No kidding Einstein

Just occasioanlly, research seems to confirm the blindingly obvious... ScienceDaily: Cigarette Taxes Do Reduce Smoking But Can Lead To Bootlegging, Study Says

Advertising works

... just not directly: but the ad industry's instinct for attitude modification through clever use of imagery in relation to oblique desires seems to be borne out by this piece of research. "Adolescents attending schools in neighborhoods where alcohol ads litter the landscape tend to want to drink more and, compared with other children, have more positive views of alcohol"
And it seemed to me that the research seems to hold out hope for those of us who think that good attitudes modelled and talked about (not lectured at, though) while growing up may have good effects, "Prior research has shown that adolescents' intentions and attitudes about alcohol generally predict their later behavior"
ScienceDaily: Outdoor Alcohol Ads Boost Kids' Urge To Drink:

The Duke of Plaza Toro

Gotta say that this pretty much sums up where I'd got to in my thinking about Christian leadership in post-secular late modernity. We need to move from (ie "transition" -as a verb)
"1. lighthouses to rafts (attracting to attaching)
2. diving boards to surfboards (restructuring to reimagining)
3. orchestras to jazz bands (orchestrating to improvising)
4. generals to gardeners (controlling to cultivating)
5. spiders to starfish (retaining to releasing)"
But boy! it's tough sometimes taking a congregation with you: within the referenced article, there's a good example of how the corporate management culture of people can radically affect their approach to 'church'. Reminds me of a former church of mine who have recently advertised for a new vicar, my successor having recently moved on also, and they have put in the advert a reference to my predecessor: clearly they still want the 'successful' command and control approach he instituted. So there's a failure of mine up for view: I failed to convince them that 'the times they are a changing' and a new kind of vision of church is needed, especially at the leadership level. But it's hard to argue against apparent success. It was one of the things that convinced me that I really need to be more involved with pioneering than maintaining.

And in case you are wondering about the title: it's a Gilbert and Sullivan reference: a skit on a general who led from the rear; his bravery in question. I'll leave you to decide on how to apply it -if at all!
Anglican Cell UK:

Naming changes responses the brain

while this is from a psychology-based brain-imaging study, it seems to me to be significant for my ongoing thinking about theological linguistics. The research answers the question

'does seeing an angry face and simply calling it an angry face change our brain response' The answer is yes, according to Matthew D. Lieberman, UCLA associate professor of psychology and a founder of social cognitive neuroscience. 'When you attach the word 'angry,' you see a decreased response in the amygdala,'

It seems to indicated that 'naming' is important, but not any old naming, in this case; it's the labelling of emotions that has a therapeutic effect. There is omething to the old adage that a problem shared is a problem halved.

Then there is the link to mindfulness meditation. It seems that mindfulness has a similar effect in 'turning down' the amygdala responses. For me there is also a link to Christian (well, theistic) prayer: the labelling of our responses (ie telling God how we feel) before God, I would guess, is also likely to have a similar result (apparently journalling does too): "Take it to the Lord in Prayer". Should we be concerned at the apparent Budhistic bias of the research (and note how objectivity in science can be subverted in all sorts of little ways)?
It also seems to me to provide a potential insight into why assertiveness techniques may help defuse situations.
ScienceDaily: Putting Feelings Into Words Produces Therapeutic Effects In The Brain:

Kremlin lays claim to chunk of North Pole

Yesterday "Russia signalled its intention ... to annex a vast 460,000 square mile chunk of the frozen and ice-encrusted Arctic."
Now why would they want to do that? In pursuit of their aim to become a hydrocarbons superpower. As the article says; "geologists returned with the "sensational news" that the Lomonosov ridge was linked to Russian Federation territory, boosting Russia's claim over the oil-and-gas rich triangle. The territory contained 10bn tonnes of gas and oil deposits.... The shelf was 200 metres deep and oil and gas would be easy to extract, especially with ice melting because of global warming."
However there is a fly in this ointment, as another Russian scientist pointed out, "Canada could make exactly the same claim. The Canadians could say that the Lomonosov ridge is part of the Canadian shelf, which means Russia should in fact belong to Canada, together with the whole of Eurasia."
It then devolves into a matter of UN administered maritime law and the USA's animosity to the UN may result in Russia getting its way.
Kremlin lays claim to huge chunk of oil-rich North Pole | Russia | Guardian Unlimited:

Meditate To Concentrate

Hmmm; makes me more determined to integrate this into pedagogy! "Researchers found that even for those new to the practice, meditation enhanced performance and the ability to focus attention."ScienceDaily: Meditate To Concentrate:

Salman Rushdie is not the problem. Muslims are -Times Online

And don't jump on me: that's a quote from Muslim Irshad Manji commenting on the latest displays of OTT offendedness. He also says something very significant, I think. "I am offended that so many other Muslims are not offended enough to demonstrate widely against God’s self-appointed ambassadors. We complain to the world that Islam is being exploited by fundamentalists, yet when reckoning with the opportunity to resist their clamour en masse, we fall curiously silent. In a battle between flaming fundamentalists and mute moderates, who do you think is going to win?"
He then goes on to show how the odd time when people have demonstrated in favour of more moderation, there have been good things come of it.
Salman Rushdie is not the problem. Muslims are -Times Online:

The Books of The Bible -a welcome break for Bible presentation?

This version takes out the two-column presentation which has become traditional in bibles and "Chapter and verse numbers are removed from the text."

My wife has been saying they should do this for years, she may have a point. Some of her reasoning is in the reasons given on the blog for this:

* the impression given by c&v is that the reader is encountering a reference manual of some sort, so it immediately misrepresents the nature of the Bible;
* c&v imposes a kind of numbing “sameness” on the biblical material, flattening it out and disguising the real variety of material;
* c&v is off-putting and confusing to new readers of the Bible;
* chapter divisions typically don’t correspond with the authors’ divisions of thought;
* chapter divisions can direct people to make sense of only a piece of a longer section as if it were complete in itself;
* chapter divisions can direct people to read two or more smaller sections as if they really belong together in a single section;
* even when chapter divisions do align with the natural breaks in the text, they are all about the same length, thus allowing only divisions of a certain size to be shown and ignoring divisions of both a larger or smaller size;
* chapter divisions encourage the reader to stop upon reaching the end of the chapter;
* verse divisions imply that the Bible is a collection of independent and free-standing statements;
* verse divisions are often placed at awkward or inappropriate places;
* verse divisions lead to “verse-jacking”, an intrusive breaking into the biblical text, typically leading to the robbery of selected words in which the original context and meaning are left behind;
* verse divisions encourage a relativistic reading of the text in which the original meaning fades back and all that matters is what the isolated words say to me, now.
In short, c&v presents a serious distortion of the biblical text.

Of course the really worrying aspect of all this is the people who talk about doing something like this as if it's changing scripture...
The Books of The Bible | Comparison:

Imagini "Discover your VisualDNA"

If you're looking for a bit of fun with a potential networking dimension then this may be worth five minutes of your time ...
Imagini™ Discover your VisualDNA™

Sony apologise to Manchester Cathedral

I blogged a number of days ago about this and it seems that Sony have begun to do the right thing. An pertinent further consideration is mentioned in this report (which did occur to me at the time of the first report).

When larger organisations like Sony find their copyright has been breached, they are very quick to use the law. When Sony used images of Manchester Cathedral as part of a game which extolled gun violence, it was not only in bad taste: it was also very, very insulting

Sony apologises for Cathedral game

Christian religious 'rights' and the fandom instinct

This has been a few years in the making: ever since EU legislation gave the right for people to manifest their religion, some Christians have been itching to find a way to express their allegiance to Christ in comparable ways to other faith bodies. But it's difficult: we don't have set prayer times like Muslims that are integral to Christianity; we are told to pray but there is a lot of lassitude on just how. We don't have special clothes like a Sikh Turban, just commands to consider others and to be modest. And so, when the girl at the heart of this case made a chastity vow out of Christian convictions and sealed it with a ring. Well, commendable though her stance is, it was always going to be hard to claim it was integral, somehow, to Christain faith.

authorities claim the band, which is engraved with a Biblical verse, is not an integral part of the Christian faith and contravenes its uniform policy

This can seem disappointing to keen Christians, who feel the urge to fandom that others express by wearing team colours or putting up pix of singers but direct it to Christ (no necessarily bad thing there, but let's be honest that some zeal is, at least in part, tapping into the 'fandom' instinct) but let's take some satisfaction from knowing that our faith is flexible and responsive in cultural terms and that we are charged with dismantling 'sacred' and 'secular' divides, and not creating arbitrary ones just to be part of the religious burdens club.

Come to me all who are weary and burdened ... and I will give you rest.

Let's exalt in not having religious manifestations to parade; save, perhaps those of love, joy, and peace in the Holy Spirit?
School's chastity ring ban 'violated religious freedom'

Icebergs: carbon offsetters?

Yes: it may be true'; while warming may increase iceberg formation, it could be that the bergs generate enough life-related activity to offset some carbon:

Icebergs that break off Antarctica and drift away are hotspots of life and may help reduce the amount of carbon dioxide in the world's atmosphere ... The icebergs hold nutrients that they release far out to sea as they melt, sustaining a community of seabirds, krill, fish and phytoplankton spread over a radius of up to two miles around each one.

I guess the issue is how much. Well,

Based on their new understanding, they estimate icebergs are raising the biological productivity of nearly 40% of the Weddell Sea's area.

Unfortunately, I don't know what that means in relation to the wider global carbon scene, but I'll keep an eye open for it.

Divest for Darfur

Looks like Barclays are ripe for another campaign (I recall the years of anti-apartheid campaigning ...)
"Your money goes into your Barclays bank account.
Barclays invests your money in a Chinese oil company.
The oil company works the Sudanese oil fields.
The Sudanese government takes its cut of the oil revenues.
The Sudanese government funds Janjaweed fighters committing atrocities in Darfur."

Divest for Darfur � MAKE WEALTH HISTORY:

Rushdie knighthood: This way lies badness

I'm wary of the term 'Islamofascism', but when I see things like this based on the dislike of something written in a novel, "the honour was an insult to the religious sentiments of Muslims", I feel that the term maybe really does have referents. Perhaps I've missed something but it does look like what is being said here, in context, is: "This man has written something that is critical of something that is important to us religiously, therefore he must be killed. And anyone who does something that seems to endorse or collude with that opinion is fair game for the same." The difficulty here is that it seems to come down to saying: if you disagree with us over something we feel strongly about, we are justified in answering you with violence. That does seems to merit the label 'fascism'.

I'm afraid I can't condone that attitude of answering contrary opinion with violence. As a Christian I am pretty much obliged to take some positions that this kind of Islam finds offensive: I believe God was incarnated as Jesus Christ and crucified (and raised). I believe that I cannot therefore agree with the usual Muslim assessment of the Qur'an an Mohammed: my opinions about both are likely to be offensive to at least some, probably many. As it happens, I also believe that it needn't be that way: there are ways to read and take the Muslim traditions that can iron out many of those difficulties: the possibility of 'Musulman biMassih Isa' or somesuch is a real one, I think. I'm not advocating that people should utter things that are offensive with a view to stirring up violence or civil unrest, but to defend an opinion or simply to disagree with good reason is surely fair enough. Religious opinions or 'facts' should always be held with the possibility of disagreement in mind and a humane way to handle it should be part of the package, otherwise it really is a brand of fascism (and that includes Tudor Anglicanism, arguably).

And I continue to note that, to my knowledge (and I'd love to be proved wrong) no fatwa has been issued against Osama bin Laden or his teachings, directly, by any competent Muslim authority. These two facts about worldwide Islam continue to form the basis of distrust even among those who wish to think well of it. Please note, I say 'it'; that is the religious system generally known as Islam. Individual Muslims are often better and more humane than the system they are part of. (And that is the case for all too many ecclesiastical systems too, imo).

Rushdie knighthood 'justifies suicide attacks' | News | Guardian Unlimited Books:

Biofuels reverse Robin Hood economics

"the ammount of grain used to produce ethanol for one large suv fuel tank could feed a person for a year"
Climate Change Action:

Autistic Children Recognize Stereotypes Based On Race And Sex

This is really intriguing:

"Even with their limited capacities for social interaction and their apparent inability to orient to social stimuli, these autistic kids pick up and endorse social stereotypes as readily as normally developing kids. One take-away point is that stereotypes are very easy to learn and very robust. They don't require higher order attention, or apparently even attention to social stimuli, to develop. Stereotypes can be learned even in the face of damage to the 'social brain' and under extraordinarily constrained conditions"

As a linguist, I think I would say that it seems likely that the mechanisms underlying stereotyping are pretty much the same as for the making and demarcation of semantic fields: i.e. they are essential for the art and acts of naming. In educational terms it seems to me it's the same kind of basic cognitive move as 'chunking'.
Of course there will be ramifications for using this information in tackling racism, but the hope is therefore that education really can help. It's noteworthy to that it may offer hope for other strategies to help autistic people themselves.

Capitalizing on the kids' strengths in understanding social categories might offer an alternative and easier learning method for interpreting the behavior of others, one that doesn't involve "swimming upstream,

ScienceDaily: Autistic Children Recognize Stereotypes Based On Race And Sex, Study Suggests:

Christian and Muslim -some deeper considerations

It looks like my feeling that Ann Holmes Redding's dual allegiance has stirred stronger reactions than mine. My friend Doug is forthright:

Ann Holmes Redding is, to be blunt, an idiot, and her views complete bollocks. Rather than welcome this as inter-faith pioneering, her bishop should inhibit her immediately. Her views show an almost complete ignorance of Christian doctrine, a total lack of awareness of the traditional resources of Christian spirituality, and an amazing misunderstanding of the core teachings of Islam.

My response, commenting in situ, was this.

Huge amount of agreement from me. I think I’m just a little less keen to assume the very worst without fuller facts than a newspaper article (knowing first hand how distorting journalistic processes can be). It may be fluffy dice theology, but it may actually be better thought out (perhaps in ways similar to the ideas my entry explores a bit). I was surprised at how sharply and vehemently you expressed yourself over this. I outline ways in which in could be possible to make this kind of ‘dual’ allegiance.
While I can see the case for inhibiting her, I am also aware that there may be discussions that have gone on which could make sense of not doing so. It is hard for me to think of a case for inhibition that isn’t also leading to excommunication. And I think that the pastoral realities may need to be considered too: inhibition/excommunication might force/drive an unreserved flight into Islam whereas the present may need to be a time of exploration. The interest will really lie with the religious institutions faced directly with this.
There is always the issue, too, of the psycho-spiritual dynamics of religious institutional allegiances which don’t always serve genuine spiritual exploration well.
All that said, I too worry about syncretism and recognise the formal incompatibilities between the faiths. I just think that we should perhaps read this keeping in mind the thousands of believers who are outwardly Islamic but for fear of the Muslims keep their primary allegiance to Christ secret. With them in mind I still think that the exploratory possibilities raised by this woman’s situation are important not to inhibit prematurely.

"Muslim and Christian"? Hardly. » Metacatholic

Technorati Tags: Islam, Christian, religion

Emerging Art

It needs saying a lot: the challenges the Churches face in western society in these post-secular times are not unique: many other institutions face them in different ways, partly or sometimes wholly. Take art, for example ...

Museums can themselves be strengthened by stretching to accommodate such art. Practices that perforate the boundary between the museum and the rest of the social sphere can make even the famously difficult white cube more responsive to current art and enticing to visitors of all kinds.

WorldChanging: Tools, Models and Ideas for Building a Bright Green Future: Beyond Green: Toward a Sustainable Art:

Children's NIR can't be guaranteed as safe

I can't help feeling that this 'trial run' of ID cards /NIR rather blows the gaffe on the whole enterprise, particularly the claim to protect our identities from misuse.

Though it stresses the sophistication of the electronic security surrounding the databank, it acknowledges: "No system can be 100% guaranteed against misuse." The government was warned by family campaigners that parents would be concerned about the number of people able to search the database, and about the potential security risk.

I think that this is a recognition, in effect, that the concerns about NIR wrt security are well-founded and that in reality there is no security. Time to stop wasting our money on developing this white elephant.
330,000 users to have access to database on England's children | Special Reports | Guardian Unlimited Politics

Technorati Tags: ID_cards, NIR, UK, security, costs

"I am both Muslim and Christian"

I think that this is potentially very significant. I'm thinking of using this article as a stimulus when I facilitate learning about Christianity and other religions. The article raises all the main issues, at least in embryo and should provoke a lot of potentially fruitful questions. The ending of the article pretty much sums it up symbolically: "In Redding's car, she has hung up a cross she made of clear crystal beads. Next to it, she has dangled a heart-shaped leather object etched with the Arabic symbol for Allah.
'For me, that symbolizes who I am,' Redding said. 'I look through Jesus and I see Allah.'"

Part of my interest is personal too, for two or three reasons. One is the issue of labelling and boundaries, another is the issue of personal spiritual experience and within that of my own spiritual experiences in relation to Islam.
The matter of labelling and boundaries is interesting to me in this case because the term Muslim means 'one who submits [to God]'. Indeed I have come across one Muslim group who label themselves 'submitters' in English. By that definition I am Muslim. I could go on and theologise somewhat speculatively and say that since Jesus is recognised as a Muslim and I am in Christ; then I could claim Christ's Islamitude is imputed to me (the same sort of thing as saying that the Torah is fulfilled ... I think). However, it's all very well to claim the label in some way, but another to find the majority of others claiming the label willing to recognise it: compare Mormons and JW's claiming the label Christian and Messianic Jews claiming Jewish status. By this test, my Islamitude would fail: I could repeat the first part of the Shahada but not the second (along with, it may be argued, the first generation of 'Mohammedan Muslims'); I cannot in conscience unreservedly say that Mohammed was God's messenger except perhaps in the way that Jonah was*. So perhaps I could still make the full declaration, but with a very minority understanding. In that respect it was interesting to read one of the Muslim reactions:

Ihsan Bagby, associate professor of Islamic studies at the University of Kentucky, agrees with Webb, and adds that Islam tends to be a little more flexible. Muslims can have faith in Jesus, he said, as long as they believe in Mohammed's message.

For me the issue would be identifying Mohammed's message, reasoning that it has to be compatible with Jesus's; ie the reverse hermeneutical flow to the normal 'Mohammedan-Muslim'approach which trims the gospels and the NT (and indeed the Hebrew bible) to fit the contours of the Qur'an and Sunna as we now have it.

So, what about the issue of religious experience? Well, there are two dimensions to this, for me. First is to say that I have never felt any real attraction to Islam as a religion. When I was in my existential-BC phase, Buddhism, Wicca and Taoism were all attractive. Islam always seemed too austere, legalistic and judgemental to hold my interest (rather like the Catholicism of my early upbringing, from that point of view). However, many years later, being exposed to Islam voluntarily at theological college, I heard the call of the minaret, metaphorically speaking (and using Kenneth Cragg's book title) and found the stark monotheism and call to worship God alone very resonant for me: of a sudden, I began to grok (grasp/understand from an intuitive experiential pov) some of the attraction of Islam, I think.

And it is that kind of spiritual experience that we have to theologise about. Now, for me, it was not an matter of conversion. I merely 'experienced' through studying Islam somewhat, a dimension of faith that was present in my own existing faith commitment but placed into stark relief by the context of Islamic thought and culture. So it was something I learnt from and integrated into my Christian living. However, it is this kind of experience that lies at the heart of at least some people from less definite faith stances (let's say) who convert to Islam (and other faiths, presumably). This raises a host of questions which I have some tentative answers for but I think it important to pose the questions as they stand for now: what explanations are to be found for these experiences? And how do we relate them to our view of God's action in the world? What relation do such experiences have to salvation? What do they mean for a theology of other faiths? The answers to these questions pose further questions and interrelate with each other. And then there is the social inclusion dimension: "To walk into Al-Islam and be reminded that there are more people of color in the world than white people, that in itself is a relief." Such factors rightly or wrongly tinge our appreciation of things (we might want to add that abolition of slavery is still an issue in Islamic fiqh, and still practised in the Arabian peninsula and parts of north Africa with religious licence and there are racial dimensions to it).

I note them because evangelicals are wont to dodge the sharpness of them usually by denying the value of the experience, but I'm not so sure that we can drive apart the existential and theological quite so blithely, particularly if coherent apologetics is to be done further down the line or if we want to be able to be missional about what we find in extra-ecclesial religious experience.

As to the story that began this musing. Yes, I think there are the problems outlined of irreconcilability of the beliefs of the religions as fully developed. However, being thoroughly grounded in an evangelical skepticism towards religious systems and institutions, I'm intrigued by the missional possibilities, centered-set-wise. So, I think I'm with her bishop for the time being in saying that this is something to explore further. "Redding's bishop, the Rt. Rev. Vincent Warner, says he accepts Redding as an Episcopal priest and a Muslim, and that he finds the interfaith possibilities exciting."

*To explain a bit more: I think that Mohammed had a message from God for at least some of the Arabs he lived among. I am not convinced that this means he was in effect free from sin and I think that, like Jonah, he had moments where his attitudes and actions were decidedly not of God. I also tend to think that some of the things that are attributed to him should either not be assumed to be God's will or that we recognise that he sometimes mistook his own ideas for revelation (I think that among these would be sanctioning massacres and marrying a 9 year old). In fact I have a suspicion that the rot set in after Hijra and the 'Constantinian compromise' he made. That is, admittedly, a charitable interpretation. There are others! But this is all under review.

Local News | "I am both Muslim and Christian" | Seattle Times Newspaper:

Immigration is bad for society ... at first

My erstwhile colleagues in Bradford need to assimilate this research. Frankly, I was surprised at first (as an advocate of the benefits of diversity) but then thinking about the Bradford experience realised that it is probably right. First the bad news.

Put crudely, the more ethnically diverse the neighbourhood, the less likely you are to trust your local shopkeeper, regardless of his or her ethnicity. He warns that, however uncomfortable this conclusion might be, 'progressives can't stick their head in the sand'.
But the killer punch of his research is that diversity not only reduces social capital between ethnic groups but also within ethnic groups. Diversity leads not so much to bad race relations as to everyone becoming more isolated and less trustful. In the jargon, it kills off both the 'bridging capital' between different groups and 'bonding capital', which is the connections among people like yourself. Putnam calls it 'hunkering down' as people withdraw from all kinds of connectedness in their community.

Clearly, the worry is that this apparently scrupulous research could be seized upon and used by retrogressive political forces.So the bigger picture should be seen.

What makes Putnam nervous now is how this could be seized upon by rightwing politicians hostile to immigration. So he insists his research be seen in the context a) that ethnic diversity is increasing in all modern societies and is not only inevitable but is also desirable, a proven asset in terms of creativity and economic growth; and b) that "hunkering" can be short term and "successful immigrant societies create new forms of social solidarity".

And, actually, Bradford history offers hope on that score. German and Italian migration was a cause of tension in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, but now you wouldn't know it. The difficulty will be to manage the processes well without stirring things up further. Perhaps education about the normal processes can help, like it can help to know the normal stages of bereavement. It wouldn't mean you could side-step going through the processes, but it would mean framing them so they are not so threatening and being able to work with them more productively.

I think I'd add a further framing: chaos /turbulence. It is the edge of turbulence where the productive, creative and life-giving things take place: new patterns are forged and growth can occur.
However, as often the case with these opinion pieces, the comments help flag up the caveats.
Guardian Unlimited | Comment is free | Immigration is bad for society, but only until a new solidarity is forged:

Power-generating buoys shelter in the deep

A new kind of generating buoy which sits beneath the storm levels at c.50m. Looks hopeful and is being developed by a British firm and tested offshore in Scotland.

'A town with 55,000 inhabitants would need half a square kilometre of seabed covered with 100 buoys to power it,' says Grey.
He adds that they could be effective in the North Atlantic, from Scotland down to Portugal, along the Pacific US shoreline, from San Francisco in the US up to Vancouver in Canada, along the coast of Chile, and even in South Africa and New Zealand.
But calmer seas, such as the Mediterranean do not have enough wave height to pump the buoy.

Power-generating buoys shelter in the deep - earth - 14 June 2007 - New Scientist Environment:

Eco footprint 2.0

And why would we need another one? Well,

How can one compare the value of a single fish to that of a bushel of corn or a California redwood? How does that relationship change from the exhaust pouring out of your car or the dishwater circling your drain?
The methodology for answering these questions in ecological footprint analysis (EFA) is often criticized for being incomplete and for underestimating humanity's true impact on the environment. In response, researchers at Redefining Progress have made several amendments to the standard methodology, and given their creation the handle 'Ecological Footprint 2.0.'

Helpful article which also tells us what is still to be integrated into the analysis.

still missing from EF 2.0 and other methods is a way to account for the footprint of myriad other pollutants besides carbon. Presently, carbon is the only pollutant that ecological footprints consider. (Not surprising, considering the gravity of global warming) But there are many other pollutants that have significant deleterious effects on the environment, such as dioxins, mercury and endocrine-disruptors. With countries such as China and India growing massively in their production, these pollutants will make their impact felt by the environment as well as human health.

WorldChanging: Tools, Models and Ideas for Building a Bright Green Future: Ecological Footprint 2.0

Technorati Tags: ecological_footprint,

The meek inherit the earth

Climate Change Action

orthoparataxonomy in religion

This is helpful:

Mahmoud Ayoub, a Muslim scholar with a deep knowledge of Christianity, once drew a parallel between the Prophet Muhammad and the Virgin Mary: the prophet brought the Qur'an into the world, and the Qur'an can be seen as the incarnate word of God. It's much more than a sacred text: its written and spoken Arabic form embody its meaning, and any translation is seen merely as a commentary on the original. Reciting the daily prayers taken from it, with the appropriate movements, could be compared to taking holy communion. The comparison may offend some Muslims and Christians...

I have been promoting the idea (based on an insight from, I think, Kenneth Cragg) that when we converse with Muslims we should be wary of comparing scriptures and founders which is the typical phenemenological approach. Rather, we should recognise the place that these 'things' have in the thoughtscape of their respective religious worlds. It would be more useful, I have argued, to think about Jesus in relation to the Qur'an and the Bible in relation to Hadith and Sunna. So it's good to find a suitably qualified Muslim scholar making a congruent point.
As for offense: deal with it; it's potentially inherent in dialogue. My belief in the incarnation cannot but be offensive to Muslim orthodoxy, for example. Muslim 'promotion' of Mohammed to intecessor status (not Salafis though) is offensive to Christian beliefs.

The rest of the article is interesting too and ends with an interesting thought-experiment in orthoparataxonomy between atheism and monotheisms:

An image stays in my mind of Richard Dawkins, a high priest of fundamentalist atheism, in his documentary The Root of All Evil? He could have been a sixth-century Celtic monk as he flung his arms wide in a wilderness to bear witness to what some might call the glory of creation. Do we dare translate "Creator God" to "the big bang" or "evolution" and back again, to see what might be lost - or found - in translation?

I've often felt that reading some supposedly scientific articles on evolution, that the personification of nature seemed to be covering up a loss of god-language. I've sometimes despaired that some agnostic and atheist writers seem unable to understand the point about giving up teleology with God.
Orthoparataxonomy? Made it up: "right-beside-classification"; ie comparing things rightly.
Face to faith | Guardian daily comment | Guardian Unlimited:

Anti-Hillary dirty tricks already!

Hmmmm. "one of the main reasons why the Republican whispering campaign against Clinton is starting so early is simply how well Clinton is doing. After surviving the shock entry of Illinois Senator Barack Obama into the race, Clinton has maintained a steady and large lead among the Democrats. She has continued to rack up high-profile endorsements, such as last week's backing from Steven Spielberg, and her fundraising is steaming powerfully ahead. 'She is looking tough to beat. She is well funded and well organised,' Bowler said. With the Republican party in disarray and coping with the legacy of the Iraq war, there is a real feeling that Clinton could win the White House."
Anti-Hillary dirty tricks war hots up | Special reports | Guardian Unlimited:

A Lord's Prayer spirituality?

I've just re-read some initial thoughts on this over at Abbey Nous. It'd be great to get further thoughts and comments.
Abbey Nous: Towards a Lord's prayer spirituality

Filed in: prayer, Lord's_prayer, spirituality

nerdiness, nerdiness the greatest thing I don't possess ...

... or do I? Depends on whether 'slightly nerdy' counts. It's what I guessed, so high on self-knowledge though!
NerdTests.com Fun Tests - Nerd Quiz

Technorati Tags: random_nonsense

Turkey -more complex than portrayed

My impression of the way Turkey is portrayed in the EU is of a Muslim juggernaut awaiting entry to the EU to flood 'us' with Islamist values and finish what the Ottoman empire failed to do at Vienna in 1683. So it's worth noting this and the article for future reflection as the debate unfolds. "The number of Turks who want an Islamic state fell from an already low 20% in 1999 to 9% last year. The percentage of women who cover their hair when they go into the street has also dropped, from 74% in 1999 to 64% last year. It is a reality that is easily visible, even in conservative suburbs of Istanbul like Uskudari, where mothers in headscarves can be seen strolling along with teenage daughters with black or tinted hair, uncovered and free."
The real struggle is inside Turkey, not on its borders | Guardian daily comment | Guardian Unlimited:

Glastonbury Festival of Performing Arts: Mission

Don't know whether non-subscribers will be able to read this yet, so I'll quote the relevant bit in full. "During the week, Celtic eucharists of earth, fire, air, and water will be celebrated in the “Healing Fields” zone. The eucharists — developed by the Revd Adrian Prior-Sankey, a Baptist minister, and the Revd Mark Bond, an Anglican priest — were part of an effort by Christians to be present among the hundreds of faiths, cults, and beliefs that would be represented on the multi-acre site, Mr Prior-Sankey said last week. “The field is divided up into earth, fire, air, and water circles, and we are in the air circle,” he said. His team leads worship in the hazel-framed, tarpaulin-covered “Coracle”, where they offer prayers for healing. They send representatives to the daily forum for debate between different faiths. “It’s like first-century Corinth, and we are like Paul, engaging with the thinking of the day,” said Mr Prior-Sankey, who works with the Salvation Army. Church volunteers will also offer a “welfare presence” at the festival. "
It seems to be an example of precisely the way the church should be engaging contemporary culture and spirituality. Prayer project.
Church Times - Celtic rites for Glastonbury:

Gunfight in the Cathedral

Apparently a gaming company (Sony, no less) unwisely used the interior of Manchester Cathedral as a virtual venue for a chapter in a shoot-em-up game. You can see footage on You Tube. The cathedral staff were upset and I can understand why (though one of my sons is unconvinced about why when we discussed it the other day.) For me the issue is both the portrayal of violence which is promulgating an ideology/mythology -redemptive violence- which is at odds with the Cross as well as the issue of permission being sought to use a public building in this way. Film-makers get proper permission even when they are only using bits in a composite (eg Harry Potter where Durham, Christchurch (Oxford) and Hereford Cathedrals are used). The dean of the cathedral said that it "can only be described as virtual desecration.” Now that's a relatively new idea and might not be a good one: do we worry about novels where such things are described? On the whole not. I guess the new factor is the graphic portrayal and use of images without permission in a context that is so inimical to a fundamental Christian themes of belief. As the dean goes on to say, citing the work of the cathedral against gun culture in Manchester and the aim of their work is to help young people

“to appreciate an alternative to the violence that they experience in their daily lives. . . Seeing guns in Manchester Cathedral is not the sort of connection we want them or anyone to make. For a global manufacturer to re-create the interior of any religious building such as a mosque, synagogue, or, in this case, a cathedral with photo-realistic quality, and then encourage people to have gun battles in the building is beyond belief and, in our view, highly irresponsible.”

Google Video result for http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IGMscR1IS-E
Check also the article in the Church Times.

Technorati Tags: cathedral, gaming, violence

Is Your Gospel Robust?

Another heart-lift for me as yet another moderately well-respected theologian (Scot McKnight, here) endorses a set of viewpoints that I put forward about 20 years ago in embryo in my final-year Dip Pastoral Studies dissertation

... the problems with this popular evangelical gospel include:
1. No one in the New Testament really preaches this gospel.
2. This gospel is about one thing: humans gaining access to God’s presence.
3. This gospel creates and individualist Christian life.
4. This gospel sets the tone for the entire evangelical movement.
5. This gospel leads to spiritual formation being entirely about “me and God.”
6. The evangelical gospel has created a need for evangelical monasteries.
7. The evangelical gospels turns the local church into a volunteer society that is unnecessary.
8. The evangelical gospel is rooted in Theism or Deism, but not the Trinity.

And I have to say it's heartening to see him making some recommendations that parallel mine, in another place. Not that my dissertation wasn't flawed, but some of the central concerns, however badly addressed in places, have proved to be of more lasting value for me and for others, it turns out.
"Is Your Gospel Robust? | Out of Ur | Following God's Call in a New World | Conversations hosted by the editors of Leadership journal:

After the G8

There's no shortage on my newsfeeds of downbeat assessments of progress via the G8. Here's a different tone of voice from Avaaz. "President Bush only conceded global warming might be real in January. But this week his government felt compelled to shift, even if it's trying wrecking tactics too.
That sabotage can't succeed if we the people stand up for the right path, all around the globe. Bush is increasingly isolated even in his own country - the American public and the US Congress are coming behind bold action on climate change.
And he's isolated in the world - he can't rely on other big polluters like China and Brazil, now moving faster than expected toward the climate savers' camp. The 'plus 5' big developing countries said they wanted a stronger statement from the G8. A big international poll just showed 65% of Chinese people and 62% of Indians support requiring their governments to act as well."
And of course, Bush is due to meet Chinese and Indian leaders shortly on climate change issues ...
Avaaz.org - The World in Action:

Imagine if our leaders were chosen on World Bank lines?

Illustrating neatly my reasons for supporting the campaign to democratise global instutions, there is this piece in today's Guardian.

"Imagine for a moment what the UK would look like if the written constitution that Gordon Brown thinks we need were based on the structures of the IMF and the World Bank.
Instead of being elected, every prime minister would be personally appointed by the leader of Surrey county council and the chancellor of the exchequer by the heads of London borough councils. Parliament would meet for two days twice a year, and MPs would only read out prepared statements, allowing no time for discussion. MPs' votes would be weighted according to their constituencies' incomes, so that rich areas accounting for 15% of the population would have 60% of the votes. The MP for Surrey would alone have twice as many votes as the MPs for Scotland, Wales, Northern Ireland and Northern England combined - enough to veto any constitutional change."

And there's more ...
Any way, David Woodward of NEF concludes the article thusly:

start by pushing for: the abolition of the principle of "economically weighted" voting that currently gives over half the votes to just seven countries - the G7; a transparent decision-making process; and an open and democratic system for the selection of the bank president and the IMF's managing director. Maybe then we could begin to develop a global governance system capable of meeting the global challenges of the 21st century.

A modest proposal but one that a supporter of UNPA could nod to.
Imagine if our leaders were chosen on World Bank lines | Guardian daily comment | Guardian Unlimited:

A sense of proportion

I've blogged a lot over the last couple of years about the way that the reaction to terrorism by the UK and the USA plays into the hands of the terrorists by restricting our freedom and moving us towards a police state (where a hard-line salafi set-up will start to look moderate). Admittedly we aren't there yet, but the measures for NIR could fundamentally change things, as well as the current proposals for, effectively, internment. And along with worrying things like being fined for wearing a loud tee-shirt ("the police have already handed out £80 fixed-penalty notices for "crimes" as ludicrous as wearing T shirts bearing the words "Bollocks to Blair"." See here.). So it was interesting to read this in Wired News:

New York's Mayor Michael Bloomberg, ... said: "There are lots of threats to you in the world. There's the threat of a heart attack for genetic reasons. You can't sit there and worry about everything. Get a life.... You have a much greater danger of being hit by lightning than being struck by a terrorist."

But then, in a society where large numbers of people apparently believe that they have some kind of real hope of winning the lottery, I guess risk-based decision making is not likely to play out too well. The real role of politicians should be to be proportionate, and despite Gordon Brown's words, I suspect that we still aren't seeing that.
Bruce Schneier goes on to say (this is the USA, remember);

I don't think these nut jobs, with their movie-plot threats, even deserve the moniker "terrorist." But in this country, while you have to be competent to pull off a terrorist attack, you don't have to be competent to cause terror. All you need to do is start plotting an attack and -- regardless of whether or not you have a viable plan, weapons or even the faintest clue -- the media will aid you in terrorizing the entire population.

Portrait of the Modern Terrorist as an Idiot It's useful to read this article too where we are reminded of the real worry:

New Labour has not turned Britain into a police state; but it has made it easier for a future government to do so,

. Watch the film V for Vendetta for a comic-book view of it.

Technorati Tags: Islamist, terrorism, UK, policy, civil_liberties

New agery, science and outcomes

Nice and pithy characterisation:

Rachael Kohn: The main legacy of the New Age Movement would be hard to pinpoint absolutely, but I would say that it is the combination of the scientific and the spiritual in a way that promises "results" for the practitioner in the short term. It is a highly practical approach to "outcomes" and is therefore short on ethics and long on expediency.

Journeys In Between: Curious Obsessions: An Interview with Rachael Kohn

Technorati Tags: newagery, science, religion

maggi dawn: theology joke

At first I thought, 'old joke'. Then I looked a bit more closely and realised that it had been revamped in the light of more contemporary theological themes and so worth republishing. HTT Maggi Dawn "And Jesus said unto them, 'And whom do you say that I am?'
They replied,
'You are the totaliter aliter, the vestigious trinitatum who speaks to us in the modality of Christo-monism.”
' You are the impossible possibility who brings to us, your children of light and children of darkness, the overwhelming roughness’ in the midst of our fraught condition of estrangement and brokenness in the contiguity and existential anxieties of our ontological relationships.
'You are he who heals our ambiguities and overcomes the split of angst and existential estrangement; you are he who speaks of the theonomous viewpoint of the analogia entis, the analogy of our being and the ground of all possibilities.
'You are my Oppressed One, my soul's shalom, the One who was, who is, and who shall be, who has never left us alone in the struggle, the event of liberation in the lives of the oppressed struggling for freedom, and whose blackness is both literal and symbolic.”

And Jesus replied, 'Huh?'"

It is the one joke every theological student should be mandated to hear.
maggi dawn: theology joke:

Micro credit explained

It seemed to me that this was quite a clear explanation of micro credit. So here it is for wider consideration. I was taken by the conclusion.

‘upside down banking’, because the Grameen model has completely reversed priorities to normal banks. A few big loans are much more profitable than thousands of little ones, and you want to lend to educated, reliable people, not the illiterate and destitute. Banks are normally impersonal institutions interested in money, but Grameen bank managers meet the borrowers at their homes, know all their stories, and hold weekly community meetings. And usually you would be turned away from a bank for having a poor credit rating. Grameen turns away people who have too much money. It is a business oriented to the needs of the least.

As Muhammad Yunus says: “It’s not people who aren’t credit-worthy. It’s banks that aren’t people worthy.”

upside-down banking « MAKE WEALTH HISTORY

Technorati Tags: micro-credit, development, banking

Corruption is a Crime

If Tony Blair wants to lecture ... oh, let me see, say, ... Putin on ethical national behaviour, perhaps the saying about glass houses and stones should be borne in mind. Particularly ironic given the election 10 years ago of 'Bambi' on a wave of anti-sleaze sentiment. "A couple of months ago, we reported a Guardian story which claimed that the UK was moving against Mark Pieth, the chair of the anti-corruption watchdog of the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD).
According to today’s edition of The Independent, senior employees of the OECD have accused the UK of leading a “dirty tricks” campaign against them."
Corruption is a Crime:

Children exploited in Olympics goods factories

I suspect that this could become the symbolic heart of campaigning for workers' rights in the 'outsource destinations' of our global economy. "Research inside China found widespread abuse of workers producing licensed goods carrying the logo of the 2008 Beijing games. Mr Barber said: 'Children and adult workers are being grossly exploited so that unscrupulous employers can make more profit. Their actions tarnish the Olympic ideal, and we don't want more of the same when the Olympics come to London. The IOC must add respect for workers' rights to the Olympic charter."
More info as I find it.
Children exploited in Olympics goods factories, says TUC | Special reports | Guardian Unlimited:

Offensive language again

TSK has a look at some of the issues around bad language in Christian circles. What he adds to debates already referenced on this very blog is an interesting historical classification.
"In Premodern times, the most offensive http://www.blogger.com/img/gl.link.gifwords were excommunicatory in nature. ... In Modern times, which is where many people still live, words that cause most offense affront our personal and private sensibilities. ... In our Post-modern times, as the voices of the margin dwellers and powerless have been given consideration and brought to the center, it is exclusionary language that causes most offence."
I'm actually still thinking about whether I agree; I tend to think that the more productive analysis is still the sociolinguistic one about power and solidarity (and could relate to seminal sociolinguistic work on pronouns of solidarity and power in French etc), which could play into the pomo idea Andrew offers, but would need some tweaking or reworking, I think. I quite like his ethics of speech that he lays out. I think that I would add a biblical model which might be helpful and, I guess, supports my own approach: sometimes we should use the verbal equivalent of Jesus' turning over the tables in the temple. For that to work, though, we would need to be people who don't overuse such words so that they lose their impact. My kids know I'm really cross if I 'swear', for example, because I rarely do. I keep certain words for high impact. Like Andrew, I try to be aware of my audience, and sometimes that means taking account of generational mores and sometimes it might mean realising that some hearers make certain kinds of judgements if they don't hear certain kinds of words (there is a solidarity function in some contexts) ... Can we really be all things to all people even in our speech? Some people find putting aside their own sensibilities for the sake of the other too much. But then we do also have to consider the personal and existential auhenticity of such speech acts.

You might want to refer back to some of my earlier comments. Of course, I tend to home in on the linguistic dimensions. Who gives a ... about profanity, theology of profanity, more on profanity.

TallSkinnyKiwi: Offensive language: I Think My Mother Taught Me: See also a helpful post on Julie Clawson's One hand clapping blog.

Monbiot's advice to a corrupt Blairocracy

"Close down DESO. Reopen the investigation. Sack the attorney-general and the senior civil servants at the Ministry of Defence. Open a public inquiry to determine what Blair knew. Wage war on tax havens and secret offshore accounts. Hold BAE to account. And then lecture the rest of the world on good governance."
Monbiot.com � Without Principle:

Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala with the Last Word on Aid

Encouraging news... "She tells us we’re seeing changes in Africa that we never thought would happen. We’ve seen annual growth of 5%, in some cases 6-7%, up from 2%. External debt has been massively reduced. Countries are building up foreign exchange reserves, shoring up their currencies. Private investment flows are increasing, remittances to Nigeria are skyrocketing, and there’s a net inflow of capital."
There are a number of important things said in this article about employment, aid and why China is perceived as good news (=infrastructure).
WorldChanging: Tools, Models and Ideas for Building a Bright Green Future: Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala with the Last Word on Aid:

21 Principles for the 21st Century -- Series Collection

WorldChanging: Tools, Models and Ideas for Building a Bright Green Future: 21 Principles for the 21st Century -- Series Collection: "the full list of 21 principles collected in one place for future reference."

The paradox of remembering by forgetting

In some ways, this research restates the 'naive' discoveries most of us make about revision and retelling of stories of things that happen to us. However, it does take us further forward in thinking about mechanisms and so the possibility of helping ourselves to remember more effectively. I see shade of some of the techniques used by NLP in this, too.

The act of remembering is a complex cognitive activity because memory is associative, Wagner said, meaning that when someone, for example, thinks about what they ate for lunch the day before, it's likely to tap into memories of other lunches. "In order to remember, we need a set of mechanisms that allows us to select and target the memories we want, and allow them to win out over competing but irrelevant memories," he said. "So, initially, any act of retrieval is very resource intensive and places heavy demands on attention mechanisms in the prefrontal cortex." But when the competing but unimportant memories are successfully suppressed, fewer demands are placed on the frontal lobes to remember the relevant memories.

Now we just need to work on weakening those memories we don't want like the menu when we were revising 'that' topic over lunch ...
ScienceDaily: Forgetting Helps You Remember The Important Stuff, Researchers Say

Technorati Tags: memory, learning, research

Violence Costs in monetary terms

Since money talks with policy makers, this research ought to encourage investment in 'conflict resolution' within society, which would start to change culture, I hope, for wider conflict. Apparently the costs of violence in the USA rival the costs of hurricane Katrina.
"researchers found that most of the costs of violence stem from males and young adults. Sixty-eight percent of the costs from assaults and 63 percent of the costs from self-inflicted injuries were in males aged 15 to 44.
“The most burdensome category is among young males who are victims of assaults with firearms,” Corso said. “So if you want to prevent those costs from occurring, you need to focus on prevention in that particular population.”
Other findings from the study include:
* Most of the $70 billion in costs associated with violence were from lost productivity ($64.4 billion), with the remaining $5.6 billion spent on medical care.
* Americans suffer 2.2 million medically treated injuries due to interpersonal violence annually, at a cost of $37 billion ($33 billion in productivity losses, $4 billion in medical treatment)."
ScienceDaily: Violence Costs Nation $70 Billion Annually, Study Finds:

Reasons to consider Linux

Dell have recently started to ship computers in the USA with Linux, and in this brief vid, we learn why.

Whose success, which relationality?

"The reason many of us ignore the formation of our character, says Johnson, is because it will slow us down. Many ministry leaders want success, a big church, or a crowd. But how many of us want a real life? How many of us want a life in God? We can have that, Johnson believes. We can have a character that produces love, peace, patience, kindness…but it will slow us down. It might mean the church won’t grow as big as quickly. It might mean the crowd will get smaller."

Success Covers a Multitude of Sins | Out of Ur | Following God's Call in a New World | Conversations hosted by the editors of Leadership journal:

God, America and the future

Not sure about the article but the first comment was a doozy: "News flash: secularism is not the wave of the future. It turned out to be a self-liquidating(*) fashion in one little corner of Eurasia for a few generations.
And I'm an atheist...
(*) because its participants don't reproduce"
!!!
There's one thing the US presidential contenders all have in common: God | Guardian daily comment | Guardian Unlimited:

Debaptism 2.0

A couple of months back, in one of the year 9 (I think it was) classes I was teaching, one lad asked if there was a way to leave being a Catholic. At the time we didn't have time to pursue it. In my mind was to ask further questions about what they thought should happen and why simply not turning up was not sufficient. This was a Roman Catholic school. Well, it turns out that it is possible in RC terms to leave officially and not just in heart and mind and body. And apparently it happens in Italy, though to what extent is hard to determine. "Cyberspace is one of the few places lapsed Catholics can get a copy of the formal letter called 'actus defectionis' that is required by Church officials to leave the faith. "
What I think we should pay more attention to is this:

unwilling to belong to a Church that didn't represent him, Luca made an appointment. He told the priest he had never been a believer, so why belong to the flock? "A flock that included me as soon as I was born without my consent," he said.

There's a lot to be unpacked there, and I'm not going to go into the nature of consent, cultural-formation or modernity vs post-modernity, but it does seem to me to bring about certain considerations about baptism policies in a post-Christendom culture and where, certainly in the UK, one can increasingly find non-church 'christenings' ...
Debaptism 2.0: Fleeing the Flock Via the Net:

Bee gone dull cares.

I keep hearing about this thing about bees disappearing,

and this article gives us the skinny on the latest theories. It's a bit worrying, being as how they are major players in pollination and thus some of our food supply (remember ecology? -How things work together for good?). Here's my favourite silly theory: "'My favorite theory, which I throw out, is that the bees are out there creating their own crop circles, working very hard, physically pushing the crops down with their little legs. It fits. It explains the loss of bees and crop circles at the same time.'"
The article also looks at some of the metaphoric uses being made of the phenomenon.
Before we get too 'doomsday' about it though, ""From an ecological standpoint, it is opening up the possibility for local pollinators like the mason bee to come back." Honeybees, after all, are an introduced species. They were brought here by European explorers and settlers. The Indians called them "white men's flies.""
Honey, I'm Gone - washingtonpost.com:

Why post-secularist might be mindful of Buddhism

When I've led workshop/lectures on post-modern spiritualities, I've quite often cited the rapid growh of Buddhism in the west and the connections it seems to make with 'new age' stuff, and invited students to reflect on what about Buddhism might be attractive to post-secular spiritual seekers. I've not fully named it for myself, even, but I suspect that this quote puts us in the right vicinity to answer the question. "Buddhist-influenced cultures understand adaptive self-deception; they view human cognitions, emotions, and preferences as self-interested illusory constructs that may serve biological goals, but that do not reflect objective reality". I think that these things are being seen from a reflective post-modern mindscape and that are then being seen in Buddhism. Perhaps. This is certainly one area I'd like to be able to research if my new post allows it.
Mindful Hack: Evolutionary psychology :Goodbye cruel US - prof claims EP's future is Asia :

Britishness and community cohesion

In this opinion-piece an intriguing thought reflecting on second gen children of immigrants from Pakistan: "They felt negligible pride in their Pakistani heritage but had never seen much reason to affirm their Britishness: after all, the people around them didn't seem so keen on it. 'If you denigrate your own culture you face the risk of newer arrivals looking for one elsewhere,' wrote Taseer. Into that hole where Britishness should be, an Islamist identity had flowed instead. The obvious contrast was with the United States, where Muslims felt both strongly Muslim and strongly American - and where there was no homegrown jihadist movement."
And a bit later, a wider contextual reflection: "Britons are retreating into niches, rather than spending time with those around them, the way they once did. Now a 14-year-old can play World of Warcraft with a pal in Seattle as easily as kicking a football with the kids next door. It's not so much Britishness which is fraying, but the very idea of a society defined by the place where we live."
Worth pondering.
OK, let's have a Britishness test. But it must be for everyone, migrant or not | Guardian daily comment | Guardian Unlimited:

Is your brain really necessary?

Maybe not, lookee.

The student in question was academically bright, had a reported IQ of 126 and was expected to graduate. When he was examined by CAT-scan, however, Lorber discovered that he had virtually no
brain at all. Instead of two hemispheres filling the cranial cavity, some 4.5
centimetres deep, the student had less than 1 millimetre of
cerebral tissue covering the top of his spinal column. The student was suffering from hydrocephalus

Actually this is not so much of a surprise in the light of the kind of thing that Antonio Damasio says in 'The Feeling of What Happens'. What it may do is undermine a kind of 'physical basis' for anthropoligical dualism where 'mind' is secreted by brain. It may be that mind is better thought of as an emergent quality of humanity (including the social aspects); a view more in consonance with alleged Hebraic modes of thought on related matters and certainly likely to be grist for the mill of cultural uptake of holistic thinking.

Now, I'm must admit that I'm not sure I can go as far as Rupert Sheldrake, but it certainly makes you think. And on the basis that an extreme idea is good for shaking our thinking up ...

what on earth is the brain for? And where is the seat of human intelligence? Where is the mind?
The only biologist to propose a radically novel approach to these questions is Dr Rupert Sheldrake. In his book A New Science of Life Sheldrake rejected the idea that the brain is a warehouse for memories and suggested it is more like a radio receiver for tuning into the past. Memory is not a recording process in which a medium is altered to store records, but a journey that the mind makes into the past via the process of morphic resonance.

Intriguing, though, at present, very 'out there'. For a less esoteric approach, Mindful Hack draws our attention to some musing of AJ Meyer:

A static hologram basically can be thought of as a global associative read only memory.[1] That is, the data are not stored at specific addresses as in the digital computer, instead they are stored globally. Much of human memory also appears to have a similar global character. Studies done by Adey with rabbits seemed to indicate that there appeared to be some sort of globalized phase modulation in the rodent's brain waves as they learned mazes. In my talk I made a presumptuous jump and suggested that human memory might have a dynamic holographic structure, that is, a global associative read and write memory.

And, in fact, if Damasio is right, we have to take in not just the brain but the whole nervous system and endocrine system, in crude; the whole body.

Is your brain really necessary?
Technorati Tags: brain, mind, anthropology, culture, morphic_resonance

Petition to revoke the independence of the United States of America

Please note that this is flagged: "Just for Fun - Outlandish Statements" nevertheless, there is the occasional good point; I refer particularly to the stuff about football, beer and spellings. Oh and point 10; on chips. I note too that point 16 has a lexical error: 'driving us crazy' in the sense used there should be Anglicised as "driving us to distraction". Although I would have to ask 'who -or what- is JFK?'

My face-to-face USAmerican friends will recognise that this is precisely the kind of ribbing I tend to go in for. And I would take this opportunity to mention, again, that the Commonwealth of Virginia still hasn't concluded a peace treaty with the UK following the hostilities of the 1770's, so actually is still technically part of the UK ...

Petition to revoke the independence of the United States of America
To the citizens of the United States of America, in the light of your failure to elect a competent President of the USA and thus to govern yourselves, we hereby give notice of the revocation of your independence, effective today.

Her Sovereign Majesty Queen Elizabeth II will resume monarchical duties over all states, commonwealths and other territories.

Except Utah, which she does not fancy.

Your new Prime Minister (The Right Honourable Tony Blair MP, for the 97.85% of you who have until now been unaware that there is a world outside your borders) will appoint a Minister for America without the need for further elections.

The House of Representatives and the Senate will be disbanded.

A questionnaire will be circulated next year to determine whether any of you noticed. To aid in the transition to a British Crown Dependency, the following rules are introduced with immediate effect:

1. You should look up "revocation" in the Oxford English Dictionary. Then look up "aluminium." Check the pronunciation guide. You will be amazed at just how wrongly you have been pronouncing it.

The letter 'U' will be reinstated in words such as 'favour' and 'neighbour'; skipping the letter 'U' is nothing more than laziness on your part. Likewise, you will learn to spell 'doughnut' without skipping half the letters.

You will end your love affair with the letter 'Z' (pronounced 'zed' not 'zee') and the suffix "ize" will be replaced by the suffix "ise."

You will learn that the suffix 'burgh' is pronounced 'burra' e.g. Edinburgh. You are welcome to re-spell Pittsburgh as 'Pittsberg' if you can't cope with correct pronunciation.

Generally, you should raise your vocabulary to acceptable levels. Look up “vocabulary." Using the same thirty seven words interspersed with filler noises such as "uhh", "like", and "you know" is an unacceptable and inefficient form of communication.

Look up "interspersed."

There will be no more 'bleeps' in the Jerry Springer show. If you're not old enough to cope with bad language then you shouldn't have chat shows. When you learn to develop your vocabulary, then you won't have to use bad language as often.

2. There is no such thing as "US English." We will let Microsoft know on your behalf. The Microsoft spell-checker will be adjusted to take account of the reinstated letter 'u' and the elimination of "-ize."

3. You should learn to distinguish the English and Australian accents. It really isn't that hard. English accents are not limited to cockney, upper-class twit or Mancunian (Daphne in Frasier).

You will also have to learn how to understand regional accents --- Scottish dramas such as "Taggart" will no longer be broadcast with subtitles.

While we're talking about regions, you must learn that there is no such place as Devonshire in England. The name of the county is "Devon." If you persist in calling it Devonshire, all American States will become "shires" e.g. Texasshire, Floridashire, Louisianashire.

4. Hollywood will be required occasionally to cast English actors as the good guys. Hollywood will be required to cast English actors to play English characters.

British sit-coms such as "Men Behaving Badly" or "Red Dwarf" will not be re-cast and watered down for a wishy-washy American audience who can't cope with the humour of occasional political incorrectness. Popular British films such as the Italian Job and the Wicker Man should never be remade.

5. You should relearn your original national anthem, "God Save The Queen", but only after fully carrying out task 1. We would not want you to get confused and give up half way through.

6. You should stop playing American "football." There are other types of football such as Rugby, Aussie Rules & Gaelic football. However proper football - which will no longer be known as soccer, is the best known, most loved and most popular. What you refer to as American "football" is not a very good game.

The 2.15% of you who are aware that there is a world outside your borders may have noticed that no one else plays "American" football. You will no longer be allowed to play it, and should instead play proper football.

Initially, it would be best if you played with the girls. It is a difficult game. Those of you brave enough will, in time, be allowed to play rugby (which is similar to American "football", but does not involve stopping for a rest every twenty seconds or wearing full kevlar body armour like nancies).

We are hoping to get together at least a US Rugby sevens side by 2008.

You should stop playing baseball. It is not reasonable to host an event called the 'World Series' for a game which is not played outside of North America. Since only 2.15% of you are aware that there is a world beyond your borders, your error is understandable. Instead of baseball, you will be allowed to play a girls' game called "rounders," which is baseball without fancy team strip, oversized gloves, collector cards or hotdogs.

7. You will no longer be allowed to own or carry guns. You will no longer be allowed to own or carry anything more dangerous in public than a vegetable peeler. Because we don't believe you are sensible enough to handle potentially dangerous items, you will require a permit if you wish to carry a vegetable peeler in public.

8. The 4th of July is no longer a public holiday. The 2nd of November will be a new national holiday, but only in Britain. It will be called "Indecisive Day."

9. All American cars are hereby banned. They are crap, and it is for your own good. When we show you German cars, you will understand what we mean.

All road intersections will be replaced with roundabouts. You will start driving on the left with immediate effect. At the same time, you will go metric with immediate effect and without the benefit of conversion tables. Roundabouts and metrication will help you understand the British sense of humour.

10. You will learn to make real chips. Those things you call 'French fries' are not real chips. Fries aren't even French, they are Belgian though 97.85% of you (including the guy who discovered fries while in Europe) are not aware of a country called Belgium. Those things you insist on calling potato chips are properly called "crisps." Real chips are thick cut and fried in animal fat. The traditional accompaniment to chips is beer which should be served warm and flat.

Waitresses will be trained to be more aggressive with customers.

11. As a sign of penance 5 grams of sea salt per cup will be added to all tea made within the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, this quantity to be doubled for tea made within the city of Boston itself.

12. The cold tasteless stuff you insist on calling "beer" is not actually beer at all, it is lager . From November 1st only proper British Bitter will be referred to as "beer," and European brews of known and accepted provenance will be referred to as "Lager." The substances formerly known as "American Beer" will henceforth be referred to as "Near-Frozen Gnat's Urine," with the exception of the product of the American Budweiser company whose product will be referred to as "Weak Near-Frozen Gnat's Urine." This will allow true Budweiser (as manufactured for the last 1000 years in the Czech Republic) to be sold without risk of confusion.

13. From the 10th of November the UK will harmonise petrol (or "gasoline," as you will be permitted to keep calling it until the 1st of April) prices with the former USA. The UK will harmonise its prices to those of the former USA and the Former USA will, in return, adopt UK petrol prices (roughly $6/US gallon -- get used to it).

14. You will learn to resolve personal issues without using guns, lawyers or therapists. The fact that you need so many lawyers and therapists shows that you're not adult enough to be independent. Guns should only be handled by adults. If you're not adult enough to sort things out without suing someone or speaking to a therapist, then you're not grown up enough to handle a gun.

15. Please tell us who killed JFK. It's been driving us crazy.

16. Tax collectors from Her Majesty's Government will be with you shortly to ensure the acquisition of all revenues due (backdated to 1776).

Thank you for your co-operation.

Facebook | Petition to revoke the independence of the United States of America

Shell’s sponsorship of the wildlife photographer of the year competition

"Shell should not be sponsoring the Wildlife Photographer of the Year exhibition. We call on the Natural History Museum to end its sponsorship deal with Shell."

SAY NO TO SHELL’S SPONSORSHIP OF THE WILDLIFE PHOTOGRAPHER OF THE YEAR COMPETITION | Rising Tide UK:

Eta to end ceasefire at midnight

Well, I can understand their frustration to some extent; I have an impression that it wouldn't be hard to interpret some of what has been happening over the last year or so as foot-dragging on the part of the Spanish authorities. Though on the other hand I do think that ETA might do well to think about how their actions and words are likely to come over to those they need to persuade. Indeed, it should reflect on this:

There was little surprise in Spain about the end of the ceasefire. Most Spaniards had felt that it came to an end in December

Clearly ETA have a problem persuading people that they are trustworthy which is a problem for negotiating settlements; after all

When Eta declared the cease-fire last year, it called the truce permanent and said it wanted a negotiated end to the nearly 40-year conflict,

(source: Independent report), . On the other hand, probably that is true of the Spanish government; I can't help thinking that banning Batasuna is a bad idea and that letting elections include such a party (like Sinn Fein in northern Ireland in days gone by) at least gives an idea of strength of feeling. We need some kind of creative, daring way forward out of this impasse. In the mean time, I hope that this prognostication may prove the true one of the alternatives.
"Some have predicted it will opt for a low-scale campaign, perhaps aimed at the tourist industry. This would be designed to avoid killings and so leave the door open for a return to a peace process after next spring's general election in Spain."
Eta to end ceasefire at midnight | Special reports | Guardian Unlimited:

Petition To World Leaders:

"Climate change is the greatest threat facing our world today - and we are almost out of time to stop it. You must tackle this problem now, decisively and together. Start working toward a new global agreement this year. Set binding global targets for emissions to avert catastrophic climate change. Take bold action immediately - and we will join our efforts with yours."
G8 5: FEEL THE HEAT, ACT NOW!:

The benefits of being 'nice'

Recent research seems to show pretty conclusively that

the more hostile one’s personality—characterized by aggression or anger, for example—the lower levels one’s of lung function even after controlling for age, height, socioeconomic status, smoking status and presence of asthma.

Just now, the difficulty is establishing which way the causal flow goes: is it aggresiveness causing poor lung function or vice versa, or something else?

Right now, we can’t say if having a hostile personality causes lung function decline, though we now know that these things happen together. More research is needed to establish whether hostility is associated with change in pulmonary function during young adulthood

The kinds of things that I've seen done and done in training, therapy and meditation make me think that biofeedback could be implicated here, though; that is it can work either way.
ScienceDaily: Harboring Hostility May Be Linked To Unhealthy Lungs

Technorati Tags: research, aggression, psycho-somatic

Don't you just love this evolving thing we call English?

I just loved these that I'd not come across before. Looking for opportunities to use them in blogging! "Some words are lovely additions - I'm particularly fond of whataboutery ('the practice of repeatedly blaming the other side'), and silver, which enters as a verb, meaning 'to age'.
Others, meanwhile, just make you despair. Has it really been necessary to cultivate masstige ('the impression of exclusivity in goods that are affordable for many')? Or preneed ('arranged or made available in advance of eventual requirements: preneed funeral arrangements')? Now that's a barbecue-stopper."Aida Edemariam: More new words (most of which we could do without) | News | Guardian Unlimited Books:

Prospects for a green Brown premiership: nuking our energy

The prognosisi on Brown's premiership seems well laid-out here. In the light of which the following would be the truly worthwhile (except for the road pricing one, imho).

Brown could take a few quick tricks merely by undoing some of his predecessor's most unpopular policies - Iraq, ID cards, road pricing, though the last seems as deserving of support as nuclear power stations. He may come up with some new answers about pensions and saving. Nothing would play better with swing voters, though not of course with Labour's huge payroll vote, than to reverse Alan Johnson's disgraceful surrender to the public-service unions on early retirement.

However, the main point of the article is to say what a good idea nuke power is and how we need to fast track the planning process. I have to say that part of me agrees, but part of me suspects that not doing anything will really concentrate minds in about 7 years and all of a sudden we'll have domestic power generation solutions being sold to us rapidly and developing very rapidly. The real argument for government planning here is to protect the weak and financially challenged. You can bet pricing and gadget-selling will respond.
The author concludes thus in favour of his preferred policy of nuking our power supply:

I suspect that Gordon Brown will enjoy being prime minister much less than he thinks he will, because the right decisions will also be his most politically thankless ones.

Actually, that's always the case: the central problem of democratic politics is just this: that some decisions will always hurt someone. Parents know this. The problem systemically is to allow enough time so that the benefits of good but not-so-pop decisions can become clear and to build in supports for long-term planning that aren't going to be derailed by short-term vote-winning without losing democratic accountability.
PS The first few comments are really good, too
Guardian Unlimited | Comment is free | Brown's defining moment

Technorati Tags: Brown, UK, policy, Labour

Shopping? They just don't buy it

Interesting idea; this articcle explores an anti-conusumerist action in the USA "six months into a one-year pledge not to buy anything new - underwear and a few other essentials aside. Kesel and 10 of her friends bought no new items in 2006, and many have renewed the 'compact', as their pledge is called, this year."Apparently, it's growing and people are finding it easier than they thought they might.
One of the founding figures responding with disgust to the "show 'em you're not afraid: shop" response to the fall of the Twin Towers;

She decided to try 'an experiment' not to shop. 'One of the long-term effects was that it showed me that I could happily live on a lot less, and that has made me better able to save and to plan my financial future without thinking "to hell with it, I'll never retire".' She also cleared her $8,000 Visa bill.

Here's the basics info.

The rule
· Don't buy new products - borrow or buy used. The exceptions are food, drink, medicine (no elective treatments like Viagra or Botox), necessary cleaning products but not equipment (a new Dyson, for example, is not allowed), socks and underwear (utilitarian only) and pyjamas for the children.
To find out more about the compact http://sfcompact.blogspot.com/

Shopping? They just don't buy it | Cash | The Observer:

Oh dear ... 90 days interment

Brown has disappointed already: macho posturing which is dangerous for civil liberties: interment in Northern Ireland while I was growing up actually made things worse as it increased the 'gripe' against British rule among the nationalist community. Now, there does appear to be a justification, however, there is an acknowledgement that there are civil liberties issues and so ...

The Chancellor believes it is possible to win support for increasing the 28-day limit if there is stronger judicial oversight of any decisions to extend an individual's detention on a week-by-week basis and an annual report to parliament on the use of the powers. But Brown believes there is a need to extend detention because of the volume of international evidence which accrues in such investigations, most of which can be difficult to obtain from computers.

Personally I think that it might concentrate minds if part of the proposal was to compensate suspects for loss of earnings and esteem and to do so from the wages/salaries of the officers in charge and government ministers in oversight if they are subsequently released without charge -or that those responsible have to serve time in detention (or better: hours of service to the community of the suspect) equivalent to the loss of liberty.

Brown sets out plan for tough new terror laws | Politics | The Observer

Make wealth history

A new-to-me blog with an in-your-face title which I think I'm going to sub to. Here's what they are about.

we’ve chosen the pretty brash Make Wealth History as our name, mainly because it’s bold and memorable. It gets an immediate reaction and catches people’s imagination, but it does slightly overstate our case. There’s nothing wrong with wealth per se. In the right hands wealth can be a real power for good. ‘Money is the root of all evil’ is, after all, a common misquote. It’s derived from something the Apostle Paul said in the Bible, but what he actually said was ‘the love of money is the root of all kinds of evil’. I agree with that. It’s that ‘love’ that makes the difference - greed, avarice, the compulsion to aqcuire - that’s where wealth becomes harmful.

We’re not really against wealth. We want to see equality and justice, and an end to poverty and the abuse of the environment. In order for that to happen, we’re going to have to fight greed, unsustainable consumer habits, and wealth that is generated by exploiting others. And we’re not all negative either. We need to learn and promote new ways of using wealth well, to redistribute it, give it away, invest it in sustainable development and job creation, find ways to make that money go further and do more good.

wealth is not the enemy « MAKE WEALTH HISTORY

Technorati Tags: bligs, wealth, poverty, Christian