Fractals may 'explain' quantum wierdness

This could be big news: "what if there were a way [of] showing how quantum theory might emerge from a deeper level of non-weird physics?". The reason it could be big is that it would further solidify the hold of quantum theory on science, and more importantly for culture, on the popular imagination. You only have to look at the effects on art and social sciences of the emerging sciences of chaos and complexity (and heck; I'm working on a fractal model of theological reflection, for goodness sake) over the last decade or so, and it becomes apparent that the imaginative power will be huge. Therefore in terms of passing on the gospel in our culture, well, we're going to have to take it to heart and learn from it (and not rush just now; nothing worse than seeing Christians use half-digested science or philosophy to 'defend' the gospel!). This NS article Can fractals make sense of the quantum world? - physics-math - 30 March 2009 - New Scientist will give you the background to the debate over quantum versus relativistic theories. Palmer, the author of the new approach says "My hypothesis is motivated by two concepts that wouldn't have been known to the founding fathers of quantum theory," he says: black holes and fractals.

Now the thing that could set the cat (Schroedinger's) among the pigeons (especially for some NewAge /new mysticism apologists)is this: "quantum theory is famous for making only statistical predictions - it can only tell you the probability of finding an electron with its quantum-mechanical spin pointing up. This arises naturally, suggests Palmer, because quantum theory is blind to the intricate fractal structure of the invariant set. Just as our eyes cannot discern the smallest details in fractal patterns, quantum theory only sees "coarse grain approximations", as if it is looking through fuzzy spectacles." So out go the appeals to probability etc. Even more relevant, for apologetics in the face of certain 'new atheist' challenges is this "What makes this really interesting is that it gets away from the usual debates over multiple universes and hidden variables and so on," says Bob Coecke, a physicist at the University of Oxford. "It suggests there might be an underlying physical geometry that physics has just missed, which is radical and very positive." However, it may mean that we are back to a more deterministic universe; though I think that chaos is here to stay, so not a fully closed Newtonian box...

Metaphor and incarnation

Definitely worth thinking about, especially as it connects with the research on metaphor and language which in turn begins to connect with philosophy. Post Modern Christianity: The Future of the Church and Post Modern Ministry in the 21st Century: "we exist in metaphor. Metaphor meets us where we are. Indeed, God is more real in metaphor than in any previous theology or doctrine. As we increasingly weave the metaphoric web in which we are embedded, we will increasingly witness its signs of Truth.

The future belongs to the language of metaphor—or, more to the point, to the Presence of the Other within metaphor. And, as that Presence—that 'Word'—becomes 'flesh,' Christ returns to His rightful place in our postmodern world."

Daily prayer

Here's a good little resource giving us a reasons for daily prayer patterns and also pointing up some resources, including online ... good one-stop shop, so to speak. Ht to Guildford Diocese.
prayerpatternsresourcesforclergy.pdf (application/pdf Object)

UK "haunted by religion"

Rowan with a memorable turn of phrase: "'I don't believe we are living in a secular society and I don't believe we are living in a deeply religiously divided society. I believe we are living in a country that is uncomfortably haunted by the memory of religion and doesn't quite know what to do with it ... a society which is religiously plural and confused and therefore not necessarily hostile.'"
I think he may be right. The 'religiously' plural' and 'not necessarily hostile' are actually a product of the Christian heritage where neighbour-love and respect for the other are part of what is taken for granted as a sine-qua-non of spirituality whatever else may be added to the mix. Now, this may not be well thought out and suffer from the sentimentalisation that arguably bedevils our culture, but it does have Christian roots. Interestingly we find this informing the way that non-Christian elements are taken into people's spiritual mix: love is taken to be a defining characteristic of the Divine. Even given that, for example, a Buddhist take on life, the universe and everything is ultimately impersonal (remember Francis Schaeffer's 'He is There and He is Not Silent'?) And I recall an Ida Glaser review of a book on Islam written by a British convert in which she pointed out that the author's account of God is not properly Islamic, being informed ultimately by the Christian view that 'God is love' which would not be an Islamic way of viewing God's nature. It also seems to me, connecting this up with my experience of New Age and neo-Pagan discourse, that the idea that Ultimately Reality is (or should be) Love is well-embedded in our cultural consciousness.

Let's recall that ancient Paganism had gods that were capricious and on the whole did not care much for humans, let's recall that ultimate reality in Buddhism is impersonal, that God in Islam maybe beneficent and merciful but loving is not really in there, that only now neo-Paganism is beginning to explore non-personalism more fully ...

So is this a clue to mission in post-Christendom Britain? Can we help people connect the religious haunting to the Holy Ghost in a positive way? Or would it be a downer to our mission in the longer term to be pointing out that the idea of a loving God is actually Christian and doesn't necessarily 'work' with other views of ultimate reality? It might well be; in politics negative briefing tends to be viewed as potentially self-defeating (though it's still done).

Of course, it does beg the question of why the idea of a loving God should be so persistent and seem so self-evident? Is it culture only? Or is this a concept that has deeper resonances in the human psyche? And if it is the latter, is that part of the god-imagedness of humanity?
UK haunted by religion, says archbishop | UK news | The Guardian:

Woodchips With Everything

I have blogged about terra preta before. Apparently some people are touting it as the solution to all our carbon woes. My reading was that it had a part to play in sequestering carbon, but like George Monbiot in this article Monbiot.com � Woodchips With Everything I'm skeptical of it as a single 'magic bullet' solution. But at least if we get it on the map, it can play its part. It could certainly help deal with some of the problems we have with loss of soil quality in some parts of the world.

State help funding public buildings could include Church buildings

Those of you outside of Britain may not be aware of one of the difficulties that many churches have where their buildings are very old and 'heritagey'. Basically, they may not be an areas where there is sufficient population or means to meet well the expenses that the maintenance and development of ancient buildings requires. Yet this presents a difficulty: the building is normally regarded as something of a community resource and is the focus of interest by historical societies and heritage groups. So the church's room for manoeuvre is considerably restricted; they can't do with the building what they may want. It's a bad situation sometimes: they are expected to pay for things and to maintain a building which they are not allowed to control and the emotional and community relations aspects of giving the building up are very hard to contemplate. So there is some sense of natural justice when the wider community, in the form of government, offers some help ... Church Times - ‘No more squeamishness’ says funding report: "The Bishop of London, the Rt Revd Richard Chartres, who was involved in drawing up the report, said on Tuesday: “This report is an unequiv�ocal sign from Government that it’s in�appropriate to be prejudiced against applications which are clearly related to that very important dimen�sion of church buildings, which is their use as community hubs.

“There’s nothing controversial about providing kitchen and lavatory facilities for a wide cross-section of society."

The bishop points out that some churches in rural areas are becoming used to provide community facilities such as post office facilities, for example.

A Case of Consilience: Short Story from Nova Scotia - Books From Scotland

It's a short story, it's scifi, it's a very interesting reflection on the translatability of the gospel (though leaving loads unexplored) and the aliens are really alien: like, they don't have a head and four limbs or even an animal physiology. A Case of Consilience: Short Story from Nova Scotia - Books From Scotland: "John Calvin said: 'All the blessings we enjoy are Divine deposits, committed to our trust on this condition, that they should be dispensed for the benefit of our neighbours.' A Presbyterian minister carries these words in his heart and makes evangelism his sacred duty, ensuring that the Word will be passed on. No matter who these neighbours might be"
Read, enjoy. Htt.

Praying The Pattern goes ebook

I've been thinking about it for a few months and finally decided to do it: publish Praying the Pattern as an ebook. So here it is. (Please note that the 'badge' on the embedded module just below, saying "Launch my ebook" is signalling that it will open in a new window with some kind of flash -I presume- application loaded to read the book: an in-browser e-reader)

Myebook - Praying The Pattern
PS it was interesting to note that the first posting of this post had "Praying the Patter" 'Freudian' slip?

Living In The Age Of Stupid

Words that come back from 2055 to haunt us in 2009? "We wouldn't be the first life form to wipe itself out. But what would be unique about us is that we did it knowingly. What does that say about us?
The question I've been asking is: why didn't we save ourselves when we had the chance? Is the answer because on some level we weren't sure if we were worth saving?"
Read more here and see more here.
The interesting thing, I reckon, about that question, which is asked at the end of the film, is that it is a spiritual question and behind it a spiritual malaise. In fact it rather opened up the possibility that if the answer is that God loves us, therefore we are valuable; then we are worth saving, and it is worth taking action to do something. Hope is needed. That final reflection exposes the despair at the heart of our civilisation, a despair borne of the leakage of hope from our culture. The message of Jesus offers dignity and hope based on a future that includes and embraces the best of humanity. A future that acts not to deny the value of the present but to affirm it where it has lasting value based in the life and love of the threesome 'dances with humanity' God.

What's more, it does seem to me the point where the new atheism definitively fails to help: I can't see how it can offer hope or reason to ascribe value to humanity to motivate us to play a part in saving ourselves and the current ecosystem. If we are merely evolved apes, and we pass our use by date, then apart from the desire to survive we have no reason not to think that other kinds of life should not take our place. And what's more; if it doesn't affect 'me', why should I care? It's just life moving on; human beings are no big deal in the cosmic scheme of things; there is nothing to give us any more value than we put on ourselves, and that value is purely value of our own making which has no value grounded in anything but our own willingness to ascribe it. ...

Slums can offer lessons to modern cities.

Now this is really intriguing: find the full article here: The world's slums are overcrowded, unhealthy - and increasingly seen as resourceful communities that can offer lessons to modern cities. - The Boston Globe And here's why I'm reassessing some assumptions: "... development specialists and slum dwellers themselves in arguing that slums have assets along with their obvious shortcomings. Their humming economic activity and proximity to city centers represent big advantages over the subsistence farming that many slum dwellers have fled. Numerous observers have noted the enterprising spirit of these places, evident not only in their countless tiny businesses, but also in the constant upgrading and expansion of homes. Longstanding slum communities tend to be much more tightknit than many prosperous parts of the developed world, where neighbors hardly know one another. Indeed, slums embody many of the principles frequently invoked by urban planners: They are walkable, high-density, and mixed-use, meaning that housing and commerce mingle. Consider too that the buildings are often made of materials that would otherwise be piling up in landfills, and slums are by some measures exceptionally ecologically friendly."
Recall, if you will, that only 150 years ago or so, much of London, and other UK cities were slum-ridden. And recall, too, that slum clearances in Britain in the 60's arguably made matters worse. Helping people to help themselves to improve has a lot to commend it. 'Simple' things like sewarage and power and clean water make such a difference. Communities can very often make very good decisions about things if they are empowered to do so and democratic control is facilitated. The rest of the article gives some examples to do with property rights and appropriate municipal support, for example.

Key To Happiness Is Gratitude

And the headline goes on to read: And Men May Be Locked Out the result of the research seems to be that men find it harder to express gratitude and that this is actually bad for wellbeing. For me this seems to make interesting links to biblical injunctions to cultivate attitudes conducive to gratitude; indeed a eucharistic approach to life seems to be a highly commended theological mindset. And perhaps this is part of the reason why religious (and in the west this probably means those highly influenced by Judeo-Christian values) people seem to score well in wellbeing research.

The other reason that I find this intriguing is that I'm in the midst of supervising two dissertations on various aspects of male spirituality. As you might expect there are a bunch of issues orbiting this: nature vs nurture; recognising the justice and right things in feminism and yet trying to find how to affirm masculinity; stereotyping vs evidence-based research; 'feminisation' of the church and so forth (relating to the fact that there seem to be a large number of Christian women who can't find a prospective husband who shares their faith -statistically this is less likely). Key To Happiness Is Gratitude, And Men May Be Locked Out: "“The way that we get socialized as children affects what we do with our emotions as adults,” says Kashdan.
It does seem to me that men do get a bad deal in some ways in our society: “Because men are generally taught to control and conceal their softer emotions, this may be limiting their well-being.”". This does not seem to have been the case always historically (but I'm not a historian, happy to hear more on this). I wonder whether a peculiar constellation of social forces have combined in contemporary English society to bring together the worst of the masculine socialised characteristics and attitudes to mean that men are self-subverting bigtime in our society... ?

Dioceses Commission

Some readers will recall that I'm keen in principle on a thorough review of the way we do dioceses in the CofE. I'm not starry-eyed about the chances of good ideas being implemented. So it's interesting to note this: "The new Dioceses Commission was set up in 2008 and has a primary duty to keep under review the provincial and diocesan structure of the Church of England and in particular:
* the size, boundaries and number of provinces;
* the size, boundaries and number of dioceses and their distribution between the provinces;
* the number and distribution of bishops and the arrangements for episcopal oversight."
Now, if I'm reading this aright, they are looking first at West Yorkshire. The subtext here is that Bradford Diocese has been aknowledged, informally, to be financially unviable as a long-term entity despite giving per head of churchgoing CofE population which is among the highest in the country. In addition, Wakefield is a funny non-unitary entity, and Ripon and Leeds should never have been set up the way it was in the first place (there are some useful historical briefing papers in the links on this page: Dioceses Commission | Church of England). However, my concern is that piecemeal arrangements will not serve us well, so I've written to the commission chair to recommend that they keep Gareth Miller's proposals to the fore as a potential guiding light. I wouldn't be surprised if what emerges from their deliberations might be a kind of archdiocese of West Yorkshire (which would be like a mini-province terms) perhaps somewhat like London with episcopal areas. It might even then be able to recommend that Barnsley be returned to South Yorkshire's Sheffield diocese and consider letting Ripon return to its natural home in North Yorkshire, along with some of Bradford diocese, which could also return some of Lancashire's parishes to their most natural homes with Blackburn or Carlisle.

If you are so minded, please consider emailing the chair (Colin Podmore colin.podmore AT c-of-e.org.uk) of the commission recommending a long-term overview rather than a short-term expedient view. See the page linked at the header to this post or in the parentheses above. The commission members can be viewed here. Colin tells me that Gareth Miller's paper has been circulated to members. If you do email and hear anything further back, do let me know.

redeeming the market in a time of turbulance

I've got to say that this is a very impressive piece of writing by Rowan Williams. He has a very good grasp of the economics and then brings to bear some pertinent themes from the Christian tradition which ground the reflection in theological perspectives very usefully. I was particularly interested in the recommendations he makes for the way that global economics should go. Doubly so as a number of them echo or share perspectives with things I've blogged about on this very blog. Here's a bit of a taste.

(i) Most fundamentally: we need to move away from a model of economics which simply assumes that it is essentially about the mechanics of generating money, and try to restore an acknowledgement of the role of trust as something which needs time to develop; and so also to move away from an idea of wealth or profit which imagines that they can be achieved without risk, and to return to the primitive capitalist idea, as sketched above, of risk-sharing as an essential element in the equitable securing of wealth for all.

(ii) As many writers, from Partha Dasgupta to Jonathon Porritt have argued, environmental cost has to be factored into economic calculations as a genuine cost in opportunity, resource and durability – and thus a cost in terms of doing justice to future generations. There needs to be a robust rebuttal of any idea that environmental concerns are somehow a side issue or even a luxury in a time of economic pressure; the questions are inseparably connected.

(iii) We need to think harder about the role – actual and potential – of democratically accountable governments in the monitoring and regulation of currency exchange and capital flow. This could involve some international conventions about wages and working conditions, and co-operation between states to try and prevent the indefinite growth of what we might call – on the analogy of tax havens – cheap labour havens. Likewise it might mean considering the kind of capital controls that prevent a situation where it is advantageous to allow indefinitely large sums of capital out of a country.

(iv) The existing international instruments – the IMF and World Bank, the WTO and the G8 and G20 countries – need to be reconceived as both monitors of the global flow of capital and agencies to stimulate local enterprise and provide some safety nets as long as the global playing field is so far from being level. They need to provide some protective sanctions for the disadvantaged – not aimed at undermining market mechanisms but at letting them work as they should, working to allow countries to trade their way out of destitution.

(v) Necessary short-term policies to kick-start an economy in crisis – such as we have seen in the UK in recent months – should be balanced by long-term consideration of the levels of material and service production that will provide an anchor of stability against the possible storms of speculative financial practice. This is not simply about 'baling out' firms under pressure but about a comprehensive look at national economies with a view to understanding what sort of production levels would act as ballast in times of crisis, and investing accordingly.

In what I've written before, iii is taken care of, I think, by the suggestion of an international trade currency based on a basket of goods rather than simply trading currencies against one another. I've supported the idea that WTO etc should be subject to democratic control which would probably move them towards what +Rowan suggests. There is positive support in all of this for something like the Tobin tax.

Liturgical colours -try again

I've been thinking a bit about this subject in odd moments. Two main reasons for doing so are the acceptance by European churches of the idea of a new liturgical season: Creationtide and the fact that for most of us the colour purple does not seem a very natural colour to associate with penitence. This latter point comes to me in college when explaining liturgical colours to those from traditions that don't really have them and for whom purple probably has regal overtones -not at all penitential.

Now I quite like liturgical colours; but I'd also like them to have cultural resonance. Therefore, beyond my remarks in the first paragraph, I'd add the fact that while red does make sense as a colour for martyrs, and for the Holy Spirit (if we focus on the fire imagery), it is also quite a big colour in western secular culture at Christmas, as is green. Then if we seek to find a colour for creationtide (September, basically, before you ask), we are left with probably green as the most likely; but that's the colour of 'ordinary time' in the Roman system which we Anglicans take as our reference point. We might therefore want to consider either a different colour for creationtide or for ordinary time.

Can we do that? Well, I think we can. According to the C of E's site, on this page Rules to Order the Christian Year we are reminded: "...liturgical colours ... are not mandatory and traditional or local use may be followed." There is no canon law about it -unlike Roman Catholicism, but like eastern Orthodoxy. We should also note that historically there has been diversity in usage at a local level.

So, actually, we can come up with a new schema if we wish. THe downside would be to lose a degree of interchangeability and common practice. On the other hand, if we come up with a good idea, it may spread. So here are some suggestions I'd like to make.
Let's widen the palatte: where are the sunny yellow, orange or blues? Grey? Black? Brown?
In Lent, don't use purple. Use sackcloth or hessian. At Christmas use a variety of colours, probably majoring on red and green with some white. Creationtide might be a rainbow, or a sunny yellow. Or maybe green and change the ordinary time colour -maybe to a blue? Or grey? Or some other neutral colour like cream or brown? Though brown might be quite a good one for Lent along with or instead of hessian (which is pale brown, of course).

So here's my suggestion for a revised liturgical colour scheme.
Kingdom: Purple
Advent: red and green
Christmas: add gold and/or white
Epiphany: gold and white
Lent: brown and sackcloth
Holy Week: red -preferably a dark wine red.
Easter: White
Ascension: how about sky blue?
Pentecost: Bright yellow or orange
Trinity: difficult this one -probably white (but how about the three primary colours?)
Transfiguration (which I think should be a season): white
Creation: green
Ordinary time: grey or beige

Any other ideas? And of course, remember you can experiment if you're CofE

Teenagers need 11am lie-in

The initial research is a few years old now, but more recent classroom research has borne it out and one school is taking action on it. "... research carried out by Professor Foster showed that, from the age of 10, our internal body clocks shift, so it's good for young people to stay in bed. They peak at 20 then gradually go back again, but body clocks do not reach the pre-teenage level until around 55 years old. The 'time shift' is two hours on average, so teenagers should get up two hours later. We are making teenagers ratty by making them get up early."
While I'm quite willing to believe this, what I don't get is how this relates to our ability to shift our body clocks when we travel to different time zones. I presume that perhaps it's to do with how the body regulates the sleep hormone in relation to daylight. It would also explain how come evening services are a better bet for teens and twenties than morning. You see? We knew it all along!
Teenage pupils deserve 11am lie-in, says head | Education | The Observer:

Baby boomers won't retire quietly

As someone born on the cusp of baby boom and gen X, I'm rather sensitive to this issue, particularly as I seem to be watching church pensions shrinking and the ability of the present giving to make up the actuarial lack diminishing also. So for me the future in 20 years or so seems to require the possibility of continuing some degree of employment. There's more in this helpful article Baby boom Britain won't retire quietly | Society | The Observer And here's the start of why it's important: "Older people are fitter than ever before and many do not want, or cannot afford, to retire at 65. Last week there was a taste of the fights to come with a series of challenges to the government over age discrimination."
The article raises interesting and important issues like this one: "retirement has a class conflict,... between "the working classes who are rather glad to get out of jobs they didn't enjoy and the middle classes and people with more interesting jobs who are desperate to stay in".
And I have to say that I think I already see the evidence of this appearing in the media: "A grey pound will change consumer culture. Materialism and fashions dominated by youthful energy and sexual imagery could disappear under the weight of what economist George Magnus calls "boomerangst" - the interest of babyboomers in the implications of their ageing and an older society."
In terms of what we need to consider in terms of the mission of the churches, this struck me as important: "Health problems that come with old age are seeing a change. "There is a huge rise in the number of older people with depression. Why that is I don't know, but it's certainly increased hugely even in the last year," said Carroll. "We try to reach these people but there are huge waiting lists for our services. Isolation remains a problem."
I'm wondering whether this is the parallel to teenage depression which seems to be linked, I seem to recall, with not really having a sense of purpose. Once people can't immerse themselves in their work and can't distract themselves with whatever money can buy, naked life faces us and it may not look that attractive. That's what the existentialist and nihilist artists have been trying to tell us for the best part of a century: now its truth may be hitting home.

Taqiyya - unpacking the truth?

Richard Sudworth has posted a very helpful and brief guide to the issue of taqiyya in relation to interfaith matters. He enunciates well, towards the end why I think it is important: "once doctrines like taqiyya get bandied around without qualification, we can quickly see monsters lurking everywhere. Those of us studying Islam at some level have a huge responsibility as our church members are rightly hungry for knowledge and guidance. This responsibility rests both in our bearing of true witness (in accuracy of scholarship and the weight we give to evidence) and to the pastoral implications for Christians seeking to relate in confidence to Muslims."
My worry is that it could seriously hinder good community relations because it is a view of 'the other' from which there is no return: they can always be dismissed in any apparently good actions or assurances by recourse to 'but they would say that, wouldn't they ...'. And even the denials that such a doctrine is part of the everyday approach would not be sufficient. From that road of distrust, there is no way foraard.
Distinctly Welcoming: Taqiyya - unpacking the truth?:

Making rules of life

Had a nice wee airmail letter in my pigeon-hole this morning: a letter from Canada from the publishers of 'Seasons of the Spirit' -a RCL congregational learning package. Last year they asked me for permission to reproduce as part of their learning materials a piece from Praying the Pattern on making rules of life. The letter contained a copy of the relevant page which relates to March 15-21 in this year's materials for Lent and Easter. Nice to see it there. They've made a good choice of excerpt; it even manages to look intelligent and vaguely useful!

It made me realise that I want to be able to get some time before long to convert the book into an e-format and also to release a book/document of updating Lord's prayer shaped liturgies for daily use. A lot of the stuff is already there (particularly as I now have some forms of compline/night prayer to use), but the time to do it is looking like it has receded to June or July what with marking, report-writing and teaching ...
Links for Lent Easter 2009

A Goody baptism?

It's not often I read, let alone quote the Sun. So pick yourself up off the floor and take a look now here: Jade Goody vows to see her sons' baptism | The Sun |News:
This just shows how hard it can be to know what's going on in any news story. There are a number of different ways to read this one: it could be read as a kind of 'magical belief' in a rite; it could be read as part of a money-spinner, as some clearly do according to this quote;

'A close friend said: "The christening was not just a cynical attempt to make some money for her boys. Jade genuinely wants to be baptised before she dies. She is still hopeful this can be done. But time is running out for her."

Or we could take the other perspective in that quote quite seriously. I'm minded to at least consider there could be a spiritual reality about this. The proximity of death is notorious for concentrating minds on what is lasting, eternal, important and loving. If we can entertain the notion that people do turn to Christ on their deathbeds, then maybe, just maybe, we are seeing it here. We cannot see into others' souls but we might be charitable in our first assessments. Jade Goody has said, apparently, "It’s really important to me now that they learn about Jesus" Now that would, in the New Testament, have got enough attention for a family baptism, I suspect. A disciple being someone who is learning about Jesus (okay, loose interpretation, but bear with me). It does seem to me that this is more than just a superstitious thing with 'magic' water to prop up a psychological defence against impending death (or whatever). If that was the case, I suspect the kind of things said would be different: about the baptised getting into heaven or somesuch. But instead what we've got is a link to the person and by implication the teaching of Jesus Christ. I think that what may be happening is that the nearness of death has brought Ms Goody to recognise some important things about life and death and that some of the residual thing about 70% of Britons claiming the label Christian is kicking in to point a way forward for her. I hope her action will make an impression on many to consider their own position. Not because I want hordes of people clamouring for baptism, but because I'd love to see a trickle of people want to explore the person and teaching of Jesus and decide to follow him -initially by being baptised and then by being members of communities of Christward change.

What I'm concerned about in terms of the ministry of sacrament here is actually what happens to the boys after her death? Of course that means in terms of helping them to find their way through their bereavement in due time and good shape. But it also means how to help them draw on the resources of a faith that they may have only had minimal contact with up until recently. Who is to help them grow in that learning that their mother has declared she wants them to have about Jesus? Who are the godparents in the full and original meaning of the term? The real issue here is about faith nurture of children more than deathbed conversions. A complicated issue in this case because of the tragic circumstances. My heart goes out to those lads, my prayer is that the godparental role may be filled by people who can help them grieve and to draw upon the strength, resiliance and love of God as they grieve and go forward.

Beer tax increases cost 20,000 jobs -really?

The report here Beer tax increases cost 20,000 jobs so far | Politics | guardian.co.uk tells us that the brewing trade would have us believe: "A record 2,000 British pubs have closed with the loss of 20,000 jobs since the chancellor, Alistair Darling, increased beer tax in the 2008 budget," Now come on: where's the in-depth journalism on this? We need to know answers to questions like this:
Since pubs have been closing rapidly for a number of years, what is the adjusted effect of the increase in tax? And if the appeal is to jobs in the UK, what is the effect in terms of jobs created or lost elsewhere? For example in hospitals and other health care areas mopping up the effects of alcohol consumption: ditto, police time, courts' time, probation services etc. Not to mention the effect that money that might otherwise have been spent on alcoholic drinks being spent on, say, DVDs or gyms or pizza ... so let's have a bit more contextual thinking about this and some more incisive journalism.

And then there's the paradox of some things improving GDP but maybe not being good for the nations health in a holistic sense. Cleaning up pollution adds to the monetary economy, for example, but it would be far better not to produce it in the first place and to encourage different kinds of employment and manufacture.

Firms bought secret personal data

A further reason to be wary about the proposed NIR which would be the teeth behind ID cards in this country. Firms bought secret personal data on staff - privacy chief | UK news | The Guardian: "Thomas believes that workers have been unfairly denied employment because they have had no chance of challenging any inaccurate information, some of which has been stored for decades." What happens when that kind of information is collected about everybody and is corrupted or unlawfully accessed? State-sponsored discrimination is what.

Learn in depth rather than breadth

This seems to be quite an impressive piece of research on learning and teaching it's written up here: Students Benefit From Depth, Rather Than Breadth, In High School Science Courses Now we should recall the particularity of the subject area researched, but I suspect that it would be transferable. "The study revealed that students in courses that focused on mastering a particular topic were impacted twice as much as those in courses that touched on every major topic. The study explored differences between science disciplines, teacher decisions about classroom activities, and out-of-class projects and homework. The researchers carefully controlled for differences in student backgrounds."
All of which seems to cover the issues I was wondering about in principle. Though that said, I''m wondering how this relates to those who are in MBTI terms 'N' where gaining an overview seems to be important: is that the same as breadth or merely demarkating the area to be deepened?

I feel vindicated, however, by this: "The study also points out that standardized testing, which seeks to measure overall knowledge in an entire discipline, may not capture a student's high level of mastery in a few key science topics. Teachers who 'teach to the test' may not be optimizing their students' chance of success in college science courses," Only in the sense that on my teaching practice, my mentor asked me why I was teaching a class more than they would need to know about a topic for their exams. My defence was that (reflecting on my own experience) having more context and potentially interesting linked information should support the learning that you actually want to encourage (this is a consequence of a constructionist approach).

Philips accepts recycling responsibility

They campaigned and it worked. Note that activism can achieve things: VICTORY! Philips accepts recycling responsibility | Greenpeace International: "Philips had been the biggest obstacle in the electronics industry to tackling the growing problem of e-waste. And we have been calling on them since 2007 to stop actively opposing laws that would oblige electronics producers to accept financial responsibility for the recycling of their own products.
After several actions and 47,000 messages from our supporters, the company has finally agreed to our demands. This is a big step forward, and makes Philips a new green leader in the electronics sector."
It's important that these things happen at the level of the producers; too many things devolved to consumers will not happen widely enough because of laziness and cussed contrariness. If we do it right in the first place we won't need to clear up the mess!

Blunkett repents but doesn't

At first it looked like a classic 'seen the error of my ways' story: Blunkett warns over ‘Big Brother’ Britain - UK Politics, UK - The Independent because : "He will come out against the Government’s controversial plan to set up a database holding details of telephone calls and emails and its proposal to allow public bodies to share personal data with each other."

But then, hold the celebration in heaven, or at least in No2ID, Liberty, etc. because:
"Instead, holding a passport would become compulsory for all British people, who could choose to “opt in” to the ID card scheme if they wished."
So no real change; passport would be the new ID card, and presumably the NIR would still be the 'one ring to bind them all' and still a kind of poll tax: unless we could all have our papers free of charge; but that ain't gonna happen either.
The thing we could celebrate is that Blunkett is at least signalling that data sharing could go too far and that some of the government's current proposals are going too far for civil liberties.
"Mr Blunkett will urge the Justice Secretary, Jack Straw, to water down provisions in the Coroners and Justice Bill on data sharing between public bodies. He will warn: “It is not simply whether the intentions are benign, undoubtedly they are, but whether they are likely to be misused and above all what value their use may have.” He “remains to be convinced” about plans of the Home Secretary, Jacqui Smith, for a giant central database to store records of phone calls, text messages and the websites people access. "
So a near-repentance, anyway. Nice try but no cuddly elephant.