Technology called QuickVerse. It was inexpensive, had Strong's numbers and some other nifty tools for searching the Bible.

Well, I don't use Windows 95/98 anymore (even if I could) and the latest version of QuickVerse features the same kinds of bloat that the other applications have always had -- video tours of the Holy Land, Christian "art", etc. -- that presents too much fluff.

After making some inquiries regarding the availability of KJV data and Strong's numbers, I have decided to create my own simple tool for Bible searching and research.

It will be a command line tool because

  1. As a programmer I spend a lot of time on the command line each day.
  2. The command line provides a simple user interface for which to code.
  3. I want to try out Python's console module.

The tool will focus on searching for words, Strong's numbers, word counts, and other research-related tasks.