Desire and spirituality

Justin Baeder got my attention with this as part of a reflection on desire [which I've deliciosed for possible reference when I get back to writing 'Culture Jamming Worship']

Why do Eastern religions seem to have a monopoly on the elimination of desire? The Christian faith may have a better alternative to nirvana, but we do not talk much about eliminating desire - “putting to death the sinful nature,” as scripture puts it (See Col 3). I’m not saying the elimination of all desire is a good goal, but we tolerate and allow ourselves to be ruled by a lot of desire that needs to be extinguished.
But it is our passion that drives us, our desire for life and experiences and pleasure and wisdom that enables us to make something of our lives. So it’s a two-way street: We can’t live without desire, but we can’t live under its thumb, either.

I've emboldened what I think is most important in it. The /a key difference, in my opinion between Buddhism and Christian faith lies in the way desire is construed. In Buddhism desire is the main problem in the human condition as it leads us into setting our hearts on and fastening our existence to the things of this world and so leads to suffering as we become enmeshed in this fleeting and changing existence and our desires pull us constantly into situations of suffering and indeed back into earthly existence. The solution therefore is the elimination of desire so that we can be freed from the otherwise ceaseless round of suffering.

I actually think that there is a great deal to commend this analysis. Where I differ as a Christian is agreeing with Justin that desire is constituent of human being. In fact, I think that it is part of imaging God who desires in love. God has will and therefore there is desire. Buddhists tend to see the origin and continuing of the cosmos in impersonal terms [gods are just big but still contingent beings], so desiring cannot really be at the Heart of Being. In the Christian analysis, I think, the problem is not desire per se, but the desiring of what is not ultimately rooted in or healthfully related to God. Desire constitutes who we are, and who we are cannot be eternal if it is not based in what is eternal [which is God alone]. In Christianity the solution to desire is not its elimination [and with it the human subject] but its right directing.
That's as far as I had got hitherto, in thinking about this [hey I'm a MBTI 'E', so I need to think out loud to make progress]. But, I'm beginning just now to think that there is more to outline here in relation to atonement...
work in progress I think. But it should help in the 'Culture Jamming Worship' project.
� Desire � Radical Congruency
Filed in: Christian, desire, advertising, spirituality

Lofting Balloons for Cell Service

Can't help wondering whether there couldn't be a link up with this idea and yesterday's post on power generating balloons.
Wired News: Lofting Balloons for Cell Service
Filed in: phones, mast, balloons

Roadkill recipe book

I'm vegetarian so this is water off a duck's back to me. However, if you like free range meat with organic possibilities ...

"It's good meat for free and I know nobody has been messing with it and feeding it with hormones. By writing a book I hope to show people it's perfectly normal and healthy to eat ... If the animal has been dead a while and has gone green the taste is a bit bland, but if you cook them thoroughly, you can still eat it. I've been doing it all my life and never been ill once."

Think of it as an exercise in observing in yourself the interaction between culture and taboo. I was once chastised by an eminent theologian when I had said that I wasn't sure that I could face the thought of eating meat after several years not doing so (interestingly enough, this is no longer an issue). He said that perhaps I had allowed something a hold over me that only Christ should have. In retrespect (is it not ever thus?) I thought that he might have had pause for thought if I'd asked his attitude to, well, eating roadkill labrador. I also think he may have spoken out of a feeling that being vege wasn't quite 'kosher' for Christians...
Guardian Unlimited | Special reports | Bat or badger? It's the roadkill recipe book
Filed in: meat, free, roadkill

Religious hatred's slippery definitions

Rowan Atkinson made a fine speech about the issue as it affects the proposed legislation in the UK. It's a joy to read for the wit and skill of the speech. It's concerning to see the issue is still worryingly vague. He said;

I was so encouraged when I read it for the first time:
"A person is not guilty of this offence by reason of anything done ... so far as it consists of criticising, expressing antipathy towards, abusing insulting or ridiculing any religion, religious belief or religious practice ..."
"Excellent" I thought. "Fantastic". "Job done".
Sadly, the next word is "Unless". "UNLESS he intends thereby to stir up religious hatred or was reckless as to whether religious hatred would be stirred up".
In order words, you haven't committed an offence unless of course you've committed the offence, in which case I'm afraid you've committed an offence.

Becuase of course, the real difficulty is demonstrating intent. In actual fact that may be a protection, but Mr A is right; it is viciously circular as a definition.
Guardian Unlimited Politics | Special Reports | 'Every joke has a victim': See also Polly Toynbee's article which points out what a minefield the recklessness clause is, inordinately empowering those who feel offended. Well sometimes we should feel offended. Ideas worth having cut deeply to values. So ,unfortunately do ideas not worth having but that is the risk of freedom of thought. I don't want legal protection from being offended because someone hates my beliefs. I only want anyone to be protected from being discriminated against, persecuted, physically abused or tortured for our beliefs.I don't think that God needs protecting, being big enough and understanding enough to cope. And I think that all systems of thought are prone to the effects of fallenness and so need the acids of criticism to keep them honest and to moderate their abusive potentials. If my faith is not able to cope with disagreement, God help me, seriously.

I fear being held hostage to the possibility that someone might be offended by my opinion, no matter how respectful. There are Muslims who in the sincerity of their belief in what the Qur'an says, think it blasphemous that I -among most Christians- believe that Jesus is the "Son of God". There's no getting round it; it is abhorrant to Islam, it is shirk. I happen to think that it is not and that the Qur'an is misinformed about the nature and substance of Christian doctrine at that point, and that the common Muslim apologetic on the matter is inconsistent and flawed. And that too is offensive. I'm stuffed: just by expressing my faith I am going to be offending some Muslims, and I will compound the offence if I try to give reason for the hope that is within me on the matter.
No, it's bad law and the assurances about intent are worthless since they are not actually in the legislation.
Filed in: religion, hatred, offence, legislation, Rowan_Atkinson, UK

Airborne Wind Power

one of the main complaints about wind power is its intermittency--the wind doesn't blow all the time, and so (according to Sky Windpower), most wind farms are only operating at their peak capacity 19-35% of the time. The wind is much steadier at altitude, so you get even more advantage over ground-based wind power. A final advantage is ad-hoc generation: devices with a reasonably simple tether-system do not have to be permanently installed in one place, they could be trucked out to any location that needed them.

So flying kites for power may be a goer. Wonder what the visual and air traffic impacts are?
WorldChanging: Another World Is Here: It's a Bird, It's a Plane, It's Airborne Wind Power:
Filed in: generation, power, electricity, wind, intermittancy, environment

Students' union bans Christian Union

Actually this is not such a big deal. I've worked in a UK university as a chaplain and at a UK national level with chaplaincy as a member of the Anglican chaplains' national exec. It's old hat is this issue -for more than 30 years Christian Unions in UK uni's have not been able to comply with the Student Union rules on affiliation and funding of student societies. It's just that Aston have only just caught up with what is probably the majority position.
For USA readers, it's a bit like the issue of separation of church and state. CUs to be able to be part of the UCCF national network [to be part of the franchise so to speak] have to, among other things, select leaders by prayer from a list submitted by the membership. These leaders have to be in agreement with the doctrinal basis [the "DB"] in order to hold office. The SU's require proper elections where the candidates do not have any other test for office other than they are members of the club or society concerned.

To be an affiliated society, NUS policy for ages has been that a club or society has to be open to every student and that leaders are elected by ballot from the membership. Since Margaret Thatcher's days and arguments about ultra vires funding, student unions (if I have understood aright) have to be sure that the funds held by them to the account of 'their' clubs and societies are disbursed and used within strictly defined limits amongst which is adherance to the proper constitutional form. I suspect that it is arguable, in fact, that the Birmingham guild of students have been illegally funding the CU for some time.

On the CU side, we should remember that CU's have a history in the UK which makes them sensitive to 'entryist' mechanisms which could undermine their evangelical identity. CU's are the break away from the Student Christian Movement of the early 20th Century, which became more and more liberal and alienated evangelical supporters. Naturally, these supporters wanted to preserve evangelical emphasese and so formed the Inter-Varsity Christian Fellowship [later the Universities' and Colleges' Christian Fellowship] with a national council to protect what we might now think of as 'the brand' and to promote the CU 'franchises' in universities and colleges. To prevent a further take over by liberals, constitutional measures were put in place to maintain an evangelical ethos. These have normally conflicted with Student Union principles and so CU's have usually been independent of SU society status, I think.

The real surprise is that it has taken Brum's student guild so long to twig that one of their affiliated societies was operating in breach of their [legally binding] policies. This is being sold as a bit of political correctness, but in reality that's only a part and probably relatively recent issue. The long-standing issue as that of democratic proceedures and how openness is conceived and the CU's need to retain a particular ethos over time.

Whether CU's really need to go to such extremes is a moot point, Islamic societies for example don't seem to have too much trouble keeping their ethos, though I speak as an outsider and it may be that some Muslims would make criticisms similar to an evangelical CU member alert to CU history.

I actually think that there is a riposte worth exploring with this and I was beginning to talk with some people about it just before I left chaplaincy ministry. It's possible, perhaps, to argue under anti-religious discrimination law in the EU and recognising cultural diversity that religious and other societies should have the right to order certain affairs in ways that are consonant with the beliefs they propound. Now there should probably be some kinds of checks on that so that money doesn't go to fund the promotion of racism, for example. But there should be ways to allow for different ways of decision making other than certain kinds of western democracy, provided there are ways to make sure that it is open, fair and honest. There is a real issue to be faced, I think, about how open societies guard an ethos and yet remain open. It is surely right, in principle that a public society should be open to everyone of the institution[s] it draws support from. But how far should it be made to conform when the point of its existence is in certain distinctives -even disagreements- with regard to membership of the institution[s]?

It's ironic to me that it is a Christian society being penalised for attempting to be theocratic rather than an Islamic society.

PS A comment here claims that
"The last time this sort of thing happened in the UK the courts found against the Student Union."
I am not aware of this having happened. If any reader more info on this, preferably in the form of a link to a news report or other solid evidence, I'd be very interested in the precedent...
Weblog - Ruth Gledhill - Times Online: Students' union bans Christian Union
Filed in: Christian, CU, UCCF, students, SU

Durham Cathedral

The top piccy was taken yesterday outside our house, and the lower one a week or two back just about 10 minutes walk away.

the Beta Course could be good...

For the kind of enquirers I am looking to work with, Alpha is likely to be more of a hindrance than a help. I have mentioned Essence before. And this Beta course looks good. Though I'm concerned at the derivative name. Anyhow it seems to scratch where a lot of folk itch.

Beta, interweaving biblical and psychological perspectives, looks at real life questions:
what does a healthy relationship look like?
how can my church become a more caring community?
why do I find it so hard to forgive?
why am I depressed and defeated by stress?
what good can come from my suffering?
what will help me become more whole?

the Beta Course - What is it?:
Filed in: Christian, education, enquirers, psychology, pastoral, course, Lent

The Starry Dance of Christ's nativity

I thought I'd got various things to do with this blogged but discover I don't so I'm rectifying it so that I can call them up more easily in future. This one is arguing an astrological dating of Christ's birth in c. 2 BC. Saturn conjunction with Regulus in Sept 3BC and in Virgo June 2BC ...
See also here where what seems to me the key preliminary issues are identified as
"...the leading astronomical interpretations for the star of Bethlehem have converged on consideration of the royal wandering star of Jupiter, with the different proposals turning largely on the answers to two questions.
* When did Herod the Great die?
* In the eyes of the Magi, what would have indicated that the birth was specifically of a king of the Jews rather than of some other people?"
There is also the issue of dating Herod the Great's death, which gives the window of consideration as either prior to 4BC or to 1BC depending on how the sources are interpreted. The first of the articles here takes the latter view.
We may want to take other possible evidence such as working out when Zachariah's division would have been on duty in the temple and counting on from that as I blogged last year and pointed to this site.
The Starry Dance
Filed in: magi, astrology, star, Bethlehem, Christ, nativity

Pomo church leadership

You may recall my posting about a FutureChurch article on church leadership taxonomy. Well, the follow up on the leaders of the future has been posted. As I consider my own calling with my wife looking to be ordained in June, I found interesting things in this which seem to imply that part of the difficulty is that I'm actually a future Church leader, rather than an inherited church leader. Problem is that they don't pay the former very often!

The new man or woman of God is. . . .
"An Otherworldly Visitor" Though totally normal, he explores the edges of normalcy. Though normally intuitive, he challenges the frontiers of the counter-intuitive. ... He lives a life bold, yet humble--confident, yet self-effacing--powerful, yet subtle--singleminded, yet open....

"A Maverick" Though willing to work within an institution, he is--at heart--a free spirit, a nonconformist. ... he's interested in the epic countercultural moves of a "moving" Lord of History. He's interested in spiritual integrities that embrace a new--yet, far more profound--orthodoxy. And, he's interested in quality rather than quantity--the promises of a distant, yet greater, harvest....

"A Nobody" A radically selfless leader, he actually believes the hard sayings of Jesus. He actually accepts failure, crisis, and hardship as the secret of his success. He ... has given up a pastor-centered ministry for a lay-centered ministry. He has ... forfeited turf-protection for mentoring and networking. He has forfeited personal ownership for empowering others. And, he has forfeited quick "notches on his salvation gun-belt" for caring and lasting relationships.

"A Risk-Taker" ... they will even risk chaos. For they've learned that the miraculous transitions of unwelcome chaos are far more empowering than the comfortable retreats of a preferred peace. In fact, sometimes they deliberately allow discomfort, risking a disharmony that provides the only possible resolution to a higher harmony.

"A Foreign Language Fanatic" This man of God always speaks an "other" language, an intentionally ambiguous and obscure parlance. ... He knows "straight" language. Yet, he also knows "God writes straight with crooked lines."(6)

"An Artist" In a life of endless role changes, he has shifted from a dry theologian to an inspired artist--from a manager to a poet--from piety to prophecy. For he's totally convinced he was created in the image of a Creative God. ... births the precious within the worthless. He gives form to the Word within the flesh. And, he midwifes Divine power within the powerless.

"A Pathfinder" This sensitive explorer ... may temporarily suspend his analytical mind, yet his awareness reaches an even higher alertness. He never loses the integrity of his mind, yet he is led by the even greater integrity of his spirit. ... both proactive and reactive--creating and submitting, active and passive, doing and being, speaking and listening, answering and asking.

Actually, I don't think I score big as a risk taker; I'm fairly risk averse. Thought having said that, only when it's other people's money or resources. So perhaps being paid would crimp my style...
Post Modern Christianity: The Future of the Church and Post Modern Ministry in the 21st Century:
Filed in: Christian, leadership, future

Machines Pluck Cash From Trash

This is an unexpected bit of good news about recycling being made more easy, and it's commercially driven.

things are changing now that the need for recycling, and recycling's potential for profit, have become more apparent. Towns with populations as low as 17,000 are now finding that single-stream recycling programs can be cost-effective and even profitable.This is due not only to the machines' increased efficiency but also to plain old supply and demand: Countries such as China are desperate for raw materials and are finding recycled U.S. trash to be a good source. Now cities are finding it economically viable to invest large amounts of money into their recycling centers.

Wired News: Machines Pluck Cash From Trash:
Filed in: recycling, USA, mechanisation, rubbish, China

Multiverse for beginners

Here's a set of links to articles to help us to understand all this multiverse stuff we hear about from cosmology nowadays. It looks like a good place to start would be this one.
Science & Theology News - Informative Packages
Filed in: science, theory, cosmology, multiverse

Sex, stress and one flesh

This article headlines the idea that sex appears to help people to relax faced with upcoming stressful situations. However, I think we should keep an eye on the following stuff further down the article.

Professor Brody said it made sense in evolutionary terms for standard heterosexual sexual intercourse to be associated with a wide range of positive effects on behaviour.
He said: "A growing body of research shows that it is specifically intercourse, and not other sexual behaviours, whether alone or with a partner, that is associated with a broad range of psychological and physiological benefits. And greater frequency of intercourse is associated with greater benefits."

The implications for discussions of sexual ethics are important. What it doesn't say, but hints at the possibility by referencing an evolutionary perspective, is whether the results say anything about hetero- or homo- sexual differences if any. Though the issue about penetrative sex is interesting for Christian discussion about 'one flesh' and all that 'how far do we go?' stuff. It suggests that there is something 'value added' about penetrative sex that could relate positively to Christian assertions about committed relationships and the role of sex in 'strengthening the union of hearts and lives' to quote the Anglican wedding service.
BBC NEWS | Health | Sex 'cuts public speaking stress':
Filed in: sex, benefits, science, research

'Sea power could provide 20% of UK electricity'

Britain could establish a global lead in harnessing marine energy if it is prepared to invest.
It finds that wave and tidal energy could in the long term become as competitively priced as conventionally generated power. If the industry took off it would also significantly contribute to reducing greenhouse gas emissions, the study predicts. The report by the trust - an independent company set up by the government to help the UK meet its climate change obligations - examines the marine energy sector's future costs and potential for growth. It says that power generated by the sea could provide 3% of the UK's total electricity supply by 2020.

Guardian Unlimited | Special reports | 'Sea power could provide 20% of UK electricity':
Filed in: environment, energy, generation, wave, UK

The Agonie -Divine love in George Herbert.

I'm attending a set of seminars led by Philip Sheldrake of Durham University called "Self and Transformation" about Christian spirituality in relation to those to words. It's a historically informed approach an we will shortly be looking at the work of George Herbert.

I have to confess that I am clearly a philistine in that I found Herbert's poetry very hard to get into at first. I think because the usual metre is one I associate with dogrell and because I was reading it in large chunks and so the constant pounding of the rhythm was starting to wear me down. Now however, I confess that I am getting into it. The wordplay, the allusions, the artful phrasing and the theology. I found myself reflecting on this couple of lines on Tuesday night as I took communion at college.

Love is that liquor sweet and most divine
which my God feels as bloud; but I as wine,

I love the way that two points seperated in time and space are brought together as being expressions of the same thing. It resonates with the kinds of understandings I have been coming to about God and atonement and Eucharist.
Ah, it seems that I am an Anglican after all.
George Herbert. The Agonie.:
Filed in: George_Herbert, Christian, poetry, Anglican, spirituality, Eucharist

Pope on power of love

Last week I reported that the Pope was about to birth a new encyclical on love. Well it's out. I considered letting you have it in French and Spanish but thought that the English press had to catch up with it sooner or later. And they did. Today.

So what's it say? The juicy bits that everyone seems to be picking out are these.

I wish ... to speak of the love which God lavishes upon us and which we in turn must share with others ... In a world where the name of God is sometimes associated with vengeance or even a duty of hatred and violence, this message is both timely and significant. Love is free; it is not practised as a way of achieving other ends.
...
Today the term 'love' has become one of the most frequently used and misused of words ... We speak of love of country, love of one's profession, love between friends, love of work, love between parents and children, love of neighbour and love of God. Amid this multiplicity of meanings however one in particular stands out: love between man and woman, where body and soul are inseparably joined and human beings glimpse an apparently irresistible promise of happiness.

Nowadays Christianity of the past is often criticised as having been opposed to the body; and it is quite true that tendencies of this sort have always existed. Yet the contemporary way of exalting the body is deceptive. Eros reduced to pure sex has become a commodity, a mere thing to be bought and sold.

So far so good. I warm to all of that. The whole thing about love being free and not a means to an end is really important. To me it's the insight that disallows much of what goes under the label of 'friendship evangelism' or even charitable evangelism. Love can be a tough discipline.

The positive assessment of married love and the rejection of manichaean tendencies is also welcome given the historical hospitality of the Church to quasi gnostic viewpoints which has been arguably largely responsible for the popular perception today of Christianity being anti matter [so to say].

Of course, just what else might be said along with the stuff about married love might well be a deal breaker.
Wait to see the detail eh?
Guardian Unlimited | Special reports | Pope surprises Catholics with warm words on power of love:
Filed in: Christian, Pope, encyclical, love, culture, Vatican

Issuer defends payment card for kids

Looks to me like an argument where both sides are right. Emphases in bold are mine.

the National Consumer Council (NCC) expressed concern that giving the cards to children as young as 13 could encourage them to get into debt when they were older. A spokeswoman said: "There is a risk that as parents are charging up these cards, children could get used to using plastic and spending money that isn't their own. This could predispose them to using credit cards when they are older."...
But Mark Kennedy, chief executive of Bluecorner, said the cards were safer for children to carry on them than cash, and they helped promote budgeting skills as there was a limit on the amount of money that could be spent... parents could also monitor on the internet how much money their children were spending, and talk to them about budgeting, while the group also runs competitions on its website for children who use the cards to budget.

Of course they will help kids get used to using plastic. However, disposed though I am to being critical of debt selling, I don't think that this is as bit a problem as the NCC fears; I use plastic a lot but it is savings accounts and debit cards. These are not a problem in the same way as a credit cards. My sons say that they would consider one of these fixed-amount, top-up debit cards but never a credit card, for example. In fact I would consider giving one instead of a gift voucher as they are more flexible about where the money could be spent.
So I think that I've talked myself into cautious favour against my initial suspicion.
Guardian Unlimited Money | Credit and debt | Issuer defends payment card for kids:
Filed in: credit, debt, cards, children

Brian McLaren on the Homosexual Question: Finding a Pastoral Response

I have shared before that on the question of homosexuality, I 'still haven't found what I'm looking for' which is a way to hold together both the claims of justice and love and also of the interpretation of a key area of biblical theology. So for me, Brian McLaren's approach, seen in this article, seems very wise and not dissimilar to my own interim approach.
Five star rating from me, for what it's worth!
Leadership Blog: Out of Ur: Brian McLaren on the Homosexual Question: Finding a Pastoral Response
Filed in: Christian, pastoral, homosexuality, Brian_McLaren

Religion & Science Collaboration

This is an interesting project to try to reclaim a public perception to the effect that Christian faith is not synonymous with creationism. By 'creationism', of course, I'm referring to the idea that God brought the world into being in the course of 6 periods of 24 hours. I would like to reclaim the word, actually, because it seems to dichotamise. There seems to be no room for the view that God upholds a process of development which shows up as evolution. In my view its actually little different from affirming both "God made me" and "my parents made me"...
Religion & Science Collaboration
Filed in: evolution, Christian, religion, science, creationism

Agricultural Sustainability = Agricultural Productivity

the reason that industrial agriculture remains dominant is that it's so much more productive, right?
Wrong.
According to a new study in the Feb. 15 edition of Environmental Science & Technology, a journal of the American Chemical Society, sustainable agriculture techniques like those mentioned above, introduced to developing world farms over the last decade, improved farm yields by an average of 79% in four years. And not just in a limited set of locations: the study covered 286 different projects in 57 developing countries. That's over 12 million farms, or 37 million hectares -- about 3% of the cultivated area in poor nations.

WorldChanging: Another World Is Here: Agricultural Sustainability = Agricultural Productivity:
Filed in: organic, agriculture, productivity, farming

Pay as you pollute

An environmentalist's pipe dream? Not at all, but a scheme put before parliament 18 months ago in a private member's bill sponsored by Colin Challen, the Labour MP for Morley & Rothwell.
Mr Challen hopes that a national scheme will be in place by 2009

Guardian Unlimited Business | Business latest | Pay as you pollute:
Filed in: environment, UK, carbon_trading, legislation

UK ranked fifth best in world green list

But... Tony Juniper, director of Friends of the Earth, cautioned, rightly:

We should not see this as vindication for British policies. You would expect a rich country like the UK to have high-quality water but in so many areas the UK is going in the wrong direction. Waste is going up, and so are UK greenhouse gas emissions.

Guardian Unlimited | Special reports | UK ranked fifth best in world green list:
Filed in: environment, UK, EPI

Henri Nouwen: Community and forgiveness

Community is not possible without the willingness to forgive one another "seventy-seven times" (see Matthew 18:22). Forgiveness is the cement of community life. Forgiveness holds us together through good and bad times, and it allows us to grow in mutual love.
But what is there to forgive or to ask forgiveness for? As people who have hearts that long for perfect love, we have to forgive one another for not being able to give or receive that perfect love in our everyday lives. Our many needs constantly interfere with our desire to be there for the other unconditionally. Our love is always limited by spoken or unspoken conditions. What needs to be forgiven? We need to forgive one another for not being God!

It's a brave or bold thing to say, but much truth in it. Not being God is that we are limited. Some of the forgiveness, then is not forgiving things that are culpable in others, that they are personally and malevolently responsible for. In fact it's more recognising that we are expecting too much of them and becoming angry or cheesed off with them because they aren't fulfilling our [often unspoken] expectations. Going further; we are then brought back to the recognition that the blame really lies with us for having those expectations usually quite unreasonably. That we were expecting to be served rather than to serve. How great is Jesus' wisdom in holding being forgiven together with forgiving, all too often dealing with the one brings us face to face with the need to treat with the other.
Henri Nouwen Society Index Page:
Filed in: spirituality, Christian, community, Nouwen

Sleaze probe into nuclear lobbying at Holyrood - [Sunday Herald]

I hope this gets into the mainstream news reporting because it should set back the nuclear lobby.

The cross-party group (CPG) on the civil nuclear industry has failed to register a number of trips and dinners financed by organisations that support the controversial energy source. The body, which is supposed to be neutral, has also failed to declare the administrative support it receives from nuclear power firm British Energy.

Sleaze probe into nuclear lobbying at Holyrood - [Sunday Herald]:
Filed in: nukes, power, sleaze, lobbying, UK

Second ID cards defeat for government

These amendments would make registration and the issue of identity cards an optional extra to anyone applying for a designated document - for example a British passport

So far so good. What I'm still concerned about is whether there is anything in place to prevent ID cards becoming compulsory in practice by stealth. If there is no provision making it illigal to require ID cards in everyday life, then I'm afraid they will become a de facto standard with no appeal.
Guardian Unlimited Politics | Special Reports | Second ID cards defeat for government:
Filed in: ID_cards, Lords, legislation, UK

Slow Down. For Lent?

I missed this in that I came to know about it about half way through the week. However, it is still of interest because I was thinking about having a go at slowing during the Lenten fast [geddit? a slow fast ... oh, never mind] and inviting people to join me in various ways...

experimenting with new rhythms for a more enjoyable, fulfilling, interesting and meaningful life.

Slow Down Week:
Filed in: slow, adbusters, Lent

British girls among most violent in world

This is an interesting reflection for peacemakers.

girls were most likely to fight with friends and family members, while boys were much more likely to engage in violence with strangers.

What it does seem to support is that there really are gender (hormonally related?) differences with regard to violence, but that there are cultural factors at work too and than therefore there are possibilities for strategies for peacemaking and conflict resolution that can 'work' these factors.
Filed in: violence, gender, UK, schools

Evo Morales Ayma -the new president of Bolivia. A native American

Not much on this in the Anglophone sources I use. Seems significant to me, though, that a native american should become president of a south American nation.
Evo Morales Ayma - ELPAIS.es - A fondo

Next generation of nuclear reactors may be fast tracked

:

Pre-licensing is a trojan horse. It sounds innocent but the objective is clear. It would shield consideration of nuclear safety from public scrutiny and that is extremely worrying.

Guardian Unlimited | Special reports | Next generation of nuclear reactors may be fast tracked
Filed in: nukes, power, UK, legislation

How others see us: on sin

If you needed evidence that 'sin' is not a category that is well-enough understood in contempory society for us to use it blithely in evangelism this is a salutary article. It starts by using the term as if expecting everyone to know what is meant, but then, after suspicions have been aroused we discover that, although it is critiquing an ostensibly Christian concept, it is actually dealing with a sub-Christian understanding.

If you’re a Christian and believe that adultery is a sin and after repenting to God via a priest that it’s all forgiven like it never happened, then all effects of it should be gone on Earth as well as in “Heaven” and every other plane of existence. Yet, as we know, it doesn’t work that way. If the Christian God forgives you via the priest’s absolution of sins, then according to that faith/religion, you are indeed forgiven and it’s like it never happened in the Christian God’s eyes. However, that doesn’t mean the partner you cheated on will forgive you and that the consequences/results of your actions will just suddenly go away.
If you’re a Christian and you believe in sin and the forgiveness of it, then you can easily escape the Christian God’s wrath by repenting and working on not repeating the action that is a sin in your faith/belief system/religion. But that does not mean you escape the Law of Return/Threefold Law. You will bear the consequences/results of your actions whether you like it or not. Whether you realize it or not. Whether you admit it to yourself or not. It is what it is - and there is no denying that fact.
“Gee honey…I’m sorry I banged my secretary. Father O’Donovan forgave me, so we’re all good, right? I mean, if I’m all good and OK with God, then it should be OK with you, right?”
If you cheat on your partner and try to use an excuse like that (assuming you’re a Christian or someone that believes in sin/forgiveness), somehow, I don’t think an excuse/explanation like that is going to work.

At least I think that it's sub Christian, [but understandably so]. The main areas of misunderstanding seem to be around: sin as personal in relation to God rather than as somehow karmic; forgiveness not necessarily taking away the knock-on consequences [which is where the notion of penance developed from, which despite medieval misuse deserves thought in terms of repentance including putting right where possible -you know, Zacchaius paying back fourfold kind of thing].

What this article indicates to me is that we may be better to retire the word 'sin' for a while and learn to think about faith without it. -Alan Mann in the book "Atonement for a 'sinless' society" proposes 'abuse' which may be worth pursuing but I suspect we will need a battery of half a dozen words and metaphors. Nothing new there, the original Bible texts actually use several words/metaphors and even the Book of Common Prayer does too... You might want to look at the Open Source Theology review for more info.
How others see us: sin:
Filed in: sin, forgiveness, Christian, pagan

Ilachinski picture

ilachinski_4.jpg width="600" height="200">
Beautiful photo that looks almost like it is painted with influence by Monet.
Filed in: pictures, complexity, art

ID Cards: A Titanic project waiting for its iceberg - ZDNet UK News

Professor Ian ANgell of the London School of economics thinks that UK ID cards "will blow up in their [the government's] faces, and it'll be a hugely expensive explosion."
A very thought provoking interview.
ID Cards: A Titanic project waiting for its iceberg - ZDNet UK News
Filed in: ID_cards, LSE, legislation, costs

Henri Nouwen quote on loneliness

I've signed up to get Henri Nouwen meditations every day. I'm actually thinking that this may be too much an going onto the once a week mailshot may be more digestible. The other day I got this, though there's no indication which book or where it's from.

When we feel lonely we keep looking for a person or persons who can take our loneliness away. Our lonely hearts cry out, "Please hold me, touch me, speak to me, pay attention to me." But soon we discover that the person we expect to take our loneliness away cannot give us what we ask for. Often that person feels oppressed by our demands and runs away, leaving us in despair. As long as we approach another person from our loneliness, no mature human relationship can develop. Clinging to one another in loneliness is suffocating and eventually becomes destructive. For love to be possible we need the courage to create space between us and to trust that this space allows us to dance together.

I once knew someone who exemplified the condition described here; the more they tried to make friends the more their desperation pushed people away. Part of the problem seemed to be that relating out of loneliness objectifies others as ciphers to meet our needs and we behave in all sorts of litle ways as if the other person is not people in their own right. This leaves them feeling used or suffocated.

I longed to be able to say to the person I'm thinking of that Jesus' words about losing our lives if we try to save them applies as a general rule in relationships; the more we seek to get people to love us the more we, in effect, push them away. We have to give up on making friends in order to make them; that is we have to relate to others for their sakes rather than for ours, but in so doing 'all these things will be added to us aswell'
Henri Nouwen Society Index Page:
Filed in: Christian, Spirituality, Nouwen, inspiration

The root of all evil?

If you want to know how I view atheism and the like, then here's a quote that pretty much rings my bells.

Religions desperately need criticism. As the Church has learnt – time and again – Christianity drifts furthest from its moorings when it suppresses questions and crushes criticism. It needs critical partners with which to dialogue, to keep it fresh and faithful to Christ. As the reformers recognised, a reformed church is a church always reforming.
Dawkins’ inability to be a constructive partner in critical dialogue reflects the increasing nervousness of many secularists. Religion never did die a natural death and appears to be growing again, sometimes in unpleasantly militant forms.
Dawkins’ tone may, to be fair, change next week when he talks to more sophisticated religious advocates. Nevertheless, if his critique continues to disappoint, it should not leave Christians feeling smug, still less allow them to slip into intellectual laziness or stop them from engaging with other, more nuanced critics.

The disappointment is the tired old arguments and the lack of engagement with those who are not straw men. Though to be fair, as the quote hints, it's not hard to find Christians taking pops at straw men either. Nothing quite as feelgoody as preaching to the choir. [Though in actual fact, given some of the choirs I've known, preaching to the choir is quite a trepidatious undertaking].
The root of all evil?: Filed in: atheism, Dawkins, Christian, Church, secularism, religion

ID CARDS : more downsides

After going through the main worries about the UK's proposed ID card scheme, Corporate Watch concludes:

One option would be to reject the proposed scheme outright and allow the government to think again. Failing that, it should not be too late to amend the scheme to protect the public from technological and organisational failures. At a legislative level, it can be argued that the simplest way to achieve this is that no-one should be forced to have or produce an ID card, or to register on the NIR, until the technologies can be shown to be sufficiently developed, secure and effective. This would mean amending the Bill to:
* remove the obligation to register on the NIR in order to renew a passport
* require new primary legislation before cards or NIR registration could be made compulsory for any section of the population
* prohibit both public and private sector bodies from requiring an ID card in any situation - i.e. ensure that other forms of identification should always be acceptable, whether to access public services or in other situations such as applying for jobs - there have been reports that some large employers are already considering requiring employees to register for ID cards.

In actual fact I believe [following my MP's advice] that new legislation would be needed to make them compulsory, however, I think that it may be secondary, that is making active a provision within the primary 'enabling legislation. The final idea is essential otherwise a voluntary scheme is voluntary in name only as function creep occurs as more organisations ask for ID just because they can or the 'littel Hitlers' problem kicks in; petty officials keen to exercise their meagre powers on members of the public to compensate for grievances in other parts of their lives.
Corporate Watch : ID CARDS : 5 - Conclusion: Filed in: ID_cards, technology, procurement, legislation

mindful of our saviour...

Hat tip to Matt Stone
Semiotic Jujitsu: Ga_0406g_b
Filed in: art, cross, Christian, advert

Sami Nair: "fundamentalism isn't born in the clash of cultures" - ELPAIS.es - edici�n impresa - Autonom�as - Andaluc�a

From the Inter cultural Festival in Seville emerged a paper in which this interesting perspective was given;

"No existe un choque entre civilizaciones sino dentro de cada civilización y siempre que se niega la diversidad y se renuncia al diálogo" / "There is no clash of civilisations except within each civilisation and which always denies diversity and renounces dialogue.

Sami Naïr: "El fundamentalismo no nace en el choque de culturas" - ELPAIS.es - edici�n impresa - Autonom�as - Andaluc�a:

Benedicto XVI will publish first encyclical on 25 Jan

I haven't seen this anywhere else yet except the Spanish press: "Benedicto XVI publicara el 25 de enero su primera enciclica, que versar sobre el amor y la caridad. El documento llevar por titulo 'Deus caritas est', segun ha revelado hoy el propio Pontifice en su audiencia publica de los miercoles"
Ie 'Benedict XVI will publish his first encyclical on 25 January dealing with love and charity. The document will carry the title, "Deus Caritas Est", according to the Pope himselp in a revelation during his Wednesday public audience.'

Should be interesting; the choice of subject for the former 'inquisition' head is intriguing.

Change Who You Imagine You Are

At the end of last year Adbusters came out with an excellent "Big Ideas of 2006" special, which is well worth getting if you can. But they have started putting some of them on the web. I was pleased to discover that this one was there. I like the exploration of technology and mindset [although I wish it were fuller than this article goes into].

It’s becoming clearer every day that the roots of climate change lie not just in the technological infrastructure we’ve built to exploit fossil fuels, but in the habits of mind and heart created by that infrastructure. For example: cheap gasoline allowed us to rip up the trolley lines and replace them with cars, which in turn allowed the sprawling suburbs, which in turn allowed ever bigger houses, which in turn allowed an unprecedented isolation from community.

In the rest of the article is a helpful meditation on the trade-offs that we currently make versus the ones that we are called by our environmental situation to make. Good stuff.
Adbusters : The Magazine - #63 The Big Ideas of 2006 / Change Who You Imagine You Are: Filed in: culture, climate_change, oil, transport, suburbs, community

We’re Cracking the Neural Code

I still find that Christians are not really willing to engage with neurotheology but it's going to become increasingly important as this quote shows...

If the brain’s programming tricks can be transferred to computers and robots,... mastery of the neural code might allow us to transform our psyches into software programs – strings of ones and zeros – that can be downloaded into machines, where we will live forever in cyberspace.
Finally, the neural code could represent the key to one of philosophy’s oldest and deepest conundrums – the mind-body problem – in the following way: all codes involve the transformation of purely physical phenomena ... into information, which transcends the physical realm. By revealing how the brain transforms a physical process such as the firing of a neuron into information and even meaning, another non-physical phenomena, the neural code may reveal how mere matter becomes a mind. Who knows? Maybe we’ll even solve the riddle of free will. We may finally understand how this wrinkled lump of jelly in our skulls generates a unique self with a sense of personal identity and autonomy, a self that perceives, emotes, remembers, imagines, chooses, acts, creates.

It will mean we have to do some good thinking about emergence, evolution, the nature of the soul and free will. I actually don't find any of this threatening, I think that we have the resources in Christian tradition to say in principle that we have been 'here' before, but for Christians who think that a Cartesian soul is the only reading of Christian anthropology that is possible and orthodox there are hard times ahead.
Adbusters : The Magazine - #63 The Big Ideas of 2006 / We’re Cracking the Neural Code, the Brain’s Secret Language:
Filed in: brain, body, AI, neural_code

Soap Really Does Grow On Trees.

Soapnut shells contain saponin (a natural detergent) and when they come in contact with water they make mild suds. Soapnuts are a natural, organic, environmentally friendly alternative to soap, detergent and shampoo.” Apparently, 1kg of the nuts can wash about 100 loads (4-8 half-shells per load). You can even use them for washing windows, cleaning pets (interesting), or washing your car. You clothes will come out clean, but if you want any type of scent you’ll probably have to add some essential oils to the brew.

Groovy Green � Soap Really Does Grow On Trees.:
Filed in: wash, environment, detergent, nuts

Peugeot and French Nuclear Commission Announce Fuel Cell Advance

Both hope and despair. Hope because a potentially cheap fuel cell has been developed. Despair because of the nuke tie-up.

PSA Peugeot Citroen, the French automaker, this week released its new fuel cell design, the GENEPAC, with hopes that it will pave the way for affordable, compact, fuel cells suitable for everyday driving. The GENEPAC is a modular fuel cell stack that can incorporate up to four modules, providing up to 80 kw. It is being called the smallest automotive fuel cell to date. In keeping with hydrogen’s controversial and hotly debated relationship with the nuclear power industry, Peugeot jointly developed and unveiled this new fuel cell technology with the French Atomic Energy Commission, presumably implying that the car company is putting its bets on nuclear power as the main energy source for the hydrogen economy.

Filed in: hydrogen, fuel_cell, nuclear, carTreehugger: Peugeot and French Nuclear Commission Announce Fuel Cell Advance:

Turning Emissions Into Fuel With Algae

This is an encouraging potential development...

A single acre of algae ponds can produce 15,000 gallons of biodiesel -- in comparison, an acre of soybeans produces up to 50 gallons of biodiesel per acre, an acre of jatropha produces up to 200 gallons per acre, coconuts produce just under 300 gallons per acre, and palm oil -- currently the best non-algal source -- produces up to 650 gallons of biodiesel per acre. That is to say, algae is 25 times better a source for biodiesel than palm oil, and 300 times better than soy.

Of course there are downsides, one is that it still adds fossil CO2 to the atmosphere albeit used with greater efficiency, and as such it could slow the development of genuine alternatives. The good could become enemy of the best.
WorldChanging: Another World Is Here: Turning Emissions Into Fuel With Algae:
Filed in: carbon_capture, algae, biodiesel

Nuclear power 'cannot tackle climate change'

Making a comment about the low level of debate on the issue, Kevin Anderson [a senior researcher at the Tyndall Centre for Climate Change Research] made his own well-aimed contribution.

If you've got money to spend on tackling climate change then you don't spend it on supply. You spend it on reducing demand.

He then sets out how the figures stack up.
Guardian Unlimited | Special reports | Nuclear power 'cannot tackle climate change':
Filed in: nuclear, power, CO2, climate_change, UK, efficiency

Peers inflict defeats on ID card bill

I think that this is marginally encouraging, though much now hinges on how the government responds, and they are looking bullish, having backed themselves into a corner on the issue.

John McDonnell, chairman of the leftwing Campaign group of MPs, said: "As it presently stands, the ID cards bill is now dead in the water. The Lords have followed the Commons in raising fundamental objections to this ill-thought-out scheme, and have holed it below the waterline."

Guardian Unlimited Politics | Special Reports | Government fights on as peers inflict defeats on ID card bill:
Filed in: ID_cards, Lords, legislation, costs, UK

The awakening giant

I've mentioned before that we should be preparing our minds to think and pray about China as it becomes a major player on the world stage. I'd recently got the thinking that perhaps India should also be considered, when, blow me down, the Guardian runs this article and near the start we are told,

Nothing could be clearer than that this is the Asian century, and India will become one of the dominant global powers.You only have to spend a week in the country to realise that it is brimming with self-confidence ... The statistics are mind-boggling. India is the world's largest democracy. It is the second-largest country by population. And the world's second largest Muslim country.

So if you want to find out more ...
Guardian Unlimited | Special reports | The awakening giant:
Filed in: India, superpower, Islam, commerce, economy, politics

Seminal questions for ulema

An interesting article in throwing some insight on how Islam is changing with the internet. It emphasises the problem of a jurisprudential religion where the externalities can become all important and rules become masters rather than servants, though you will also find evidence of some scholars trying to keep rules in their place, yet others are seemingly interested in control.

The current fashion for online fatwas has created an amazingly legalistic approach to Islam as scholars - some of whom have only a tenuous grip on reality - seek to regulate all aspects of life according to their own interpretation of the scriptures. It is much harder to find any discussion on Muslim websites of matters that some would say form the basic substance of religion, such as the nature of love and spiritual experiences.

But then, some Christianity can be like that, can it not?
Guardian Unlimited | World dispatch | Seminal questions:
Filed in: religion, Islam, fatwa, sex, web, legalism

Peers demand disclosure of ID card costs

UK government says

"Identity fraud costs the economy at least £1.3bn a year and the evidence shows that the threat is rising.

I wonder whether most ID fraud isn't in the category of 'cardholder not present' which I can't see ID cards helping unless we are going to release bits of the info on the cards into the wild of the internet ... in which case back to square one ...
Guardian Unlimited Politics | Special Reports | Peers demand disclosure of ID card costs:
Filed in: ID_cards, costs, legislation

Tell Shell to obey the law

"Shell was ordered by a Nigerian Court on 14 November 2005 to stop flaring gas in Iwherekan, in the Niger Delta.

So far, it hasn't done so."
You can help put pressure on with a bit of cyber activism.
Friends of the Earth: Campaigns: Corporates: Press for change: Tell Shell to obey the law:

The Magi Remixed

I pass this on because it pretty much encapsulates my view of the matter ...
" ... They looked something like a cross between yuppies and gypsies, sort of smartly dressed but with lots of jewellery and strings of crystals round their necks and stuff. “Excuse us,” they said, “but we're the staff from the Mythic Reality New Age Enlightenment Centre in Smith Street, and we're looking for the manifestation of the divine that has appeared just around here.”
“What are you talking about?” replied the startled regulars at the church.
“Well, we're not sure of the exact details, but Sasha here was reading the Tarot Cards this morning, and the cards clearly said that an omnipotent divine presence had just appeared as a baby in Collins Street. We were a bit surprised at first, but then our brother Moonlight here spent half an hour calculating the astrological chart for today, and sure enough, there was an unusual conjunction of Saturn and Jupiter last night, and that occurring under the sign of Capricorn confirms what the cards had said. So we've come with a good supply of healing and empowering crystals as a gift for the baby.”"
Marcus Curnow: Matt 2: 1-12 :Year B (Epiphany) The Magi Remixed:
NAM Christian spirituality mission magi

Rise in mental illness linked to unhealthy diets

I used to work in a wholefood shop ["Aha, that explains it" I can hear my readership thinking]. I did so out of conviction that good diet is well, good for us, and that good food should not be the preserve of the relatively wealthy. As I understood it, the difference between a wholefood and a health food shop was that the former were trying to work towards a situation where healthy food was affordable for the less well-off. Anyway, idealogical underpinnings aside, I am therefore not surprised to hear that the evidence has been stacking up that unhealthy or rather unwholesome eating has bad effects on mental health in at least some people. Hopefully this will further push policy towards social and economic policy that is about whole person wellness. There's also a dimension about recognising the externalities of 'industrial food', the question will be how best to make sure those costs are internalised to the industrial food producers? Including the costs of re-educating a whole generation who have lost the skills of knowing and preparing healthy food? It should be the food producers, and I suspect that if we can pull off the trick it will start to favour organic or near organic production and perhaps further greening of our cities.

the NHS bill for mental illness, at almost £100bn a year, will continue to rise unless the government focuses on diet and the brain in its food, farming, education and environment policies.
"Food can have an immediate and lasting effect on mental health and behaviour because of the way it affects the structure and function of the brain," Sustain's report says. Its chairman, Tim Lang, said: "Mental health has been completely neglected by those working on food policy. If we don't address it and change the way we farm and fish, we may lose the means to prevent much diet-related ill health."

SocietyGuardian.co.uk | Health | Rise in mental illness linked to unhealthy diets, say studies:
Filed in: health, food, brain, policy, wholefoods

Boost your brain power -have a baby

The idea may seem startling because a dimming of brain power is still viewed as a side effect of motherhood. 'It does seem counter-intuitive,' added Lambert. 'We just haven't noticed it because these boosts are masked by sleep deprivation. It wasn't until I had a baby that I realised what is involved in having a child and how organised a female has to be. It makes sense for her body to boost her mental capacities.'
But if mothers get a boost from parenthood, is the same true for fathers? Lambert says yes, but to a more limited extent. 'A man won't get a hormone boost, but if he is an involved father he will gain through sharing the challenging experience of childraising.'

For me, the interesting thing will be seeing how -and if- this gets into the discussions about parental leave and career breaks. It's also an interesting 'confirmation' or example of the principle of obliquity which in Christian terms might be illustrated by 'seek first God's kingdom and righteousness, and all these things will be given you as well.' or 'whoever wants to save their life will lose it, but whoever loses their life for me will find it.'
The Observer | UK News | Want to boost your brain power? Just have a baby:
Filed in: parenting, intelligence, women, obliquity

Is God on the Side of the USA?

A friend sent me the transcript of what must have been a really interesting discussion on 29 Dec 2005 on BBC Radio 4. To whet your appetite, the panel consisted of:

James Q. Wilson Ronald Reagan Professor of Public Policy, Pepperdine University, California
James Morone Professor of Political Science, Brown University & Author of Hellfire Nation: The Politics of Sin in American History
Harriet Baber Professor of Philosophy, University of San Diego, California
The Rev. Richard Cizik Vice-President for Government Affairs, National Association of Evangelicals, Washington, DC
The Rev. Judith Maltby Fellow & Chaplin of Corpus Christi College, Oxford & Reader in Church History, University of Oxford
Jimmy Carter President of the United States, 1977-1981 & Author of Our Endangered Values: America’s Moral Crisis
Joseph Bottum Editor, First Things, New York Nicholas Boyle Professor of German Literary & Intellectual History in the University of Cambridge & Fellow, Magdalene College & Author of Where Are We Now?
The Rev. Gordon Atkinson Pastor of Covenant Baptist Church, San Antonio, Texas, contributor to Christian Century, The Wittenberg Door & author of Real Life Preacher weblog

Enjoy!

Filed in: USA, politics, evangelical, Christian

Hajj stampede

It's tragic,

The stampede began as tens of thousands of pilgrims filed past al-Jamarat, a series of three large stone walls representing the devil that the faithful pelt with stones to purge themselves of sin.

but it brings to the surface in me one of the difficulties I have with Islam's universal claims on human allegiance. You see I can't really take a religion seriously as a claimant for universal applicability when it can't scale up. The problem is that the hajj is restricted to a particular season, is qualifiedly obligatory and the infrastructure of the sites clearly cannot cope with the numbers and could not cope with further growth. The hajj cannot safely be a universal imposition. It works with small numbers, it could conceivably work if it was all the year round but as the current allegedly divinely revealed rules go ... nah, I can't see it.
Guardian Unlimited | Special reports | At least 50 dead in hajj stampede:
Filed in: Islam, hajj

Global warming: blame the forests

A little while back we were told that in certain conditions temperate forests don't soak up CO2 at all but can end up returning it to the atmosphere. Now it seems that in a way yet to be understood, forests release methane which is a more powerful greenhouse effect driver though short lived and not being emitted in such quantities that it might not still make sense to continue tree planting in the tropics at any rate to mitigate CO2 by-production. However it is an illustration that most of what we do for climat change is a cost-benefit analysis in the end.
Guardian Unlimited | Science | Global warming: blame the forests
Filed in: science, environment, global_warming, trees, methane

Disgraced stem cell scientist blames researchers

Well it turns out by the words of the chief protaganist, I was not right about why Mr Hwang faked the results of hes research, because he claims to have been duped by some of his research team. However, the reason that they did so seems to be consonant with what I said, so I feel half vindicated and plead ignorance of the actual way the research was being conducted. In itself that latter observation is a helpful reflection on the role of imagination in hypothesising and of experience in forming the boundaries of what is imagined, at least sometimes. I was imagining a smaller, single-location team with more hands-on from the leader. An expectation on my part based in my own experiences, but wrong, as it turns out. In this case it doesn't invalidate my core thesis about a good partially vindicated hypothesis and the drive for acclaim -to be first in this case. But we shall see; it may yet transpire that Hwang is unfairly burdening his researchers with his faults in a immediately post-fall garden of Eden replay.

"We were crazy, crazy about work," he said. "I was blinded. All I could see was whether I could make Korea stand in the centre of the world through this research."

Guardian Unlimited | Special reports | Disgraced stem cell scientist blames researchers:

Gordy offers a global new deal

Here's a really inspiring piece from Britain's Chancellor, it shows him really committed to development and apparently in no mood to take 'no' for an answer.
Guardian Unlimited | Guardian daily comment | Our final goal must be to offer a global new deal
Filed in: Make_Poverty_History, justice, Africa, UK, G8, Gordon_Brown

Loser: Britain's Identity Crisis

One of Britain's biggest unions comes out against ID cards. Quoting the LSE study:

the idea of a single central database, which they note could become a critical choke point if it suffers failures and denial-of-service attacks. And then there is the use of biometric systems, whose accuracy levels may not be adequate to handle such a large number of individuals, resulting in identification errors

And there's a new to me dimension to the argument:

Because the cards have unique numbers, different entities could eventually begin to use them as personal identifiers in their own systems. After all, this is exactly what happened with social security numbers in the United States and other countries. Created to keep track of a person's contributions to the social security system, the number became a highly trusted identifier and wound up being used by many other organizations, including employers, investment-account firms, and even video rental stores. The result is that it became easier for fraudsters—especially insiders—to get hold of the information they needed to steal people's identities.

IEEE Spectrum: Loser: Britain's Identity Crisis:
Filed in: ID_cards, UK, IEEE

retrievr - search by sketch

I can foresee me using this from time to time; basically it searches for Flickr public images using a drawing you, the user, makes in the little flash box supplied on the page. It does it in real time without you even needing to click 'search' ... it's cool, it works and I think I could play with it way too much.
retrievr - search by sketch
Filed in: art, flickr, search, photo, tools, images, web2.0, drawing

"The New American Dream"

The role of money and wealth needs more careful scrutiny. The classical economics approach pretty much puts monetary wealth at the heart of thinking. However, along with other of the base assumptions of economics, it needs questioning and supplementing. To be sure many people do make a crude equation between bigger salaries and more fulfilment or happiness or ability to make what they will of their lives. But:

There is little evidence that Edison or the Curies toiled at their experiments for the chance to get rich; Edison was sometimes too eager to plow money back into more experiments. What drove the Wright brothers to invent was not financial competition, but creative competition: the race to be first to fly. It's this kind of "competition" that truly motivates most scientists and inventors, and even football coaches, artists, and rappers. To keep our economy vital, the behavior that fundamentally needs to be incentivized and supported is not money-making but creative activity. When more people do the good work they enjoy, wealth will follow--not the other way around. Developing a vision for expanding opportunities for creative work is the great untapped political opportunity for both parties in the new century.

It's a kind of secular parallel to 'seek first the kingdom of God and all these things will be given you as well." -Seek first human flourishing and wealth will come as well. It's certainly paralleled in the management world where the 'humane' approach of supporting and expanding the capabilities of employees bears fruit in better work, and often more productivity in the longer term.
"The New American Dream" by Richard Florida:
Filed in: culture, cultural_creatives, development, economy, creativity

Global Warming Trends

Treehugger: “Global Warming Trends”

Beyond belief? Dawkins' views

An earlier post on this blog commented on Richard Dawkins via Madeleine Bunting's article in the Observer. I would like to add to that this posting by my friend Steve Hollinghurst. I like the content and the eirenic tone of what Steve writes here.
In my own comment I note that atheism seems to be having difficulties adapting to postmodernity and after...
On Earth as in Heaven: Beyond belief?
Filed in: Dawkins, atheism, rationalism, Christian, apologetics

Blair launches 'respect' action plan

Looks at first and in terms of what is reported here, that Tony Blair may have committed an elementary logical fallacy:
"Mr Blair ... did not accept poverty was a reason for antisocial behaviour, saying: 'In fact, I don't really think that is the case at all. The vast majority of people, including families on low incomes, behave perfectly properly.'"
He seems to be saying that because some A is B, all A is B. Obviously in this case, the fact that deprivation does not drive some [the majority] to antisocial behaviour does not mean that it is not a factor at all. All we could say, prima facie, is that it is not a sole determining factor. However, if it makes such behaviour more likely, surely it does need to be factored in, not ignored. Here is another case of a new Labour sounding Thatcherite, now the surprise is that this story seems to indicate yet another case of New Tory sounding more like old Labour...
Oliver Letwin, said "The causes of what we are dealing with here are much deeper and we are not going to tackle them with on-the-spot fines,"
We do indeed live in interesting times.
Guardian Unlimited Politics | Special Reports | Blair launches 'respect' action plan:

More veges: less strokes and heart disease

Every so often I find yet more evidence that the western high meat diet is not good news. This time it's in terms of personal health.
“hose who ate more vegetable protein tended to have lower blood pressure than those who ate less.”
But it's worth recalling, too, how much land, water, oil, grain, well resources in general go into raising meat. Save the rainforests, eat less meat. In a world where many have not enough to eat, it feels to me wrong to be contributing further to that injustice by insisting on levels of meat consumption that are globally unsustainable.
Sermon over.
Filed in: diet, vegetarian, protein, health
Guardian Unlimited | Special reports | Vegetable protein helps in fight against strokes and heart disease:

Korean scientist faked human cloning research

I heard about this on the news this morning and read the article hoping to find an answer to my real question which is: given that his work would be peer reviewed and attempts made to reduplicate it, why did he make the claims, surely he must have known that he'd be caught out eventually?
The only reason I can come up with might be that he believed so strongly in the methods he'd evolved and with a good and genuine result on the dog front, he perhaps thought that experimental reality would catch up with his hopes but didn't want to be beaten to the grail ...

The effect of such fraud is brought out by this quote.
"Alison Murdoch, the Newcastle University researcher who leads Britain's cloning efforts, has complained that Mr Hwang's fraudulent work diverted scientists from other approaches that might have produced crucial developments."

If I'm right in my guess about motivation, it's an interesting reflection on the non-scientific pressures on science and scientists. Science as an endeavour is not neutral and is much affected by the social and polical ends of the human individuals, groups and societies it is most intimately connected with. It's saving grace is that it insists on empirical, repeatable results. Which makes it all the stranger that someone would take the risks that this man has.
Guardian Unlimited | Special reports | Korean scientist faked human cloning research:

No identity card? You could be fined �2,500

It looks like my MP's assertion that ID cards would be voluntary will be immediately undermined:

an obscure Whitehall consultation paper, calls into serious doubt the Government's repeated promises that planned ID cards, already hugely controversial, will be voluntary and that no one will be forced to carry one.

Creeping compulsorification by statute, more like.
Filed in: ID_cards, UK, weakness, flawed, local_authoritiesTelegraph | News | No identity card? You could be fined �2,500:

The difference a state makes

Given the economic similarities, adherance to democracy etc of Europe and USA the relative uptake of Christian faith is problematic. One of the more convincing reasons is summed up in this.

It is possible that most Europeans have turned against religion itself. I believe that it is more likely that they have turned against traditional authority, including that of the church.

And, when you look at the US west coast which may share more of the anti-authoritarian cultural trajectory, it seems to add fuel to the thesis that the USA may actually be heading the same way, only delayed.
It's time to dust off less establishment versions of Christian faith...
Filed in: Christian, spirituality, religion, USA, Europe, church, authority, rebellion
Guardian Unlimited | Special reports | Cross purposes:

No wonder atheists are angry: they seem ready to believe anything

This is a very interesting expose of anti-religious polemic making some very good points, like this:

Over the 20th century, atheist political regimes racked up an appalling (and unmatched) record for violence. Atheist humanism hasn't generated a compelling popular narrative and ethic of what it is to be human and our place in the cosmos; where religion has retreated, the gap has been filled with consumerism, football, Strictly Come Dancing and a mindless absorption in passing desires. Not knowing how to answer the big questions of life, we shelve them - we certainly don't develop the awe towards and reverence for the natural world that Dawkins would want. So the atheist humanists have been betrayed by the irrational, credulous nature of human beings; a misanthropy is increasingly evident in Dawkins's anti-religious polemic and among his many admirers

It comes down to secular humanism being the kind of philosophy that wants to save its cake and also to eat it. John Gray in Straw Dogs makes essentially the same point from an atheist point of view, that much of secular humanism is actually parasitic on Christian values...
Filed in: atheism, religion, secularism, Dawkins, critiqueGuardian Unlimited | Special reports | No wonder atheists are angry: they seem ready to believe anything: